3-Day Weekend

It has been a great Memorial Day weekend. If it was up to be, we would have these long weekends at least once a month.

It started on Friday evening when I met with my friend Norma and 3 nine-year-olds at their local pool after work. Even though the temperatures during the day are already hitting triple digits, the evenings are still comfortable, especially in the shade. We had a nice time relaxing and catching up.

Saturday I spent preparing for the party that evening; some yard work, cleaning the house, and cooking. My next door neighbour finished repairing my side of the fence, which was really nice of him, so I brought them some cake. The game night was a success. Some long-time and some new friends came, and we had a good gender mix. My friend Paul, a musician, even brought his guitar and played few of his songs for us. We also tried our skills at playing the didgeridoo. I felt relaxed in the hostess role, which was not always the case before, and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

After Mass on Sunday, I visited with my brother and sister-in-law. We shared a meal, and Indian dish, had coffee, and shared stories from my Ireland trip, Emilia's visit with her family, and Zoran's job search. While they went grocery shopping, I took a nice nap, something that I rarely do, maybe once a year. I guess all that partying has gotten to me. :) It gave me extra boost to then do the laundry in the evening.

I was so looking forward to having that one extra day. It was a day for relaxing and doing some little things that I don't usually get to do on the weekends. I cleaned up the wood planks left ofter from the fence repairing, cooked dinner, and then went for a nice stroll in the Domain with my friend Norma. again, the evenings are comfortable to be outside, so we really enjoyed it.

A lovely weekend. Thank you all veterans who made it possible for us to celebrate this day.

Ireland: Day 5

All good things have to pass.

Here we are now in Galway, or right outside of it, with all my bags packed and getting ready to go down for one last pint before early bed time. Our departure time from here is tomorrow morning at 5 am. Yaiks!

We were blessed today with the best weather so far. And it was the best timing for today's itinerary.

we left our hotel in Killarney just before 9, and headed north-west. The Killarney county greeted us with more lush scenery and changing weather. When we stopped at Adare, the rain was puring pretty strong, but by the time I walked through the visitor center and exited on the other side, it was dry again. That's how it is here, the rain and sun change very quickly.

Our next stop was Limerick. It is the 3rd biggest city in Ireland. It used to be a Viking city, because it is on river Shannon that goes into the ocean, but today it's a techy place with strong IT presence. It is different than other smaller places and Dublin in that it has blocks of streets, streets interest perpendicularly. They say that Manhattan got it's idea of designing the city in block from Limerick. Limerick is home to King James' Castle, who apparently was bit of a lazy king. On the outskirts of the city, we passed by Munster Rugby Stadium.

Limerick is also a type of poem, with 5 verses, 1st, 2nd, and 5th rime, and 2nd and 4th rime. So our tour guide asked us to think of a limerick and then share it in the evening with others. There were some creative lyrics shared in our group.

Next we entered into the Cork county and stopped to see the Bon Roite Castle (end of Roite River). This castle was actually lived in until 1950s. We did some sight-seeing, shopping, and I ate lunch at the Original Durty Nelly's pub, established in 1620!

After Ennis the scenery changed and we started seeing some limestone cliffs. Their layers are so thin that they make roof shingles out of them. The little town of Ennistymon has a beautiful river with limestone base passing through, and it used to be a spa town.

The coast region was next on the horizon, and in Lahinch we passed by a famous links golf course. I got a little mini course of golf history and lingo from Morris on this trip. Since we were now on the ocean, there were virtually no tree, except those people planted in their yards. There was too much salt in the air, and I suppose ground, for the trees we saw elsewhere to grow here. Not sure why there are no threes that are on other seashores.

The highlight of the day was at the Cliffs of Moher. We had a little surprise for Susan and her husband who were on this day celebrating their 32nd anniversary. We gathered at the steps overlooking the cliffs and sang in a circle for them, This Marriage. It was one of the songs we did at the concerts, and saw fitting for this occasion. It was another moving moment of music. Of course, we attracted some other onlookers, but we weren't going to sing any more since our time there was limited. I really wish we had at least another half an hour there to really enjoy it. The views were spectacular, and it would have been so peaceful to enjoy that majestic site without rushing. I feel like we just run from one side to the other to take pictures. I guess we had to keep up with the schedule.

