Scotland, Crystal, a Giant's Avenue

James sitting on one of the stacks of basalt formations that make up the floor of the Giant's Causeway

Giant's Causeway and Cliffs
Shot of a castle in Scotland from the air
The plane we flew in, the Pilot, and his assistant
Another shot from the air showing a small town in Scotland
Bob, Kay, and Amy in the charter plane
Downtown Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle
Waterford Crystal Golf Trophy
Man Carving Crystal Waterford Vase with a circular saw. He's pretty good at it too!
James, Amy, and Heather at Kitty O'Shea in Dublin. Sadly, this was Heather's last taste of the nectar before returning to France

A Seaplane Ride, a Castle, a Palace and a Short Flight

After getting back from Giant’s Causeway on Tuesday evening last week, we crashed and went to bed after eating a late dinner. Wednesday, we ran some errands, Heather did a little bit more shopping and we all went over and had lunch at St. Stephen’s Green. We then headed over to look at The Book of Kell’s at Trinity College in downtown Dublin. The Book of Kell’s is one of original manuscript copies of the Four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They only show two of the books at any one time, and show a couple of other manuscripts of similar antiquity in the same cabinet. There were many people in the room at the same time and so the view was limited. We waited our turn and saw the Book of Kell’s and then headed up the stairs to find ourselves in another library. Among the other books in this upper library are one of the oldest and largest collections of bound books anywhere in the world.
Imagine for a moment, walking into a long darkish room the length of a football field. There are dark shelves on either side of you. You look up to the 30 foot ceiling to see that the room has a second story on either side also containing similar shelves. On the shelves are thousands and thousands of dark red, pale green and gray leather-bound books. There are sliding ladders, spiral staircases, and as many old books as you can imagine. We weren’t allowed to touch anything of course, or really even get close enough to look at any of the titles. The college employs a full-time book restorer and several students to work at keeping these many books maintained and when necessary, repaired. We saw a few of these people actually repairing several of the books. It was an interesting and most delicate process.
After we were finished there, we headed home and Heather collected and packed the rest of her belongings, getting ready to head to the airport. We walked down to the corner to catch a cab, and for the first time since I arrived, we were unable to just hail a cab. Twenty minutes later, Amy and her parents had walked down to where we were, as the four of us were going to go out for dinner that evening. So, we all headed down the street carrying Heather’s luggage. We’d walked 10 or 12 blocks when we finally found her a cab. She apparently made her flight with no problems as she didn’t come back to stay another night, and I have since received an email from her. Thursday during the day, we didn’t do jack-squat. Amy’s parents were recuperating from the previous several days adventures. I took this time to do laundry, read, check emails, pack, and watch Everybody Loves Raymond. That evening after Amy got out of work, we headed to the airport with her parents for our weekend in Scotland. We had a great weekend. We had heard that the accent was much stronger and difficult to understand, but Bob confirmed it 5 minutes after we got of the plane. We were at the car rental stand and we pretty much had to translate for him to understand what the attendant was saying. It was funny. We got our car situation figured out and packed our things and hit the road.
We drove for about 2 hours from the airport to a place called Lake Lomond, about an hour north of Glasgow. We stayed in a really cool lodge hotel on the edge of the lake close to a very small town. The food was good and the rooms were very nice. Amy misunderstood the price quote and it was more than what we had planned but I guess it was worth it. The English Pound, as some of you may be aware is much stronger than the American Dollar, so anything we spent in Scotland (because it is considered economically and politically to be part of England, and also uses their pound) we had to multiply times about 1.75 to determine what we were actually spending. We stayed at the lodge Thursday and Friday nights. Friday, we drove around the countryside, went through a garden walk. This wasn’t any garden walk you would do in the US. It was more like a hike through someone’s enormous back yard. It was about a mile long path through a thickly growing collection of hundreds of different types of trees, shrubs, flowers, mosses, and bushes. It was overgrown in spots and the path was almost indeterminable in others. There were benches and pools, waterfountains and old buildings that had been there for a long time untended and the plants were apparently taking back the land. It was actually really cool because of this though. It felt very natural (no pun intended), and not so manicured and perfect as many botanical gardens are. When were done, we drove around for awhile through some of the other small towns and headed back to the hotel and used the pool, hot tub, and steam room. That evening, the four of us went for a chartered sea-plane ride. Our private tour lasted about 60 minutes. We flew at between 1500 and 4000 feet over the many small towns, castles, and the multitude of other lakes in the area. Our pilot was really cool, and flies 747's from Glasgow to Hong Kong full-time, and does the seaplane thing in his spare time. He actually owns the company and knew a great deal about the surrounding areas. We all had our own headphones and could ask questions and point out things to each other. We got some really cool pictures, as you will see.
Then Saturday, we headed over to Edinburgh. We got there around 1pm or so, checked into our Bed and Breakfast (B&B) and spent the remainder of the day bussing/walking around the city. We saw Edinburgh castle, The Holyrood Palace where the Queen of England stays when she comes to Scotland (AMAZING), and a few other small attractions. We had dinner at a little store on a corridor of pubs, stores, and restaurants, and churches called The Royal Mile. This street stretches from the Edinburgh Castle down to the Palace, hence its name. We then went home and rested for awhile. Then at around 9pm we headed back into town to hit the pubs. By the time we found a suitably quiet pub for us to be able to hear ourselves talk, it was after 11 and after one round, we all headed back to the B&B. Sunday we got up and bussed out to the Royal Brittania, which was the British Royal Yacht up until 1997. It was huge and the tour was fairly cool. If you took all the time they suggested it would have been a two hour tour of a boat, but Amy and I sped through it, leaving Bob and Kay to finish at their own pace and went to the attached mall and shopped around. They really know how to hook you in. They put this attraction, which is likely one of Scotland’s most visited tourist stops in the third floor of a shopping mall. That way, either upon entry or exit, you have to walk through the mall and will likely get sucked into spending some more Pounds in their stores. It was okay, though. We mostly resisted the temptations.
When we found each other after the tour, we all went back into downtown Edinburgh. We went through an old (1500's) cathedral, called Gile’s Cathedral which is over on the Royal Mile. It was not as ornately decorated as some of the other cathedrals we’ve seen, but was obviously very old. We then went to the Scotland Historical Museum. Amy and I made it through the first couple of floors, but we quickly lost interest and decided to do something else. Bob and Kay stayed there and finished the museum, to later meet us back at the B&B where we’d parked the rental car. Amy and I instead went back over to see another cathedral we had heard about. The cathedral was nice and different from the other we’d seen that afternoon. It wasn’t overly decorated either, but was elegant and pretty. They had recently had all the stained glass repaired and cleaned. In order to do it correctly, (because it is a historical monument, the government paid the bill) the windows had to be removed, were taken elsewhere for treatment, and then returned. It cost about 20,000 Pound per window, and the total ran somewhere close to 500,000 Pound, or just shy of a MILLION dollars. When we arrived, there were other people around. After looking around a bit, we were the only people left inside and the hostess there was apparently starved for conversation. After about another 25 minutes of torturous stories about everything from the lady’s helicopter-flying uncle to the way that people need to be more conscious about the way they deliver goods to poor countries, we finally made our way back out into the streets of Edinburgh.
We then went through another shopping area and looked for a skirt for Amy, but never found one. HOWEVER, I found a really cool sport coat for 4 pounds (7 dollars....a-frickin-mazing!!!!) and a pair of cool slacks for 12 pounds(20 dollars). We then headed back to meet Bob and Kay where we'd parked the rental car and drove back to Glasgow on the way to the airport and stopped for dinner. We had a good dinner in an interesting restaurant buried in the depths of a fairly unmarked building. It took us a LONG time to find a restaurant that was open at 7pm on a Sunday night in the downtown area. We headed for the airport for our 10:45pm departure and took our 28 minute flight home. Yes, 28 minutes. It is so cool. You get into your seat, buckle up, the flight attendants go through their mandatory (RIDICULOUS) safety demonstration (If you don’t know how to use a seatbelt yet, you shouldn’t be allowed out in public. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, "Oh!!! You pull UP on the handle? I thought I would just try to BREAK the metal apart".), get up in the air, reach cruising altitude and then begin to descend into Dublin. It was great. The Shortest flight ever. We got back to our apartment here in Dublin at around midnight Sunday, July 24th, and went straight to bed. We aren’t doing much today. Amy is, of course, at work until 5 or 6. We will go out to dinner, letting Bob and Kay finish packing, and have a pretty early night. They leave tomorrow at around noon to head back to Dallas. Amy and I leave for London Friday night. We will be there until the following Monday evening. It should be a great time. Until next week…

