Greetings all...
I know it's been a while, but i finally have some news and pictures to put up.
To start off my family visited last week. Mom, Taylor, Aunt Donna, and Krissy visited for about a week. They came in last Saturday and did some sight seeing around Cork on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday morning we left for Killarney and visited the National Park. It was a beautiful park, but we didnt get to see much of it because it was so massive. We walked to the Torc Waterfall, which was awesome then took a bus to see the Ross Castle. We took a good amount of pictures and I uploaded all of mine so check them out.
Thursday morning we took the bus to Galway and toured the city and the family did some shopping. The town was pretty nice and also had a lot to see. Friday was the bus tour of The Burren and Cliffs of Moher. First we saw the Dunguaire Castle for a few minutes and then headed to lunch. After lunch we made the big stop at the CLiffs. What a good time that was. The wind was absolutely ridiculous and everyone was getting blown around and/or over. It was really funny watching everyone try to walk around with the wind being so crazy. Definitely check out the pictures from the Cliffs. After the Cliffs we stopped at the Poulnabrone Dolmen which was a burial site where remains were found from something like 8000 years ago. Pretty cool. Last we stopped at the Aillwee caves. We toured the caves and took some neat pictures, but they didnt show up too well, at least on my camera.
Saturday we went to the Aran Islands and biked around. It was alot of work getting around the island but we saw a good bit. The island was covered with churches and old temples. I will try to label the pictures but i will probably mess it up because there was just too many of them to keep track of. Besides the churches, we visited an old light house that gave a great view of the island. Next we headed to Dun Aonghasa which was a Celtic fort built in 2000 BC. One end is on a cliff so there was a great view of the ocean from it. After the fort we moved onto the seal colony along the beach, but no seals were out. Finally we headed back to the town, grabbed lunch then Taylor and I went to see the smallest church in the world (3.7meters x 1.8meters) atop this hill. We couldnt get very close to it, but we got a few pics.
Sunday everyone left and I returned to Cork. I enjoyed the family visit and had a good time seeing more of Ireland with them. I know the description of the trip is a bit short, but i am attempting to label the pictures from the visits and give some more information there, so check them out at the picasa page. They should be labeled by tomorrow.
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Hockey wrapped up on Tuesday. We won the championship going 8-1-1.
I leave Friday for Germany where I'm staying with Joe for a week. After that I'm heading to Italy for 6 days then Paris for 3. I will have limited internet access for the time so I'll try and update when I can, but definitely look for a ton of pictures mid-april.
CHECK OUT THE PICS!
Talk to you all soon!
- Travis
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Scotland and Sweden
I made it back all in one piece!
Scotland and Sweden were amazing and I had a ton of fun. I'll start at the beginning.
My friend Joe, from W&J who is studying in Munich, came in to Ireland on Wednesday. We left for Glasgow, Scotland Thursday evening and went to the hostel. After some confusion with the rooms we both ended up getting free upgrades at the hostel. We went out to see the town a bit and had some Scottish beer at a local pub. We went in early so we could get up and see the city Friday.
On Friday we walked around the city and saw some pretty interesting buildings. Unfortunately it was pouring rain and made taking good pictures difficult. We hurried through the city to see as much as possible since we had to leave for Stockholm in the evening. The rain forced us inside to the World's Tallest Movie Theater to see a movie and dry off. After the movie we took the train to the airport and caught the plane to Sweden.
Our flight ended up being delayed by an hour so we didn't get into Sweden until around 11. After the hour bus ride to Stockholm city centre and figuring out the subway we didnt get into the hostel until 1:15. We immediately went to bed to rest up for a big day on Saturday.
We slept in a bit on Saturday and when we got up we moved to our new hostel since Friday nights was booked. After checking in and dropping our bags off we headed to a ticket center to buy tickets to the Bandy game on Sunday. I'll tell you more about it later. After tickets we headed to IKEA, the main reason I wanted to go to Stockholm.
IKEA was HUGE. The largest one in the world. It had about 6 floors and the warehouse alone was bigger than IKEA Pittsburgh. Immediately we went to the restaurant to eat. I told everyone there that I worked in an IKEA restaurant and they loved it. The workers asked me all kinds of questions about our menu and how we do things. It was pretty funny actually and everyone looked at me kind of weird since I was taking millions of pictures.
