Free walking tour of Dublin Ireland

Ireland is a beautiful island, the grass is the greenest I have ever seen and there is vegetation growing absolutely everywhere and it is easy to understand why rainbows are synonymous with leprechauns.

(Above picture was taken from the balcony of our friends apartment in norther Dublin, near the airport.)

The second day we were in Dublin, Brownie and I decieded to take the free walking tour. (This is a MUST do here) We had the cutest Irish girl giving the tour, Emer (pronounced like Lemur minus the L,) and on our tour that started at 2pm I think it rained 4 to 5 times, hailed once, windy the entire time and bright and sunny 3 times. Our first thoughts was that we chose the wrong day to take the walking tour but after a week there we realized there is no "right" time to take a walking tour, you just have to have the luck of the Irish.


(our cute tour guide)

(This is where the tour starts. Right outside of Dublin Castle with a person holding the free tour sign.)

The tour is completely free but they do give you the opportunity to tip them after the tour is over and if you don't give them a tip or a decent tip, they won't even blink an eye. I on the other hand gave as much as I would have paid to get that much information, which was pretty decent from an American stand point. I couldn't imagine someone would go on that tour and give less than 5 Euro, it is a very good tour and the tour guide will stop to answer any and all questions thrown at them no matter how silly or difficult they are to answer. In my group there was only one Mexican (Brownie) and two Americans (some guy from New York and me) and the rest were Dutch, Spanish, or German. The tour was 3 hours long give or take 20 minutes, the tour guide was very knowledgeable and she was funny which made the time go buy way to fast. The tour goes to Trinity College, Old Parliament House, Temple Bar, City Hall, Dublin Castle, Wood Quay, Christ Church Cathedral and Four Courts. All of which are interesting and/or beautiful so bring a water proof camera or video camera because you will want to take loads of pictures. The camera doesn't HAVE to be water proof but if you want to be sure it doesn't get water logged, then you better have something to keep it dry at all times. In Dublin, if you like the weather just wait 5 minutes and it will remind you why the grass is so green.

If you can deal with the cold, wind and rain then Dublin is a great place to be. The people there are nice and helpful to everyone no matter their cultural differences, race or class. This is one of the most diverse cities I have ever been in. I heard more languages spoken in one day in the city center than I had in my entire life, though it was strange, it was a good strange. The downside of Dublin is the cost. This is a very expensive city, it is cheaper to fly from Dublin to London England than it is to go out to a nice restaurant for two. (If you fly Ryaniar) A pint of beer is anywhere between 5 and 7 Euros which is roughly $6.50 to $9 USD and for those of you who smoke, a pack of Marlboros will cost 8.50 Euros (nearly $11 USD). If you plan on visiting Dublin be sure to add plenty of room for your food and drink costs. Below are some pictures of the sights you see on the tour, though I didn't take many because my camera isn't water proof. (another lesson learned after the fact)

Traveling and Blogging Simultaneously

Another lesson learned, sitting in one place with out falling asleep is easier said than done with you are somewhere new. Each day starts with getting ready, cleaning up the room we are staying in and getting our items put away in our luggage. Then we go do what ever plans we have. Once we have gone out and done what ever it is we are doing we go back to where we are staying and plan what we are doing the next day. So far we have yet to get to bed before midnight which isn't unusual for us but we want to adjust our sleeping habits to be able to get more site seeing done during the day. The problem with this is that I'm not making time to blog and let everyone know what we're up to. I prefer to be hands on with my experiences while traveling rather than sitting, writing or even sleeping for that matter. Though I am not doing a good job of collecting my thoughts and putting them with photos and words but that's what this is all about for me. We must have balance in everything that we do because anything in excess is bad. Even the things that are "good" for you, like if you drink to much water, it can kill you and if that is true it (which it is) then think about how you need to moderate everything else and yes fun is included in that too. Traveling is fun and I don't think I will have my "fill" for a long time but there is a point in which I need to stop, sit down and think about everything I've seen. Now I'm not saying that if I travel in excess that would be bad for my health but it will be bad for business. Here in Ireland I haven't taken much time to sit and reflect but for the few moments I've been able to do that this morning has made me realize that I need to take notes. It has taken me 3 days to buy batteries for the video camera (rechargeable) and then another 1 to charge them up. I plan on taking short little videos of where I am, what I'm doing and with whom. That's my lazy way of taking notes, otherwise I'll take my pictures, and have brownie fill in the holes. I won't be able to go do a million things a day then come back home and write about it so my lucky few followers will have to be happy with a story a week at this point. Putting a story together has been more difficult than I had originally thought, I guess just because I talk a lot doesn't mean I can just start typing and "poof" it's a story. Even this posting isn't much of a story but a venting about how hard it is to sit still and write. I really like being in motion, constant movement helps me concentrate on the objective at hand when I stop and sit here and stare at my screen I realize I have a million and one thoughts trying to come out all at once. Ok, enough with the complaints and on with the blogging! Just know that I am doing my best to keep you informed and educated on the stresses of traveling while (Oh poor me right?) blogging about it.