Relaxing in Ireland and Time Spent at the Dublin Airport

Ten days have flown by. I think we’re going to fly back across the Atlantic in a few weeks and realize only too late that our summer in Ireland is over. It will not go unremembered, however. Every week there is something new that we have done or some new story to tell. Following our trip to Germany, we returned to Ireland. We landed here in Dublin at 10pm and got back to our apartment around 11:30. Amy had to unpack her things, and then repack them in order to fly out the following morning for another brief trip to Poland. Her flight left at around 6am and she got about four hours of sleep that night. On Monday morning, I puttered around the apartment, doing laundry, cleaning up and getting everything put back together. Then Heather and I headed out for the beach. Heather had been running and had found a beach not too far from our apartment. So, we put on our swimsuits and headed for the surf. We were looking forward to a day of sunshine and waves. This is the Irish Sea, after all.
We walked about 2 miles to get there only to find that the water was nowhere to be found. The beach is part of an inland harbor that sits off the eastern shore of Dublin City. The part that we were at is a tide-flat. To paint a better picture I must give a few more details. The beach is sandy, except not sandy like you’d see in California or Hawaii or any nice beach you’ve been too. The sand is so fine that what you walk on feels more like clay. It is quite hard when the tide is out. There are odd little piles of sand – small round mounds about 4 inches in diameter and a couple of inches high. These mounds cover an area of beach about 3 miles long. On top of the mounds are little piles of sandy poop-type excrement left by the thousands of sand crabs that live under the sand. It looks gross, and feels gross to walk on. We arrived and discovered that the tide was out, but to say that "the tide is out" to any American does not truly convey what I am talking about. This area of beach is apparently so gradually sloping that when the tide goes out, it goes WAY out…about 2 miles out. We walked out toward where the water should have been on the sand poop mounds for fifteen minutes and still literally could not see the water.
Finally, there was an area where the sand was a bit lower and there was a pocket of water remaining that created a small lake on this beach area where there were some people splashing in the water. At its deepest point it was only up to people’s knees, but we figured, "Hey, we’ve walked all this way, and we are GOING to get in the water!" So, we took off our shoes and waded in. What we discovered was yet another Irish oddity. In the water, there were thousands of little fish-type creatures (perhaps something close to a crayfish or small shrimp, except without pinchers…only about ¾ of an inch long) swimming around. They would dart around in the water and you could feel them under your feet, crawling/swimming around and on top of your feet and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. BUT, we said again, "We will not be deterred." Heather, by this point, was making some rather amusing noises and walking very carefully so as to step on as few of these things as possible and then let out what can only be called a squeal as she very narrowly avoided stepping on a sand crab the size of a medium sized cookie. Actually, there were many small crabs skittering about under the water. They run sideways along the sandy bottom. They try to get out of your way but are not always successful. Shortly after ending that crabs life, Heather and I decided that we’d had enough. We exited the water and sat down to let our feet and legs dry and then called it a day at the beach. Heather and I relaxed that afternoon and then grabbed some dinner on our way to see War of the Worlds. It was an okay film, but don’t hold your breath folks. It would make a decent rental and really wasn’t nearly as good as it looked.
Tuesday we got up, went down to Grafton Street, where Heather did a little bit of window shopping, grabbed some lunch and headed over to St. Stephen’s Green. We found a great spot in the park under a huge tree and at lunch. We had both brought books and sat in the sun/shade and read. I fell asleep for awhile. The park was packed by 2pm with professionals from the area who were on their lunch break. They come out every day at lunchtime to enjoy what few days of beautiful weather they get every summer and this day was no exception. People just walk over from where they work, eat, smoke, and talk. It was a great day for it too. Tuesday evening we ate at the apartment and watched one of the Lord Of The Ring DVD’s I brought with me from Seattle. Wednesday and Thursday were fairly uneventful. I am taking one class online from SPU and had a project to complete and spent these two days doing research, reading, writing, and wishing I were done with school. The project is done (unless I am told I need to do more), and with the exception of one more small assignment, my schooling at SPU is nearly at an end. While I was doing this stuff, Heather, never the type to sit about idly went and took the opportunity to see more of the sites. Thursday evening, after sitting at the apartment doing homework for two days, Heather and I went out to do another Musical Pub Crawl (see posting from second week, June 27th for description) since she hadn’t gotten to do this yet. Amy got back into town from Poland that evening but still had to work the rest of the week.
Heather and I had signed up for a 1 day hike/tour of the Wicklow mountains for Friday during the day. We got up early, met up with our tourguide and other hikers, and headed out of town. All of us who signed up for the hike were under 30 except for one woman who had accompanied her son on the hike. She and her son were from Norway. There was another guy from Newfoundland, Canada who was our age. The other two people besides Heather and I were two female undergrads from a state college in Binghamton, NY. There were only 7 of us plus the guide and after about an hour of driving we arrived at the beginning of our hike. We are fairly close to sea-level in Dublin and we were still fairly close to that at the trailhead of the hike. Our guide owns this business and he and a couple of other guides take people on 1,2, or 4 day hikes all over the Wicklow Mountains. The weather was great. We set out on our adventure shirking the use of any sunscreen because the sky was overcast and there was a good breeze. Over the course of the next 4 hours we hiked up about 400 meters (about 1300 feet). After doing most of the vertical part of the climb we hiked up another 100 vertical feet through thick ferns and then up into a field of heather (the plant…not the person) along a path used primarily by sheep and goats and then up along a distinct ridge over to another incline. We stopped at the top of the ridge for a great lunch. By this point we were hiking through grange land used by the farmer of the area for their herds. When we stopped for lunch, a pair of sheep was watching us closely. When we stopped, they began to wander in our direction to see if we were also sheep. After determining that the smell of our food was not enticing enough to draw them any closer than 20-30 feet, they departed with a few baahhs and walked away.
After lunch we continued upwards for another two hours or so. We reached a peak of one of the mountains at 659 meters (2,162 feet). Up at this height there are many marshes and bogs on the flat parts of the mountain top because these areas get a much greater amount of rain. The bogs, over the course of the next hundred thousand years, will turn into peat. Walking in these areas was interesting because I had seen where peat had been harvested in other parts of the country and seeing how it started was cool. It starts out as sphagnum moss that grows and then dies, grows and dies, etc. Over time, it becomes thicker. Peat bogs grows at a rate of about 1 inch every 500 years. Our guide knew much about the vegetation, animals, and landscape of this area. At one point shortly after reaching our highest point we were looking at some plants. The guy from Canada was walking next to me about 10 feet to my left and all of the sudden he was up to his knee is bog. He pulled himself out with some effort and was covered in guck but was otherwise fine. We spent the last three hours or so of the hike descending back down around the backside of the mountain we had climbed. We came out above two lakes that were several hundred feet below us. At the far end of both lakes was an old monastery and cemetery. We stopped for a well deserved beer at the monastery inn, and then headed back into town. We had hiked over 15 kilometers (almost 10 miles), and by the end realized we had made a grave error in not using sunblock. The sun had come out shortly after lunch. I had shaved my head the previous morning and I was roasted. My neck and head were torched. Heather also had decent sunburns on her shoulders and neck. We were all tired and decided that pizza was sounding pretty good and walking anywhere wasn’t, so we ordered in and watched some television that evening.
Saturday morning, Amy and I headed to the airport to pick up her parents, who came in from Dallas for a 10 day visit. Heather did her own thing for a few hours and was going to meet us all back at the apartment. Our friends Chad and Joy have an extra room in their apartment and were gracious in letting Heather come and live with them for a few days after Amy’s parents were coming in to stay with us. Amy’s parents’ (Bob and Kay) plane was supposed to arrive around 9am into Dublin and since they had checked bags we knew it would take awhile. As it turned out, the flight from Dallas had been 3 hours delayed, and we hadn’t checked on it before we left. We went and sat in our rental car in the parking lot and read our books for awhile. We went back in to get them outside of the baggage claim. Another hour and half had gone by and there was still no sign of Bob or Kay. By this point we had been at the airport for about 5 hours and couldn’t figure out what the problem was. As some of you may have deduced by now, we had not accounted for the time/day change that was printed on the itinerary we received and had miscalculated when they were supposed to come in. We were a day early to the airport. Annoyed at our own mistakes, we headed back into Dublin and met Heather over at another outdoor street shopping area. Now suffering from a throbbing scalp and neck, and Heather with burnt shoulders, we stayed in the shade as much as possible. We walked around for a few hours and the girls did some shopping. We didn’t do much else that evening and had dinner together.
Sunday morning came and Amy’s parents came in on their plane just as they were supposed to. We told them of our stupidity and all got a good laugh out of it. We went and dropped off their bags at the apartment and Heather, Amy’s parents, Amy, and I all got back in the car and headed south out of Dublin to go to Waterford. Waterford is, as many of you may be aware, the home of Waterford Crystal Company. It claims to produce the finest crystal anywhere in the world. After a couple hours of driving, we got to Waterford, had lunch and headed to the factory. We took an hour tour of the factory in which we got to see parts of all the major production areas and watched as some of the crystal was actually made. It was amazing. The men who were working with molten crystal worked with it like it was wax. Their skills were exceptional and their movements were so practiced that they seemed almost effortless. What came out after all the processes was a spectacular product. Amy and I decided that we would be remiss not to buy anything while we were there, and found two lovely vases that we liked. We had them shipped straight to Texas from there rather than carrying them back and risking them getting hurt.
Monday, we walked around the city for a few hours taking in some of the sights and had a relaxing day. Then on Tuesday, Bob, Kay, Heather, and I drove up to North Ireland, through Belfast, and up to the Giant’s Causeway. This is an area of basalt rock shaped like stacked hexagons (See pictures). It was formed by the same volcanic eruptions that formed the island of Ireland back in history. There are some exceptional cliffs in the area as well. The weather wasn’t spectacular, but that didn’t stop us from exploring the Causeway for a couple of hours. Then we drove up the road a few miles to Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. The rain had come up and so Bob and Kay opted to stay in the car. Heather and I hiked about ¾ of a mile back to the bridge. The scenery was pretty cool. The bridge crosses a 40 foot span of cliffs that salmon swim through every year to spawn where the local fisherman come to make their biggest catches of the year. We walked back and then all headed for home.
We are headed to Scotland this coming weekend. Amy’s parents are here until next Tuesday, and then Amy’s cousin arrives on Tuesday. She is a food-drop coordinator with a food co-op in Africa. She lives in Colorado, but is going to stop over for a few days on her way home to pay us a visit. Only a few more weeks left…I can hardly believe it. I am beginning to feel my first pangs of homesickness. I miss you all and hope you are doing well. Talk to you soon.

Germany Pictures

The BMW. ('Nuff said)













Really big wine vat. (Don't worry, I didn't drink it all.)














