Made it to Berlin! It's so hot here - and I though that day biking in Malmö was hot! I'm  eating currywurst right now outside the Tiergarten - it's too ungainly to walk with or I would go inside the park. 

Sort of divided on Plus at the moment - it's definitely not nicer than the other two hostels I've stayed in, AND has no kitchen! I was asleep too early to comment on potential party atmosphere, which I hate - so I don't think it's obviously the place I'll stay always and forever. Especially not in Prague where there are cheaper options. Eh. 

One nice thing is I had the room practically to myself - it's just me and one other guy (who isn't a creepy pervert but is a little weird) named Cameron, who had us play Go Fish this morning? Fine, but eh.) Last night I guess he went a-partying and I just showered and went to bed at like 10pm, success! Then this morning, a walking tour, yay! We went past a lot of places - Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, Gendarmenmarkt, Checkpoint Charlie, etc. - so I've doubled back on my own and just wandered through the Memorial to the Murdered European Jews and the museum underneath. The memorial is really interesting - just levels of stones over uneven ground, so many you could get lost inside. When you wander in it's very peaceful but also a little claustrophobic maybe - you could definitely feel trapped there. Some kids were like jumping from stone to stone. But it's beautiful. And the underneath, too sad for words. A lot of focusing on families and individuals and first hands sources versus numbers. The only place with numbers really is a room where they list how many Jewish people died per country. Denmark, only 116. But that's only along the upper walls - down lower, on lighted squares on the floor, there's letters and journal entires and postcards. Ich schluss - I end. 

It's so hot and I feel a little emotionally wonky so I'm not sure what to do next - the idea of the park seems lovely and serene but the mugginess wrecks it a little. I'm right by the Reichstag so perhaps I'll walk over and take a few pictures, but it's almost 5pm so maybe I'll go back to the hostel. Oh shit, just fed a bird and almost got swarmed by birds. Other shitty thing about the hostel - no book swap!! Boo. 

​

Off on the first part of my Eurail journey! Except it's not a train, it's the togbus to Oresund bridge. Got a windowseat this time, yes! There is a boy on this train with the exact same backpack as me and holding a Eurail (Interrail?) pass. I tried to make eye contact but was unsuccessful. Maybe when we disembark. Next after this is the airport train to Kobenhavn Central Station, then an information desk. Then Berlin. 

Passing the Malmö Grand Canyon. Matilda was so nice about getting me to Triageln this morning, she biked with my big bag and I biked with my small one. She's been a true and wonderful friend - I hope she comes to New York and I can repay the favor. I'm a little nervous setting off to another country where I don't speak the language without my helpful native guide. Oh well - I can do it. 

I'm on the ferry now - the train drove aboard and we all had to get off. There are two other girls with Eurail passes right across from me and we all left our bags - fingers crossed they are there when we return! Bye bye, Denmark, it's been a nice train ride through you. 

I did talk to that boy with the backpack/Eurail pass - his name is Will and he's from Arkansas. He's pre-med and was studying the Swedish healthcare system in Stockholm? Now he's bumming around for 2 weeks. He's doing the day in Copenhagen and then down to Germany, so perhaps we'll meet again? Probs not. 

I know ferries are not so glamorous but I love being on boats and hearing the water. There's a seagull flying next to the deck and a mom and daughter are throwing bits of bread to it. Super adorable - until the seagull started to veer closer and closer to the ship. Also, may have left my sunglasses at Matilda's. Oh well, maybe some new German sunglasses for me! Unless I put them in my big bag...

Wish there was Wifi so I could do some planning!! I've booked Plus for tonight, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for a Friday check out. So that's a solid three sightseeing days - tonight maybe just shower, rest, research, ICE THE ANKLE. Can't tell if the biking helped or hurt it!

I feel like I should be more reflective here but I'm not sure what I should reflect on. I feel like I may have been the target of thieves last night? I was using Central Station's Wifi and these guys next to me were watching me/conversing in hushed Swedish and when they left I could still see them out the doors so I took a different exit. Not so reflective/not so savvy of me. Oy vey. Gotta be more aware of my surroundings. 

On a more hilarious note - Matilda's friend Ello thought that Birthright was called Birth-rate. AWESOME, something to steal. Have other people made that joke? If not, it's MINE. Ten minute play about Birthright? Oh shit I was going to write ten minute plays on my travels, I forgot. One about bikeriding?

