Obviously, we never got the internet in workable enough condition to finish posting photos or update you all on our last few days from Dublin. However, now that we've landed safe and sound in NYC, I can at least report that much.
This last day in the city was madness. Not only was the queen in town (yeah, that one) but there were some 25,000 Portuguese soccer fans in the city for the Europa Cup final at Croke Park tonight. Our ten minute cab ride took over thirty and meant we didn't get to the airport until our gate was closing. It felt frantic at the time, but things turned out just fine. However, the hubbub about the big soccer game had me gravitating towards the sports bar near our gate here in JFK. While everyone else was literally hooting and hollering over some NBA game I could care less about, I immediately gravitated towards the screens showing soccer. I knew the game would be over but was looking for highlights anyway. They were instead showing some American game, so I got the iPad out to check things out one we got seats at the gate. Porto beat Braga 1-0 in case anyone's interested.
Ok. Well I've got tons more i want to tell you all about. We got take-away. We hailed cabs. I participated in a (sort of) formal whiskey tasting. I bought whiskey! Feel shocked on my behalf, won't you? Because, before today, my only experience with whiskey was trying to cook with the stuff and eat it in ice cream in Dingle. I'm taking big steps here, people. We had a lot of fun and we already want to plan our next trip back. (I'll get a trip to Italy in there somewhere!) But now it's time to pack up and get ready to board our only slightly delayed flight to Pittsburgh. More stories, observations, and photos to come to wrap up the trip. See you all again soon!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Mmm, sheep, yummy yummy sheep
Not much to report on from the rest of the day. It was nice to not be on the move as soon as we had finished our breakfast. (Not that I'm complaining. Us moving from place to place to place was our own decision and I'm glad we did. We wouldn't have been able to see as much of the country as we did had we stayed in one place for more than a night at a time.)
Anyway, we didn't do too much exploring today in Galway. We slept in, I updated this little blog here, then we went into town to do some shopping for you lovely folks back home. So I can't really tell you much about today without spoiling it, now can I? I think there were some old homes and touristy things to do in town, but we left the GPS behind, so we got lazy and decided to make it an easy day and stick to shopping in the pedestrian area. We did hit up Sheridan's Cheesemongers, as it was recommended in the guidebook and also because, well, why wouldn't you want to visit a place known as a cheesemonger, really? I also pestered Ben into us grabbing fish and chips for lunch. He stuck to chicken, but I got fresh locally caught whiting, which was quite yummy. Only downside? Ketchup is just Not the same here. We both noticed it when we picked up sandwiches & chips for lunch yesterday. I've never been altogether picky about my ketchup. I'll take Great Value brand without complaint and everything. But this ketchup is just.. off. I mean, it's ketchup-y and all, but it's just not the same. Today's was too bland, yesterday's was too vinegary. I'll just have to get me some Heinz with whatever I eat once we're home again.
After a bit more time in town, it was back to the hotel for dinner. A bit of an overpriced dinner (sorry, Dad), but Connemara lamb is quite yummy. We both decided that after driving past literally hundreds of the fluffy little guys along the drive, it was only fitting that we eat them at least once. Ok. So that sounds considerably more perverse than I intended. What I mean is, clearly they are an integral part of the local Irish economy, as witnessed by our travels across several counties, thus it was in our best interest as responsible tourists to support the local economy through the purchase of at least one meal of lamb. There. That sounds better.
Now it's time to get caught up on all those backlogged photos. Hopefully at least one album will be up tonight and possibly (fingers crossed) another in the morning before we head out. Not sure yet if we're heading straight back to Dublin or, and this is the fun part, taking a detour into North Ireland to visit County Armagh, the last known home of Trodden family baptism records. The Armagh County website isn't the most helpful thing in the world, but we've got some records from Papa and Uncle Buddy that should make for a good start. Wish us luck!
Anyway, we didn't do too much exploring today in Galway. We slept in, I updated this little blog here, then we went into town to do some shopping for you lovely folks back home. So I can't really tell you much about today without spoiling it, now can I? I think there were some old homes and touristy things to do in town, but we left the GPS behind, so we got lazy and decided to make it an easy day and stick to shopping in the pedestrian area. We did hit up Sheridan's Cheesemongers, as it was recommended in the guidebook and also because, well, why wouldn't you want to visit a place known as a cheesemonger, really? I also pestered Ben into us grabbing fish and chips for lunch. He stuck to chicken, but I got fresh locally caught whiting, which was quite yummy. Only downside? Ketchup is just Not the same here. We both noticed it when we picked up sandwiches & chips for lunch yesterday. I've never been altogether picky about my ketchup. I'll take Great Value brand without complaint and everything. But this ketchup is just.. off. I mean, it's ketchup-y and all, but it's just not the same. Today's was too bland, yesterday's was too vinegary. I'll just have to get me some Heinz with whatever I eat once we're home again.
After a bit more time in town, it was back to the hotel for dinner. A bit of an overpriced dinner (sorry, Dad), but Connemara lamb is quite yummy. We both decided that after driving past literally hundreds of the fluffy little guys along the drive, it was only fitting that we eat them at least once. Ok. So that sounds considerably more perverse than I intended. What I mean is, clearly they are an integral part of the local Irish economy, as witnessed by our travels across several counties, thus it was in our best interest as responsible tourists to support the local economy through the purchase of at least one meal of lamb. There. That sounds better.
Now it's time to get caught up on all those backlogged photos. Hopefully at least one album will be up tonight and possibly (fingers crossed) another in the morning before we head out. Not sure yet if we're heading straight back to Dublin or, and this is the fun part, taking a detour into North Ireland to visit County Armagh, the last known home of Trodden family baptism records. The Armagh County website isn't the most helpful thing in the world, but we've got some records from Papa and Uncle Buddy that should make for a good start. Wish us luck!
I hope you've got time on your hands..
Good morning, all! Time for another rambling post from me as we had another busy day yesterday.
Thanks to advice from Bridie at Beach Cove, we had a little bit of a plan for yesterday's travels. We'd start out on the Connor Pass road, the highest pass in Ireland, as we continued north along the coast towards Galway, with a stop off at the Cliffs of Moher. We knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us, so we never made it back into Dingle. Not that we had anything in particular left to do or see, but somehow I had missed taking pictures of town the previous night. So, though I have an excessive amount of pictures of other places, I will be lacking in pictures of Dingle. Which is a shame, because, though bustling and a bit touristy, it really was a quaint and colorful town.
Anyway, before we could leave Dingle, we obviously had to have breakfast. Now, I don't think I've really talked about our breakfasts much so far. This breakfast, though, is worth talking about. Just about everywhere we went, we had tea, some kind of cereal or fresh fruit, full Irish breakfast (maybe smoked salmon instead), and that was it. You can get a full Irish breakfast everywhere, consisting of sausage, soft fried egg, toast, tomato, and bacon. Mind you, the bacon is so much better than home as it actually comes from the back of the pig (where the word bacon comes from), rather than the belly of the pig, where we cheap Americans get it. Other than that though, breakfast hasn't been too different from place to place. I've been hesitant to order pancakes, because that felt like something I could easily get at home. Well, I was wrong. I ordered pancakes yesterday morning, enticed by the fact that they were served with local honey. Honey instead of maple syrup? Count me in! Not only are these pancakes served with warm honey oozing out of the middle, but these are not like the pancakes I get at home - no Bisquick or super thick stacks of cakey pancakes here. Oh, no. I should have gotten the hint from the pancakes we ordered at Cake Cafe. Those were thin and light and almost crepe-y. They were served folded into quarters, with a little extra flavor tucked into those folds. Folded pancakes? Try folding a Bisquick pancake and you tell me what happens. Certainly not the delicate pile of deliciousness I saw on my plate yesterday morning. At Cake Cafe, they snuck a little bit of cinnamon sugar in between the layers. At Duinin House in Dingle, that's where they stashed the local honey. I stuck my fork into the top layer of the stack and honey started oozing out around the tines. I'm not sure how that sounds to you, but for me, it was perfection.
With that kind of main dish for breakfast, you'd think I'd be happy. Oh, I was happy. But what could make that wonderful of a breakfast happier still? Baileys. Yep, Baileys. Because before you get your main course, there's a cereal course. And this place was famous for their porridge. They don't just serve you porridge with cream - they serve you porridge with Bailey's Irish cream. Yeah. That happened. Think about it. Be jealous. I have no idea how to make porridge. I'm guessing it's similar to oatmeal. Regardless, I will probably try replicating this at home. And if it doesn't turn out? Well then I won't mind being my own guinea pig. (If you were interested in a commentary on Ben's breakfast, well, I apologize. He also got the Bailey's porridge, but I was so wrapped up in the yumminess of my own main breakfast dish that I completely forgot what he ordered. Oops.)
So after that thoroughly amazing breakfast, we packed up like the nomads we are and headed for the hills. Well, headed for the mountains would be more apt. It was still fairly early in the morning when we started in on the Connor Pass, so the skies were dreary and the clouds were hanging amongst the peaks of the mountains. This would be a problem. The whole point of driving through the Connor Pass is to get the mountaintop views of the valleys and bays and sea below you. I won't even bother calling it fog. Instead, we were driving in the clouds. When we pulled off the road at the main lookout point, we could see maybe ten feet in any direction. With the drive we had ahead of us that day, I thought we'd have to give up on these views. Instead, we hunkered down in the car, fiddled with the iPad and waited a while for the clouds to pass. I must have been really enthralled by one of my hidden item games, because I didn't look up until a small tour van pulled up beside us. When I did look out the front window, there was suddenly a view in front of me. And even with clouds lingering around the edges, it was still a pretty phenomenal view. The mountain sloped down to empty fields below us, two massive peaks directly to either side, then flowing down into more pasture, a few houses, and then out to the bay and sea further beyond. The scope of the view was incredible. I was glad I got out of the car because it meant I got to eavesdrop on the tour guide while I took my own photos. Because below us we could see dozens of rock formations, like the remains of ancient homes or town walls. There was no pasture here, no houses nearby, just old stone remnants of something. According to the guide, we were looking down on the ruins of a monastic settlement. The huts we could see were where they used to keep bees. This was apparently a very common sight and we would be seeing many more of these stone ruins as we headed north through the Connor Pass and even further north in the Burren.
And there was exciting news on this particular scenic route. As we pulled out of the parking lot for the overlook, we passed a large, menacing looking yellow sign saying, literally, Turn Back, Do not Enter. Thankfully, we were not breaking the law or driving to certain doom by driving past this sign, for the sign was directed at oversize vehicles, tractor trailers, tour buses, that sort of thing. No trucks to get stuck behind? No coaches to move out of the way for? Awesome! And it was a good thing, too, because not long after that sign we came upon an intense set of switchbacks - one lane wide switchbacks, to be precise. It was harrowing and exciting and beautiful and I was reminded that there was no way I'd be able to do anything productive on the computer that day because this countryside, even when it was covered in clouds, was still too beautiful to blatantly ignore.
We continued to drive north through unendingly beautiful countryside, until we ran out of land. A part of our journey included a car ferry to cross into County Clare. I'd only been on a car ferry once before in Texas and Ben hadn't ever, so it was a neat experience. The ferry was called the Shannon Breeze - good joke. More like Shannon Windstorm. Holy hell! The trip only took about 20 minutes, but I didn't want to be out of the car longer than it took to find the snack counter and take some pictures on the upper deck. It was cold and windy and I think I still had flip flops on at that point in the day. Not a good combination. We made it without any slips or spills on my part and kept on towards the Cliffs.
If you're unfamiliar with the Cliffs of Moher, picture the surf battered cliffs Harry & Dumbledore approach towards the end of Half-Blood Prince. That's them. They're massive in scale. Lush grassy peaks that end abruptly at sheer cliff faces that just go down and down and down to the churning water below. They make a sort of U shape, so you can walk along paths on either side to get pictures of both sets of cliffs. At the one end is a big imposing sign telling you to "Keep Out. Private Property" in four or five languages. A big sign that has a handy dandy foot path going right around it and out along the edge of the cliffs. We took a picture of the sign. And then promptly followed the group of people hopping the fence and walked farther out along the cliffs. Easily the most reckless thing I've done on this trip - probably in my life. Mom, don't freak out. We didn't go out too far. Just enough (big surprise) for me to get a better picture of the other side of the cliffs. Ben walked out a little farther, since he is clearly much more brave and crazy than me, to take a few more shots. We both survived the walk back and hopped the fence to safety. As usual, we took dozens of pictures because, like the rest of Ireland, words cannot do the place justice. I think I kind of gave up on trying to describe it. I know I'm behind on pictures by a couple days, but hopefully I'll get a bit more accomplished tonight so you can see what I mean.
From the cliffs, we drove on and on. I caught a little cat nap. We drove along the edge of the Burren. I don't think we caught too many pictures of this area as we weren't really taking the primary scenic route with lookout points of its own. The Burren is filled with stone ruins even older than the monastic ones we spotted earlier. The area has been inhabited for - get this - 6,000 years. First by hunter-gatherers who later went on to farm the land. This eventually eroded away the soil, leaving behind bare limestone and thousands of dolmens and other ancient funerary sites. We probably could have taken the scenic route, but we were already going to get to Galway after 7, so we decided to bypass it and settle for what we could see from the car windows.
In Galway, we checked into the Glenlo Abbey hotel. My, oh my, is this place gorgeous. I don't know what kind of magic Dan Dooley Travel has up its sleeve, but the room we have is usually over 300 euro a night in the off-season (which is now). The place is an extension on an old, you guessed it, abbey, but even though the place is modern, it's rather classically decorated. I became a sucker for the place when we passed the guest lounge - a library that looks like I might step back in time 2 or 3 hundred years if I cross the threshold. Oh, and there are fresh lilies all over the place. I could smell them before I could see them. I have big, big love for lilies, so this won me over. Almost more than the pretty grey marble bathroom in our room. After staying in B&B's with the tiniest showers known to man for four days, a full sized bathroom and bathtub is a big deal.
After marveling over the room a bit more, we hopped in the car and drove the few minutes into town. What was supposed to be a 7 minute drive turned into about 27 minutes, since Dan Dooley does not work magic on GPS units. It tried to send us down one way streets, streets that were pedestrianized, all kinds of fun things. The restaurants we had in mind had closed early since it was a Sunday, and the bars that had been recommended for good local music were too crowded to want to bother. Instead, we wandered through the pedestrianized part of town until we found an itty bitty restaurant still serving food at nearly 9pm. It was cramped and probably not the best food in the world according to the guidebooks, but it was homey and filling and cheap and open, so we still enjoyed it. Fun fact: Ben voluntarily ordered seafood as his appetizer. I was so proud.
Today was the first morning we got to sleep in, since we didn't have to check out and get on the move to the next town. That was definitely a plus. Breakfast was yummy. Smoked salmon omelet = good idea, Danielle. I think Ben ordered the pancakes. Again, they were these light, foldable things that barely needed any toppings, they were that good. We really need to figure out the magically foldable Irish pancake recipe before we come home, I think.
Now we have a leisurely day ahead of us. We'll head back to the pedestrian area to check out the local shops. Last night we stumbled upon Thomas Dillon's Jewelers, the originator of the claddagh ring. I've been trying not to buy things for myself so far on the trip because I knew I really wanted to get a ring there. Hopefully things aren't too expensive. We shall see. I think we'll also probably be taking a walk along the seawall out to Salthill. I'll remember to take pictures this time, not like in cute little Dingle. Although, just fyi, from what we saw of Galway last night, Dingle is much cuter. As in, I didn't see any drunk guys peeing against buildings in Dingle. Yep, that happened last night. People walked by like nothing was out of the ordinary. Weird. I'm acting under the assumption that we won't see that in the middle of the day today. Fingers crossed.
Off we go! Be back with pictures later tonight.
Thanks to advice from Bridie at Beach Cove, we had a little bit of a plan for yesterday's travels. We'd start out on the Connor Pass road, the highest pass in Ireland, as we continued north along the coast towards Galway, with a stop off at the Cliffs of Moher. We knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us, so we never made it back into Dingle. Not that we had anything in particular left to do or see, but somehow I had missed taking pictures of town the previous night. So, though I have an excessive amount of pictures of other places, I will be lacking in pictures of Dingle. Which is a shame, because, though bustling and a bit touristy, it really was a quaint and colorful town.
Anyway, before we could leave Dingle, we obviously had to have breakfast. Now, I don't think I've really talked about our breakfasts much so far. This breakfast, though, is worth talking about. Just about everywhere we went, we had tea, some kind of cereal or fresh fruit, full Irish breakfast (maybe smoked salmon instead), and that was it. You can get a full Irish breakfast everywhere, consisting of sausage, soft fried egg, toast, tomato, and bacon. Mind you, the bacon is so much better than home as it actually comes from the back of the pig (where the word bacon comes from), rather than the belly of the pig, where we cheap Americans get it. Other than that though, breakfast hasn't been too different from place to place. I've been hesitant to order pancakes, because that felt like something I could easily get at home. Well, I was wrong. I ordered pancakes yesterday morning, enticed by the fact that they were served with local honey. Honey instead of maple syrup? Count me in! Not only are these pancakes served with warm honey oozing out of the middle, but these are not like the pancakes I get at home - no Bisquick or super thick stacks of cakey pancakes here. Oh, no. I should have gotten the hint from the pancakes we ordered at Cake Cafe. Those were thin and light and almost crepe-y. They were served folded into quarters, with a little extra flavor tucked into those folds. Folded pancakes? Try folding a Bisquick pancake and you tell me what happens. Certainly not the delicate pile of deliciousness I saw on my plate yesterday morning. At Cake Cafe, they snuck a little bit of cinnamon sugar in between the layers. At Duinin House in Dingle, that's where they stashed the local honey. I stuck my fork into the top layer of the stack and honey started oozing out around the tines. I'm not sure how that sounds to you, but for me, it was perfection.
With that kind of main dish for breakfast, you'd think I'd be happy. Oh, I was happy. But what could make that wonderful of a breakfast happier still? Baileys. Yep, Baileys. Because before you get your main course, there's a cereal course. And this place was famous for their porridge. They don't just serve you porridge with cream - they serve you porridge with Bailey's Irish cream. Yeah. That happened. Think about it. Be jealous. I have no idea how to make porridge. I'm guessing it's similar to oatmeal. Regardless, I will probably try replicating this at home. And if it doesn't turn out? Well then I won't mind being my own guinea pig. (If you were interested in a commentary on Ben's breakfast, well, I apologize. He also got the Bailey's porridge, but I was so wrapped up in the yumminess of my own main breakfast dish that I completely forgot what he ordered. Oops.)
