Not really, but it's just getting to be a bit of a chore to keep up with all the things I'm doing by writing a blog about it every so often.
However, in this case, I have a bit of a solution - I can summarise the first two weeks of November in one simple sentence!
Here goes:
I spent most of the first two weeks of November being incredibly lazy in Alex's apartment.
There, wasn't that quick and painless?
Right, since those two weeks have finished, I've been in Ireland. I realised that, in my schedule of goings-on in the UK, I only had a maximum of around 6 days to get away and discover this country, where I suspect my ancestors might come from.
In my incredibly last-minute realisation, I searched for flights on Ryanair and, despite booking only three days in advance, still got cheap fares, although the condition was that I fly at odd hours. The flight from London to Dublin was at 6:30am, which involved getting an airport bus at 3:30am, and on that night I simply stayed up all night, then said goodbye to Jack for the last time in Europe, headed to Victoria, got said airport bus, slept the whole way, got the plane to Dublin and slept the whole way through that too. And then I slept through the whole train to Galway.
This all happened on Sunday. Since then, I've been absoutely taken by this country - it's expensive, and the weather is awful half the time, but this is all put to one side the minute you turn your eyes to the scenery outside the cities and your brain takes in what you're looking at. It's just magical! I'm no travel author, but what I saw during my travels through the west of Ireland was a stark contrast of red earth with green grass, blue water and grey sky. I've taken a lot of photos, some of which look like they were painted.
It seems that Ireland is a truly international country (well, most countries are these days). In Galway, I was hosted by a Hungarian man who's married to a French woman. In Athlone, I was hosted by an American girl, and right now I'm in Dublin, being hosted by a German girl who lives with Italians. I did manage to squeeze in one Irish host, well three of them - three students who live in a small picturesque town called Letterfrack.
And I hitch-hiked there from Clifden, and hitch-hiking in Ireland really is easy.
So basically, I highly recommend to everybody to come to Ireland at least once in your life. I haven't actually done anything typically touristy, but what I have seen and done while here is enough to leave me convinced that it's really quite a nice country.
And I just know that as soon as I get back to noisy dirty London, this joyful feeling I have will soon disappear. But no matter. I'll only be there for another week before heading off to Italy!
Going shopping,
Patrick
