In Dublin's Fair City...

Every time I go away and it’s a Monday I always smile and take stock of where I am, and where I’m NOT, namely: the office.  Still, for a Monday where I wasn’t going to the office I was up awfully early!  We had to drive the hour and a half to Dublin airport, get the car dropped off and Marnie checked in for her flight back to Rio...naturally! It was a quick goodbye as she had to hurry through the customs line thereby ending our short but sweet reunion tour.  I have to say that there is no one else I would have wanted to spend a few days in Ireland with more than Marnie and I was so pleased that she managed to make it work. 

Once on my own, I found the left-luggage’ area and hopped onto to a city-shuttle bus into Dublin city centre for a few hours of site-seeing before my own flight.  I didn’t have a whole lot of time but I hit a few hot spots.  My first destination was Trinity College.  I was there before to see the Book of Kells and the library and I knew it was worth seeing again. It is fascinating to see the pages of the book explore in such detail. They also had an interesting video on the binding of books. I don't think I ever appreciated what it took to make a book! And then I went up to the long room where I saw thousands and thousands of old books! It was crowded but I managed to ignore a lot of people.  There was an exhibit on 19^th century medicine and I couldn’t get over some of the symptom and cure combinations they came up with.  I wish I had written some of them down – they were ludicrous.  Very creative!

 After a walk down Grafton Street, popping into a few shops here and there and watching buskers, I wandered through St. Stephen's green. I always love finding green space in the concrete jungles that I visit.  I had lunch in a funky, yet strangely empty, bar near St. Stephen’s and then headed back up to stay close to the bus stop where I needed to catch the return shuttle back to the airport.  I had a few spare minutes to head down to Dublin Castle thinking I’d never been and would like to see it.  Once there, though, I was struck with a strange sense of déjà-vu!  I seemed to recall an exhibition on some underground tunnels there but when I wandered through the gates this time, I mostly found parking lots and a small gift shop.  It’s one of those things that I’m quite sure I did but was left scratching my head thinking I was going crazy.  That was part of the fun of this trip!

I had been meaning to get back to Ireland ever since I left it in August, 1996.  I never thought it would be 15 years later.  The country has a special place in my heart and I’m really pleased that I made the time to get over there while living here in Europe.  It would have been a shame to miss it and what a great 5 days it was.

New Memories: Loughcrew and Trim

Ahhh...a truly lazy Sunday.  We slept in a bit, got big breakfast courtesy of Etina and hit the road to check out this Loughcrew we were told about.  It was only about a thirty minute drive away from where we were staying.  It turns out that it’s a site run through the office of public works and it’s NOT wheelchair accessible.

We had a nice, short hike up to the top of a hill to find a simple passage cairn we could get a free guided tour into.  It’s not a theme-park (yet?) and is still quite undiscovered by many – which made it perfect!  That’s our kinda place!  We had a lovely tour guide, Lara, who explained a bit about the passage cairns and where the sunrise hit on the interior on the vernal and autumnal equinox.  The site is actually older than the pyramids, over 4500 years old.  It’s truly amazing.  We stayed for quite a while on the site just wandering around and checking out other nearby cairns. 

Afterwards we hit the road and headed for Trim.  I’d been there before but Marnie wanted to see a castle and besides, my memory was a little foggy.  Everything was pretty much as I remembered it but it all seemed more impressive this time around.  We wanted to go into the castle so seeing as we’d just missed the 14h show, we popped into to a nearby coffee shop for a delicious lunch.  We then went back to the castle and wandered around some more before going inside – which I don’t remember doing in ’96.

Four nights out and we had reached our grease-threshold.  We stopped in the grocery store (which is always a lot of fun when travelling) to grab some grub and we took it back to the B&B to have a little picnic for dinner.  It was just right and left us some room for beer!  We headed back to the Abbey House, partly hoping to see those smiling Irish eyes again, but not before wandering around the famous abbey at sunset.  We were disappointed to miss the brothers but we weren’t disappointed by the abbey!

  

Some good craic.

After a good night’s sleep we got up and headed out to find some breakfast.  We found a great spot about 50m from the Jury’s Inn entrance near the Spanish Arch in a sunny spot with great coffee.  Afterwards we wandered through town and poked into some shops, listened to buskers and fought our way through the crowds that neither of us remember.  Marnie replaced the Claddagh ring that she lost years ago in a 'nursing incident' (a story she relished in telling everyone!) at the same store she bought her first one. The clerk at the shop quite fancied her and he turned out to have an arsenal of Monty Python quotes and gut-busting comments including, and yes - you had to be there, "Let's fuck with those jarheads...n'est ce pas, Pierre?!"