So after that thoroughly amazing breakfast, we packed up like the nomads we are and headed for the hills. Well, headed for the mountains would be more apt. It was still fairly early in the morning when we started in on the Connor Pass, so the skies were dreary and the clouds were hanging amongst the peaks of the mountains. This would be a problem. The whole point of driving through the Connor Pass is to get the mountaintop views of the valleys and bays and sea below you. I won't even bother calling it fog. Instead, we were driving in the clouds. When we pulled off the road at the main lookout point, we could see maybe ten feet in any direction. With the drive we had ahead of us that day, I thought we'd have to give up on these views. Instead, we hunkered down in the car, fiddled with the iPad and waited a while for the clouds to pass. I must have been really enthralled by one of my hidden item games, because I didn't look up until a small tour van pulled up beside us. When I did look out the front window, there was suddenly a view in front of me. And even with clouds lingering around the edges, it was still a pretty phenomenal view. The mountain sloped down to empty fields below us, two massive peaks directly to either side, then flowing down into more pasture, a few houses, and then out to the bay and sea further beyond. The scope of the view was incredible. I was glad I got out of the car because it meant I got to eavesdrop on the tour guide while I took my own photos. Because below us we could see dozens of rock formations, like the remains of ancient homes or town walls. There was no pasture here, no houses nearby, just old stone remnants of something. According to the guide, we were looking down on the ruins of a monastic settlement. The huts we could see were where they used to keep bees. This was apparently a very common sight and we would be seeing many more of these stone ruins as we headed north through the Connor Pass and even further north in the Burren.
And there was exciting news on this particular scenic route. As we pulled out of the parking lot for the overlook, we passed a large, menacing looking yellow sign saying, literally, Turn Back, Do not Enter. Thankfully, we were not breaking the law or driving to certain doom by driving past this sign, for the sign was directed at oversize vehicles, tractor trailers, tour buses, that sort of thing. No trucks to get stuck behind? No coaches to move out of the way for? Awesome! And it was a good thing, too, because not long after that sign we came upon an intense set of switchbacks - one lane wide switchbacks, to be precise. It was harrowing and exciting and beautiful and I was reminded that there was no way I'd be able to do anything productive on the computer that day because this countryside, even when it was covered in clouds, was still too beautiful to blatantly ignore.
We continued to drive north through unendingly beautiful countryside, until we ran out of land. A part of our journey included a car ferry to cross into County Clare. I'd only been on a car ferry once before in Texas and Ben hadn't ever, so it was a neat experience. The ferry was called the Shannon Breeze - good joke. More like Shannon Windstorm. Holy hell! The trip only took about 20 minutes, but I didn't want to be out of the car longer than it took to find the snack counter and take some pictures on the upper deck. It was cold and windy and I think I still had flip flops on at that point in the day. Not a good combination. We made it without any slips or spills on my part and kept on towards the Cliffs.
If you're unfamiliar with the Cliffs of Moher, picture the surf battered cliffs Harry & Dumbledore approach towards the end of Half-Blood Prince. That's them. They're massive in scale. Lush grassy peaks that end abruptly at sheer cliff faces that just go down and down and down to the churning water below. They make a sort of U shape, so you can walk along paths on either side to get pictures of both sets of cliffs. At the one end is a big imposing sign telling you to "Keep Out. Private Property" in four or five languages. A big sign that has a handy dandy foot path going right around it and out along the edge of the cliffs. We took a picture of the sign. And then promptly followed the group of people hopping the fence and walked farther out along the cliffs. Easily the most reckless thing I've done on this trip - probably in my life. Mom, don't freak out. We didn't go out too far. Just enough (big surprise) for me to get a better picture of the other side of the cliffs. Ben walked out a little farther, since he is clearly much more brave and crazy than me, to take a few more shots. We both survived the walk back and hopped the fence to safety. As usual, we took dozens of pictures because, like the rest of Ireland, words cannot do the place justice. I think I kind of gave up on trying to describe it. I know I'm behind on pictures by a couple days, but hopefully I'll get a bit more accomplished tonight so you can see what I mean.
From the cliffs, we drove on and on. I caught a little cat nap. We drove along the edge of the Burren. I don't think we caught too many pictures of this area as we weren't really taking the primary scenic route with lookout points of its own. The Burren is filled with stone ruins even older than the monastic ones we spotted earlier. The area has been inhabited for - get this - 6,000 years. First by hunter-gatherers who later went on to farm the land. This eventually eroded away the soil, leaving behind bare limestone and thousands of dolmens and other ancient funerary sites. We probably could have taken the scenic route, but we were already going to get to Galway after 7, so we decided to bypass it and settle for what we could see from the car windows.
In Galway, we checked into the Glenlo Abbey hotel. My, oh my, is this place gorgeous. I don't know what kind of magic Dan Dooley Travel has up its sleeve, but the room we have is usually over 300 euro a night in the off-season (which is now). The place is an extension on an old, you guessed it, abbey, but even though the place is modern, it's rather classically decorated. I became a sucker for the place when we passed the guest lounge - a library that looks like I might step back in time 2 or 3 hundred years if I cross the threshold. Oh, and there are fresh lilies all over the place. I could smell them before I could see them. I have big, big love for lilies, so this won me over. Almost more than the pretty grey marble bathroom in our room. After staying in B&B's with the tiniest showers known to man for four days, a full sized bathroom and bathtub is a big deal.
After marveling over the room a bit more, we hopped in the car and drove the few minutes into town. What was supposed to be a 7 minute drive turned into about 27 minutes, since Dan Dooley does not work magic on GPS units. It tried to send us down one way streets, streets that were pedestrianized, all kinds of fun things. The restaurants we had in mind had closed early since it was a Sunday, and the bars that had been recommended for good local music were too crowded to want to bother. Instead, we wandered through the pedestrianized part of town until we found an itty bitty restaurant still serving food at nearly 9pm. It was cramped and probably not the best food in the world according to the guidebooks, but it was homey and filling and cheap and open, so we still enjoyed it. Fun fact: Ben voluntarily ordered seafood as his appetizer. I was so proud.
Today was the first morning we got to sleep in, since we didn't have to check out and get on the move to the next town. That was definitely a plus. Breakfast was yummy. Smoked salmon omelet = good idea, Danielle. I think Ben ordered the pancakes. Again, they were these light, foldable things that barely needed any toppings, they were that good. We really need to figure out the magically foldable Irish pancake recipe before we come home, I think.
Now we have a leisurely day ahead of us. We'll head back to the pedestrian area to check out the local shops. Last night we stumbled upon Thomas Dillon's Jewelers, the originator of the claddagh ring. I've been trying not to buy things for myself so far on the trip because I knew I really wanted to get a ring there. Hopefully things aren't too expensive. We shall see. I think we'll also probably be taking a walk along the seawall out to Salthill. I'll remember to take pictures this time, not like in cute little Dingle. Although, just fyi, from what we saw of Galway last night, Dingle is much cuter. As in, I didn't see any drunk guys peeing against buildings in Dingle. Yep, that happened last night. People walked by like nothing was out of the ordinary. Weird. I'm acting under the assumption that we won't see that in the middle of the day today. Fingers crossed.
Off we go! Be back with pictures later tonight.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Yep, I still like saying "Dingle"
I don't think Ireland runs out of cute, big little towns. Dingle seems to be somewhere in size between Killarney and Blarney, but regardless of its size and obvious tourist appeal, it maintains a genuine small town charm. We walked through town past at least half a dozen local pottery workshops, probably twice as many little art galleries, cafes, and even a teeny little cheese shop. (We may or may not be bringing something back for Ross from said teeny little shop.) We also, after much nagging from me, got to try ice cream from Murphy's - another Bobby Flay recommendation. With flavors like sea salt, honeycomb, and brown bread, it makes for an interesting stop. For fresh made ice cream, prices were surprisingly reasonable, so Ben & I each got two flavors. Ben combined chocolate with Baileys while I had Baileys with whiskey. Although I am no whiskey drinker by any stretch of the imagination, this was a delicious mix. Again, thank you, Bobby Flay.
After nebbing into most shops on the main thoroughfares, we got back in the car for a change of pace. To save time on the (apparently) crap ton of driving Ben gets to do tomorrow to get us to Galway, we decided to tackle the Slea Head Drive along the edge of Dingle Peninsula before dinner. Aside from being outlandishly beautiful (shocker), there isn't too much particularly thrilling to report without having the pictures to show you yet. We did, however, stop at a few beaches along the coast that were quite lovely. One in particular required a long walk down a path carved into the cliff side, which provided a great look almost directly down on the beach. Several people had already made the requisite protestations of love in the sand below. We went a different route. With my muffled shouts from up on the path as guidance, Ben set out walking out the letters of Phi Delta Theta some six feet tall in the sand. I'm really excited to get those pictures uploaded to Facebook because I know the brothers will (excuse me, Mom) flip their shit.
The rest of the route was on narrow country roads through the mountains and along the coast. We had our first run in with a rogue sheep and opposing traffic. While I found it hilarious, Ben looked a bit stressed. The sheep hung out in front of our car while the opposing car passed. But, rather than being a good little sheepy and moving back out of the way once the other car was clear, he/she decided to remain firmly planted five feet directly in front of wherever we were, bleating in sheepy confusion all the while. It took another opposing car approaching for sheepy to finally move clear of our section of the lane and hop up onto the hedge that formed the barrier between roadway and pasture. We booked it around the sheep before it could change its mind and move back into our path.
We also had our first experience with the power of GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) sports. While driving through yet another one-lane-road, plopped-down-in-the-middle-of-farm-land kind of town, we noticed cars parked all along the edge of the narrow little roadway. Again, this is in the middle of farm land with only scattered houses here and there. The line of cars just stretched on and on. There were more cars along the road than houses we could see. We finally came up on whatever was such a big deal - a local hurling match on the town GAA pitch. Think the streets around your high school's football stadium filled with cars on a fall Friday night, but then put it in the middle of the idyllic Irish countryside and make sure literally every single person attends. It was wild. If we could have found a place to park the car, we probably would have stopped to watch.
It took a bit more driving through gorgeous scene after gorgeous scene before we drove back into Dingle. And we were hungry! As I mentioned earlier, I wanted some seafood. But in our walk around town earlier in the night, we had noticed the prices on the outdoor menu boards were severely out of our price range. I know a lot of you guys gifted us with graduation/trip moneys, but we couldn't bring ourselves to spend right around $30 for each entree. It just wasn't going to happen. So we consulted our handy dandy guidebook (which thought it was really funny when it listed several of these pricey restaurants as "midrange"), with our eyes pealed for the "budget" section. Funnily enough, we ended up at an authentic little (and I mean little) pizza place situated across the street from a huge tourist pub and next door to a swanky seafood restaurant. Oh, and by "authentic", I mean that there was one little old Italian guy with an adorable Italian accent whistling songs in the itty bitty kitchen while he made our pizzas. I got the quattro formaggi while Ben got the carnavore. Please contain your surprise as I tell you that I also took pictures of these yummy, yummy pizzas.
Novecento (the pizza place) was so tiny that only take out was available, so we brought it back to the B&B to eat. The plan was to catch up on Bones and Glee. Too bad there are some mysterious international rights issues so you can't stream US tv shows abroad. Instead, we started downloading rentals from iTunes to catch up later in the evening. In the meantime, we turned on channel RTE One to watch this year's Eurovision final. Talk of Eurovision has been all over the radio these past few days. Since we spend so much time in the car, it was hard not to know about it. If you didn't know, Eurovision is a huge freaking deal. Like, hundreds of millions of people watching across over 100 countries huge. As tonight is the final, the top 25 songs (of 43) were performed and we're watching the voting results now. Some of the songs were.. interesting. If you want to see the range of songs on offer, search for clips from Moldova, France, Ireland, and Georgia. There were a few I wouldn't mind hearing on US radio, although we've watched so many at this point that I can't remember all of them. Not to be biased, but Italy's was really good. We're still having trouble watching the tv show rentals on the iPad, so it looks like we'll be watching Eurovision 2011 through to the end. I'll let you know how that goes.
Tomorrow we have a lot of driving ahead of us. Not only do we need to get off the last of these peninsulas, but we've got a drive up the coast, a stop off at the Cliffs of Moher, and another long drive to Galway. Luckily, Galway is a hotel, rather than a B&B so we can check in rather late in the day. With B&Bs, it is apparently bad form to show up later than 5 or 6pm. With as much driving as the map and our previous hosts suggest we have ahead of us, we'll need the extra time to check in late in the day. It also helps that Galway is a two night stay, so arriving late the first night won't set us back too much in our excursions.
Well, after much trial and error, Ben got the tv rentals working. I'd love to catch up on our shows, but this Eurovision thing has gotten kind of addicting. It's about halfway through the voting results now and neither one of us seems willing to turn it off. This means tv and, unfortunately, photos too, are getting put off for a few more hours. Hopefully some of the drive tomorrow will be only averagely beautiful, so I won't feel bad about getting the netbook out to organize photos in the car. Not sure if we have internet in the Galway hotel, but hopefully another post and a few more photos will be added then.
Until next time..
After nebbing into most shops on the main thoroughfares, we got back in the car for a change of pace. To save time on the (apparently) crap ton of driving Ben gets to do tomorrow to get us to Galway, we decided to tackle the Slea Head Drive along the edge of Dingle Peninsula before dinner. Aside from being outlandishly beautiful (shocker), there isn't too much particularly thrilling to report without having the pictures to show you yet. We did, however, stop at a few beaches along the coast that were quite lovely. One in particular required a long walk down a path carved into the cliff side, which provided a great look almost directly down on the beach. Several people had already made the requisite protestations of love in the sand below. We went a different route. With my muffled shouts from up on the path as guidance, Ben set out walking out the letters of Phi Delta Theta some six feet tall in the sand. I'm really excited to get those pictures uploaded to Facebook because I know the brothers will (excuse me, Mom) flip their shit.
The rest of the route was on narrow country roads through the mountains and along the coast. We had our first run in with a rogue sheep and opposing traffic. While I found it hilarious, Ben looked a bit stressed. The sheep hung out in front of our car while the opposing car passed. But, rather than being a good little sheepy and moving back out of the way once the other car was clear, he/she decided to remain firmly planted five feet directly in front of wherever we were, bleating in sheepy confusion all the while. It took another opposing car approaching for sheepy to finally move clear of our section of the lane and hop up onto the hedge that formed the barrier between roadway and pasture. We booked it around the sheep before it could change its mind and move back into our path.
We also had our first experience with the power of GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) sports. While driving through yet another one-lane-road, plopped-down-in-the-middle-of-farm-land kind of town, we noticed cars parked all along the edge of the narrow little roadway. Again, this is in the middle of farm land with only scattered houses here and there. The line of cars just stretched on and on. There were more cars along the road than houses we could see. We finally came up on whatever was such a big deal - a local hurling match on the town GAA pitch. Think the streets around your high school's football stadium filled with cars on a fall Friday night, but then put it in the middle of the idyllic Irish countryside and make sure literally every single person attends. It was wild. If we could have found a place to park the car, we probably would have stopped to watch.
It took a bit more driving through gorgeous scene after gorgeous scene before we drove back into Dingle. And we were hungry! As I mentioned earlier, I wanted some seafood. But in our walk around town earlier in the night, we had noticed the prices on the outdoor menu boards were severely out of our price range. I know a lot of you guys gifted us with graduation/trip moneys, but we couldn't bring ourselves to spend right around $30 for each entree. It just wasn't going to happen. So we consulted our handy dandy guidebook (which thought it was really funny when it listed several of these pricey restaurants as "midrange"), with our eyes pealed for the "budget" section. Funnily enough, we ended up at an authentic little (and I mean little) pizza place situated across the street from a huge tourist pub and next door to a swanky seafood restaurant. Oh, and by "authentic", I mean that there was one little old Italian guy with an adorable Italian accent whistling songs in the itty bitty kitchen while he made our pizzas. I got the quattro formaggi while Ben got the carnavore. Please contain your surprise as I tell you that I also took pictures of these yummy, yummy pizzas.
Novecento (the pizza place) was so tiny that only take out was available, so we brought it back to the B&B to eat. The plan was to catch up on Bones and Glee. Too bad there are some mysterious international rights issues so you can't stream US tv shows abroad. Instead, we started downloading rentals from iTunes to catch up later in the evening. In the meantime, we turned on channel RTE One to watch this year's Eurovision final. Talk of Eurovision has been all over the radio these past few days. Since we spend so much time in the car, it was hard not to know about it. If you didn't know, Eurovision is a huge freaking deal. Like, hundreds of millions of people watching across over 100 countries huge. As tonight is the final, the top 25 songs (of 43) were performed and we're watching the voting results now. Some of the songs were.. interesting. If you want to see the range of songs on offer, search for clips from Moldova, France, Ireland, and Georgia. There were a few I wouldn't mind hearing on US radio, although we've watched so many at this point that I can't remember all of them. Not to be biased, but Italy's was really good. We're still having trouble watching the tv show rentals on the iPad, so it looks like we'll be watching Eurovision 2011 through to the end. I'll let you know how that goes.
Tomorrow we have a lot of driving ahead of us. Not only do we need to get off the last of these peninsulas, but we've got a drive up the coast, a stop off at the Cliffs of Moher, and another long drive to Galway. Luckily, Galway is a hotel, rather than a B&B so we can check in rather late in the day. With B&Bs, it is apparently bad form to show up later than 5 or 6pm. With as much driving as the map and our previous hosts suggest we have ahead of us, we'll need the extra time to check in late in the day. It also helps that Galway is a two night stay, so arriving late the first night won't set us back too much in our excursions.
Well, after much trial and error, Ben got the tv rentals working. I'd love to catch up on our shows, but this Eurovision thing has gotten kind of addicting. It's about halfway through the voting results now and neither one of us seems willing to turn it off. This means tv and, unfortunately, photos too, are getting put off for a few more hours. Hopefully some of the drive tomorrow will be only averagely beautiful, so I won't feel bad about getting the netbook out to organize photos in the car. Not sure if we have internet in the Galway hotel, but hopefully another post and a few more photos will be added then.
Until next time..
I like the way the locals say 'Dingle'
Made it to Duinin House just outside of Dingle. We arrived here earlier than we have most places at this point, so we almost don't know what to do with ourselves. With some helpful maps from our host, I think we're going to walk around town and check out some different shops and things while they're still open. Then we'll hop back in the car to do the Slea (said like 'sleigh') Head Drive around the edge of the peninsula before coming back into town for dinner. We're in yet another coastal town, so there are quite a few seafood places I've been eyeing up the brochures for. Right now I'm (because Ben could care less about seafood restaurants) considering Lord Baker's (the oldest pub & largest restaurant in town) versus Out of the Blue (doesn't open for business unless they've caught something good that day). Both will probably be more expensive than we've been trying to eat so far along the trip, but it might be worth it. If the price is too far out of our league, there's always Galway for seafood before we head back to Dublin. That's my thought anyway.
