Cork day

ok, july 1st-2nd:

by the way, there is nothing of interest in Cork, I hate to say it, but the walking tour was TEN euro and not worth it at all. I left Chris at the train station, he was going to Dublin to fly home july 2rd. I found the Crawford House and settled in for the night, doing homework for my senior math qualification course. I washed my wee undies so I would not run out and hung them around the room.

Breakfast in the morning was good, I left for the airport in Cork to return my rental and pick up the other one (the one I was paying for). I dropped off the car and went to get my other one. I discovered that they would not take Chris' credit card without him there to authorize it (i had to give him mine so he could return my dumb new labtop that uses Windows 7 starter (royally sucks!)). So, I'm stuck at the airport, with no wheels and nowhere to stay.

I decided to go back to the b and b I was at, after the young woman at the car desk told me that Chris would have to fax an authorization letter to her and sign it. So, when I got to the Crawford House, I asked the owners if I could use their fax maching, explained what I was doing (writing a letter from Chris to National Car Rental) and then faxed off, phoned her to make sure it was acceptable, and went back. I forgot to mention John Lynch the airport shuttle bus driver. He was way cool and is the one who suggested I do this letter myself. As I waited for the shuttle to come back and pick me up at the airport, I sat on the street and busked at the bus(k) stop! (hee hee, a wee joke). although, I dont' think it is busking if you don't have a hat on the street, but i did get some horn honks.

back at the airport, got my car finally, after they informed me I would have to pay another 136 in insurance, and 72 dollars for gas (yeah like it costs that much to fill!) and pay taxes. 260 dollars later, I am frustrated but ready to get the heck out of Cork.

I drove to Dingle. Along the way I stopped on the Connor Pass, which is a treacherously beautiful cliff side road on the way to Dingle. I can't load the pics now but will later when I'm not on an inet cafe computer at 3 euro per half hour.

I met up with a friend of Sam's (my friend from my firs 2008 tour) and she is from Sault Saint Marie! She came here on a vagabond tour with Sam also and sold all her stuff and moved. She is swell! She works at a pub in Dingle.

I met a man named Morris (who said he was out doing his constitution, doesn't that refer to taking a dump?? but he was exercising and stretching, i assume that was his meaning). He told me how he loved Dingle and his home in Ireland. he tried to live in Germany but was becoming depressed so moved back home and has been happy ever since. I think his hair is dyed redish purple, not sure why. We share a love for my favorite spot in Dingle, I took his picture and he thought me daft to take a picture of a total stranger.

got ripped off at the b and b. 35 euro for bed and cold breakfast. it should be "bed and banana"! when I woke up this morning, I did my math experiment with the plastic bottle, that was loads of craic (NOT!!)

oh yeah, if an Irish person says go straight, they usually mean "carry on, on the road you're on even though it bends in crazy ways and takes huge 180 turns, just carry on the road with the right of way" or something to that effect. It has taken me a week to figure that out. Now I don't get lost so much.

Ardmore, Charles Fort, Kinsale

We began our day after waking in our amazing hotel and took a walk on the beach before leaving town. This is the view from my room in the morning, the air smelled like the sea and there was a nice breeze on my face. I could hear the gulls crying, hoping the fishermen below would throw them some chow.



Chris and I made a fun beach footprint shot. We claim this photo from both of us cause it was a collaborative effort. The rocks on the wet sand looked like jewels and glistened in the sunshine, twas a glorious morning.

Below, is the town of Kinsale. Cute shops, lovely colours. This picture, I think I'll try to paint.

The town of Kinsale from a high view point. It has a great yaht club.

Charles Fort. This fort is full of history and was built in the 1680's (if memory serves me correctly). It was made by the English and was used in the first and second world wars. In the hippie era, it was lived in by those who quoted "make love not war" and smoked pot. It is a large compound in the shape of a star. THe living quarters were cramped and the soldiers had one third the space of that of a prisoner.

Here is a pic of Chris just above the stone mosaic of the Fort, you can see it's star shape.

Our guide. His name is Patrick. (He's not Irish.............Hahahah)

just chilling in the fort

Hook Head lighthouse, Waterford Crystal, Tramore

Ok, I loaded all these picture in reverse order, so it will make more sense if you scroll down to the bottom and then read to the top, then it will be in order!! now I will go to the bottom and start telling you about everything.

Our place to stay for the night was in the Cliff Hotel. Five star accomodations (that means they have hair conditioner in the bathroom, a big deal for someone with hair like mine). At the head of the bed is a beautiful glass art piece that when lit up was so nice to look at. We ate like kings here that night, a real privilege.

