Ireland

Ireland is lovely! It's population of major cities are much smaller than I expected, with only 505 thousand in the core of its largest city, Dublin, and 1.6 million in the Greater Dublin Area. They don't seem to be concerned with well designed public transportation. Toronto's subway system might be minimal, but at least we have one! Some of the bus stops in Dublin are designated drop offs only, so if you wait at one to get on a bus, you will be waiting a long time!

In fact, the transit system is so poor, that there were no trains to the spa town of Lisdoonvarna, where I was headed, to see some of Ireland's more impressive scenery. I checked online to see when the bus connections are scheduled from Dublin, where my flight landed. I found I had several hours to kill before the bus left, so I went to see a couple of Dublin's tourist attractions. My first stop was Dublin Castle. I browsed through the grounds of this ancient site and got some nice photos.








This is the courtyard and the Coach House, which lie where Dubh Linn (pronounced Doov Linn), meaning black pool, used to be. This pool is what gave the city it's name when the Vikings settled. Today, the Coach House is a renovated Hall.






This is the Upper Castle Yard, a grand entrance to the Dublin Castle grounds.


Near the castle is a museum called Dublinia that essentially reenacts medieval Dublin. My father visited Ireland twenty years ago and recalled this museum and recommended it. He said there were people in costume and acting in medieval character. I think a lot has changed in twenty years, because there were no actors, but wax figures, annoying recordings, and many replicas were displayed that could be handled, with a small document that explains how the replica was used. The whole museum felt rather juvenile. It had lots of interesting information, but the colourful wax figures and fun exclamations points riddled all over the large print documents were a bit condescending and dampened my experience there. I did see these snazzy medieval spectacles though!


Dublinia is in the Synod Hall of Christ Church and has a bridge connecting it to the church. Before the erection of Synod Hall, this was the site of the medieval church of St Michael the Archangel, erected in 1670. Today, only the tower of St Michael remains standing in its original form. This stained glass window donated by someone who contributes to the preservation of Dublin's historical architecture depicts the life and associations of St Michael the Archangel.


It is now time for me to head to the bus station. The first thing I discover when I'm there is that the schedule on the Internet is wrong, the bus already left, and there are no more for the rest of the day. So I find myself stranded in Dublin with no where to stay, seeing as I had arranged accommodations in Lisdoonvarna, and getting a bed in a hostel last minute is not normally easy. I decided to call a friend I knew was studying medical school in Ireland. I originally didn't think I could visit him because of the itinerary I had designed for myself, but I guessed in this situation it was high time to start flying by the seat of my pants! Damien said come on over, we're making Indian dinner, another Canuck was staying with him and his roommates, and they plenty of room for more! He told me exactly how to get there, so I hopped on a train and was on my way to Cork! I had a fantastic Indian dinner with the Canadian med students in Ireland: Damien, Blair, Ash, Kesh, their Canuck visitor Adam, and a couple of female visitors whose names I cannot pronounce! It was funny getting to their place from the train station. Cork has decided it's too difficult to implement postal codes, and it seems house numbers as well. My friends don't have an address; they have a street name and a HOUSE NAME! They wonder how their mail ever finds them. I found the place easily enough though, the massive Canadian flag in the window helped! This is Damien and I.


After dinner, we went to a club called Savoy. It was nice inside, like you'd see in one of Toronto's finer clubs, but the clientele was average.


We got some shots called Baby Guinness. They look like mini Guinness but they are Bailey's and Kahlua. You can see Damien just can't wait as his hand sneaks in there.


I had a really good time, the guys were very hospitable. I hung out with them the next day, just relaxing, and decided to stay another night. We went for fish and chips at a place called Jackie Lennox's, apparently Bono's favourite fish and chip stop! I caught a return train the next morning back to Dublin for one night. I saw a couple more sights my last day. I started with the Book of Kells at Trinity College. They had a couple rooms dedicated to the history of the book, so I got to learn more about it. It was well organized, I thought.

