Erin & Adam's profileErin & Adam's Crazy Euro...PhotosBlogLists Tools Help

Blog


    September 29

    Cannes and the girls' last night in Nice

    Today, as Jen and I depart for our weekend in Germany to see Adam and millions of drunken Germans (catching the train in a few hours), Teri, Natalie, Linda and Aiko will also leave Nice (heading up north to Lille - where they will stay for the rest of the semester).  They were only in Nice for 2 weeks taking a French course with us that wasn't offered at their exchange university.  Today our course is over, so yesterday after school the 6 of us took the train to Cannes (yes, as in the film festival) and spent the afternoon walking around town and laying on the beach (which is sandy, as opposed to our rocky beaches in Nice).  Then last night when we all got back into Nice, Jen and I took the girls to our favourite restaurant (across the street from our apartment), "Auberge St. Antione" for dinner.  Afterward, we all came back to our place for a bit and then went out until the wee hours of the morning.  After having school at 8:30am this morning, I don't think I'll have any difficulty falling asleep on the night train this evening.  It was all part of my master plan.  On Monday I will begin my regular business classes (taught in English).  I think after this whirlwind weekend at Oktoberfest (there are no available places to sleep, so we're just not going to), I'll hopefully be able to take 'er easy for a while and really focus on my classes - it is my last year of school after all!  But for now... ON TO MUNICH! 
     
    PS:  I miss you too Adam - see you tomorrow at 3:30!
    September 28

    Adam's Thoughts: 4th Edition

    Gutentag from Berlin,

    Of all of the great European cities I've now been to (Paris, Prague, Vienna,
    Munich, Dublin, Amsterdam, Budapest) none compare to Berlin.  Here's why:

    The Sights
    There is more to see and do in Berlin that one could ever imagine.  Here are
    a few of the things I"ve done over the last couple of days here:
    Brandenburg Gate- The famous symbol of Berlin, the point that separated East
    from West and the famous place all armies have marched through, from
    Napolean to Hitler.
    Reichstag- German Parliament, gorgeous building
    Hitler's Bunker- Although it has been completely destroyed you can stand
    where it once was and is the place he took his own life April 30, 1945
    German National Musuem- has the history of the German people along with all
    of its famous art, scultures and artifacts, amazing
    Berliner Church- Ancient Church that Hitler himself attended on the banks of
    the beautiful Spree River
    Potsdamer Place- The economic and shopping center of Berlin, for over a
    thousand years
    Holocast Memorial- Really neat design, I"ll post pictures when back in Nice.
      It"llit up at night and haunting.
    Berlin Wall- Not much of it left standing but a line that represents the old
    wall, I jumped from East to West Berlin a couple of times (wouldn"t have
    been able to do that 30 years ago) Also I chipped out a piece and am
    bringing it home for my dad.

    The People and Culture
    The German people walk fast, talk loud and are extremely friendly and
    helpful.  Berlin is a blend of old history and achitecture and new design
    and cutting edge technology.  The food consists of Schnitzel, lots of fried
    fish and food from all over the world.  It  is very affordable compared to
    Amsterdam, Paris and Western Europe.  There is a large Soviet Influnce here
    from the people to the statues and memorials.  The car dealerships are
    astounding with concept cars so radical the belong in outer space.

    Bars & Nightlife
    I"m staying in a room with 5 Australian Blokes and we get along great (I
    love Aussies).  There are huge, cool pubs here with German music and beer,
    always with the beer.  Tonite I am going on a pub crawl that goes from
    8:00pm til 4:00am, this city never sleeps.

    Tomorrow I leave for Salzburg by way of Munich.  I will spend the day there
    before heading back to Munich to meet my enchanting (and extremely missed &
    loved) fiancee for Oktoberfest.  That is all I have for now.  The next
    update may not be until I get back to Nice Monday morning.  Until then,
    Aufwiedersehen (goodbye)

    Adam
    September 26

    Adam Thoughts: 3rd Edition

    Hi Everybody!

