Hello all!
This is a much needed catch up journal post, so I apologise for the length. I suggest settling down with a cup of drip brewed coffee (since I have none of that over here) and preparing for a long read (at your own risk), or you could always just break it up. To briefly relate the occurances from Thursday night through today: Thursday night was the celebration of my 21st birthday in the King's Head Pub with many of my good friends here. It was delightful to see everyone enjoying themselves and I enjoyed myself quite a lot too, though my friends were far too enthusiastic about buying me drinks because Friday I did a lot of homework and took many naps and only ventured out once, which was sad because it was a beautiful day, but I had a headache. Later on in the even I did wind up playing bridge and causing mischeif (leaving anonymous notes on friends' and professors' doors with Sarah, Laura, and Ann, though the receiving parties figured out it was me by this morning). Luckily, though, today was just as lovely as yesterday and I was able to go running again, venture to the park to do some more reading and Latin homework, and I also bought a cheap pair of flipflops and have several blisters. Today was most amazing though, because I was able to go out without a coat, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The most fantastic part of my morning run is the causeway out to Mutton Island. I thought I found the causeway the first day out, but it was so foggy that it turns out I was actually running on the shore and I couldn't see the causeway at all. But I did find it today, and it was brilliant. Water on both sides of me, ocean and bay nestled in mountains. At the end of the causeway, I looked back and saw Galway city, and it was beautiful. There are actually a lot of palm trees here and the houses sometimes look pretty tropical. That's all from me today, though. Enjoy the rest of the post, and good luck...
4 April 2007
Cheers from Galway! At long last we have arrived. Yesterday, we travelled here via detours to the Cliffs of Moher (which were pretty, but we as tourists were kept behind many a fence since people have in the past had a habit of falling off the cliffs. Some call those mistakes and accidents easily remedied by a view-obstructing fence, I call it lack of common sense and natural selection.) I wish that I could have gone a little closer. Alas. Such is the tourist business. We also stopped at another 12th Century abbey and saw a really cool chancel arch. Then we wandered around for an hour in the Burren (pronounced “burn”) looking for the largest dolmen (a megalithic stone burial structure that looks like pi)… we finally found it, and while it was quite impressive and large, I had more fun cavorting about the burren, which looks almost like a lunar landscape with great big limestone chunks rising out of the ground having races with my friends to see who could jump around from rock to rock the fastest. We arrived at our hotel, which is located pretty much downtown Galway and settled down to boil some water.
That’s right. Galway is under a boil order, and has been for the past six weeks. That’s quite the boil order. McDowell is worried about us because we can’t use the water for drinking or tooth brushing, but the hotel is providing us with bottled water, and we have nifty little electronic tea kettles in the room (which previously annoyed me because the lack of coffee pot means only instant coffee… ew… ps: I’ve been taking my coffee black as of late. I knew it was only a matter of time. Coffee is not Ireland’s specialty. No wonder they invented Irish Coffee.) but the tea kettle is admittedly AWESOME because you fill it with water and poof! It boils within five minutes and you can have your cup o’ tea (the Irish tea is much better than their coffee. Quite strong.) I love the little tea kettles. The one in my room looks as though it will be my close friend throughout the duration of my stay here in Galway. The boil order is due to the cryptosporidium parasite in the water system from human feces. Lovely, no? Galway is the most rapidly growing city in Ireland and it has grown so rapidly that the infastructure and waste treatment system has not been able to keep up with the influx of sewage in the area. So, the water itself looks ok, but there’s that pesky parasite swimming around. I just count myself fortunate that I can bathe in the water here and that I can wash in it and there aren’t more dangerous bugs swimming around. Especially considering the conditions that my friends on India term are in. Boiling water is just fine by me. Not much of an inconvienence at all.
