Archive for the ‘Ireland’ Category

I have to be honest, I’m not sure what town we’re in…and the Girl is absorbed in her book (aka Kobo) and seems to be quite content, so you’ll have to settle with knowing that we’re somewhere between Ripon, North Yorkshire, England and London (not Ontario), although, I guess if you were being literal, we are somewhere between here and London, Ontario too.

We left New Lanark, Scotland today around noon and headed right for the highway. Thanks to Maaary (our GPS) we ended up on some country laneway facing a pasture full of sheep. After the 20 point turn to head back to where we came from, Maaary thankfully woke up and starting directing us towards a highway.

We had an uneventful 4 hour drive across some beautiful Scottish (Dave, I say Scottish just so that people realize we weren’t driving through the lovely English countyside yet) pastures and eventually pulled into a pretty, although seemingly distressed town called Ripon in England. Our destination was Fountains Abbey, the 54th Unesco World Heritage Site on the Girl’s list.

We talked about finding a hotel before visiting the site, the Girl ran into a cool (ancient) looking place called the Deanery and found out they had one tiny room left for 120 pounds. We decided to skip it and look for another less expensive (and by virtue – less cool) place in town. Instead, we found ourselves at the Visitor’s Center for Fountains Abbey, hopeful that there might be a hotel on the grounds.

Since it was almost 4:45pm at this point, the first thing that crossed our minds was that maybe the site was closed, so I asked the greeter if they were open, and she said yes (for 15 minutes?!?!?!) We hummed and hawed about whether or not we’d actually see what we wanted to see in that amount of time and she told us that as long as our car was out of the ‘car park’ by 6:30pm, we should be okay. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but we decided that we would go for it, knowing that we both wanted to spend some serious time in Avebury tomorrow and we were hoping to get an early start.

So – we paid our child fare (the lady was really nice to give us a discount because we only had an hour or so to view the grounds), bought a magnet and started down the path. We were undoubtedly enthralled in some random chit chat about life and love and the joy and terror of heartache when we came upon this…

I kept thinking “wow, this is pretty cool, I can’t believe how well preserved that castle looks” and then we came upon this:

and this:

and this:

Needless to say, my curiousity got the better of me and I started asking the Girl a billion questions. It’s funny how I’m not overly curious about something until it actually grabs my attention. I can’t even begin to tell you how spectacular this place is.

Now, because I know you’re likely curious too, here’s my best wikipedia version of the grounds.

In 1132, thirteen monks got pissed off and started a riot at their home base monastery (St. Mary’s Abbey, in York) and then they got booted out of their house for being jerks. Trust me, I know it’s hard to understand how thirteen monks could get pissed off with all that enlightment and mindfulness and stuff….

I wonder how many of you know that the Girl’s best friend is awesome and goes on silent retreats all the time. She’s not a monk, but I’m guessing if I never meet a monk, she’d be the closest thing I would know to one. She says I’m not really an adult yet, so I’m guessing she won’t mind if I tell this story. She occasionally talks about these silent retreats and how no one speaks to anyone else for days at a time, all because they’re trying to learn to sit in it….I tell her all the time I’m going to send her a mime to tell her a story and does she think that would be okay since no one’s talking anyway?

Ah I digress, the riot started because they were trying to do things they way they’d always be done (like in the 6th century) and some big shot archbishop gave them some land and stones and a river (can you believe that someone can just give you a river)?

Anyhow, for those of you who are interested in why Fountains Abbey became a Unesco World Heritage Site, I’ve attached the content from their website at the bottom of this post. I promise you I will never know nearly as much about the Unesco World Heritage sites as the Girl does and, because you know that now, I welcome (and encourage you even) to ask questions via the comments box if you have any so the Girl can answer them appropriately.

Tonight, we find ourselves on the M6 Highway at a rest stop Days Inn with no top sheet on the bed in an unknown town. It’s the first day we haven’t had a beer since we’ve been here. The Girl found a top sheet for the bed after trying to blackmail me for an extra pillow….