Planning Your Trip Should Include This One Thing

Ok, so the blog posting I did titled "The Hardest Part" is no longer appropriately titled. A lot has happened in the past couple of days, you know the usual trip preparations, visiting with family, checking your lists for the sixth and seventh time. None of that was worth my time or interesting enough for anyone to read but I did learn a lesson the hard way and figured I would share that with you, my apparently bored, inebriated, related or easily entertained reader.

So about a week ago plans changed with our puppy "Tekila." After further review, we realized that it was going to cost close to $1000 USD, just to Mexico. To fly her from Mexico to where ever we plan on being will be nearly $700 USD, which means we would have spent more money on her tickets than we have spent on her since we got her. So needless to say we figured something else out. I called my sister who lives about 5 hours north of San Antonio in Tyler Texas, and asked her if she could keep Tekila for a couple of months and she agreed. My sweet sister offered to drive down and pick her up but I didn't want her to go that far out of her way for me so I asked her to meet me halfway in Waco Texas. (The rest of this blog will be a perfect example of how I take a great idea and turn it into a catastrophe.) She agreed again and we set the day for friday after she left her office for the day.

Now I wouldn't call me the most sensitive person in the world and if you ask my wife she'd say I'm probably more icy than most. I came up with the brilliant idea to invite my mother because I knew it had been a long time since she saw her last. (My sister is my mothers stepdaughter but the step is just a title) Our family marches to the beat of a different drum so communication isn't something we excel in. Now whenever I invite my mother it's almost understood that I have to invite my younger sister. Now I used to point out that this was where the difficulty came in but it actually wasn't, my younger sister actually wasn't a pain this time because it was all me. So we all piled up in my wife's dad's minivan. Drive nearly three hours to meet my sister halfway, we did leave an hour later than I had wanted and luckily for my my sister was also running behind but not nearly as much as we were.

Once we finally make it to Waco Texas, my sister tells me she found a place to eat, a Mexican restaurant which my wife quickly shot down. She isn't a fan of what Americans call "Mexican" food, while she acknowledges that it is food, she said it is to bland to be from her country. So when we met up I asked my sister if we could go to another place down the street and she offered to just take Tekila and go if it would be easier for us. I didn't even have to think twice, my wife and I both were quiet most of the way and I'm almost positive that we both already had tears building up in our eyes. Before we met up, my sister told me she brought her toy poodle "Big" to help ease the strange drive. Well when we got there I introduced Tekila to my sister and her dog and I swear Tekila has ESP because she instantly starting jumping around in her arms wanting to go back to me or my wife she didn't care who, but not in my sisters arms. This single act of doggy intuition caused the water works to open up for my wife. That's all it took, once I saw my wife loose her composure, I lost all control. Once I started crying it irritated me so much that I started to rush my sister because I felt like it was freaking out Tekila and my wife so I just told her to leave. What I didn't take into account was the other people that were there. My mother and sisters got a total of ten minutes to say how much they have missed each other for the past 10 years or so and then I made my sister leave. HOW SELFISH AM I?