Speyer Catholic Cathedral














James and Amy in Frankfurt













Heidelberg Castle
















Protestant Speyer Church














Heidelberg Castle













Peter, Amy, Helga and James














Heidelberg from above














Look how thick the castle wall is













James and Amy on the Rhine

James Goes Back to His Roots

Greetings to all our friends and family. Heather Mittelstaedt (a friend of mine from SPU’s grad program) arrived on Wednesday afternoon. She has been staying with a friend of hers from Seattle who is currently living in Paris, France. Heather and I decided before school ended that she should come for a visit since she as already going to be living in Europe for the summer. She has seen many of the sights in Paris and was excited to arrive. Wednesday was mostly a relaxing afternoon. Heather and I walked around Dublin a bit and I showed her some of the interesting spots I’d found close-by. Then, on Thursday, we rode a train up to Howth to check out the hike around the cliffs that I had found several weeks ago. The weather wasn’t fantastic but it wasn’t raining either, so we had a good hike, got some exercise, and then stopped for lunch in a restaurant close to the train station called “The Bloody Stream”. I realize it sounds like a gross name, but the culture here doesn’t seem to mind that there is some gore in their past and they use it sometimes in names like this one to symbolize and remember the bloodshed that is a formidable part of their past. Despite the name, the food was excellent, and we headed back into Dublin at around 2. We did some more walking around and then went back to our apartment to meet Amy before we left to go out for dinner.
One of the managers in Amy’s office here in Dublin decided to have a bit of a social gathering for the employees and spouses. As it turns out, Amy is the only person who wanted to bring along guests and since Heather was here, we gladly brought her with us. At the first place we met up with everyone else, we introduced Heather to everyone. One of the guys who was there is a friend of ours who Amy works with. His name is Arnaud (pronounced loosely: “R-No”) who is from France. He and Heather had a great night of conversation which included some friendly poking back and forth about the difficulties she had had with some of the French people. But Arnaud is not one to let a jab go without retort, and so he defended his homeland admirably wearing only a smile and jabbed back. It was an excellent dinner.
Then on Friday morning, Amy and I got up at around 4am and headed to the airport. We had planned a trip to Germany. As some of you may have guessed by my last name (Wiebe in German is pronounced “veeb-a” with only a very slight pronunciation of the last syllable), I have some German roots and have always been interested in visiting the country of my ancestors. (I will be giving you the correct pronunciation for some of the places we went just so that you get to practice making fun sounds and words.) Amy spent six weeks studying abroad during her undergraduate program and the professor who led that trip (and also performed our wedding ceremony) has some cousins who live outside of Heidelberg, Germany. At the end of the six weeks in England, this professor had invited anyone who wanted to come to go with him and his family and spend another week or so in Germany, where they stayed at his cousin’s house, and had a great time seeing part of the country. Having met these relatives of his before, Amy emailed them a couple of weeks ago to see if there was any possibility that we could stay with them while we were in the country. They very graciously accepted us.
Our flight landed in Frankfurt on Friday morning around 10. We had a few problems locating and procuring our reserved rental car, but after an extra hour of wheeling and dealing, we ended up with our BMW 316d. As some of you may be aware, I have a bit of a love-affair with BMW. I have wanted one for many years and Amy was pleased to let me rent one for the weekend we spent in Germany since this is where they are built and aren’t much more expensive to rent than any of the other cars available. We hit the highway with no problem thanks to the GPS system we had in our car. (Let me tell you, if you are ever in a country where you don’t speak the language and can’t read the street signs, GPS is not only a blessing, it is a must! For those in our audience who aren’t familiar with GPS, it is a computer guided navigational system, or Global Positioning System. You enter an address into the car’s computer and a small TV screen and female’s voice from the console tells you when to turn, how far to drive, and some models can even show you where restaurants, gas stations, and hotels are located along your chosen route.) In any case, it was great. We got out of Frankfurt and made our way to Altlussheim, which is a town of less than 5000 that is twenty minutes outside of Heidelberg, and about an hour and ten minutes from Frankfurt.
The people we were staying with live there. Their names are Peter and Helga. They have a 23 year-old son named Michael who lives with them. Peter is a sales/marketing consultant for a company that deals in mechanical products and parts. Helga works at home right now. Michael has a job as a farmer/harvester on some land just outside their town, owned by another farmer. This week, he was driving a large tractor harvesting carrots. They have a very nice house which was designed and built for them about 15 years ago. It sits on some property that sits about a football-field length from the Rhine River. The Rhine is a large river that helps support shipping throughout the country and is also used for travel by tour and personal boats. There was many large boats on it throughout the course of the weekend. Between their house and the river are some large fields in which corn and wheat grow. When the Rhine floods, which it sometimes does severely, the water can rise and fill these fields coming very close to their house, which sits only about 20 feet above the level of the river during its normal stage.
When we arrived, Helga had prepared lunch for us which consisted of green salad, Lox (salmon), a cooked vegetable casserole, and rice, all served with a sort of gravy. It was an authentic German lunch and it was excellent. Following lunch we took a walk to Helga’s deceased father’s house. His house is just a few blocks from theirs. Peter’s mother now lives there with a female roommate. Helga’s father died last year from some health problems and they have decided to keep the property so that Peter’s mother will have a place to live that is close to them. There is a large garden (approximately 60x60 feet) on this other property which Peter’s mother works in. She grows tomatoes, raspberries, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, dill, onions, garlic, some other herbs, and even some corn, among other things. We had fresh vegetables all weekend. Helga showed us the small cemetery close to where they live where her father is buried. The cemetery was not exactly busy with people, but there were probably at least 10-12 people tending to the areas of flowers which were planted in the earth above the graves. It was very nice there – beautiful gravestones marked with a variety of plants and flowers that are tended regularly by the family of the deceased. We took a short bike ride through the streets and paths running through and around town and Helga showed us which fields her son works in, as well as some of the other points of interest. Peter arrived in the middle of the afternoon. We drove to the nearby city of Speyer (pronounced Shpeya) to see a huge cathedral there. For a city that is as small as Speyer is, this cathedral was enormous. (See picture of Peter, Helga, and Amy for comparison of size.) Also in Speyer this last weekend, they were having “Der Brezelfest” (The Pretzel-Fest). So, after we finished with the cathedral we headed to the festival, which is really more like a fair. There were food-stands, games, rides, several beer gardens (which is as expected in the homeland of beer), and many, many people. The Germans take their celebrating seriously and do it with gusto. We walked around for a couple of hours, looking at the party as well as the partiers. At one point we stopped for a few minutes to watch the victims on a ride that would have made a well-experienced stunt plane pilot sick. It was fun! Then we went home to get some sleep.