We both felt satisfied with our time in the city. We hit the highlights. Some memories were clear and led us back to places we distinctly remembered. In between were places we'd forgotten about that came back into focus. There were many "oh, yeah...I forgot about that" moments followed by nostalgic smiles. I've never had quite this kind of memory-lane trip before, save possibly my high school reunion. Quite honestly, I don't know how FIFTEEN years have passed! Both of us commented on how we wouldn't recognize our twenty year old selves now. We were so young and idealistic then but a lot changed for us that summer that took us both down unforeseen trajectories that have shaped who we are now.  Of course, you could argue we are still young and idealistic! I wonder how another fifteen years will shape us!

As country kids, we were both eager to get back out into rural Ireland. While on the boat to Inishere, Marnie found out about a place called Loughcrew. It was on the way back to Dublin from Galway, so why not?!  I love going off the beaten path with a vague destination in mind and the freedom to stay at any spot we found that looked nice.   While that may surprise some people about me, I really enjoy it...so there!

We found Tullynally castle near Castlepollard in County Meath just after their gardens closed. We had a look around the grounds of an amazing old castle with no one around. It was so idyllic!  Given that it was getting close to 7PM though, it was time to keep an eye out for lodging. About 5km up the road near the town of Fore, we saw a sign for a B&B and stopped in to see if they had room. Ethina had one room left, almost as if she had known we were coming. It was 25€ each! What a deal (especially after the splurge staying at Jury’s) and it proved to be a gem of a find! Those Irish are famous for their hospitality! 

After another pub meal in Castlepollard, with a little time to spare before the kitchens closed, we stopped back at the local pub in Fore, the Abbey House. There were two pairs of piercing blue eyes on two brothers we spoke to for a little while before the other regulars started to show up and the place got packed.  We met a whole host of lovely people including Elaine and Rob and their friend from the States, Liz who runs tours in the area. Beatrice owns the place and it's been in her family for 400 years apparently!  It really was a special nice and gave me warm fuzzies.  That was a great bit of craic!

Quote of the day: “Your father was a hamster...”

Inis Oírr and Galway

Today was the day trip to Inis Oírr or Inishere on the “Happy Hooker”.  Neither of us had made it to the Aran Islands in '96 so we were eager to pay them a visit.

When we got there we had no plans so when approached to take a horse drawn carriage out to the Passy shipwreck for 5 Euros apiece we figured why not?!  Ronan, the driver, and his horse Connie, were good company on the 10 minute ride up the road where we learned a little bit more about the island and its inhabitants.  Marnie split a gut laughing when she fell for his explanation of how they got the livestock into the rock walled paddocks. ‘Ah, the farmers just lift the cows and sheep, you see.’

The Plassey ship is a rusty wreck that washed up on shore in the 60’s.  There’s no real story with it from what I could tell but it did make for some interesting photos. Unfortunately I discovered that for the second day in a row, my camera didn't have enough battery power. Frig! So Marnie let me use hers.

It wasn't raining! It's so much more pleasant being outside when you're not getting soaked.  We walked back from the ship into town stopping at the lough, the airport and the cemetery before stopping in for a delicious lunch.
Once we managed to leave the warm and cozy tea shop we wandered off in the direction of the famous well, Tobar Einne. Not too far along we saw Ronan again so we opted to get him to drive us to our destination and then walk back yet again. The island is small but it turns out that it's bigger than it looks!

It was a pretty but barren part of the island. Stone fences are everywhere. They've stood the test of time with their clever construction, allowing wind to blow through them. Ronan mentioned that they were built with the rocks they picked up when clearing pastures. Then they put down sand and seaweed and the grass and wildflowers grew.  Clever, that!

We never saw the famed eel in the well, though looking at it made me wonder how on earth one ever would have gotten in!   On the walk back Marnie made friends with a very sweet, very pregnant donkey. When a local lady walked by she commented that you can hardly walk around without seeing an animal dropping a calf.   We stopped in to a little croft to look at authentic Aran knit sweaters but came out empty handed, though not for want of trying.  Before leaving on the 5:30PM boat back to the mainland, I managed to sneak in a run on the zip line and got Marn on the fish teeter-totter.  It was quite a pleasant trip back and with the clouds having lifted, we got a great view of the cliffs.

Once we got back to the car it was time to head back to Galway.  Ah Galway!  Our home base for 3 months in the summer of ’96.  I was really excited to get back there.  It was the key destination for our reunion trip.  Along the way I played DJ-C with a series of carefully selected tunes that were part of our shared memories or Celtic songs. The Indigo Girls, Cranberries, Billy Joel, Ashley MacIssac... It made the trip more fun although we didn’t need too much to entertain us as the scenery along the way was just GORGEOUS!

