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I’m back!

Well, I’m back from my 6 month trip around the world!  I saved money for 7 years, quit my job, sold or gave away most everything I own, and for the last 2 months trekked nonstop with a backpack and suitcase. The first 4 months I did short trips to Barcelona, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, visited friends and family I haven’t seen in years in some cases, and took my niece to Cedar Point for a weekend, then went to San Diego and Mexico.  After I dropped my cats off with my mom so I could travel nonstop, I went to London (day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, Cotswolds), Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands (including Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Glencoe), Dublin (day trip to Cliffs of Moher and Galway), Paris, Venice, Rome (day trips to Vatican City, Pompei, Positano), Chiang Mai (including Elephant Nature Park), Krabi (day trip to Phi Phi Islands), Phuket, Bangkok, Tokyo, Kamakura/Enoshi Island, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka (day trips to Nara, Himeji, Hikone), and Iceland (my mom came with me on that one!) There have been a lot of ups and downs, the more important ones as follows:

Pros:

–  Reconnected with family, old friends that I haven’t seen in years, and met a lot of fun new people.

– Visited places I’ve always dreamed about, and saw things I’ve always wanted to see while they’re still there.

– Tried new food, new desserts, new drinks…and yet, still lost about 5 inches on my waist probably from walking an average of 7-9 miles per day almost every day.  Usually uphill, which I still haven’t figured out the logistics in that.  If you go up you’d think you’d have to go down but it always seemed to be uphill!

– Saw new cultures and learned a TON of history including doing some ancestry research in England/Scotland/Ireland.

– Worked things out on my own whenever there was a problem and learned not to have a meltdown about the little things even if I wasn’t happy about it.

– Learned how to walk slower. Everyone in my family power walks everywhere and are masters at weaving through crowds, we also usually inhale our food rather than eat and enjoy it, it’s just the way it has always been.  I was walking around Chicago today and for the first time everyone was pushing past ME and I was seeing things I haven’t acknowledge in the 8 years that I’ve lived here.  Like, was that restaurant always there?  It looks neat, I never noticed it before…

Cons:

– I missed my pets so bad, I can’t wait to see them when I go to my mom’s for the holidays this weekend!

– The sheer volume of tourists is crazy!  I’m not complaining, since I am also one of those tourists and I think it’s amazing that the world has gotten to a point where so many people can enjoy it, it was just really surprising.  I used to live in Japan 15 years ago so a lot of my stops there were for nostalgia purposes and the number of people in places that had previously been practically unknown was shocking. The main concern I had was about safety, a lot of these places weren’t designed to hold that many people and those mega-tour buses are way too big in a lot of cases (I almost got squished by one!) I used to work at construction sites and we have OSHA in the United States and I think I got a few new gray hairs just from some of the safety related things I’ve seen.  I’m also an environmental scientist, so seeing some of the unhygienic things people were doing in some locations made me cringe. Bring a hand towel and hand sanitizer everywhere with you, for real! I would need an entire separate post to explain all of the people, behaviors, and safety issues though.  I’m putting this under “cons” but honestly this was one of the most interesting parts of the trip given my profession.

– I get why it’s hard for some people to understand how bad climate change is especially if they don’t travel.  It was really sad to see some of the locations because of all the trash and pollution, irregular weather patterns, damaged ecosystems, and changing behaviors of the animals. I already knew a lot about the impacts of the climate crisis, but some places really opened my eyes to how bad it’s truly becoming.

– Blisters.  So. Many. Blisters.  Even with broken in boots and moleskin and bandages.  I’m fairly convinced it’s inevitable.