The following Morning (Saturday) we got up to a normal German breakfast which consisted of cereal, juice, coffee, yogurt, several kinds of brunchen (bread rolls, pronounced “broonken”), and several different kinds of sliced meats. Helga has some mild health problems and was tired from the night before, so Peter, Amy, and I headed into Heidelberg to take tour of the old part of town and see the famous Heidelberg Castle. The tour was interesting. The tour guide noted that there is only one building that was left standing that was from old times. The rest of the buildings down in the city were burned to the ground by Napoleon, and this one structure remained because it was the only one that had been built of stone. It was a famous hotel – Der Hotel zum Ritter St. Georg. (I don’t know the meaning of the name. The guide didn’t really say.) We also saw an example of the dwellings of a commoner from the 17th century. After our short tour ended, the three of us took a cable car up a rather large hillside to see Heidelberg castle. Heidelberg Castle, along with the city, was first destroyed in 1622. The castle was rebuilt by Karl-Ludwig. The castle was destroyed a second and final time by Napoleon’s troops during the War of Succession, in 1693. It was large as you can see from the pictures.
When we were finished, we then took another cable car-ride continuing up the hillside, sometimes climbing as steep as a 45-degree incline up another mile or so. The car we rode in on this last leg up the hill was built and has been operating since 1897. At the top, we arrived at Konigstuhl, (“Cone-ig-shtool”) which means “The King’s Chair”. I don’t know that this place has any other significance than being a really great view, but it was fantastic nonetheless. We walked up a short path to a building that housed a great restaurant and ate a very late lunch in the sunshine out on a huge terrace overlooking Heidelberg which was now far below our elevation. We were introduced to a great drink called Rädler. It is a type of beer that is made from a light colored beer, usually a pilsner, and is combined with mineralwasser (mineralwater – “mineral-vosser”) and a little bit of lemonade. It is a sweet drink that is served very cold and reminded me a little bit of ginger ale. It was great on a hot sunny day with the schweineschnitzel (a kind of breaded pork cut in gravy: “shvina-shnitsel”) and potatoes we had. It was all really good. We then headed back down the mountainside, walking back through Heidelberg where I picked up several beer steins as souvenirs in an open-air market. We then drove back home to Altlussheim and had coffee and cheesecake with Helga. That evening, Peter, Helga, Michael, Amy and I drove to another small old town called Karlsruhe that had some very old houses in it dating back to 1598 that were still standing and occupied. We then drove back over into Heidelberg to see some fireworks.
Sunday we got up, eating another huge breakfast, and Peter, Helga, Amy, and I went and looked at some fantastic gardens a few miles away called Schloss Schwetzingen (“shlos shvet-singen”) which was an estate that was built about three hundred years ago by a rich baron. It was the size a small town and had statues, several lakes, two temples: one built to the god Apollo, and another to the god Mercury, bath houses, a theater, office builidings, living quarters, flower gardens, a bird sanctuary and much more. It also claimed to have at least one of every type of tree grown anywhere in the world, which is probably an exaggeration, but probably isn’t too far off. Many of the trees had small plaques on the ground in front of them designating their Latin species name. It was an amazing place. We all went back to Altlussheim and went to another festival. This one was being thrown by the town’s fire department in an effort to raise funds for continuing their operations. They were grilling up steaks, a kind of hamburger, bratwurst (You have never had a bratwurst until you’ve had one in Germany. SO GOOD!), and several kinds of beer. They had marching bands playing that came from several of the surrounding towns to help with the festivities as everyone ate.
Amy and I wanted a couple of hours to look around Frankfurt on our way back to the airport so we left around 2:30pm. We got back in our BMW and got out to the Autobahn (which simply means highway) and headed for Frankfurt. I must say, Amy is a brave soul and must really trust my driving skills. Despite the rumors, there are speed limits on parts of the Autobahn. However, in certain parts where a speed limit isn’t posted, you are simply expected to use good judgment. So, we got up to speed, and I then told Amy I needed to test the capability of our car, which up to this point I had not yet been able to do. We fell in behind some other people “testing” their cars and really got moving. I got our car up to 220 km/h, which translates into around 135mph. That was pretty much all I could squeeze out of the 316 model and I was happy to call it a day. It was really cool to be able to drive that fast and even have my wife encouraging me to “hit it hard”. It was a thrill…and it was LEGAL!
Needless to say, we made good time getting back to Frankfurt. The Germany Ironman competition was going on yesterday and we walked through part of the city watching a little of the competition, enjoying some more Radler, and watching the bustle of people. We spent a couple of hours out in the sunshine and then headed for the airport. We made our plane, which as it turned out, left over an hour late, but got back to Dublin last night around 10:30pm. Amy had to turn right around very early this morning and fly back out to Poland for a three-day trip. She is a trooper y’all! Our experience in Germany left us waiting for a time when we can go back and see more of the country. We saw only a very small portion of it and can’t wait to visit again. We had great beer, saw some very old buildings, castles, and towns, spent some time in the culture, and drove a car very fast. All in all, it was an extremely satisfying weekend. Amy’s parents arrive this coming weekend for a ten day trip to see us. Heather is staying with us until next Wednesday and then will return to Paris for a couple of weeks until she flies back to Seattle. I hope you are all doing well. Talk to you next week.