Ok, time to go explore. Be back with more stories (and hopefully photos) later tonight.
Ok, time to go explore. Be back with more stories (and hopefully photos) later tonight.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Not so mini update
Hello again, all! Just got back to our darling beachside B&B after a scrumptious dinner at a great pub in a tiny fishing town called Portmagee. We really have been finding some gems on this trip. There's big business in pubs and B&Bs here, so you know that to some extent it's all a tourist trap, but the people have all been wonderful so you never feel conned by it. I don't know why I thought of that, but it's been something I've been considering. Anywho, on to the update of the past two days. Let's begin where we left off, shall we? On our way back into Blarney..
After breakfast and showers, it was back into Blarney to finish exploring the grounds around the castle. We strolled through town a bit (the less driving, the better) and stumbled upon a simple little crafters market outside the very tourist trappy shopping mall/restaurant/hotel. There were maybe only about a dozen stalls altogether, but it was fun to neb around anyway. There were locally made soaps, breads, herbal remedies (I thought of you, mom), food carts, and a musician. The end of the row of stalls led right onto the walking path to the castle, so that was perfect. We just barely missed a run-in with a tour bus group along the way. There had to have been fifty of them and we had no intentions of getting stuck behind them at the till to get onto the grounds. I'm all for a leisurely vacation in Ireland, but that would have tried my before-noon patience. Luckily, we not only got ahead of them, but we had already seen the castle the night before, so we wouldn't get caught up in their queue inside either. We headed straight for Blarney House, an 18th century home on the grounds currently occupied by local nobility of sorts. They keep the house in fairly accurate period condition, so guided tours are available for a short window of time each day. The guide was a very knowledgeable local historian who gave us the canned schpiel he was supposed to share along with tidbits from his own research, so that made for a nice touch. Unfortunately, as it is someone's current residence, we could only take pictures of the outside, which is rather impressive in it's own right. We continued through the Blarney grounds by exploring Rock Close, which is apparently often overlooked, along with the house. I felt like I was in an ancient Storybook Forest, with the Wishing Steps, Fairy Glade, and Witch's Kitchen to venture through. Got lots of pictures of all of that to share, of course.
These adventures had stirred up something of an appetite, so it was back to the Muskerry Arms for lunch before we left for Killarney. I finally had myself some real honest fish and chips! The fish was great, but the wedge-like fries left something to be desired. You know, just in case you find yourself in Blarney someday and are curious about what to order at the Muskerry Arms. As much as I wanted to stay and "just take one quick look" at the shopping plaza, Ben wisely shut that down and got us on our way. The drive to Killarney was mostly uneventful. I say that because we've done so much driving since then that has been very eventful, so, since nothing sticks out from this drive, it must not have been all that wild, crazy, or worth mentioning.
Killarney too, at least for the first night, wasn't all that exciting. There was a little confusion getting into the Woodlands B&B and then we weren't sure what to do with the night, so, by the time we got into town, most shops were closing and the only real option for entertainment was eating. We ate well, as we have the whole of the trip. We've only really eaten pub food technically (outside of the one cafe), but it has certainly served our stomachs well. After that it was another stroll back to the B&B (have you noticed that anti-driving stance Ben has taken?) to watch last week's Glee and organize the accumulated pictures. I only mention Glee because it was the 'Rumours' episode, aptly named for a Fleetwood Mac album, a band I am weirdly dorky about. (Dad, I'm not entirely sure how you feel about Fleetwood Mac, but they did a version of 'Never Going Back Again' that I think you would have enjoyed.) Anyway, it was a thoroughly enjoyable episode, Ben laughed while I sang along to every song, and I even got two albums of photos prepped to go up on Facebook. So productive.
Particularly for family, if I don't have you on Facebook, here are the public links to the photos we have uploaded so far. Keep in mind: this is only a small selection of photos. If you know me at all, you know there is no way I could go on a trip like this and only take these few photos. The photos haven't been cropped or edited or had anything fun with them yet to make them look prettier. Finally, Ben wrote all the captions, so if an inside joke doesn't fly, blame him. Also, captions have yet to be added for day 2. Day 1, Flying & Dublin: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150182202111965.303543.735401964&l=f2855a2ca5
Day 2, Bit of Dublin & Blarney: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150183870271965.303656.735401964&l=ff45e3eeaf
That brings us up to this morning in Killarney, I think. Breakfast was wonderful (I had my first taste of smoked salmon = yum), and we got to get to know our hosts a little better. Paddy came out to talk with us all through breakfast and was full of helpful tidbits for getting around. Although we had decided to be rebels and drive the Ring of Kerry clockwise (rather than the more popular anticlockwise), he pointed out that the unconventional route would make it easier for us to visit a few often-missed stops: Ross Castle, Muckross House, and Torc Waterfall. I kind of want to make an account on TripAdvisor and leave him a stellar review just for that advice alone. Granted, the Ring of Kerry is beautiful and awe inspiring and will leave you literally without words just by driving it, but it wouldn't have been the same without those stops.
Ross Castle is a wonderfully restored tower house style castle on Lough Leane dating from the 15th century. Again, photos are not permitted inside, a common theme amongst guided tours thus far, but the guide provided some insight into what it would have been like to live in a tower house castle - another common occurrence once, as literally thousands of these things were built all over Ireland some 500 years ago. They were even accommodating enough to show us what bathroom/dry cleaning facilities would have been like at the time - drafty, smelly, and communal. Great. After that tour was done, it was just a short drive down the road to Muckross House. Literally, "muckross" translates to "pig peninsula" as wild boar used to inhabit the area before people took over the scenic spot some couple hundred years ago. The house and grounds are quite simply massive. The house had something like 60+ chimneys and over 20 different bell pulls. The estate encompasses so much land that when it was donated to the Irish government in the 1930s, it became the country's first national park. There are so many lakes that something like one quarter of the park in water. And man, are they beautiful lakes. Wow. Just, wow. We only had one more stop recommended by Paddy before we officially started the Ring of Kerry within the Killarney National Park, but it's only going to be a blip in this entry because the Ring is just that damned beautiful. Torc Waterfall, although it can be reaching by jaunting car (horse-drawn carriage), we approached via Ford Focus to save on time. It's only a short hike through the woods along the stream/river to get to the fall and literally everything around you but the water is green. It's quiet and lush and damp and you could swear there had to be a Tolkien-esque elf nearby. The two minute walk takes at least five because you just need to stop and stare around you every few steps. The fall itself is beautiful and loud and just plain pretty. Thanks, Paddy, it was completely worth the side trip.
Once that was finished, we well and truly started in on the first half of the Ring of Kerry. The peninsula the Ring is situated on encompasses massive lakes, rocky fields, acres upon acres of mountainous pasture, narrow hairpin winding roads, expansive bays, and windswept sea shore. And that was only the first half! I took, quite literally, several hundred pictures. Granted, many of these were individual, overlapping shots meant to be turned into sweeping panoramas after some Photoshop wizardry, but still! It's a lot of pictures. You hear people use words like "speechless" and "breathless". I'm sure I've used those words myself before. I must amend myself. Without hyperbole, I saw some of the most beautiful vistas today that my eyes may ever see. Driving through those mountains provided breathtaking, truly took my breath away, views of the kind of countryside that pictures will never, ever do justice. Like crawling through the Great Pyramids, or standing in mosques five times as old as the United States itself, I doubt I will ever have enough words or pictures to fully describe these things to you. I want to be able to, and I know that when I see you, I will certainly try, but it will not be enough. It's simply not possible. I can show you pictures and probably make up words, but it is just too big, too beautiful, too too for me to express!
And the thing is, there's more to come. This was only the first half of the Ring of Kerry! We have nearly the whole other side of the peninsula to go tomorrow, along with the majority of Dingle Peninsula, which most sources say is the more beautiful of the two. More beautiful? It gets more beautiful?? I nearly cried writing about what we saw today. I don't think I can physically handle more beautiful! We'll just have to see when tomorrow comes.
Ok, after that novela, let's see if I can wrap up the rest of our night here in the teeny tiny town of, well, we aren't really in a town right now. We're situated right along St. Finian's Bay between the seemingly equal minuscule towns of Ballinskellig and Portmagee. Like, one lane road with a useless line painted down the middle with an unfenced sheep/cow pasture on either side kind of towns. I loved being in Blarney because it had a small town feel in spite of its tourist-ness. This place? It has a small town feel because it really is a small town. Any tourism comes from the fact that its a small town perched on what is, so far, the most beautiful little corner of the world. As I sit up in bed to write this, I am looking directly out our window, across the lawn, across the road, across the unobstructed stretch of beach and into the Atlantic Ocean. So far, life doesn't get any better than this.
We left earlier tonight to drive to Portmagee ("just o'er the mountain") for dinner, but wanted to stop to stroll along the little patch of beach first. We weren't there long, just us, some sand and water, when up from the road runs this dog. Just, out of nowhere! I'm not sure what he thought he saw, but it didn't take him long to get into the Remington trademarked "Ball? You have a ball? Throw the ball! When are you going to throw the ball? I want to chase the ball!" stance. Unfortunately for him, we had no ball. But we did find a stick! He (after checking his tags we found his name to be Ringo) seemed to feel stick was a suitable substitute for ball. Ben positively reveled in it - playing with a big happy farm dog on a beach on the coast of rural Ireland. If I thought he was in love with the Guinness factory? Ha! Nearly forgotten in this setting. Dinner, at least, was certainly forgotten. We played with Ringo for quite a while before mysterious, pretty, long-haired, undetermined shepherd dog also came down to join us. Although this dog got in on the game of fetch (or, as I like to call it, 'run really fast and kick up sand at the camera'), it seemed a bit skiddish when we got super close, so we never got a look at its handy tag. More fetch was played, the stick was broken in half (since sharing is apparently not a dog concept), but eventually dinner was remembered. The dogs followed us back up the beach and when we turned off for the footpath, the dogs turned the other way and trotted back the way they came, presumably to a nearby sheep/cow farm. We never figured out the other one's name and I'm still kind of worried about the poor things getting out on the road so easily like that, so I plan on asking about them with our hostess Bridie in the morning, in case you were worried too. She's either going to think we're crazy for playing with the town strays, or she'll laugh because the neighbor's dogs are smart enough to spot two suckers willing to play with random dogs from 300m.
When we finally made it to the recommended Bridge Bar in Portmagee for dinner, the smell of salt air had me hungry for seafood. Ben? Apparently not the seafood type, though I still mommed him and made him try everything in the mixed bag seafood dish I got but had a French name I can't remember. Regardless, incredibly yummy. We also noshed on some filo wrapped, fried prawns (aka shrimp - I love Irish lingo) for starters and homemade whiskey cake for dessert. Can't go wrong there, right? We met the cutest older couple sitting along the bench beside us who we chatted with all through and after dinner. He was English but now lived in Austrian with his Austrian wife whose English was not that great. But they were sweet and asked us about our holiday and life back in the States and would we be brave enough to get up and dance later? Dance? Oh yeah, didn't you know? There's live music and set dancing every Friday night. When the owner of the place stopped by to check in, he explained that this was what most of the locals did all year round, it wasn't just a show for tourists - although that's what it seemed to become in peak season. You partner up and dance in groups of eight, with each of the dozen or so local small towns having its own particular signature dance. Awesome, right? Totally. Were we going to, literally, step on toes by trying to join in? Heck, no! At one point our cute table neighbors did try their hand (or feet?) at a slower number, but we weren't Guinness-brave enough, since we knew we had another death defying drive up and over the mountain on one lane switchbacks to traverse before we saw the bay again.
Which is where we find ourselves now. It seems I have written quite the novel here, so if you have busy lives, I apologize. I can give you the sweetened condensed version when I see you next. In the meantime, I am off to bed as this novel took me well past my Irish bedtime. Hopefully I shall have a both shorter and sweeter update for you again tomorrow night from Duinin House in Dingle.
After breakfast and showers, it was back into Blarney to finish exploring the grounds around the castle. We strolled through town a bit (the less driving, the better) and stumbled upon a simple little crafters market outside the very tourist trappy shopping mall/restaurant/hotel. There were maybe only about a dozen stalls altogether, but it was fun to neb around anyway. There were locally made soaps, breads, herbal remedies (I thought of you, mom), food carts, and a musician. The end of the row of stalls led right onto the walking path to the castle, so that was perfect. We just barely missed a run-in with a tour bus group along the way. There had to have been fifty of them and we had no intentions of getting stuck behind them at the till to get onto the grounds. I'm all for a leisurely vacation in Ireland, but that would have tried my before-noon patience. Luckily, we not only got ahead of them, but we had already seen the castle the night before, so we wouldn't get caught up in their queue inside either. We headed straight for Blarney House, an 18th century home on the grounds currently occupied by local nobility of sorts. They keep the house in fairly accurate period condition, so guided tours are available for a short window of time each day. The guide was a very knowledgeable local historian who gave us the canned schpiel he was supposed to share along with tidbits from his own research, so that made for a nice touch. Unfortunately, as it is someone's current residence, we could only take pictures of the outside, which is rather impressive in it's own right. We continued through the Blarney grounds by exploring Rock Close, which is apparently often overlooked, along with the house. I felt like I was in an ancient Storybook Forest, with the Wishing Steps, Fairy Glade, and Witch's Kitchen to venture through. Got lots of pictures of all of that to share, of course.
These adventures had stirred up something of an appetite, so it was back to the Muskerry Arms for lunch before we left for Killarney. I finally had myself some real honest fish and chips! The fish was great, but the wedge-like fries left something to be desired. You know, just in case you find yourself in Blarney someday and are curious about what to order at the Muskerry Arms. As much as I wanted to stay and "just take one quick look" at the shopping plaza, Ben wisely shut that down and got us on our way. The drive to Killarney was mostly uneventful. I say that because we've done so much driving since then that has been very eventful, so, since nothing sticks out from this drive, it must not have been all that wild, crazy, or worth mentioning.
Killarney too, at least for the first night, wasn't all that exciting. There was a little confusion getting into the Woodlands B&B and then we weren't sure what to do with the night, so, by the time we got into town, most shops were closing and the only real option for entertainment was eating. We ate well, as we have the whole of the trip. We've only really eaten pub food technically (outside of the one cafe), but it has certainly served our stomachs well. After that it was another stroll back to the B&B (have you noticed that anti-driving stance Ben has taken?) to watch last week's Glee and organize the accumulated pictures. I only mention Glee because it was the 'Rumours' episode, aptly named for a Fleetwood Mac album, a band I am weirdly dorky about. (Dad, I'm not entirely sure how you feel about Fleetwood Mac, but they did a version of 'Never Going Back Again' that I think you would have enjoyed.) Anyway, it was a thoroughly enjoyable episode, Ben laughed while I sang along to every song, and I even got two albums of photos prepped to go up on Facebook. So productive.
Particularly for family, if I don't have you on Facebook, here are the public links to the photos we have uploaded so far. Keep in mind: this is only a small selection of photos. If you know me at all, you know there is no way I could go on a trip like this and only take these few photos. The photos haven't been cropped or edited or had anything fun with them yet to make them look prettier. Finally, Ben wrote all the captions, so if an inside joke doesn't fly, blame him. Also, captions have yet to be added for day 2. Day 1, Flying & Dublin: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150182202111965.303543.735401964&l=f2855a2ca5
Day 2, Bit of Dublin & Blarney: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150183870271965.303656.735401964&l=ff45e3eeaf
That brings us up to this morning in Killarney, I think. Breakfast was wonderful (I had my first taste of smoked salmon = yum), and we got to get to know our hosts a little better. Paddy came out to talk with us all through breakfast and was full of helpful tidbits for getting around. Although we had decided to be rebels and drive the Ring of Kerry clockwise (rather than the more popular anticlockwise), he pointed out that the unconventional route would make it easier for us to visit a few often-missed stops: Ross Castle, Muckross House, and Torc Waterfall. I kind of want to make an account on TripAdvisor and leave him a stellar review just for that advice alone. Granted, the Ring of Kerry is beautiful and awe inspiring and will leave you literally without words just by driving it, but it wouldn't have been the same without those stops.
Ross Castle is a wonderfully restored tower house style castle on Lough Leane dating from the 15th century. Again, photos are not permitted inside, a common theme amongst guided tours thus far, but the guide provided some insight into what it would have been like to live in a tower house castle - another common occurrence once, as literally thousands of these things were built all over Ireland some 500 years ago. They were even accommodating enough to show us what bathroom/dry cleaning facilities would have been like at the time - drafty, smelly, and communal. Great. After that tour was done, it was just a short drive down the road to Muckross House. Literally, "muckross" translates to "pig peninsula" as wild boar used to inhabit the area before people took over the scenic spot some couple hundred years ago. The house and grounds are quite simply massive. The house had something like 60+ chimneys and over 20 different bell pulls. The estate encompasses so much land that when it was donated to the Irish government in the 1930s, it became the country's first national park. There are so many lakes that something like one quarter of the park in water. And man, are they beautiful lakes. Wow. Just, wow. We only had one more stop recommended by Paddy before we officially started the Ring of Kerry within the Killarney National Park, but it's only going to be a blip in this entry because the Ring is just that damned beautiful. Torc Waterfall, although it can be reaching by jaunting car (horse-drawn carriage), we approached via Ford Focus to save on time. It's only a short hike through the woods along the stream/river to get to the fall and literally everything around you but the water is green. It's quiet and lush and damp and you could swear there had to be a Tolkien-esque elf nearby. The two minute walk takes at least five because you just need to stop and stare around you every few steps. The fall itself is beautiful and loud and just plain pretty. Thanks, Paddy, it was completely worth the side trip.
Once that was finished, we well and truly started in on the first half of the Ring of Kerry. The peninsula the Ring is situated on encompasses massive lakes, rocky fields, acres upon acres of mountainous pasture, narrow hairpin winding roads, expansive bays, and windswept sea shore. And that was only the first half! I took, quite literally, several hundred pictures. Granted, many of these were individual, overlapping shots meant to be turned into sweeping panoramas after some Photoshop wizardry, but still! It's a lot of pictures. You hear people use words like "speechless" and "breathless". I'm sure I've used those words myself before. I must amend myself. Without hyperbole, I saw some of the most beautiful vistas today that my eyes may ever see. Driving through those mountains provided breathtaking, truly took my breath away, views of the kind of countryside that pictures will never, ever do justice. Like crawling through the Great Pyramids, or standing in mosques five times as old as the United States itself, I doubt I will ever have enough words or pictures to fully describe these things to you. I want to be able to, and I know that when I see you, I will certainly try, but it will not be enough. It's simply not possible. I can show you pictures and probably make up words, but it is just too big, too beautiful, too too for me to express!
