This was one of the more exciting weeks this year. Two trips booked, a Friday evening date, and birthday celebrations!

I bought a ticket to Bosnia after what must have been the shortest decision process.
I still have 22 days of vacation left this year that I had to use before the end of the year. Obviously, I was not good at planning because it's August and I have not used any of those days. So, couple of weeks ago I decided I'll go to Bosnia in September. I also wanted to go somewhere I haven't been and wanted to spend a few days in Germany to visit my godmother. I was hoping I can get a ticket that would allow me a layover in Germany of few days, instead of having to buy a separate ticket from Bosnia to Germany. But, my godmother is on vacation until Aug 19th, I have no way of contacting her (I tried!), and I just couldn't wait till a week before the trip to buy this ticket.

I have never bought this overseas ticket that close to the departure, as the prices tend to go up as the time shrinks, so I new I had to act quickly. So, after searching the web and calling a few agencies, I found my ticket on Friday of last week.

BUT, there was no confirmation email. Not on Friday. Not on Saturday. I thought maybe it's because the agency closed soon after I bought it, then maybe they were not open on the weekend. But when it still wasn't in my inbox on Monday morning, I gave them a call. The first person I talked to just said they'll send it right away. But couple of hours later, the owner of the agency called back and said there was a problem with issuing the ticket. It's not my credit card, it's not their system, there is just something with that ticket that they can't process it. They had no explanation of what it is, they already spent several hours trying to resolve it, and she was basically just giving up on it!

So, Monday was kind of hectic, now researching again all those same resources for another ticket while this agency did the same. By the end of the day, they were able to find me another flight, slightly more expensive and slightly worse connection, but it's the exact same itinerary I used for few years.

Ticket to Bosnia secured - check!

During that week when I have already decided to go to Bosnia for 3 weeks, but before I actually got the ticket, I got an email with a promotional offer for Peru! Now, South America was on my bucket list of places to visit this year. I kind of hoped for it for the last couple of years. But, I couldn't find someone who was excited about going as I was, and since I didn't have a really specific place I wanted to go, it was hard to start the planning. I just had this idea in my head that this year I was going to visit my 6th continent, and the last one I care to visit (Antarctica - nah).

The trip package looked very inviting; 8 days, full itinerary planned (which is huge as I wouldn't have to plan anything), all the guides, tickets,...for half price ($1699). And I have vacations days. And it's in South America! The promotion was ending yesterday, so I had to act quick. Contacted a few friends who I thought might be interested, but only my friend from Canada started to seriously think about it. It took some convincing, long hours on the phone figuring out flight options, but in the end we both signed up for it before the promotion ended.

The agency offered two options for departure, Miami and Los Angeles, but neither of those had good connections with Vancouver for the same day flights. My friend didn't want to have to spend another day in one of those places, so I offered him to come here the day before and then we could travel together. That somehow turned into 4 days before, so my friend will have a mini vacation in Austin before we both embark on our Peruvian adventure.

I realized I still have so much to research about Peru before I leave. For example, I had to look at the map to realize, even thought it's on the west coast, it's not vertically bellow California, but Florida! Now that I know the geographical location of the place I am going, I feel already more prepared! :) Aside from Lima, the capital, I didn't recognize any of the other cities on the itinerary (Cusco, Puno,...). Of course, I knew about Machu Picchu, but that's about it for my knowledge of this country. It will be exciting to learn more!

South America trip booked - check!

Oh yeah, I mentioned something about Friday night date. :) Yes, it was very nice...and that's all I am gonna say about that. For now.

And tonight, I get to celebrate early my birthday with two of my good friends, Julie and CJ. Julie knows how much I dislike having to plan birthdays and pick places to dine, so the two of them graciously suggested we go to the Rainey street. It's a very popular, funky area of Austin, with lots of restaurants, laid back atmosphere, and people on the street. I actually was down there for the first time just a few weeks ago for a coworkers going away party, and got a taste of what it's like. I have a feeling I am going to have a great time tonight!