Tomorrow, we are off to Avebury, the very exciting night where we get to stay in a haunted World Heritage Site and potentially drink a lot of beer at the most haunted pub in all of England! Happy Halloween, thanks for reading and if you don’t hear from us by the 2nd of November, send the GhostBusters please!

Boo!
Tel

“Statement of Significance – http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/372

Studley Royal Park, including the ruins of Fountains Abbey, combines into one harmonious whole buildings, gardens and landscapes constructed over a period of 800 years. All, important in their own right, have been integrated into a continuous landscape of exceptional merit and beauty. Its principal components are:

Studley Royal: one of the few great 18th Century ‘green gardens’ to survive substantially in its original form: arguably the most spectacular water garden in England. The landscape garden is an outstanding example of the development of the ‘English’ garden style throughout the 18th century, which influenced the rest of Europe. The garden contains canals and ponds, cascades, lawns and hedges, with elegant temples and statues used as eye-catchers. The layout of the gardens is determined by the form of the natural landscape, rather than a design that is imposed upon it. The Aislabies’ design survives substantially in its original form.

Fountains Abbey ruins: a key element in the garden scheme, providing the spectacular culmination to the principal vista, but also of outstanding importance in its own right. It is one of the few Cistercian houses surviving from the 12th Century and provides an unrivalled picture of a great religious house in all its parts. Fountains Abbey, founded in 1132, soon became one of the largest and richest Cistercian abbeys in Britain, before being closed by Henry VIII in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was partially demolished soon after.

Jacobean Fountains Hall: an outstanding example of a building of its period and partially built with stone from the Abbey. It has a distinctive Elizabethan facade and is enhanced by a formal garden with shaped hedges. The interior of the Hall has been adapted for successive uses, including a courthouse.

St. Mary’s Church: an outstanding example of High Victorian Gothic architecture by one of its leading exponents, William Burges, in 1871, and considered to be one of his finest works. A building of importance in its own right, it has also been successfully integrated into the landscape of the Park. The church is one of a pair: its twin is Christ the Consoler at Skelton-on-Ure. They were both designed by Burges and built using the same craftsmen.

Criterion (i): Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey owes its originality and striking beauty to the fact that a humanised landscape was created around the largest medieval ruins in the United Kingdom. The use of these features, combined with the planning of the water garden itself, is a true masterpiece of human creative genius.

Criterion (iv): Combining the remains of the richest abbey in England, the Jacobean Fountains Hall, and Burgess’s miniature neo-Gothic masterpiece of St Mary’s, with the water gardens and deer park into one harmonious whole, Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey illustrates the power of medieval monasticism, and the taste and wealth of the European upper classes in the 18th century.

Hi!

We’re still in New Lanark, Scotland. We’re leaving here soon to head south to England again; we’ll be spending the night in another UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England called Fountains Abbey. I honestly cannot tell you how happy I am that Tel suggested that we chase world heritage sites–it’s been amazing.

New Lanark is a former “model community” started by Robert Owen in the early 1800’s.  It is just outside the town of Lanark, Scotland.  In the early 1800’s, a large cotton mill operated on this location, and Robert Owen bought the mill from his father in law with the vision of setting up a “model community”, partly in rebellion against the exploitation of workers during the rampant spread of capitalism, and partly to satisfy his philanthropic tendencies. The beautiful grounds are only one of Owen’s legacies.

Owen provided housing for his employees and also ensured that they received a fair wage.  He campaigned relentlessly against child labour, much to the chagrin of his fellow mill owners who didn’t mind benefiting from it.  Owen believed that education was the answer to all forms of oppression and in order to further those beliefs, he created the world’s first school for infants.  Within New Lanark, all children started school as soon as they could walk, and he insisted that children stay in school until at least the age of 10 (although he preferred 12).  This sounds horrifying for us now, but in the 1800’s, it was beyond progressive.