Just a pretty viewpoint

In Tramore, Chris went surfing and I went shoppping in the shops. He looks way cool here with his hang ten hand sign eh?

A crystal celtic cross, VERY heavy too.

Above again, each cut you see in a crystal piece is individually cut by a master glass cutter who trained for 8 years to do his job. All Waterford crystal is hand cut and designed. You can see the left over grid marks that the cutter uses to put the desin on. NExt time you see crystal, take a close look and you will find that it is not uniform, there are small irregularities since it is hand done.

Here, above, you see the glass makers making one of their wine glasses, made out three seperate pieces of crystal molten stuff (the orange glob). They are putting on the stem.

Next up we have the New Waterford Crystal factory where they don't make waterford crystal. they only make specialty pieces here, the rest is outsourced to Indonesia, or Germany or wherever. This clock is totally made out of crystal and is likely many tens of thousands of Euro in value.

Look, Hook Head Lighthouse!

Next above, we have an old cemetary (duh!) on the way to Hook Head Lighthouse. The drive was so pretty we ended up stopping loads of times to take photos.

We stayed in Wexford, June 28th. Above, are photos from that night in the pub. there was a trio of men playing accordion, guitar, banjo and the booley or something, it looks like the madolin. For the most part, while I played my Uke, likely 50 percent of the time, I was scrambling to try and figure out what chords were in their reels (an Irish instrumental song thats very upbeat and changes key a few times however the force moves the musicians)

Dunbrody Famine Ship and Ros Tapestry

Below is the Dunbrody famine ship. A replica built in Quebec in the mid 1900's to honor the Irish who were lost in the Great Famine of 1847. The population of Ireland went from 8 million at that tim eto 4 million. Today, the population is about 6 million so you can see how long it has taken to regain their people. Not all those 4 million died of starvation, some are unacounted for, 1 million emmigrated to NY and Canada and 1 million died of starvation.

In this picture, you are looking at the bunks for the 'Steerage' or the poor passengers aboard the ship. They were only allowed to go above deck for a half hour per day and only one person from each family was allowed up to cook over the open fire. Of course if it was raining, they could not cook so ate raw food or nothing. Each bunk you see had 7-10 people 'living' on it. Obviously not all of them could sit or lie down together so they had to take turns. Many people died on the way over to NaA and were committed overboard as a burial. They lived like this for 50 days to get across the Atlantic Ocean.

The quarters below were for captain and first class patrons of the ship. These people were fed three times a day and allowed up on deck anytime they wished, compared to the Steerage people who were locked in and had very limited exposure to fresh air. They used buckets as toilets with virtually no privacy. It was a great leap of faith for the Irish to come aboard these vessels, I don't think I would have been able to do it, but many rathered this high risk than starving in Ireland.

Today we drove from Kilkenny to New Ross and our next stop was the Ros Tapestry. I am amazed at this display or craftmanship, detail and devotion to history. Take a look at the website for the amazing story if you are interested and you can also see the rest of the 15 paintings, most of which have now been converted into tapestries each 6x4 feet large. I met the ladies Susan Synott and Mary Maher, who are also stitchers of this monumental project of history. Both are very passionate about their work and are quite skilled with a needle. It took the last ten years to complete ten tapestries, which now hang in the gallery. The last five are under construction, or in the que and they project they will finish in the next 2-3 years. This is history making history and will be such a valuable asset to the country of Ireland.

http://www.rostapestry.com/

You can see how she is situated just in front of the painting, painted by Ann Griffin Bernstorff (who did the research into all the 15 paintings), which was used to trace an exact copy of the picture with pencil on the Jacobean linen. Just to give you an idea of how long this takes, it takes 1 hour to stitch a square inch (remember these panels are 4x6 feet in size).

Here is the original painting from which they are currently working:

Below are two photos of what is on the works now. You can see the delicate and detailed work, how the stitches create flow and movement and texture. The thread is made of Scottish wool and the linen comes from England. They are working with a palate of 450 colors and use 7-8 basic embroidery stitches.

No one is allowed to touch or take a photo of any completed works in the gallers so I feel special that I was able to take these photos of the work in progress. Each volunteer gets to stitch their name on the side (not visible to see) of the tapestry they helped to stitch so they will be remembered, as well, ad final tapestry is planned to credit the volunteers and on it they will all stitch their names. It too will be displayed in the gallery eventually.

If you come to Ireland, this impressive collection will be well worth the trip to the South East of Ireland!