I am glad my train went on a boat though, yay! There was that apparently super scenic rail/boat thing that went direct from Malmö to Berlin, but this also went on a boat so I haven't missed anything! Most train rides seem to be ridiculously scenic on their own. 

Entschuldigung, bitte - spricht du Englisch?

What if you had a play/short story about a Swedish girl who doesn't know she's Jewish? Antisemitism in Sweden? 

Margot's Sad Jew Trek Around Europe: A Happy Jew in Sad Jew Places.

So many wind turbines - I though just Denmark but we've crossed into Puttgarden, I think, and there's a swarm of them right at the boarder. 

​

It's harder to write long journal entries when you're traveling with people! We've just been traveling/biking/being social and instead of writing during meals where I'd be eating alone, I've been talking/eating and then it would be rude! Now we're in Lund and everyone is writing postcards so I thought I would catch up. 

Yesterday continued in much the same way as it started - we hung at the beach, biked around, hung at Malmöhus/Kungsparken, biked around, went for Indian food with Ello, Matilda's friend and biked over to try to catch the light show at the big park we went to on Friday. We missed the beginning (oops) but saw the end! And stopped by Matilda's friend Tessie's house briefly and met her. At this point my allergies were slowly killing me so I was not at my best. But nice all the same - I've realized all the strange foreign pollen sneaks through my Claritan with its intensity and can just knock me out. Wow. Sarah leaves tonight and we might try floorball again, and I call my parents at 9pm!! (Can't forget that!!) Then Germany tomorrow, jihoo! Have to figure out the train strike situation for that. But excited to start my Eurail adventure! I feel like there is a whole blank map stretching out in front of me, waiting to be filled in. 

I am about to sample SWEDISH MEATBALLS! Such a tourist. Yesterday Ello and Matilda had us listen to Robyn and First Aid Kit, bands who are also Swedish. Now I know everything!

Now I'm watching floorball - it bears a lot of resemblance to what Teddy calls 'hockey' that we've been playing for the past four months. This little stint with Matilda and Sarah has shown me how it's been good to travel on my own as opposed to a group of people. Not so much with Matilda - she's sort of been living her life and pulling me long which has been super great. But since Sarah had pretty much only a day and a half (and I've had pretty much four) it's been much more trying to see things/do things/cram things in, and the things she's trying to cram are not necessarily the things I want to do - like going to the light show or Lund or things like that. Though there were cool parts about all these things - the clock and crypt in the cathedral at Lund were both awesome, Finn the Giant and all the Wise Men mechanically bowing their heads by Jesus - but maybe I would have spent the time differently. Going to Kulturen in Lund, which seemed like a Sweden Colonial Williamsburg, or whatever. Or just grabbing a quick bite at a falafel place instead of the saga of searching for lunch. (Although my Swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce was AWESOME.) On the one hand it was great because I've been places/done things I wouldn't have done alone. Biking! But I could see how tiring/annoying it could get. I'm glad I chose to be just me. 

Lund today was fine - the clock/Finn/the cathedral were the best, but we looked at some cool shops and had meatball lunch and said bye to Sarah. Then back to Malmö and we biked by a picnic Tessie, Matilda's friend was having. Then home to change for floorball and now floorball! I'm supposed to call home at 9pm but I'm not sure if that's Ireland 9 or continental Europe 9. My pen is out of ink and my extra ink is at home, crap!

I'm at the Swedish beach! Matilda says they have no waves/tides here?! Something to look up. We got the bikes all set up which took forever because Matilda's spare didn't work so we couldn't go until we rented one at Central Station - 170 SKR! But I'm riding it and it handles all right and I'm holding my own with Sarah and Matilda. (Well, they're taking it easy on me.) We rode around the same way as the other night after floorball, only further until we hit an actual sandy beach. I'm not sure I have enough sunscreen on. Then we might do more biking later on. 

I booked my hostel for Berlin - Monday night to Friday morning, 9-13. I went with Plus even though it's a little outside of the city center because it has sister hostels in Prague, Austria, Italy, etc. and you get discounts the more you stay. I'll almost definitely use the Plus in Venice because it's absolutely the cheapest, so maybe Prague as well? We'll see. Not too expensive and a six person room! So, looking forward to that. Train strike is still on so I'll figure out on Monday what that means for getting to Copenhagen to get to Berlin. 
​

It's like 11:30pm so I'm very late with this entry but I made it! Writing every day would be so awesome. Yesterday after dinner, Matilda and I meant to go to her floorball club but only four players showed up and you need eight to play, so her and her friend Ello bailed and instead they took me on a bike ride around the beach/harbor area. I'm not so comfortable on bikes really, especially in open traffic, but it was actually really fun! There were hardly any cars out, maybe because of the holiday, and I felt super comfortable. Tomorrow we're going to ride bikes again so I hope I am as comfortable! It was like a fun adventurous Margot thing to do - riding bikes in Sweden! 

