Swiss Alps, Ireland and France

As my mother tells me over and over again, there are many people unhappy with my lack of posting. Well, sadly in hostels internet costs a couple euro for every few minutes, so I really dont have time to fully update here. Even now, we are in the small Swiss town of Lenk where we are buying groceries before we head back to the challet for the next few days, and I only have a little bit.

All in all, I am doing very well. To quickly sum up the last few weeks, we took a tour though the southern part of Ireland and saw several ancient monestaries, Galway, the Cliffs of Moher (also known as the Cliffs of Insanity if you have seen The Princess Bride), Kissed the Blarney Stone, explored Dublin and saw the land my family comes from.

After roughly four hours of sleep in the Dublin airport, we flew to Paris and spent two and a half days there, just enough to see the highlights of the city. Spent one day on a walking tour of everything important and old, saw the Eiffle tower and Arc de Triomph by night, and spent a whole day at the Louvre. Not to mention wandered the Paris Opera House, making all my 15 year old dreams come true and finally seeing where my favorite story takes place.

Spent a day and a half in the town of Lyon, which is very ancient and full of red roofs and Roman antiques. Climbed a lot of stairs, saw a lot of chruches and practiced my French, which is surprisingly passable. Then we took the trains through Gèneve to Zurich, spent the night and met my friend Megan and her Swiss boyfriend Yves. Came to his families house in the Alps, just outside of the last town on the train line, Lenk. We will be here 4 nights, hiking and recharging all the batteries before I head to Nice France to swim in the mediteranian for a few days.

As of tomorrow I fly home in a week. I am definatly getting worn out, but have enough energy to see everything, climb a few mountains and sit on the beach.

Sorry again for the lack of posting, hopefully I will do so again with more details soon.

More of the Farm Life

We've come into Moville with Jo to work in the Organic Farm shop they own for the last few mornings. Pricing food and putting produce on shelves and the like. Yesturday afternoon we replanned sapling Oak trees in the sun shine, then right as we went inside the rains started. Rained all evening long, making Josie's drying laundry very wet and (re)clean once again. Tomorrow I'll do mine before leaving. I have just about run out of underwear again: I packed just enough for 2 weeks, since every two weeks we arrive in a place to do laundry.

Everything is going very well. Things have slowed down and I'm pretty relaxed here on the farm, with very good food and lots of time to sit and think and read, and this is really good for me. Two more French girls are arriving this evening, and we have one more day of work to do, then we'll be off to Dublin! I have read three books already this summer - just finished A Thousand Spelndid Suns on Sunday night. Sat down and read the last 100 pages in one go. Now I have 2 left for the rest of the summer, should be enough.

Inishowen Farming

It's been a little more than a week since we arrived at the Fowler's farm, but they don't have a computer avalible at the house and when we go to town I never have time to really update. For the weekend Josie and I have come to Derry to get off the farm and be in the city, back at the great hostel I was at for 5 days a few weeks ago.

The farm is fantastic! It's about 5 miles out of a town called Moville on the Inishowen Pennisula, which is as farm north as you can get in Ireland. We are on the top of a HUGE hill from which you can see the Foyle and the ocean and Northern Ireland. The views are outstanding! The Fowler's have three cattle and a new calf, several pigs and some piglets, goats, billies, donkeys and many dogs and cats in the house, all with very distinct personalities. Jo and Geoff are a lovely couple, very welcoming with very good food and lots of stories. Theire son Lloyd is also living with them for the summer. They are from England orriginally and moved to County Donegal a few years ago to start this farm, as well as an organic shop in town.

We wake up at 9 in the morning, have a huge breakfast of porriage and coffee, then head out to the feilds. We have been doing a LOT of weeding, as well as picking wild blueberries (billberry's here, mind you), red currants and elderflowers for Jo to make organic wild jam to sell in the shop. Josie and I are working with a French girl named Amelie who is really awesome to hang out with, as well as practice my French skills before we head to Paris. We work about 5 hours every day, then get to relax, play with the dogs, walk, and read. I've been writing a lot. Lots of letters and lots of my novel, now that I've been to Derry and seen it I've figured a lot out that I was struggling with before. Jo makes great dinner, huge and hearty and we spend hours at the table talking. Then Josie, Amelie and I usually go and watch a movie, or play cards or talk until we go to bed. The sun stays up so late this far north, it's hard to sleep before 11:30 when it gets dark. Things have slowed down and settled into a pattern here, which is really good for me in the middle of this trip, settle myself and gather my self for the end of the journey.

My birthday was cold and wet. It's not been very warm here, actually, rather overcast and windy. After work, we took a taxi into town and went to a nearly empty pub for Baliey's flavored cheesecake and some drinks.

We came to Derry for the weekend, and planned out the rest of the summer, with reservations in hostels in Dublin, Paris, Lyon, Zurich, Milan, Nice and a plan ride back to London where we'll be for the last 2 days before I head home. We're also going on a bus tour of the southern part of the island next weekend, which should be great. Get to kiss the Blarney Stone!

In short, things are great. Josie have recovered from jet lag, and we will be back on the tourist road on Thrusday, jumping through adventures and cities until we're back home!