Poop, Hotels & Language Difficulties

I forgot to mention that in Rome, while we were sitting in St. Peter's Square, Andrew was pooped on by a bird... must be a sign from God, a bad sign. It was his first time being pooped on (Jenna this will probably make you feel better because I know you have been pooped on multiple times... and thought it was normal). I have yet to be pooped on, but I think my time will come considering how much I am bugging Andrew about it.

We have had some good luck with booking hotels and hostels and some really really bad luck. I thought that I would share pictures of our places in Bergamo and here in Madrid, where we have had really good luck.

This is our hotel in Bergamo. When we got there we realized that it was a 4 star hotel. Andrew and I looked like misfits with our backpacks on and looking disgusting because of the long walk to the hotel. Oh well, they still let us check in.

Here in Madrid we have a kitchenette in our hotel. We are really excited to be able to actually cook food. Hostels usually have kitchens but we have been avoiding them because they are usually pretty gross.

This is the rest of the room in Madrid.

We were so excited about our kitchen that we raced to the grocery store and bought pizzas. We thought that we would fry them in frying pans, which is what we do when we don't have an oven and surprisingly, they usually turn out pretty good

This time we had a problem though. When we got home from our shopping trip and Andrew unwrapped the pizzas, we found out that the dough was raw and that they needed to be cooked in an oven... which we don't have (only a stove and a microwave). On the package it said 'concinada...' meaning we need to cook the pizza. Instead of giving up we decided to cook the pizzas in the microwave and then fry them. This is how they turned out.

They were actually pretty tasty. I guess my theory worked: add enough cheese to anything and it will taste good.

Now that we have eaten we are on our way out to see Madrid.

PS- It was the Alexander triplets birthday yesterday. Happy birthday boys, we miss you.

Catch Up In Galway

Well we finally arrived in Galway (on May 13) and during our first walk (on May 14) we noticed the lack of dog poop. Then we noticed this sign. The sign seems to be working... or there are no dogs in Galway because this is the cleanest city we have been in so far.

Andrew and I went for a walk along the bay. It is a beautiful city.

On May 15, the B Team met us in Galway. After we met them at the airport, we got groceries and went to check out the place we rented. Mom and Jack had a quick nap and then we went out to our new favourite pub in Galway (An Pucan) for some drinks and to listen to live Irish music.

We didn't give the B Team any time to rest. May 16, Andrew and I planned to take them to the Connemara National Park. We didn't really plan on it, but we ended up hiking up a mountain (for us Albertans, it was more like a very large and steep hill) which took most of the day.

Even though they must have been really tired from the flight the previous day, the B Team made it up the mountain too.

Since we were all tired from the hike the day before, May 17 turned out to be a relaxing day. We spent the day walking around Galway and showing Mom and Jack the sights around the town. We went for drinks at Kennedy's Pub (where President Kennedy went when he visited Galway in 1963), then we went to Robin Hood at the Omniplex in Galway. Afterwards we went back to An Pucan for supper and to listen to some more live music.

Then yesterday we took another road trip, this time to 'The Burren' and 'The Cliffs of Moher'. The Burren was really neat to see up close and walk across.

The Cliffs of Moher were totally beautiful... even in pouring rain. These cliffs are 8 km long and 210 meters high and definitely something we had never seen before. It was actually really nice that it was pouring because it seemed that most people opted to stay inside the visitor centre instead of going out to the cliffs for the view.

I'm sure the cliffs would have been great to see when it wasn't grey out... but it seems fitting that it was raining, it being Ireland and all.

And tomorrow we will be getting married... I almost feel grown up.

The Last Few Days

We have really been enjoying our time in Killarney. The first day that we got here we spent it at the National Park then the next day (May 8) we spent the entire day in the park too. Below are some pictures from the second day spent in the park.

The next day we decided to go on a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry. We were really excited to see the beautiful landscape, what we didn't really know is that we were stuck in a tourist trap. The first two stops we made were at the most random places: a Bog Museum and a sheep hearding place. At both places you had to pay for admission and both times we were stopped for at least 3/4 of an hour. We paid for neither.

Andrew and I still had fun though. Andrew nicknamed an American tourist on our bus "old man steal me money" because he and his wife paid to get into all these stupid places that the bus stopped and bought other stupid things. Andrew and I were trying to figure out how to scam "old man steal me money" into giving us money. No such luck.

Here we are outside at one of the stops.

Ring of Kerry.

Ring of Kerry.

The next day (May 9) we didn't have any plans so we decided to go to Cork because we read that it is "The People's Capital" (whatever that means). So we got to Cork, it was pretty cold outside (even for Andrew), and we didn't really know where to go or what to see. We went to the tourist office to see what sites we wanted to see in Cork and discovered that we didn't really want to see anything in Cork. So instead of getting on the next train we decided to go to an old church and to a park. The park was really nice and we really enjoyed it but we discovered that we hated Cork. There was dog poop (I'm assuming it was dog poop, some it was questionable) everywhere!! Needless to say, Andrew and I got out of Cork as soon as we could. Now that I think about it we probably spent more time waiting for the train and on the train than actually in Cork. Nevertheless, it was a great day, and we had lots of fun.

Jack this picture is for you. Here is how they do construction (and demolition) in Cork.

(I just wanted to say that I really wanted to take a picture of some dog poop because that is how I will always remember Cork but Andrew wouldn't let me and he was holding the camera.)

So today we thought we would rent a couple of bikes and go into another (bigger) part of the National Park. 

We went North of Killarney to a lookout to have a really good view of part of the National park, but I was too captivated by two horses to really have a look at the view.

Here is picture Andrew took from the lookout.

Then we went to the South to see Torc waterfalls. On the little climb to the waterfalls we were talking to a guy who asked us where we were from, and when we said Canada he said, 'Don't you have Niagra Falls in Canada? Well this won't be as good as that.'

He was right, why did we even bother?? Ha ha.

Although they weren't quite the same size as Niagra Falls, they were still really pretty.

The real story to the bike ride is that after 10 minutes on the bikes I didn't want to bike anymore. See the problem with having a 5 star hostel is that I never want to leave. Today I would have preferred to have gone to Buy-Low (the grocery store here is actual called Dunnes) and purchased a couple containers of chocolate chip muffins and ate them while watching multiple episodes of Glee. Since we had already rented the bikes and because Andrew was having a good time I tried to be a good sport. Unfortunately for Andrew, that didn't last for too long. By the time we made it to the falls I was done, it was time to go back to the hostel, but I guess I didn't communicate this to Andrew because he proceeded to take us in the opposite direction of the hostel and on a route that the only way out was to go back the way we came. Half way through this new little adventure I tried to quit, by telling Andrew that I was not going to bike anymore (I'm not sure how I was going to get from the path back to the hostel because I was not going to bike or walk back... I know the thought of calling a taxi entered my head, but I don't think taxis pick people up on bike and walking paths) but he was so far ahead of me that he couldn't hear me yelling 'I QUIT!'

After I had finished throwing a tantrum we proceeded to go further away from the hostel so that Andrew could go to the washroom, but then finally we were able to go back to the hostel. I am glad to say that we made it back to the hostel and now looking back on today... I think it was a pretty good day and I think I actually liked the bike ride, but we definitely aren't renting bikes tomorrow.

Andrew and I are still having a great time in Killarney but we will be packing up the day after tomorrow to head out to who knows where. We are homeless as of right now because we haven't decided where we want to go before we meet up with Mom and Jack on the 15th.