And the thing is, there's more to come. This was only the first half of the Ring of Kerry! We have nearly the whole other side of the peninsula to go tomorrow, along with the majority of Dingle Peninsula, which most sources say is the more beautiful of the two. More beautiful? It gets more beautiful?? I nearly cried writing about what we saw today. I don't think I can physically handle more beautiful! We'll just have to see when tomorrow comes.
Ok, after that novela, let's see if I can wrap up the rest of our night here in the teeny tiny town of, well, we aren't really in a town right now. We're situated right along St. Finian's Bay between the seemingly equal minuscule towns of Ballinskellig and Portmagee. Like, one lane road with a useless line painted down the middle with an unfenced sheep/cow pasture on either side kind of towns. I loved being in Blarney because it had a small town feel in spite of its tourist-ness. This place? It has a small town feel because it really is a small town. Any tourism comes from the fact that its a small town perched on what is, so far, the most beautiful little corner of the world. As I sit up in bed to write this, I am looking directly out our window, across the lawn, across the road, across the unobstructed stretch of beach and into the Atlantic Ocean. So far, life doesn't get any better than this.
We left earlier tonight to drive to Portmagee ("just o'er the mountain") for dinner, but wanted to stop to stroll along the little patch of beach first. We weren't there long, just us, some sand and water, when up from the road runs this dog. Just, out of nowhere! I'm not sure what he thought he saw, but it didn't take him long to get into the Remington trademarked "Ball? You have a ball? Throw the ball! When are you going to throw the ball? I want to chase the ball!" stance. Unfortunately for him, we had no ball. But we did find a stick! He (after checking his tags we found his name to be Ringo) seemed to feel stick was a suitable substitute for ball. Ben positively reveled in it - playing with a big happy farm dog on a beach on the coast of rural Ireland. If I thought he was in love with the Guinness factory? Ha! Nearly forgotten in this setting. Dinner, at least, was certainly forgotten. We played with Ringo for quite a while before mysterious, pretty, long-haired, undetermined shepherd dog also came down to join us. Although this dog got in on the game of fetch (or, as I like to call it, 'run really fast and kick up sand at the camera'), it seemed a bit skiddish when we got super close, so we never got a look at its handy tag. More fetch was played, the stick was broken in half (since sharing is apparently not a dog concept), but eventually dinner was remembered. The dogs followed us back up the beach and when we turned off for the footpath, the dogs turned the other way and trotted back the way they came, presumably to a nearby sheep/cow farm. We never figured out the other one's name and I'm still kind of worried about the poor things getting out on the road so easily like that, so I plan on asking about them with our hostess Bridie in the morning, in case you were worried too. She's either going to think we're crazy for playing with the town strays, or she'll laugh because the neighbor's dogs are smart enough to spot two suckers willing to play with random dogs from 300m.
When we finally made it to the recommended Bridge Bar in Portmagee for dinner, the smell of salt air had me hungry for seafood. Ben? Apparently not the seafood type, though I still mommed him and made him try everything in the mixed bag seafood dish I got but had a French name I can't remember. Regardless, incredibly yummy. We also noshed on some filo wrapped, fried prawns (aka shrimp - I love Irish lingo) for starters and homemade whiskey cake for dessert. Can't go wrong there, right? We met the cutest older couple sitting along the bench beside us who we chatted with all through and after dinner. He was English but now lived in Austrian with his Austrian wife whose English was not that great. But they were sweet and asked us about our holiday and life back in the States and would we be brave enough to get up and dance later? Dance? Oh yeah, didn't you know? There's live music and set dancing every Friday night. When the owner of the place stopped by to check in, he explained that this was what most of the locals did all year round, it wasn't just a show for tourists - although that's what it seemed to become in peak season. You partner up and dance in groups of eight, with each of the dozen or so local small towns having its own particular signature dance. Awesome, right? Totally. Were we going to, literally, step on toes by trying to join in? Heck, no! At one point our cute table neighbors did try their hand (or feet?) at a slower number, but we weren't Guinness-brave enough, since we knew we had another death defying drive up and over the mountain on one lane switchbacks to traverse before we saw the bay again.
Which is where we find ourselves now. It seems I have written quite the novel here, so if you have busy lives, I apologize. I can give you the sweetened condensed version when I see you next. In the meantime, I am off to bed as this novel took me well past my Irish bedtime. Hopefully I shall have a both shorter and sweeter update for you again tomorrow night from Duinin House in Dingle.
Mini update
Hopefully Blogger doesn't decide to crash on me again for the next 36 hours or so as I embark on this next update for you all. Last we spoke (in a sense), we were on our way into Blarney to explore a bit more before we got on the road to Killarney. (Keep in mind, the names of these towns sound so much better when said with the local accent.) We explored Killarney a bit in the evening, ate, slept, then started in on the first half of the Ring of Kerry. Our hosts were very helpful in pointing out some highlights that I know we would have bypassed otherwise. We're now settled in just outside of the little town of Portmagee, sitting in our room looking across the street at the beach on St. Finian's Bay. Yeah, it's amazing.
I'd love to regale you with all the intricate details, but Ben is nagging for dinner and a walk on the beach. Can a girl really argue with that? No, you're right. Off I go!
I'd love to regale you with all the intricate details, but Ben is nagging for dinner and a walk on the beach. Can a girl really argue with that? No, you're right. Off I go!
Grr..
I'm not entirely sure why, but Blogger/Blogspot has been a real pain in the ass these past few days. (Sorry for the language, mom.) We picked B&B locations so that we'd always have the internet, but Blogger has been refusing to function. I'm fairly certain I posted two days ago (the last time it worked), and now I log in today (when it's finally working again) and my last post has mysteriously disappeared. In case you missed it or need a refresher, here it is in all its majesty.
This took a little longer than I'd hoped, but don't worry, I didn't fall off the top of Blarney Castle. (It was a close thing, though. Seriously, Moms are going to freak out a little when they see the pictures.) Anywho, as you might have guessed, we've made our way to Blarney, Co. Cork by now. We spent the first day and a little bit in Dublin with its insane driving, and made it to Blarney late afternoon yesterday. We'll stay here again today til lunch before we head on to Killarney to start the Ring of Kerry tomorrow.
Dublin really was kind of crazy. You get off the plane. Take a shuttle bus to the rental car place. They say, "Drive on the left. Go clockwise through the roundabouts. Here's a map/gps" (Which may or may not be altogether reliable.) And off you go! It's wild! I can't even imagine how much more difficult it would have been had a) it been a manual and/or b) I had to drive! Ha! Because not only are you on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, but the lane markings are different (if they're there at all), the street signs are hidden and tiny (if they're there at all), and whatever road rules exist (if they're there at all) are seemingly ignored by the majority of the driving population. Bus lane, you say? Eff that bus lane, I'm driving my Fiat here! Motorcycles need to drive in vehicle lanes? Why would I do that when I can drive on the line between two vehicle lanes?? I tried to take photos of some of this insanity while poor Ben drove so you guys can get the full idea once we get home. I doubt I did it justice though. One thing's for certain, driving at home will now seem like a cake walk for both driver and (reluctant) navigator.
Aside from the adventure that is Irish city driving, Dublin is a cool old city. We didn't get to see much of it in our first day, for two key reasons. 1) We (ie, Ben) tried to drive as little as humanly possible. 2) The Guinness Storehouse tour takes Way longer than you'd ever expect. This could be because there was 'complimentary' Guinness involved, but I can't be sure. That place was huge and amazing and full of interesting facts and tidbits. I may not enjoy the taste of the stuff, but I certainly enjoyed the tour. (I can only assume Ben agrees with the latter.) Encompassing seven floors of the old Storehouse (modern day brewing takes place across the street), a discussion of all the neat stuff we came across could take up at least a whole paragraph of its own. Since we still want to get out and be productive today before we get back on the road, I'll just have to leave my description at that. We also explored Trinity College and St. Stephens Green before we hit the Guinness compound. We saw the Book of Kells and a few other religious artifacts as well as an exhibit on the College's medical school there. St. Stephens Green is this big beautiful park just smack in the middle of the city. It's one of those parks that's so rambling and natural that you really do feel like you've escaped the man-made city for something peaceful. There isn't this forced feeling you can get in other city parks I've seen, where you stay on the path and off the grass and you're only there if you've got something productive and healthy to do. Here, there were a good number of people doing that sort of thing, but more than that there were also plenty of people simply lounging on the grass, hanging out with friends after school, enjoying a picnic of take-away food from a nearby cafe, that sort of thing. When we stopped by, we still hadn't quite gotten our bearings yet and didn't really know what to do with our day, so we just plopped down on the grass with our gps and guidebook and people-watched a little while we figured it out. In the sort of chaos of the rest of the city, this park really seems like an asset to the locals.
As beautiful and interesting as parts of the city were, I think we were both glad to head out of it for a more rural setting yesterday afternoon. After hunting around for the elusive Cake Cafe for a late breakfast, we successfully got our butts out of the city and onto the M8 towards County Cork. By the way, the search for Cake Cafe was fruitful and completely worth the effort. We both had the most delicious (gigantic!) cream cheese pancake with some kind of strawberry topping and cinnamon and honest to goodness fresh lemonade. I took pictures. It was worth it. I already have plans to eat there before we catch our flight out again!
The journey to Blarney was certainly an interesting one. Ireland is apparently in the process of updating its major roadways so, although the gps got us successfully out of the city and onto the highway, there was a major swatch of roadway the gps didn't recognize. It assumed we were on some back country road, since we really were driving straight through the countryside, and even told us to turn onto "unnamed road" and "gravel drive" more than once as it tried to figure out where we were. It was a bit frustrating, but also kind of entertaining. We just stayed on the highway until it found us again, with Becky and GoogleMaps helping us over the phone from home. (Thank you!) Even once we got into the little town of Blarney, it was a struggle to find the Blarney Vale B&B. They don't seem to like formal addresses here, so we kept guessing at the street name. We thought we'd found it more than once, but with no luck. We finally broke down and strolled around town to the tourist office, where we got directions from the two friendly people inside. "You go out this way, and you're gonna make a right. But, you know, this road, it makes you go left, but you go right. And then you follow the road for a ways, just follow the road, and you'll pass two big garages, can't miss em, pass two garages and it's da tird house, on the left." Imagine all of this with the adorable local, a bit country, accent and lots of hand gestures from a slightly old gentleman. Add to that repeated emphasis on the two "garages" by the young woman who also worked there, and those were the directions we had. Now let me ask you, what do you picture when you see the word "garages"? Ben and I were both picturing essentially an autobody place, like a big garage where cars get worked on, that sort of thing. No. It took us passing the two gas stations we had passed at least half a dozen times in our earlier searches to realize these were garages! We kept following that road, as the old man instructed, and ran right into a big yellow sign for our B&B. Go figure!
After checking in and seeing our adorable little room (got a picture of that too) we walked (yay, no more driving!) back into town to track down the famous Blarney Stone. We got there with the place only open for about another hour and a half, so we made a beeline for the castle. The map showed a ton of other things to do and see on the grounds, but we didn't have time for that - we had a stone to kiss! The castle, being a castle and all, was cool and old and interesting and everything, but we can talk about that later. Right now I just want to tell you about the mental fortitude it took me to actually kiss the damn thing! So you walk to the top of this old castle, right? And you get to the top (finally) after lots of tiny, twisting, slippery stairs and you're strolling around the old battlements. It's high up. Like, really high up. And then you see the two guys manning the Kiss the Blarney Stone picture station - against the battlements, and, what's this? The big, fancy, professional camera is pointing down? Like, at the floor? Like at a big hole in the floor that's out over the Edge?? Yeah, that's where the Blarney Stone is, people. You lay down on your back, on a rubber cushy mat, the one guy supports your back, reminding you to grab on to the iron bars above your head, to just look at the wall behind you, and, oh yeah, don't look down. Trust me, old man, I am Not looking down. You scoot back (if you're me, you scoot back the tiniest bit until he nags you to scoot back more). You tilt your head and neck Way back until you see this stone on the Bottom(!) of this particular wall that you're holding onto for dear life that looks a little different than the rest - like, magically different. Ok, just kidding, calling it magically different would be "baloney" - calling it something more eloquent and subtle would be "blarney". I have yet to come up with that description yet, maybe a didn't kiss the stone long enough. Also, does anyone else find it weird that I'm fascinated by the apparent death-defying-ness of it all, rather than the fact that literally millions of people of indiscernible medical histories kissed this thing before me? Ben does. I'm just still impressed that I did it. Ben did it too, of course, like it was no big deal, like it wasn't just a couple metal bars, a rubber mat, and an old man keeping him from falling to certain death. No big deal. Tough guy..
That mission completed, we used the last few minutes the place was open to explore the garden beside the castle - the poison garden! Seriously, poison. There's a with a skull & cross bones before you walk in warning you not to touch anything or leave children unattended. Everything from nightshade to poppies to wolfsbane to poison ivy was in this place. There was even canibis! It was in its own cage with a friendly sign informing visitors that the plant had been temporarily removed from the exhibit - by the police! I literally laughed out loud. And took a picture of the sign. An ancient historical site got into trouble with the garda for growing weed? What isn't funny about that? What, not laughing? Well, too bad, it was funny at the time. And I have the picture to prove it! Ha. (Yeah, Ben just called me out for laughing about that again as I type this. Jerk.)
It was getting kind of late and we were getting kind of hungry, so we headed out of the park to grab dinner at the Muskerry Arms, a nice big, little pub in town. Dinner was yummy, they had lots of Guinness for Ben and lots of Irish cider for me, so we were both happy. I was being a jet-lagged baby and was complaining about wanting to walk back to go to bed, when the bartender asked - get this - if we were staying for bingo. "It's really good craic," he says. "You'll enjoy it." Bingo? In an Irish pub? What? I was somehow not tired anymore! It was like magic. We quickly learned that Irish bingo is different from American bingo and apparently taken quite seriously. There were a few other pairings of Americans nearby and I feel like we all won a little favor with the local bingo regulars for trying our hand - even if we never won a penny. The bartender apparently liked us because, when we finally said goodnight, he insisted we come back to say goodbye the next day. It seems like something little, but that was actually quite an awesome feeling. I'm excited to head back into town because of that.
Like, head into town right now. Ok, not right now, because I need to bathe and look a little bit presentable, but soon. Back to Blarney Castle to explore more of the grounds, grab one last meal and drink from the Muskerry Arms, say goodbye to our wonderful hostess, and get back on the road towards Kerry. We love you all, we miss you, we can't wait to bring you fun things and show you lots of pictures. Bye for now!
This took a little longer than I'd hoped, but don't worry, I didn't fall off the top of Blarney Castle. (It was a close thing, though. Seriously, Moms are going to freak out a little when they see the pictures.) Anywho, as you might have guessed, we've made our way to Blarney, Co. Cork by now. We spent the first day and a little bit in Dublin with its insane driving, and made it to Blarney late afternoon yesterday. We'll stay here again today til lunch before we head on to Killarney to start the Ring of Kerry tomorrow.
Dublin really was kind of crazy. You get off the plane. Take a shuttle bus to the rental car place. They say, "Drive on the left. Go clockwise through the roundabouts. Here's a map/gps" (Which may or may not be altogether reliable.) And off you go! It's wild! I can't even imagine how much more difficult it would have been had a) it been a manual and/or b) I had to drive! Ha! Because not only are you on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, but the lane markings are different (if they're there at all), the street signs are hidden and tiny (if they're there at all), and whatever road rules exist (if they're there at all) are seemingly ignored by the majority of the driving population. Bus lane, you say? Eff that bus lane, I'm driving my Fiat here! Motorcycles need to drive in vehicle lanes? Why would I do that when I can drive on the line between two vehicle lanes?? I tried to take photos of some of this insanity while poor Ben drove so you guys can get the full idea once we get home. I doubt I did it justice though. One thing's for certain, driving at home will now seem like a cake walk for both driver and (reluctant) navigator.
Aside from the adventure that is Irish city driving, Dublin is a cool old city. We didn't get to see much of it in our first day, for two key reasons. 1) We (ie, Ben) tried to drive as little as humanly possible. 2) The Guinness Storehouse tour takes Way longer than you'd ever expect. This could be because there was 'complimentary' Guinness involved, but I can't be sure. That place was huge and amazing and full of interesting facts and tidbits. I may not enjoy the taste of the stuff, but I certainly enjoyed the tour. (I can only assume Ben agrees with the latter.) Encompassing seven floors of the old Storehouse (modern day brewing takes place across the street), a discussion of all the neat stuff we came across could take up at least a whole paragraph of its own. Since we still want to get out and be productive today before we get back on the road, I'll just have to leave my description at that. We also explored Trinity College and St. Stephens Green before we hit the Guinness compound. We saw the Book of Kells and a few other religious artifacts as well as an exhibit on the College's medical school there. St. Stephens Green is this big beautiful park just smack in the middle of the city. It's one of those parks that's so rambling and natural that you really do feel like you've escaped the man-made city for something peaceful. There isn't this forced feeling you can get in other city parks I've seen, where you stay on the path and off the grass and you're only there if you've got something productive and healthy to do. Here, there were a good number of people doing that sort of thing, but more than that there were also plenty of people simply lounging on the grass, hanging out with friends after school, enjoying a picnic of take-away food from a nearby cafe, that sort of thing. When we stopped by, we still hadn't quite gotten our bearings yet and didn't really know what to do with our day, so we just plopped down on the grass with our gps and guidebook and people-watched a little while we figured it out. In the sort of chaos of the rest of the city, this park really seems like an asset to the locals.
As beautiful and interesting as parts of the city were, I think we were both glad to head out of it for a more rural setting yesterday afternoon. After hunting around for the elusive Cake Cafe for a late breakfast, we successfully got our butts out of the city and onto the M8 towards County Cork. By the way, the search for Cake Cafe was fruitful and completely worth the effort. We both had the most delicious (gigantic!) cream cheese pancake with some kind of strawberry topping and cinnamon and honest to goodness fresh lemonade. I took pictures. It was worth it. I already have plans to eat there before we catch our flight out again!