    Last I wrote I was in Prague,  I wasn't  quite sure where I would end up
    next, well this may may take awhile so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

    I left Prague at around 9:00am Sunday morning for Vienna, Austria.  I
    arrived in Vienna at around 3:00pm and immediately headed downtown to see
    the sights.  I first checked out the Vienna Museum where they had a great
    Picasso exhibit.  From there I walked into the famous center ring of Vienna
    which is crammed with shops, cafes (Viennese love their world famous
    coffee) and the best street musicians in the world.  Jazz, Classical and
    folk tunes fill the air and all seem to complement each other and really
    create a friendly and unique atmosphere.  I then went to St. Stephens church
    and climbed the 495 stair, 510 foot steeple that towers above all of Vienna
    and looks over the mighty Danube river that flanks the city to the West. 
    From there I went to the Mozart Museum (they're really proud of Mozart)
    before stopping to enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee at a large cafe.  From
    there it was off to find a hostel (which luckily I did) upon which I met two
    Australian gentlemen and a Canadian from Calgary.  We had a few beers and
    shared stories, all in all Vienna was great.  I left Vienna yesterday at
    630am bound for Budapest, Hungary.  I arrived there at around noon in Pest
    (Budapest is actually 3 cities that have grown into 1, (Bouda, Pest and
    Odura) which is split in the middle by the Danube.  It was a nice city but
    was much like Prague and Vienna in architechture and feel.  I ate some
    traditional Hungarian Goulash, saw the citadel and decided to move on, next
    stop Amsterdam.  On a side note, by my approximation I have travelled
    roughly 3000 miles and for over 45 hours on trains in the last 5 days. 
    That's a lot of train rides trust me.  So I left Budapest last night at
    around 6 and now 14 hours later I have arrived back in Amsterdam.  I will be
    leaving here tonite bound for Berlin where I will spend 2 or 3 days taking
    in such attractions as Hitler's Bunker, Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag and
    the Berlin wall.  From there it will be either Salzurg, Austria or Zurich,
    Switzerland.  From there, back to Munich to meet Erin for Oktobeerfest! 
    Whew!

    I really enjoyed Eastern Europe. The food was similar evrywhere, Goulashes,
    schnitzels, frankfurters, dumplings and beer, lots of delicious beer.  The
    people were very friendly and everyone under 30 speaks great english.  I
    have many more stories I will share when I get back to Nice, but for now
    this is all I have time for.

    Mom, Dad, family and friends I am doing great (perhaps a little sick of long
    train rides) and have had relatively no mishaps (knock on wood).  I will
    update again when in the capital of Germany.

    PS. Mom & Dad my phone doesn't work outside of France so I'll call you when
    I get back to Nice.

    September 24

    Monaco, shopping, and reggae concerts

    Hello!  Yesterday, 11 of us from school took the train to Monaco.  Adam and I have already been, but only at night and all we did was go to the casino.  This time around, we went shopping and to the Yacht Festival.  Shopping was funny because, first of all, the malls in Monaco are about as nice as palaces are anywhere else, and the people are just over the top.  As shown in the pictures, we saw this little 12 year old girl shopping with her mom.  The girl was wearing a Louis Vuitton purse that could pay for my tuition this semester and was carrying a little Paris Hilton dog.  We saw her go into a linen store and get her mom to buy her something.  Curious, we went in closer and learned that she was buying a dog pillow.  Of course.  The yacht festival was funny too, because we discovered that we're too poor to even LOOK at the yachts.  It's 50euros/person to even walk near them, so we looked from above.  Last night, Jen and I heard music coming from the park in Nice and went to check it out... and realized that we'd stumbled upon a HUGE reggae concert.  On the spur of the moment, we bought tickets and jammed with some French rastifarians for the remainder of the evening.  Lots of fun.  Today I went shopping in Nice and bought a bunch of new clothes, to help me look less like a tourist.  Cowboy gear is all the rage here, so I jumped in with both feet, as you can see from the pictures.
     
