6 September 2008: Carlow, Ireland

On Saturday morning I woke up and had a brilliant idea. It wasn't looking like I would be able to any hostel work in Dublin, and staying at a hostel the entire time was financially out of the question. But what I hadn't thought of until that point was the internet cafe, which I knew was open 24 hours a day.

I had been a few times since Thursday because the weather was too terrible to be outside for long, so I figured they'd maybe remember me and consider my patronage in my request. I asked them if there was any way I could work there in exchange for being able to come back after the pubs closed and just sleep on the floor until the morning. Pretty reasonable, right?

Well, the dude said that was impossible but there was a €10 special from 10pm to 10am. For someone who actually wanted to spend twelve consecutive hours at night on the internet, I suppose that would be a bargain. But for me, who only wanted at the most eight of those hours, and who wouldn't be on the computer for any of them, that just wasn't going to happen. Especially because, and this was my favorite part, I wouldn't have even been able to lie down and go to sleep in a corner or something. Even if I had paid. I'd have had to literally open a web browser and put my head down on the desk. Hilarious.

Now, in all honesty, the internet cafe wouldn't be such a terrible idea for a cheap nap during the way way late hours. If I got there at 2:00 and set my alarm for 5:00 I would be able to pass out for three hours, pay €3, and then go find a nice place to sleep the rest of the morning, assuming it was nice outside. Something to consider if it ever gets to that point.

With this idea shot down, thought, I went back to the hostel and snuck two cheese sandwiches from the kitchen. My bad to whomever that cheese rightfully belonged to.

As I was going back up to my room, I ran into Nellie from the night before. The first thing she said was that she and Barbara were leaving almost immediately to find a new hostel. That did it. There was literally nothing worthwhile left in that God-forsaken place.

I went into the bathroom to take a shower, and the line was three-deep. Because, like I've said, there's only one shower in the entire hostel. I was talking to one of the other guys, who was staying one floor below me in room 105. He said his room was just about full, and since it was only me, Joel and someone else in 205 I thought I'd take a look to say hello.

What I found was a girl named Rochelle, from New Zealand, who was similaly unemployed and similarly unimpressed with the hostel. Which is putting it lightly. We went out to get a spot of tea-- yeah, I said it-- and actually walked out of the first two cafes we found because it cost over €2. We were in a bad state.

While having our tea, though, Rochelle mentioned that she was going down to visit her friend in a small town called Carlow about an hour south of Dublin. I decided on the spot to go with her.

The bus cost €9.50, which was already cheaper than one night at the hostel. The ride was an hour and a half, and when we got there her friend Dave picked us up and took us back home to meet his fiance, Kel, and his fiance's brother, Mitchel.

That afternoon they drove us around the Irish countryside for a bit. They took us to see Kilkenny Castle, which was pretty amazing, and then to Duckett's Grove, which was absolutely and astoundingly amazing. I know this stuff isn't nearly as old as some other places in Europe-- other than the Rock of Dumase, which we also saw, and is older than time practically-- but I don't think Ireland gets enough credit for all the amazing things to see. I mean, these buildings date back centuries and centuries. Really cool stuff.

For lunch we went into the town of Kilkenny and they bought us lunch. For me, that was Irish stew and a pint of Smithwick's, making it quite possibly the best meal I'll have over the course of the next year. I'm not kidding. But even nicer was the town of Kilkenny itself. It's a small town-- 1/5 the population of Ann Arbor and 3.74 square km compared to 27.4 square miles, whatever that works out to, according to wikipedia-- but it's got a ton of charm and personality. The streets are really narrow and medieval looking, it just has a good feel to it. I can't really think of anything to compare it to, so I won't try, but it's just a great little place.

After we finished our tour of the area we went home and I took a glorious nap and an even more glorious shower-- think, if you will, of the bed and the shower I had left that morning. When I woke up I joined the rest in the living room, and after a while we made pizza. Complete with two types of salami, green peppers, olives, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatos, buffalo mozzarella and onions. It was the second feast of the day.

Following dinner was beer and Guitar Hero all the way until 2:30 in the morning, at which point we all enjoyed a hot whiskey and went to bed. I downstairs on the futon, since Mitchel was in one guest room and Rochelle in the other. And I couldn't have cared any less, that's how nice the day had been.

This day, I think, is when my adventure really started. Originally I thought it was when I left London to go to Dublin, but the more I think about it the more I disagree with that. Going to Dublin was going to a new city to see what the life was like there and try to make a buck, but it wasn't exactly an adventure. At least, not necessarily the way I anticipated my adventure would be.

Struggling to get by on a limited budget is interesting and challenging, and not the typical path for a graduate of the University of Michigan, but it's not like I'm blazing any trails by roughing it and living on the cheap in Dublin. That's just making by as you have to in order to live in a cool place. Who wouldn't be up for that for at least a little while.

No, for me the adventure didn't begin until I got on that bus to go to a random, unexpected place I would never otherwise have gone to with a random, unexpected person I would never otherwise have met. That's what this year needs to be about-- at least, to meet my expecations of adventure.

It's not so much that I was over Dublin since after two days it's hard to really be over anywhere, least of all a city with as much to do as the capital of Ireland. It's that Dublin doesn't interest me as much as many of the other parts of Ireland. Seeing the country-side, though, was just what I needed to follow the first two days, the Ireland off the beaten path that the swarm of English-speaking backpackers in Dublin don't usually see.

(It also helped that it was sunny and beautiful out all afternoon once we arrived in Carlow, compared to the miserable greyness of Dublin. That was huge.)

It also should be said that Dave, Kel and Mitchel are three of the loveliest people you'll ever meet, and I mean that sincerely. Not just that they bought me lunch, which I don't think they could possibly understand how much it meant to me, and not just that they were such good tour-guides. They were just incredibly friendly and talkative and just about always smiling with the cleverest senses of humor. They couldn't have been any happier with life, or any happier that Rochelle and I were having such a good time. What a crew.

The final thing from this excellent day is to note how nice it can be to have a travel buddy once in a while. I'm almost always one to roll solo, or rather to roll into a place solo and then go along with whomever from there, but traveling around Europe by yourself is quite a bit different from traveling around America by yourself.

Granted, it wasn't like I was hurting for communication before I met Rochelle. Everywhere I go after this will be harder in that regard, obviously. And Joel has been a great friend and is in pretty much the same boat as I am. But Rochelle is interesting because, whereas Joel is mostly intent on staying in Dublin and waiting it out, she is really torn between trying her luck a little longer in Dublin and going elsewhere, not for work but for traveling.

I suspect it's going to be pretty tricky trying to balance the work part of this adventure with the traveling part, and so it's nice that someone else is in just as much of a rut as you are. Not that this rut is so very challenging. Just a little frustrating after the first couple days in Dublin.