The rest of the store was pretty overwhelming. There was a cafe on every floor and the building was cylindrical so you were constantly walking in circles. I got a few catalogs and floor plans along with the tons of pictures I took as souvenirs.
After IKEA we went back to the hostel, dropped our stuff off and went to grab some food. We walked around the city a bit at night and found it difficult to find a place to hang out with a younger crowd. We ended up finding a bar with some live music and Swedish beer.
On Sunday we woke up pretty early and headed to town looking for some Sweden hockey jerseys. No dice on the hockey jerseys, but I did find a nice Swedish soccer shirt. We moved our stuff back to the hostel we stayed at on Friday because it was much nicer and cheaper. We were getting geared up for the big bandy game of Hammarby vs. Sandvikens. It was the semi-final game for the local team Hammarby.
Since probably all of you don't have a clue what Bandy is, check out the pictures. Its basically a mix of field hockey, soccer, and ice hockey. The game is played on a ice rink that is the size of a soccer field - HUGE. The sticks are like that of field hockey, but the rules are extremely similar to soccer and there is no hitting. Its 11 vs 11 and is very fast paced. The locals were amazed that we had heard of this game before. The only reason I heard of the game was because of my friend Anders who plays on my hockey team and is from Sweden.
Bandy was pretty intense. The fans were crazy. The fans chanted the entire game and waved huge flags. They screamed at the refs and yelled what I think were profanities all game long. Remember, everyone spoke Swedish, although most spoke english as well. At one point kids were lighting fireworks off IN the stands. Unreal. It was pretty fun to see how into games these fans would get. It was a great experience. Even though Hammarby lost the fans still chanted until they left the ice. The coolest part of the game was at the end when the team skated to our section and the captain gave a speech. Probably since their season was over, the captain spoke a bit and led the crowd in the team song. The team handed their sticks to fans and shook hands with the kids. I will try to upload some videos of the game, but i dont know if the internet here will allow me.
We went in early Sunday and got up at 8 to catch our plane back to Dublin. We thought we might have missed our flight to Dublin, but we made it with about 30 mins to spare. European airports, like American airports, can sometimes be really fast or really slow. Stockholm wasnt the fastest.
When we got to Dublin at 12 the fun really began. We had a 5 hour wait coming for us. 5 hours wasnt worth paying 12 euros to get to and from the city so we chilled at the airport. Around 4 I went to check in and found that our flight was canceled. Needless to say, Joe and I were pissed. RyanAir offered us a flight at 9 but told us it would likely get canceled too. We asked for a refund and had to take the train to Cork. The train cost a fortune (60 euros compared to 18 by plane) and took another 3 hours to get back. We made it back at 9 and finally completed the big trip.
I had a ton of fun and really loved Stockholm. I wish we could have saw more, but our plans were a bit limiting and took some time. It is definitely a place to visit.
------------------------
Other than the big trip...we won our hockey game last week 1-0 and mathematically sealed the championship up. We'll get our trophy next week after the last game.
Mom and the crew come Saturday and should be pretty fun. They arrive in the heat of the St Paddy's celebration...should be a good time.
Next week we'll be going to Galway and Killarney hopefully.
Check out the pictures from Scotland and Sweden! Talk to you soon
- Travis
Scotland and Sweden were amazing and I had a ton of fun. I'll start at the beginning.
My friend Joe, from W&J who is studying in Munich, came in to Ireland on Wednesday. We left for Glasgow, Scotland Thursday evening and went to the hostel. After some confusion with the rooms we both ended up getting free upgrades at the hostel. We went out to see the town a bit and had some Scottish beer at a local pub. We went in early so we could get up and see the city Friday.
On Friday we walked around the city and saw some pretty interesting buildings. Unfortunately it was pouring rain and made taking good pictures difficult. We hurried through the city to see as much as possible since we had to leave for Stockholm in the evening. The rain forced us inside to the World's Tallest Movie Theater to see a movie and dry off. After the movie we took the train to the airport and caught the plane to Sweden.