Owen also created an institute for the development of character which was housed within the grounds of New Lanark. It contained the infant’s school, the children’s school and an adult school.  Workers worked long hours but in return, they had safe, clean housing and education.  He also ensured that there were medical workers housed within New Lanark, free for all employees and their families.  He started a sick fund for employees, where each employee paid a certain percentage of his or her wages as a form of insurance if they ever got sick.

Interestingly, Owen rebelled against organized religion and considered marriage to be a form of slavery for women.  He hired a TON of women, and made sure that they could work by offering free housing and schools.  He also instituted a form of “performance feedback” for his workers called “the silent monitor”.  Above each worker was a piece of wood that had a colour on it; that colour indicated the performance of the worker on the prior day. He refused to allow physical abuse of the workers, and indeed, the silent monitor and a glare from Owen was usually enough to keep people performing.

Owen did not start out as a socialist (although it seemed he ended up that way) but he did believe that industrialization should benefit everyone, not just the owners. He believed that work could be both profitable AND fair, and spent his life trying to prove that.  He believed that character was formed by education and by environment, and so he ensured his workers, in return for their labour, received free education, good housing, health care AND a beautiful environment.  He created playgrounds and peaceful, bucolic areas for recreation, and ensured that singing and dancing was a part of the curriculum in every classroom.

Interestingly, he also believed in a cooperative approach to life, and started the world’s very first co-op.  It was a store, operated by the residents of New Lanark, that provided bulk food at low prices, with all of the profits being used to fund New Lanark’s education programs. 

Owen showed a light at the end of the tunnel for workers during the darkest days of the industrial revolution.  New Lanark was a commerical success, as well as a social success.  The mill continued to operate as a working community until 1968!!!!  At that time, it succoumbed to the problems that the rest of the cotton industry faced and closed down. The community dispersed, the mill fell into disrepair and was eventually purchased by a private company who let it deteriorate even more.  Finally, in the 1970’s, a trust was formed, the Government bought the site and restoration begain. It was awarded World Hertitage status by UNESCO in the 1980’s for its historical contribution to humanity, particularily in the area of worker’s sufferage during the industrial revolution. So New Lanark is once again a working village, home to about 200 people, and its work is now related to tourism instead of cotton processing

Interestingly, it is not New Lanark that Owen is most well-known for.  After he retired, he left Scotland and moved to the US in search of a more liberal world (!!!).  There, he started another utopian society called New Harmony, and his followers, known as Owenites, went on to formalize the modern cooperative movement.

Owen’s practices, his beliefs about the rights of women, workers and children, about education, were a huge threat to the Government.  He was known within the House of Lords as “that socialist” for his entire life. He never stopped campaigning against child labour, although he also didn’t live to see it abolished in Britain. He died at the age of 87, with his final words: “Relief at last”.

I’m sitting in the lobby of our hotel, the New Lanark Mill Hotel, housed inside Mill #1 of New Lanark, thinking bout the workers who once toiled here, drinking tea with my girl, and eating a scone covered with Chantilly cream (yum!).  What an amazing place this is!  It embodies everything that I love about World Hertitage sites: they always inform my view of humanity.  Many of the things pioneered right here at New Lanark are things that we now take for granted: wages in return for labour, fair pay, fair working hours, holidays.  Tel and I are sitting in the mill operated by the one of the early believers in socialist utopias, a fierce advocate for education and freedom.  It has really been a great visit!

Bye for now, and thanks for reading!

Mel

PS: Momma, you would love it here….I thought about you all day yesterday!  We bought you some wool that was spun here so that you can make yourself a sweater!

We’re arrived yesterday in Haltwhistle, England; it’s way up in the northern part of England, just a few kilometres from the Scottish border. We had a super easy ferry ride from Dublin (no barfing!!!!) and had amazing luck with our rental car.  We arrived in Holyhead, Wales yesterday morning and had made a reservation at the one car rental place in Holyhead. We’d reserved a standard with the understanding that we could cancel it if we weren’t comfortable driving it.  So, when we got here today and asked for an automatic, the only thing she had left was a Mercedes Benz….and the nice Welsh lady was nice enough to give it to us for the same price as a compact automatic.  Score!!!!  Our roadtrip started in style!

