Ireland continued...

Where did I leave off...

After our stay in Waterville, we continued along the Ring of Kerry. Skelligs chocolate, Vanilla Ganache. Valencia Island and off roading in a VW. Cliffs, beaches, lighthouses and slate quarries that provide the slate for the Houses for Parliament. Ferry rides back to the mainland and a GPS that thinks we're driving on water.

Up and around to the Dingle Peninsula. 18 hole Pitch n' Putt on the water. Don't let the fun name drag you in, Dingle is pretty disappointing. Getting late, so we head up towards the Burren area. Stay in Lisdoonvarna. I like saying that word. Laundry and free wi-fi? Pasta dinners and long showers. Next morning we take off to the Cliffs of Moher. Pretty view but an overcast day. Fun fighting birds in the parking lot. One landed on a car antennae and I got a great picture. Off again. The Burren is a limestone region and they're not kidding about that. Stopped to see the Poulnabrone passage tomb. Lots of rocks. LOTS of rocks. Off again. Kinvara or Kinvarra? No one seems to know, including the town itself.

Head towards Galway, then continue north towards Castlebaldwin. Turn down a windy road. Overly-directed directions that finally get us to the UFO, errr, our accommodations for the night. An eco-lodge of sorts. No one there, key in the door. Turns out the owner is in France and has a friend watching over. I guess not many people book this place, but they should because as long as you have a car to get you there, its amazing. I don't think I can put it into words so I'll post pictures at some point. We were in the middle of nowhere with the place to ourselves. It was so relaxing. Read upstairs in the little room for a while. Took tons of photos. Felt more like a dream than reality, I've never been in something like it.

Next day we explore the northern coast of Ireland. Originally this wasn't in our plan but we had extra time and this area turned out to be my favorite of the trip. Beautiful unspoiled beaches. Blue water and soft sand. Rocks for climbing and peeing. I peed on a few rocks in Ireland, woops. Make use of my crazy camera contraption. The first photo I posted was from this location. Just to note, the one on this post is from a castle in Killarney National Park, and the previous photo is from Malahide. Drive around, see more and more beaches, and sheep crossing the road. I love sheep.

Cross the border into Northern Ireland. When exactly did it change over? On our way to Portstewart for the night. Cute little seaside community. Ricks Causeway Hostel with a friendly Canadian employee who liked to talk. Rick showed up later on. Met two older woman from NZ who Nik striked up a conversation with. Ezmay and Bev I believe were their names? We ended up meeting them at 9a to drive to the Giant's Causeway so they wouldn't have to catch a bus. The Causeway was beautiful, and I can see why its the most popular site in NI. All the walking proved that I'm still out of shape which was quite depressing. Made me love the ocean though. So pretty up there. Over to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. My fear of heights didn't get the best of me and I managed to cross over without issue. My legs felt like spaghetti but due only to exhaustion, as this was soon after the Giant's Causeway walking and climbing. Most beautiful scenery and some of my favorite digital photos from the trip. To finish our last full day in Ireland/NI, we drove down towards the Mourne Mountains and came upon our bed for the night in a community centre. Friendly manager and big bed. Great, long nights sleep. Off back towards Dublin the next morning. Car washes and tar. Sketchy guys in nice cars offering us coins for the vacuum. Back through Malahide to the airport. Then home sweet home, or second home I guess.

Pretty boring summary, I'm sorry. If anyone ends up traveling to Ireland, let me know and I'll come up with better stories and suggestions. My photos speak louder than my words I'm sure. I'll post some soon...

Stuff and other stuff.

