Fond farewell

Here I am in Tucson, AZ waiting anxiously for my NOLS program to start. Now I know your all curious as to the route I took to drive out here. Well wonder no more because here is a map with my highlighted route to your left. The past few days of driving were beautiful but overall uneventful. I believe my total mileage was around 3,800 or so. Notice the "detour" from Indiana to Coon Rapids, MN. Yeah, that was...cool. Right now I'm just hanging out in the comfort suites until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow when the fun starts. Maybe I'll meet some of the other people in my program here at the hotel. I guess that's all I got. Maybe more later, but who knows.

That is what I looked like this morning while I was waiting in the lobby of the Fairfield Inn in Laramie, WY. Pretty mangled, it was a battle.

Many apologies for neglecting to make some entries the past few days, but I think it's fair to say I have been fairly busy. However, I suppose I owe a overview of the four-ish days of driving. My journey started Thursday. I drove from home in Acton to St. Lawrence University in gorgeous Canton, NY to see my school chums for the night. There was a brief pit stop made on the way to pick up the lovely ms. rachel, who decided to accompany me on my trip as far as Denver, CO. Once she was in the car we made moves across lake Champlain, but not without me getting us lost in Burlington for fifteen some odd minutes. Its been awhile since I made the drive, lay off. Our stay in Canton was short, but sweet. We arrived around 9 at night and turned around and left at 7 the next morning.

Day two of driving was Canton, NY to Goshen, IN. Around twelve hours of driving and we only stopped for gas. The drive itself was uneventful except when some flaming moron from where else but Canada tried to kill Rachel and I by not using their blinker, mirror or even looking when they decided to change lanes. Whatever Canada, you're not even a real country anyway. Goshen was a interesting place with a lot of hotels. Also, the Notre Dame football team apparently was there too. Our hotel was wonderful because they gave me a glass of Champagne when I checked in. My beard must have been looking particularly dashing and rugged that night. Speaking of which, I shaved it off. Three months of hard work to look like Grizzly Adams and now I look like me again.

Day three was only about nine and a half hours of driving to Coon Rapids, MN. Once again, uneventful ride. I don't remember anything crazy happening, but we were unfortunately unable to meet up with Maggie. Instead we went out to dinner at Paddy Wagons and hung out in the hotel. The plan for the next day was to wake up early, drive to the Badlands in South Dakota then drive through the night to Denver, CO in order for Rachel to catch her flight on time. What we ended up doing was sleeping in and driving straight to Denver (14.5 hours and brutal). We made it to the Denver International Airport at 2:30 in the morning and I hung around until 4 a.m., at which time we had to part ways. It sucked a lot, especially on top of the fact I had two and a half more hours to drive to Laramie, WY. When I got to Laramie and to the hotel, of course my room was not clean or ready and I had to wait in the lobby for three hours. However, the up shot was they felt bad and upgraded my room to a suite and it's pretty super-heady-dank. Guess it pays off to look like a mangled waste of life. I was in rare form this morning while I waited because I had been awake for 24 hours and driving for 17. Since I've been in the room, I have not been out of bed. I took a few disco naps and spent most of the time watching trashy television because I have nothing else to do, but it's really nice. I think that's it for now. Tomorrow is Salt Lake City and Chris Brown, the staff member not the rapper.

What?! Again?

Here it comes again. I'm leaving on another trip, of sorts, today. I'm going to drive from Acton, MA to Tucson, AZ in my little red jeep, which hopefully won't fall apart on the road. The first stop today will be St. Lawrence University in beautiful Canton, NY. This road trip is a means to get myself to the NOLS semester I'm taking this fall. 88 days in "the nature." I'm moving kind of slow this morning because there is still stuff I need to pack. I don't have any funny stories from the road because I haven't left, and no stories of peril or danger because I'm not at NOLS yet. Fear not, I will do my best to keep this blog updated as frequently as I can. Will anyone even read this while I'm gone? Anyways, should someone (thanks Mom/Dad) be reading this and feel compelled to send me actual physical mail that comes in a mailbox my address is as follows:

Jake Chinitz
FSW 9/13/10
2751 North Soldier Trail
Tucson, AZ 85749

My next entry will probably be tomorrow from my stopping point in Indiana, so see you then.