5 April 2007
Back again! Sorry, I had a tour of Galway to embark upon yesterday, so I wasn’t able to finish the entry. So…. More about Galway: Galway is a great city. Very bohemian and young and artsy. Quite to my taste. There are three universities in the area, so there are a lot of people “my size” (is how McDowell put it to us when we were walking through Eyre Square, a big green square in the center of town. He said “This is a college town par excellence and this is where a lot of younger people hang out, so you’ll be able to meet people more your size.” Oh, McDowell.) People really do gather quite a bit on Eyre Square. In the afternoons, it is swarming.
I went running this morning and found a really great little path along the docks and then out on a causeway to Mutton Island. It feels so good to run again, and maybe now I won’t get so fat from all the delicious Irish butter I’ve been eating. The fog was very thick this morning, though, so I couldn’t see across the causeway. I’ve never actually seen fog so thick. It was clinging to my hair and beading up on my eyelashes. People don’t actually run very much here, so I got some funny looks from folks, but after I nodded and said good morning, people smiled and humored me.
I think that I should play a little Killarney catch up. The smart thing to have done would have been to keep updating without publishing while I was without internet capabilities, but I was really busy and too tired to write much. Why so tired you may ask? Well, Killarney is a little tourist town in the western county of Kerry and during off-season time, it is filled with little old Irish people, many speaking Gaelic around the tourists to confuse us all. My favorite part of Killarney is its proximity to the Killarney National Park, a glorious, gigantic national park containing mountains and castles and reknowned for its lovely lakes.
The first day out, after class in the hotel pub (no drinking, just learning) we walked out to the national park to Ross Castle (see picture), a castle on the lake that over looks the biggest lake in the mountains and we took a tour with a tour guide who had a very slow drawling Irish accent. The castle itself was pretty interesting, but the best part was the lovely walk through the woods and the cherry trees in bloom at the feet of the McGillicuddy Reeks. The next day we went on a day trip to ring forts and the Beara Penninsula and had class on site. Thursday brought a trip out to the Dingle Penninsula and the beehive huts and oratories and monasteries. The mountains are lovely and they are my favorite element of Ireland thus far.
The weekend in Killarney was absolutely amazing. On
Friday, Sarah, Laura, Ann, and I rowed out to Inishfallen Island out in the lake past Ross Castle to an old Abbey on the island. The island was beautiful with old oaks and the abbey ruins were amazing. I climbed up to the top of one wall and sat on it, and you could see out over the whole island. About a third of the island was wooded and moss-covered and it looked like a fairy refuge. While on the island, I saw a deer, and rowing back to shore, I spotted an otter!
My very favorite thing in Killarney, though, was the mountain climbing. On Saturday, Ann, Sarah, Chris and I decided to climb up Mangerton Mt (839 meters tall) to see the Devil’s Punchbowl, a spring-fed lake about 2/3rd’s up the mountain. We travelled about 14 miles that day, mostly uphill, since we had to walk five miles out of town, after stopping at a tourist shop to grab a map and an outdoor store to pick up a compass. The tourist shop actually didn’t open until 9:15 (random) so we had to wait outside. Luckily, the weather was fairly mild and not raining, so there were no complaints on our part. We made it out of town and started on our ascent. We passed some sheep that complained quite loudly as we walked by, but they were on the other side of a fence and we were safe.
We then turned into the park (the directions to the devil’s punchbowl from the book at the tourist centre were funny. They were something like this: “1)Walk out along Muckross road 1.2 miles to the posted left hand turn across from the Muckross Park Hotel. Turn left. Keep walking up that street until you reach a street the appears after a bad bend in the road, turn right at that street.” my favorite direction being: “Keep heading up the mountain across the boggy heath. The path will disappear and reappear several times.”) where we met a nice woman named Mirina who was taking her baby, Lily, and her two dogs out for a walk. Mirina chatted with us for a while and offered to give us a lift back to town or give us some water if we needed it after climbing because she lived right around the corner. She and I also exchanged phone numbers in case we needed “rescuing”. When we got to the base of the mountain and the car park (term used loosely. The car park was actually a wide spot in the one lane road. Not one way, mind you, just one lane for both ways.) we took a picture of the sign that I have included here for comic effect. Needless to say, after the shocked look the Killarney tourist centre desk assistant and Mirina gave us, we were feeling a bit daunted. But we set off anyway, into the misty moutains.