Perfect Score

Although I completely disappeared from this blog for months, just dropped off from the blogosphere, I'll pretend like nothing happened and just add this post here. Mostly because I just needed a place to store this. It's a kinda neat feature of having a blog. You can write when you feel like it.

So here goes...

I was recently introduced to this addictive new Google thingy called GeoGuessr. It's kind of a game (read: time-waster) that uses Google Maps. It gives you a "street view" of some random location, and you have to guess where it is. You can, most times, move the position along the road to find clues, markings, signs,...and then of course you can Google those to find where they are, and then you can use Google Map to also map it and see if the street view of the location you find matches what was given to you.

That's the best I can describe it.

Well, I've been addicted to it lately. It's quite fun, actually. You should try it! And today I was able to get (almost) perfect score, with all my guesses wihtin 0.0x km. That's pretty good, I thought, so it needs to be recorded here.

The Perfect Score

Since I can't figure out where to travel this year, and with whom, I am getting my travel fix for now this way.

Memory of Queen Elizabeth Park

I was looking through some National Geographic pictures, from all over the world, and as soon as I saw this one.

And I instantly knew where it was from: Queen Elizabeth park. Because I've been there! And got almost the same pictures, sans their quality, of course. :) They still have the same place mats and chair covers.
.

Alas, no big trips this year for me, so far. I still have 10 days that I have to use up, or loose them, so I'll probably go for a week to Mexico with mom when she comes in the fall. And the rest of those 10 days...maybe I just take each Friday off!

This, That, and the Other

It's been a while since I've posted here. A long while. I just wasn't inspired to write. I'll pretend nothing happened, and just pick up from today. Maybe I soon write one post to recap the last 5 weeks.

Because of the stress I felt due to the events of the passed 5 weeks, I decided I really need some time off. The weather was uncertain, as is common this time of year, so we waited till the last few days before making final plans. We finally were happy with the forecast not to be a total wash out, and reserved four nights at the Log Country Cove. I went there, long time ago, maybe even 10 years ago, but I remember having a great time with some Bosnian friends. I liked the cabins, the nature, the water,... and I know that setting was the closest to camping my mom would want to come. So, I got us a cabin there from Tuesday to Saturday. I am so happy I did this, and we both had a great time.

We actually had great weather. Half the time we were in just short sleeves. We even took Ciro with us on the walks, even paddle boat, in a little open-top box. There were just a few other cabins rented, so we were able to enjoy some privacy but at the same time not feel totally isolated. We went on walks couple of times every day, from walks around river to hiking through nature trails. In the evening we enjoyed camp fire, bbq, and s'mores. It was such a relaxing time, which is exactly what we were going for.

Camping at Garner State Park

Last weekend I had an amazingly great time camping.

Here are some photos.

Four of us were from Austin. The Zadrozna sisters got all the food, and I met them after work to help make the sandwiches for that evening. After (over)loading the suv, we were on the road around 4.30 pm. Not a good time to leave on a Friday. The traffic was pretty bad coming out of Austin, and we hit the slowdowns in San Antonio, too. But, it was fine. It was nice company, and it gave us time to unwind from the work week. Well, at least for us who were not driving. :) We even prayed the rosary, in 4 different language. We were that kind of group.

We arrived to the camp site close to 8 pm. Another group of 5 from San Antonio, and one lady from Corpus Christi met us there. The guys quickly set up four tents, while the girls gathered some wood and setup up the "food table".

This trip was originally supposed to be to Mustang Island camp grounds, but just a few days earlier we had to change the plans because of the red tide problems on the beach. I was disappointed because the beach camp allowed the camp fires while most of Texas was under fire ban. But, to our great surprise, the Garner park lifted the ban just recently. So, we were able to have the camp fire, the center of every camp trip evening! So, after we all settled in, we lit the fire (with some challenges) and set around it. I only knew the Austin folks, so it was nice to start getting to know the rest of the group. There were 4 guys and 6 gals, within 10-year age range. After dinner, the before-mentioned sandwiches, we started playing games, catch-phrase. It was so much fun! We got so much into it, that until someone yelled (we assume at us) we didn't notice that we were the only ones making. quite a bit of, noise after midnight! It was time to call it a night.