These first two images are some Celtic art you commonly find in the book. Notice that there are several lines that cross each other. Uniform or not, any crossing lines represent the Cross. Also, the Irish Cross traditionally is depicted with two lines of equal length, or four symmetrical branches, like a plus sign.



The book also has capital letters infused with images. You can see some examples displayed here.



This is the Chi Rho page and is often considered the most famous image in the book. So much of the detail is so fine that you cannot see it in this photo, but would need a close up photo.


The Book of Kells being held at Trinity College, I decided to walk around the grounds for a while. It's a really nice campus, but I wouldn't want to walk on cobble stone all day!



My next and final stop was Christ Church Cathedral, a church that has been used since 1030!












The cathedral has a crypt I ventured into.





This is the Synod Hall where Dublinia is. Attached by a bridge is Christ Church Cathedral, as you see in the rest of the photos.






Ireland, aside from the change in itinerary and population, was just what I expected. It's a lovely place with a relaxed atmosphere. The scenery is beautiful, and walking on such ancient grounds is really moving. I'm really glad I ended up staying with friends for part of my trip, it was really nice to hear Canadian accents! Cork was fun, thanks to my hosts. It felt kind of like Windsor in that it seemed students contributed largely to the population. I'm really grateful those guys took me in! (And Kesh made incredible Indian butter chicken!)

Mom's visit

My mother came with her boyfriend, Glen, to visit me in Spain for a week. I was a bit worried about how these two long-time suburbans would adjust to my tiny, noisy, downtown apartment. These two were full of surprises though!

First, their flight was delayed, so they missed the connecting flight. After they arrived five hours later than expected, they found that though they had made it, their luggage did not. I could imagine how tired these two must have been after such a long trip with such unfortunate events, but they were both in high spirits when I met them. On the walk from the train station to my flat, my mom got a real kick out of her sandal breaking right outside a shoe store we passed! Of course, no one packs extra shoes in their carry on bag.

After traveling so frequently myself, one thing is consistent: when you get to where you're going, you don't want to have to do anything! You want to sit, relax, and probably eat. You don't want to go look for a place to eat, or go anywhere for that matter. I figured some comfort food would be a good way to greet them. I say comfort food because I am in no position to prepare a gourmet meal! I made some bruschetta using this recipe, but altered it, naturally (I added onion, used extra garlic, and used dried bay leaves instead of basil; it turned out wonderfully!). I had a couple bottles of the cheapest table wine I've found in Spain, one red one white, at 93¢ each. Now don't judge me, this is the best wine I've found here yet, believe it or not!


For dinner, I simply boiled some dry spaghetti and served it with a couple jars of bolognese sauce and a tossed salad. I've never seen two people happier about spaghetti. They loved this ten minute dinner so much, we ate it every night we didn't go out for dinner, and they took several boxes of pasta and jars of tomato sauce and bottles of 93¢ wine home with them! Imagine their excitement when they found the same brand of pasta in a Burlington supermarket.

The first morning, I learned that Glen can be a bit restless. He was up early and ventured out to check things out. He came back with three cappuccinos, and we were so happy, it became a morning ritual!

Our first day, we simply walked. I took them around my area, el Born, and the nearby Barri Gotic. They liked the densely packed restaurants and bars of el Born and the medieval streets of Barri Gotic. We went by the cathedral in my "backyard", Santa Maria del Mar,


the Barcelona Cathedral,

and did a tour of the Dalí exhibit.







We found a little market next to a painter's association with a display. We wandered down the Ramblas a bit and returned home.


The whole time, we would stop in a few shops so these two could get necessities that were in their luggage in Milan.

About two days later, my mother received her bag, but Glen's was still in Milan! He didn't receive his until another two days after that. This really wasn't an issue though because all their necessities were purchased within the first two days of their arrival.