    XOXO, Erin.
    September 23

    Adam's Thoughts: Second Edition

    Where do I begin?  In the interest of time I'm going to try to make this as brief as possible.  So Thursday morning at 9:30am I left for Munich from Nice.  I had to tranfer train stations in Paris (from South Paris station to North)  I only had an hour to do so, lets just say it was one of the most stressful and hectic hours of my life spent in the subways of Paris.  From there I was off to Munich where I arrived at 3:00am with nowhere to stay.  I began walking from hostel to hostel, hotel to hotel looking for someone to take me in.  I gave up my search at 6:00am when I realized I was not getting a place for that day or any day over the weekend. On the bright side I saw all of Munich at night and was very impressed with how clean and modern it was.  What did I do you ask?  I went back to the train station and jumped the first train out, which happened to be to Prague. 6 Hours later I arrived in Prague completing a 4 country, 30 hour mission accross Europe, simply crazy.  As soon as I arrived here I was amazed at the beauty of the Czech Republic.  Beautiful castles, buildings, churches, bridges and art.  I'll post the pictures when I return to Nice.  I found a hostel in the center of town (I'm in an 18 person shared dorm room with only one bathroom and shower).  There are 10 guys and 8 girls mostly from Britain, Poland and Australia all extremely nice and around my age.  Immediately me and 5 guys from Bristol England hit it off and so began the most incredible pub crawl I've ever been apart of.  I don't know how many pubs and bars we went to between 6:00pm and 4:30 am this morning, but I'd guess around 30.  Beer here is amazing and only about 50 cents for a huge pint. Ouch, my heads hurts just saying that.  I've just now awoke here to a gorgeous day in Prague (my first sleep in over 48 hours) and am heading to old town to explore the local sights and sounds.  Did you know Prague is the most haunted city in Europe?  I'm going on a ghost tour tonite to see just how haunted it really is.

    To close, I'm leaving tomorrow for either Berlin or Vienna, I haven't
    decided yet.  But rest assured I will update you all whenever I get to where
    I end up.  PS.  I miss Erin so much it's actually physically painful, I miss
    you Erni.
    September 22

    Has anyone seen my FIANCEEEEE?!

    Well as much fun as it was for Adam to do dishes and laundry all day while I was at school, he departed yesterday morning on a journey of self-discovery through Eastern Europe.  He called me this morning from Prague to tell me how beautiful the Czech Rep. is and it sounds like he's doing great!  In the meantime, I have been keeping the heartache at bay by partying like crazy with everyone from school.  In addition to the 8 of us UVic girls, we have now been joined by 3 UVic guys who have come to visit us from their exchange school in Holland.  Before the boys came, us girls had a "ladies night" last night.  Jen and I had all the girls over to our house and we all made a GIANT pasta dinner before heading out to a local nightspot in Nice: Wayne's.  Today, once the boys came, we all hung out at our place for a bit after school and then spent the rest of the afternoon lazing (if that's a verb) around on the beach.
     
    The latest set of pictures is a random mix of all of the above as I have been to busy/lazy to upload them in a while!  Tomorrow, the huge group of us will take the train to Monaco for "Yacht Festival 2006".
     
    XOXO Erin.
    September 20

    Adam's Thoughts (First Edition)

    Hello everyone,
     
    This will be the first blog entry written by myself, Adam Sullivan.  Now I have to warn you, I'm a little grammatically challenged compared to my lovely fiancee Erin Wallace, but hopefully you'll be able to follow along nonetheless.  For the next 10-14 days I will be travelling alone though Central and Eastern Europe... stopping in Munich, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Munich (again, this time to meet Erin for Oktoberfest) then finally back to the sunny Riviera. 
     
