The day we left Ireland was very odd. It started with us sitting in the lounge of our hostel, waiting on 2 PM to catch our bus. There was a woman sitting there from California. She had long dark hair, tanned skin and bags under her eyes. She was wearing strappy sandals that exposed dry feet. She introduced herself, and I honestly didn’t catch her name nor did I care to have her repeat it ( I was very tired) she shook our hands in a very friendly fashion. She was a free spirit of sorts with a political interest. She preceded to tell us that she just arrived from an almost two month escapade with a secret group in Romania called Rainbow gathering (I’m not sure how secret it is if she tells people she meets within the first two minutes). She described it to us as a group of people living in a commune off the land, each other and maybe a few groceries they’ve previously purchased. It’s you and nature and other free spirited people. You use tents if you have them to sleep in and if not, you buddy up and find someone to share with. It’s a “true hippie time”. She then told us the next one is going to be in the Canary Islands and that we should go but we first need to be accepted into the group. I think somewhere between the middle of the conversation and the end, Daniel and I silently decided that we will not be doing it. Perhaps it had something to do with how a strange red spot on her face grew, and then melted down her face. Or maybe we just thought two months would be too long, I think a week would be too long. Let me explain. As she was talking I noticed a red dot at the corner where her lips meet on the left side. At first I thought it was a mole, or maybe something she drew on. Daniel thought it was a food crumb, since he leaves these often at the corner of his mouth :). As she continued her red spot became bigger. It then started to run, and by then we knew it was blood. She didn’t notice it until halfway between her mouth and chin. She took her fingers wiped it up and then rubbed it between them until it was dry and disappeared. She didn’t wash her hands she just continued to talk. I was internally freaking out. My mind started running, She shook our hands! I don’t know if she has anything, but she stayed in a hippie commune for almost two months! I don’t know if she got tested, or if she’s been sick. I had to worry about our health. I had gotten sick on this trip and was prescribed some antibiotics in Germany, and didn’t want to get sick again. I politely excused myself to wash my hands thoroughly with soap and hot water. Daniel excused himself to go take a shower. I joined him quickly upstairs to sanitize our electronics with hand sanitizer. We then agreed to keep our hands away from our face for a period of time hoping that if any bacteria was still on our hands it would die without a host.

2 PM was quickly approaching and by then they were clearing out the lounge to do a fire drill so we got ready and left. We walked about 5 minutes and waited on the bus to the airport. Once we got on we went to the second level towards the back where there were a number of seats available. Two stops in a man gets on the bus and sits all the way in the back. Daniel and I are sitting so that we’re facing each other. All of sudden out of the corner of my eye I see this man lean over and spit on the bus ground. I look at Daniel, and we continue to talk. While we’re talking we hear this loud sniffing, like a blood hound hunting. Daniel looks back and sees this very same guy leaning over in the back of the bus snorting two lines of what we can only assume is cocaine. Once he finished his lines he preceded to take a bottle of whiskey out of his bag and started taking swigs. He was bold, to say the least. Halfway on our way to the airport he introduces himself, as Mick. He’s going bold on the top of his head, he has a slight beard that exposes red hair, and his shoes were white, but scuffed a dirty black. He was wearing grey sweats and his hands appeared to be worn, perhaps by manual labor. Mick, obviously fancied an alternative lifestyle with drugs and alcohol but he was still one of the brighter people we’ve met on our trip thus far. We started talking about politics and his take on Ireland and our take on how America really is. He said there are a couple of news channels in Ireland that only show magazine America and not the ghettos that are common in every city. He was well informed on American politics and told us that there’s a show by Russians that talk about all of Americas problems and how supposedly we “hide” our ghettos and our problems from the rest of the world. And that we aren’t as pristine as the world sees us. To be honest, our trip has taught us that a lot of people aren’t fond of America which has sparked our curiosity about our foreign affairs/ relations. Daniel’s dad jokingly said before our trip started that we should claim we were Canadian. But there view tends to change when they meet two friendly Americans :). Mick was also on his way to the airport to meet his girlfriend who’s sister had died in India on her travels because of the way they drive there. She was in a fatal car accident. It was somber news to hear but the subject was quickly changed to how he missed his girlfriend. We arrived at the airport, we said our goodbyes as he wished us luck on our journey. We were on our way back to Cologne Germany.