– The scammers.  I managed to avoid them mostly, but one got me in Venice and it was so obvious I had to laugh after I realized it.  Rookie mistake!
Anywho, now that I’m back I’m going to spend the holidays with family then decide if I want to be a responsible adult and get back to work, or buy an RV and do an epic 6 month National Park road trip with my cats…

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West Ireland Day Tour

I got up before dawn and walked a mile uphill (of course) to jump on a bus tour of west Ireland. Our first stop was the Kilmacduagh Monastery, ruins which had originally been a monastery complex dating to 500 A.D. Then we made our way to the Cliffs of Moher, where I walked the bulk of the left trail and up to the tower on the right trail. It was super windy, but no fog or rain and the clouds would break for the sun once in a while so it was gorgeous. We made a quick stop by the Burren, a rock outcrop on a mountainside into the sea, then we grabbed a late lunch in Galway and had some time to wander around and do some shopping. It’s a cute little town, kind of reminds me of Naperville. Afterwards, we made the long trek back to Dublin, where I stopped at a Japanese/Korean restaurant for what’s becoming my international ramen tour. Tomorrow, it’s off to Paris!

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Dublin – Day 2

I had a hard time sleeping last night, and was up by 6am. I laid around watching the news for a bit then got up and headed out pretty early. The good thing about Dublin is that just about everything to see is within a 2 or 3 square mile area, so you can get a lot done in a day. My first stop was right across the street from my hotel, St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A beautiful church with very nice stained glass throughout. Then I hiked up to Dublin Castle, which is more like a palace than a castle so I was a bit disappointed. There were really only two cool rooms, the rest was pretty modern even though it’s old. Then I went across the street to Christ Church Cathedral which has gorgeous tile flooring featuring anthropomorphic foxes and very nice clergymen who were more than happy to answer questions and tell you about the place. I was there right at noon so I got to sit and listen to their prayer for peace, a prayer they’ve been saying at noon every day for nearly 800 years, according to the clergyman I was talking with. After the cathedral I tried to make a stop at St. Michan’s Church but they were closed, so I continued on my way to my lunch destination. I’ve been following the White Moose Café on Facebook for a couple years now, it’s a hilariously sarcastic and funny place and I’ve wanted to go and see it for myself. I ordered the sandwich that the food critic criticized which lead to one of the more hilarious shenanigan sagas (the sandwich was good!) and towards the end Paul himself burst through the front door and screamed, scaring the absolute shit out of the staff at the front counter, before running off laughing into the back room. That’s exactly what I imagined working here with Paul as a boss would be like! The staff seemed to expect and laugh at it, it was all in good fun.

After my bucketlist food experience, I wandered down the road to the Black Church, and I’m not sure why that’s marked on the tourist map because aside from it being on its own island in the middle of an intersection there wasn’t too much special about it. I suppose it was a bit darker than others, and had plants growing out the top of it, but that’s it. From there I went back south to the Church Bar and Restaurant, someone bought the old church building where Guinness (as in the beer guy) got married and turned it into a bar/restaurant while leaving all the church fixings including the organ in place. It was a cool place for a pint and that marked the start of my own bar crawl of sorts. From there I crossed the river at the Ha’penny Bridge and stopped over at The Temple Bar to listen to the live music and enjoy another pint of cider. Then I walked down Grafton Street, the shopping district street, and stopped at Kehoe’s Bar which despite only being about 5:30 was already completely packed, standing room literally out to the surrounding streets. Still, I squeezed in and had my cider.

Let me tell you, Dublin is definitely a city of the night. During the day it was definitely busy, don’t get me wrong, but it was mostly tourists and locals trying to hustle to their destination. After 5pm the streets came alive with music, conversation, and lots of alcohol. By 5:30pm most of the bars were full and by 7:30pm you already had the drunk, older, Irish guys swaggering down the streets and groups of young people being loud and exuberant. Maybe it’s just because it’s Friday night, I don’t know, but it was fun to watch the transformation. On my way back to the hotel I wandered a bit around St. Stephen’s Green Park, a nice little green space in the middle of the city, and got back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the night. I have a big, long day trip planned for tomorrow, and since I didn’t sleep well last night I want to rest up!