Bread, a simple thing in life.
So... Last time I left off, I was somewhere in the very west of Ireland...on the Atlantic coast. The best comment I can say to sum up my experience there was I was the closest to home I've felt since I landed in August. I was staying with Rhea who I already knew and adore and I was on the coast of the Atlantic, which means I was as close, geographically, to home as I could have been.

So, Rhea's family has this dog, which can open the front door by itself. Does anyone else think that is amazing, or what? The dog can let itself out when it has to. Simple. Well, not so simple. The dog cannot shut the door behind him, so it just stands there open until someone else closes it. Cats who act like dogs are really the best cats out there. My Michael for example, will go out walking on a leash. Therefore, he is apart of this elite group I am referring to. Well, the dog that opens his own door also has a cat companion who thinks he's a dog. The funny part is that this cat knows what's up. If the cat wants to go outside, he gets the dog to open the door for him. I watched it myself.

Now, my whole experience of visiting Rhea makes me want to know more about and love Ireland. However, the same experience made me not like Dublin. Dublin is just like any big city. I didn't feel as if I could ever have any sort of connection or affinity towards it. I did the Guinness thing and got out. That was frankly enough for me. I would rather spend time in other cities or areas there. But, that's my humble, but forward opinion.

Andrea and I decided not to spring for a hostel our last night in Dublin since our plane left at 7am. So, we stayed up and walked around Dublin until 1am. At that point I really had enough of the city. We did find this awesome cafe near Trinity (I think...I'm not sure how far we had wandered away from there) called Kafe Mokka or something like that. Andrea and I sat around there for an hour journaling and I ordered a Chai. It wasn't the best I've ever had, and not the worst... the atmosphere made up for any failures of the beverage. We go to the Airport sometime around 2am. We were in good company because everyone at the airport looked just like us...young, packs in toe, tired. At that point I organized my disheveled bag and then took a nap on it. But, every hour I woke up to the airport announcement saying I should watch out for my bag and not leave it unattended. As with any good traveler (hitchhiker), I remembered to bring a towel. Andrea basically kept watch out because she was actually able to sleep on all the various transportation we had used since arriving in the country and I packed my towel in and around my head. Oh, one quick point...Andrea and I bought a package of cheddar cheese and at the whole thing. You see, cheddar is not common in Germany. One cannot go to the grocery store and simply buy a package of cheddar. Gouda, yes...Brie, yes...Cheddar, no.

We arrived in Berlin on Tuesday morning...a warm (finally, thank goodness!) morning and took the Bahn to our hotel. We dropped off our stuff, ran into someone we knew and went to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westes). It is the 2nd largest department store in Europe behind Harrods. What a privilege it is to say I have now been to both. Wow. How pathetic. But, we went up to the food halls on the top floor and sampled everything we could sample. (We're still in starving student mode!) The day went along and we started our seminar that afternoon.

I'll get more into what I did in Berlin later...as well as my quick road trip with friends to Dresden. As for my evening tonight, I am going to Bonn to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Hopefully, it will be a good time. I’ve heard the pub we’re going to makes Irish Brown Bread, my new favorite bread!