Pictures from this Week (July 1st)

James and Joy

















Dunratty Castle Dungeon
















Dunratty Castle













James at the cliffs of Moher in the rain














Kylemore Abbey














Piles of Peet














Kylemore Abbey Victorian Gardens














Sheep!

Two Women and One Man and a Spa Weekend

Amy found out late last week that the apartment that we were in had been sold as a condominium and we were being forced to move. After we vented some frustration about a second move, we learned that we would only be moved to the apartment next to the one we were already living in. However, in the course of the move, we lost one bedroom and one bathroom. Now we are living in a two bed/one bathroom apartment. It is still very nice. There are some pictures of it and the view from our balcony in this weeks pictures.

I must begin this post by saying that my wife’s trust in me is fairly substantial. She allowed me to go hang with two other women for what was a two day trek through the south and west of Ireland. Joy, Shay (her friend from Atlanta who was visiting her), and I found a two day tour that went by train from Dublin to Limerick, and then by bus to Galway, and also by bus to Connemara, and when the tour was over, by train from Galway back to Dublin. Some of the sights we took in the first day included Bunratty Castle, the village of Doolin, the Cliffs of Moher (which I also saw weekend before last with Amy), Black Head, the Burren (also saw this last week too), and Galway Bay. The second day included Kylemore Abbey, Killary Harbor, and the majestic beauty of the Connemara countryside. This included an overnight stay in Galway and was included in the price of the tour. We had a really good time. We had a different tour guide both days and their styles and manners were very different. On day one, the guide provided us with good information about what we were seeing and a few extra facts tossed in for general interest. The second day our guide gave an exhaustive discourse on what seemed like the entire Irish history dating back to the very formation of the earth.