The next stop was to see the burren: the limestone cliffs made from melting ice from the last ice age. It was interesting to find out that the ocean level used to be some 200m lower, and when the ice-age ended the temperatures were much warmer than they are now. It was obvious the ocean were lower, because some of the old house remains were virtually at the water edge.

For more little town, and castles on the way, and we arrived at Galway just before 6.

Tomorrow is a travel day. It was a busy week and we did see and visited a lot. I am glad I can go back and re-live all those experience through these pages. I hope to have my overall reflections on this trip posted some time when I get back to Austin.

Ireland is a beautiful country.

Ireland: Day 4

The body is week, but the spirit is stronger!
That is how I felt today. The lack of sleep and constant action has starting to get to me, and to other people in the group. I again had few hours of sleep less last night than I would have wanted or needed, so my body was telling about it this morning. My throat was really stiff and just I felt really weak. For breakfast the lady serving was so nice and made me specially an instant coffee, which is a bit stronger than the filter coffee they usually serve. I knew I have to mentally push myself today, because I didn’t want to miss anything just because the tiredness was pulling me down.
Today’s itinerary was busy, but in the best possible way when you are tired. We were on the bus a lot. We toured the Ring of Kerry today. It is drive around the peninsula west of Killarney around a gorge formed during the last ice age. We first passed through Killorglin famous for a pegan summer festival, the King Puck (pronounced pok) fair, which means male goat. The houses are different colors, with beautiful gardens and lawns. We saw a many bushes with the beautiful purple flowers, rodadendron. The bush with little red flowers like the earrings is called Fuchsia, in Irish Dura Dei, meaning tears of God. noticed that many don’t have any shades or blinds on the windows, probably to soak up the most of the sun they can.
Then we saw first glimpses of the Dingle Bay, which enters into the Atlantic Ocean. The views were breathtaking. Since this coast was formed from glaciers, there were chains of islands in the distance. We saw the most westwardly European island far in the distance. The coast has high granite cliffs, and some coves have nice sand beaches. The water in the summer gets to about 17 C (~65F), so it’s a bit chilly for me, but not for the locals. The vegetation changed to more rocky terrain and lushes vegetation was replaced with tall grass, swagman or peet moss (bog, which means soft plant), with medicinal characteristics used during the wars to treat the soldiers. Today it is dried and made into bricks used for fire.

In Kells we stopped at Caitin’s Kells where a world famous (apparently he was on some travel show) shepherd introduces visitors with several different types of sheep that live in Ireland. Among others we saw Shetland and moher sheep, which are known for their wool. The shepherd then showed us amazing interaction he has with his two border collies, which help him move the sheep. He uses a whistle to call each of them with a different set of sounds. One dog has his own left, right, straight, down,… calls, and the other has her own. They are so focused on their task and followed every command they received. When told to get down, they would still intently watch the sheep, with their ears perched for the next call. This was their true calling.

Video: shepherd, sheep, and dogs from Ireland

Next little town was Caherciveen where Daniel O’Connel was born (his large black status was on the main street in Dublin). We made it down to the water in Waterville, and took some pictures with Charlie Chaplin. He used to come there on vacation, and his family still owns a home there.

Farther more, between Caherdaniel and Derrynane we stopped for lunch in Vista Bar restaurant, we amazing views of the ocean and the islands. I had sea food chowder, with Irish coffee. Hmm-good.

On our way back west, we had a short stop in Sneem village and looked at some souvenir shops. Even though this place was not on open ocean, and more south than other places, I felt most cold there, even with my 4 layers of clothing. Maybe because we spend extra time outside there. It was already passed 3 PM when we continued toward Killarney National Park.

