the daily(ish)

Thankfully, the Irish possess a great sense of humor and aren’t easily offended…

They don’t really drink that much here, especially compared to other European countries. And hey, they can’t help it that they produce the best beer in the world, now can they?

the daily(ish)

We went back to the Arlington Hotel for a night of traditional music and folk dancing.  The dancers paled in comparison to the ones we saw last year, but I seriously loved this guy playing the uilleann pipes…

The uillean is one of just three native instruments from Ireland including the bodhran (smallish Irish drum) and the harp. Uillean means elbow in Irish which points out the major difference between these and the Scottish bag pipes. 

Incredibly complicated to play with pumping air with your elbow, playing the whole flute-y part and all the while adjusting the sound with the back of your hand makes that sweet, sweet sound coming from them that much more amazing.

While he was playing I kept thinking about Braveheart, which was weird because that’s set in Scotland.  Well, turns out the theme song uses the uillean pipes, not the Scottish bag pipe.  Just another reason to dislike that disgusting bigot, Mel Gibson.  Not that I needed another.  Although I do want to point out that Braveheart predates my Mel Gibson ban so I’m still allowed to love it, which I do.

The land of cold beer and warm hearts

Seems Ireland isn't quite done with us yet.  It's funny because I was listening to some traditional Irish music on the plane last Sunday and told the Wife how much it made me miss Ireland.  I don't think I'd even listened to that album since we left Ireland last year and then this week we find out we're headed to Dublin for 3 weeks before going to London. 

Although I'm disappointed to lose time in London, I'm more than happy to do it in a city and country I hold so dear. 

If you weren't reading the blog last year you can read all about how much I loved it here, here, here, here and here.

Hang on, boys...

I'm coming for ya!!!

flashback friday

A little Irish dancing for your Friday morning...



I miss you, Ireland.

That time again...

We're leaving Ireland tomorrow and there are more emotions than usual with this departure. As with any location after 2 months- I’m a little bored, I’m totally over the breakfast*, and I’m ready for the new and unknown. But I’m also incredibly sad to leave, like I’m a little tearful about it even.

I think most of it’s saying goodbye to our Betty’s Town girl…




Although we completely plan on bombarding her with visits every chance we get, life has a way of getting away from you and sometimes the best laid plans are only that- plans. It’s hard for us to know that someone we’ve come to hold so dear isn’t as accessible anymore. We wish her all the luck in the world in her new life back home, but we’re going to seriously miss her. Seriously.

The other hard thing about leaving is that this country is kind of full of the same kind of people. Warm, welcoming, funny and generous, the Irish people have been what has really made me fall in love with this country. Of course, the Guinness and potatoes didn’t hurt either.

We’ve never lived anywhere before that felt so much like home. We’ve actually never lived anywhere that we said “We could REALLY live here!” and actually mean it.



Lush green beauty, deliciously rich culture, immense pride, wit and charm…Ireland, I miss you already and we haven’t even left yet.





*How is it that I can eat the same dang thing every single morning for years at home, but now with a myriad of breakfast choices I get so sick of every single thing on the buffet that I usually stop eating breakfast altogether by week 5?

Day Trip (aka Day spent with David Brent or Total Bird Insanity)

J and I took a little trip last week before he left to Malahide to check out a castle and along the way we stopped in the fishing village of Howth to feed some seals. Random, I know.

It was a pretty short tour, but it felt like a lifetime thanks to our ridiculous tour guide. Until this trip I had been extremely impressed with every guide I’d had in Ireland. Considering that the Wife and I stayed for a weekend, I toured around by myself and then J and I spent 4 days roaming around Dublin- I had met more than a few. Wow, but this guy…he was…well, if you have ever seen the BBC original “The Office”- he was David Brent.

Should have been a good time, right? Well, I quickly realized that it isn’t too funny to actually be in David Brent’s world- only to observe it. On television. For 30 minutes. I’m serious when I say he was David Brent. I swear I’m going to email Ricky Gervais to see if this guy was his inspiration. Exact same mannerisms. Exact.