    Tomorrow I leave Nice at 9:30am bound for Paris where I will arrive at 1:00pm.  Then I a must catch a public bus to the other side of Paris to catch my train to Munich.  That train leaves at 3:00pm (lets hope I get there in time) and arrives in Munich at 3:00am Friday morning.  As for where I'm staying, I don't know yet.  What will I do?  That remains to be seen as well.  However, I hear there is a small gathering called Oktoberfest going on in Munich at that time, so maybe I'll check that out for a bit.  Apparently it's the world's largest festival with over 5 million visitors to it over it's three week extravaganza.  Downtown there are 18 beer tents with a capacity of 15,000 people each tent, and that they are full of the best beer, German cuisine, Music, and German culture there is.  Needless to say, I'm a little excited!!  I will try to update the blog again while in Munich. 
     
    Until then,
     
    Adam
    September 19

    Out on the town with school friends

    Last night Adam, Jen and I went out on the first of many student nights out.  There are other girls from UVic here too, so it was Adam with six lovely dates.  He is a very patient man :)
    We had fun talking to and getting to know people our age from all over the world.  There is a different party every night (and yet, we have school at 8:30am every day).  I don't know how these French kids do it, because I was definitely tired at school today!   I think I'll take a few nights off from those festivities and do my homework.
     
    Tonight we are going to have some Nicois pizza (and yes, I'm done my homework).
    Adam is happy to report that he has become fully adjusted to la vie Francais, and has never felt so relaxed.  While Jen and I are off at school, he does laundry and dishes and eats three hour lunches at the diner across the street.  The three of us are already getting to know the people in our neighborhood (which is weird because we never do in Victoria)... the guy we buy bread from under our apartment, the waitress, bar lady, and garcon at the cafe across the street, and our landlord, etc, etc. 
     
    On a totally unrelated note, the other night we went out for a nice seafood dinner and I had a seafood platter (surprise!).  When I used my fork to get a clam out of his shell, a live baby crab scuttled out from under him... weird looking thing that didn't even have a hard shell, just about the size of a Canadian dime and transparent.  I called the waiter over and showed him my discovery, and he just furrowed his brow and asked, "what's the probleme? Zis eez normal."  Sure buddy.  Didn't see any live crabs under my other clams.  
    September 18

    Back to School!

    Well, after laying low in Nice for a week, I actually had a reason to set the alarm today: school started.
     
    It's funny I wasn't really looking forward to it (for obvious reasons), but it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.  My program is designed for English-speaking exchange students which suprisingly includes a lot of Europeans who are just extremely fluent in English.  The spread of our class is pretty even, so there aren't any "minorities" so to speak.  So far, me and the other girls from UVic are the only Canadians (see the below picture) but 4 of them are only in Nice for the first two weeks to take a French course with us and then they'll go up to the Lille campus for the remainder of the semester.  The rest of our class (about 50 students) is made up of students from Australia, NZ, Spain, Holland, Germany, the US, Sweeden, England, etc. etc.  They all seem really nice and we're all (Adam too!) going out together tonight for some fun in Old Town :)
     
    I am happy to make some new friends this week, as my fiance (weird!) will be heading out on Thursday for an independent journey of some of Eastern Europe, Austria and Germany.  Jen and I are flying up to Germany in two weeks to meet him in Munich for Oktoberfest.  Adam will update the blog while he's gone too, as I am going to show him how before he goes.
     
    Aurevior!
    September 15

    Making the most of a rainy day

    So it turns out it DOES rain in Nice.  And thunder and lightning.  For the last two days.
     
    Yesterday we stayed in for the most part, but when it was raining again today we decided we had to do something anyway.  What with all the pizza, wine, beer and bread we've been injecting into our bodies this last month, we thought a run was in order.  We ran a total of eight kilometers along the entire waterfront and back - in an absolute MONSOON.  People that we passed in cars, etc. would honk because we looked so nuts for even being out there.  At one point it was even hailing.  But it wasn't cold rain (when you're running) so it was actually kind of nice.  We then climbed a mountain at one end of the Promenade that was built in the 1700's as a fortress because it looks out on to Nice, Monaco, Antibes, and Cannes, and watched the thunder & lighning over the sea.  Then we ate lunch and ran home.
     