The final one

This may be the last blog post for my eurotrip because tomorrow morning at 5:30 kent and I will wake up and leave by 6 to catch a train to Limerick for our flight. I'll give a run through of the day and then do the bleeding heart thing.

We didn't get out act together until close to noon and we went to the bodies exhibition. The same one done in Boston at the museum of science with a few variations. It was really cool but really small and we were a little dissapointed because of that. From there we went to a tacky souvenir shop and just looked at things. We bought nothing, but did consider a stupid hat. It was back to the hostel from there. We got back at 2 and ate lunch. We were both so tired we didn't have the energy to do anything else so we have just been hanging out at the hostel. Nothing exciting. I'm actualy sore and tired. I'm just falling apart and need to sleep for a day or two in my comfortable bed at home.

Now for the bleeding heart I loved this trip moment. It was great and totally worth every euro we had to spend. I saw an amazing amount of stuff and met some really great people. Totally worth it. Not too bad. State side tomorrow with 900 pictures. Let me know if you want to see them.

JJ & S

Yesterday Kent and I went on a free walking tour of Dublin through Neweurope. It was about three hours and zapped all my energy but totally worth it. Our tour guide was very nice and showed us around central Dublin and most of the major things in the city. From the tour we walked back to our hostel but stopped at the grocery store to get food to make for the remaining meals we have. Lunch was grilled cheese and I burnt the roof of my mouth. While we were eating we befriended Curtis. He is a very nice man who is traveling around the world for a year. There is no way I could do this for a year. After five weeks I wake up tired and smelly. Anyways, he accompanied us on a tour of the Jameson Distillery. The tour wasn't as fun or cool as the one in Brugge but interesting none the less. Kent was lucky enough to be picked for the whiskey tester and got to sample three types of whiskey. One American (Jack Daniels), one scottish, and an Irish (Jameson) on top of the free sample at the end of the tour. After the tour Curtis asked us if we wanted to get a drink with him and two ladies he invited. We said sure and went to the bar across the street for some Murphys stout while the rest of them got drinks and a small meal. The new addtions to the group were both named Jennifer, although one went by Jenny. They were nice but I was exhausted at this point. They invited us to a bar near their hotel that was having a trivia night. I was kind of hoping kent and I would bail because on top of my being tired I had a headache, but we went because Jennifer said she would buy us dinner. Can't turn down free food so the five of us made moves to this bar. Jennifer bought us food and Curtis bought us drinks because he felt bad because he noticed that we thought that Jenny and Jennifer were annoying at best. The trivia contest didn't start until 10 and we got there at 8. We lost by alot. We were out of there at 12 and went back to the hostel. Being not impressed by the new friends we had made we made fun of them on the way back a little and once we were back I crashed immediatly. I woke up this morning at 9:30 and was still tired. I don't know what the plan for today is but I'm sure it will be good. Today and tomorrow and then it's back to the states.

Dublin

Ah, a normal keyboard. We made it to Dublin but I had my doubts. Kent and I parted ways with Maggie and her family Saturday morning. We asked the lady behind the ticket window what time the next train to Roscoff was. She did some typing on her computer for about five minutes, looked at us and goes "There isn't another train to Roscoff." Fine. We asked how close can we get? She told us Marliux. So we took a train to Marliux. We arrived there after 2-ish hours and searched for our bed and breakfast. Luckily it was in the center of town and we found it after about a ten minute walk. Marliux is a pretty little town in the middle of no where centered in a valley. The b&b owner was outside the building and let us in. He walked us all the way to our room and explain everything in detail. Kent and I set up our stuff and then went out to look for some dinner. We wondered town until we found a place that sold our staple meal, Kebabs. The owner of that establishment spoke absolutley no english but had some clever hand motions and we all understood each other just fine. After dinner we just wandered around town looking at things. We stopped at a bar/connvenience store. They sold beer, wine and tobacco. Kent and I got a pelforth blonde. It was alright, I say with so much knowledge of beer under my belt. I toured a brewery once you know. Anyways, from there it was back to the b&b for bed.