Hmmm...still need to finish blogging about Ireland. Maybe I'll sum it up briefly. At the moment, I'm feeling a bit nauseous. And I'm waiting for my groceries to be delivered. It's quite convenient. I figure it costs 2 pounds to travel to the grocery store, plus all the effort of carrying home bags and bags of crap. But you can get it delivered for just 3 pounds. And it comes from the good grocery store. Waitrose makes me think of my first time in London, with Tina. We knew nothing about English food/groceries, and we spent a lot of time at the local Waitrose near Gloucester Road, stocking up on random goodies to save money. We found one diner that was relatively inexpensive and ate there a few times. I've now come to accept that eating out in London isn't going to be like eating out in NY. I miss diners and access to cheap food all over.
Yesterday was Niks birthday. He spent most of it playing Smash Brothers Brawl. We visited his friend who has a creepy eye disease that will probably leave him partially blind in one eye. This is my last week in London until I move over here for school. I feel like I'm just floating in time at the moment. I spend my days laying around, listening to HR podcasts and reading articles. Attempts at French vocab and making pavlova. Tiny workouts until I have access to a gym again. I miss Sigfried and his Wednesday night pilates. I wish I knew how to correctly spell his name. As soon as I return to NY, I need to send my passport out to obtain student entry clearance for the fall. I'm nervous about putting my passport in someone elses hands. I plan on hand delivering it and the paperwork to the headquarters in NYC because I don't have enough faith in the USPS.

Food has just arrived. Yogurt, pickles and pasta. Smoked applewood cheddar and Summer English Berry sorbet. Innocent smoothies and cheap OJ. London makes me drink less soda which is a nice change. However its been substituted with expensive smoothies and juices. Fredericks of Hollywood won't stop sending me emails. I get at least one a day. Same with Victorias Secret. Why must I have so many pictures of half naked, sexy women in my email daily?

The school outside my window is late getting out for recess today. And the 11 o'clock group never showed. There's a strange motor running somewhere in the building. Sounds like a vacuum but its been going for hours. I am obsessed with the book I've been reading. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I read his book Dance Dance Dance over the winter and fell in love with his writing. I stayed up for a few hours after Nik fell asleep last night reading. It's rare that I find a book I can't put down.

What else has been happening? Radiohead twice last week, Victoria Park. Felt good to walk to a concert. No driving, no public transportation. Back roads to avoid crowds. I wish I wasn't so short, I had staring at armpits. Second night I got smart and packed a backpack of books to stand on. For a few hours I was 5'8" and it felt good. The set lists I experienced can be found here and here. Karma Police sing-alongs, Thom Yorkes solo album appearing in an encore. Idioteque has become my new favorite Radiohead song. Happy to hear No Surprises and Planet Telex. Disappointed to not hear Wolf at the Door or Fake Plastic Trees. 20,000 people a night. This is all in addition to the first show at Malahide.

I'm going to end this here and summarize the rest of Ireland in another post. Maybe even a picture post?

Au revoir.

Ugh.

I think I hate blogging. I've been trying to do this for days but have obviously gotten nowhere. I always have good ideas in my head but they never come out right on paper. Or on internet. Or whatever.

So Ireland. I should blog about it before the memories slip from my brain. Let's see.....we started off in Dublin. Delays, long lines for taxis, and the origin of 'weee!' Stayed at the fancy schmancy Hilton north of Dublin. Spent Saturday in the city. I found it to be rather boring. Trinity College, the Book of Kells, and a really upscale-looking bar. The rest is a blur. Not because I took advantage of Irelands best asset but because I didn't find the city to be all that exciting. In the evening we ventured off to Malahide Castle. Saw Radiohead play on the grounds of the estate. First time seeing them and I was amazed. Will be seeing them again Tuesday and Wednesday, weee! Wandered the grounds at night and made a note to return there the following day.

Which brings us to...the following day. Rental cars in the form of red VW Golfs. Nuvi our trusty GPS was the third person in our relationship for the week. Recalculating. Spent Sunday with Kim and Ezra. Can't find Newgrange and Knowth. Finally succeed and take two tours. TTV photo fun while waiting for the bus. Back to Malahide. Explore in daylight. Peacocks, beautiful gardens and (mostly) yummy smells. Has anyone else smelled the tree that smells like male semen? Anyway, the floral TTV photo above was taken here. On to Howth. Felt like I was in a larger version of Port Jeff. Climbed a bit, then returned KimEx to the airport.