Ben and Omar

We went out to the pumphouse last for some live music. It was fun and when we left we met some Irish guys outside, one of whom was totally ploughed. (wasted, buggered, anything-ed), his name was Ben. I had chosen to wear my red t-shirt and jeans. Ben asked me when we got outside, if I was from "America". i awkwardly pointed to my own chest where in big white letters was written the word "CANADA". He figured I was from Canada after that.

He was talking to Chris mainly, he really seemed to like him, and Chris was telling him he met a Leprechaun a mile and a half down the street, and I interjected that his name was Toni. Of course, if I could go back, I would have picked Sheamus or Sean, but it was the first name that came out. Ben laughed hysterically and told Omar (his buddy, not really wasted yet) and they both had a good laugh. Ben told me there's no such thing as a Leprechaun named Toni. I told him it was a half breed Leprechaun who was part Italian, which made him laugh even harder.

We chatted outside for about 15 minutes, all the while Ben appologizing for being "full of shite" and hugging Chris and shaking his hand every 2 minutes. When we finally left, mainly because Ben ran out of his pint of beer and needed more, Ben hugged Chris and told me he was a good guy, then patted Chris' cheek. Well, Ben really liked Chris a lot, much more than he liked me, I feel so rejected.

I think Ben is a Leprechaun actually...........

Kilkenny and Dunmore Caves

This is Kilkenny, one of the main streets. It is such a nice town, I loved it here and w0uld return for sure. The weather permitted us to really enjoy the pubs and local craft stores (well, I enjoyed the local craft stores, I left Chris outside to take pictures).

We ate breakfast and went out for our walking tour of Kilkenny. Kilkenny means 'church of kenny'. Kill means church, Kenny is a family name. This town was a critical point in Ireland because of it's nearness to the river Nore. When the Vikings came and started raiding, the Irish went over to England and recruited Strongbow and his army to come here and live and fight off the Vikings. A castle was built for him in the 1300's and was made of wood. Now, there stands a castle in it's place made of stone and was built in 1800's as a family residence for the Butler's who had strong English ties here. Kilkenny was divided into the English town and Irish town and the English controlled the movement in and out of their part, which by the way was far more developed and higher up. Actually the city crest here has a lion on it which represents the city's strong ties to Normandy. Those danged vikings, always causing trouble!

We also went to Dunmore caves and saw the largest stalacmite in Ireland and one of the largest in Europe. we went as far down as 60 meters under groung and were as close to the surface as 10 meters. These caves were once used for storage and emergency shelter from invasion. We know this because of the 1000 people massacre back in 928 AD. There were many bones excavated here and as far as the scientist and historians can deduce, the women and children who were here hiding from the vikings were suffocated by smoke when the vikings lit fires near the one and only entrance. One interesting find was the purple cloth found 11 years ago, among coins and other artifacts. the purple cloth was made hundreds of years ago using a special kind of snale and only the very rich could afford it. If anyone was caught with purple cloth, it was assumed they stole it and they would be killed for theivery, therefore if it was ever found before that, it would have been turned in to authorities.

Another interesting fact is that the temperature inside the caves remains constant at nine degrees year round. This provides a great environment for bats during the cold winter months to hibernate. A bat can eat up to 1000 bugs in one day, so we should learn to love those little things. And, they don't fly into your hair, because their hearing is so keen, they send out high pitched signals, we can't hear, to navigate around in the dark and they don't bang into things. They are harmless animals and don't like us so are not prone to fly or bit us.
We had a picnic at the caves today and a nap in our little car, which I keep hitting the curbs with cause I'm not used to driving on the other side of the road. All in all, I like driving on the other side and can do quite well, Chris too.

tonight, we go in seek of some live music and more craic............can't get enough of the craic.

the craic in Kilkenny

These are my friends from left to right: Ozlem, Sam, Philip, little Cian and Anna. So great to see them, hopefully Chris links up with them again this Thursday while in Dublin

well last night we went to a teeny weeny pub in Kilkenny and saw a band playing rock music. IT was loud, next time I bring me earplugs.

There was beer drippin from the shelf above our heads, an old guy who smelled like sweat and was really nice and smiley. He asked us if there was a recession in Canada and we said not too bad right now. He said "this country's bollocks!" and then laughed and said something about politics. Chris just looked at me wondering what the heck to say so I nodded to the man in agreement and we all had a laugh. He won't remember us in the morning.

there were pictures of womens' cleavage all over the ceilings and I took a picture of it.

