Observation number one that I've made of Ireland is the most irritating, but certainly not the most life-threatening. There is a serious lack of reasonably priced internet cafes in this country. They have free wi-fi all over the place, in almost every hostel I've stayed in, but if you don't have a computer it costs upwards of €5 an hour. This is going to be my excuse for never writing to all of you.
2. At this point of cycled both main and back roads throughout Southern Ireland and I've come to one very important conclusion. The only difference between a primary and secondary road in this country is the posted speed limit. The actual speed of the cars is rarely less than 100km/h no matter what the condition of the road. This is where the life-threatening comes in, as, in addition to this, the roads tend to not have a shoulder to cycle on. This, in conjunction with observation the third, is why i refuse to cycle at night. But I haven't been hit yet, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Third, people drink A LOT here. You see, I always thought that was just an exaggerated stereotype, but it really is almost a way of life. I was talking to a fisherman I asked for directions about this and I think he summed it up nicely with some advice he gave me. First of all he pointed out that Guiness isn't an easy drinking beer that you sip. He told me that when you go to the bar you can tell if a man is worth your while by how he drinks his Guiness. If he finishes it in 3-4 sips he's a good guy and you should go over and say hi. Anything more than that and he's probably either foreign or not much of anything really. And anything less than 3 and you should run out of the bar, preferably screaming. Words to live by ;-)
d) People are incredibly friendly in this country and have gone out of their way on numerous times to make me feel welcomed and at home. I've had people go out of their way to give me directions both unasked and when I've knocked on the door of their little farmhouse in the middle of no where (who would have thought there could be a middle of no where in a country so small?). Whenever I tell people about my trip they seem genuinely concerned about my safety, giving me good advice about places to go and the occasional phone number of a long lost relative up north. The whole country has the feeling of a large interconnected community or family. They may not always get along, but most of the teasing is good natured and filled with love.
And finally (for now), they spell my last name right! There are lots of ways to spell Connolly and in North America they usually spell it Connely, which drives me crazy to no end. I'm still not used to this strange peace of mind though; whenever I'm asked for my surname I immediately spell it after saying it and people give me funny looks as if to ask if I know where I am. But I think the best part of my last name is that when people ask what it is (and the Irish usually ask...probably to do with that very large community feel of the country), they become very excited to realize that I am (even if just a little) Irish :-)
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Exhaustion is not man's best friend
Well we did arrive in Dublin eventually. Four days late and completely exhausted, my parents and I wandered around the Big Smoke for three days in a daze. I can honestly say that the few things I actually was able to see and do in that time I remember next to nothing of. And thus my noble plans of visiting Dublin crashed and burned not unlike Seattle in 1889.
Thus, the first week of our trip consisted solely of four days of traveling to Dublin and 3 days of walking like zombies around Dublin standing in touristy lines. Oh good fun! I think it may have been a better plan if we had just made up our mind to sleep for the first day and a half to catch up on our four days lacking sleep and be up-to-date with the time zone. Unfortunately, in our sleep deprived state, we did not realize the extent to which we were actually sleep deprived and, consequently, were not thinking of functioning at our prime.
The trip got a little better when we decided to give up on seeing everything in Dublin and start heading South. We went to County Wicklow. First on the list of things to see was Greystones and the house my dad was born in. It was amazing to wander around the city and, although my dad doesn't remember living there (he was only 4 when he left), it was fun to imagine him running up and down the street wreaking havoc with his brothers and sister. Greystones is a small beachside community, which is remarkably similar to the town I grew up in. Although Dad doesn't remember living there, I think his subconscious must have influenced his decision to move to our current home. Then we went to Powerscourt Estate, which my dad was under the mistaken impression was the estate his father grew up on and at which his paternal grandfather worked. Half a day of imagining my little grandfather running around with the cocker spaniel named Jack that we saw at the pet cemetery was for not when a visit with our Irish relatives informed us that the estate we were thinking of was Kilruddery. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit that estate, but there's just one more incentive for me to return!
Then we visited Glendaloch, which is an old monastic site and beautiful park grounds. Glendaloch was started by a hermit named St. Kevin, who loved nature and sleeping in caves. People thought his life was just fantastic and started moving there to join them, not realizing the irony in their actions.