The scenery again changed to really tall trees and beautiful glacier lakes. Queen Victoria named one of the overlook spots the Ladies View, because all of the ladies in her party really enjoyed it. I believe Queen Elizabeth is supposed to tour the ring of Kerry in the next couple of days.

At 5 a quick stop at our hotel to change, and we were off to sing at Mass and concert afterwards at St. Mary’s cathedral in Killarney. The cathedral is just 150 years old, which for this country is a young church. It is actually the youngest church in Killarney from what I understand. It is made entirely of stone, and has some 40 ft tall arched ceiling. A beautiful architecture, but definitely more bear than other churches we’ve been to. We were not the only visitors at the Mass; there was another group from the US with their priest who concelebrated the Mass. We sang the Mass, and afterwards had a little concert for the folks who were there.
I was feeling different for this one, and I could not understand why. Even during the Mass, while the spirit was reminding me of the beauty of the moment, my mind was somewhere else. The acoustics of the place made it harder for me to hear others in the same way, and I just didn’t feel as concentrated and “in the moment”. I blame it on the tiredness. I found myself remembering the same moment we sang a certain song at the previous two places, and how more moving it felt. Before we also didn’t have a captive audience for the entire time, like we did tonight, so it had felt more like we sang just for ourselves, to enjoy the music. The audience tonight, the parishioners and few visitors at Mass, just didn’t give us much visual feedback that they were enjoying our singing as much as I thought we were supposed to be good. That’s maybe it; I wanted us to bring to these people the same awesomeness of the music we experienced the last two days, instead of just trying to be in that moment today. But it was hard to repeat that.

I was pretty much beat when we got to hotel. I still wanted to walk to the town for dinner, to see it for a little bit before we leave tomorrow. By 9 PM, a group of us finally gathered and explored the way through the little streets. Most pubs stop serving food around that time, so we were lucky to find Irish food served at a semi-italian restaurant. I don’t know how “authentic” it was, but the Guinness stew I had there was very testy. The company was great as well, and the atmosphere was fun and helped pick me up from my lousy weak state.

I just realized it’s almost 2 am and I have to be up at 7 am! Enough rambling. :)

Ireland: Day 3

Ireland really is green!

This morning we had a very early start; wakeup call at 6 AM, checkout and quick breakfast, and we were on our way by 8. A quick drive through the streets of Dublin one last time (for this trip at least). Bye-bye Dublin.

Today we were traveling south-west. The queen messed up with our plans again. We were originally supported to go to the Rock of Cashel, but since she is going there today or tomorrow, they canceled us. So, instead, we went south, near Cork to the Cahir Castle. The nice thing about Ireland is that it is small to travel around, the roads are good, and there are castles pretty much in every town. This castle is on a river-island site, with massive walls and towers. Cahir Castle is one of the Ireland’s largest. It was founded in 1142 by Conor O’Brien.





We had a nice guided tour, took lots of pictures and climbed many stairs. In one of the rooms, where they had swallows circling the entire time the tour guide was explaining, we decided to do some singing. There was always a plan to sing at a castle, but just the venue changed. This room had a nice acoustics, and we just stood in a big circle and sang 5-6 songs acapela. The tour guide had her walkie-talkie on, so our song was broadcasted throughout the castle for other visitors to hear. Few of them stepped into the room only to be amazed! I loved this experience. It is a totally different level of enjoying the music than performing at a concert. And again, the songs of peace and soul longing for God moved me to tears.


Afterwards walked over to have lunch in Cahir, and most of the group loaded into one restaurant. I felt like separating from the crowd a bit, since we had an hour and I wasn’t yet hungry for a super large lunch, and walked around a bit. I found myself a nice little coffee place and had a first real coffee of the day, cappuccino there, outside on the porch, relaxing and people watching. We departed Cahir and were on our way to a new place on our itinerary: Whisky Distillery! It was not planned to go there, but since we had to change plans and fill time, and Michael expressed interest, we went there.