And then today was excellent as well! Matilda and I woke up super early to get the bus to the bus to the train to Copenhagen! It was a nice ride - we went over the Oresund bridge to get there, great views. I validated my Eurail pass at the train station, yay! There were two other Americans there asking how to get to Berlin, so I'd imagine I may have company! Then Matilda led me down through the main streets, past Town Hall etc. and Tivoli, to Nynhaven, where we caught a canal boat tour. We rode past Hans Christian Anderson's house, cool cool! And we went past the Little Mermaid statue but I could only see her back, oh well. Matilda says it's overrated. And it was funny to see like this hoard of people crowding this tiny little statue. I am collecting a lot of pictures of childhood favorites, though! Peter Pan, the Little Mermaid...Then I dragged Matilda to the Jewish Museum - she was a very good sport. It was interesting for sure - I wish there'd been more time to look at the specifically World War II exhibit but the permanent exhibit was also great. I saw footage from the Terezin documentary which I've never seen before - only 418 of Denmark's Jews were brought to Theresienstadt. Why Denmark alone? Fascinating and a little upsetting. Makes me want to re-read Number the Stars. Matilda says she had a book series as a child about a Jewish pair of sisters escaping to Sweden and making a new life for themselves. New play idea?

Then we went to Central Station and picked up Sarah Fashion and went home for FOOD! I was famished. Thn we went on a long walk down through Folketspark and the Triangeln and stuff, down the way I haven't been. I had an allergy fit halfway, though - ugh! Now home and bed, oh, bed! Tomorrow more exploring around Malmö, maybe beach? We though maybe an island but might be hard to get there with the trains. 

​(An Island in the Sea - Annika Thor)

I am in Sweden! I am alive! Matilda has only wire internet (ooh, how classic) so I haven't been able to speak much to the parents, but I normal texted, emailed, and facebooked them, so they should know I am okay. I am doing Swedish laundry now (ahhhh so scared) and just chilling a little while Matilda is at work. When the laundry is done, I think I'll go to the library. 

It's the height of Swedish graduation season so there are all these students running around in white sailor-type hats Matilda says they get as a gift of graduation! They also apparently party on truck beds but it started to rain yesterday so I didn't witness first hand.

Matilda's been so nice/such a good host. I got the bus from the airport to Konserthust and she met me right at the stop! It's so weird seeing her - I feel we do know each other quite well by camp standards, but this is so far from camp. It's like how at camp you get used to seeing people in the same clothes over and over again and when they wear something new it looks so alien. Matilda's wearing a whole different city. 

But she's been really lovely. We dropped my stuff off at her apartment and went to get her bike (so Swedish!) from the shop and then came back and made dinner. She didn't let me help though, or help wash dishes - gotta help somehow, want to be a good guest! Then we went on a walk to the library and through Kungsparken and we saw the Lillatorg - it felt like my own private walking tour! Then we came back and we're going to sleep early but instead got distracted finding a postcard for Melia (our fave crazy cat camper) from her, me, and Sarah Fashion. Then bed. It's one hour time difference here in Continental Europe - I lost an hour but I'll get it back when I go back through the UK. 

Okay, gonna go check this laundry. Pray for me - it was powder laundry soap and I'm afraid I used way too much. 

Success! I think! None of my clothes look horribly mangled and there isn't a broken machine! (There is a puddle on the floor but who knows if it's from me, and besides, puddles happen.) It's an interesting system - you wash the clothes in a machine like at home but then you put only some things in the dryer - little things or sturdy things - and then the rest go in a DRYING ROOM that gets super hot and blows air at them. That's the stage I'm on now. Then it doesn't work super well so you bring the sorta dry clothes upstairs and dry them on a rack. 

Matilda's apartment is so cute. it's like an ad for Ikea - in a perfect way! - it's got great tall ceilings and her books are arranged by color and she has this cool circular ceramic (I think?) fireplace? It doesn't work but it's so nice and interesting looking to have in the room. I was gushing over her apartment last night. 