Now, I was originally planning on departing from my parents at this point to start cycling on my own, but I was so far behind in my plans at this point that I decided to stay with my parents in an attempt to play catch-up with the car. We drove down the coast stopping at Wexford and staying at a really nice little farm hostel of the beaten track in New Ross. The couple that ran it was incredibly sweet and, surprise surprise, had lived in Vancouver for a good portion of their lives. The next morning we traveled South to the JFK Arboretum (beautiful grounds) and took a ferry across to Waterford to see the Waterford Crystal Factory, which is really not much more than a glorified shop, albeit a beautiful one. We stayed that night in Cashel (one of our more productive days driving-wise) and went to see the Rock of Cashel the next morning. The Rock was one of the things I wanted to see, but was going to cut out if I didn't have much time left. I'm so glad I didn't cut it! It was the most Irish-y and amazing things I'd seen up until that point. Amazing! I'd say to look up pictures, but it wouldn't do it justice.
The next day we drove down to Cork and wandered around town before booking into a hotel for the night and a much needed sleep. After leaving the next morning Cork (and spending a couple hours looking for a spare tube for my bike tire), we stopped in Blarney and kissed the Blarney Stone (yes, I realize the locals pee on it, but pee is sterile, right?), before setting my bike up. All of this took so long that my parents ended up driving me to the little town of Dripsey to stay at a B&B for the night.
Now you're all caught up and so am I :-)
Thus, the first week of our trip consisted solely of four days of traveling to Dublin and 3 days of walking like zombies around Dublin standing in touristy lines. Oh good fun! I think it may have been a better plan if we had just made up our mind to sleep for the first day and a half to catch up on our four days lacking sleep and be up-to-date with the time zone. Unfortunately, in our sleep deprived state, we did not realize the extent to which we were actually sleep deprived and, consequently, were not thinking of functioning at our prime.
The trip got a little better when we decided to give up on seeing everything in Dublin and start heading South. We went to County Wicklow. First on the list of things to see was Greystones and the house my dad was born in. It was amazing to wander around the city and, although my dad doesn't remember living there (he was only 4 when he left), it was fun to imagine him running up and down the street wreaking havoc with his brothers and sister. Greystones is a small beachside community, which is remarkably similar to the town I grew up in. Although Dad doesn't remember living there, I think his subconscious must have influenced his decision to move to our current home. Then we went to Powerscourt Estate, which my dad was under the mistaken impression was the estate his father grew up on and at which his paternal grandfather worked. Half a day of imagining my little grandfather running around with the cocker spaniel named Jack that we saw at the pet cemetery was for not when a visit with our Irish relatives informed us that the estate we were thinking of was Kilruddery. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit that estate, but there's just one more incentive for me to return!
Then we visited Glendaloch, which is an old monastic site and beautiful park grounds. Glendaloch was started by a hermit named St. Kevin, who loved nature and sleeping in caves. People thought his life was just fantastic and started moving there to join them, not realizing the irony in their actions.
Now, I was originally planning on departing from my parents at this point to start cycling on my own, but I was so far behind in my plans at this point that I decided to stay with my parents in an attempt to play catch-up with the car. We drove down the coast stopping at Wexford and staying at a really nice little farm hostel of the beaten track in New Ross. The couple that ran it was incredibly sweet and, surprise surprise, had lived in Vancouver for a good portion of their lives. The next morning we traveled South to the JFK Arboretum (beautiful grounds) and took a ferry across to Waterford to see the Waterford Crystal Factory, which is really not much more than a glorified shop, albeit a beautiful one. We stayed that night in Cashel (one of our more productive days driving-wise) and went to see the Rock of Cashel the next morning. The Rock was one of the things I wanted to see, but was going to cut out if I didn't have much time left. I'm so glad I didn't cut it! It was the most Irish-y and amazing things I'd seen up until that point. Amazing! I'd say to look up pictures, but it wouldn't do it justice.
The next day we drove down to Cork and wandered around town before booking into a hotel for the night and a much needed sleep. After leaving the next morning Cork (and spending a couple hours looking for a spare tube for my bike tire), we stopped in Blarney and kissed the Blarney Stone (yes, I realize the locals pee on it, but pee is sterile, right?), before setting my bike up. All of this took so long that my parents ended up driving me to the little town of Dripsey to stay at a B&B for the night.
Now you're all caught up and so am I :-)
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Seattle
Seattle surprised me. Prior to our unintended detour, the only time I had been to Seattle was in transit to someplace else. Consequently, my only memory of Seattle was a convoluted maze of highways criss-crossing above my head as I gazed bleary eyed out the window on a family roadtrip to Disney Land. I assumed we were downtown because the sign said Seattle, but after spending time in the city, I realize the city is nothing like the fast-paced metropolis I imagined it to be. It shares a lot of the same characteristics that I've grown up loving about Vancouver; it's laid back attitude, outdoor markets, yoga enthusiasts and hippies of all shapes and sizes (ie. vegan or simply vegetarian). I think my most joyous observation about Seattle was realizing that my favourite advice column, Savage Love, and my idol and favourite advice columnist, Dan Savage, both made there start on the streets of Seattle writing for The Stranger an alternative weekly newspaper. I had the great joy of reading his column from the original source and could barely make sense of it through my giddy jumping.