For the first hour or so I couldn’t quite place why he was so familiar, but when we were in the castle it hit me like a ton of bricks. Inside one of the rooms was a very small collection of miniature furniture models used by carpenters in the 19th century. All of them, save one, were little chest of drawers and wardrobes. The other one was apparently for holding maps because David Brent went into this story, complete with different voices:

Imagine I’m a carpenter in 1894 and I receive a letter from a well-to do-lady. Me goes to see this lady, perhaps at a home as elegant as this and that fine lady says to me “Oh sir, can you please help me! Me husband is an old sea dog and has maps all over the house! Is there anything you can do to help me get me husband’s maps under control”

Can I help her? I tell her to hold on one minute and then I pulls out of me little bag this wee model. The fine lady exclaims “Oh, me thinks this is just the thing!” So the lady signs papers for me to begin the work. I work hard and in about 3 weeks time I complete the map drawer and have it delivered to the lady. You can imagine she would be very happy with my work and I’d hope her husband would be just as pleased!

what? the? hell?

Yeah. And in true David Brent form, on the way back to Dublin he proceed to tell us that he was recently at a pub and was the last one standing AND that he is a member of a singing group. But, oh no…don’t ask him to sing. He needs a few pints first. I have zero doubt that he would have started belting out Molly Malone had anyone on the bus had actually protested and asked him to sing.

Aside from our preposterous guide, it was a nice little trip out of the city. The castle was nicely preserved…




Howth was a cute little fishing village and seals were very sweet looking…



However, there were tons of birds swooping and squawking trying to take the fish before the seals could get them. As you can see, I was a bit freaked by all these birds. Birds, much like monkeys, make me nervous…



So I throw it…



Aw, he’s going to get it…



Total bird insanity…

into the west

We were lucky enough to have our own Irish tour guide this past weekend for our trip to the west of Ireland. Along with our Betty’s Town girl we also had our dear Venezuelan friend come in from Atlanta for 6 days. The entire team piled up in the two cars Friday and we made our way to Westport.

It was a bit of drive, but we got there in time to pop into Matt Malloy’s. This is apparently the most famous pub in Westport and from the size of the crowd packed inside I imagine the entire village was present.

Aside from the beautiful pints, the highlight of this place is the live music. They had a guy in the very back room playing pub tunes and top 40, but in what probably used to be the original back room there were about 6 or 7 people sitting around a circular booth playing traditional Irish folk music. It was deliciously intimate and purely Irish. I think it was even more special for me and the Wife being from the South since this music is at the very root of bluegrass and country.

Actually, Ireland feels like going home to me in so many ways. Aside from actual genetic connections to this country (most of us have them, I know I do on my maternal side) I really think any true Southerner would have to be blind not to see how much this culture shaped our own. The food, the music, the hospitality, the storytelling…it’s like visiting a distant relative. You don’t really know each other, but you can’t deny the connection or familiarity.

Saturday we made our way through the tiny winding roads to Galway. As with any good road trip, it was more about the journey than the destination. We stopped off at beaches, bogs, rolling green hills, waterfalls, lochs, tower houses, an abbey, a Celtic graveyard, had lunch at the foot of Crough Patrick and dinner in a little village by the ocean…












Sunday was all about getting to the Cliffs of Moher. The weather had pretty much held out for us all weekend, until of course we got to the cliffs. It was rainy and windy, but it would take more than that to dull the beauty of these dramatic cliffs…




Our last stop was a tomb dating back 5800 years which was much smaller than the photo makes it looks. It was a miracle we even found it out in the middle of nowhere…




All in all it was a lovely weekend spent with lovely people and surrounded by the all the loveliness of Ireland. Thanks so much, Razel for showing us your country!! We all fell in love!

This weekend we’re headed to Northern Ireland to take a tour of Belfast and see the Giant's Causeway.

