Day 1: Arrive Dublin

So after a nice seven hour flight from Chicago to Dublin by way of Aer Lingus I arrived in my first stop of the trip. The flight was as one would have expected-long and unforgiving to my height. Not only did the woman in front of me insist on pushing her seat back but I was conveniently situated near two screaming babies and a man with what sounded like whooping cough. Oof. All in all it was fine although I was a but jet lagged when I finally got into the city. I dropped my bag at the hostel, Paddy’s Palace. The Palace is part of a chain of Irish youth hostels that specialize in accommodating youth on a budget. After I dropped my stuff I caught a quick train outside of the city to Howth Pennisula, which Let’s Go Europe listed as a nice easy day trip outside of Dublin. Howth is a beautiful small fishing village twenty minutes outside of Dublin center by Dart, Dublin’s equivalent to the ‘L.’ The village provides beautiful scenery, lots of cool fish mongers to check out and a pretty wicked medieval castle situated in the hills. I hiked around the city and the shore for about 3 hours then decided I had seen enough and caught a train back to Dublin center. I spend the rest of the afternoon and late evening walking around the city, which is totally doable by foot. I saw Trinity College, Ireland’s prestigious old university, checked out Dublin Castle, got lost in Dublin’s ghetto, checked out
St. Stephen’s Green, which is Dublin’s Central Park, and then basically worked around the many neighborhoods and areas. Food here is expensive so I got some cheap stuff from a local grocery store and ate in a park near some bums who were enjoying their 40oz Carlsburg. When I returned to the hostel I talked with a South African mother and daughter team who were staying in the same ten bed mixed dorm. They had some interesting tales of living in Africa and showed me some cool photos of the two of them relaxing with the likes of lions, rhinos, and meer cats. When I told them that in Chicago we have a bit of our own distinct wildlife including squirrels and the occasional opossum they laughed. I ended up crashing while trying to read my travel book at around 10:30 (mind you the sun started to set at 10). In the middle of the night we were all woken up to the sound of the young traveler in bunk #7 falling from his top bunk and then running out of the room to vomit. The guy, who i later found out is named Spike after he climbed in his travel mate’s bed and got verbally reprimanded, was either coming off some sort of jet lag infused binge or high or just had a nasty bit of sleep walking/falling. Later Spike turned on the lights and then ran out of the run giggling. A French girl in the bed next time called him a son of a bitch. Nothing like a drunken American to wake an entire room of backpackers.

Today I meet Paul at a new hostel just down the road. It’s a bit overcast so we might hit up some of the museums and perhaps the Jameson distillery. Tomorrow either a day trip to the mountains nearby or another day in the city.

From Dublin I’ll leave you with a Slainte!

So it’s been a hella long time since my last post. What’s the point of having a blog if you’re not gonna write in it?? What can I say. The restaurant gig pretty much owned my life these last 7 months or so. But that’s no more. So here’s a quick update on the life of C.W. SILLS. After about 6 month of 70 hour work weeks at the restaurant and the magazine I finally quit waiting tables. Not the worst decision of my life. Sure the money was unbelievable but A) I had no life outside of the job save the occasional movie/dinner or beer at Nevins after work. B) my writing was officially non-existent, and C) My boss and I did not exactly agree on certain things. I threw down my apron and walked. Liberating. C’est la Vie. I did it for a while, banked some benjamins, met some cool people, and learned a lot about myself. Now comes the really exciting part of this bizarre post college year. While I am still looking for the next job (i have some good leads and may have set up a nice little job working for Ruth Ratny, a Chicago film industry icon and owner of the webzine reelchicago.com. Word.) I have decided to take this summer to see some of the world.

Europe Romp 07
Today I leave for Dublin to begin a two month stint overseas. The first month will be spent exploring Eastern Europe and part of the second month I’ll be returning to Spain to teach English at a language summer camp outside of Granada in the Sierra Nevadas. Booyakasha! My backpack is packed, I invested in a new wicked digital camera, I’ve got my trusty Let’s Go Europe book on hand, and most importantly I have my journal. Here is the itinerary for those who are curious:

Fly into Dublin, Ireland-3 nights in Dublin
Fly to Munich, Germany-3 nights in Munich
Fly to Berlin, 2 nights in Berlin, Day trip to Kassell for monumental international art festival
Train to Warsaw, Poland-2 nights in Warsaw
Train to Krakow, Poland-3 nights in Krakow
Fly to Budapest, Hungary-2 nights in Budapest
Train/Bus to Zagreb, Croatia-3 nights in Zagreb, day trip to Ljubliana, the capital of Slovenia
Bus to Zadar, Croatia start of Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast-2 nights in Zadar ¡que precioso!
Bus to Dubrovnik, Croatia-3 nights in Dubrovnik, possible day trip to islands off coast
Bus to Mostar, Bosnia followed by bus to Sarajevo, Bosnia-3 nights in Sarajevo
Flight to Istanbul, Turkey-4 nights in Istanbul, daytrips outside of city
Flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands-2 nights Amsterdam, probably gonna be crazy!
Flight to Santiago de Compostelo, Spain- couple nights in Galicia then I make my way to Granada to teach.

August 5th fly from Dublin to Chicago.

I will have access to my email cwsills@gmail.com at most hostels and I will hopefully be able to update the blog with stories from my adventures.

So check back!