To pass the time in Seattle, other than visiting the mandatory Pike Place Market, my mom and I went on the Underground Tour. Apparently, Seattle has had a lot of historical....sewage....problems. When the settlers arrived there they were overjoyed to find a large expanse of uninhabited and unforested land with a beautiful seafront view. Little did they realize such ideal real estate was uninhabited for a very important reason. You see, the oceans have these things called tides and twice a day the sea level raises in an attempt to drive foreigners away. But these weren't just any tourists, they were pioneers and thus ridiculously stubborn. They found a slightly higher area with a coastal view and started to build a settlement there.
There wasn't much to do in this town to begin with due to the small area it encompassed, so people began to have children (one can only assume due to the monotany of being a pioneer) and the town began to grow. Luckily people's homes weren't flooded because they lived on the safety of a nearby hill and it was only the business district that was located down on the mudflats. Unfortunately, one of the icky things about natural history, as the novel so eliquently states, is that Everybody Poops. There is also gravity...gravity is another unfortunate element of this story. So we have everyone pooping up on the hill into tubes that flow into the sea, which is all well and good until the tide appear (no thanks to a certain celestial body orbiting a town, which shall not be named) and decides that it would rather not be covered in human defication, but would much prefer that it returned from whence it came. As a result, twice a day sea water and human waste would do exactly that through the lovely means of creating geysers pouring into the streets and through people's brand new Crappers into their homes. America's second Old Faithful.
The city's solution to this issue was to build the piping system one story up from sea level and hope that gravity would be in there favour. Luckily for the Seattle-ites, they were presented with just this opportunity when a fire burned down the downtown core. As everyone was rebuilding they made a plain looking store front at ground level and ritzy looking store fronts at the current level of the second floor. So you'd be walking around downtown Seattle back in the day and floating above your head would be all the stores you actually wanted to enter, but you were only able to look at them from afar and wait. Then they built up the streets around the sidewalks, so they were supported at second story level and created a labarynthian waffle of hidden pockets throughout the city's downtown area. Hence, the ever so fascinating Underground Tour.
It just goes to show how good urban planning makes for mind-numbing history books.
To pass the time in Seattle, other than visiting the mandatory Pike Place Market, my mom and I went on the Underground Tour. Apparently, Seattle has had a lot of historical....sewage....problems. When the settlers arrived there they were overjoyed to find a large expanse of uninhabited and unforested land with a beautiful seafront view. Little did they realize such ideal real estate was uninhabited for a very important reason. You see, the oceans have these things called tides and twice a day the sea level raises in an attempt to drive foreigners away. But these weren't just any tourists, they were pioneers and thus ridiculously stubborn. They found a slightly higher area with a coastal view and started to build a settlement there.
There wasn't much to do in this town to begin with due to the small area it encompassed, so people began to have children (one can only assume due to the monotany of being a pioneer) and the town began to grow. Luckily people's homes weren't flooded because they lived on the safety of a nearby hill and it was only the business district that was located down on the mudflats. Unfortunately, one of the icky things about natural history, as the novel so eliquently states, is that Everybody Poops. There is also gravity...gravity is another unfortunate element of this story. So we have everyone pooping up on the hill into tubes that flow into the sea, which is all well and good until the tide appear (no thanks to a certain celestial body orbiting a town, which shall not be named) and decides that it would rather not be covered in human defication, but would much prefer that it returned from whence it came. As a result, twice a day sea water and human waste would do exactly that through the lovely means of creating geysers pouring into the streets and through people's brand new Crappers into their homes. America's second Old Faithful.
The city's solution to this issue was to build the piping system one story up from sea level and hope that gravity would be in there favour. Luckily for the Seattle-ites, they were presented with just this opportunity when a fire burned down the downtown core. As everyone was rebuilding they made a plain looking store front at ground level and ritzy looking store fronts at the current level of the second floor. So you'd be walking around downtown Seattle back in the day and floating above your head would be all the stores you actually wanted to enter, but you were only able to look at them from afar and wait. Then they built up the streets around the sidewalks, so they were supported at second story level and created a labarynthian waffle of hidden pockets throughout the city's downtown area. Hence, the ever so fascinating Underground Tour.
It just goes to show how good urban planning makes for mind-numbing history books.
