I've now been back in America for nearly two weeks. I neither have the energy nor the time to tell you all about the last week, goodbyes and leaving. Luckily for you, pictures are worth a thousand words!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Croagh Patrick
On our last Saturday in Ireland, Ben and I got work off and went with Adrian to climb Croagh Patrick, something we've wanted to do for some time now. It was Adrian's 13th time up and he was a great guide, telling us pretty much everything you'll find on that website and more.
It was a fairly cloudy and rainy day, but as we went up the rain slackened a good bit and by the time we had wound our way behind the ridge it was just cloud. The last quarter mile is a brutally steep climb and I thought I wasn't going to make it, but just like always, as soon as I got to the top, I felt fine. We saw the chapel, and a funny little gnome guy and started back down. I told Adrian that I thought it would be classic Irish humor if there was a sign about 20 yards from the summit saying "Halfway Point". He thought it was brilliant and told most people on the way back down that they had about an hour to go... kinda killed most people's spirit's but he loved it. We met a Free Tibet March and an Irishman who was also a Buddhist monk- interesting combination. And of course, after we left the top, the clouds cleared and I'm sure everyone up there had a stunning view, but we were content with what we could see from our 1500 foot ridge instead of the 2100 foot peak. Very exhausting, but it was great.
It was a fairly cloudy and rainy day, but as we went up the rain slackened a good bit and by the time we had wound our way behind the ridge it was just cloud. The last quarter mile is a brutally steep climb and I thought I wasn't going to make it, but just like always, as soon as I got to the top, I felt fine. We saw the chapel, and a funny little gnome guy and started back down. I told Adrian that I thought it would be classic Irish humor if there was a sign about 20 yards from the summit saying "Halfway Point". He thought it was brilliant and told most people on the way back down that they had about an hour to go... kinda killed most people's spirit's but he loved it. We met a Free Tibet March and an Irishman who was also a Buddhist monk- interesting combination. And of course, after we left the top, the clouds cleared and I'm sure everyone up there had a stunning view, but we were content with what we could see from our 1500 foot ridge instead of the 2100 foot peak. Very exhausting, but it was great.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Irish roads- Bothar na hEireann
My family (particularly my mother) will appreciate this. Today, I was riding with my friend Adrian to Tuam to be interviewed as a "foreigner" for my opinion on Galway and as we bumped along the way there, he mentioned that the roads at least weren't as bad as those in County Clare- the ones leading through the Burren to Doolin by the Cliffs of Moher, the one my mother drove which in Adrian's word's are "the worst roads in the northern hemisphere". He also quipped that, "The engineers responsible for the Irish road system are of the bovine variety." I though it was just a joke at the expense of foolish road workers, but then he gave us the etymology of the Irish word for road: bothar (pronounced "bo-her"). Bo is cow and thar is path, coming from back in the day when farmers would move their wandering cows from pasture to pasture, the cows used the same area of flattened grass each time, farmers moved equipment along it, someone got the idea to throw down some stones to make it easier, then finally along came the tarmacadam that we have today. So it's true- we follow cowpaths through the fields of Ireland at 100 km/h.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Aran Islands
On our second to last Monday, we finally made a trip out to the Aran Islands. I had been there with my family, but had only a chance to bike from the port on the main island of Inis Mor to an ancient cliff fort known as Dun Aonghasa (Done Angus). Then, my dad, brother and I had tired ourselves out on the hills but enjoyed seeing the terrain up close.
This time, I got to go back with Maren, Leanna, and Kelsie (Ben was still in Dublin with his parents) and so we took the tour bus so we got to see more of the island. We still spent plenty of time at Dun Aonghasa and I got to play closer to the cliffs without my dad and brother being all worried ;-). There was a lady who got really afraid as she saw us dangling our legs over the edge and so we moved back until she left. But soon enough we were taking pictures while jumping in the air right by the cliff. For one of them Maren and I tried to jump and kick at the same time and our feet caught- down she went! There was a huge collective gasp from the crowd of tourists who had been eyeing us and immediately assumed that I had kicked Maren over the edge to plummet 300 feet to her death. Silly tourists, we were plenty far away from the edge! It was hilarious though and she just stood up muddy while the more conservative sightseers shook their head in despair for this lost generation. Hahaha!
Other highlights included Maren's first Magnum ever- a mint one and us wading barefoot in the bay before we caught the ferry home.