The weather on the first day was overcast and chilly, but with no rain, until the middle of the afternoon. We were back up on top of the Cliffs of Moher (I will include a picture which you can compare to the pictures included from last week which will show the distinct difference in weather) when the rain descended. By the time the three of us made it back down the half-mile to the bus, we were all soaked. We made our way to Doolin to have lunch at O’Connor’s pub. Then it was off to see the Burren. We made our way through the tiny, twisting roads in the rain, and it seemed the longer we went on, the fewer people wanted to get off the bus to snap pictures at the sights. Although I had seen some of these sights the previous weekend, it was still amazing to see them again and get a different person’s perspective on the things we ought to notice about each location. We arrived back in Galway that night, checked into our hotel, and went out for some dinner. We found a small Italian restaurant that proved to be very good. We went out to find some Trad music (traditional Irish music) and found some at a pub called Laddy’s. We sat there for a bit listening to the music, all watching each other fall asleep in our chairs, and decided to call it a night. We headed back to the hotel to get some rest.
The next morning we got up and had some breakfast and headed back out on our tour bus. This was the part of the tour of which I’d not yet seen any of the sites. Connemara is an area in County Mayo and County Galway north of Galway city that consists mostly of wonderful mountains, rivers, and farmland. For the moviebuffs out there who are nearly to retirement or just really like old movies, this is some of the country in which “The Quiet Man” was shot starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. We saw the famous bridge they crossed as well as a cottage that was also in the film. It was in the middle of a low-lying area filled with sheep, long grass, and a slow-moving stream. At this point in the day, the sun was still out and although we didn’t get to stop to take a picture here, it was a good memory. We continued on to see Kylemore Abbey. This took us up into the mountains. The land here is very rough and not suitable for growing crops. Hence, it is used by sheep farmers. They don’t really use fences as the land is so diverse. Consequently, the sheep from all the different farms commingle. The only way the farmers have to tell their sheep apart from the ones who belong to the neighbor is to paint a spot on the back end of each sheep demarcating which farm they belong to. The sheep here come from a mixed ancestry of black and white sheep brought from Scotland. They are excellent climbers and it wasn’t uncommon to see groups of sheep up very high on the mountains grazing among the low, heavy clouds. It took awhile to get there but we arrived at Kylemore Abbey around noon. The abbey was built as a private home in the 19th century and became an abbey after the family had died, when refugee Benedictine nuns from the Irish abbey in Ypres, France founded an abbey and girls' school here. There is also a wonderful Victorian Garden built and maintained by nuns and volunteers (who come from across the world to work here. I met a girl from Germany who was a horticulture and landscape student and was interning here for the summer). We ate lunch here at their cafeteria and then toured the Abbey and Garden, then headed back onto the road. That’s when the rain really got started. It poured on us all the way back to Galway. However, just as we pulled in the parking lot where the tour buses stop, the sun came back out. We boarded our train at around 6:30pm and headed back for Dublin. The scenery was amazing. The train is a really great way to go. Not only is it very fast compared to driving a car, it also affords everyone traveling the opportunity to enjoy the scenery (which I frequently don’t get to do as I am the default car driver, particularly when it involves driving in stranger circumstances…which leads nicely to my next discussion…) The tour was really fun and I got to see some amazing countryside.

I have now successfully driven across Ireland and back twice. I haven’t turned the wrong way down any one way streets. I haven’t lost any hubcaps (almost did once, but not quite). I didn’t run down any sheep or goats. I didn’t cut anyone off during turns or merging on highways. Actually, that last one is a lie, but that has nothing to do with my driving here. That is just my driving in general. Overall, I would say that I did a pretty good job. The first car we had here was a Hyundai Sonata. It was an automatic, and was very easy to drive. The second car I rented turned out to be a stick. To my chagrin, I pulled out of the rental lot and nearly creamed some lady crossing the street behind a big truck, but fortunately, the Ford company makes good brakes, and I was able to bring the vehicle to a hault before committing vehicular homicide. A few blocks later and I had it down to a science. I only stalled once during the entire weekend and drove over 650 kilometers (slightly over 400 miles). Now, as in the US, I believe that I was destined to be a race car driver, even driving on the left side of the street. Amy rolls her eyes whenever I say this (at least once a week), but that doesn’t make it any less true. Anyway, on with the rest of the story.

Amy heard about a spa on the western coast of Ireland from a co-worker here in Dublin. Then when she was back in Seattle for my graduation a few weeks ago we were leafing through a magazine in a doctor’s office and saw an advertisement for this same spa. We decided to check it out and according the website, it looked like a pretty amazing place. So, despite the somewhat exorbitant cost, we decided that we would splurge and go out there. The package that we picked was to include the room, two breakfasts, two lunches, one nice dinner, and two treatments each in the spa, as well as our choice of several of the approximately 25 “adventure activities” that they touted in their brochure and website to fill the spare time during our stay at the resort. All-in-all, we were prepared to do some really fun stuff as well as get a bit of royal treatment from the spa. Amy made the booking (Irish for “reservation”) and we were pumped to get to go to this place that claimed to be one of the top ten spas in the world. I picked up the rental car Friday afternoon, picked up Amy outside her office when she was through and we headed straight out of Dublin to make the 4-5 hour drive across the country. The rain had begun once we got about halfway there but we were not to be deterred. We arrived in Delphi, Ireland (about an hour north of Galway, along the western coast) at around 10:30 that evening. It is out, literally, in the middle of nowhere. We checked in and got ourselves settled in our room.

The following morning we got up and scheduled when we wanted our spa treatments. We then proceeded to get in on some “Sea Kayaking and Cave Exploration”. Throughout the night, the weather had worsened and by this time Saturday morning, the winds were gusting close to 40 mph. We bravely went on and attempted kayaking. I must admit before I continue that although I haven’t done a lot of kayaking, with the limited amount of experience I had, I felt sure that we could handle whatever would be necessary for this activity, despite the inclement weather. We got down to the water, having donned our somewhat inadequate wetsuits and raingear, and got into our kayaks. We scooted out into the bay and I didn’t get twenty feet off-shore before I was overturned in the water. The next thirty minutes were an exercise in patience and I proceeded to capsize three more times. The instructor was very patient and helpful. I find it helpful (to my pride) to note that I was not the only person having problems. The waves were a couple of feet high at some points and the wind was furious. I was crammed into a kayak that was clearly too small for me and after several attempts at staying upright, I finally made it out to where Amy was (she only went upside-down once, which coincidentally, she blamed on my asking how to flip back over if you capsized, as she immediately attempted to try her skills and went into water. Feeling bad (and uncoordinated) I followed suit). By this time, I could no longer feel my feet below the ankle due to the odd angle I was having to hold them because of the smallness of my kayak. Everyone but Amy and I and one other girl were now capsized. The guides, despite their determination, decided that our mission had failed and we headed back to shore.