Breakfast the next morning was awkward. The owner stood next to kent and I the whole time making weird, awkward small talk. He had cats...that speaks to his personality in my opinion. We left around nine for our train at 10:30. The train from Marliux to Roscoff was only 30 minutes and the ferry did not leave port until 6. More time to slaughter in Roscoff and slaughter it we did. We walked more or less the whole city, stopping at various spots to sit or lie down for an hour or so. We had a crepe for dinner. Finally we got to board the ferry at 6.

The ferry itself was nice. It was huge, had two cinemas and a few restaurants and bars. Kent and I bought airseats for way too much money but it was our only option. We were hoping that they would be like the ones on the last ferry (rows of five with arm rests that folded up so we could lie down). Not even close. They were in pairs with immobile arm rests. We did meet two very nice Irish guys named Steve and Will. One bought Kent and I a beer and the other gave us a bottle of whiskey. They said we deserved some Irish hospitality and I really wasn't going to compain. I'm sure the whiskey will make us popular at the hostel. While I was drinking my Murphys Stout (better then Guiness perhaps?...) the captain came over the loud speaker and said "good evening ladies and gentlmen and welcome aboard irish ferries. Wanted to let you know we will be expiriencing some strong westerly winds and will try to use the stabilizers as much as possible." Mom you probably know what followed an hour or so later. For the rest of you who did not join us on the cruise for emma's bat mitzvah, let me inform you I'm prone to sea sickness. Back to the story. So I'm in the bar with kent and these two irish guys and I hear the message so I go to reception to ask if the store sells sea sick meds. The mean lady behind the counter said no and explained in a harsh tone it was too late to take any meds. Whatever lady. They didn't sell anything for it. That makes a whole lot of freaking sense for a boat. They did however sell the seabands so I bought a pair and put them on. Not long later I'm out on the deck battling not throwing up. It was raining so I had to go inside or get soaked. I went inside and to our seats but being inside made it worse. Then I was in and out of the bathroom for an hour or so throwing up everything in my stomach (a crepe and a beer). I finally settled in to my seat and fell asleep for an hour. Then I moved to the floor because it was more comfortable and slept there until 8:30 this morning. At 11 we got off and got on our train to Dublin. The train was 3 hours and the most uncomfortable by far. It sucked but we made it. Then we walked to the hostel where we are and will stay until friday. The hostel is amazing with a computer, kitchen, common room and bathroom in the room. I'm exhausted and we are staying in tonight. that is about it. I'm home on friday.

D day, H hour

I can give detailed descriptions of Amsterdam and Brugge if you want them later but there is so much to catch up on. Kent and I are in Bayeaux in northern France paying too much for the internet, on computers with stupidly set up keyboards. Anyways the three of us arrived in Bayeaux without a hitch. We even got in early. Switching trains was a little crazy, but all connections were made. We arrived around 5:30 or 6 at this little horse farm that really didn't look like a bed and breakfast at all. Actually we walked by it the first time. The second time Maggie recognized her family friends and they greeted us with open arms, but also told us maggies parents had gone to the train station to pick us up at what they thought would be our arrival time of 8. Oh well. We got into their room and demolished any piece of food on their table and in the fridge. Kent and I even used the shower. Luckily they came back early and didn't have to wait at the train station. That night they took us out to dinner, and very graciously paid for kent and I. the next day we were taken to Omaha beach and saw all related monuments and important sites relevant to the d day invasion. It was so cool and interesting and hard hitting. After that afternoon activities included naping because I seem to be coming down with a cold. Kent and I hung out with Maggies brother Trevor and his friend Jullian for an hour or so and then other factions came back from their various activities and then it was time for another dinner that maggies parents graciously paid for again! Kent and I appreciated that a lot and thanked them. We did not last long after that and it was bed time pretty soon after getting back. This morning we packed and they dropped kent and I at the train station. We managed to miss the one train to Roscoff, where our ferry leaves from, so we are going to a close enough town for the night. We leave for Ireland on another overnight ferry where we will spend the last 4 days and then home.