Getting Caught Up

This is getting crazy. I'm having trouble getting us all caught up. Photos have been up on flickr for awhile, but somehow I keep forgetting about this poor little blog when I get a spare moment to breathe. So ... here's a quick hit list of some of the highlights of the past couple months. Hopefully I can remember all the highlights!

• Company Summer Party: The company pulled out the stops for the summer party. We spent the day at the Ritz-Carlton hotel next to powerscourt gardens. Starting with an excellent BBQ, free booze, massages, climbing wall, trampolines and more. Later on, Republic of Loose played a private show for us (I'm led to believe a pretty popular Irish band). Then when it got dark, we went inside to see some belly dancers, followed by a chocolate fondue fountain, more booze, and dancing. All in all, a very fun day!

• U2 Plays in Dublin: At the last minute, we scored tickets to one of the three shows U2 played at Croke Park in Dublin. By the time we picked up our tickets and found our seats, we had just missed the opening bands (one of which was republic of loose!), but U2 played a pretty awesome show on a kick-ass claw stage. There's nothing quite like going to see one of the biggest rock bands in the world play a sold out show to over 60,000 people! Definitely an awesome experience.

• Galway trip with Bryce: A little while later, our friend Bryce Paradis came to visit us for a couple weeks which was really fun. On the long weekend, we headed out to Galway which sadly was a little rainy. Highlights from the trip though was the few hours we spent peddling our (electric) bikes around the Aran islands. On one side of the island there's the ruins of an ancient fort called Aonghasa where you can look over the tall cliffs into the oceans for a fabulous view. In addition to showing Bryce around Ireland, we spent a few nights playing Castle Crashers on the xbox which was pretty fun.

• Surfing in Bundoran: The second weekend Byrce was here, Christine organized a surfing trip to the west coast of Ireland. So the three of us drove out to Bundoran to join Aaron and Christine there. I had never been surfing before, but it was a mighty fun time. It's really quite hard though! We went out both weekend days for a two hour session each day. The first day, I only got up on the board once, which felt awesome after getting smacked in the face for an hour and a half with meter tall salty waves! The second day was much better conditions than the first, and as a result I think everyone did better than the previous day! After our surfing, we headed on a short hike to see Slieve League -- apparently some of the tallest ocean cliffs in Europe. Thanks to Christine for organizing such a great trip!

• Another Visitor: Diane headed back to Canada for a visit a couple weeks before I left, leaving me at home, but I was able to keep myself pretty busy. For one thing, my travel buddy Mike Smith (I've been in more countries with Mike than anybody else, although Diane's going to pass him someday I imagine!), started work at Pocketkings at the end of August. Right as he started, his friend Frano from Winnipeg came to visit -- a guy I had known back at University. So it was pretty fun to hang out a little in Dublin with yet another visitor!

• Back to Canada: Our good friends JR and Shelly were getting married at the beginning of September, so we made the trip back to Canada to catchup with friends and family. Diane was there for a little longer than I, so she might fill you in on what she got up to before I got there. I got in and tried to see as many people as I could -- but unfortunately missed a few people I really wanted to see. Sorry to those people! The theme of our trip back? All the engagements that had happened! I can count no fewer than five newly engaged couples. Eesh. Congrats to all of you!

• Jasper in September: JR and Shelly's wedding was lovely! We spent two nights in Jasper in the lovely Canadian Rockies. We ran around taking a lot of photos -- at the ceremony, and then taking scavenger hunt photos around Jasper. They had some pretty fun ideas for contests. The scavenger hunt had us taking creative photos, and we ended up with some great ones (including this lovely Elk!). The reception was also really fun -- it has been a long time since Diane and I got out on the dance floor. So congrats to you guys, and here's to many years of happy marriage!

• Back in Dublin: Life didn't slow down at all after returning to Dublin. Work has been absolutely nuts, and now we've got Diane's mom and her sister in town to entertain (look at all the visitors we've had!). They're in town for about ten days or so, and we've got some plans to head up to the Giant's Causeway on the weekend. In the meantime, we made a short, wild trip to ...

• Oktoberfest! That's right. Mike, Carolyn, Diane and I got on a plane headed to Munich for a very short, but pretty fun trip to check out Oktoberfest. We took off from Dublin around noon on Saturday and arrived back just 24 hours later the next morning! I'll have to type more about the trip later, but it was really quite fun, even with the insane schedule.

I'm trying to get this post done, so I cut things a little short. I'll try and flesh it out a little with a couple more posts, but no promises! It's going to be a busy few weeks here still!