The journey to Blarney was certainly an interesting one. Ireland is apparently in the process of updating its major roadways so, although the gps got us successfully out of the city and onto the highway, there was a major swatch of roadway the gps didn't recognize. It assumed we were on some back country road, since we really were driving straight through the countryside, and even told us to turn onto "unnamed road" and "gravel drive" more than once as it tried to figure out where we were. It was a bit frustrating, but also kind of entertaining. We just stayed on the highway until it found us again, with Becky and GoogleMaps helping us over the phone from home. (Thank you!) Even once we got into the little town of Blarney, it was a struggle to find the Blarney Vale B&B. They don't seem to like formal addresses here, so we kept guessing at the street name. We thought we'd found it more than once, but with no luck. We finally broke down and strolled around town to the tourist office, where we got directions from the two friendly people inside. "You go out this way, and you're gonna make a right. But, you know, this road, it makes you go left, but you go right. And then you follow the road for a ways, just follow the road, and you'll pass two big garages, can't miss em, pass two garages and it's da tird house, on the left." Imagine all of this with the adorable local, a bit country, accent and lots of hand gestures from a slightly old gentleman. Add to that repeated emphasis on the two "garages" by the young woman who also worked there, and those were the directions we had. Now let me ask you, what do you picture when you see the word "garages"? Ben and I were both picturing essentially an autobody place, like a big garage where cars get worked on, that sort of thing. No. It took us passing the two gas stations we had passed at least half a dozen times in our earlier searches to realize these were garages! We kept following that road, as the old man instructed, and ran right into a big yellow sign for our B&B. Go figure!
After checking in and seeing our adorable little room (got a picture of that too) we walked (yay, no more driving!) back into town to track down the famous Blarney Stone. We got there with the place only open for about another hour and a half, so we made a beeline for the castle. The map showed a ton of other things to do and see on the grounds, but we didn't have time for that - we had a stone to kiss! The castle, being a castle and all, was cool and old and interesting and everything, but we can talk about that later. Right now I just want to tell you about the mental fortitude it took me to actually kiss the damn thing! So you walk to the top of this old castle, right? And you get to the top (finally) after lots of tiny, twisting, slippery stairs and you're strolling around the old battlements. It's high up. Like, really high up. And then you see the two guys manning the Kiss the Blarney Stone picture station - against the battlements, and, what's this? The big, fancy, professional camera is pointing down? Like, at the floor? Like at a big hole in the floor that's out over the Edge?? Yeah, that's where the Blarney Stone is, people. You lay down on your back, on a rubber cushy mat, the one guy supports your back, reminding you to grab on to the iron bars above your head, to just look at the wall behind you, and, oh yeah, don't look down. Trust me, old man, I am Not looking down. You scoot back (if you're me, you scoot back the tiniest bit until he nags you to scoot back more). You tilt your head and neck Way back until you see this stone on the Bottom(!) of this particular wall that you're holding onto for dear life that looks a little different than the rest - like, magically different. Ok, just kidding, calling it magically different would be "baloney" - calling it something more eloquent and subtle would be "blarney". I have yet to come up with that description yet, maybe a didn't kiss the stone long enough. Also, does anyone else find it weird that I'm fascinated by the apparent death-defying-ness of it all, rather than the fact that literally millions of people of indiscernible medical histories kissed this thing before me? Ben does. I'm just still impressed that I did it. Ben did it too, of course, like it was no big deal, like it wasn't just a couple metal bars, a rubber mat, and an old man keeping him from falling to certain death. No big deal. Tough guy..
That mission completed, we used the last few minutes the place was open to explore the garden beside the castle - the poison garden! Seriously, poison. There's a with a skull & cross bones before you walk in warning you not to touch anything or leave children unattended. Everything from nightshade to poppies to wolfsbane to poison ivy was in this place. There was even canibis! It was in its own cage with a friendly sign informing visitors that the plant had been temporarily removed from the exhibit - by the police! I literally laughed out loud. And took a picture of the sign. An ancient historical site got into trouble with the garda for growing weed? What isn't funny about that? What, not laughing? Well, too bad, it was funny at the time. And I have the picture to prove it! Ha. (Yeah, Ben just called me out for laughing about that again as I type this. Jerk.)
It was getting kind of late and we were getting kind of hungry, so we headed out of the park to grab dinner at the Muskerry Arms, a nice big, little pub in town. Dinner was yummy, they had lots of Guinness for Ben and lots of Irish cider for me, so we were both happy. I was being a jet-lagged baby and was complaining about wanting to walk back to go to bed, when the bartender asked - get this - if we were staying for bingo. "It's really good craic," he says. "You'll enjoy it." Bingo? In an Irish pub? What? I was somehow not tired anymore! It was like magic. We quickly learned that Irish bingo is different from American bingo and apparently taken quite seriously. There were a few other pairings of Americans nearby and I feel like we all won a little favor with the local bingo regulars for trying our hand - even if we never won a penny. The bartender apparently liked us because, when we finally said goodnight, he insisted we come back to say goodbye the next day. It seems like something little, but that was actually quite an awesome feeling. I'm excited to head back into town because of that.
Like, head into town right now. Ok, not right now, because I need to bathe and look a little bit presentable, but soon. Back to Blarney Castle to explore more of the grounds, grab one last meal and drink from the Muskerry Arms, say goodbye to our wonderful hostess, and get back on the road towards Kerry. We love you all, we miss you, we can't wait to bring you fun things and show you lots of pictures. Bye for now!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Hello again
This took a little longer than I'd hoped, but don't worry, I didn't fall off the top of Blarney Castle. (It was a close thing, though. Seriously, Moms are going to freak out a little when they see the pictures.) Anywho, as you might have guessed, we've made our way to Blarney, Co. Cork by now. We spent the first day and a little bit in Dublin with its insane driving, and made it to Blarney late afternoon yesterday. We'll stay here again today til lunch before we head on to Killarney to start the Ring of Kerry tomorrow.
Dublin really was kind of crazy. You get off the plane. Take a shuttle bus to the rental car place. They say, "Drive on the left. Go clockwise through the roundabouts. Here's a map/gps" (Which may or may not be altogether reliable.) And off you go! It's wild! I can't even imagine how much more difficult it would have been had a) it been a manual and/or b) I had to drive! Ha! Because not only are you on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, but the lane markings are different (if they're there at all), the street signs are hidden and tiny (if they're there at all), and whatever road rules exist (if they're there at all) are seemingly ignored by the majority of the driving population. Bus lane, you say? Eff that bus lane, I'm driving my Fiat here! Motorcycles need to drive in vehicle lanes? Why would I do that when I can drive on the line between two vehicle lanes?? I tried to take photos of some of this insanity while poor Ben drove so you guys can get the full idea once we get home. I doubt I did it justice though. One thing's for certain, driving at home will now seem like a cake walk for both driver and (reluctant) navigator.
Aside from the adventure that is Irish city driving, Dublin is a cool old city. We didn't get to see much of it in our first day, for two key reasons. 1) We (ie, Ben) tried to drive as little as humanly possible. 2) The Guinness Storehouse tour takes Way longer than you'd ever expect. This could be because there was 'complimentary' Guinness involved, but I can't be sure. That place was huge and amazing and full of interesting facts and tidbits. I may not enjoy the taste of the stuff, but I certainly enjoyed the tour. (I can only assume Ben agrees with the latter.) Encompassing seven floors of the old Storehouse (modern day brewing takes place across the street), a discussion of all the neat stuff we came across could take up at least a whole paragraph of its own. Since we still want to get out and be productive today before we get back on the road, I'll just have to leave my description at that. We also explored Trinity College and St. Stephens Green before we hit the Guinness compound. We saw the Book of Kells and a few other religious artifacts as well as an exhibit on the College's medical school there. St. Stephens Green is this big beautiful park just smack in the middle of the city. It's one of those parks that's so rambling and natural that you really do feel like you've escaped the man-made city for something peaceful. There isn't this forced feeling you can get in other city parks I've seen, where you stay on the path and off the grass and you're only there if you've got something productive and healthy to do. Here, there were a good number of people doing that sort of thing, but more than that there were also plenty of people simply lounging on the grass, hanging out with friends after school, enjoying a picnic of take-away food from a nearby cafe, that sort of thing. When we stopped by, we still hadn't quite gotten our bearings yet and didn't really know what to do with our day, so we just plopped down on the grass with our gps and guidebook and people-watched a little while we figured it out. In the sort of chaos of the rest of the city, this park really seems like an asset to the locals.
As beautiful and interesting as parts of the city were, I think we were both glad to head out of it for a more rural setting yesterday afternoon. After hunting around for the elusive Cake Cafe for a late breakfast, we successfully got our butts out of the city and onto the M8 towards County Cork. By the way, the search for Cake Cafe was fruitful and completely worth the effort. We both had the most delicious (gigantic!) cream cheese pancake with some kind of strawberry topping and cinnamon and honest to goodness fresh lemonade. I took pictures. It was worth it. I already have plans to eat there before we catch our flight out again!
The journey to Blarney was certainly an interesting one. Ireland is apparently in the process of updating its major roadways so, although the gps got us successfully out of the city and onto the highway, there was a major swatch of roadway the gps didn't recognize. It assumed we were on some back country road, since we really were driving straight through the countryside, and even told us to turn onto "unnamed road" and "gravel drive" more than once as it tried to figure out where we were. It was a bit frustrating, but also kind of entertaining. We just stayed on the highway until it found us again, with Becky and GoogleMaps helping us over the phone from home. (Thank you!) Even once we got into the little town of Blarney, it was a struggle to find the Blarney Vale B&B. They don't seem to like formal addresses here, so we kept guessing at the street name. We thought we'd found it more than once, but with no luck. We finally broke down and strolled around town to the tourist office, where we got directions from the two friendly people inside. "You go out this way, and you're gonna make a right. But, you know, this road, it makes you go left, but you go right. And then you follow the road for a ways, just follow the road, and you'll pass two big garages, can't miss em, pass two garages and it's da tird house, on the left." Imagine all of this with the adorable local, a bit country, accent and lots of hand gestures from a slightly old gentleman. Add to that repeated emphasis on the two "garages" by the young woman who also worked there, and those were the directions we had. Now let me ask you, what do you picture when you see the word "garages"? Ben and I were both picturing essentially an autobody place, like a big garage where cars get worked on, that sort of thing. No. It took us passing the two gas stations we had passed at least half a dozen times in our earlier searches to realize these were garages! We kept following that road, as the old man instructed, and ran right into a big yellow sign for our B&B. Go figure!
After checking in and seeing our adorable little room (got a picture of that too) we walked (yay, no more driving!) back into town to track down the famous Blarney Stone. We got there with the place only open for about another hour and a half, so we made a beeline for the castle. The map showed a ton of other things to do and see on the grounds, but we didn't have time for that - we had a stone to kiss! The castle, being a castle and all, was cool and old and interesting and everything, but we can talk about that later. Right now I just want to tell you about the mental fortitude it took me to actually kiss the damn thing! So you walk to the top of this old castle, right? And you get to the top (finally) after lots of tiny, twisting, slippery stairs and you're strolling around the old battlements. It's high up. Like, really high up. And then you see the two guys manning the Kiss the Blarney Stone picture station - against the battlements, and, what's this? The big, fancy, professional camera is pointing down? Like, at the floor? Like at a big hole in the floor that's out over the Edge?? Yeah, that's where the Blarney Stone is, people. You lay down on your back, on a rubber cushy mat, the one guy supports your back, reminding you to grab on to the iron bars above your head, to just look at the wall behind you, and, oh yeah, don't look down. Trust me, old man, I am Not looking down. You scoot back (if you're me, you scoot back the tiniest bit until he nags you to scoot back more). You tilt your head and neck Way back until you see this stone on the Bottom(!) of this particular wall that you're holding onto for dear life that looks a little different than the rest - like, magically different. Ok, just kidding, calling it magically different would be "baloney" - calling it something more eloquent and subtle would be "blarney". I have yet to come up with that description yet, maybe a didn't kiss the stone long enough. Also, does anyone else find it weird that I'm fascinated by the apparent death-defying-ness of it all, rather than the fact that literally millions of people of indiscernible medical histories kissed this thing before me? Ben does. I'm just still impressed that I did it. Ben did it too, of course, like it was no big deal, like it wasn't just a couple metal bars, a rubber mat, and an old man keeping him from falling to certain death. No big deal. Tough guy..
That mission completed, we used the last few minutes the place was open to explore the garden beside the castle - the poison garden! Seriously, poison. There's a with a skull & cross bones before you walk in warning you not to touch anything or leave children unattended. Everything from nightshade to poppies to wolfsbane to poison ivy was in this place. There was even canibis! It was in its own cage with a friendly sign informing visitors that the plant had been temporarily removed from the exhibit - by the police! I literally laughed out loud. And took a picture of the sign. An ancient historical site got into trouble with the garda for growing weed? What isn't funny about that? What, not laughing? Well, too bad, it was funny at the time. And I have the picture to prove it! Ha. (Yeah, Ben just called me out for laughing about that again as I type this. Jerk.)
It was getting kind of late and we were getting kind of hungry, so we headed out of the park to grab dinner at the Muskerry Arms, a nice big, little pub in town. Dinner was yummy, they had lots of Guinness for Ben and lots of Irish cider for me, so we were both happy. I was being a jet-lagged baby and was complaining about wanting to walk back to go to bed, when the bartender asked - get this - if we were staying for bingo. "It's really good craic," he says. "You'll enjoy it." Bingo? In an Irish pub? What? I was somehow not tired anymore! It was like magic. We quickly learned that Irish bingo is different from American bingo and apparently taken quite seriously. There were a few other pairings of Americans nearby and I feel like we all won a little favor with the local bingo regulars for trying our hand - even if we never won a penny. The bartender apparently liked us because, when we finally said goodnight, he insisted we come back to say goodbye the next day. It seems like something little, but that was actually quite an awesome feeling. I'm excited to head back into town because of that.
Like, head into town right now. Ok, not right now, because I need to bathe and look a little bit presentable, but soon. Back to Blarney Castle to explore more of the grounds, grab one last meal and drink from the Muskerry Arms, say goodbye to our wonderful hostess, and get back on the road towards Kerry. We love you all, we miss you, we can't wait to bring you fun things and show you lots of pictures. Bye for now!
Dublin really was kind of crazy. You get off the plane. Take a shuttle bus to the rental car place. They say, "Drive on the left. Go clockwise through the roundabouts. Here's a map/gps" (Which may or may not be altogether reliable.) And off you go! It's wild! I can't even imagine how much more difficult it would have been had a) it been a manual and/or b) I had to drive! Ha! Because not only are you on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, but the lane markings are different (if they're there at all), the street signs are hidden and tiny (if they're there at all), and whatever road rules exist (if they're there at all) are seemingly ignored by the majority of the driving population. Bus lane, you say? Eff that bus lane, I'm driving my Fiat here! Motorcycles need to drive in vehicle lanes? Why would I do that when I can drive on the line between two vehicle lanes?? I tried to take photos of some of this insanity while poor Ben drove so you guys can get the full idea once we get home. I doubt I did it justice though. One thing's for certain, driving at home will now seem like a cake walk for both driver and (reluctant) navigator.
Aside from the adventure that is Irish city driving, Dublin is a cool old city. We didn't get to see much of it in our first day, for two key reasons. 1) We (ie, Ben) tried to drive as little as humanly possible. 2) The Guinness Storehouse tour takes Way longer than you'd ever expect. This could be because there was 'complimentary' Guinness involved, but I can't be sure. That place was huge and amazing and full of interesting facts and tidbits. I may not enjoy the taste of the stuff, but I certainly enjoyed the tour. (I can only assume Ben agrees with the latter.) Encompassing seven floors of the old Storehouse (modern day brewing takes place across the street), a discussion of all the neat stuff we came across could take up at least a whole paragraph of its own. Since we still want to get out and be productive today before we get back on the road, I'll just have to leave my description at that. We also explored Trinity College and St. Stephens Green before we hit the Guinness compound. We saw the Book of Kells and a few other religious artifacts as well as an exhibit on the College's medical school there. St. Stephens Green is this big beautiful park just smack in the middle of the city. It's one of those parks that's so rambling and natural that you really do feel like you've escaped the man-made city for something peaceful. There isn't this forced feeling you can get in other city parks I've seen, where you stay on the path and off the grass and you're only there if you've got something productive and healthy to do. Here, there were a good number of people doing that sort of thing, but more than that there were also plenty of people simply lounging on the grass, hanging out with friends after school, enjoying a picnic of take-away food from a nearby cafe, that sort of thing. When we stopped by, we still hadn't quite gotten our bearings yet and didn't really know what to do with our day, so we just plopped down on the grass with our gps and guidebook and people-watched a little while we figured it out. In the sort of chaos of the rest of the city, this park really seems like an asset to the locals.
As beautiful and interesting as parts of the city were, I think we were both glad to head out of it for a more rural setting yesterday afternoon. After hunting around for the elusive Cake Cafe for a late breakfast, we successfully got our butts out of the city and onto the M8 towards County Cork. By the way, the search for Cake Cafe was fruitful and completely worth the effort. We both had the most delicious (gigantic!) cream cheese pancake with some kind of strawberry topping and cinnamon and honest to goodness fresh lemonade. I took pictures. It was worth it. I already have plans to eat there before we catch our flight out again!
The journey to Blarney was certainly an interesting one. Ireland is apparently in the process of updating its major roadways so, although the gps got us successfully out of the city and onto the highway, there was a major swatch of roadway the gps didn't recognize. It assumed we were on some back country road, since we really were driving straight through the countryside, and even told us to turn onto "unnamed road" and "gravel drive" more than once as it tried to figure out where we were. It was a bit frustrating, but also kind of entertaining. We just stayed on the highway until it found us again, with Becky and GoogleMaps helping us over the phone from home. (Thank you!) Even once we got into the little town of Blarney, it was a struggle to find the Blarney Vale B&B. They don't seem to like formal addresses here, so we kept guessing at the street name. We thought we'd found it more than once, but with no luck. We finally broke down and strolled around town to the tourist office, where we got directions from the two friendly people inside. "You go out this way, and you're gonna make a right. But, you know, this road, it makes you go left, but you go right. And then you follow the road for a ways, just follow the road, and you'll pass two big garages, can't miss em, pass two garages and it's da tird house, on the left." Imagine all of this with the adorable local, a bit country, accent and lots of hand gestures from a slightly old gentleman. Add to that repeated emphasis on the two "garages" by the young woman who also worked there, and those were the directions we had. Now let me ask you, what do you picture when you see the word "garages"? Ben and I were both picturing essentially an autobody place, like a big garage where cars get worked on, that sort of thing. No. It took us passing the two gas stations we had passed at least half a dozen times in our earlier searches to realize these were garages! We kept following that road, as the old man instructed, and ran right into a big yellow sign for our B&B. Go figure!