She's been so nice and helpful - I hope she comes to New York sometime and I can repay the favor. Sarah Fashion comes tomorrow, and I think tomorrow we go to Copenhagen as well - but oh no I am scared because Matilda was talking about a train strike??? I will have to investigate when I go to the library today. First order of business - well second after laundry - is WIFI! Oh dear, I am dependent on Internet. 

Hm, I might be running low on the ink in my pen. Should I stay with purple or do green or blue? My life is full of difficult choices. 

Just got back to Matilda's from exploring! I may just get my boots and raincoat and then go out again, though - it started raining and I nigh on sprinted from Central Station to Stenbockgattan. Map here is awesome - streets are very grid-like, too, not like Ireland! Although they do change names halfway down, oy vey. But way better labeled - signs are on every corner, not just the ones that feel like it. I went to the library and wandered through Kungsparken again and took pictures - the weather was gorgeous for a few hours, hence my hubris in not bringing raincoat and wearing Docs. Went and saw Malmöhus and poked my head inside, then zipped to Central Station because it looked like rain and used their internet on my device. However, forgot to eat there and now am starved hence need for boots/coat/money for hungry stomach. 

Ooh, got distracted reading and just went to get food and now Matilda's back at the apartment - just missed each other! I guess nice to have separate space for a while - fish and guests stink after three days, and I'm there Wednesday night/Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday morning maybe, eep! Oh darn, forgot to reserve/figure out Berlin. Oh well, tomorrow!

I've had two sodas in two days - no good! I had one on Sunday too, oy vey! I need to buy a waterbottle, a nice one. Maybe in Sweden? A z00-bineer? I like the idea of, if I really need something, I buy myself a nice one and take it home. Like my Irish soap dish! Though that's not very exciting. But I do like it a lot. 

I've been very impulsive on these trips so far but almost opposite my intuition - I was going to just get Burger Kind at Central Station but talked myself out of it. I keep talking myself out of good ideas. Gotta stop that! Go with my gut, it's good!

55 SKR for pizza and drink. (Damn you, Fanta!)

​Ooh, this car dance thing is DANGEROUS. Legit. 

On the bus to the airport to experience my first RyanAir flight! Oh my god Sleep No More was so good but Drowned Man was GREAT! I had a one on one again but this one was SO MUCH SCARIER than Banquo. Some guy - Harry Greener? Conrad? - took me into like an office-y space saying "We all play our part," then placed a wig on and threw a blanket over his head and told me a creepy fairytale about a boy getting tired of Earth and going to Heaven to see the moon and sun but they were just rotting wood and when he went back to Earth it was gone - just an empty bucket. Then he picked up this stuffed rocking horse and saw a string attached so we followed the string by flashlight - UNTIL IT LED US TO AN ENORMOUS DEAD HORSEl I almost wet my pants. Then we ran screaming and he led me to the door and put my mask back on and said 'The world is inside out.' Then he let me go. 

Other highlights - Frankie, the drugstore girl! Andy? The William best friend, the lady giving out the parts. We've just driven through Finchley/Golder's Green, so nice/cute -v. WWII. I can totally see the Pevensies living here. 

I ment to catch a different bus to Stansted than the one I'm on now, but I got to the coach station and panicked. They're the same price and this one will get in around 10am instead of 9:15 but it's okay, my flight isn't until 12:30 and I'm already checked in. Excited to get to Sweden/see Matilda. Nervous a little as well - here begins my jaunt in countries whose languages I do not speak!

I woke up and my ankle felt much better, yay! I went to Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens for a very wee wander, then got ice and came back to the hostel to rest/ice/elevate the ankle - I want it fighting fit for Sweden!! And beyond. I went to the Peter Pan statue again, got my picture taken. I like this hostel a lot. The only eh...thing is that the room is like a sauna a little bit. It's an 8 person room which I vastly prefer to the 20 person - although maybe I just prefer it because the people are nice! I am SURROUNDED by AUSSIES! 3 boys, 4 girls. Everyone was chatting last night and most of us went to bed early. Yay! 

It's funny because I feel almost instinctively comfortable here in London. It's not just a language thing, because Ireland was my language too - it just feels familiar. I've been with Mom and with the Experiment in International Living and maybe also from television and books, but it feels mine in a way. Not like it belongs to me but like it is a part of my memories and I have my own London. Mine. It seems like all the tourist stuff I want to do here is just revisit old haunts. (Well, places where I've already been. It's weird  - I was initially thinking I would maybe skip London the second time through or give it a day or so, but I do really like it here - it'll be nice to come back through and do more stuff. I'm  taking it easy on the ankle so I think all I'll do today is write and make lunch/dinner and see PUNCHDRUNK!