The hike was pretty tricky. The path really did disappear quite a bit, and when it was present, it was really just a dry streambed that was a lot of large loose rocks and a very steep climb. When it wasn’t present, it was bog that liked to suck the shoes off your feet. As we trekked upwards, we decided that we needed to sing the Lord of the Rings theme because it seemed particularly fitted to the sweeping and dramatic landscape. We then decided that we were the fellowship of the ring of kerry. (the ring of kerry being the road/region that we travelled the past few days for class). We passed several other hikers on our way up, all of whom were local. One man congratulated us and wished us luck because the Devil’s Punchbowl is beautiful, but only about 10% of Irish people ever get to see it because of the strenuous hike. Despite the beauty of the mountainside and our adventurous mentalities, we did start to get tired, and collectively decided to take a break to chat about whether or not to go any further, given that we had been looking for the lake for a good hour and a half and we felt we might be heading in the wrong direction. Dejectedly, I plopped down on a rock and popped open my can of pringles. Around the corner, though, came a friendly looking woman, so I asked her how far away from the summit we were. She said we were about forty-five minutes away, but that we should go just around the bend because there were a lot of big rocks and a lovely lake. The perfect place to picnic… We were about to quit literally 25 feet from our destination!
When we rounded the corner, I knew it was totally worth the sore legs I’d have the next day. Worth it and then some. The lake was the clearest I’ve ever seen, and the wind was buffered by the boulders and mountain top. A group of lads came down from the summit (only about a quarter of the way away from us) and started drinking from the lake, and we asked them if it was good water. They said it was the tastiest they’d ever had and cleaner than the water in Galway right now, so we drank too, and it was the tastiest water ever. Crisp, clear, and cold. Just the right thing to energize us for our hike down the mountain, which as the sign at the access informed us, was the most dangerous part of the journey when most people are injured. I escaped injury with the exception of an uncomfortable incident while using a gorsebush as makeshift portapotty. Gorse is prickly and while it inexplicably smells of coconut and it tall enough and thick enough to hide a full size person, that does not make it a suitable loo. (Just for reference, gorse is that yellow flowering bush in the picture above the one of me by the devil's punchbowl).
Gorse aside, we made it down the moutain without incident and took a few long moments to sit and admire the beauty of the mountains and hillside region before heading home. I think a little William Wordsworth time would do everyone some good. The trip home was long and exhausting, and I went to sleep very early that night, but I will cherish that climb in my heart for as long as I can. I feel so empowered and so accomplished, and not least, awed by the beauty that surrounds me here. I am profoundly grateful that I have been able to have these experiences and share them with such good people.
Cheers from Galway! At long last we have arrived. Yesterday, we travelled here via detours to the Cliffs of Moher (which were pretty, but we as tourists were kept behind many a fence since people have in the past had a habit of falling off the cliffs. Some call those mistakes and accidents easily remedied by a view-obstructing fence, I call it lack of common sense and natural selection.) I wish that I could have gone a little closer. Alas. Such is the tourist business. We also stopped at another 12th Century abbey and saw a really cool chancel arch. Then we wandered around for an hour in the Burren (pronounced “burn”) looking for the largest dolmen (a megalithic stone burial structure that looks like pi)… we finally found it, and while it was quite impressive and large, I had more fun cavorting about the burren, which looks almost like a lunar landscape with great big limestone chunks rising out of the ground having races with my friends to see who could jump around from rock to rock the fastest. We arrived at our hotel, which is located pretty much downtown Galway and settled down to boil some water.