After checking in and seeing our adorable little room (got a picture of that too) we walked (yay, no more driving!) back into town to track down the famous Blarney Stone. We got there with the place only open for about another hour and a half, so we made a beeline for the castle. The map showed a ton of other things to do and see on the grounds, but we didn't have time for that - we had a stone to kiss! The castle, being a castle and all, was cool and old and interesting and everything, but we can talk about that later. Right now I just want to tell you about the mental fortitude it took me to actually kiss the damn thing! So you walk to the top of this old castle, right? And you get to the top (finally) after lots of tiny, twisting, slippery stairs and you're strolling around the old battlements. It's high up. Like, really high up. And then you see the two guys manning the Kiss the Blarney Stone picture station - against the battlements, and, what's this? The big, fancy, professional camera is pointing down? Like, at the floor? Like at a big hole in the floor that's out over the Edge?? Yeah, that's where the Blarney Stone is, people. You lay down on your back, on a rubber cushy mat, the one guy supports your back, reminding you to grab on to the iron bars above your head, to just look at the wall behind you, and, oh yeah, don't look down. Trust me, old man, I am Not looking down. You scoot back (if you're me, you scoot back the tiniest bit until he nags you to scoot back more). You tilt your head and neck Way back until you see this stone on the Bottom(!) of this particular wall that you're holding onto for dear life that looks a little different than the rest - like, magically different. Ok, just kidding, calling it magically different would be "baloney" - calling it something more eloquent and subtle would be "blarney". I have yet to come up with that description yet, maybe a didn't kiss the stone long enough. Also, does anyone else find it weird that I'm fascinated by the apparent death-defying-ness of it all, rather than the fact that literally millions of people of indiscernible medical histories kissed this thing before me? Ben does. I'm just still impressed that I did it. Ben did it too, of course, like it was no big deal, like it wasn't just a couple metal bars, a rubber mat, and an old man keeping him from falling to certain death. No big deal. Tough guy..
That mission completed, we used the last few minutes the place was open to explore the garden beside the castle - the poison garden! Seriously, poison. There's a with a skull & cross bones before you walk in warning you not to touch anything or leave children unattended. Everything from nightshade to poppies to wolfsbane to poison ivy was in this place. There was even canibis! It was in its own cage with a friendly sign informing visitors that the plant had been temporarily removed from the exhibit - by the police! I literally laughed out loud. And took a picture of the sign. An ancient historical site got into trouble with the garda for growing weed? What isn't funny about that? What, not laughing? Well, too bad, it was funny at the time. And I have the picture to prove it! Ha. (Yeah, Ben just called me out for laughing about that again as I type this. Jerk.)
It was getting kind of late and we were getting kind of hungry, so we headed out of the park to grab dinner at the Muskerry Arms, a nice big, little pub in town. Dinner was yummy, they had lots of Guinness for Ben and lots of Irish cider for me, so we were both happy. I was being a jet-lagged baby and was complaining about wanting to walk back to go to bed, when the bartender asked - get this - if we were staying for bingo. "It's really good craic," he says. "You'll enjoy it." Bingo? In an Irish pub? What? I was somehow not tired anymore! It was like magic. We quickly learned that Irish bingo is different from American bingo and apparently taken quite seriously. There were a few other pairings of Americans nearby and I feel like we all won a little favor with the local bingo regulars for trying our hand - even if we never won a penny. The bartender apparently liked us because, when we finally said goodnight, he insisted we come back to say goodbye the next day. It seems like something little, but that was actually quite an awesome feeling. I'm excited to head back into town because of that.
Like, head into town right now. Ok, not right now, because I need to bathe and look a little bit presentable, but soon. Back to Blarney Castle to explore more of the grounds, grab one last meal and drink from the Muskerry Arms, say goodbye to our wonderful hostess, and get back on the road towards Kerry. We love you all, we miss you, we can't wait to bring you fun things and show you lots of pictures. Bye for now!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Leavin' on a jet plane
I'm sitting here on a window ledge, near the only wall outlets at our gate, watching a sweet Kelly green airplane taxi towards me. Awesome, I know. I tried to get a photo of the giant clover on the tail, but Spencer's camera was set to video, so, instead of a photo, I have a three second video of the plane taxiing forward and me muttering in confusion at the tiny camera while I try to switch it to still mode.
We don't board until a little after 9, so we'll probably be grabbing a bite to eat at the restaurant near our gate to kill the time. Ironically enough, the restaurant nearest our gate is Tigin Irish Pub & Restaurant. Fitting, right? It'll probably feel like blasphemy on the way home, after being spoiled with legitimate Irish pubs for a week. (I can't wait.) Not surprisingly, I've already picked out the place I want to visit for breakfast tomorrow morning: Cake Cafe. I trust Bobby Flay's recommendations. He wouldn't lead me astray.
Ok, time to pack this thing up so we can snag a table. Fingers crossed, the next post will be from Dublin!
We don't board until a little after 9, so we'll probably be grabbing a bite to eat at the restaurant near our gate to kill the time. Ironically enough, the restaurant nearest our gate is Tigin Irish Pub & Restaurant. Fitting, right? It'll probably feel like blasphemy on the way home, after being spoiled with legitimate Irish pubs for a week. (I can't wait.) Not surprisingly, I've already picked out the place I want to visit for breakfast tomorrow morning: Cake Cafe. I trust Bobby Flay's recommendations. He wouldn't lead me astray.
Ok, time to pack this thing up so we can snag a table. Fingers crossed, the next post will be from Dublin!
At it again
Hello all! (All seven of you)
It's that time again. Time to get this little blog up and running as Ben and I prepare to depart this lovely country of ours for one distinctly more... green. :) The bags are packed. Goodbyes are said (for the most part). My nails have yet to be bitten completely back in sheer anxiousness. (A victory in and of itself.) I don't know what else to do before we depart for the airport but this, really.
Ben would like me to inform you that the title of the blog has been edited to fit this trip. We have added the subtitle "Travels with Trodden" to the existing heading. He thinks it's only fair. I suppose I agree. Now I just need to figure out how to add that to the main page so it actually shows up in more places than just this post. We've got a decently long layover in JFK, so I can fiddle with it then. Maybe I'll even fiddle with it on my swanky new iPad! (Thanks, Mom & Dad!)
Well, seeing as we haven't left New Castle yet, there isn't too much excitement to report - aside from the obvious: We're going to Ireland!! Ahh! It's difficult for me not to do this little childish hop in place/dance thing any time I think about just how awesome that statement is. You can ask Ben. He laughs at me every time! Ok, but really. That's all for now. We love you all. We miss you already. I'm sure we'll be updating again soon. Ta ta!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Home, sweet home (almost)
It is so So exciting to be back in the States! As I type, I'm still in Clarion, but that's close enough to home for me right now.
This update took longer than I thought, but not because anything went wrong on the way home - never fear! Since we had long layovers (5 hours in Frankfurt, 4 hours in Philly), the fact that the flights ran a little late wasn't an issue. We didn't even have any problems getting through immigration or customs, which had been my biggest concern. I just couldn't get the damn wifi to connect at our gate in Philadelphia! Nothing more exciting than that. We were in Pittsburgh International long enough to realize that it was the most accommodating and easy to use airport we had traveled in over the course of the entire trip, but not long enough for me to actually bother longing on. When I got back to Givan Hall in Clarion last night, all I was ready to do was sleep, so no update then either. Now I'm awake and dressed and fed and hanging out in the Honors Office until Domster can come pick me up, so I figured this was as good a time as any to let you all know that I made it back safe and sound. Just one more relatively short drive and then I can officially say "I'm home!" I really can't wait to be able to say that.
This update took longer than I thought, but not because anything went wrong on the way home - never fear! Since we had long layovers (5 hours in Frankfurt, 4 hours in Philly), the fact that the flights ran a little late wasn't an issue. We didn't even have any problems getting through immigration or customs, which had been my biggest concern. I just couldn't get the damn wifi to connect at our gate in Philadelphia! Nothing more exciting than that. We were in Pittsburgh International long enough to realize that it was the most accommodating and easy to use airport we had traveled in over the course of the entire trip, but not long enough for me to actually bother longing on. When I got back to Givan Hall in Clarion last night, all I was ready to do was sleep, so no update then either. Now I'm awake and dressed and fed and hanging out in the Honors Office until Domster can come pick me up, so I figured this was as good a time as any to let you all know that I made it back safe and sound. Just one more relatively short drive and then I can officially say "I'm home!" I really can't wait to be able to say that.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
I dont know the German word for "hello"
Nor can I find a freaking apostrophe on this ridiculous airport internet kiosk. It"s frustrating to say the least. Just wanted to check in and let you all know we made it to Frankfurt safely. We"re just waiting around now for about another hour til we catch our flight to Philadelphia. That"s going to be a long one and I"m not looking forward to it. At Philly we"ll go through customs which will be an adventure in itself. There"s free wifi there too, so I should be updating again then. Also, the euro really stinks after spending in Egyptian pounds for two weeks. Not fun.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
One more time, ya?
If things go as planned, this will probably be my last post from Egypt. Right now that's got me feeling pretty ambivalent. I've loved my time here, even with the heat and the traffic and the language barrier and all that. But I also know I am more than ready to come home to all of you (and to American food!) again.
Today was a fun one for me and probably the best way to end our time in Cairo. We dropped a small group of kids off at the zoo and then made our way to Khan el Khalili bazaar for (lots and lots of) shopping. Like last time, I'd love to detail all the stuff I picked up, but that would just defeat the whole purpose of my shopping, now wouldn't it? I did get a little selfish and spend money on myself again. I got a little metal lamp and a fantastic antique Bedouin coffee pot. It's gorgeous now and I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's all polished up. I've been eyeing both of those items up almost the whole time we've been here and I knew I didn't want to leave the country without at least one of them. And now I have both. What can I say? I had a few hundred pounds burning a hole in my pocket. What else was there to do??
We hit up another mall food court for lunch. Somehow this one wasn't crowded beyond all reason so we were able to order, get our food and eat at an actual table, all in under 30 minutes. There's a first time for everything, I suppose. Adel directed us to a little artisan shop thing on the way back to the hotel where we watched a brief glass blowing demonstration and perfume sampling. Well, "essences" not "perfume" - the proprietor made an effort to stress that distinction. They've got a nice setup there. Glass making for perfume bottles downstairs, showroom for their scents upstairs. I think only one or two people actually bought anything there as it was a little pricey, and most of us had blown the last of our money at the bazaar earlier in the day. But Adel got us the hookup - he has mad connections - and made sure there would be henna artists there too. My foot is sufficiently henna'ed now. I would have gotten the full hand, but I didn't want to be scrubbing that off in a week or two when I start work at the Science Center. The foot is less of an issue for work, although it did mean I had to walk barefoot for about 20 feet from the door to the bus. It was a perilous 20 feet, but my tootsies made it just fine. Don't worry.
We've been back at the hotel since then. I know I should be packing, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm taking an extra carry on on the way back, so I should have room for all the crap I've bought along the way, but I'm just not sure. I may have to toss out some clothing items here or there. When I bought them, I made sure everything was super cheap because I didn't think I'd want to wear them again after Egypt. Now I've grown a little attached and don't want to part with them. I think I'll be emptying my bags once this post goes up and repacking from scratch. Yasser informed us that we're going to be allowed two checked bags on the way home, which was a surprise to most of us. I didn't want to have to take advantage of that, but it might be happening. We'll see what happens.
Since I missed my update yesterday, I'll give you guys the rundown on that too. We were still in Alexandria at the time, so we had a few more historic sites to see there. We had another late start since the profs were taking pity on our exhausted selves and we had to pack again to head back to Cairo, and then headed out to see the catacombs. No cameras allowed there, so no good pictures to show off once I'm home. We walked around the tombs a bit, and it was only a little creepy, as it was mostly emptied out. There was one room though that was used as the tomb for winning race horses, so there was a glass case of a pile of horse bones. Not gonna lie, kinda creepy. Also kind of funny because some kids weren't paying attention and assumed they were looking at human bones. Yeah, one gigantic human. (It was more amusing at the time, I swear. Also would be funnier if I weren't half asleep now. Yeah, that's it.) Fun fact about the tombs there: they were discovered by a donkey. A donkey and cart fell into a sink hole in the early 20th century and the sink hole grew as they tried to get it back out. In their digging, they discovered several tombs and just kept excavating. So thanks, donkey. The next stop was Pompei's column, or maybe Bombay's column. Something like that. I couldn't actually tell with Adel's accent. Either way, it's an enormous Greco-Roman column in the middle of the ruins of a Roman Empire-era city. Pretty nifty, but not the most interesting thing I've seen on this trip. It was hot and we were tired, so we snapped a few pictures, listened to Adel's schpiel, and got back on the bus. Last stop was the Quaitbay Citadel which is on the end of a spit of land in the harbor, so we were able to get great views of the city and the Mediterranean Sea. As promised, Adel made sure to stop by a public beach as we left so we could all file out, stand in the water for 3 minutes, and file back onto the bus. I can now say I've been on three continents, three countries, and two seas thanks to this trip, so that three minutes was enough for me.
Another mall food court became our lunch stop and I'm ashamed to admit that I broke down and bought American food. It wasn't the best Big Mac I've ever tasted, but it was close. I also made the mistake of getting ice cream again. A mistake in that it didn't live up to the hype of the day before and because the cashier was an a-hole. I should have known he was going to be a pain when he kept pulling the sample he offered me out of my reach for about a solid minute when I first walked up to the counter. Then when I went to pay, he refused to give me my change. Ten pounds worth of change! He thought he was hilarious, pretending to not understand what I was asking and then saying I was telling lies. Lauren, one of my roommates, and I argued with him for a good two or three minutes. That's an awfully long time when someone's trying to rip you off, let me just tell you. He finally gave in when I stopped being the polite American and started being the pissed off American looking for a security guard. I feel like the ice cream (white chocolate raspberry) would have tasted better had I not been fuming. Just a thought.
From there the bus took us to one of the shadiest train stations I think I've ever seen, in life or in cinema. I snapped a few pictures, but we were running late (shocker!) and had to make our train. Somehow the tour guide gods were smiling on us and we got one entire first class car all to ourselves. Apparently this was again thanks to Adel and our security detail pulling some strings. They do that a lot here in Egypt, I've noticed. That was probably the most roomy form of travel we've encountered thus far or will for the rest of the trip, all thanks to Adel. I love that little man. The train took us through the delta region on the way back to Cairo, so we got to see some different cities, towns, and farming areas before the sun went down. When I woke up, we were in an even shadier train station than before. The place must have been under construction. Literally every wall, all the way up this multistory building, inside and out, was covered in scaffolding and these dingy, dark green curtains. Super sketch. And of course we had to stand around in our giant group waiting for our luggage, then waiting to get on the next bus, making the security guys nervous all over again. We got back to King Hotel, home sweet Egyptian home, around 11pm. Sure enough, they had "dinner" for us, bringing premade plates of chicken and french fries and a few other things too all of us scattered about the lobby. I know this isn't the best hotel I've ever stayed in, but the staff sure is accommodating. Kudos to them for that.
That about wraps it up for the last day or so. I've got three hours now to shower, pack and try not to panic about checked luggage weight limits. It'll be a struggle at times, but I'll manage. We leave the hotel at 1:30am - so basically 2am, given our track record. We're flying Lufthansa again to Frankfurt and then to Philly. We've got a five hour layover in Frankfurt and four hours in Philly. Not sure about Germany, but I know I'll be able to update once I'm back in the States, which should be around 5pm tomorrow. I've got a long day of travel ahead of me, but it's going to be worth it. See you all again soon!
Today was a fun one for me and probably the best way to end our time in Cairo. We dropped a small group of kids off at the zoo and then made our way to Khan el Khalili bazaar for (lots and lots of) shopping. Like last time, I'd love to detail all the stuff I picked up, but that would just defeat the whole purpose of my shopping, now wouldn't it? I did get a little selfish and spend money on myself again. I got a little metal lamp and a fantastic antique Bedouin coffee pot. It's gorgeous now and I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's all polished up. I've been eyeing both of those items up almost the whole time we've been here and I knew I didn't want to leave the country without at least one of them. And now I have both. What can I say? I had a few hundred pounds burning a hole in my pocket. What else was there to do??
We hit up another mall food court for lunch. Somehow this one wasn't crowded beyond all reason so we were able to order, get our food and eat at an actual table, all in under 30 minutes. There's a first time for everything, I suppose. Adel directed us to a little artisan shop thing on the way back to the hotel where we watched a brief glass blowing demonstration and perfume sampling. Well, "essences" not "perfume" - the proprietor made an effort to stress that distinction. They've got a nice setup there. Glass making for perfume bottles downstairs, showroom for their scents upstairs. I think only one or two people actually bought anything there as it was a little pricey, and most of us had blown the last of our money at the bazaar earlier in the day. But Adel got us the hookup - he has mad connections - and made sure there would be henna artists there too. My foot is sufficiently henna'ed now. I would have gotten the full hand, but I didn't want to be scrubbing that off in a week or two when I start work at the Science Center. The foot is less of an issue for work, although it did mean I had to walk barefoot for about 20 feet from the door to the bus. It was a perilous 20 feet, but my tootsies made it just fine. Don't worry.
We've been back at the hotel since then. I know I should be packing, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm taking an extra carry on on the way back, so I should have room for all the crap I've bought along the way, but I'm just not sure. I may have to toss out some clothing items here or there. When I bought them, I made sure everything was super cheap because I didn't think I'd want to wear them again after Egypt. Now I've grown a little attached and don't want to part with them. I think I'll be emptying my bags once this post goes up and repacking from scratch. Yasser informed us that we're going to be allowed two checked bags on the way home, which was a surprise to most of us. I didn't want to have to take advantage of that, but it might be happening. We'll see what happens.