We chose to stay at Jury’s Inn which, as it turns out, is where our old roommate Jay worked.  The main reason to stay there was that it was right in the centre of town so we could wander around to all of the pubs we wanted to go to.  Of course, in order to stay there, we had to pay the price.  For one night though it was worth it.  Driving into town we found the hotel no problem. The first part was through highway signs and directions from the hotel, the latter part through instinct and memory.  Marnie was the first to recognize a landmark – the Spanish Arch.  This is a defining part of Galway in the Claddagh area of town.

After getting ourselves cleaned up we hit the streets for a Wander around Galway. We both noticed that things have changed, such as:

• High street is a pedestrian mall now.  Cars used to drive up and down in.
• The money Ireland came into in joining EU has given it a face lift but it’s also taken away some of the charm.
• The fountain in Eyre Sqaure that we poured bubble bath into on Canada Day has been removed.  Hmmm...did we have anything to do with that?!
• Galway is a much busier city now!!!
• It is obviously a student town and most of the people out in the pubs were in kindergarten the last time we were here!
• 6 New Road looks smaller than it used to.  We didn’t knock on the door to see if Mary was still there!
• The Bridge Mills, where Marnie worked is still there although it’s not as big of a restaurant that it once was.
• Macken’s coffee shop is now an Italian pizza restaurant and looks pretty nice.  I found the spot fairly easily and knew immediately that despite the changes, that was the same spot I spent so many hours clearing tables and being reminded why going to university to get a real job was so important.

Quote-of-the-day: "Everyone's itchy asshole and hurt feelings deserve legislation." Said at breakfast at hotel during a conversation about peanut allergies.  This was overheard by a scandalized eldery couple.

The Cliffs and The Barren Burren.

We started our first full day in Ireland with breakfast at the Aran View Manor.  And what a view!  We’d arrived in the dark the night before but were delighted to see the Cliffs of Moher off in the distance which were going to be our first destination of the day. 

On our first trip here 15 years ago we’d started in Dublin and taken the train over to Galway.  After a few days we took the bus to Lisdoonvarna and then Doolin.  We wanted to see the Cliffs of Moher and when we asked for directions years ago we were told to walk to the end of the road, hang a right, walk another 200m to the intersection and go left.  We could hitch from there.  Times have changed.  One – we have jobs now and could afford to rent a car (how posh!) and two – you just don’t hitchhike in Ireland any more like that.  It’s no longer safe.  It’s a bit sad though I understand why not.  Still, I can’t help but feel grateful that I got a chance to see it in the ‘good old days’ and to get to experience hitch-hiking, which, as it turns out, we did all summer by necessity given our poor-university-student existence.

The whole atmosphere at the Cliffs of Moher has changed.  There’s a car park.  You have to pay to get in.  There are paved paths which make it pretty much ‘wheel-chair accessible’.  There’s a multimedia visitor centre.  It’s very commercial.  To be fair, it was then too to a certain point, but not like this.  The path then was a dirt path and you could walk from O’Brien’s tower all the way to Hag’s Head – which we did in '96.  Now, about 200m from the visitor’s centre, there’s a big sign that says ‘don’t even think about going past here’!  Not that that was going to stop us.  It was the wind and the rain that gave us an indication that we’d gone far enough about 750m further on.  On a fine day we would have undoubtedly made it to Hag’s Head.  Still, there were plenty of other things to keep us busy. 

The next destination was the pier in Doolin where we got information about a boat trip to one of the Aran Islands, Inishere, for the following day.  With that sorted it was next time for lunch in Lisdoonvarna at a cozy little pub out of the rain. 

The smell of the burning peat was everywhere as we drove around and I just breathed it in.  Smell is your memory trigger and I just loved the smell of it here, where I’d really first smelled it.  It’s an odd smell, I appreciate, but it’s a comforting smell to me and it sure took me down memory lane!

After lunch we did a big drive around in a circuit looking for castles and ruins. We saw the dolmen, a stone fort and I went into the Ailwee cave 180m below where Marnie was hiking around.  Then we hiked around the Burren in the rain which was so beautiful and ‘moody’.  Marnie got some amazing photos on her iPhone with a cool little app that takes 2 pictures and combines them.  The picture on the right is an example of the barren Burren.  