I love currency - I just want to hoard it and play with it. But it's valuable!

​

Currently sitting on the Ulysses - surprisingly opulent for a three hour plus journey! I tried to do the bus but got nervous and took a cab instead - forgot to make him turn on the meter, whoops, but he said the price to me before I got in and I was okay with it some I'm trying not to beat myself up. My ankle also still hurts - that's a problem. I'm resting it now. I just wish I knew what was wrong with it - is this the kind of thing an elastic thing would help with? I just literally NEVER hurt myself like this! Well, I can rest it for huge chunks of today, on the sail and rail portions, and I'll just have to favor it while I'm walking. Maybe I'll find Nando's tonight and just take it easy - the park is very close to this next hostel so maybe get dinner, go there, chill out. Take it easy. See some sights tomorrow and see PUNCHDRUNK! Wish I could do five pound Matilda. 

Waking up this morning wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But at like 4am someone in our room woke up, rustled a little, then lefit screamed and started making tons of noise - did they experience my greatest fear, sleeping late and missing transit? Oy vey. Before I left the hostel I checked Viber and I had a text from Mom saying she needed  to know how I am. I'm not really sure how to answer that question. I'm not really sure how I feel. On the one hand, no uncontrollable crying jags, I've been talking to people, I've gone out and done things, seen sights, etc. I feel okay - but at least today I feel like I'm not better than okay. I'm not fantastic. I'm worried about the next step, about catching the train to London and the subway to the new hostel, about my RyanAir flight, about how much harder it's going to get when I leave Sweden. In Ireland at least the signs were mostly in English. What happens if I get as lost as I did yesterday and I can't read the signs that tell me how to find myself again? Just lots of worries, hopefully over nothing. Maybe this trip will help me be less of a worrywart. And the transit stuff will get easier once I have my pass - no more waking up insanely early/arriving insanely early because I'm worried about missing my boat. If I do, I'll just catch the next train. 

Okay, I'm ready to hit the seas - Holyhead is pronounced 'Holly-head', Ulysses 'You-lysses' instead of 'YOU-LY-Sees.' I think I just found the fre wifi, yes!

Okay, off we go - farewell, Dublin. Wonder what Gaelic is for goodbye? Welcome is Failte. OH GOSH, I keep forgetting - on the walking tour the first day we had stopped on O'Connell Bridge and the tour guide (Laurence, with the newsies cap and the hickeys) was talking about IRA blowing up Nelson's Column/the fight for Irish Independence/Northern Ireland and some guy going past heard and yelled 'tiocfaidh ar la! We'll get our freedom!' I almost wet myself with excistment. 

There are like eight sets of separate siblings/families where all the kids are dressed alike. Why?!

I'm on a train in Wales! Dwin hoffi a Cymry! It's interesting - the beginning was all farmland but not quite flat, all with little hilly rocky bits and tiny puddles of ponds. So many sheep! Sheep on a golf course, with golfers wandering through them! I have to change trains at Chester for the London Euston station train. The train's down along the coast now, I think - I tried to get some pictures of little towns but the train is too fast. I like the way the houses go, all rectangular and straight streets, little row houses. We went past a huge crumbling castle as well, killer. 

Made it to London and hostel, no trouble! I'm getting Nando's take out and am gonna go back to the hostel and ice/rest my ankle - we'll see how it feels tomorrow, there's a free walking tour but it's doing Big Ben and Westminster - stuff I've seen twice already and it's pretty timeless. Maybe I'll go to King's Cross tomorrow and take a pic of me at the platform and then just hung around. I could hit Brit Museum too, that's very close to King's Cross. But MOST IMPORTANT is to rest the ankle. I could go to Hyde Park if all else fails and read and write and that would not be a waste at all. 