We were also going to rent a GPS (known here as a “Satnav”) but the same nice girl at Hertz told us to go up the street and buy one for cheaper than the cost of the rental.  And so we did just that, and as a result have had a super easy day…..it’s AWESOME travelling with a GPS. We’ve nicknamed her Mary, as in “Maaaarrrry”, the prolonged way of pronouncing the name around these parts.  FYI: this came from Tel’s admirer, JJ, back in Dublin.  When we told him our names, he asked why we couldn’t have nice, easy, Irish names……like Maaaaarrrrry!

So we decided to head up this way to start chasing UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  I’ve had a fixation with them for a long time, and just visited my 51st when we went to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.  We’re came to Haltwhistle, England to see Hadrian’s Wall. 

After the ferry, we stopped for lunch in Wales and then decided to just breeze right through with the hopes of getting up here, an area packed with world heritage sites. Haltwhistle is a cute little English town with a population just over 3,000.  It is also the geographical centre of the UK! We got there after dark, so we haven’t seen much except the main street and the pub we ate in! We lucked into an amazing suite in a charming old inn, and had a fantastic night at the pub across the street and then a great sleep in a comfortable bed.  We woke up this morning and did laundry and headed for Hadrian’s Wall.

Hadrian’s Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage site that runs the length of the border between England and Scotland.  It was built by the Emperor of the Roman Empire, Hadrian (aka the Restless Emperor) in 120 A.D.  Can you believe that?  As North Americans, we just do not have an indepth comprehension of that kind of history.  The wall is 80 miles long, took 8 years to build and was intended to separate the Roman Empire from the Barbarians (in present day Scotland).  We visited the wall today and it was AMAZING!

We visited the Roman Army Museum first, and learned a lot about the world at that time.  The Roman Army, in 120 AD, was the most powerful army and the Roman Empire was in the midst of its expansion.  The Roman army offered a lot of incentives to join, provided you were an unmarried male, who was not a slave and were also in good shape. It offered 25 years of employment to help build and guard the wall, as well as meals, education, lodging and a bunch of leisure activities; those leisure activities included leave (with proper permission), pubs, wrestling, bathing facilities and (you may have guessed this!), access to “friendly ladies”.  I could NOT stop laughing at that part!

The wall was manned by the army at the turrets that were spaced every mile or so. Along certain parts of the wall, large settlements grew, and the building and administration of the wall was also supported by a large civilian presence.

Tel and I walked about 3.5 kilometres along the wall, and I actually hiked right to the highest point and looked across the valleys to Scotland.  Completely and totally amazing.

Don’t you think that this is a great picture of my girl and I on our way to the wall:

After we finished our time at Hadrian’s Wall, we got back in our Benz and headed for the Scottish lands.  We spent a couple of blissful hours listening to Mary give us perfect directions while we zoned out on the amazing scenery.

We arrived this afternoon in New Lanark, Scotland.  I’m not going to give you any details of this place, I am going to leave that for our blog post tomorrow.  Suffice to say that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is already one of our favourite stops so far. We’re staying in a suite, in a hotel inside this amazing place, surrounded by history and peaceful, bucolic scenery.

We are SO in love with New Lanark, Scotland that we are staying here tomorrow night too.  Oh, and a note to my folks: I believe that we solved the mystery of the Tim Horton’s cup in Dublin.  Look at what we found at a teeny convenience store just outside of Lanark, Scotland:

Trust me, we could not believe it!  We caused quite a stir in the store by taking these photos (nobody could understand why we were doing that!).  It was also our first experience with the Scottish accent!  We asked one of the clerks for directions and the conversation went something like this:

Clerk: you go down through the roundabout and find Morrrison Street.

Tel: MORRISON?

Clerk: Aye.

Tel: Yes?  Morisson St?

Clerk: Aye.

Trust me, it was much funnier in person….we laughed for 20 minutes after. 

OK, I am going to sign off now, but I am going to leave a quick teaser of what you have in store for our post tomorrow.  This is a sign from the grounds of our current location, New Lanark, Scotland.  Those of you that know me will immediately see why I love it here!