Since I missed my update yesterday, I'll give you guys the rundown on that too. We were still in Alexandria at the time, so we had a few more historic sites to see there. We had another late start since the profs were taking pity on our exhausted selves and we had to pack again to head back to Cairo, and then headed out to see the catacombs. No cameras allowed there, so no good pictures to show off once I'm home. We walked around the tombs a bit, and it was only a little creepy, as it was mostly emptied out. There was one room though that was used as the tomb for winning race horses, so there was a glass case of a pile of horse bones. Not gonna lie, kinda creepy. Also kind of funny because some kids weren't paying attention and assumed they were looking at human bones. Yeah, one gigantic human. (It was more amusing at the time, I swear. Also would be funnier if I weren't half asleep now. Yeah, that's it.) Fun fact about the tombs there: they were discovered by a donkey. A donkey and cart fell into a sink hole in the early 20th century and the sink hole grew as they tried to get it back out. In their digging, they discovered several tombs and just kept excavating. So thanks, donkey. The next stop was Pompei's column, or maybe Bombay's column. Something like that. I couldn't actually tell with Adel's accent. Either way, it's an enormous Greco-Roman column in the middle of the ruins of a Roman Empire-era city. Pretty nifty, but not the most interesting thing I've seen on this trip. It was hot and we were tired, so we snapped a few pictures, listened to Adel's schpiel, and got back on the bus. Last stop was the Quaitbay Citadel which is on the end of a spit of land in the harbor, so we were able to get great views of the city and the Mediterranean Sea. As promised, Adel made sure to stop by a public beach as we left so we could all file out, stand in the water for 3 minutes, and file back onto the bus. I can now say I've been on three continents, three countries, and two seas thanks to this trip, so that three minutes was enough for me.
Another mall food court became our lunch stop and I'm ashamed to admit that I broke down and bought American food. It wasn't the best Big Mac I've ever tasted, but it was close. I also made the mistake of getting ice cream again. A mistake in that it didn't live up to the hype of the day before and because the cashier was an a-hole. I should have known he was going to be a pain when he kept pulling the sample he offered me out of my reach for about a solid minute when I first walked up to the counter. Then when I went to pay, he refused to give me my change. Ten pounds worth of change! He thought he was hilarious, pretending to not understand what I was asking and then saying I was telling lies. Lauren, one of my roommates, and I argued with him for a good two or three minutes. That's an awfully long time when someone's trying to rip you off, let me just tell you. He finally gave in when I stopped being the polite American and started being the pissed off American looking for a security guard. I feel like the ice cream (white chocolate raspberry) would have tasted better had I not been fuming. Just a thought.
From there the bus took us to one of the shadiest train stations I think I've ever seen, in life or in cinema. I snapped a few pictures, but we were running late (shocker!) and had to make our train. Somehow the tour guide gods were smiling on us and we got one entire first class car all to ourselves. Apparently this was again thanks to Adel and our security detail pulling some strings. They do that a lot here in Egypt, I've noticed. That was probably the most roomy form of travel we've encountered thus far or will for the rest of the trip, all thanks to Adel. I love that little man. The train took us through the delta region on the way back to Cairo, so we got to see some different cities, towns, and farming areas before the sun went down. When I woke up, we were in an even shadier train station than before. The place must have been under construction. Literally every wall, all the way up this multistory building, inside and out, was covered in scaffolding and these dingy, dark green curtains. Super sketch. And of course we had to stand around in our giant group waiting for our luggage, then waiting to get on the next bus, making the security guys nervous all over again. We got back to King Hotel, home sweet Egyptian home, around 11pm. Sure enough, they had "dinner" for us, bringing premade plates of chicken and french fries and a few other things too all of us scattered about the lobby. I know this isn't the best hotel I've ever stayed in, but the staff sure is accommodating. Kudos to them for that.
That about wraps it up for the last day or so. I've got three hours now to shower, pack and try not to panic about checked luggage weight limits. It'll be a struggle at times, but I'll manage. We leave the hotel at 1:30am - so basically 2am, given our track record. We're flying Lufthansa again to Frankfurt and then to Philly. We've got a five hour layover in Frankfurt and four hours in Philly. Not sure about Germany, but I know I'll be able to update once I'm back in the States, which should be around 5pm tomorrow. I've got a long day of travel ahead of me, but it's going to be worth it. See you all again soon!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Playing catch up
Ok, so lots to talk about, let's not waste any time.
Today (Monday): Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the late morning, followed by lunch at an overcrowded mall food court, a drive through the grounds and gardens of the former royal summer palaces and the Royal Jewelry Museum in the afternoon, finished with a delicious dinner and birthday cake back at the hotel in the evening.
The Bibliotheca, as I've mentioned before, is just full to bursting with cool stuff. You can tell they've made a conscious effort to be ultra modern and cutting edge while also reminding you of what the facility is meant to replace. I got to take quite a few pictures of the reading floors, as they call them, which is where much of the collection of books is housed and available to the public. For instance, the walls of the reading floors are covered in small black squares that resemble the pigeon holes where scrolls were housed in the original library. In this library, those squares are actually a sound dampening material. The support pillars throughout the reading floors resemble the lotus flower, a major symbol of ancient Egypt. The pillars serve a second purpose in that they house flame retardant partitions that will expand to protect the collection in case of fire. Even the windows in the ceiling are designed in such a way to keep water from pooling on the roof and finding its way into the building, as well as letting sunlight in to limit the use of lightbulbs while preventing the natural light from damaging the artifacts. Seriously techy place they've got going there. There were a few other nifty gizmos and gadgets there, like the Internet Archive and Egypt's first printing press, and some swanky art exhibitions, like the sketches and belongings of filmmaker Shadi Abdel Salam which I loved. I couldn't get pictures of those things, but trust me, they were pretty damn nifty.
I don't have time tonight to get into the craziness that was the mall we stopped at for lunch today. I will mention the ice cream though. Holy crap is Egyptian ice cream delicious. This is now the second time I've had it and I hope I can sneak one more in before we leave. It's this cross between sorbet and Italian ice and gelato and it's just so so good. I'd give it a close second in awesomeness only to old school Italian gelato like you can get at Mulberry Street Creamery or Michelle's Cafe. It's that good.
After making our way out, and seeing the second Starbucks in all of Egypt, we took a short drive through what was formerly property of the royal family. The family kept a summer resort with two palaces (yes, two!), their own private harbor on the Mediterranean, and acres and acres of gardens. One palace was meant for the females of the royal family, while the smaller was for the males. The males' palace has been converted into a hotel, while the females' has been closed since the revolution in 1952. The gardens now exist as a huge public park with tons of shaded areas for families and couples to congregate and a beautiful little piece of private beach. I snapped a few photos, but we weren't paying 17 pounds to stick our feet in the water. Adel promises he'll take us to a public beach tomorrow so we can say we've done that.
The Royal Jewelry Museum was the last official stop of the day. This was also a former palace of the royal family, the residence of a princess if I remember right. It seemed like everything this family owned was made of gold or platinum and positively dripping with diamonds or rubies or emeralds or some combination of precious stones. The palace itself is very well preserved - the wooden floors, hand carved ceilings, stained glass, murals, even the banisters obviously took skill to create. We even had to wear little cloth booties like we were in a mosque to preserve the floor. The guards there were a little pushy, but that's the first time we've encountered anyone who wasn't super helpful, so I'd say that's not too bad for a two week stay.
Dinner in the hotel was superb - no surprise there, considering the rest of the place. Adel proved once again how awesome he is by sneakily purchasing some cakes from a local bakery so we could celebrate the birthday of one of the girls on the trip after dinner. We sang to her and then the hotel staff, Adel, and Yasser sang to her in Arabic. She had no idea we were planning anything, so it made for a fun end to the night. I've been pretty lazy since then. Just a little bit of packing to do, since we catch a train back to Cairo tomorrow afternoon.
Yesterday (Sunday): Six hour boat trip on the Red Sea for snorkeling (and sunburn), more packing, followed by lots and lots of quality travel time back to Cairo for dinner by plane and continuing on to Alexandria late (late!) in the evening by bus - really it was more like early (early!) morning.
I know I've mentioned this here and there before, but snorkeling in the coral reefs of Ras Mohamed Park has been something I've really been looking forward to on this trip. We got to the harbor fairly early in the day, around 8 or 9 in the morning, to pick up our flippers and masks and snorkels before boarding the boat. We all had to laugh when we were told not to forget our boat name - how could we when it was named "Barrag"? (With the Arabic accent, it was impossible for our guides to say it any way other than "Barrack". It was probably funnier at the time. You'll just have to trust me on that one.) Romeo, our captain, drove us out about an hour to see the magic lake (I still don't know what was so magical about it), a large stand of mangrove trees (I'm not taking the courses, so I don't quite understand the importance, but I'll go with it), and then backtracked a little to get to our first dive spot. We had two master divers with us, one to lead and one to watch the back of the group for any stragglers, which ended up being quite helpful. A good number of our kids and adults got sea sick or had ear pressure problems or any number of water/diving related ailments, so our guides became their best friends.
The first dive took us along a wall of coral reef that almost just touched the surface of the water, so we could only swim alongside, rather than above it. Probably needless to say, but it was beautiful. The coral was just as colorful and full of life as you'd imagine - very Finding Nemo. Apparently something was lost in translation though, because when our guides would point out a clown fish, they called it a "Captain Nemo" fish, rather than a "Finding Nemo" fish. Wrong pop culture reference, divers, sorry. We swam for a good half hour or so before getting back on the boat. Once I was in the water, life was good, if a little salty. Getting on and off the boat could be a challenge. This had to be done quickly because the boat was moving and we didn't want the group to get too spread out in the water. Getting in was just a simple jump, but you had to hold onto your mask and have your snorkel already in place. (For girls, you also had to hold onto your top. In a strange twist, it was actually quite lucky that everyone was so disoriented when they first jumped in. I don't think the boys would have known what to do with themselves if they realized how many bikini tops were.. misplaced.)
The second stop was optional, since quite a few people were still sick and some were just plain tired out from the first round, and they really missed out. The guides promised that the second stop would be better. They never really said how, just "better". They didn't disappoint. This time the coral was farther from the surface, so we were able to swim above much of what we saw. The guide would even dive down to point out specific interesting fish or bring empty shells back to the surface. We had to put everything back, of course, but I got to hold a piece of an enormous clam shell, which was awesome. He even encouraged us to try to touch a small school of "Captain Nemo" fish as they're apparently very friendly. I'm not entirely sure how a fish can be friendly, but I wasn't going to question the man. I didn't have one, but two or three of the girls had underwater cameras, so I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures in a few weeks once they get developed and added to Facebook. I'll add a link here when they're up.
The crew served us an awesome lunch after the second dive and we were allowed to go in or out of the water at our leisure, since we would be anchored for about an hour. About a dozen of us spent that time lying out on the sun deck. About a dozen of us are also still a nice rosy shade, a day and a half later. And me, the girl who got burnt to a bubbly crisp two summers ago, is in the same shape! I'm furious with myself. I brought aloe though, so I'm doctoring myself up and doling out aloe like a mom to a few of the other victims. With any luck, it won't be quite so painful by Thursday morning. Sleeping in a big comfy bed is bad enough with sunburn. A seat in economy class for 7 hours is going to be no picnic. Fun story: we almost left one of our kids in the Red Sea. Yep. One of our girls is a triathlete, so instead of coming on board for lunch, she went back out into the water. For, like, an hour! We do this cute thing where all the kids are assigned a number and before we leave any place they all count off so we know no one is missing. Well, Captain Romeo was turning on the engine and number 20 was missing! We all freaked out and searched the boat with no results. We actually had to get the boat moving a little ways before we saw her come up for air and were able to flag her down and get her to swim back. We joked that she knew we were leaving but decided she'd just swim to meet us in Alexandria. Minor disaster averted.
The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. We packed up to head back to Cairo by plane and met up with our old bus driver again to head to dinner. Our restaurant had a view of the pyramids all lit up for a light show they put on every evening, so we kind of said our goodbyes to them then. We didn't make it out of there til late to take the bus to Alexandria. When we started our day, Adel estimated we'd be in Alexandria by about 11:30pm. Yeah. We all know how well that went. Our bus pulled in around 2am instead and I think I was in bed by 3:30 or 4 after a shower and some quality time my email and Facebook. (I'm such an addict. It's a problem.) I think I've already mentioned how absolutely stunning this hotel is though, so I didn't mind the late night too much. I was too busy being in awe of just about everything. Did I mention our room even has a doorbell? How cute is that?
A while ago (Saturday): Quick tour of St. Katherine's monastery in the morning, travel by bus to Sharm el Sheikh in the afternoon, relaxing by the pool (relaxing? what is that?), and a super nifty Bedouin dinner experience at night.
This whole trip I've been pretty excited to visit the monastery. It's one the oldest active monasteries in the world. The first church was built there in 330AD or something ridiculous like that and thhe Burning Bush is there, for Pete's sake! It should be awesome. In reality, it's a whole lot of tourists, a lot of Russians actually, pushing around trying to see the few parts of the monastery visitors are deemed worthy to be within eye shot of. The chapel we got to see was stunning, if a little over crowded with artifacts - paintings, chandeliers, incense thingies, relics, etc. The thing that really got to me though was that it was staffed by Bedouins gesturing in broken English for you to not get too close or to keep moving or to not even think about getting out your camera. I mean, if it were a cute little old lady saying her rosary and giving my camera a death glare, I'd be cool with it. But don't have someone completely outside the faith tell me what to do in a Catholic church. Not cool. Again, I'm not the best Catholic in the world, but that rankled. I'm still kind of pissed about the whole thing. I got about a zillion photos of the Burning Bush just to make up for the lack of pictures inside the church. Again, however, something annoying had to happen. Some guy, I don't know who or where he was from, decides it's a good idea to meander to the front of the crowd behind the ropes, duck underneath, walk up to the Burning Bush (the Burning freaking Bush!), snap off a piece like it's no big deal, and walk right back out. I was flabbergasted. I mean, really. What the hell do you think you're doing? And of course there's no Bedouin employee nearby peddling alabaster vases or post cards to do anything about it. I mean, I know the folks there have to trim the damn thing every sometime, but that's not for some obnoxious tourist to do just because he can. I'm still annoyed about that too. What the heck! Anyway, moving on.
After we got out of the monastery, we hopped back on the bus to head to Sharm el Sheikh. Man is this a tourist town if I've ever seen one. It looked just like Myrtle or Ocean City or any other beach haven - tons of chain restaurants (including the first Starbucks I've seen while in Egypt), advertisements for condos, boat rentals, casinos, and hotel after hotel after hotel. We thought our hotel was pretty fly because our rooms were on the ground floor, each with a little patio onto the central courtyard and pool. Of course, we had no idea where we were staying in Alexandria, so the place looks heinous now, but it was great at the time. A group of the kids grabbed the hotel shuttle to get to the beach, but a good number of us stayed behind to avoid that sand in your bathing suit feeling and relax by the pool instead. There was already a couple of Russian guys and a hotel staff member in the pool trying to get a game of water polo going, so they roped in a few of our guys to play with them. It was a blast to watch but way too intense for me to get in on the action. I grabbed my camera and fiddled with the sport setting so I could get some action shots. I haven't put them on the computer yet, but I'm sure I got some good ones.
For dinner that night we took a little trek into the desert. And by "little trek" I mean we drove for a half an hour and then pulled off the road and followed a mysterious Jeep for another 20 minutes into the desert. We arrived at a legitimate Bedouin tribe's camp, passing pens of sheep and goats and squat stucco houses on the way in. We sat on rugs and pillows around low tables all around a small cooking fire in the center. There was a stage set up and there were a few performances, but these were clearly tourist-oriented presentations that the tribe essentially contracted out. The authenticity came later. One of the men brought out what looked like a giant wok, a board and rolling pin, and a bowl of dough and coarse flour. The wok-type thing was set directly into the fire, like setting a bowl upside down over a candle, and he began rolling out the dough and tossing the dough. When he was through with one, a little boy would take it and stretch it over the surface in the fire and flip it by hand until it was browned on both sides. Yasser told us we could move closer and pretty soon I found myself rolling and tossing an enormous fresh pita to go on the fire. So. Freaking. Cool! And it was delicious, if I do say so myself. There was a whole spread of food already prepped for us to eat while we watched a few more touristy performances. Yasser, being awesome once again, let some of them know that we were more interested in their own experiences and asked them to perform for us themselves. So, when dinner was through and they took another pot of tea off the fire to pass around, about half a dozen Bedouin men sat down by the fire with drums and a lap harp to sing us some of their songs. Three young boys, ranging in age from about 6 to 11 or 12, also came out and started to dance around the men, eventually grabbing a few of us girls closest to them to dance to. Again, before I knew it, I was standing by the fire, holding hands with an adorable child who was leading us all in a circle around the fire, hopping and spinning and dancing around. There was no other light but the fire and the candles at our tables, and a few flashbulbs from the kids still seated. It was a beautiful, joyful, wonderful, once in a lifetime experience. We finished dancing and returned to our seats and they asked for quiet. They simply ended the night that way. We sat with only the fire still lit, listening to the desert and looking up at one of the clearest night sky's I have ever experienced. Yasser told us later that if he hadn't told us to leave, the Bedouin men never would have. Their traditions are too hospitable to ever ask a guest to leave. We could have stayed all night and they would have fed us in the morning. I know it was meant to be a kind of staged performance night - I mean, this is what this tribe does to earn a living - but we could not have had a better experience.
Forever ago (Friday): Travel by bus from Cairo to St. Katherine's Protectorate super early in the morning (5:30am wakeup call, anyone?), minor (?) catastrophe that I still can't talk about yet, late arrival (shocking), and a little hike up this kind of important mound of dirt in the middle of the desert.
That really does feel like a long time ago, and it's only been four days - sheesh! It's insane how quickly I can fall behind without the internet for a day or two. Wow. Anyway. Ages and ages ago when we left Cairo at the crack of dawn, we ran into a little mishap - it's not really a catastrophe just yet. Hopefully this mishap will be resolved sometime Wednesday when we're back in Cairo, but I don't want to jinx anything too badly, so I'll just leave you guys hanging with that one. Remind me to tell you about it, yeah? Ok, good. Well, because of the mishap, we got a bit delayed in getting to St. Katherine's, so that's why the tour of the monastery was pushed to the following morning, rather than in the afternoon before we went on our little hike.
You know, no big deal. I just hiked Mt. Sinai this week. Totally run of the mill trip I'm on right now, don't you think? Ha! Hardly! Ohmygoodness. I was whiny and sore and exhausted and caked in dust and weighed down by bits and pieces of the summit that may or may not have found their way into my bag before I started the hike down, but I did it! I hiked Mt. Sinai. I could go on and on about the religious significance and the grandeur of the views and beauty of seeing a chapel and a mosque sitting side by side at the summit, but nothing I could type, nothing I could say would probably do it justice. I took photos almost every step of the way on the way up to try to capture even a little bit of that experience to bring home to you guys. We stayed at the summit til sunset, so much of the journey down was done in the dark. I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I darted around the guides leading people down the mountain slowly and with flashlights. I ended up doing most of the descent on the switch backs completely alone with no light but the moon and the stars. Yeah, it was amazing. I would just stop and look around much of the time. I felt like I was strolling at an easy pace, but somehow the few of us that got around the guides met up and made it to the bottom a good half an hour before the first guide. We just sat and recuperated and tried to process what we'd done and where we were. It's still kind of a lot to fathom. It probably will be that way for some time and I'm perfectly alright with that.