Last day in Dublin! Well, for this go around. I went to the pub crawl last night. I was early, ugh. Tasha, Jenna, and Kaley (Kaley! A cross between Kelsey and Casey!) met up there and I met two British girls from my hostel, Emily and Lizzy, who were in Dublin for Lizzy's 21st birthday. They were super nice - I almost got split into a different group and they screamed, and Lizzy seemed like she was trying to look after me, which I appreciate but at the same time I'm 24 years old - why do I present as so young all the time?! Anyway, I did go a-crawling and I drank a Guinness (half-pint) and some shots of Baileys and a vodka lemonade. I didn't get the carcinogenic red lemonade though, I sort of regret it. Then we stopped for chips on the way home. It was mostly not that bad - the last 'pub' was actually a club and filled with smoking dancers, but we left before the smell of cigarette fully impregnated my clothes - thank goodness!

Today I woke up and I think I hurt my ankle crawling or something - not a blister but like a muscle thing? After lunch I'm gonna go back to the hostel and rest it. Already today I've gone to the Irish-Jewish Museum - it was cool, very small, and it seemed to have too many people working - they all wanted to help but I just wanted to toodle and poke around. Found out some interesting things - 352 Jews registered as living in Belfast in the 1981 census! Also maybe I knew this but it didn't register, Republic of Ireland's neutrality in WWII meant they refused to take Jewish refugees. No Kindertransport. De Valera sent condolences after Hitler's death. I wonder if that would affect Mo's feelings in the play - the wording of 'I love Ireland' might have to change. Only one Irish person died in the war - the Holocaust, correction. 

I liked it a lot. Got some pics of pics and docs, some 1980's bar mitzvah boy pics - BUT NO GIRLS AH. The walk there was awesome as well, aside from my awkward crawl-ankled gait. Down past St. Stephen's Green and into a more residential area, Portobello Road, the Grand Canal (HAHAHA IT'S LIKE A BIG PUDDLE.) Saw the Dublin doors, etc. Some cool graffiti. Only awkward thing is I guess the museum is planning on expanding and the neighborhood is in an uproar - I got a little lost and when this old couple gave me directions they ended by saying "Just look for the big protest signs - they don't want that museum there." Which put me totally on edge as I walked. They've done pretty well keeping the signs specific enough that it doesn't seem anti-semitic but it's still off-putting. 

Then I walked back. I thought I might do Kilmainham Gaol today but maybe I'll save that for the end of my trip - I'm afraid I'll screw up my ankle two days in and have to hobble for sixty days more. Maybe I'll work on my play since I'm in a Jew-y frame of mind. 

I like a lot of what I've seen in Dublin. So much of it has been just tourist shit. But yesterday/today I've gotten to wander some into living areas. It's a very me sort of city - I've walked almost everywhere I've been since the airport, and it's got quaint Georgian houses or littler up and down houses with the colorful doors and COBBLESTONES (is that what I did to my ankle?) and books books books everywhere - there's a bookshop on every corner in the area near my hostel. It's SO HARD not to buy any - like really surprisingly difficult. Bibliotropic. I go towards books. Hopefully in Sweden/Germany/Czech Republic/Austria/Hungary/Italy/the Netherlands, I won't have this issue since the books will be in Swedish/German/Czech/More German/Hungarian/Italian/Dutch. 

Right now I'm eating in a chain restaurant called Apache's. It's pizza and incredibly racist. It's got like a big chief in headdresses all over the place and the diff. pizzas have names like 'Wigwammer' and 'Hiawatha.' Why is an Italian food being marketed with so many Native American stereotypes? I guess they consider pizza more American than Italian in this instance. I got pepperoni and tandoori chicken (I honestly have no idea why) and I feel guilty for not finishing it. I've been doing so good with my budget though! At least €20 under every day. Hopefully I can keep it up. 

Haha, small caveat to my 'Dublin is my kind of city' - these quaint curvy streets make no sense! I was a fool and decided to try for Kilmainham Gaol (I wore my Tom's which felt better but now my ankle hurts again because I am a fool) and I got super lost getting there. I did really well up to Heuston Station - then I followed the little blue tourist signs which suck/make no sense, and I was plunged into lost-land. Somehow I ended up at St. James
Hospital which on the map doesn't seem THAT far, but is totally and confusingly in the middle of nowhere. I got myself found by following bus/luas signs and I ended up taking the luas back, which was fun. Trams as transport make not tons of sense because we had to stop for traffic/etc. But I made it! I took it to BusAras to figure out where to go to catch the bus to the ferry tomorrow. 

I can't imagine working for Sitter's Studio in Dublin - lost like that every appointment!

Sail-Rail Booking
Dublin to Holyhead - Ulysses
8:05 am - Terminal 1
Irish Ferries

Next Hostel: Astor Queensway
45 Queensborough Terrace
​Bayswater, London