The night was quite chilly. Low 50s, if even. The guys forgot to put the rain tarp, so all the moisture, and cold air, were freely flowing into the tent. I kept adding the layers on me during the night, and was still constantly cold. And barely got any sleep on the hard ground. So, it wasn't hard to get up when I wasn't really asleep. This campsite was really nice. We had electricity and water, and there were bathrooms, even showers, with hot water! Nice.

For breakfast - egg and bacon tacos. With grilled tortillas on an electric grill! This was certainly not a primitive camping. Once we were all awake and fed, the guys led us in daily prayers. And not just lets recite some prayers. No, this was lets take our Bibles, liturgy of the hours, and Magnificats out type of prayers. We went around the circle to read daily reading, and then had a discussion on them! How awesome is that! A mini bible study right there. Loved it!

By 11am we were ready for some hiking. The park is beautiful. Our side was just bellow a hill, so we went up. And up we went! Some of those trails were really steep. I just kept thinking I was glad we were going down on those most steep ones. Several people in that group were avid runners/body builders, so I had some trouble keeping up with them. Someone then suggested we pray the rosary while we walk. Um, really, while we walk people? Again, I was glad we were almost at the top, which meant it will get easier soon. This time we prayed in 5 languages, one for each decade: Spanish, Polish, Bosnian, Filipino, and English. Perfect combination of people for that number.

When we got back to the camp after two ours, I could hardly wait to lay down. But, we first made hamburgers for lunch, which took a while with charcoal. But we all needed that boost of energy. Then we all got our bags out on the grass and had a nap. The weather was just perfect that weekend! Actually, everything about that weekend was perfect.

After that good rest, few of us headed to the other side of the park, where the river was. Yes, even though we didn't go to the beach, we got to swim on the trip! In Frio River. It was supposed to be called (frio) but it was just fine. No colder than the Adriatic Sea. And oh so clean! It had all rocky bottom, so you could see all the way down. Fantastic. It was such a fun time.

After HOT showers, we gathered for dinner. On the menu, pasta with spinach-parmesan dip as sauce, and grilled chicken legs. Grilled on our camp fire. Another treat from the camp fire - s'mores! Gotta have the s'mores. That was yet another highlight of the trip. Oh, and here is another one: karaoke and dancing! These guys thought of everything! They brought the karaoke machine on a camp trip. Yup, nothing primitive about this site. The guys started amusing us with their singing, but since others were not taking their turns, they just started dancing with us. Salsa, swing, waltz, two step,...all that right on our camp grounds. Loved it!

That was such a great group of people. We didn't want to rush leaving the last day, so we pretended it's not gonna happen for the entire Sunday morning. The guys went on another hike early in the morning, and the girls prepared omelets for breakfast. And then, like we really have the entire day, we walked again over to the river side of the camp, where some of use played some volleyball. Then those who didn't get to get in the water the day before decided we all should get in, even if we didn't have the swim suits on. There was some tag-o-war, some girls lost and got wet, some won and stayed in the shade (me!). All fun.

We finally started tearing down the camp site around 2 and were on the road just after 3pm. This time it took us much faster to get back home, about 3 hours with little speeding. :)

Such fun memories of this trip. So glad I went. We should do it again. Soon!



fter two hours

The Countryside

Today was a day for getting out of the city. We went to Bijambare.