When we got back to the resort, Amy and I decided it was high time for a trip to the hot tub and steam room. We warmed back up there for awhile and relaxed. That afternoon, rather than making our first attempts at learning surfing in the water which had so effortlessly spit us back ashore, we headed to the closest town to take in a movie. We (finally) watched Star Wars: Episode III. I enjoyed it. As has been true with the previous two installments, the movie could not possibly stand up to the hype that had preceded it. However, I thought it tied up Lucas’s most recent efforts fairly well. We got back to the resort just in time for dinner. After dinner we decided that it was time to head back to the hot tub to relax before going to bed. We got dressed and were walking down towards the spa-area when we passed an employee in the hall who asked if we were heading to the hot tub. She informed us that they close off that area at 7pm. We were absolutely dumbfounded that a spa/resort would close their spa/hot tub facilities at such an early time in the evening when any normal guest would be wanting to use them. Even Motel 6 doesn’t close their pool until at least 10pm, and we paid considerably more for our stay at this resort than Motel 6 might charge. Disappointed, we trudged back to our room and called it a night.

We got up Sunday morning prepared to join another adventure group and were let down because they weren’t running any that we could attend and still make our treatments that were scheduled for 11:30 that morning, except for a zip-line that was part of a “ropes course” that was supposed to be running and was not. We did the zip-line and although it was fun, we decided by this point, that the “Adventure Activities” that were promised by the resort were a great deal less wonderful than had been advertised. We went inside and changed for our treatments.

We both got 1-hour full-body massages, which were excellent. We both then went in for facials. Being the first facial I had ever gotten, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but walked out not feeling violated or even less manly. In fact, I felt rather “fresh and revitalized”, and in this aspect only, the experience measured up to the resort’s advertisement. We had lunch and decided to head to the hot tub one more time before we left. Immediately upon entering the hot tub, I found what was probably the only poorly grouted tile in the whole establishment and proceeded to cut my toe on it. I still have ten toes. However, so as to avoid bleeding into the public hot tub, I immediately (and rather disgruntledly) got back out. We sat in the steam room for a minute, but by this point, I was more steamed from our experiences there than was being emitted from the supply pipe in the wall. We went back to the locker rooms, got dressed and left. Amy constructed a letter to the spa manager on our way back to Dublin yesterday afternoon on her laptop letting him know that our experiences there were sub-par. We got back to Dublin last night to watch the last episode from West Wing’s second season which we brought on DVD from the US.

That concludes this weeks activities. I hope I don’t sound too negative in this last section. We had a fun weekend, and had some really good quality time together both at the resort and on our drives. Amy has a short week as we leave for Germany this coming Friday. Can’t wait. See you all later.

Apartment Pictures

This is our new living room.













Living room and dining room - comfy chairs!














View from balcony - not bad!














Balcony and more view!















Kitchen, and let me remind you that there is a fridge, dishwasher AND a washer dryer combo unit hidden in what looks like all of that nice cabinet space!











Master bedroom

Things That are Different in Ireland

In my (Amy's) contacts with many of you, some have asked what some of the differences are in Ireland from Seattle or the States in general. I thought I’d devote a post to that very subject. Before I begin, I wanted to explain that there’s a look the Irish give to Americans who make some of the mistakes that are discussed below. You know those “Here’s your sign” redneck jokes? Their look is like that, only the sign is for, “You’re a dumb American.” Read on…

Words

First of all, contrary to popular American belief, they do not say “Top of the morning to ya!” They just say good morning. (Sorry to dash any Irish idyllic hopes you may have had on that.) There are quite a few other differences in words – both in spelling and in speech, though.

Anytime one of our words ends in ize you can depend on it ending in ise here. That means that in all of my business writing, authorise, prioritise, analyse, realise, and legalise are spelled differently. It’s a hard thing to remember – especially when Microsoft Word often auto corrects the words for you. So, often even when you do get it right, Word changes it back!

Many words that end in er are spelled re here, too, such as theatre and centre. Program is programme. And James has already nicely covered off the more common phrase of grand over great or awesome. Another common one is that they don’t call the restrooms restrooms. It’s toilets most of the time, and you can sometimes get away with bathroom. If you say restroom, though, “Here’s your sign.” Along those same lines, if you see en suite at a bed and breakfast or hotel, it just means that there’s a private bathroom with the room.

Craic is a new word for us. It’s pronounced like crack and means good conversation. “In O’Donahues pub, there’s good craic” you might hear. Also, people say “You are welcome” here a lot, which makes me think, “What did I do for you?” when really they mean that you are welcome to be in their hotel or resort or restaurant or whatever.

Times are communicated differently. If it’s 7:30, then you’d almost never hear someone say seven thirty. They’d say half seven. At first, I wasn’t sure if this meant it was half an hour until seven, or half an hour after seven. (It’s the latter.) And pretty much anytime it’s after the half hour mark, they say the time before it’s the next hour. For instance 7:40 would be twenty to eight rather than seven forty.

Getting Around

The Irish, along with our British friends, drive on the left side of the road. (Word of warning: Don’t ever say they drive on the wrong side of the road. This makes them very fussy.) I will say that James has taken us on two road trips driving on the left side and is doing a great job. Food for thought: Have you ever considered how difficult it could be to drive a stick shift while on the left side of the road? Not only do you have to pay attention when turning and make sure you’re on the correct side of the road, but you have to shift with your left hand! Our first car was automatic, and the one we’re using this weekend is standard, so he’s gotten used to both. The latter took a few minutes, though.

There are almost no street signs in Ireland. It’s crazy. If there ever are signs, they are always on buildings or fences at the intersection and never on posts. This makes them invisible from some locations in the intersection, rendering them almost useless. I don’t know how the map makers did it. I think the people who print maps here just make up names to put on streets, because when you get to a street, there’s no sign. Maybe I’ll make my own map of Ireland and just call streets Amy1, Amy2, James1, James2….

Anyway, when you ask for directions around Dublin, you need to have a solid knowledge of the names of all the pubs. They’ll direct you based on the pubs around. Otherwise, you’re toast. If they give you street names, you can forget it. Just head in the general direction of what you want and pray. If they tell you to walk 10 minutes up a road, plan on at least a 20 minute walk. Maybe more.