Morgan

The Parent Visit pt V: A Weekend in Brighton

Wow, a month and a bit really passes in a hurry! My mom just had one weekend left before she headed back home from Gatwick airport. One of the last things on the list to do was to go visit some friends of hers who live in Brighton, England. So for the last weekend we got on a plane over to Gatwick airport Friday evening and took a train from there to Brighton which is on the south coast of England. Our kind hosts, Margaret and Ron, met us at the Brighton train station and took us to the bed and breakfast which we would stay for the next two nights. It was pretty late when we got in so basically we went straight to bed. The next morning, Margaret and Ron were going to meet up with us around noon, so we had the morning to ourselves to wander around. Our B&B was really close to the coast, and it was a beautiful sunny day so we wandered up and down the beach for awhile enjoying the weather and basically taking it easy.

After a little while we returned to our B&B and were picked up by our hosts who took us to see the Sissinghurst gardens. These magnificent gardens were an hour and a half's drive outside of Brighton, and it was well worth the trip. When we got there, we had some lunch in the restaurant before spending a few hours wandering around in the gardens.

The gardens surround a large tower which you can climb up several floors of spiral stairs to get to the top of. From the top you can see not just the gardens itself, but quite far into the English countryside. On that beautiful day it was a wonderful view! I don't even really know what else to say about the garden except that we spent quite a lot of time there walking around and taking photos.

After taking our time there we got back in the car and headed back towards Brighton. It was quickly approaching time to eat, so our hosts took us to a place called Shelley's. When we arrived, the place was an impressive building, also with an impressive number of cars in the parking lot. The garden behind the house was filled with some fancily dressed up people -- it certainly looked like a wedding! But Margaret decided to go in and ask if there was space for us anyway and the restaurant staff said they could squeeze us in! So we sat out on the patio for a bit before being shown our table. We were just one of two tables in use in what basically was a private dining room for us! We had a very lovely fancy dinner, which took us well into the evening.

The next day, we had the morning to ourselves so we walked down the coast a ways once again enjoying the beautiful weather. We split off the coast farther on and eventually found ourselves in the Lanes -- a narrow pedestrian street shopping area with a bunch of quaint little shops all over the place. It was pretty cool to wander in and around there. While we were there we stopped in at a courtyard area and got some frozen yoghurt, which was rather interesting actually. Instead of tasting more like ice cream, it actually tasted like ... well ... yoghurt. It didn't taste bad, just kind of ... odd. It was, however, pretty refreshing on a day where the sun was out and no clouds to speak of.

Next, we wandered towards the museum and Royal Pavilion which are colocated in a large city park. We were due to meet our hosts in a couple hours at the museum for lunch, so we decided to see the Pavilion. It was an *incredible* place to see. The pavilion was built by King George IV, and was an extremely lavish vacation palace.

While the start of the tour is impressive enough, when you walk into the dining hall you can't help but pick your jaw off the floor. The dining hall is a huge domed room, and the focal point of your attention immediately shifts up to the chandelier hanging from the top of the very high dome to a little above the dining table in the center. The top of the chandelier is a large dragon clutching the rest of the chandelier in its claws -- and there are more dragons at the edges of the chandelier with their mouths turned upwards with lights inside burning to make them look like they are breathing fire. If I remember right, the whole chandelier weighs at least 1 tonne, and is certainly the most spectactular sight in that room.

The tour continues on through the extensive and for its time modern kitchen, through the various bedrooms as well as the music hall -- a room that matches the dining room in size and dimension, but instead has plush carpets and row upon row of gold covered shell shapes lining the domed ceiling. It really was an incredible tour and well worth it.

After that we wandered over to the museum where we walked around for awhile before joining Margaret and Ron for some high tea lunch: sandwiches, tea, and scones which made a lovely lunch!

It was starting to get towards time for us to catch the train back to Gatwick, but one last thing Margaret wanted us to see was a view near the village of Ditchling; a hill overlooking some rather pretty English countryside. We had enough time to do this, so we went and it really was quite a wonderful view.

Our train trip back to Gatwick was uneventful, as was our plane trip back to Dublin. So that was a nice way to wrap up the parental visit. My mom headed back to Edmonton on the following Tuesday after spending some more time with Margaret and Ron. I think both my parents enjoyed the trip -- I certainly hope they did!

Morgan

The Parent Visit pt IV: Trim Castle and Hill of Tara

Woohoo! Finally catching up! This was the final weekend in Ireland for my mom. The following weekend we would be spending in England before she headed home. My dad had already headed home to return to work earlier in the week. It had been a pretty busy month of touristy stuff, so instead of going crazy and hitting the road for a third straight full weekend of tourist stuff, we decided to just go out for the Saturday and take it easy on the Sunday. So we headed out fairly close by to Dublin to see Trim castle, following that up with the nearby Hill of Tara.