I have never heard for this place, but my mom went there with one of her groups. This trip was organized by their seniors' center, and about 65 people went. I was very hesitant to go. Partly because I wanted to spend as much time in Sarajevo as I could, partly because these were all seniors except handful of people who work there, and partly because mom didn't go with me to another trip the day before. That one was a last minute deal - rafting on Neretva! I know mom would not have enjoyed it, but it sounded so adventurous to me. Instead of trying to convince her right away, I dragged the decision until the evening, and then it was too late to get it on that. No point in having regrets later.

Bijambare is just 45 minutes from Sarajevo, but you feel totally far away in the country. It's a nature park surrounded by hills and great views. The organizers distributed a sandwich and juice to everyone at the parking lot, and then we walked to a picnic area. Since this center really promotes healthy living, they first had some exercises there, before the hike to the lodge. Some took a little tourist train, but we went through the woods. It was a nice little hike, but we took one wrong turn and after realizing we were on the wrong path some 15 minutes later, had to turn back. Some old ladies were so not OK with that, and complained all the way back. It's hard to work with some old folks.

The resting area around the lodge had many benches, so we had our lunches and coffee there. It was a nice area to relax, walk around, or just lay on the ground. Then they took us to a 45 min tour of a cave, which was a nice place to cool down. Afterwards the atmosphere got musical when one gentleman got out his guitar and we all sang some old traditional folk songs. Just like we used to do. We started our hike back around 3, got into the buses, and were at home by 4.30.

As if all that walking wasn't enough for us, mom and I again went for a stroll that evening down the avenue next to the river, Wilsonovo Setaliste. Since it's closed to traffic in the evenings, there are always many other walkers/bikers/joggers there.

I wish I brought my pedometer here with me to measure all the walking I have done. My feet and legs and hips are letting me know we've done quite a bit of walking! :)

Active Vacation

There is so much happening here every day! Sometimes I have a hard time grasping that something happened just a day before.

Today was one of those days.

Mom went for an exercise at her seniors' center, and I picked her up just after 10. We then walked some toward the farmers market. It's a nice 30 min stroll through a neighbourhood where I grew up. Before I broke my camera, I took few photos of my kindergarten and school. Today, I decided to go in. What memories! I haven't been inside that building since....1983! I was much smaller then, so the school and yard looked much bigger. I walked the halls and climbed up to 2nd level where my classroom used to be. The kiddos in the hallways were so tiny! And I was shocked that the two boys who greeted us at the entrance downstairs were 7th and 8th grade. They looked like 4th grade tops! I have no sense of how old the kids are. :)

We talked to few farmers who had their products out on the street on our way to the market, and tried to bargain with them. We had some loughs, but couldn't get the price we wanted from them. We finally arrived at the market, and while mom shopped outside and checked out some items inside the store. When we were done shopping, we set at the outside cafe and had some coffee. As is often the case here, we saw our neighbour from our weekend house at the table next to us, and had a little chat.

After the brake, we walked home the same way. Short rest is all we had and then in the mid afternoon went around the corner to eat some kebabs. Then we met with a man who came to collect the payment for our hotel in Makarska. And then again walked some 20min to meet at a desert place with my professor who helped me come to the US.

Kinda busy day. Just like almost every day here. Love the dynamic! It makes the time here seem so much longer. :)

The Sea & The Beach

The Adriatic coast was great!

We had really nice weather. The daytime temperatures were around 30C and water around 24C (but I think it was less). Except for one morning of few minutes of rain and wind, we were able to be at the beach all the time. We were under the pine trees most of the time, because I was not interested in burning under the sun. I would come out only to go into the water, which for me takes more than 20 minutes to get wet, and to dry out when we come out of the water. Neutrogena sunblock spray is the best one! It's so easy to apply, there is no grease mess, and I did not get any sunburn. I was praising it so much I could have been their advertiser! :)

When we first got there I was thinking I will be bored after the whole week. We actually had 8 days of sun and beach. And even though we didn't do anything, just relaxed and planned one hour at a time, this week was just right. I have slowed down, and it felt good not to start counting days left because we had enough time.