Dublin

We got into Dublin and our hotel early evening and headed across the River Liffy for a couple of pints and unfortunately not dinner. Apparently, the Irish aren’t late eaters so when we had finally decided to eat that was no longer an option. We ended up finding a diner a few streets over and since they also served pints there we headed “home” after that.

Our new home is comfortable; we got upgraded this week to a suite with a staircase up to our “library”. Don’t get too jealous. It is just two small hotel rooms with a spiral staircase connecting them, but to have two completely separate rooms is pretty exciting in our world. I woke up waaaay too early on Saturday and it was nice to be able to go upstairs and watch tv instead of trying to lay perfectly still while debating on just how many pillows it would take to make the bathtub a comfortable reading area.

Saturday we walked through most of the city making our way to the Kilmainham Gaol, stopping along the way at a few churches and other things we happened upon…





The jail has housed pretty much every important Irish patriot and holds more sad stories than I care to recount. It was really interesting though and our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and, as it seems to be with most Irish people, a most excellent storyteller.

On our way out for an early dinner that night (why can’t we seem to eat lunch and keep our feeding times on schedule?) we ran into our compadre coming in from Brazil. After dinner we met up again to get him his first pint and add a few to our tally.

Sunday we decided to do the hop on/hop off instead of traversing the city again on foot. We first went to Trinity College where we had a great little tour from a grad student before heading up to the Long Room to see the ancient Book of Kells. The book is one of the oldest existing in the world today and although very interesting, I have to say the Long Room was the real highlight for me.

Anyone who finds the smell of yellowing pages in an old book intoxicating would understand just why I was in complete heaven. I could have sat in there forever just smelling the thousands of glorious old books. It was all I could do not to reach across the ropes and hold one in my hand. If only you could smell it…



We then rode through the Georgian neighborhood over to St. Patrick’s…


After grabbing lunch we headed over to Dublin Castle and the Charles Beatty Library…




We hopped back on the bus to ride through Phoenix Park, Dublin’s largest park that could house 2 Central Parks within it. It’s home to the US Embassy, their Army headquarters, their White House, the Dublin zoo, polo fields, gardens, and even leftover deer and pheasants from the days it was used as the King’s private hunting grounds.

It was a gorgeous day in Dublin with loads of sunshine although it was a chilly ride atop the open air bus’ upper level. We crashed pretty early that night and the wife began what is sure to be her last international audit of the year the next morning.

For my Monday I took advantage of our 2 day ticket and road almost the entire tour again. Although I was seeing some repeats, I was learning so much more from the bus driver that I didn't want to get off. He was providing commentary along the way that was laden with the wonderful Irish humor. It was highly entertaining.

My goal of the day was St. Michan’s Church, and more specifically their crypts. I couldn’t take photos inside, but trust me- it was beyond creeptastic. Due to high methane content and the limestone construction their crypts preserves bodies really well. I mean really well, like practically as well as the Egyptian mummies, just without all the work. As part of our experience you can touch the finger of an 800 year old knight for good luck.

I better be winning the lottery from “shaking hands with the Crusader” because just walking into the tomb room with all the open coffins was enough to really weird me out. Luckily I had lunch (read: pint o’ Guinness) beforehand so I was fortified and feeling braver than normal. Without it I may have chickened out before even going down the spooky crypt doors...



I thoroughly enjoyed my little day out. It’s so nice to be back in a city that actually has things to do and I swear the weather is amazing. It’s only in the low 60's, but it’s so sunny and wonderful. Everyone at the client has warned the Wife the sun is sure to disappear at any second and not to expect it to return for the rest of the year, but for the moment- it's gorgeous...




On the agenda for tomorrow: buy Wellies.

Round 5

In case you haven't heard we're headed to IRELAND next round!!! We're beyond thrilled to be staying in Europe for another 2 months.

The friendly people, the pubs, the road trips, the culture, the scenery and oh my- the Guiness...we're going to absolutely love it there!

We lead a blessed, blessed life and we just couldn't be more grateful.