We went into Doolin to O'Connors for dinner (with 5 minutes to spare before the kitchens closed) and an authentic trad session! Yay! That's what we came for. One musician that stands out was a boy of maybe 12 or 13 years who treated us to a haunting tune on his tin whistle followed by a lovely ballad that he sang. This kid's got talent!

Quote-of-the-day: "So are you really hungry? Is that why you want to go to dinner so early?" Said at 9:30PM.  Apparently Marnie’s  jetlag was in full force as she thought it was closer to 6.

Let the Reunion Tour begin!

There’s something about walking into work with a suitcase behind you.  It says, yes...I have places to go!  And indeed I did.  I did my time at the office and then hopped on the train to Schiphol.  I didn’t realize that Aer Lingus is partnered with KLM so I checked in in the business class area and managed to go through the customs line quickly.  Nice.  Only carry-on for me since I knew Marnie would be waiting for me and I was eager to ‘frapper la rue’ and start re-exploring Ireland.

After a very civilized 1hour flight, I had landed at Dublin airport.  I met Marnie at arrivals according to her instructions on my mobile phone.  This was already evidence of big changes since we’d last been here.  Mobile phones were barely in existence in 1996 but here we were, fifteen years later, texting to each other while I was still getting off the plane!

I don’t think we’d seen each other in about 5 years or so but she hasn’t changed a bit.  After a big hug to say hello, we headed off to get the car.  She’d arranged it all so she was the only driver on the contract.  I didn’t mind but worried if it might be a lot for her – especially since she’d be jet-lagged.  She said it was all good so I assumed the role of navigator, a job I immediately failed at.  We didn’t realize we had a map in the car with us so we tried to get by on crude maps from the car rental company to get on to the M50.  Once on the M50, all highways to the 12 corners (!) of the country branched off of it.  Piece of cake?  Not so much. Because of the heavy rain we couldn't see anything and missed the M50. After an hour of gabbing and catching up, I started to notice lots of signs for Wexford.  Once I caught glimpse of the coast on our left, I knew we were heading south, not west!

It was a pretty detour through Wexford and up over to Portlaoise.  Marn just laughed about it so that was a relief.  I’d have felt awful if she’d been upset about it but hey – it was a ‘off the beaten path’ kind of weekend and we’d never seen this part of the country before!  In all, I’d guess it added an extra 200km to our journey but we managed to get to the hotel before midnight.  So much for some pub-grub for dinner.  In order to make it to the hotel before midnight (barely!) we ended up having ‘gas station cuisine’ for dinner, read: chips, chocolate and gummies.  Fortunately the pub at the hotel was still open so there were celebratory Guinesses all around!

Quote-of-the-day: "Hey, Marn...I've got a funny feeling we're heading the wrong way."

A few surprises...

Ugh-we got soaked today...but it was worth it. We saw two spectacular Roman ruins, Hierapolis and Aphrodisias which were surprises to me. I was most interested in seeing the travertines at Pamakkule. I'm a big fan of Mother Nature's work. She didn't disappoint, except for the rain. But it was the Roman ruins that were really a pleasant surprise.

I can't name all the places we saw but there were graveyards, such as Necropolis, amphitheaters, stadiums, and ruins from ancient civilizations with a few spring flowers thrown into the mix. I expect I got a few great shots to blow up.

One of the things I'm noticing about the people on the trip is that they all appear to have read the itinerary! I knew I wanted to see Cappadocia and Pamakkule and everything else was bonus. Some has been so-so, like the museum of Anatolia in Anarak but others like the underground city or the ruins today have been wonderful surprises. I know I'm missing out on a lot of the knowledge I could have on the area but...well...in one ear and out the other. There's so much to know anyway. I'm honestly just enjoying the here and now.

There have been 13 of us together on the tour for several days now. A Japanese and Chinese couple, an older American couple and then 7 interesting, talented and successful single ladies of whom I am the youngest.

The other six ladies are all childless and seem to be okay about that. Some have commented that kids, and men, would be a compromise they're not sure they want. I know there are all kinds of women and different fates for each of us. I don't want their fate.

It was a late lunch which meant all the crowds has disappeared. It was a cute spot with several wood burning stoves that we all huddled around after getting so wet visiting Aphrodisias. It was a tasty spread.

Our afternoon stop was a leather factory where we were treated (subject) to a leather fashion show and a tour of the showroom. It seemed so odd, so out of place, and yet there they were, pouty, pretty Turks wearing the latest leather goods on the catwalk. Amazingly 3 ladies bought coats! I was tempted by one but was turned off by the price tag, forgetting I could barter. Ah well, I should dig out the old one I bought in Montreal and try to make it cool again!