That’s right. Galway is under a boil order, and has been for the past six weeks. That’s quite the boil order. McDowell is worried about us because we can’t use the water for drinking or tooth brushing, but the hotel is providing us with bottled water, and we have nifty little electronic tea kettles in the room (which previously annoyed me because the lack of coffee pot means only instant coffee… ew… ps: I’ve been taking my coffee black as of late. I knew it was only a matter of time. Coffee is not Ireland’s specialty. No wonder they invented Irish Coffee.) but the tea kettle is admittedly AWESOME because you fill it with water and poof! It boils within five minutes and you can have your cup o’ tea (the Irish tea is much better than their coffee. Quite strong.) I love the little tea kettles. The one in my room looks as though it will be my close friend throughout the duration of my stay here in Galway. The boil order is due to the cryptosporidium parasite in the water system from human feces. Lovely, no? Galway is the most rapidly growing city in Ireland and it has grown so rapidly that the infastructure and waste treatment system has not been able to keep up with the influx of sewage in the area. So, the water itself looks ok, but there’s that pesky parasite swimming around. I just count myself fortunate that I can bathe in the water here and that I can wash in it and there aren’t more dangerous bugs swimming around. Especially considering the conditions that my friends on India term are in. Boiling water is just fine by me. Not much of an inconvienence at all.
5 April 2007
Back again! Sorry, I had a tour of Galway to embark upon yesterday, so I wasn’t able to finish the entry. So…. More about Galway: Galway is a great city. Very bohemian and young and artsy. Quite to my taste. There are three universities in the area, so there are a lot of people “my size” (is how McDowell put it to us when we were walking through Eyre Square, a big green square in the center of town. He said “This is a college town par excellence and this is where a lot of younger people hang out, so you’ll be able to meet people more your size.” Oh, McDowell.) People really do gather quite a bit on Eyre Square. In the afternoons, it is swarming.
I went running this morning and found a really great little path along the docks and then out on a causeway to Mutton Island. It feels so good to run again, and maybe now I won’t get so fat from all the delicious Irish butter I’ve been eating. The fog was very thick this morning, though, so I couldn’t see across the causeway. I’ve never actually seen fog so thick. It was clinging to my hair and beading up on my eyelashes. People don’t actually run very much here, so I got some funny looks from folks, but after I nodded and said good morning, people smiled and humored me.
I think that I should play a little Killarney catch up. The smart thing to have done would have been to keep updating without publishing while I was without internet capabilities, but I was really busy and too tired to write much. Why so tired you may ask? Well, Killarney is a little tourist town in the western county of Kerry and during off-season time, it is filled with little old Irish people, many speaking Gaelic around the tourists to confuse us all. My favorite part of Killarney is its proximity to the Killarney National Park, a glorious, gigantic national park containing mountains and castles and reknowned for its lovely lakes.
The first day out, after class in the hotel pub (no drinking, just learning) we walked out to the national park to Ross Castle (see picture), a castle on the lake that over looks the biggest lake in the mountains and we took a tour with a tour guide who had a very slow drawling Irish accent. The castle itself was pretty interesting, but the best part was the lovely walk through the woods and the cherry trees in bloom at the feet of the McGillicuddy Reeks. The next day we went on a day trip to ring forts and the Beara Penninsula and had class on site. Thursday brought a trip out to the Dingle Penninsula and the beehive huts and oratories and monasteries. The mountains are lovely and they are my favorite element of Ireland thus far.The weekend in Killarney was absolutely amazing. On
Friday, Sarah, Laura, Ann, and I rowed out to Inishfallen Island out in the lake past Ross Castle to an old Abbey on the island. The island was beautiful with old oaks and the abbey ruins were amazing. I climbed up to the top of one wall and sat on it, and you could see out over the whole island. About a third of the island was wooded and moss-covered and it looked like a fairy refuge. While on the island, I saw a deer, and rowing back to shore, I spotted an otter!My very favorite thing in Killarney, though, was the mountain climbing. On Saturday, Ann, Sarah, Chris and I decided to climb up Mangerton Mt (839 meters tall) to see the Devil’s Punchbowl, a spring-fed lake about 2/3rd’s up the mountain. We travelled about 14 miles that day, mostly uphill, since we had to walk five miles out of town, after stopping at a tourist shop to grab a map and an outdoor store to pick up a compass. The tourist shop actually didn’t open until 9:15 (random) so we had to wait outside. Luckily, the weather was fairly mild and not raining, so there were no complaints on our part. We made it out of town and started on our ascent. We passed some sheep that complained quite loudly as we walked by, but they were on the other side of a fence and we were safe.