So, how did we spend our days? Well, pretty much every day was the same. We'd wake up around 8, have coffee on the balcony, then come down for breakfast around 9. We were 5 minutes walk from the beach, just behind hotel Biokovka, and we would come down around 10.30 and stake out our spot in the shade. We'd go for a swim, which for me involves long warm-up time, talk to people around us, play cards. I did sudoku, listen to ipod, take naps. To get away from the mid-day heat, as if we were not in the shade already, we would sit in one the many, many outside cafes/restaurant by the beach. Mom would stick with her macchiato, but I tried all different coffee options. At one place the sugar bags they served said ProCoffee, which I thought was funny - that's me! :) Next we had some light lunch, shared a pizza or something similar. We definitely ate too much! Then we got back to our towels, rested some more (we laughed that we rested after a rest :)), swam some more, throw pebbles, people watched,...relaxing! We would leave around 6-6.30, got ready for dinner, ate, and then walked for couple of hours down the Riva, all the way to the other side of the town, get some ice cream or desert, and get back to our room around 10.30PM. Full day of pretty much nothing. Gotta love it! :)

The last day, we were able to still enjoy the beach until 2.30PM. Two ladies from our hotel that we met let us use their room to shower and change for the trip. Our mini-bus picked us up around 3.30 and we were back in the apartment by 9.

The one casualty of this trip was one my camera. Next to the last day on the beach, at sunset, I was trying to take a photo of myself on the beach. I set it down on the beach umbrella post, about 20 inches off the ground, and set the timer. When the shutter clicked, and shook the camera and it fell face-down to the pebbles, lenses still open. The inner lens got crooked and couldn't retract back into the outer lens. I tried to pull it out myself, but couldn't. It still turns on, but I can't take pictures because of the lens error. When I get back to Austin I hope to have it fixed at WOLF. But, it means no more photos for the rest of this vacation. :(

Small World

Ah, vacation. And the beach. Love. It.

We arrived in Makarska on Saturday. Unpacked, and headed to beach for a nap since we didn't sleep much the night before. In our little hotel, of some 30 rooms, that evening they had some special group of miners from Kakanj for dinner. I think they doubled the capacity, and took all the tables on the terrace. We set inside.

As faith would have it, I recognized my math professor Galic from the first year of college in Sarajevo. It has been 20 years since I had his class, but I saw him few times during the war. I said hi to him, but he at first pretended it wasn't him (just his personality). Next to our table mom recognized a acquaintance from her former work place. And those two have rooms on either side of hours. Small world!

Last night I went to Mass in a church in downtown square. It was so full that people were standing outside. Maybe they were smart, because inside was hot we were melting. No AC, of course.

It's nice that we are here for a whole week, because today the weather is not the best. It has been raining early in the morning, and right now there is thunder in the distance. I don't mind relaxing here at the hotel, either. But just for today. :)

What Would You Like To Drink?

Landed safely. And the trip was soooo smooth.

I had much anxiety over this trip. In general. There were just many things leading up to this trip that made me anxious about it. Or I just let it all get to me: the preparations and shopping were going too slow. My brother and sister-in-law were moving all their stuff into my house just few days ago. She is leaving for a year-long trip to India and it's sad she won't be here for that long. My brother would not be here for the first few days of my trip to take care of Ciro, so I had to make other plans for her (Thanks Gils!) Trying to get Ciro all well and eating good before I leave. I could get my packing down to allowable weight limit and had to selectively leave stuff out. Since I was driving myself at the airport, I couldn't just take things out of the suitcase during check-in and leave with someone. A hurricane was in the path of my flight and there was a chance the flights might get canceled. Last minute issues at work popped up.

So, I had lots on my mind these weeks.