Dublin is a walking city. If you live within a 10 minute drive of the city center (which we and many others do) you walk everywhere and don’t have a car. And when I say walk, I use that term loosely. What these people do is not what the rest of us would consider walking. James and I are both tall people. While I often don’t walk extremely quickly as a general rule, I am definitely capable. When I walk home from work in the evenings, I generally walk as fast as I can as my day is over and I’m ready to change and be home. Even at this pace, I get passed – by EVERYONE! These people speed walk and sometimes I would call it a light trot. I don’t know how some of the short people can move so fast. It’s amazing, really.

Then, you know how in the States it’s an unwritten rule that you walk on the right side of the road/sidewalk/aisle? Well, I think the driving thing has confused them around here. It’s a free-for-all and yet it seems that you get “Here’s your sign” looks if you don’t guess which side you’re supposed to be on correctly as you pass someone. Ever been in one of those situations where you’re coming straight at someone and you both move to the same side, then both switch, and then realize you’re in a game of chicken with them? That’s what you do here – all the time.

As a part of the walking city theme, there are many pedestrians all over Dublin and Ireland at large. Being a pedestrian, and thus crossing streets here, is an art in itself. There are almost no crosswalks, so you’re on your own. Not only this, but Dublin drivers seem to find joy and pleasure in attempting to run over ignorant pedestrians. I’ve been in cabs when they gun the engine to scare the pants off of some unsuspecting tourist who’s just looking for the street sign! This is where the Dubliners are separated from the visitors. Dubliners seem to have a sixth sense about when a car is going to come, where the rest of us are standing stupidly at the intersection looking both ways (because we don’t remember which side the cars are coming from) just waiting for a chance to cross when we’ll have a reasonable shot at not getting killed. (“Here’s your sign.”)

Food

As a part of a traditional Irish breakfast, you may often find black pudding on the menu. Anyone out there familiar with black pudding? Sounds like a yummy chocolate pudding, doesn’t it? Think again. We are talking about congealed pig’s blood. That’s right. Congealed pig’s blood, served alongside your mashers (potato wedges) and eggs. James ordered an Irish breakfast this morning, and there was the congealed pig’s blood staring at us.

In general, food here is much more bland than what we’re used to in the US. The ketchup is more watery and sweeter than ours, so our friend Joy always adds salt to her pile of ketchup. You also aren’t given very many packets when you ask for it, either. (Mom, you may be in trouble while you’re here. Add ketchup to the list of things you’re planning to bring from home!)

There is of course more fish and chips on the menus and less burgers. Many other items are the same types of dishes, but we try to order things that sound like they have more flavor. (Or, I bet it’s flavour over here.)

Coffee and tea is a staple here. They have mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffee or tea every day at work, and I think people think we’re strange when we don’t get coffee and tea after a meal. And, for those Seattlites, we are not talking about Starbucks here. Just plain coffee and tea. I keep looking for Chai and they have no idea what I’m talking about. (“Here’s your sign.) That’s a good lead in to the food service here.

One word: SLOW! Servers here do not have the mentality that they’re working for tips. James covered this in his first post. We’re considered crazy that we actually want to pay our bill after we’re done eating. It’s not uncommon that we wait for 10 minutes after our plates are cleared before we can flag down our server to pay.

The way they use their utensils is different oftentimes as well. Many folks here use their knives the entire meal to push food onto their fork upside down and eat it off the fork that way.

Services and Shopping

There is of course the obvious that the electrical plugs are different. We didn’t get enough converters, though, before we left so I was up a creek for a few days when I got here.

We brought lots of DVDs with us for those weekday evenings when it’s raining. We learned quickly that DVD players are really cheap over here, so we decided to pick one up rather that watch them from our laptops. We found out why they’re so cheap – they don’t come with the cord to the TV or batteries for the remote! Oh, well. We picked those up as well.

Did you know there’s a TV tax in Ireland? That’s right. A tax for having – not just a TV, but a cable connection where you could place a TV. One would think that a TV tax might be administered by your local cable company. You know, because they’re the people who know if there are working cable lines going into your home. But no. Here, the postal carrier collects your TV tax. Now, mind you, we’re staying in corporate apartments, right? So, our management company should have taken care of the TV tax for us, right? Well, our friends Chad and Joy had a knock on their apartment door one day. The postman asked Joy if she’d paid her TV tax. TV tax? Yes, TV tax. (“Here’s your sign.”) I didn’t know of any TV tax. Okay, fine. We’ll send you a letter about it. So far, they’ve received no letter and we just don’t answer our door.

There aren’t drugstores over here like we’re accustomed to in the US. There are small shops they call Pharmacies or Chemists where you have the pharmacy, of course, and a small selection of hygiene products. You can forget looking for sunglasses, greeting cards, or food in these stores. See James’ first post for additional coverage on this as well as the difference in grocery stores (or supermarkets).

The post office is an interesting phenomenom here. James had an interesting experience, but our friend Joy wrote about it so eloquently on her blog, that I must copy and paste it here. (Her “Are you daft” coincides very closely with the “Here’s your sign” look.):

I am beginning to recognize that there is one expression that crosses the face of almost every Irish person with whom I interact lately. It is a look that, unfortunately, is not entirely foreign to me even in the States, although here it seems to occur with exponentially more frequency. It is a look that begs the question, "Are you daft?"

At the Post Office today, for example, I had to start by first asking the question, "Can I mail my letters from here?" as, upon initial inspection, I was not so sure. There were signs for an investment office to my left and a long line of folks leading to a counter under signs that read "Bank here with AIB (Allied Irish Bank)" and which was covered with money wire forms. These visual clues are what lead me to doubt my initial conviction the Post Office in Ireland was in fact the place to go to mail letters. Just about that time, I spotted one counter that did appear to belong in a post office and this is where I asked my question and got my first (not to be last), "Are you daft?" look of the day.

The Samuel Becket inspired conversation that ensued is captured below:[Enter Daft Foreigner (me) stage left and approaches counter. 5 minutes pass. Enter Irish Postal Employee center stage behind counter.]

DF: Can I mail my letters from here?
IPE: (Gives obvious 'Are you Daft?' expression) Yes.
DF: Can I buy some stamps from you, please?
IPE: No. This is the parcel post counter.
DF: And what counts as a parcel, again?
IPE: (Repeats obvious 'Are you Daft?' expression.) More than 2 kg.
DF: Okay, and can I buy a large envelope for these papers here?
IPE: No. You get envelopes at the corner store down the street.
DF: So, I can mail my letters from here but I can't buy envelopes?
IPE: No. You mail at that counter over there. (Gestures towards long line and counter stage right.)
DF:So, that's not a bank service?
IPE: (Repeats obvious 'Are you Daft?' expression.) No.
DF: Ok. So, I can mail my letters and buy stamps, but not envelopes, over there.
IPE: Yes.