Out of the Dublin vicinity. Next stop: Kilkenny. Bad parking but had a 4-person room to ourselves. Cute cafe for dinner. You can't drive on this street...or can you? Kilkenny beer on a Kilkenny street. Wandered more castle grounds the next morning. Drive away. Rock of Cashel. Tour guide who blamed his tired voice on his hurling match the day before. Is it a match? Southern Ireland likes their hurling. Hore Abbey? We're there. Wander off to find it. Deserted ruins and I was much more impressed with that than I was with the Rock of Cashel. Off again. It's a long way to Tipperary. But its not worth the drive. Southbound towards Cork. Detours made possible thanks to Nuvi. Found us the Moor Abbey, not to be confused with the Hore. Ireland back roads are awesome. They're mostly narrow and sometimes not paved. Some have an awning of trees, some allow you to see for miles. Ireland is much more green than I expected. Apparently it looks a lot like New Zealand. Which makes me want to go there more.

Spend the evening in hostel in Cork. Not so easy to find, and not as lucky as last night, as we're sharing with 4 others. Serves the purpose however. Make a last minute evening trip to Blarney Castle. I was too scared to lean over and kiss the stone. They make you lay on your back and lean backwards. Really high off the ground. And your head dangles down. No thank you. Castle was pretty however.

Next morning and we're off to Baltimore, a south eastern fishing village. Didn't live up to expectations, so off again towards the Ring of Kerry. End up at Killarney National Park. Wasn't expecting it to be so big. Where is the visitors center? All I know is that the views are amazing. Mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and bus loads of tourists, mostly American. Why is Ireland overrun with Americans? I think this is the day we didn't eat anything but Pavlova until the early evening. Yummm. Ireland isn't known for their great food but they sure do know how to work their meringues. Topless woman on remote beaches with Kiwi graffiti. Red trail, blue trail or yellow trail? Finally decide that we needed to head in the direction of our bed and breakfast for the night in Waterville. Beautiful scenery on the way. Wish we could have explored the Ring of Kerry a bit more. Stopped for a scenic view or two, and made our way into Waterville, on the eastern coast. Met Breda, our super friendly host for the night. She may have been the nicest person ever. And she cooked us a yummy yummy breakfast the next morning. Can't ask for anything more.

And this is the end of this post for now. Will continue in the coming days. Maybe.

The dreaded first post...

I was told by a friend that I should start journaling my life again. I had a livejournal for years but pretty much abandoned it over two years ago. Since then, my adventures and mishaps have not been documented anywhere - and considering how these past 2+ years have been, that may be for the better.

But now I'm about embark on an adventure. In September I will be moving to London to obtain my MSc in Human Resource Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science. It's been a crazy, complicated process...the applications, the acceptances, the FAFSA, the scholarships, the student entry clearance...and the craziness and complicatedness is sure to continue for a while.

At the moment I'm in the UK, where I'll remain for another two weeks or so. Nik and I just returned from a week in Ireland which was absolutely incredible. The country was so beautiful and so....green. And blue. And I will attempt to document this both with words and photographs in a coming post. And if anyone reading this bugs me enough, I'll try to blog about random everyday things. Bruce, its probably all up to you...

I leave you with the photograph above. My new photography obsession is Through the Viewfinder, aka TTV...It's where you use a digital camera to take pictures through the viewfinder of a vintage camera (in my case, an Argoflex 75)...It gives the pretty black edges and the scratches that are on the lens and mirrors of the vintage piece. Mine may be a BIT too scratched up but I like the effects it gives. Apparently its acceptable in the TTV community to modify the photo a little - all I did was change the saturation and tone though.