As it turned out, not only did I rush my mother and sisters but my wife was really upset with me. She wanted her time to talk to her baby, to explain to her that we weren't abandoning her but that she was taking a vacation to stay with my sister until we can fly her to where ever we plant our roots. My thinking is that the longer my wife sees her baby fighting to stay with her the harder it was going to be on them both so I made a decision that hurt us all but I felt was the lesser of two evils. What ended up happening could have happened either way and to be honest now that I'm not all emotional about it, I don't think Tekila has thought about the incident since or at least I hope she hasn't. When you make choices that seem to hurt your children, there is sometimes a bit of remorse or guilt that lingers afterwards. At this point I have abandoned that emotion, sometimes it is easier to have blind faith in things when you ultimately have no control. Wether or not my dog feels abandoned or not is irrelevant what matters is that she will be taken care of and loved while she's not with us.

What you need to take into account when planning a trip, move or what ever it is you plan to do, don't forget the emotions of the people around you and that includes your pets. I love my dog like a child and I got her for my wife to have until we get old together but I didn't imagine we wouldn't be taking her with us when we set off to conquer the world. I had no idea how much it would cost to travel with our pet, how much trouble it is or the emotional costs associated with leaving her behind no matter who I left her with. I didn't think about the emotions my wife or I would go through and I blame that on ignorance. Ignorance and “PPP” (Piss Poor Planning) are usually the culprit in these situations and more often then not they are my usual issues. For some reason I seem compelled to do everything the hard way. That is great for my readers but hell on my wife's ulcers. I swear if I don't drive her crazy we'll live to a 100.

When it comes to your pets emotions, it's really all about how you perceive them to be, their emotions that is. When it comes to the emotions of your loved ones, then it's a whole new ball game. People tell you all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons. When emotions are involved people tend to err on the side of caution and give advice ( warranted or not ) that way as well. Remember that and take what people say with a grain of salt. People have all kinds of fears and they tend to tell those fears to anyone who will listen. Look it up people, FEAR may be a four letter word but it's just a word and you can change what that means for you. I have a new definition for the word fear, unknown. Every person I have ever talked to about fear always listed their fears starting with the ones they have yet to experience. Change your definition and get to know your fears and maybe you'll realize that there is a lot less to be afraid of than you think.

Buying one way tickets to...

I can't tell you for sure that I know how everyone reacts when buying a one way plane ticket for the first time. What I can tell you is that Brownie has had a really tough time with the idea of buying the tickets, remember money security is our issue right now. I am a care free (maybe a little dumb) American that feels that I can do anything I set my mind to, and my mind is set on being a digital nomad and blogging, the latter being easy since I'm an opinionated wind bag, or so I'm told. We really don't have enough cash in the bank to be doing this and while I know this, I can't exactly tell her. If I tell her then I have to come up with a new plan and answer all her questions like; who, what, when, where and how. It wouldn't be hard to look into my life and see that I'm not exactly the guy that answers questions before he's asked. I don't know if that is because I'm lazy, careless or functionally dysfunctional. So what am I going to do since we can barely afford to take the trip, much less take a chance on a job that doesn't really exist. So for all of my readers, this blog is about my transition from being a simple sales person living a simple life in the states to living a life of travel, backpacks and foreign languages. That's what I think it's about but if I were reading this blog I'd be waiting for the other foot to drop.


