Where's Me Leprechaun?

Friday, November 25, 2005

There's Me Leprechaun!
To conclude the drama, in the end, nothing was found (perhaps a leprechaun ran away with the stuff as depicted here). I was wholly unable to track down my camera, passport, or wallet, but am now ready to continue my travels. After all, there are only 10 days left - I have to make the most of them. The week itself was rather uninteresting, I spent a couple days working with the embassy, saw a few movies, read a few books, and walked around Dublin just looking. Not exactly the type of stuff that fills blog pages (yes, I hear you already saying that's exactly what has filled my blog for the past however long). By the end of Monday, as you know, I had cash in my pocket once again. By Wednesday, I'd finished my paperwork with the embassy, and I had a new credit card delivered to me. And today, Friday, I am now the not so proud owner of a replacement passport. Not so proud, but much uplifted. It was time for a celebration on Friday night.

There've been other distractions, thankfully. I visited the Guiness brewery, which was interesting in a way but in another, more accurate way, over priced. Still, I had a nice view of Dublin from the top of their 65 acre (!) facility. Well, sort of. It was nice, but because it's been so cold here and is humid to boot, it was mostly a misty haze beyond 2 km. I stopped in at St. Patty's Cathedral. I walked the old town. I've visited with Barry a few times and I must say that it's nice to have company. And of course, I've been visiting with the people in my hostel.

Ahh, Guiness
So the time has passed quickly given how little there is to do. I'm going to head off to Manchester tomorrow and see some other friends, and then from there, I'm not sure. Probably just travel around England seeing what there is to see and doing what there is to do, and making it to London on Thursday or so to spend my last weekend there. I guess I'm not done with that city after all. I do hope the weather warms a bit, it's humid and cold! And, yes, I witnessed a little bit of Dublin snow last night and this morning. Brrr. 17 degrees above back home isn't sounding too bad at all...

Update: I'm now in Manchester and should be meeting a friend, Mike, who's letting me stay with him, in an hour or so. Which is lucky because the hostels here are full. And I guess because I've been reporting negative things for the last bit, I'm coming across as unhappy, but really, aside from Friday, I've been about as happy as I could be under the circumstances. I've been enjoying a little down time, though it wasn't really my plan, it's just not very interesting to report. I am, as someone else said, still travelling Europe, after all, how bad could it be? And no, I'm not getting that for Christmas. JOHN.
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey.

the_dutch said...

Have you ever heard of the new tv show - Numb3rs??? The guy in it looks a lot like you, Dean.

I can't imagine how dreadful your loss of identification and credit cards has been. Glad you got through it.

I'll be back in Canada from the 17th to 26th. If time permits maybe we can get together for a cold one (40 below???). Ha! Warm up the garage and we can play the rhythm of life...

Anonymous said...

Hello! I am really happy to read that your vacation is back on track and that all of your passport issues are safely in order. Now that you are once again in London- you have to go and eat at Marks and Spencer (again) for me. They have the best pre-made market food...I wish we had them here in Canada. (I think we used to have them as a clothing store in the malls around 15 years ago when I was a little kid). So now that your adventure is coming to a close- what parts of Europe did you enjoy the most? Personally- my favorite spots were Mykonos/Santorini and Nice France. The people and the food at in these areas were both excellent. It is so difficult to pick a favorite!!! However, I must admit that your photos from Interlaken really make me want to go there next. Do you recommend it? In your travels, did any of the people you meet happen to go to Dubrovnic? I have heard that is the new hot spot.

Dean said...

Anonymous: Hey.

Dutch: I've not, but apparently I look like a lot of people. Someone yesterday said to me, out of the blue, "Matthew Broderick in Feris Bueller's Day Off. I bet you get that all the time, right?". And a stewardess thought I looked like Ricky Martin. Yikes! Definitely up for a get together or two while you're back. But I'd better go Live La Vida Loca. (yeah, I'm already sorry I typed that).

Fellow Canuck: I didn't get to Mykonos but Santorini was a great time. We kind of missed out on the nightlife there but even so, I really enjoyed myself there. I can't imagine anywhere could top Ios, though. Crazy times. As for Interlaken, highly recommended. Somewhere in the backlog is a post about it, it's a big party and tonnes of wild things to do. If my recommendation isn't enough, then I should mention that I actually went there because I'd had it recommended to me several times before from other travellers I'd met. Finally, Dubrovnik is highly overrated. Beautiful but not too exciting. At least, that was my experience. I met some other backpackers on the boat out that agreed with me. Perhaps August is the wrong time there? Finally, favourite place is too difficult. For a city, I really loved Budapest (it has the vitality that Paris is supposed to have). Sarajevo is also somewhere I'd recommend getting to soon, it's really a place where history is alive and it is definitely enlightening. For a country (aside from Greece) Norway is great for its beauty, Poland for its beauties, and Slovenia for its unspoiledness. Which, in retrospect, probably isn't a word. So you see, there's no easy answer. Everyplace has something special, I guess the best part of travelling is finding out what that is.

the_dutch said...

nah, those other comparrisons are insulting at best.. ricky martin.. come on!

do a google image search for numb3rs
here