Old Jameson Distillery, near Midleton, is 200 years old. Jameson Whisky is today made in a modern factory in Cork. I am not a Whisky, or any hard-liquor for that matter, person, but from what I could understand the main difference between Irish and Scottish Whiskey is that Irish and distilled 3 times, and Scottish only 2 times. That supposedly makes it more purified. There was a 15 minute nice video presentation and then a very knowledgeable young man gave us a guided tour through all the buildings and many different processes it takes to make whisky. In one of the courtyards we saw some Irish actors filming another video production for the distillery, dressed in clothes from the old era and with appropriate background. At the last building we saw colors of whisky at its different stages of aging, from almost neutral color to dark copper (18+ years old) in oak barrels with glass tops. They picked 4 man and 4 ladies to do a testing or Irish, Scottish, and American whiskey (again, not my fancy). The rest of us got to sample a 5 year whiskey with our choice of additive; I choose Schwaps. It was a fun experience all in all, and I got me a small whiskey bottle to take home.



I kind of didn’t feel myself on the ride, and asked to sit in the front. My stomach was kind of on the edge of nausea, my throat was dry, and I felt a bit claustrophobic sitting in the middle of the bus by the window. The sad Irish songs playing on the CD, and the beauty of the nature around me put me in some sort of a mellow mood and I just felt very emotional. I was glad Michael started talking to me about his extremely complex and adventurous life story to get my mind refocused. I kind of like hanging out with that front of the bus crowd. Much more so than the half-of-the-bus-load of kids who started singing from top of their lungs after tasting some whiskey.

Next stop was another gorgeous place, Blarney Castle. Like I said, there is no shortage of castles in Ireland. This one is the home of the (apparently) famous Blarney Stone of eloquence. The park around it is just absolutely magnificent. Soft English grass, with tall, lushes trees, benches, little babbling brook with bridges, beautiful flower gardens, cheerful bird chirpings in the air, and amazing scenery all around in the distance.

The castle is supposedly the most popular tourist stop in Ireland, where people stop to kiss the Blarney Stone. The stone is perched at the top of the 15th century castle, reached by a steep climb up slippery spiral staircases. Once you reached to very top, to kiss the stone, you have to lay down with top of your body hanging above a very, very, very deep drop (an attendant is there to hold you), then you band backwards, hold on to rails on the vertical wall behind you, and kiss the wall some 2 feet below the level of your body. All who could climb the steps from our group did it, so did I. When in Rome, do like the Romans thing, but it was pretty stupid in my humble opinion.

The view from top of the castle was breathtaking. I wish we had more time to explore the gardens around, as well. It was just so peaceful, and I think I was craving a little bit of that. But alas, it’s a short tour of the country, and we want to see as much as possible. So we continued our ride westward toward Killarney.

I again got to enjoy the company of the front of the bus folks.

We arrived at our hotel in Killarney just in time for dinner. It’s a fancy little hotel, with another group from the US I think already there. The dinner was again 3-course, and it was all very good food. I had breaded chicken with Whiskey sauce – to stick with today’s theme. I am still not used to sun being up so late, so when we finished with dinner at 8.30 PM it still felt like it was 5 because it was so bright outside. We quickly moved our bags to our rooms and few of us met downstairs to explore the town.

From where the hotel is, it was hard to tell we were in a town. I guess there is a wooded hill blocking the view of the little village, which is just 5 minutes walk away. It seems like a wealthy place, and it reminded me a bit of a ski resort. We stopped at a pub recommended to us at the hotel. They had 3 man in a corner playing Irish music on fiddle, mandolin, and guitar, and then an older man, a local it seemed, just joined in on the wood floor with the traditional Irish tap dance. He had a lot of energy for his age, and was very amusing to watch. I tried an Irish lager, Harp I think it’s called. It was good, but a bit too light for me. The atmosphere was great, just a pub should be, and I really enjoyed our company. After half an hour we got a table, so we could actually talk without people bumping into us all the time. There was another music/dance next door, but they had cover charge, so we had music coming from two directions. The place was packed, and when we left just after 11 another live bend was coming in to play (which is when this pub started charging the cover).

Oh, I can’t believe we did all that in one day. Whew!

I am so blessed!