goodbye goodbye and hello

wow its been a while since i last updated but here is the craic:
the past few weeks have been completely and untterly hard to remember all though they just happened... everything changed way too fast and all the goodbyes flew past me. i definately did not get a chance to part with Dublin the way i wanted to, or maybe i just did not have enough time to... either way its all been done. the past few weeks have been emotional and mind numbing. i really needed to take a step back and look at what has been going on for the past 4 months, the friends that ive made, the jobs that ive had, the places which i visited and i still can´t believe i did it. this has been by far the most amazing experience of my life and i can only take from it and move on with my life with the knowledge and friends which i have made. everyone, from day one has made this experience completely amazing for me, even when things were rough, i somehow got through them... like that time i really had to pee on our way back from Cashel and my buddy Luke ran off the bus with me, thanks Luke! and somehow by some force of serendipity, the last few weeks came crashing down on me, so much has happened in such a short period of time, how odd. and i think ive had good closure with everyone for the most part. i had an all night goodbye party about 2 weeks ago and almost everyone that could make it made it, it was dubbed the official V's going away hen party, although no one really dressed up except for Sarah and Myou, you guys rock my socks! The party lasted until 8am although i passed out at like 4, knowing that i needed to catch a bus the next day since Drew and i were planning to go on a week backpacking trip through Ireland.... well plans changed and i went a few days later, met up with Drew on Inishmore, one of the beautiful Aran Islands off the coast of Galway smack in the Atlantic. This island was incredible, beautiful and green and a bunch of awesome Aussies working at the laid back beach front hostel. I rented a bike for half the day and just roamed around, rode to this cool fortress on the cliffs of the island and got to see some cool cows and sheep and even donkeys. The island is super small, one hotel, one supermacs, one post office, one of everything! The local guys showed us a great time and i definately recommend this place to visit! Next we headed to Achill where our plans didn´t really carry through as the weather changed quickly and camping wasn´t looking like an option. We found a hostel which I found to be a bit creepy, but they had cool mix tapes and trivial pursuit to keep us occupied. There were about 10 people on this island that we actually encountered so it was a pretty solitary visit for Drew and I, except for the 2 French surfer guys which we played poker with, they were pretty fun to hang out with. So after a half a week of hanging around trying to see some last few places to cover before heading back, Drew and I came back to Dublin. That last week it was all goodbyes, first Luke, then Zach and Drew and finaly myself, poor Steph watched all of us leave. I kind of guarded myself from accepting the fact that things are over and I am now just understanding how over it is. I really do love all my friends there and it was amazing how we parted. We spent one last weekend all together, hanging out at the Hairy Lemon then on to the Merrion Square circus, just the 5 of us.. shooting the shit and me not knowing who is singing Bloody Sunday, oh so typical! I really do love those guys, my best friends, what would I have done without you punks? I can pull a Drew and make a shout out to everyone but I am too lazy and not enough time, maybe once I get home I will make a list of all the wacky things that everyone did and how i love them for it. Then my flatmates, my lovely lovely flatmates... how i will miss that moldy shower and knacker building and all the french, italian, spanish, and japanese! i will miss coming home at 2am and seeing nico still up just starting to make his dinner! oh the glory. i do hope i see these guys again soon, and i am so extremely happy that they were my flatmates... through thick and thin, through dirty dishes, through broken computers, through war and peace, through waking me up in the middle of the night to look at the damn mirror! through bacon and ciggarettes and coffee, through trying on my clothes, through drink till we're drunk, through it all.

ahh i don´t even know what else to say because there is so much! I got to visit my job before I went and say goodbye to Sandi and Gary and Gary's mom for sure, oh Sandi!!! My really 1 and only original Dubliner, she's pure I swear! I learend so much from that girl, more than just how to send a courier! You're coming to CA!
my last night in dublin steph came to say goodbye and it was so so extremely hard and she was altready so worn out from the goodbyes, i do love that girl and i am going to see her so soon in vancouver, and hopefully bring her back to CA with me. And Erin came to say goodbye and so did Sarah and Myou and everything just sort of dwindled away, and its hard for me to collect my thoughts now because i am backpacking now.

destination 1: Portugal
I spent the first 3 nights in Porto, which was incredible.. lots of port lots of cheap food lots and lots of stairs and bakeries and scrumptuouse custard tarts, yum!
I spent last night in a creepy guesthouse in Lisbon with pictures of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus all over the walls, and now I am in a hostel for my last night here, heading over to Lagos tomorrow. I will try to keep this blog updated more as I travel. Either way, I find backpacking a lot more work than I thought it would be but I'm havign a great time and I'm meeting lots of cool cats.

So new beginnings and old endings... wait does that sound right?? I will give a proper ode to Dublin once I get home in August and to all the wonderful, amazing, I can't stop thinking about you people who were in this part of my life. I love you guys.

Kisses,
V