Trim Castle is a tall imposing structure. It had been overgrown for quite some time before being reclaimed and restored. Seeing the keep itself was by guided tour only, and fortunately for us the next tour was starting just as we arrived. So we got shown around the castle. Due to its lengthy time being overgrown, the walls of the castle are stained green from the moss and other plants growing on the walls. It makes for quite an interesting green glow inside the castle.

On the main floor of the castle, the people who restored the castle also put up three small models of the castle at three different points in its history. They were actually really cool to see how the castle changed over history. After our tour, we walked around the grounds of the castle, enjoying the beautiful sunny weather.

Our next destination was the Hill of Tara -- not too far away from Trim Castle. Unlike a lot of the tourist attractions we've been to, the Hill of Tara is pretty unassuming. At least in comparison to all the fancy castles and amazing natural wonders we'd seen over the past few weeks. Still, the hill had a certain quiet grandeur that I couldn't quite place. There's a lot of history there -- the hill had been used thousands of years ago as a place to crown kings, and as a burial site as well.

The fields are quiet and calm, with sheep grazing on the grass. You kinda have to watch your step as you walk around the fields and on the hill itself -- the sheep have definitely been all over that field! There are actually quite a few hilled rings all over the place there, although the biggest ones are in the middle of the field where the "stone of destiny" is.

It was a nice peaceful walk around the area. Unfortunately, photos on the hills themselves were really hard to get. Any sort of sloped terrain is something that is notoriously hard to photograph without looking just like slightly rolly hills. Oh well - it was still quite pretty.

So it was a pretty nice relaxing day and we headed back fairly early to go continue relaxing at home. Up next! We head to England to visit some of my mom's friends from quite a few years back, and walk around the beautiful Sissinghurst gardens.

Morgan

The Parent Visit pt III: North Coast Trip

The weekend following the west coast trip, our plan was to head up North to check out the Giant's Causeway in particular, as well as some of the sights and attractions in that area. We got out of the apartment fairly late on Saturday morning, and started up the highway in the direction of Belfast. For whatever reason, we decided to pass on going into Belfast on this trip. It's been a little while now, so I can't remember exactly why. At any rate, we ended up at Carrickfergus Castle, which is not far out of Belfast. On this particular day, there was a fencing contest going on inside the castle -- what a cool place for a fencing competition! This particular castle has been kept in fairly good shape by restoration. We wandered in and around the castle for awhile before heading across the parking lot for lunch.

We hopped back into the car after lunch and took the coastal drive up towards the causeway. The coastal drive is a fair amount longer, but we had heard from trusted sources that it was worth it. That advice turned out to be true. The drive was beautiful, causing us to stop several times to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. It turned out to be a really good thing we did go up then rather than the next day since the weather was far superior on Saturday compared to the next day! But I get ahead of myself.

We passed the sign pointing the way to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, and since it wasn't too late yet and the weather was still very nice out, we decided to head there first before heading to the B&B. The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge connects Ireland to a small grassy and rocky island. In times past, the safety of crossing the bridge was a bit questionable, but what's in place today is a much safer incarnation. The walk up to the bridge is maybe a half hour hike with some truly spectacular views. The lovely weather, and the wonderful views made the walk well worth it, even without the bridge at the end!

The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge itself was solidly built, and led the way over to a beautiful little island to walk around on. There was some cliffs to be a little careful of, but it was lovely and peaceful on the island. We took a bunch of pictures, and wandered around for awhile before returning to the bridge and the walk back to the car.

Our next stop was the B&B which was just outside of Bushmills. It was a lovely little place, and the lady there kindly directed us to the Smuggler's Inn for dinner when we asked for recommendations on a place to eat for dinner. So we headed there, and it was totally delicious! We got lucky and scored a table in the corner in what was basically a totally packed place. There was a pile of food, and potatoes done in a gazillion different ways, and some great atomsphere in there. Late in our meal, a couple of guys came in and started playing some traditional Irish music, and they were really quite good. So all in all it was a wonderful little evening.

The next day we got up relatively early for breakfast and then headed up to the Giant's Causeway -- a natural formation that I've wanted to see since I saw some of my sister's pictures from when she was there. Unforunately, the weather didn't cooperate with us, and it was misty with a bit of a rain. Still, the causeway is definitely a beautiful area. The area consists of a couple of kilometers of walks along the coast and cliffs. Down on the coast there's a series of pentagon and hexagonal stones at many different heights. It is a pretty crazy looking thing -- definitely worth seeing!

We spent a couple hours walking around the causeway and taking pictures before hopping back in the car and heading further along the northern coast to Dunluce castle. Unlike Carrickfergus which is in pretty good shape, Dunluce castle is a ruined castle. Apparently, part of the castle fell off the cliff into the ocean while people were living in it! They've since stabilized the cliffs, and the castle is pretty cool to explore in its ruined state.