Monday, August 9, 2010
A Slight Delay
Saturday was absolutely horrible. We left the house late for the plane already, only to get up the hill from our house and have the windshield wipers cut out on our van. Fitting with the typical start of any family vacation, everybody has a different idea of what we should do: fix the wipers, go back and get the car (Petunia), or call a wonderfully considerate friend to drive us all the way to the airport in Seattle. Logically, we decide to do all three of our potential solutions and end up leaving the house for take two of our adventures about an hour late with myself and the giant bike box cramped in the back of Petunia.
An hour trough the border line up and an hour lost in traffic later, we arrive at the airport only to have missed the special baggage check-in by 7 minutes. Ok, it really sucks, but we can book another flight out leaving tomorrow...not so much. There's one leaving in two days for $1000 extra per ticket or the cost of the original return tickets. Let the fighting and consequent tears ensue!
After hours of this and finally grabbing something to eat, we decided to stay in Seattle over night and work on getting a better flight in the morning (apparently all the experienced people work the day shifts, so if you ever miss your flight, call the helpline in the daytime). We end up staying in the oh-so wittily named Sleep Inn with it's chemical infused rooms and exotic view of Seattle's finest trailer park. I don't mean to be unsympathetic towards the plight of it's inhabitants, but there are people all over the world who live in trailer parks and shanty towns who maintain there yards and show pride in their, hopefully temporary, homes.
Anyway, after a fitfilled night of something resembling sleep in every way, except sight, sound, smell, taste and feel, we woke up to the joy of waiting on hold for hours trying to arrange a new flight with Delta. The lovely people on the other end of the line were very helpful and we were able to book a new, albeit convoluted, route to Dublin. We leave Seattle tomorrow for Atlanta and should arrive (fingers crossed and hold thumbs) in Dublin on the 11th.
So, today was spent in Seattle and we'll just have to chock that up to an extended and unexpected addition to my graduation gift; I'll just have to cycle faster in the motherland.
Our Seattle adventures were experienced through the bleary, swollen eyes of last night's sleep. We visited Madison Market for lunch and a little grocery shopping. I still hold that chocolate cake is at it's best when vegan! Then booked into the Mayflower Park Hotel, the staff of which were lovely and helped me carry a giant bike box into their storage area. Then we went on to explore the famous Pike Place Market and see the first ever Starbucks. History in the making ;-) Ending the pleasant, but from hour one exhausting day @ our hotel restaurant.
I now write to you from the hotel lounge sipping a very Irish coffee and hoping the server comes by to dilute it with the caffinated beaverage Seattle has helped make famous. Salut!
An hour trough the border line up and an hour lost in traffic later, we arrive at the airport only to have missed the special baggage check-in by 7 minutes. Ok, it really sucks, but we can book another flight out leaving tomorrow...not so much. There's one leaving in two days for $1000 extra per ticket or the cost of the original return tickets. Let the fighting and consequent tears ensue!
After hours of this and finally grabbing something to eat, we decided to stay in Seattle over night and work on getting a better flight in the morning (apparently all the experienced people work the day shifts, so if you ever miss your flight, call the helpline in the daytime). We end up staying in the oh-so wittily named Sleep Inn with it's chemical infused rooms and exotic view of Seattle's finest trailer park. I don't mean to be unsympathetic towards the plight of it's inhabitants, but there are people all over the world who live in trailer parks and shanty towns who maintain there yards and show pride in their, hopefully temporary, homes.
Anyway, after a fitfilled night of something resembling sleep in every way, except sight, sound, smell, taste and feel, we woke up to the joy of waiting on hold for hours trying to arrange a new flight with Delta. The lovely people on the other end of the line were very helpful and we were able to book a new, albeit convoluted, route to Dublin. We leave Seattle tomorrow for Atlanta and should arrive (fingers crossed and hold thumbs) in Dublin on the 11th.
So, today was spent in Seattle and we'll just have to chock that up to an extended and unexpected addition to my graduation gift; I'll just have to cycle faster in the motherland.
Our Seattle adventures were experienced through the bleary, swollen eyes of last night's sleep. We visited Madison Market for lunch and a little grocery shopping. I still hold that chocolate cake is at it's best when vegan! Then booked into the Mayflower Park Hotel, the staff of which were lovely and helped me carry a giant bike box into their storage area. Then we went on to explore the famous Pike Place Market and see the first ever Starbucks. History in the making ;-) Ending the pleasant, but from hour one exhausting day @ our hotel restaurant.
I now write to you from the hotel lounge sipping a very Irish coffee and hoping the server comes by to dilute it with the caffinated beaverage Seattle has helped make famous. Salut!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Crowdsourcing
I don't usually link to things, but this is exactly why I love the internet...
http://chicago.straightdope.com/sdc2010crowdsourcing.php
http://chicago.straightdope.com/sdc2010crowdsourcing.php
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