    It was pretty fun.
     
    Tonight we're going dancing in Old Town.  We're going to take the bus this time
    September 12

    Parasailing!

    We went parasailing today!  It was awesome.  We went up 300 ft in the air and sailed around the Cote d'Azur for 15 minutes.  Awesome.  What else did we do today?  I'll tell ya, not much.  When we first arrived here we wondered why the hell it took 3 hours to get your bill at the end of a meal... but now (three weeks later) we finally get it - the Mediterranian doesn't rush for anyone.  You sleep in, you walk around your neighborhood munching on a fresh baguette (not kidding), say 'bonjour', walk to the beach.  Fall asleep.  Have a $5 large pizza to yourself (but not bad for you, as they're all natural thin-crust ingredients).  Go parasailing.  Aahhhh.  Don't worry, we only rub it in because school starts in 6 days, so we're enjoying it while we can (and by "we" I mean "Erin" - as Adam has nothing more to do for the next 4 months.  Jerk.)  Anyway... just a quick note to say we're doing well and getting pretty lazy over here .
     
    PS: the pic below isn't us as we didn't bring our cameras.  You get the idea though ;)
    September 10

    Monaco & Monte Carlo

    Last night we drove to Monaco which, although it is a country all on its own (seperate from France), was only a 15 minute drive from Nice.  Some say it's the most beautiful 15 minute drive in the world... it was used in one of the car chases in James Bond.  We got all dressed up because we wanted to go gambling at Monte Carlo, the most famous casino in the world, and being that Monaco is the richest country in the world, we thought we should at least slap some goo in our hair :)  Check out our pictures.  We have never seen so many beautiful cars and boats in all our lives!  So we played roulette at the casino and we were up - we were down, but in the end I walked out with an extra 25 Euros in my pocket, and Adam was short about 150 Euros.  It was well worth the fun!  We decided that since we were all dressed up we should pretend that we are rich (walking around looking bored with our noses in the air).  The great part was - people believed it and treated us like royalty.  We needed a ride up to the casino, so we stood outside the Park de Palace (super ritzy hotel in Monaco) and demanded a car.  I think they thought we were staying there.  We got a ride up there, and they even opened my door for me and helped me out of the car ;)
     
    I like playing dresss up. 

    Fashion Update (for the ladies)

    Apprehensive at first, I have finally started adding the Euro-style to my wardrobe.  I spent a few weeks checking out the scene, and I have purchased what appears to be the staples of all the girls' wardrobes here: brightly coloured Chuck Taylor Converse shoes (high top), brightly coloured or stripey leggings with jean skirts and a bright old school track jacket.  It's actually not bad because there's no such thing as clashing colour combos... the more the better.
    September 09

    Recap of the last week (sorry, left my laptop here in France!)

    Greetings from Nice again!  Sorry for the delay in blog updates, we did not bring our laptop with us on the last journey.  Where do we start?

     

    First of all, to finish up the engagement story…  The Irish are such nice people.  After we left Killarney to drive back to Dublin, we stopped at a gas station to fill up, and Adam went inside and asked the old man if he had any cigars for sale, because he just asked his girlfriend to marry him.  Next thing you know, this guy is IN the car with me, talking so fast I could barely understand him (thick Irish accent), but the gist of it was that “by the grace of God I’ll have at least five children”, and he was honestly just as excited as we were that we were engaged.  He gave Adam the cigars for free, and gave me a package of expensive assorted chocolates so we could celebrate.  So far, in the friendliness competition, Ireland = 1, France = 0.