June 27th: fun, tiring and I've seen enought cleavage for a liftime! I was somewhat tempted to draw a canadian flag on my own chest and add meself to the ceiling of fame, but then didn't. Although it would be something to add to my crossed off list of stuff to do.

hmmmmm...............

Kilkenny

Oh my goodness, sitting in that plane for 7 hours just about drove me to drink! My feet were falling asleep and the man be side me had bad breath, although he was very nice and we chatted it up Irish style. I joined the mile high club. NO not that one, get your mind out of the gutter. Had a kiss at 34ooo feet up, thats the club I joined. another first to strike off my list.

driving in Dublin is like tryin to find your way out of a labrynth blindfolded. I crossed the river Liffy 3 times, each time announcing "and here is the river Liffy". I turned the wrong way on a one way. How did I know? I looked at all the parked cars on the sides and they were all facing me. So did an Irish three point turn (not even sure myself what that is exactly) and almost ran over some lady who seems to think that the street is her sidewalk. She gave me the dirtiest look, THREE times. I looked back in silence wondering what to say. She looked at me the last time and said "you come here and are trying to kill people!!!" I apologized and told her I was lost, to which Chris added "why don't you walk on the sidewalk. Of course, my answer to that was "we're Americans! (no not really, but it did cross my mind in the efforts to salvage our Canadian reputation)

I asked someone how to get to the Trinity college and a car full of Immigrants told me to follow them. They kindly led me on the way and then turned to go their own way while pointin down the street and telling me to turn right (which is like turning left traffic wise). I ended up in the left turn lane (which is like turning right) and putting my right turn signal on, because the lane beside me was labelf "Lana bus" which I assume means "stay the crap off this lane unless you are a bus". but to my surprise, you can actually drive on it. Well, no one let me cut in to turn right and as luck would have it, a police car drove up beside me and gestured for me to turn left since I was in that lane. I told them I was trying to get to Trinity College and that I was lost, in the hopes that they would take pity and let me cut in front of them, but NOPE.

we drove around the whole of Dublin again to get back there to meet up with Sam, who incidentally thinks me crazy for even entering the city without a proper map.

Lets try to make this summary shorter now.

-I had to ask why while I was at the bottom floor of the parkade, the elevator button was pointin down. The lady told me it is because it is comin down to where we are. (unlike in CAnada where the button points up cause thats where we want to go)

- it is gay pride in Dublin today and there are strangely dressed homosexuals (like sailor suits, fairies, etc) carrying rainbow flags. I used to like rainbows, now not so much. How come we don't run around celebratin gour heterosexual tendancies??

-today there was a parade in honor of Michael Jackson. a gaggle of Irish people dressed like zombies marched down the Temple Bar cobble stones and one even came up to our restaurant where we were eating with Sam et. al. and licked, (yes licked!) the window. there was a unnanimous "ewww" that was heard around the restaurant and some staff were shortly sent out to wash the windows. Goodness knows what kind of germs are now on that window!

Well, we have gone about 27 hours without sleep really, if you don't count the few minutes of numb slumber in the plane. We are getting ready to go out on the town of Kilkenny to see whats what. Sam says there is mighty craic to be had.

latah all

Jordan's birthday......six ten years olds running and jumping around the livingroom

so we invited Jordan's friends over here tonight to celebrate his birthday early since we are going away to Ireland tomorrow. In attendance were: Logan (the narcoleptic who hates hot dogs!), Jackson (the redhead who told us he is growing his hair like a teenager (longish) cause he's into that sort of stuff, Nate the nice kid who is really relaxed, Matthew the kid who has been taught exactly ZERO manners, Julien the new kid, son of Jeff Darling (my favorite boy at university this year! who is married to awesome Gladys), and of course Jordan.

Jonah made chocolate cake. I used icing I made three weeks ago and was in my fridge (really, does pure sugar ever go bad??) and red icing to write on the cake with. (which ran cause the white icing was too runny and so by the time we lit the cake the words looked like somethin from a horror film, red and bloody and runny). Matthew informed me that chocolate cake is gross and the worst kind of cake ever, to which my response was "that is a really nice thing to say a birthday party where someone is serving chocolate cake".

These kids are some kind of mutant kids, who dont' like their picture taken and don't like chocolate cake or hotdogs................what the heck?!

below is narcolepsy boy, on his way to la la land......

.............aaaaand now he is compeltely gone. What kind of kid wants to lay around and sleep at a birthday party?

Here are some photos from the party:

getting ready for Ireland 2010

I'm getting ready for Ireland 2010 and am very excited. Hopefully I have a place to log on and update with pics and reports of the great country!
talk to you soon,
me