Ireland, the Devil, and Me

The Irish have a saying, "May you already be in heaven before the devil finds out your dead." Our bus driver told us that as he dropped us off back in Dublin after a long day out in Northern Island with a quick ride through Belfast, and up along the northern coast to the Giants Causeway--a span of basalt pillars reaching out into the sea.

Maybe I was expecting too much. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Grand Canyon. But I found the Giants Causeway somewhat unimpressive. It was weird shaped rocks by the sea basically. I will admit the overall tour was pretty good. We saw the peace walls still separating the Catholic and Protestant sections of Belfast. And we got to see a bunch of trees that were apparently used in Game of Thrones. The weather started bad but ended up prettying itself up quite nicely. The tour itself was only 50 Euros--probably one of the best tour deals I've ever been on.

Incidentally absolutely no passport checks entering Northern Ireland (UK). There was a sign and everything started costing pounds instead of Euros. It was... civilized.

Anyways as we're heading back I'm checking prices on the bus's on-board wifi. This much to Edinburgh, this much to London, this much to stay in both places. It started to nag at me... a certain feeling. The feeling that I'm making a huge mistake.

I love travel. Well, I detest travel, but I really like being in new places so I cope. If you're a regular reader of this blog you might remember an opportunity I was waiting on before I left. That opportunity has since evaporated. I always knew it might not happen but in the back of my head I believed it would and that, come January, I would have a steady source of income instead of the parched patchwork I deal with now.

As I started to bang together the numbers for the European 'leg' I kept staring down the barrel of a lot of money. More if I felt luxurious. Double that if I added Asia on to the itinerary. That's a lot of money. This is money I have. But its also money I'll surely need in the future. Perhaps sorely.

So... decision time again. Continue on boldly letting my money drain as I pursue a trip that will last maybe three more months tops. Or stabilize back home, and make outings as I can.

Anyways I may be home a lot sooner than I thought. Or maybe not. Maybe this is just trip fatigue setting in and I'll feel better after a nap.

Ireland looks the part but it's not heaven, and money may be the devil that's already found me.

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Florida in the Key of West

Yesterday was not a pleasant day. 10 hours of driving only to end up at the Best Western in Jacksonville, just so I could stand around waiting for my laundry to finish because the hotel in Key West that I'm staying in for 4 nights had no laundry mentioned on their website. So it's 10:30 at night and I'm sweating on the second floor between the world's loudest dryer and the local ice machine for an hour. And that's following 30 minutes of washing. I even had to hang dry some stuff because even after an hour it still wasn't dry yet. It's times like that that make me question whether or not this trip was even a good idea. It usually happens in the waking moments before sleep when I'm lying in my rented bed in the middle of a town where I know no one. Why am I here? Am I learning anything? Is this just a giant waste of time and money? And then there's times like the Wendy's. I got in too late in Jacksonville and the hotel was far enough ...

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Walkin' in Memphis, and boy are my feet tired!

The trip through Tennessee, incidentally, was beautiful. Hilly, with roundabouts and full forests. Fun to drive. I tried to take some pictures with my phone, but they all came out pretty assy. I arrived at Memphis at around 4:20 which I later discovered was 3:20. Ah time zones. Looking for a place to eat I headed south down the road to what I hoped would be a nicer area since my hotel room gives me a beautiful view of the freeway. Walking through Memphis I got the impression that this is a city that's either on the verge of a fall or the verge of a comeback. At first I thought it was the former, though now I'm leaning towards the latter. There's a lot of nice things around, decent restaurants, nice views, ok shopping... but for every location with activity there seems at least one other that's boarded up with big For Lease notices stickered to the window. The other thing I noticed as I was walking was that nobody else was. Nobody. The city was dead to walking traffic. P...

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