     

    Blarney Castle:

    Legend has it, that when someone leans backwards over the top of Blarney Castle and kisses the famed “Blarney Stone”, they will gain the gift of eloquence.  Not that we’re not already eloquent haha!  No, seriously though, we went to this beautiful 600 year old castle outside of Cork and did just that.  To hear about the bloody history of a place when you’re walking right through it is a weird feeling.  It was beautiful though.  They even let you go down into the dungeon of the castle, where it’s absolutely pitch back and wet and you can’t see a thing.  When we were coming back out of the dungeon, I surprised (without meaning to) a lady when I kind of popped out of this dark hole.  Adam, behind me, then thought it would be funny to leap out and scream “BOO!” at the same lady after she’d gotten over me.  It went about as hilariously as you can imagine.  Nice work, Adam.  Everyone in the vicinity was in stitches.

     

    Amsterdam:

    After driving around Ireland, we flew from Dublin to Eindhoven, Holland (an hour out of Amsterdam).  We planned to take a bus (and even bought the tickets) from Eindhoven to Amsterdam before heading back to France.  When we were at the Eindhoven airport, however, Adam decided to randomly ask how much it would be to rent a car and drive to Nice, they said “a lot”.  But then, as he was walking away, the lady called him back and said that there was actually a car that needed to go to France in the next four days and gave it to us for only 200 Euros, as we were doing them a favor.  It turns out that you can't rent a car unless you're 25 in Holland (unlike France and Ireland), and we're only 24.  They really wanted us to take the car though, so the lady winks and says, "you're born in '81, right?".  Right.  Amsterdam is 1430 Kms and four countries from Nice.  And so began the longest and most eventful road trip ever.  We drove from Eindhoven to Amsterdam.  Once in Amsterdam at midnight, we could not for the life of us find the city center (I'm a terrible wingman/navigator).  After about three hours lost in the outskirts without a very detailed map, Adam did away with the signs and maps and decided to employ his "Manstinct".  He sniffed out the city centre in 15 minutes and the next thing you knew we were spending two relaxing and interesting days in Amsterdam.  We stayed in the oldest building EVER (I say it that way because I can't remember how old it was exactly... but a few hundred years).  The first night we stayed on the fourth floor with an awesome view of the city, and then the next night they moved us to the "dungeon" (damp basement of the building below ground).  Both nights were lots of fun.  We even braved the red light district where prostitution is legal and girls stand in windows dressed in lingere talking on cell phones until you "employ their services".  A very different way of life than in Canada... it was a neat cultural experience, that's for sure.  The next day (yesterday morning) we woke up in Amsterdam and decided to try and drive all the way to Nice in one day to avoid paying for another hotel when we already have an apartment in Nice.  15 1/2 hours and 5 toll booths later we arrived in Nice.  We drove all the way through Holland, Luxembourg, and France (top to bottom, as Amsterdam is pretty much in line with Nice, but in Northern Europe.  Speaking of toll booths, get this.  At about midnight last night (2 hours before getting home), we go through the last toll booth (you get tickets when you get on the highway and pay for them when you're leaving it), and give her our ticket.  It's 12 euros.  We give her our Visa, as there's been a big sign at every toll booth that says "visa" and we didn't have any cash at the moment.  She doesn't speak English and won't take our Visa because it's not from Europe.  We have no idea what she wants us to do because we've already driven on the highway... so we say, "what do you want us to do" and she says a bunch of stuff in French and doesn't lift the bar, so we say "we don't have any other money"... this goes on for a while.  Finally, with my broken French and her equally broken English, we determine that she wants us to pull over and go to some office around the corner to fill out something.  So I wait in the car, and Adam goes in.  They want to see his car insurance and passport.  Immediately, the guy notices that Adam's passport says 1982 and the insurance says 1981, so he assumes that we either forged the car papers or his passport's fake.  Adam doesn't speak any French.  Yada, yada, yada, Adam talked his way out of it, and just had to sign a thing saying we'll pay the 12 euros in the next 8 days.  Whew!  That was stressful. 
     