Our days pretty much consisted of a morning cappuccino, then a walk somewhere. We would eat lunch at a restaurant, typically having the menú del día, which is an economical way to eat. You are given a list of first courses, second courses, desserts and beverages and you pick one of each. It's a good way to try different things, and this whole menu typically costs the equivalent of one dish! We would continue walking, then come back to my flat to make pasta!

On Thanksgiving Monday, we went out for dinner to Colors, a jazz club on weekends. They had really fancy stuff so we enjoyed a fancy Thanksgiving!


Steph suggested taking the bus tour in Barcelona, saying she really found it to be a great way to see all that the city has to offer. You are able to get off the bus at the sights you choose to see, and the buses come every ten minutes. Mom and Glen liked this idea, so we did it over two days. We didn't get off at many stops, but rather just enjoyed the tour and the information we got about each sight. The first day of the tour, all we really visited was the Parc Ciutadella, which is a short walk from my place.


The second day, all we saw was the Sagrada Familia. It is terribly impressive. The construction of this building commenced in 1882, and still has a long way to go! Gaudi always knew he would never see the completion of the church, but knew the city would be known for his church!




































(Doesn't the ceiling remind you of a canopy of tree leaves? That was Gaudi's inspiration!)




I really enjoyed the museum in the basement that details the progress of the church. The nerd in me shows through yet again when I found my favourite part of the museum to be the displays of the physics involved in such elaborate architecture. Gaudi was inspired by nature, and the museum expressed this very well. What better place to find harmonics in physics? I think this was very clever of Gaudi, a guaranteed place to find the sturdiest structures. Nature is not squared or perfectly aligned, but it is awfully stable, so Gaudi's seemingly unlikely architecture is actually fool proof.

The next few images are interesting. Gaudi would use strings with small weights to see how the string would hang and bend according to weight. He made formulas with his discoveries, and inverted the tension to compression and developed formulas to design arches. You can see the inverted string shapes are arches in the mirror view.





Here you can see how Gaudi imitates nature.


This is a sketch of the completed church.


This is a photo during earlier construction days.


And this is Antoni Gaudi!


We did cook ONE meal that was not spaghetti and sauce. Well, sort of. Having two little burners has made me reach out to many various stir fry dishes. This website has been rather helpful! We tried the mango chicken recipe and served it over spaghetti, of course. We left out the cornstarch and supplemented white sugar for brown. It was very tasty, but it could have used some more "zing". Maybe green onion? Or parsley? Even a hint of cilantro might be okay. I recommend it though. Stir fries are very forgiving and super easy to make :)


Mom and Glen adjusted very well to this down town lifestyle! They slept right through the constant noise, and rather enjoyed looking out the window, a rather European activity. I admit, the view I have is pretty entertaining. Watching people parallel park their not-so-little cars, the church goers and families toddling along, the man teaching soccer to his son on the pedestrianized street, the restaurants lazily opening the patio in the late mornings, the people catching the bus on the other side of the park, the traffic jams at this intersection, BCNeta constantly cleaning the streets and emptying the trash cans, even the bums sleeping the park across the street! Those two always had their heads out the window whenever we were relaxing at home! It was just like bringing farmers to the city for the first time! (Just kidding!)


This little flat held the three of us surprisingly comfortably. Everyone had room to do what they wanted and no one felt crowded.

Our second last night we went to a flamenco show at the club right beside the hostel I first stayed in. It was brief, but wonderful. Hit the spot, so to speak.





Our last night, we went for dinner across the walkway from my place. It's a little Italian place with great prices: three meals and a bottle of wine for under $45 CAD. We had a lot of fun together and I think they had a good vacation and were able to relax.

In other news. I leave bright and early Saturday morning for Ireland! I'm going to the sleepy town of Lisdoonvarna for a night to see some picturesque sights, then I will stay in Dublin for two days. I'm really excited, I've always wanted to see Ireland! A day after I return, Ashley comes for a visit! The day after she leaves, I will be coming home, so beware, my blog may not get updated for a while, but I'll see what I can do!