We then turned into the park (the directions to the devil’s punchbowl from the book at the tourist centre were funny. They were something like this: “1)Walk out along Muckross road 1.2 miles to the posted left hand turn across from the Muckross Park Hotel. Turn left. Keep walking up that street until you reach a street the appears after a bad bend in the road, turn right at that street.” my favorite direction being: “Keep heading up the mountain across the boggy heath. The path will disappear and reappear several times.”) where we met a nice woman named Mirina who was taking her baby, Lily, and her two dogs out for a walk. Mirina chatted with us for a while and offered to give us a lift back to town or give us some water if we needed it after climbing because she lived right around the corner. She and I also exchanged phone numbers in case we needed “rescuing”. When we got to the base of the mountain and the car park (term used loosely. The car park was actually a wide spot in the one lane road. Not one way, mind you, just one lane for both ways.) we took a picture of the sign that I have included here for comic effect. Needless to say, after the shocked look the Killarney tourist centre desk assistant and Mirina gave us, we were feeling a bit daunted. But we set off anyway, into the misty moutains.
The hike was pretty tricky. The path really did disappear quite a bit, and when it was present, it was really just a dry streambed that was a lot of large loose rocks and a very steep climb. When it wasn’t present, it was bog that liked to suck the shoes off your feet. As we trekked upwards, we decided that we needed to sing the Lord of the Rings theme because it seemed particularly fitted to the sweeping and dramatic landscape. We then decided that we were the fellowship of the ring of kerry. (the ring of kerry being the road/region that we travelled the past few days for class). We passed several other hikers on our way up, all of whom were local. One man congratulated us and wished us luck because the Devil’s Punchbowl is beautiful, but only about 10% of Irish people ever get to see it because of the strenuous hike. Despite the beauty of the mountainside and our adventurous mentalities, we did start to get tired, and collectively decided to take a break to chat about whether or not to go any further, given that we had been looking for the lake for a good hour and a half and we felt we might be heading in the wrong direction. Dejectedly, I plopped down on a rock and popped open my can of pringles. Around the corner, though, came a friendly looking woman, so I asked her how far away from the summit we were. She said we were about forty-five minutes away, but that we should go just around the bend because there were a lot of big rocks and a lovely lake. The perfect place to picnic… We were about to quit literally 25 feet from our destination!
When we rounded the corner, I knew it was totally worth the sore legs I’d have the next day. Worth it and then some. The lake was the clearest I’ve ever seen, and the wind was buffered by the boulders and mountain top. A group of lads came down from the summit (only about a quarter of the way away from us) and started drinking from the lake, and we asked them if it was good water. They said it was the tastiest they’d ever had and cleaner than the water in Galway right now, so we drank too, and it was the tastiest water ever. Crisp, clear, and cold. Just the right thing to energize us for our hike down the mountain, which as the sign at the access informed us, was the most dangerous part of the journey when most people are injured. I escaped injury with the exception of an uncomfortable incident while using a gorsebush as makeshift portapotty. Gorse is prickly and while it inexplicably smells of coconut and it tall enough and thick enough to hide a full size person, that does not make it a suitable loo. (Just for reference, gorse is that yellow flowering bush in the picture above the one of me by the devil's punchbowl). Gorse aside, we made it down the moutain without incident and took a few long moments to sit and admire the beauty of the mountains and hillside region before heading home. I think a little William Wordsworth time would do everyone some good. The trip home was long and exhausting, and I went to sleep very early that night, but I will cherish that climb in my heart for as long as I can. I feel so empowered and so accomplished, and not least, awed by the beauty that surrounds me here. I am profoundly grateful that I have been able to have these experiences and share them with such good people.
1 comment:
Sounds like a great trip - making me jealous more and more every time I look at the blog.... Hee hee, 1 responses, things like that could drive and english major crazy
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