    So long story long, we're back in Nice and had a wonderful week.  We have spent today relaxing around our house which surprisingly already feels like "home" after our crazy adventure.  Adam is out getting us some Nicois pizza (you kind of start to miss it after a while!) and then we're going to Monaco later tonight for dinner and light gambling at Monte Carlo.
     
    Love you all!
    September 05

    ENGAGED!

    We're ENGAGED! 
     
    We are in the small town of Killarney, Ireland.  Adam remembered that I once told him about a dream I had where I was riding a bike in Ireland and I was really happy for some reason.  So without me having any idea why, we rented bikes and packed a picnic and went for a ride around the Killarney Lakes (beautiful!).  When we stopped to eat our picnic at the most beautiful, secluded spot with a view of the rolling green hills and lakes, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

    I said no.

    JUST KIDDING!  I said yes (and cried a little...), and we couldn't be happier.  My ring was too nice to make the journey over, so I have a temporary replacement of one of Adam's gold rings (family heirloom) which I am wearing around my neck.  Today, however, he showed me a picture of the real ring waiting for me in Victoria and it's BEAUTIFUL! 
     
    Okay, now we're REALLY on to Amsterdam.  Talk to you soon!
    September 04

    Castles, sheep, and B&Bs...

    Hello All!
     
    Well Adam and I have driven around three quarters of Ireland now.  We rented a car in Dublin (East coast) and drove to Kilkenny, Cork, Bantry, and now we're in Killarney (West Coast).  Driving through the Irish countryside is just as you would imagine:  sheep, cows, and castles falling apart in the middle of nowhere.  We have some hilarious pictures of us giving sheep a hard time and driving on the wrong side of the road (from the wrong side of the car!) and we're having so much fun.  Have any of you heard of a sport called "hurling"?  It's as big in Ireland as ice hockey is in Canada.  Yesterday was the "hurling championships" (stanley cup) and it was between Kilkenny and Cork... coincidentally, the same day we drove from one town to the other (like going from Calgary to Vancouver on game day).  They go even more nuts than we do when the Canucks are in the playoffs... in Kilkenny they had yellow and black checkered flags in every window and on every car, and then two hours later in Cork it was nothing but red and white flags covering it all.  The vibe was really cool to be a part of - even for someone like me who isn't that big of a sports nut.  While in Cork, we went to an Irish pub (I guess they all are here...) called "Waxy's" and watched the Championship on TV amongst a million screaming drunken Irish men and women all dressed in red and white.  Adam was secretly cheering on Kilkenny because they were the underdog and even once accidentally screamed "YES!" when they scored... luckily nobody heard or I'd be writing this from the Cork hospital.  Cork ended up losing and let's just say the pub was not happy after that.  We left immediately :)
     
    When they aren't losing Hurling, the Irish are AWESOME people.  Especially staying in bed & breakfasts, we are truly getting a sense for Irish hospitality - a far cry from the snobby French that greeted us on the first leg of our journey.  This morning's traditional Irish breakfast consisted of sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, ham, fried tomatoes, mushrooms, and black and white pudding.  Not the Bill Cosby pudding we're used to, but little cakes that when I asked what they were made of, our hostess politely said, "eat them first, dear, and I'll tell you after..." they were delicious - until I found out they were made from wheat and cow's blood.  Mmmm... cow's blood.
     
    When he's not eating cow's blood, Adam has been testing each local beer from each town we go to.  Guiness in Dublin (we also toured the Guiness brewerey, so I had some too... I think I'll leave the Guiness to Adam from now on), Kilkenny in Kilkenny, Murphey's in Cork, etc.  He's having a pretty good time, and fitting right in!  Their are O'Sullivans everywhere, so he feels right at home :)
     
    Tomorrow we are renting bikes and riding them around the lakes of Killarney!  School starts in two weeks booooo......  the next blog entry will likely be from Amsterdaam!  Take care everyone.
     
    Erin & Adam :)