Bye for now, and thanks for reading!

Mel

Hi everyone! 

We are back in Ireland after spending some fantastic time at the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.  What an experience!  Although Northern Ireland is a different country altogether, there is no border between it and the Republic of Ireland.  The only reason we knew we were in a different country was that the money was different!

The Giant’s Causeway is a geological wonder, a UNESCO world heritage site,  a beautiful, spectacular piece of scenery.

The wacky rock formation juts out into the ocean, and is formed by thousands of these hexagonal columns, all sitting weirdly above the ocean.  It is decidedly otherworldly.

Legend has it that a powerful Irish Giant, Finn McCool, was walking in this area one day when a Scottish giant, Fingal, started to taunt him from across the Channel. Finn was pissed off, and started hurling rocks into the ocean, daring Fingal to come and fight him. Eventually, he was exhausted and went home to his wife for food and some sleep.  While he was at home, he heard Fingal running across the rocks towards Ireland.  Finn freaked out, and him and his wife hatched a plan to fool the Scottish giant.  They dressed Finn up as a baby, put him in a cradle, and waited for Fingal to show up at their door. When the Scottish behemoth arrived, Mrs. McCool pointed to Finn in the cradle and demanded that Fingal keep quiet so that he didn’t wake up Finn’s child.  Fingal took one look at the “baby” and thought that if Finn’s baby was this big, then Finn must be huge.  He took off back to Scotland in terror, pulling up pieces of the rock causeway as he went. To this day, there is a cave in Scotland, across the Channel, that has the exact same hexagonal columns as this part of Ireland.

Of course, there is a geological explanation for this as well…..something about a volanco erupting and lava flowing across the area and then cooling very quickly…..but I like the giant story much better!

I have always wanted to visit the causeway, and I was completely excited to be there.  I clambered up the slippery rocks and walked all the way to the end of the causeway…..it was without a doubt the most amazing thing I have done on this trip.  It was a moody, drizzly day and the ocean was really choppy….I was alone at the end of the causeway, looking towards Scotland, surrounded by bizarre rock formations and thinking of giants…..unbelievable, really.

We stayed in a really cool, old hotel, built in the 1800’s, that overlooks the ocean.  Our room was great, if a little creepy (Tel was convinced it was haunted).   We drove into the closest town to get some sterling, and then visited a pub for some good Northern Ireland pints.  We chatted up a bartender there who told us that all of the pounds sterling we’d just taken out of the bank would likely not be good in England, as they’re issued by a bank in Northern Ireland.  *sigh*  Even all these years later, the “troubles” still have an effect.  She reassured us that Scotland would be happy to take our pounds though, as they also make their own sterling!

We had a leisurely drive back down to Dublin today, and are now in a hotel ready to catch our ferry to Wales tomorrow morning.  We decided last night that we are going to spend the next week chasing UNESCO world heritage sites in Wales, England and Scotland!!  And so, dear readers, you have an interesting week of stories and pictures coming your way!

We’re jumping on the fast ferry to Holyhead, Wales tomorrow morning and have not yet decided where our first stop will be.  But we will be back soon to let you know!

Bye for now, and thanks for reading!

Mel

We found ourselves in Dublin yesterday, making the 3.5 hour drive from the West Coast to the East and this morning we are awake – I was going to say awake, alert and ready to go, but I’ll stick with awake for now. 

The last time we wrote was October 22nd – unfortunately we didn’t get to post that entry until yesterday, but there have been a ton of things going on in the meantime.  I’ll start at the beginning and work through the the title of this blog post, brought to you by Dublin’s friendly neighbourhood drunk, John Joseph.