From there, we continued down the road to Portrush beach, where despite the mist was quite a nice place. There was a big sandy beach and we even saw some people heading out into the water to go surfing!

After all this sight seeing is was definitely time to head back to Dublin. It was a very good weekend trip!

Morgan

The Parent Visit pt II: West Coast Trip

Life isn't standing still here, and it's becoming hard to get the motivation to finish these posts. But I can do it! A week after my parents arrived in Dublin, we undertook the first road trip in Ireland where our car was the vehicle (past trips were thanks to Darse and Xan's car). On this particular trip, we took our car West with the aim of seeing the Cliffs of Moher. So we packed up some provisions and some overnight gear and got going relatively early on Saturday morning.

The start of the journey out of Dublin was on some nice dual carriageways (that's what they call divided highways here), but once you get a certain distance out from Dublin, the roads start to get narrow. Driving becomes interesting on these roads, and it's a little hard to get used to.

At any rate, we neared the area known as the Burren, which is a very distinctive rocky area near the west coast of Ireland. In the vicinity of the town of Gort, we took a bit of a wrong turn and ended up on some *really* narrow roads. Just about the time we were thinking of turning around and retracing our steps though, we came across some ruins. Having been driving for awhile, it seemed like a good place to stop and stretch our legs. Apparently we had run across Kilmacduagh - the ruins of an Irish monastery. It's still a bit hard to get used to being in a country where you can just drive by ruins of significance at random ...

At any rate, we decided to brave the tiny roads and continue along our path. We hadn't actually planned the weekend out very well, which turned out to be a good thing -- because if we had, we might not have made it in time for any bookings. Still, we kind of were in a mood to "see stuff". In the Burren there were a ton of signs pointing out various things to see. One thing that caught my mom's eye was the Burren Perfumery, which apparently is something of note. So we followed those signs into a quiet little area where there was a house and tea cottage. There was a very nice video with some stunning photos of the Burren area, which was pretty enjoyable.

Back in the car, we headed towards the town of Lisdoonvarna where we had booked a bed and breakfast for the night. When we entered the town, great big signs proclaimed Lisdoonvarna as the matchmaking capital of Europe. Huh, who knew? Anyway, we found our B&B and dropped off our bags before persuing some local food. After some quick pub grub we headed down to the coastal town of Doolin which was a short drive away. Our aim was to scout out the terrain to see if we could find where we could catch a boat to take us to see the Cliffs of Moher from the sea.

It was a beautiful evening, so it was also well worth the walk to see what we could find. On the way, we found a little pitch-and-putt golf course right next to the ocean. I really can't think of a more picturesque place for such a thing, and it was enough to pull us in to play a round. Well, let me tell you, we're not very good at golf! The 18(!) holes of golf took us entirely too long to play. The poor guy who rented out our clubs was waiting for us to finally finish up so he could go home. Still, it was well worth it!

The shops at the dock had all closed already, but I was able to take a few names back to the B&B to look up and see what the rates were. It had been a fairly long day on the road, so we returned back to the B&B to rest up!

The next morning, after a full Irish breakfast at the B&B, we headed back down to the coast where we signed up for the first boat at noon that day. It turned out we were a bit early, so for the next couple hours we spent some time walking around on the coast. My mom and Diane headed into Doolin to check out some shops, while my dad and I walked around and enjoyed the sunshine and the scenery. I was quite happy with the photos I took while walking around!

Reconvening at the docks, we boarded a boat which took us over to the cliffs. About 5 minutes into the journey though, I got a red-alert phone call from work. Whoops, talk about bad timing! I wasn't able to help out when I could barely hear the guy on the other end of the phone, so I apologized and promised to call in when I got back to land. So with that rather unfortunate downer, the boat took us off to see some rather magnificent looking cliffs. It's too bad the sun didn't stick around for our little tour -- annoyingly it clouded over just for that bit. Still, some of the pictures turned out!

The boat takes you fairly close to the cliffs, although not very close -- since there's some danger of falling rocks. It did take us quite close An Bhreannán Mór -- a pillar separated away from the cliffs. Both this pillar of rock and the cliffs make excellent bird nesting sites, and boy were there a lot of them! We got close enough to catch a whiff. Yeah, birds are pretty stinky! Seriously!

Back ashore, I called into work, but they had sorted out the issue so it was back to being a tourist for me! We hopped back in the car and headed north in the general direction of Galway. It was my intention to take a quick look in Galway and find some food before heading home. But we kind of got sidetracked with some of the sights along the coast. It's quite a beautiful drive there, and we stopped several times to take photos and walk around the rocky terrain of the Burren. So it was well into the afternoon and we hadn't even made it near Galway yet, so stopped in a cafe in a little town for lunch before heading home.

I'd say it was a decently successful weekend, even if it was a bit disorganized!

Morgan