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…

up north

The "road" part of our road trip to Northern Ireland was much easier than our excursion to the West. We left Friday evening and after a couple of hours on a “dual carriageway” we were there. Well, we did get a little lost finding the hotel, but considering we had no gps and Northern Ireland loves their roundabouts even more than their southern counterpart I think we did a fine, fine job. The Wife really is the master of left-sided driving now.

Saturday we took the coastal highway north to see the Giant’s Causeway. On the way we happened upon a castle at Carrickfergus (which was where Andrew Jackson was born... the town, not the castle)…




We also stopped at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and even though my anxiety was through the roof I actually crossed the dang thing…

do you see that bridge??




It rained most of the time we were on the little island and I refused to cross back until the wind/rain let up. Precarious rope bridge + jagged rocks far below + wind = I don't think so.

Just a few miles (ooh, yes we were back to miles- thank you, Northern Ireland!) down the road was the Giant’s Causeway. Over 40,000 geometrical basalt formations interlock to make up the causeway and it’s easy to see why the ancients believed it was man-made or at least giant-made…





The legend has it that the giant warrior, Finn McCool, built the causeway to be able to walk across the channel to challenge his Scottish foe. Seems like a reasonable explanation to me…



The place was really unbelievable and we took about 1 zillion photos, so be warned.

It started raining (sideways as it's apt to do in Ireland) while we were waiting on the bus to take us back up from the Causeway. It rained and rained and got pretty cold, which was awesome for the poor Wife’s cold.

We had a very early night that night and Sunday took the quintessential black taxi tour of West Belfast…




It was a very sobering tour. It was saddening to learn that although the IRA and UVF are no longer bombing each other over Irish independence/religious persecution, they seem to have each fractured into mafia type groups where drug selling shootings are now the cause of violence.

You’d never know it from touring the area in the daylight. Both the Catholic and Protestant areas seem like tidy little neighborhoods with families milling about, little shops and pubs. Well, tidy little neighborhoods with a giant wall separating them, memorial gardens for the thousands that have died and highly political murals everywhere you turn.

I couldn’t believe they still have to close the gates each evening, but I suppose the wounds are still pretty fresh for both sides. The air hangs a little heavier in West Belfast, but there is also a palpable sense of hope. Us at after signing the peace wall...



We asked our cabbie to take us down to the Titanic dry dock after the tour and we got to see the giant hole that used to hold the massive and doomed ship…



Our driver said that the “Irish built it and the English sank it”.

We were headed back to Dublin fairly early so we stopped off at Brù-na-Bòinne to see the Neolithic necropolis at Newgrange. It is about 500 years older than Stonehenge…





We got to go in the burial mound and although I’ve never had an issue with closed-in spaces my heart was racing and I felt like I had one of the 5 ton curbstones on my chest. I was one of the first ones out and was tempted to push the two old ladies in front of me out of my way. It was really weird how sick I felt. Maybe the souls of the ancients were happy about us tromping inside their resting place.

It was a nice weekend and I'm really glad we made the trip up to Northern Ireland. Everyone was still just as nice, although I had a much more difficult time understanding them. Wow, their accent is tough.

In what I hope to be the last depressing tour of the round, this weekend we’re going to Poland to visit the concentration camp at Auschwitz. whomp, whomp

too much guinness? is there any such thing??

apparently so...



aw, we spotted this poor soul getting off the elevator one night. he was out cold.

although i feel a little guilty for taking photos of him (actually the wife took the pics) and even a little more guilty for posting them on the web, i think there's a lesson here for everyone...

IF you're going to drink so much that you can't make it back to your room- DON'T remove your wallet from your pants and hold it out for anyone to grab...



btw- we did call down and ask someone to help him.

flashback friday!

a little clip from our sahara tour in tunisia. we were on the edge of the sahara so you can see some of the salt lake and just the vastness of it all. you can also see the ridiculous hill we were about to go down in what the wife refers to as the "party wagon". because of the wind you can't hear it, but our guide had the music blasting through our entire trip.

miss you already!

we love to have friends come to visit and are always sad to see them go. we had a great weekend together and i loved having someone to explore dublin with...



we're looking into the adoption proceedings right now! miss you!

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.

georgia on our minds

it is official that we are headed home next round. although i need to do a correction on my jab at management because i think we're the only ones anywhere near their home country.

we're excited to spend time with fam & friends (one in the same) and to see all these dang precious babies that have been born or are going to be born while we're home.

i've told the Wife that i'm getting a gas mask to avoid any of these little bundles of joy waking up my ovaries. i'm seriously scared to death to start hearing the TICK-TOCK of the dreaded bio-clock again. those were some of the weirdest few months of my life (thanks again, zeke) and i'm not really in the mood to have every decision i make throughout the day hinge on how it may affect our unborn children.

so for all of you friends who have/are having babies- you know, all 95% of you--->

i'm requesting you not use any johnson & johnson baby products on their heads before we visit. i don't need the pressure. also, please cover all fat little thighs. actually any parts that have little baby fat rolls should be covered. and don't forget to enclose all those ridiculously cute fingers and toes as well in some sort of sock or mitten.

see you all in 7 weeks!!

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.

2 days in...

coming straight to dublin instead of trying to squeeze in another in-between location turned out to be a wonderful idea. not just in terms of giving ourselves a little break, but we also just had a great time.

as it is with all places, the people and vibe can really make or break it for me. don't get me wrong- dublin is a lovely city in its own right and there is quite a lot to see/do in terms of culture and history, but the people...they're just all* so amazingly friendly.

it just feels really nice to feel welcome and to relax in the company of a city instead of feeling isolated on its outskirts as nothing more than a tourist...its been a while.

they say dublin is a city with cold beer and warm hearts and so far we've found that to be a very accurate description. i'm seriously in love with this city.

pics and story of the weekend to come...



*like seriously every person we've met. every person. except for the english guy who licked my hand at a pub. not cool, english guy. not cool. thank God i had hand sanitizer in my purse. hand santizer that i used 3 times after the episode. wth?!? who does that?!?

flashback friday!

in honor of my current book (yes, i'm still reading it...mainly during daylight hours, thank you very much) here's a clip from our trip to the mouth of a bat cave in nicaragua. i wish i had been able to really capture them better, but it was dark and i was a bit freaked out...



there were thousands and thousands of bats flying out. and yes, we paid money to do this.