Scotland

Since I haven't had any pictures this month, this post shall have them in abundance.

Something I forgot to mention: we saw Avatar in 3D last Monday. It was an impressive thing, but I think that 3D cinematography needs to find it's sea legs before the medium really takes off. Certain 2D conventions, like changing the focus of a frame to direct the viewer's eye, don't really work in 3D (or, at least, I haven't adapted it yet).

So Wednesday morning, we left for Edinburgh. Our flight left at 6:30 in the morning and I was up at half three. We fortunately made it onto the correct plane and were in Edinburgh within two hours. Our hotel wasn't expecting us until noon, so we grabbed breakfast and walked around the neighborhood. Not a touristy location, but lots of cool shops. We checked in, napped, then headed into city center. Edinburgh's city center is a castle on a huge hill, something I feel we lack in America. Enjoy pictures:



The castle's hill was surrounded by a rather nice park. Statues and flowers and stuff.



One of the things I noticed about Edinburgh was how green the city is. Everybody has a little garden out front (all very well-maintained) and some of these seem like tiny parks. People stuff their interiors (by the windows) with flowers and bushes and trees. Streets were tree-lined, sometimes twice.

Things were mostly closed by the time we go out to the city center. The next day, we meant to go on a Highland Tour, a bus tour to see some of the countryside and the highlands. We tried walking to city center, but made a wrong turn (or, rather, planned a long route) and missed the bus - our early wake-up was in vain. Unyielding to despair, we walked to the National Museum. There were many fine works there, from Raphael, Titian, Da Vinci, and Boticelli.



And Harviestoun. Here's me enjoying a particularly excellent example of craftsmanship. From the museum, it was a short walk to the Walter Scott monument.


This spire's exterior was covered with character's from his stories. Fun. Even more so were the views offered from the top.



Old Town. Old. Medieval old. Edinburgh is filled with old buildings. Like this one, part of Old Town:


Point of interest: Old Town is entirely uphill, no matter which direction you travel in.


Princes Street, the main thoroughfare for the city now (the castle and Old Town would be to the left of here). Also, New Town. Not quite as old as Old Town, but still (mostly) a couple of centuries old.




More castle pictures! Woo!



Clayton Hill. Deceptively hard to walk towards, even if you follow the street leading straight towards it.


When we made it to the top, the views offered were choice. Here's Emer looking pensive as she gazes upon the city. From here, we booked it into Edinburgh castle.

The palace, where the crown jewels were kept.

The castle was (as you may have guessed in the previous pictures) quite large. The crown jewels of Scotland were stored there and I learned much about the history of Scotland. There was quite an interesting exhibit about when the castle was used as a POW camp during the War of American Independence. We stayed there, enjoying the castle until the place closed and we were kicked out. We were about to leave, but we noticed a crowd forming and decided to wait to see what the fuss was about. As it turns out, a new governor of Edinburgh Castle was being installed. Much pomp and circumstance.


There was a kilted marching band. Yes, that is a bagpipes and brass band.


The new governor, leading his escort. There was a regent of the Queen there. In part of the ceremony, he walked up to the castle walls and knocked on the gates. I kid you not, a guard appeared at the top of the walls and shouted "Who goes there?" This happened after a half hour of bagpipes playing right outside. Someone didn't get the memo about a new boss.

The next day, we woke up early again and made our way into city center. Emer insisted upon taking the bus this time though (it's only 1.8 miles to walk). We managed to catch our Highland bus tour and left for Loch Lomond. I have no pictures of this for two reasons. Firstly, midges were as thick as fog near the lake. Secondly, the batteries ran out. When we stopped for lunch and a hike at Loch Katrina, we picked up some new batteries and let the camera go wild.




As you can see, the lake was beautiful and the weather followed suit. The highlands were particularly awe inspiring. Our final destination was Stirling and Stirling Castle.


Stirling has a sweet cemetery.


Stirling, a tower whose name is unknown to me, and the Highlands.


Stirling palace. The castle has held a distinguished place in Scottish history, as the single road into the Highlands went through Stirling. Both William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought important battles within a few miles of the castle. Despite it's significance, I felt Edinburgh has the better castle.


Stirling does have tapestries and an active tapestry workshop. This tapestry is part of a seven piece series "The Hunt of the Unicorn".



Another highlight of the third day was finally taking a picture of ourselves that looks alright. I've gone through a few dozen photos that only show half of my head, or only a single one of Emer's eyes are visible. It sounds like a simple task in theory, but you know what they say about theory and practice.

The next morning, we left for our (thankfully not so early) flight and enjoyed being back home. Yes, I had haggis. Every morning for breakfast. Delicious.

Tomorrow we'll be going into Dublin again, then I will be heading back to Dayton on Tuesday morning. This month has really flown by, but I can't complain. The month with Emer has been absolutely fantastic.