Our flight ended up being delayed by an hour so we didn't get into Sweden until around 11. After the hour bus ride to Stockholm city centre and figuring out the subway we didnt get into the hostel until 1:15. We immediately went to bed to rest up for a big day on Saturday.
We slept in a bit on Saturday and when we got up we moved to our new hostel since Friday nights was booked. After checking in and dropping our bags off we headed to a ticket center to buy tickets to the Bandy game on Sunday. I'll tell you more about it later. After tickets we headed to IKEA, the main reason I wanted to go to Stockholm.
IKEA was HUGE. The largest one in the world. It had about 6 floors and the warehouse alone was bigger than IKEA Pittsburgh. Immediately we went to the restaurant to eat. I told everyone there that I worked in an IKEA restaurant and they loved it. The workers asked me all kinds of questions about our menu and how we do things. It was pretty funny actually and everyone looked at me kind of weird since I was taking millions of pictures.
The rest of the store was pretty overwhelming. There was a cafe on every floor and the building was cylindrical so you were constantly walking in circles. I got a few catalogs and floor plans along with the tons of pictures I took as souvenirs.
After IKEA we went back to the hostel, dropped our stuff off and went to grab some food. We walked around the city a bit at night and found it difficult to find a place to hang out with a younger crowd. We ended up finding a bar with some live music and Swedish beer.
On Sunday we woke up pretty early and headed to town looking for some Sweden hockey jerseys. No dice on the hockey jerseys, but I did find a nice Swedish soccer shirt. We moved our stuff back to the hostel we stayed at on Friday because it was much nicer and cheaper. We were getting geared up for the big bandy game of Hammarby vs. Sandvikens. It was the semi-final game for the local team Hammarby.
Since probably all of you don't have a clue what Bandy is, check out the pictures. Its basically a mix of field hockey, soccer, and ice hockey. The game is played on a ice rink that is the size of a soccer field - HUGE. The sticks are like that of field hockey, but the rules are extremely similar to soccer and there is no hitting. Its 11 vs 11 and is very fast paced. The locals were amazed that we had heard of this game before. The only reason I heard of the game was because of my friend Anders who plays on my hockey team and is from Sweden.
Bandy was pretty intense. The fans were crazy. The fans chanted the entire game and waved huge flags. They screamed at the refs and yelled what I think were profanities all game long. Remember, everyone spoke Swedish, although most spoke english as well. At one point kids were lighting fireworks off IN the stands. Unreal. It was pretty fun to see how into games these fans would get. It was a great experience. Even though Hammarby lost the fans still chanted until they left the ice. The coolest part of the game was at the end when the team skated to our section and the captain gave a speech. Probably since their season was over, the captain spoke a bit and led the crowd in the team song. The team handed their sticks to fans and shook hands with the kids. I will try to upload some videos of the game, but i dont know if the internet here will allow me.
We went in early Sunday and got up at 8 to catch our plane back to Dublin. We thought we might have missed our flight to Dublin, but we made it with about 30 mins to spare. European airports, like American airports, can sometimes be really fast or really slow. Stockholm wasnt the fastest.
When we got to Dublin at 12 the fun really began. We had a 5 hour wait coming for us. 5 hours wasnt worth paying 12 euros to get to and from the city so we chilled at the airport. Around 4 I went to check in and found that our flight was canceled. Needless to say, Joe and I were pissed. RyanAir offered us a flight at 9 but told us it would likely get canceled too. We asked for a refund and had to take the train to Cork. The train cost a fortune (60 euros compared to 18 by plane) and took another 3 hours to get back. We made it back at 9 and finally completed the big trip.
I had a ton of fun and really loved Stockholm. I wish we could have saw more, but our plans were a bit limiting and took some time. It is definitely a place to visit.
------------------------
Other than the big trip...we won our hockey game last week 1-0 and mathematically sealed the championship up. We'll get our trophy next week after the last game.
Mom and the crew come Saturday and should be pretty fun. They arrive in the heat of the St Paddy's celebration...should be a good time.
Next week we'll be going to Galway and Killarney hopefully.
Check out the pictures from Scotland and Sweden! Talk to you soon
- Travis
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