I would love to go, dollar for dollar and explain what costs what, how much I have saved up or how much I expect I'll need but all of the answers to these questions vary so much that my answer would be one in a million. So instead of giving you exacts, I'll paint you a picture and hope that you see my wife's frustration. My brother-in-law suggested that we have around five thousand USD to survive the first couple of months while we look for school, work, visas and a place to live. This was when we were thinking about moving to Ireland to live for a few years and take a few classes for the student status but once I did my research and her brother told me that in Ireland he hadn't had the opportunity to wear his shorts the "live in Ireland" idea started to die quickly. I'm sure there is a tinge of Irish blood in me somewhere, but that little ice cube will have to melt cause the devil's been keeping me warm for so long in Texas that I'm not sure I'd survive living closer to the poles than the equator. My saying has always been "If it's cold I'll bundle up with so many clothes I can't bend and end up looking like the gingerbread man in coats" but "if it's hot, you can always strip down buck naked and jump into water to cool off." Granted everyone has a preference and as such it is what it is, a preference. So instead of trying the student approach and build up more loans to repay, I thought I should utilize my gift of gab.

So back to the moral of this little posting, buying one way plane tickets out of your home country is terrifying to some people but what I think most people are missing out on the adventurous feeling of taking risks. People look at the "fear" they feel when taking risks as "warning" signs that maybe you shouldn't be doing that. On the contrary I think that emotion you may be feeling is the feeling of possibility, the emotion of life flowing through your veins. Taking risks will undoubtedly keep your brain firing on all cylinders and sharpen your wit for the rest of your life. There are as many paths in life as there are lessons and there is no "perfect" or "right" way to do anything, there just are ways of doing them. The biggest obstacle we face in our plans is our own fears. Google the word fear by itself and the first four links are two wiki definitions, one video game and one movie. If "fear" was a bad thing then there would be more links warning people on how dangerous it is right? Now Google the words scam, AIDS or something you perceive as bad and I promise you that there will be more negative results than when you look up the word fear. Fear is one of those double edged swords in life that come at you, what is important is how you react. Fear for me pushes me to stand strong, not give up and it motivates me to respond. How many feelings require a response? I'd be willing to be not a lot do but then again I am a man and my wife does repeatedly tell me how few emotions I have or understand but in this case I'd be willing to bet i'm right. So if it's fear that's holding you back from your dreams then your placing blame in the wrong hands, fear is an emotion and it isn't always rational so keep that in mind when your scared of something. Being afraid of falling out of the sky and hitting a mountain at 300mph is rational if you fly everyday but feeling fear about whether or not North Korea will fire nuclear missiles at your home is irrational because there is no precedent for that and unless you are the president of the United States of America, then you really shouldn't think so highly of yourself, +Kim Jung Il isn't after you, I promise.

So buying one way tickets to anywhere is exhilarating, eye opening and promising. I'm about to buy two sets of one way tickets. One set from San Antonio Texas to Dublin Ireland the second set from Dublin Ireland to Rome Italy. Where we go after that and what we will do after that is all a mystery to me but from what my theatre arts teacher once told me, "Mysteries attract smart people because they like to solve puzzles." Well smarty pants, what do you think so far? I'd like to know how i'm viewed up to this point so anyone willing to be honest, shoot me a message or comment. Until then keep coming back for more updates, I've got a scheduling issue to resolve before I buy the tickets but I should have them before the end of the day so we'll see how my post sounds tomorrow when my bank account is half empty. We are down to the last 12 days or so people, things on this site are about to start getting a lot more interesting, stay tuned!!

UPDATE** 4/29/13 0130**
In the event anyone is looking for another site to use to look for flights, I'd suggest using them all but make sure you add THIS one to your tool kit. I had never heard of it until my brother in law living in Dublin told me about it and it blows away the american companies when it comes to flights from the good ole USA to the other side of the pond. We have also found the airline Ryanair to be a very inexpensive airline too.

Can you travel with your pet?