The Streets of Dublin

I've got one week left in Ireland before returning home. This month certainly has flown by (as months tend to do).
Over this past weekend, Dublin hosted the World Street Performer Contest, bringing street performers from all over to perform. I was expecting a sort of chaotic, bazaar-like scene with fire-eaters and sword-swallowers crowding every corner. Instead, it was a much more organized and relaxed affair. The contest took place in Merrion Square, a small park a little ways from St. Stephen's green. There were two 'stages' (open areas of grass) for the performers to show off their stuff. The quality of the performances ranged from highly entertaining to painful and predictable. Canada, in particular, had a mediocre showing. And I did get to see fire consumed that evening.
We rounded off Saturday evening with Butler's hot chocolate (because it's never too warm for hot chocolate) and had dinner at Bewley's, an extremely old restaurant. Apparently, the Bewleyes are almost as old and respected a family in Dublin as the Guinesses. The food was good, the restaurant was all decked out with statues and old paintings, and craic was had.
Fair weather continued throughout the weekend and the days have been filled with small pleasures. We went back to Blessington for a Sunday dinner, where I met Emer's sister and youngest brother. We brought back a trunk full of desserts. Monday afternoon was particularly sunny, so we spent the afternoon outside reading books in a field. Today, we went back into Dublin (Emer had an interview with a child counseling service) and took a bit of a walk about the place.
I really feel like I'm getting to know Dublin and how to get around. A natural enough consequence of spending so much time there, I suppose.

Tomorrow morning (waking up at 4:00), we're leaving to catch a 6:30 flight from Dublin to Edinburgh. We'll be spending three nights looking for adventure and attempting to understand the accent.

Viking Hats

Last Friday, I came to the shocking realization that I have been in Ireland for almost two weeks and hadn't yet worn a viking hat. Seeking ot remedy this situation, Emer and I booked a trip with Viking Splash Tours. They give you a tour of Dublin on an old DUKW ("duck"), an amphibious bus from WWII. You get to wear a viking hat and shout a viking roar to the "unsuspecting Celts" on the streets below. The bus goes down both the streets of Dublin and the Grand Canal (what's a viking voyage without getting your feet wet?) The tour guide was one of the best I've ever had. He really was in the spirit of the thing and told terrible, terrible jokes. I liked him for both.
Apart from the splash tour, its been a fairly quiet week. The weather continues to be much nicer than I expected, but a few rainy days forced us to doss inside all day (not that I have anything against dossing.) We made falafel again and have had a few other dinners with the flatmates. We've been watching a movie more or less every night with them as well. Last night was Resident Evil, a deliciously bad movie. It seemed like half the movie was done in CGI that's over a decade old, which made it even better. Not that I'm mocking the graphics - not after the computer graphics class I took last semester.
Sorry for taking so long between these last updates, I'll keep up the blog more faithfully in the week and a half I've got left. There'll also be more pictures. Promise.

The weather's gone bad...

It's been a pretty exciting week for me across the pond. The unnaturally good weather we had the first day continued until a few days ago. I actually was able to work on my tan here in Ireland - who'd have thought? We've spent the days outside as much as possible, walking along the canal or going to the Dublin Zoo.
The Dublin Zoo, in particular, was very nice (it was warm enough to wear shorts that day, honestly.) We got to see the penguins get fed, baby giraffes, and a pair of hippos charge a duck that dared to swim in their pond. (The duck escaped safely.) After the zoo trip, we walked into town and had a delicious dinner (suki yaki) at some Asian restaurant.
However, the weather's taken a turn for the worse. Or rather, a turn towards normality. It is once again cloudy and rainy and everything I've come to expect from Ireland. Most of yesterday was spent making falafel, which turned out much better than expected. It tasted delicious, but the texture wasn't quite what good falafel ought to be.
Today was spent meeting Emer's parents (dad and step-mother) up in Blessington. They were very nice people, feeding me and serving lots of tea. I think I had six or seven cups this afternoon. We took a walk along beautiful Lake Blessington and I enjoyed the views offered by the country roads. Blessington is right next to the Dublin Mountains, so the landscapes and scenery offered was choice. After our lakeside walk, we stopped back to her folks for dinner (and more tea). I got along famously with her family, or at least the part I've met so far.
Another day, another delicious meal. I've been eating too much here :)

Back in Ireland

Hello again, faithful readers. As evidenced by this new post, I am currently back in Ireland. While I was staying here last semester, I met Emer, the most amazing and beuatiful girl in Ireland. We saw each other for two of the three months I was in Ireland and decided to try a long-distance relationship shortly after I returned. After five months, it is decidedly less long-distance.
I arrived in Dublin airport yesterday after quite a journey. I spent the long weekend in New York City, visiting and being touristy with my dad and Vicki. Although the city was much larger than I expeccted, we managed to pack quite a bit into the two and a half days I stayed. We saw the Statue of Liberty and floated by Ellis Island, but apart from that we stayed within Manhattan. We saw Wall Street, the Emipre State building, walked to the top of the Rockefeller Center, and took a couple of bus tours around - one around downtown and one around uptown. I was only able to see Central Park from the outside, which was a bit of a shame, but it's a good reason to go back to NYC :)
After all of the walking and sightseeing, we made it through the harrowing New Jersey Turnpike and to LaGuardia airport. My flights had to be rerouted because of the stormy weather coming through the Great Lakes, but my final destination time was (thankfully) unchanged. After landing, I managed to stumble through Customs and I found Emer. My luggage apparently took a detour, though. We took a cab home and I promptly collapsed and fell asleep.
Today was unnaturally warm and sunny (at least for Ireland), so we've spent most of the day outside so far. We've walked around campus, revisiting all the old buildings I used to take classes in. After spending an hour or two basking in the sun in the Garden of Life and Death (seriously), we spent a bit of time walking around town as well then stopped for ice cream in the shopping mall right by the canal. A very good start to what is hopefully a very good month.