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    Beer, Jager & Little Green Men

    So over the last week I finished up in London, went to Ireland, came back from Ireland (sort of..) and then landed in Pristina (pronounced Prishtina), Kosovo yesterday to begin my study abroad program. Infrequent internet access has been to blame for the infrequent posting but I'll attempt to make up for it now that I have a steady connection.

    First off, Ireland rocks. We went to Dublin last Tuesday (the 14th) and spent three nights there. I really have no complaints at all about the place. When I say we I am referring to myself and my friends Brady, Elizabeth and Gabrielle. We did a week pre-trip together before the study abroad program. Now that I am in Pristina "we" will most likely refer to the larger group of 18 of us that are now together. But I'll get back to that soon. Anyway...Ireland.

    We did a free walking tour (www.neweuropetours.com), which was pretty cool because the guide was just a little older than us. He showed us around town while swearing profusely and fighting a mean hangover. This would become a recurring theme in Ireland.

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    After the tour we regrouped and then set out for the hostel pub crawl. Several of the hostels in Dublin collaborate every night (yes, every night) and have pub crawls led by guides throughout the Temple Bar area. It was an awesome way to meet other people traveling through. We barhopped with three other American guys, a large contingent of German girls, several others from various European locations and our Irish tour guide. We went to a couple pubs, one with especially good live music, and then ended the night at a club a couple blocks from the hostel. Good times.

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    Other than pub crawling every night we also saw some cool things. One of our better excursions was in going to the Guinness factory. They have a self-guided tour where you get to see the brewing process for Guinness and learn a little history along the way. You work your way up the building and end up with an awesome 360 degree view at the rooftop bar. You also receive a complementary pint of Guinness. Brilliant! We had a lot of good times just walking around the city and exploring on our own. In fact, leaving Dublin was quite an adventure in itself.

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    On Friday morning (the 17th) we were supposed to be a the docks to get on the ferry back to England at 8am. Well, we woke up at 10:30. It's probably worth mentioning that we went on yet another pub crawling adventure on Thursday night. Looking back it was totally worth it. Anyway, we set off for the port to catch the next ferry, as was listed on the ferry company's website. We had an awesome cab driver named Frederick McKnight who talked mostly about how awesome Rory McIlroy is, but who also proceeded to tell us how dangerous the Balkans (our next destination) were. When we told him we were heading to Kosovo, his response was simply “Well, that'll be fuckin interesting.” I love the Irish.

    We arrive at the station in about 15 minutes but run into a problem. The website was wrong, that ferry wasn't running today. The only ferry for the next 5 hours was leaving in 40 minutes. Sounds good right? Not so fast. It was at the OTHER port. Why they have 2 different ferry ports I don't know but I think it was specifically done to make our lives difficult. I jump back into the cab and tell old Freddy we have to gun it and we don't care what it costs, we just have to make that ferry.

    The problem is that if we don't get on a ferry until 5 there's no guarantee that we can make a connecting train from the English port in Holyhead to London for the night. This in itself wouldn't be a big deal to stay in Holyhead for the night and continue on to London in the morning, except we had a flight from London to Pristina leaving at 10am the next morning. Basically by missing the 8am ferry this next one was do or die. Thankfully Frederick drives twice the speed limit for the majority of the 20 minute drive and we make it to the port as they are shutting the gate and are the last people on. Let me say it again, I love the Irish.

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    The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful besides the rough seas for the ferry, which made our hangovers much less tolerable. We caught a train and got into London at a pretty decent hour. We checked into our hostel and went to bed around 12. The next morning we made the flight and arrived in Pristina, Kosovo around 2:30. It turned out we were lucky to be in Europe already, because almost everyone else in the group had flight issues leaving the States. Several were delayed, causing them to miss connections in Vienna, Munich and Frankfurt. I was glad we didn't have to face that headache by taking our direct flight from Gatwick to Pristina.

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    I have much more to right on Pristina, but I'll let this post digest for a day or so before I put it up. I already feel like I've written a novel, but then again its been almost 2 weeks since my last post.

     

    • 23 June 2011
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  • Taylor Anderson's Space

    I'm a 21 year old male from wilmington, nc and a student at the university of north carolina. last summer i created this blog to follow my journey studying and traveling across europe as a participant on the burch research seminar in vienna and the balkans.

  • About Taylor Anderson

    I'm a 21 year old male from wilmington, nc and a student at the university of north carolina. last summer i created this blog to follow my journey studying and traveling across europe as a participant on the burch research seminar in vienna and the balkans.

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    • Rick Steve's Europe
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