A new year, a new plan.

I know it's been a while since I've posted on here, but life's been busy. Beth was away to Winnipeg recently, and I've been planning a trip to Washington D.C. for the March for Life, I leave in two days. Not to mention Christmas and job searches (to no avail...) and university plans. Actually, I really don't understand that cliche, the whole "not to mention" thing... because I actually did mention it... Anyway, I'm getting off track, and my writing skills really are suffering lately, I should probably pick it up.


Things are really starting to pan out now. We've got a solid idea and I think we're good to run with it.

Beth has some excellent connections all over the place what with her NET skills, and we have places to stay everywhere. So as of right now, a tentative schedule is forming in my mind.

8th of March, I bus it over to the Halifax airport, meeting Beth there. We fly from Hali to London overnight.
9th of March, rest and relaxation, staying with Beth's friend Robert.
10th, 11th, and 12th, staying in London, doing some touring of all the major hotspots. Maybe chill with the Beatles a bit.
13th, catch a Ryanair flight to Dublin, meeting tour operator of Irish Jaunt.
13th to 18th, Irish Jaunt tour of Ireland.
18th, dropped off in Shannon. Head on bus to Athenry to stay with NET team there.
19th, until 28th, free to roam about Ireland as we please. Staying with Beth's connections all along the way... ? In Donegal, Dublin, Athenry and Galway I do believe are the places we have people to stay with. Not sure though.
29th, we may have to head back to London to catch our return flight to Halifax. Maybe I will end up staying at Beth's house for a night before getting a bus or my father to pick me up and head back to PEI.

SO as far as a tentative schedule goes, that's not too bad right? Okay. Now to do the money side of things.

Dealz

Sceptre Tours off season deal:

The actual tour

The article on it


British Airways slashes Europe prices:

Goes around 700 bucks to London from Toronto.


The facebook message about this:
OKAY.

So Sceptre Tours has this like amazing deal where it's about 700 dollars airfare plus 6 nights stay and touring and stuff.

But it's based on 4 people.

Now my mom mentioned that her and dad would love to go to Ireland, and the thing is, you need to be able to drive to do this tour... But she mentioned that it would be entirely possible to go with them for the 6 days. Then stay longer, just us, and have an adventure tacked on the end, which could mean taking a hop over to London and doing all those adventurey things that would be epic. Plus we'd have a separate room in a villa etc during the tour itself, and have dad to drive us around.

I think this sounds about as good as it could get. But it's only a possibilty at this point, mom said she'll talk to dad about it, because this is a really good deal.

And the flight leaves from Boston, New York or Chicago. Mom says that we could drive down to Chicago and get to visit CTI, as dad says (Christina, Thomas, Isabella), and then head out from there.

Coach/Road Packages and IDP

International Driving Permit
The problem with this one being that pretty sure you need a full license to get one of these puppies. :| Regretting my stupidity at not getting my license? Yeah, just a tad.

I asked a question on Yahoo Answers about this:
IDP with learner's permit/whatever



A question about vacation packages on SmarterTravel:

Ireland Package Deals

Adventure = No itinerary

Right now, I'm really leaning on the idea of bus passes (more extensive than rail in Ireland), hostels, and an open itinerary. But the thing with an open itinerary is that you have to budget as you go. I think it would be more of an adventure to hop on a bus with just a rough idea of where we are going and doing what we feel like when we feel like it. I also don't mind "roughing it" a little and staying in dorm style hostels with random other people. Some of you might not be comfortable with that. I'm not sure. I think it would be kind of fun, and would love to meet some people and become friends etc. But I would also be okay with just hanging with you guys.

I read that the worst thing you can do is the stay in a hotel in Ireland. B&Bs are the best ways to do it. Cheaper, more authentic, family run, etc. And that they are more plentiful.

Also, I know it's early, but I think I need to mention that we really need to pack light. In the words of Aldous Huxley, "All things are necessary, some things are just more necessary than others."

We can't afford to have to lug around gigantic suitcases, we don't have a car, and we don't know where we'll be staying and if we can leave a lot of stuff where that is.

Rick Steves' England, Scotland, and Ireland playlist

Just skip to the Ireland bits. We'll tackle the rest another time.

PLAYLIST

Useful Documents

For Beth and I:
International Youth Travel Card

For Karyn and Patricia:
International Student Travel Card

These things should pay for themselves!

Famous Irish writers to read before going:

Cultural homework:
G. B. Shaw, W. B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker, Patrick Kavanaugh, Sean O'Casey Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Brendan Behan, Thomas Moore, J. M. Synge.

I plan on reading a selection from most authors.

Notable works (orrrr more like a list of sometimes serious, sometimes odd, and sometimes goofy things relating to each writer listed above):

- "My Fair Lady" based off G. B. Shaw's Pygmalion which is based of the Galatean Myth. A fun little video on the original myth and the G. B. Shaw book: Pygmalion

- Yeats poems are available just by googling them. I'm not a poetry person, but read his one about Halloween due to the proximity to the holiday right now. Called "All Soul's Night"

- Samuel Beckett's most famous play "Waiting for Godot" is on Youtube, I've watched part of it... but understood none ;) but I did enjoy the accents. The first part is here: Waiting for Godot

- Of course: Dracula - Bram Stoker... Unless you'd rather watch famous Irish actor Liam Neeson with The Count from Sesame Street? 20, AH AH AH!

- Patrick Kavanaugh's poem "On Raglan Road" as sung by the Dubliners On Raglan Road

- Indiana Jones meets Sean O'Casey in an old TV show "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" Indy meets O'Casey

- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels

- The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (I really tried to find the Wayne and Shuster spoof where instead of the picture aging for him, his portrait gains weight for him... Alas, no where to be found!) BUT I DID FIND THIS! Dorian Gray Oh hey there Ben Barnes. ;)

- Ulysses by James Joyce (what is it with rewritings of Greek myths anyway?) Here's a video* of him reading a passage: Ulysse's Passage
*animation of a photograph, it's actually really creepy...

- "The Auld Triangle" a song written about Brendan Behan by his brother Dominic and performed by the Dropkick Murphys. The Auld Triangle

- The Minstrel Boy written by Thomas Moore was a song in the movie Black Hawk Down The Minstrel Boy (however, in this video, someone put the song to clips of Saving Private Ryan... so there you go)

- Riders to the Sea, a play by J. M. Synge is available in it's entirety here: Riders to the Sea or some of the opera version here: Opera!


The Writers Museum in Dublin features all of these people, and is 7.50€ BUT with our Hop on/Hop off bus tour we can get a euro off. So if we wanted to see that, it is an option. :) Dublin Writers Museum