The evening of the Aran Islands adventure was a ton of fun.  Barfy McBarferson finally got out of bed with her sickly belly, IC (aka Irwin) woke up from his nap (reading session) and Mama Cole started cooking steak while I was sitting in the sunroom, watching the sun disappear.  We had a great dinner and ended up playing euchre until the wee hours.  Sandy and I kicked some Cole ass, although IC insists we were just getting great cards.  As the evening wore on, we were laughing, joking and telling stories, we realized we were out of beer, wine and whisky, so, we did what any good Irishmen would do, we used Sandy’s vodka in some orange juice and kept playing.  I think the last time I’ve ‘run out of booze’ was during the Drinking Poker Blues days with Punk.

The next morning (okay, let’s call it midday) after toast with Strawberry/Bailey’s jam and coffee, we headed out for Galway which is about a one and a half hour drive from our cottage.  Our goal was to go to Powers and Sons music store to buy me a bodhran (a traditional Irish drum).  I decided I needed one long before I got here, not that I’m certain I’ll know how to play it, but I do realize that I’ve started collecting instruments from every place we visit. 

Our trip to Galway was annoyingly adventurous.  Our car started squealing something fierce and every now and then I could smell smoke.  The Girl called the rental car company to ask for a swap and instead they directed us to a mechanic in Galway.  So – we venture out to the garage after getting lost for about 40 minutes and hand the keys over to the mechanic.  He says to come back in 30 minutes.  We look around and realize we’re starving by this point, so we head over to the McDonald’s which seems to be the only ‘restaurant’ in walking distance.  We are blasted by the sound of kids screaming the second we walk in.  The Girl finds a table, Sandy sits at it and we look at each other in horror for the next 20 minutes while eating our burgers and fries while about 20 kids in the tables next to us yell at each other.

We beat a hasty retreat and headed back to the garage, only to be told they hadn’t even looked at the car yet.  We were all various shades of frustrated and tired, me being the most affected.  When the mechanic came out to explain what he suspected the problem was, he told us the brakes needed to be changed.  I knew the second he said brakes he was wrong – I mean, I’m by no means an expert, but I explained a hundred times that the noise rose with acceleration, not braking.  Ah, more frustration. So – they changed the brakes and sent us on our way.

We decided that rather than getting lost again, we would cab into downtown Galway (pop 100,000) and visit the music store.  I’m really glad we did.  The second we walked in, I was in heaven – I headed immediately for the bodhran section.  As I’m bee-lining, Sandy catches my attention and asks if I can help her find a CD, claiming her eyes were bad and she’s not able to read the titles that well.  I ask her what CD she’s looking for and she says, “One with a penny-whistle”.  I looked at her dumbfounded, and said “do you know the name of a band”? She said she didn’t and that we really were searching three large shelves of CDs for one with a penny-whistle.  So – as I sat there, shuffling through CDs, wondering what kind of bodhran I’m going to buy, the Girl appears out of nowhere, says something I don’t understand and then Sandy disappears.  I figure she’s no longer interested in a penny-whistle CD, so I take off to the back of the store in search of my bodhran.  It turns out, the whole encounter was a ploy to get me distracted while the Girl spoke with the music store boy so she could buy me the instrument of my choice for my birthday.  She’s awesome and I’m the proud new owner of a bodhran!

We cabbed back to the garage, picked up our car and headed back towards our cottage.  About 10 minutes into the drive, the squeal came back, as did my frustration.  When we got back to the cottage at about 6:30, I immediately went to bed, trying to rid myself of the bad mood I was in because of the stupid car.  The Girl woke me up at 7:30 to go into town for my birthday dinner.  It was great.  The traditional Irish music was fun, we all ate bangers and mash and then headed back to the cottage at about 10.  We played another hand of euchre which Sandy and I won and the other team (IC and Jr. Miss) conceded – not that we were better players, just that we had better cards, of course!

Fast forward to yesterday which was … interesting.  The Girl and I woke up and decided that something had to be done about the car.  She called the rental place again and told them we were bringing it back and wanted a replacement.  One problem, however – the rental car place is in Dublin and we were on the other side of the island.  We packed up our stuff and piled into our squeaker and had a really easy drive back to Dublin.  We arrived, traded our car in, booked a hotel room at the airport (where we are now) and threw our stuff in the room.  We went back to the lobby, called a cab and went to a pub downtown.  We pub-hopped for the rest of the night!