I think that gets me up to date and all of you up to speed with what's been going on here on the other side of the world. Sorry that meant you had to read a novel this time around. We have a few more sites to visit in Alexandria tomorrow, but I won't even pretend to remember what they are. We'll catch a train in the afternoon back to Cairo and will probably arrive late and be told to head straight to bed. We all know that won't happen. I'll try to get one more post up, since I know we're going back to the same hotel we started in. The following day is that free day I mentioned a few days ago. I think we might be going to the zoo in the morning and then to see some artist demonstrations and shopping at Khan in the afternoon. Until then, I love you and miss you all. I have loved this trip but I can't wait to be home!
Today (Monday): Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the late morning, followed by lunch at an overcrowded mall food court, a drive through the grounds and gardens of the former royal summer palaces and the Royal Jewelry Museum in the afternoon, finished with a delicious dinner and birthday cake back at the hotel in the evening.
The Bibliotheca, as I've mentioned before, is just full to bursting with cool stuff. You can tell they've made a conscious effort to be ultra modern and cutting edge while also reminding you of what the facility is meant to replace. I got to take quite a few pictures of the reading floors, as they call them, which is where much of the collection of books is housed and available to the public. For instance, the walls of the reading floors are covered in small black squares that resemble the pigeon holes where scrolls were housed in the original library. In this library, those squares are actually a sound dampening material. The support pillars throughout the reading floors resemble the lotus flower, a major symbol of ancient Egypt. The pillars serve a second purpose in that they house flame retardant partitions that will expand to protect the collection in case of fire. Even the windows in the ceiling are designed in such a way to keep water from pooling on the roof and finding its way into the building, as well as letting sunlight in to limit the use of lightbulbs while preventing the natural light from damaging the artifacts. Seriously techy place they've got going there. There were a few other nifty gizmos and gadgets there, like the Internet Archive and Egypt's first printing press, and some swanky art exhibitions, like the sketches and belongings of filmmaker Shadi Abdel Salam which I loved. I couldn't get pictures of those things, but trust me, they were pretty damn nifty.
I don't have time tonight to get into the craziness that was the mall we stopped at for lunch today. I will mention the ice cream though. Holy crap is Egyptian ice cream delicious. This is now the second time I've had it and I hope I can sneak one more in before we leave. It's this cross between sorbet and Italian ice and gelato and it's just so so good. I'd give it a close second in awesomeness only to old school Italian gelato like you can get at Mulberry Street Creamery or Michelle's Cafe. It's that good.
After making our way out, and seeing the second Starbucks in all of Egypt, we took a short drive through what was formerly property of the royal family. The family kept a summer resort with two palaces (yes, two!), their own private harbor on the Mediterranean, and acres and acres of gardens. One palace was meant for the females of the royal family, while the smaller was for the males. The males' palace has been converted into a hotel, while the females' has been closed since the revolution in 1952. The gardens now exist as a huge public park with tons of shaded areas for families and couples to congregate and a beautiful little piece of private beach. I snapped a few photos, but we weren't paying 17 pounds to stick our feet in the water. Adel promises he'll take us to a public beach tomorrow so we can say we've done that.
The Royal Jewelry Museum was the last official stop of the day. This was also a former palace of the royal family, the residence of a princess if I remember right. It seemed like everything this family owned was made of gold or platinum and positively dripping with diamonds or rubies or emeralds or some combination of precious stones. The palace itself is very well preserved - the wooden floors, hand carved ceilings, stained glass, murals, even the banisters obviously took skill to create. We even had to wear little cloth booties like we were in a mosque to preserve the floor. The guards there were a little pushy, but that's the first time we've encountered anyone who wasn't super helpful, so I'd say that's not too bad for a two week stay.
Dinner in the hotel was superb - no surprise there, considering the rest of the place. Adel proved once again how awesome he is by sneakily purchasing some cakes from a local bakery so we could celebrate the birthday of one of the girls on the trip after dinner. We sang to her and then the hotel staff, Adel, and Yasser sang to her in Arabic. She had no idea we were planning anything, so it made for a fun end to the night. I've been pretty lazy since then. Just a little bit of packing to do, since we catch a train back to Cairo tomorrow afternoon.
Yesterday (Sunday): Six hour boat trip on the Red Sea for snorkeling (and sunburn), more packing, followed by lots and lots of quality travel time back to Cairo for dinner by plane and continuing on to Alexandria late (late!) in the evening by bus - really it was more like early (early!) morning.
I know I've mentioned this here and there before, but snorkeling in the coral reefs of Ras Mohamed Park has been something I've really been looking forward to on this trip. We got to the harbor fairly early in the day, around 8 or 9 in the morning, to pick up our flippers and masks and snorkels before boarding the boat. We all had to laugh when we were told not to forget our boat name - how could we when it was named "Barrag"? (With the Arabic accent, it was impossible for our guides to say it any way other than "Barrack". It was probably funnier at the time. You'll just have to trust me on that one.) Romeo, our captain, drove us out about an hour to see the magic lake (I still don't know what was so magical about it), a large stand of mangrove trees (I'm not taking the courses, so I don't quite understand the importance, but I'll go with it), and then backtracked a little to get to our first dive spot. We had two master divers with us, one to lead and one to watch the back of the group for any stragglers, which ended up being quite helpful. A good number of our kids and adults got sea sick or had ear pressure problems or any number of water/diving related ailments, so our guides became their best friends.
The first dive took us along a wall of coral reef that almost just touched the surface of the water, so we could only swim alongside, rather than above it. Probably needless to say, but it was beautiful. The coral was just as colorful and full of life as you'd imagine - very Finding Nemo. Apparently something was lost in translation though, because when our guides would point out a clown fish, they called it a "Captain Nemo" fish, rather than a "Finding Nemo" fish. Wrong pop culture reference, divers, sorry. We swam for a good half hour or so before getting back on the boat. Once I was in the water, life was good, if a little salty. Getting on and off the boat could be a challenge. This had to be done quickly because the boat was moving and we didn't want the group to get too spread out in the water. Getting in was just a simple jump, but you had to hold onto your mask and have your snorkel already in place. (For girls, you also had to hold onto your top. In a strange twist, it was actually quite lucky that everyone was so disoriented when they first jumped in. I don't think the boys would have known what to do with themselves if they realized how many bikini tops were.. misplaced.)
The second stop was optional, since quite a few people were still sick and some were just plain tired out from the first round, and they really missed out. The guides promised that the second stop would be better. They never really said how, just "better". They didn't disappoint. This time the coral was farther from the surface, so we were able to swim above much of what we saw. The guide would even dive down to point out specific interesting fish or bring empty shells back to the surface. We had to put everything back, of course, but I got to hold a piece of an enormous clam shell, which was awesome. He even encouraged us to try to touch a small school of "Captain Nemo" fish as they're apparently very friendly. I'm not entirely sure how a fish can be friendly, but I wasn't going to question the man. I didn't have one, but two or three of the girls had underwater cameras, so I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures in a few weeks once they get developed and added to Facebook. I'll add a link here when they're up.
The crew served us an awesome lunch after the second dive and we were allowed to go in or out of the water at our leisure, since we would be anchored for about an hour. About a dozen of us spent that time lying out on the sun deck. About a dozen of us are also still a nice rosy shade, a day and a half later. And me, the girl who got burnt to a bubbly crisp two summers ago, is in the same shape! I'm furious with myself. I brought aloe though, so I'm doctoring myself up and doling out aloe like a mom to a few of the other victims. With any luck, it won't be quite so painful by Thursday morning. Sleeping in a big comfy bed is bad enough with sunburn. A seat in economy class for 7 hours is going to be no picnic. Fun story: we almost left one of our kids in the Red Sea. Yep. One of our girls is a triathlete, so instead of coming on board for lunch, she went back out into the water. For, like, an hour! We do this cute thing where all the kids are assigned a number and before we leave any place they all count off so we know no one is missing. Well, Captain Romeo was turning on the engine and number 20 was missing! We all freaked out and searched the boat with no results. We actually had to get the boat moving a little ways before we saw her come up for air and were able to flag her down and get her to swim back. We joked that she knew we were leaving but decided she'd just swim to meet us in Alexandria. Minor disaster averted.
The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. We packed up to head back to Cairo by plane and met up with our old bus driver again to head to dinner. Our restaurant had a view of the pyramids all lit up for a light show they put on every evening, so we kind of said our goodbyes to them then. We didn't make it out of there til late to take the bus to Alexandria. When we started our day, Adel estimated we'd be in Alexandria by about 11:30pm. Yeah. We all know how well that went. Our bus pulled in around 2am instead and I think I was in bed by 3:30 or 4 after a shower and some quality time my email and Facebook. (I'm such an addict. It's a problem.) I think I've already mentioned how absolutely stunning this hotel is though, so I didn't mind the late night too much. I was too busy being in awe of just about everything. Did I mention our room even has a doorbell? How cute is that?
A while ago (Saturday): Quick tour of St. Katherine's monastery in the morning, travel by bus to Sharm el Sheikh in the afternoon, relaxing by the pool (relaxing? what is that?), and a super nifty Bedouin dinner experience at night.
This whole trip I've been pretty excited to visit the monastery. It's one the oldest active monasteries in the world. The first church was built there in 330AD or something ridiculous like that and thhe Burning Bush is there, for Pete's sake! It should be awesome. In reality, it's a whole lot of tourists, a lot of Russians actually, pushing around trying to see the few parts of the monastery visitors are deemed worthy to be within eye shot of. The chapel we got to see was stunning, if a little over crowded with artifacts - paintings, chandeliers, incense thingies, relics, etc. The thing that really got to me though was that it was staffed by Bedouins gesturing in broken English for you to not get too close or to keep moving or to not even think about getting out your camera. I mean, if it were a cute little old lady saying her rosary and giving my camera a death glare, I'd be cool with it. But don't have someone completely outside the faith tell me what to do in a Catholic church. Not cool. Again, I'm not the best Catholic in the world, but that rankled. I'm still kind of pissed about the whole thing. I got about a zillion photos of the Burning Bush just to make up for the lack of pictures inside the church. Again, however, something annoying had to happen. Some guy, I don't know who or where he was from, decides it's a good idea to meander to the front of the crowd behind the ropes, duck underneath, walk up to the Burning Bush (the Burning freaking Bush!), snap off a piece like it's no big deal, and walk right back out. I was flabbergasted. I mean, really. What the hell do you think you're doing? And of course there's no Bedouin employee nearby peddling alabaster vases or post cards to do anything about it. I mean, I know the folks there have to trim the damn thing every sometime, but that's not for some obnoxious tourist to do just because he can. I'm still annoyed about that too. What the heck! Anyway, moving on.
After we got out of the monastery, we hopped back on the bus to head to Sharm el Sheikh. Man is this a tourist town if I've ever seen one. It looked just like Myrtle or Ocean City or any other beach haven - tons of chain restaurants (including the first Starbucks I've seen while in Egypt), advertisements for condos, boat rentals, casinos, and hotel after hotel after hotel. We thought our hotel was pretty fly because our rooms were on the ground floor, each with a little patio onto the central courtyard and pool. Of course, we had no idea where we were staying in Alexandria, so the place looks heinous now, but it was great at the time. A group of the kids grabbed the hotel shuttle to get to the beach, but a good number of us stayed behind to avoid that sand in your bathing suit feeling and relax by the pool instead. There was already a couple of Russian guys and a hotel staff member in the pool trying to get a game of water polo going, so they roped in a few of our guys to play with them. It was a blast to watch but way too intense for me to get in on the action. I grabbed my camera and fiddled with the sport setting so I could get some action shots. I haven't put them on the computer yet, but I'm sure I got some good ones.
For dinner that night we took a little trek into the desert. And by "little trek" I mean we drove for a half an hour and then pulled off the road and followed a mysterious Jeep for another 20 minutes into the desert. We arrived at a legitimate Bedouin tribe's camp, passing pens of sheep and goats and squat stucco houses on the way in. We sat on rugs and pillows around low tables all around a small cooking fire in the center. There was a stage set up and there were a few performances, but these were clearly tourist-oriented presentations that the tribe essentially contracted out. The authenticity came later. One of the men brought out what looked like a giant wok, a board and rolling pin, and a bowl of dough and coarse flour. The wok-type thing was set directly into the fire, like setting a bowl upside down over a candle, and he began rolling out the dough and tossing the dough. When he was through with one, a little boy would take it and stretch it over the surface in the fire and flip it by hand until it was browned on both sides. Yasser told us we could move closer and pretty soon I found myself rolling and tossing an enormous fresh pita to go on the fire. So. Freaking. Cool! And it was delicious, if I do say so myself. There was a whole spread of food already prepped for us to eat while we watched a few more touristy performances. Yasser, being awesome once again, let some of them know that we were more interested in their own experiences and asked them to perform for us themselves. So, when dinner was through and they took another pot of tea off the fire to pass around, about half a dozen Bedouin men sat down by the fire with drums and a lap harp to sing us some of their songs. Three young boys, ranging in age from about 6 to 11 or 12, also came out and started to dance around the men, eventually grabbing a few of us girls closest to them to dance to. Again, before I knew it, I was standing by the fire, holding hands with an adorable child who was leading us all in a circle around the fire, hopping and spinning and dancing around. There was no other light but the fire and the candles at our tables, and a few flashbulbs from the kids still seated. It was a beautiful, joyful, wonderful, once in a lifetime experience. We finished dancing and returned to our seats and they asked for quiet. They simply ended the night that way. We sat with only the fire still lit, listening to the desert and looking up at one of the clearest night sky's I have ever experienced. Yasser told us later that if he hadn't told us to leave, the Bedouin men never would have. Their traditions are too hospitable to ever ask a guest to leave. We could have stayed all night and they would have fed us in the morning. I know it was meant to be a kind of staged performance night - I mean, this is what this tribe does to earn a living - but we could not have had a better experience.
Forever ago (Friday): Travel by bus from Cairo to St. Katherine's Protectorate super early in the morning (5:30am wakeup call, anyone?), minor (?) catastrophe that I still can't talk about yet, late arrival (shocking), and a little hike up this kind of important mound of dirt in the middle of the desert.
That really does feel like a long time ago, and it's only been four days - sheesh! It's insane how quickly I can fall behind without the internet for a day or two. Wow. Anyway. Ages and ages ago when we left Cairo at the crack of dawn, we ran into a little mishap - it's not really a catastrophe just yet. Hopefully this mishap will be resolved sometime Wednesday when we're back in Cairo, but I don't want to jinx anything too badly, so I'll just leave you guys hanging with that one. Remind me to tell you about it, yeah? Ok, good. Well, because of the mishap, we got a bit delayed in getting to St. Katherine's, so that's why the tour of the monastery was pushed to the following morning, rather than in the afternoon before we went on our little hike.
You know, no big deal. I just hiked Mt. Sinai this week. Totally run of the mill trip I'm on right now, don't you think? Ha! Hardly! Ohmygoodness. I was whiny and sore and exhausted and caked in dust and weighed down by bits and pieces of the summit that may or may not have found their way into my bag before I started the hike down, but I did it! I hiked Mt. Sinai. I could go on and on about the religious significance and the grandeur of the views and beauty of seeing a chapel and a mosque sitting side by side at the summit, but nothing I could type, nothing I could say would probably do it justice. I took photos almost every step of the way on the way up to try to capture even a little bit of that experience to bring home to you guys. We stayed at the summit til sunset, so much of the journey down was done in the dark. I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I darted around the guides leading people down the mountain slowly and with flashlights. I ended up doing most of the descent on the switch backs completely alone with no light but the moon and the stars. Yeah, it was amazing. I would just stop and look around much of the time. I felt like I was strolling at an easy pace, but somehow the few of us that got around the guides met up and made it to the bottom a good half an hour before the first guide. We just sat and recuperated and tried to process what we'd done and where we were. It's still kind of a lot to fathom. It probably will be that way for some time and I'm perfectly alright with that.
I think that gets me up to date and all of you up to speed with what's been going on here on the other side of the world. Sorry that meant you had to read a novel this time around. We have a few more sites to visit in Alexandria tomorrow, but I won't even pretend to remember what they are. We'll catch a train in the afternoon back to Cairo and will probably arrive late and be told to head straight to bed. We all know that won't happen. I'll try to get one more post up, since I know we're going back to the same hotel we started in. The following day is that free day I mentioned a few days ago. I think we might be going to the zoo in the morning and then to see some artist demonstrations and shopping at Khan in the afternoon. Until then, I love you and miss you all. I have loved this trip but I can't wait to be home!
Prepare the search party
I know I'm going to need one! It's off to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina this morning and I am so outrageously excited for it. I may get lost in there. I'm kind of hoping I do anyway. I think we're visiting botanical gardens in the afternoon and then a local theater performance of some kind in the evening. Those parts of the itinerary are still a little shaky, but I've got to be used to that by now. I mean, yesterday we were told we'd be checking into the hotel by 11:30pm and we rolled up at 2am instead. And I thought my family was good at being late for things - ha! Yeah right. We're almost rudely early when compared to how Egyptians operate.
Anyway, time to get my backpack together and get my butt out the door. Hopefully since wifi is so easily accessible here, I'll be able to catch you all up on the last few days when I get in tonight. There's Mt. Sinai (spectacular), St. Katherine's monastery (let down), Sharm el Sheikh (touristy), and snorkeling in the Red Sea (I'm on a boat!). Also, I'm kind of a lobster right now thanks to the aforementioned boat, so I'm quite thankful today's itinerary is mostly indoors and that Alexandria is on the water so the temperature will max out around 77F today. That is a glorious weather day in Egypt, my friends!
Anyway, time to get my backpack together and get my butt out the door. Hopefully since wifi is so easily accessible here, I'll be able to catch you all up on the last few days when I get in tonight. There's Mt. Sinai (spectacular), St. Katherine's monastery (let down), Sharm el Sheikh (touristy), and snorkeling in the Red Sea (I'm on a boat!). Also, I'm kind of a lobster right now thanks to the aforementioned boat, so I'm quite thankful today's itinerary is mostly indoors and that Alexandria is on the water so the temperature will max out around 77F today. That is a glorious weather day in Egypt, my friends!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