It was such a beautiful day and the clouds were enormous and poofy and the sky a deep blue with bright green grass. A wonderful relaxing time of fun with friends before I finish all this crazy homework and have to go back to the States.
This time, I got to go back with Maren, Leanna, and Kelsie (Ben was still in Dublin with his parents) and so we took the tour bus so we got to see more of the island. We still spent plenty of time at Dun Aonghasa and I got to play closer to the cliffs without my dad and brother being all worried ;-). There was a lady who got really afraid as she saw us dangling our legs over the edge and so we moved back until she left. But soon enough we were taking pictures while jumping in the air right by the cliff. For one of them Maren and I tried to jump and kick at the same time and our feet caught- down she went! There was a huge collective gasp from the crowd of tourists who had been eyeing us and immediately assumed that I had kicked Maren over the edge to plummet 300 feet to her death. Silly tourists, we were plenty far away from the edge! It was hilarious though and she just stood up muddy while the more conservative sightseers shook their head in despair for this lost generation. Hahaha!
Other highlights included Maren's first Magnum ever- a mint one and us wading barefoot in the bay before we caught the ferry home.
It was such a beautiful day and the clouds were enormous and poofy and the sky a deep blue with bright green grass. A wonderful relaxing time of fun with friends before I finish all this crazy homework and have to go back to the States.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Family dinners
Ben is gone with his parents this week and so Kelsie and I have been going over to Maren and Leanna's place to eat our dinners. It's been nice to sit at a real table (and have real food the night they shared stir-fry with us and we made an ice cream smoothie). We get to chat a lot and act goofy and even watch McGee and Me! Wow, I forgot that existed- talk about memories from pre-childhood. Good times indeed.
On Friday (when praise and worship was cut short in the morning) after dinner, the four of us had our own praise time in the chapel and it was really nice.
Realizing I have access to an oven I bought a couple of frozen pizzas recommended to me by Stephen... Goodfellas is indeed a tasty brand!
On Friday (when praise and worship was cut short in the morning) after dinner, the four of us had our own praise time in the chapel and it was really nice.
Realizing I have access to an oven I bought a couple of frozen pizzas recommended to me by Stephen... Goodfellas is indeed a tasty brand!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Rashers and Clams
Stephen Nolan, a guy from our church, invited some of us to go camping on a little island in the middle of Galway Bay. His dad is a clam fisherman and offered to ferry us out there for a night, so Ben, Scott, Stephen and I all headed out on Sunday afternoon armed with Maren's dad's sleeping bag and a pillow. At Clarinbridge, we were picked up by Stephen and his dad Willy who carted us in the back of their dark fish truck to their house to pick up supplies. At the Nolan's house, Willy got made us tons of toast as Stephen gathered the tents and other sleeping bags. As he got ready to head out, Stephen says, "Wait. Let's bring a frying pan and some rashers." What a guy! So we brought a pan and some bacon, then headed to the boat with our Irish s'more ingredients: digestives, marshmallows and Cadbury chocolate.
At this point I remembered I had forgotten my camera. Again. I left my camera when I went on my bike ride, when I went to the Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands with the 'rents and now as I was about to camping on a tiny island in the middle of Galway Bay. I mention this at this point because had I remembered the dang thing you could be looking at a fine picture of Cap'n Willy Nolan in his sweet fisherman stance as he drove the little dinghy out to his clamming boat. Old jeans stuffed into waders, a thick flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, One leg up, hand on hip, looking like he owns the bay- what a baller.
As we chugged out into the bay, Willy asked us if he'd like him to get dinner for us... confused we said sure and he dropped the dredge and pulled up about thirty clams! Apparently, they go for like 2 euro each in the posh restaurants on the bay, but here we were with the fresh of the fresh.
On the island, we spent the rest of our daylight exploring around and found that a small ribbon of the inner island gets flooded by the high tide, but has to recede out like a river with a fast current- it was really amusing to watch. Scott and I braved the mud to get on one of the little islands between the flow, but decided we wanted to buld a bridge of rocks to get back. Of course once we found out how much the mud splattered on the guys across the way, we spent the next twenty minutes launching rocks at the mud trying to splatter the others as much as possible.