We got an awesome cabbie on the 20 minute drive downtown who talked a lot about Irish bands.  He put us on to this one band called The Villagers – the guy reminds me of Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes and we both loved the sound. 

So – here’s where the night really gets fun…we get dropped off at a pub called Grogan’s Lounge, a really old pub that’s about 100 years old and it’s packed…not even a seat at the bar.  We walk for a bit and go into a really cool, trendy restaurant/pub type and order a couple of pints and some appetizers.  We walk along and head towards another pub called ‘The International Bar’ and feel awesome the second we walk in.  We sit at the bar and order another two pints and here some singing coming from a corner.  There’s these two old Irish fisherman singing ballads over the table, they’re not the entertainment though, they’re patrons too.  The Girl recorded it for posterity…we’ll try to post it. 

A table comes free, so the Girl and I jump down from the bar and grab it and within minutes, we’re being greeted by a fellow named JJ.  He asks if we’re on vacation, we tell him yes, we’re from Canada.  He says he doesn’t care where we’re from and just wants to know if we’re on vacation.  I ask him where he’s from and he says “Tipperary”.  I’ll admit, I really couldn’t help myself from saying what I said next: “You’re a long way from Tipperary”!  He rolled his eyes, punched me in the shoulder and told me that it was only an hour from here. 

Hi everyone…..Mel here!  Tel had to go and jump in the shower so we can get out of this hotel before check out time!

So, the “long way from Tipperary” comment didn’t go over so well, but JJ took a real liking to Tel, and simply would not leave her alone.  He hovered over our table for the longest time, and although I missed a lot of the conversation (I was entranced by the drunk old Irish crooners the next table over), I did hear parts of it.  At one point, I heard Tel say something about not needing a blow job (!!!) and then I heard her say “We’re not that kind of people”.  My curiousity was on full alert!!  “What kind of people?”, I asked…..and felt her kick me under the table, begging me not to engage John Joseph.  Turns out that the conversation went something like this:

JJ: Come on, come down the street with me.

Tel: No thank you, we’re happy here.

JJ: It will be fun, I pay your way.

Tel: No thank you, we want to stay here.

JJ: Is it because I have no teeth?

Tel: No, we’re not that kind of people.

JJ: I used to have teeth, and hair. I used to be good lucking.

Tel: No really, it’s just because we want to stay here (and under her breath: and also, there’s the small problem of the penis…..)

Tel got up to get more drinks from the bar, and JJ remembered I was at the table too, and turned his sights on me.  Some of you may remember that, from time to time, Tel becomes a cobra if she doesn’t like the way someone is acting towards someone she loves.  Well, we all saw the cobra last night….in fact, I watched it make its appearance the closer that JJ got to me.  Tel was standing about 5 feet away at the bar when JJ reached out to put his hand on my head; Tel lunged through the crowd, grabbed JJ by the head, pulled him away, and politely told him to leave me alone.  Believe it or not, he hovered over our table for another 10 minutes or so while we pointedly ignored him and he went away.

We headed across the street to another pub, and tried our first black and tan beer….a pint of Guinness and Smithwicks mixed together…..yummy!  Finally, we decided at about 9 pm that we needed to eat, and went looking for a restaurant. We found this delicious tapas place down the street, were lucky enough to get a seat right by the latin band that was playing, and ordered more drinks and some tapas.  It was delicious, and a TON of fun.

It turns out, that is the extent of Dublin for us: beer, drunks, singing, more drinks, Spanish food.  A fun and fabulous night, forsure. We are just throwing our stuff in our suitcases and heading out the door to our new (and hopefully problem free) rental car.  We’ll be on the road in 20 minutes for so, heading to Northern Ireland…..Tel’s 8th country and my 26th. We’ll be staying for two nights at a hotel overlooking the Giant’s Causeway, a place that I have wanted to visit for the longest time!  We will write more from there, and hopefully post a bunch more pictures too.

Bye for now, and thanks for reading!

Mel & Tel