But then the day came, and it all went smoothly. I dropped Ciro off at Norma's, and he seemed to like his new environment right away. I drove to the airport, found a parking, shuttle, and was at the terminal with plenty of time to spare. My big bag was only 2 lbs over weight, and no one complained. They didn't weight my carry-on that was 12 lbs over the weight limit. My flight to DC was on time and I even had an empty seat next to me to lay down. The girl closest to me was a praying Catholic, which just warmed my heart and reminded me to do the same throughout these long and uncertain flights. They showed us an animated movie Rio that seemed to be just for me, about a people-friendly FLIGHT-CHALLENGED PARROT who got separated from his RED-HAIRED female owner. Notice the similarities!

There was just a little turbulence before we landed in DC, but we were ahead of the schedule. The next flight was also on time, also had empty seats, and they again didn't check my bag which was now double their allowed weight limit. I again had to seats just for myself, and their dinner service was something different: before dinner they served vodka, gin, and scotch. During the meal they walked around with bottles of wine. Afterwards they offered cognac and baileys. All for free! I spilled some wine over me while settling in to sleep, but there were no other alcohol related incidents. Most Europeans drink moderately I guess.:) Maybe it was to calm the people for flying over a hurricane or just to use up the liquor intended for first/business class since the plane had many empty seats. Maybe people switched their flights because of the hurricane. But we didn't feel anything. The pilot took us a bit more north and around the storm, and we really could only see the clouds as usual.

And the third flight went without a glitch and my bag arrived with me to Sarajevo around noon. By 4 PM I was all unpacked, we had coffee, lunch, and were enjoying our time on the balcony. (right now it's a different story - it's 4.30 am and I've been up for two ours because of the jet leg)

The weather here was in the mid 80s but in the evening it cooled down nicely and invited us out for a walk.

Let the vacation begin!

Into The Storm I Go

Well, not really, but it's close.

I am leaving tomorrow to go to Bosnia, and I am flying over Washington DC. And, this weekend a historic storm is also approaching the east coast, Hurricane Irene. Right now it's category 2, by the time it gets to north-east coast it should be cat. 1. So now, I am racing with the storm.

My flight is still scheduled to leave Dulles airport at 6.45 PM, at which point the eye of the storm should be some 250 miles south from there. Flights from NY city airports are already being canceled starting from tomorrow afternoon. They are even shutting down the amtrak, subways, and evacuating part of Manhattan. Crazy!

Many US airlines have waived the fees to reschedule the flight ahead of the time. Not Lufthansa. So, I am hoping we'll take of, safely, before the high winds reach the path of my flight to Munich, and I won't be stranded in DC. I will feel like my vacation really started when I am on that plane going toward Europe.

I hope and pray everyone is safe in the path of Irene.

Day Trip To Brenham

This Saturday I went with few friends to Brenham. Now, there is not much going on in Brenham. It's a small town on HW 290, halfway to Houston, with population of just 13,507 (2000 Census).

But we managed to have a good time.

First, I loved it that we didn't have to leave early. We met at noon, so I was able to have an easy Saturday morning.

The main purpose of the trip was a winery tour and tasting that couple of people in the group won at an auction. It was for Pleasant Hill winery, which is a fairly small operation. The owner, Bob Cottle, gave us the tour of the vineyard, explained the soil, differences in grapes, and the history as we sipped chilled vino blanco under the blazing hot sun. There was just a little breeze in the air, and I managed to get sunburn in just those 15ish minutes.

The tour continued in the cellar, a 64F COOL cellar! Oh, yeah! No one rushed to get out of there! We tasted their Cabernet Sauvignon directly from the barrel and heard ins-and-outs of wine making. The entire tour took almost 1.5 hours and we hang around there until about 4 PM.

Next we went to see miniature horses! There were Franciscan Poor Clare Nuns who had a monastery until just a month ago. Now I think there is another order there and the horses are being sold. They were so cute! We fed them and pet them, and took lots of pictures.

The gps was not helping us find one place for dinner someone has recommended to us. I guess Brenham is changing faster than gps can catch up. So, we ended up at K-Bob's Steakhouse, which was just as good!

Good times!

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. :)