We finished up by exploring the town of like 7 old stone houses probably form the 17th or 18th century then began to build our fire. Despite having excellent kindling, and dry wood, it took us some time to get it started. It was pretty frustrating. But once we got it going, we cooked up our rashers, ate them with some brown bread, mixed water with the grease and boiled our clams and mussels in it. The mussels were really tasty, the clams weren't too bad and the worst part was that you had to crunch a few grains of sand, but it didn't matter much. However, while we had been digging up mussels on the beach, Stephen pointed out the limpets and decided we should try eating them too. He had never had them and figured they might be just another something to toss in the pot. Check the link if you don't know what they are. As far as eating goes, they taste a lot like clams, but the texture is so freakin nasty! The suction cup was hard and chewy, the back looked and felt like and eyeball and the side had this tough snail-face looking thing. I will never eat one again. I washed it down with water and our s'mores. We melted the chocolate on the digestives on rocks near the fire and devoured three whole bags of marshmallows. After eating, we built up the fire and messed around, jumping over it and such. Stephen got the great idea of jumping over it in quick succession, me going third. Seeing only Stephens back, I made a blind leap, caught my foot on a branch and tumbled headfirst... on the other side of the fire. It wasn't a big deal at all, but the video makes it look like I died in the fire. Pretty hilarious looking.
We hit the sack around 3 AM and were up by 6:30 to pack up and meet Willy on the shore. Willy called before we were ready and we ended up running across the island trying to hop barbed wire fences early in the morning while laden down with luggage.
Despite the fact that we missed the bus in Clarinbridge and had to wait another hour, we made it back all right and it was one of the best camping trips ever however short it may have been. Best location anyway... I wish I could do it again sometime.
At this point I remembered I had forgotten my camera. Again. I left my camera when I went on my bike ride, when I went to the Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands with the 'rents and now as I was about to camping on a tiny island in the middle of Galway Bay. I mention this at this point because had I remembered the dang thing you could be looking at a fine picture of Cap'n Willy Nolan in his sweet fisherman stance as he drove the little dinghy out to his clamming boat. Old jeans stuffed into waders, a thick flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, One leg up, hand on hip, looking like he owns the bay- what a baller.
As we chugged out into the bay, Willy asked us if he'd like him to get dinner for us... confused we said sure and he dropped the dredge and pulled up about thirty clams! Apparently, they go for like 2 euro each in the posh restaurants on the bay, but here we were with the fresh of the fresh.
On the island, we spent the rest of our daylight exploring around and found that a small ribbon of the inner island gets flooded by the high tide, but has to recede out like a river with a fast current- it was really amusing to watch. Scott and I braved the mud to get on one of the little islands between the flow, but decided we wanted to buld a bridge of rocks to get back. Of course once we found out how much the mud splattered on the guys across the way, we spent the next twenty minutes launching rocks at the mud trying to splatter the others as much as possible.
We finished up by exploring the town of like 7 old stone houses probably form the 17th or 18th century then began to build our fire. Despite having excellent kindling, and dry wood, it took us some time to get it started. It was pretty frustrating. But once we got it going, we cooked up our rashers, ate them with some brown bread, mixed water with the grease and boiled our clams and mussels in it. The mussels were really tasty, the clams weren't too bad and the worst part was that you had to crunch a few grains of sand, but it didn't matter much. However, while we had been digging up mussels on the beach, Stephen pointed out the limpets and decided we should try eating them too. He had never had them and figured they might be just another something to toss in the pot. Check the link if you don't know what they are. As far as eating goes, they taste a lot like clams, but the texture is so freakin nasty! The suction cup was hard and chewy, the back looked and felt like and eyeball and the side had this tough snail-face looking thing. I will never eat one again. I washed it down with water and our s'mores. We melted the chocolate on the digestives on rocks near the fire and devoured three whole bags of marshmallows. After eating, we built up the fire and messed around, jumping over it and such. Stephen got the great idea of jumping over it in quick succession, me going third. Seeing only Stephens back, I made a blind leap, caught my foot on a branch and tumbled headfirst... on the other side of the fire. It wasn't a big deal at all, but the video makes it look like I died in the fire. Pretty hilarious looking.
We hit the sack around 3 AM and were up by 6:30 to pack up and meet Willy on the shore. Willy called before we were ready and we ended up running across the island trying to hop barbed wire fences early in the morning while laden down with luggage.
Despite the fact that we missed the bus in Clarinbridge and had to wait another hour, we made it back all right and it was one of the best camping trips ever however short it may have been. Best location anyway... I wish I could do it again sometime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)