As with all questions there is always an answer but as you read this posting you will soon realize the answer to this question is frustrating, incentivizing and plain dumb. The frustrating part is the fact that everyone has a set of rules and by everyone I mean each country, airline and even veterinarian so to keep your head straight you need to know all the answers to the questions you don't know yet, understand?
The incentive isn't really meant for you or I but for someone looking to get into a niche business here is one with hardly anyone to compete with. That industry needs someone to gather up all the information there is, get all the different players together and give them a home where people all over the world could find the answers they need. Like a wiki for traveling pets. Now the dumbest part comes down to cost. Why in HELL does Delta airlines want to charge me nearly $500 to fly my tiny little toy Yorkie from San Antonio Texas to Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico? Now I pointed the finger at them but they aren't the only one. Some airlines refuse to take animals on their plane which is fine but if you do why would you charge so much? They put my pet (also known as my four legged daughter) in the bottom of the plane with the rest of the luggage and packages. Now tell me, isn't the occasional pet flying from point A to point B extra income for them? I know they get paid to ship packages so the space on the bottom of the plane is being sold just as the seats up top are, but why charge more for my dog to fly on the plane like a furry package than they do to ship a box the same size and weight? They take the same care of their packages as they do animals, they all get unloaded put on a conveyer belt and set aside until the owner or delivery guy gets there. Why does my dogs plane ticket cost more than our two tickets? My wife and I will have over 150 pounds of luggage that they will charge us an extra $50 for, make sense? My dog weighs 4.3 pounds, if you include the kennel she'd have to fly in it would be roughly 12 pounds. Again, why is the airline charging so much? Is it a deterrent to shipping pets or traveling with pets?

Now I would love to has over all the points on what frustrated me or explain how a person with a bit of time could go about making money off this niche but what I really want to talk about is the money!!

I really don't like money, I could honestly say I loathe it. People don't NEED MONEY, American society has made money the only way of payment for anything and I think that has lost some of the warmth of society. Don't understand where I am going with this? Then let me break it down for you.

In the beginning of man, was there money? Was there any sort of currency? Look it up, go ahead I know you're going to Google it anyways so I'll just wait till you confirm what I'm saying...

Ok so when a man wanted something another man had he would "pay" for the item but it wasn't always with trinkets because some people aren't interested in trinkets, I'm not. Men would trade services, supplies or work for whatever it was they wanted. Now I understand that I can't expect this world to still trade in animal pelts, weapons or other outdated form of currency but I do think that if I do something for a person I think that we could agree on other forms of payment. I am starting my new life of travel blogging and being a digital nomad by selling everything I own, giving away anything that is still useful and leaving my comfortable (barely middle class life) existence in the states for a life of learning, adventure and exploration and in my travels the need for money can be replaced with an internet connection, roof and a small portion of food. Now the reality is that I will need some sort of income during my travels so I do plan on moving this blog to its own domain and with a completely different look and I also plan on building up my network of websites to help produce some semblance of income. In between now and then I plan on trading my talents for room and board by using the helpX and work-a-way websites. I have mentioned them in previous posts and I will probably continue to write about them for months to come because they are the only reason I will be able to afford this life change.

So I've explained my money issue? Probably not, so this won't be the last rant I have on the subject so stay tuned.

Now back to the original question, can you travel with your pet? The answer is yes. You definitely can travel with your pet if you have a good stream of income and stay in each country a short/long enough time to get the next country's paperwork ready. I promise you if you do travel with your pet for too long you will easily become the subject matter expert (SME) because people with money don't want to blow it on dragging their pet around the world to see things the pet could care less about. On top of that, all of the work needed to travel with them is too expensive, tedious and time consuming makes the idea of taking them overwhelming. If you plan on sailing around the world and you have a pet that is cool with boats, then take your pet. You can leave your pet in the boat when you dock and they never have to go through customs. Problem solved and again it is solved with money. So to do the most annoying thing ever, I'll answer a question by asking a question (my wife hates that.) Why would a person want to travel the globe with their pet? My answer would be because some people can afford to live their dreams with or without a pet. We have decided to send our dog to my sister's in east Texas, Tekila can stay with her and when Brownie and I settle and get a home base then we will pay the bounty for our daughter. She'll just have a vacation of her own. So good luck to you, whichever category you're in because either way it goes if you have a pet and want to see if you have enough money to accomplish your goals with your pet, then you will still have to do all the leg work that I did since every situation is different it will literally take someone to collect all the information, decipher it and explain it to the rest of us before this process will get any easier. Right now it's so hard to figure it out that a lot of people give up, I think that was the plan all along.