Greetings from the Emerald Isle! After an eventful week in the countryside, returning to the bustling tourist city of Dublin took some adjusting. Luckily my first night back I was openly welcomed to the home of Chuck and Imelda who provided a delicious vegetarian feast/dinner, warm shower, laundry facilities, comfortable sleeping space, unlimited internet access, and endless nomadic advice and encouragement. I've only been gone for a few weeks but am already overwhelmed with the generosity and support of people. Let's face it, I voluntarily chose to take a backpack across the pond with limited belongings and funding. Yet people have been willing to assist any way they can so I can continue this crazy adventure. Thanks to all!

After a great reunion with two rugby friends, Jaime and Coley (who are completing their 2 month European Backpacking Extravaganza), we've spent the past two days exploring the city and having fun. Our best adventure was a short day trip to a small town just outside of Dublin called Skerries. We found a brochure advertising windmills from the hotel lobby and decided to check it out for the day. We had no clue what to expect but it's always the unexpected things that turn out the best, right? The town contained two windmills and a water mill of which we were personally given a lengthy, informative tour. I would have to compare the initial experience to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine where you are forced to take a school field trip and spend the whole time laughing behind the teacher's back and fighting with the person behind you in line. However, with my acquisition of that piece of paper and my infinite wisdom, I (and we) very much enjoyed the tour. The mills were impressive in their simplistic methods requiring only water and wind for power and also impressive in their complex designs that efficiently used every ounce of power to refine grains. I'll never look at a piece of bread the same again. I probably learned more in one tour in a little town called Skerries than in a week of power presentations at an accredited university. After our windmill explorations, we walked on the beach along the harbor admitting how glad we were to have the opportunity to visit. Later we celebrated Coley's birthday with a nice Thai meal and......

So this morning I once again said goodbye to friends and will now be on my own for the rest of the trip. I have to admit, there's a certain period of the day between leaving the place you slept the night before and getting to the place you're going to sleep for that night that really reinforce the aim of this excursion and also instill stronger feelings of vagabondry. Then, once again generous people are put in your path and you can warmly reflect on these things at the home of Chuck and Imelda.

I'm off to my first WWOOFing adventure tomorrow in County Wicklow just south of Dublin!