return home


**updated 30 march 05**
Ireland Map

Ireland+ 2005

[08 February - 01 April]
* Places & Dates * Travel Photos * Journal Entries * Travel Quotes *

Places & Dates

...Other Particular Dates...

Travel Photos

ireland roadside

glencolmcille, county donegal, ireland
the cabin in the glen
beth at glen head beth at slieve league

wool craft

giant's causeway, county antrim, northern ireland

beach, pendennis point & carn brea in cornwall
beach pendennis point asda
carn brea
bedtime bedtime bedtime

for more photos...

Journal

thursday 10 february 2005 - 12:45am (hey, that'd only be 6:45 in the evening in the states!)

i am typing on a laptop in my friend, marilyn's cabin in glencolmcille on the northwest coast of ireland in county donegal. i got into dublin airport tuesday morn around 6:45am a whole hour earlier than expected -- we had some "strong" winds, i wonder if that line could work on a cop when pulled over for speeding? i waited around the airport until 1:15 when my friend's plane arrived from england where she was visiting her brother. though i was exhausted, having been awake since 8am (us time) monday and that with only four hours of sleep sunday night, it was still fun to be in dublin and hear the accent in the conversations around me. my trips outside to stand amongst all the smokers and get some fresh air revived me and smelled like ireland. the weather was in the mid 40s and felt grand to me. so though the movies on the plane did not work (who knows why) besides that everything else seemed to be working just fine. even to the fact that when i first went to the bathroom after flying through customs (oh yeah, all i did was hand the man my passport and entry card and he just handed me back my passport - didn't ask me one question! everyone else was at least asked how long they were staying) i dropped my sweater w/o realizing it and when i went back 10-20 minutes later after going to the payphone, atm and buying breakfast - it was still lying on the floor outside the stall!

so, when marilyn arrived, she rented a car and we headed on the six hour trek to the glen. we stopped a few times along the way for photos, food & firewood, and made it to the cabin near 9 - so it was dark and couldn't really see any of the scenery, though you could hear the ocean a bit - and the smell was brilliant--that irish smell made up of the grass and peat and ocean and who knows what else. the cabin is lovely, seriously something out of a dream - simple but exactly what you'd want. we made some tea, started a peat fire of our own and warmed the cabin up. we puttered around until 11pm-ish when i finally headed to bed and snuggled down under a down comforter & wool blanket. slept eleven hours and awoke to an amazing landscape.

outside the three main cabin windows you can see the ocean and there were sheep grazing out front, as well. the grasses are tan and brown and green - long and windblown. large and small rocks, black and grey, moss covered and just worn are scattered everywhere. sheep wander at large and either run from you (i think you could make them go forever if you just kept walking behind them) or stand and stare at you, if they're safely to the side. their wool is long and when the windblows it strangely resembles the grasses they walk through. you can see pieces of wool caught on nettles or barbed wire. marilyn and i went down to drop off some of her laundry with evaughn (a lovely lady who offered to just leave the finished laundry outside the shop since she'd be gone when we got back - and we could pay another day). and stopped next door at the knitwear shop so i could look for a hat. we ended up chatting w/ the couple (john & carmel kelly) who own it and each buying a sweater plus the hat i was in search of. finally we were out in the thick of everything and we started our four hour hike around the glen. (my hat was grand) we saw so many beautiful things. every few steps we'd stop & look around and be amazed once again. i took a lot of pictures and some video footage, but i know there's no way to fully capture the stark beauty of it all. about halfway, we came to the hotel and stopped in for tea. we were met by the owner, a nice older irishman who brought us tea for two but said there was nothing to eat available. he set us up by the nice warm fire and went about his business. it wasn't until half-way through our tea that we realized the hotel was actually closed and the tea was on him; "oh sure," he said, "you can buy me a drink another day if we run into each other." from there we continued on toward the ocean in the rain. we followed a group of sheep and when we finally saw the water, the wind had whipped it into quite a frenzy. waves crashing, rolling into the cove. every turn of the road was better, bigger rocks, windblown trees. before our hike up the last hill to the cabin, we stopped and chatted with margaret who used to work in the tapestry shop and found out her band's playing in donegal on saturday night. we arrive back at the cabin and started another fire, heated up our vegetable chicken soup, brown bread & tea and were set for the evening.

one more fun note for the day: i got an email from my friend, heleen, whom i met my first trip to england in stratford. she apparently just moved to edinburgh in january so i can visit her there as well! it's only day two and already so much to remember and look, forward to...God is good.

thursday 10 february 2005 10:51pm

Giant’s Causeway - check out where we went today. can't wait to share my own pictures! nothing can capture being there, though. it is amazing.

friday 18 february 2005 7:57am

i've now been in penryn,cornwall since tuesday, visiting my friend beki (who i've known since i was four) and her daughter lucy & husband damon. lucy & beki & i have been on several adventures from walking around penryn to visiting the beach to driving through falmouth to seeing gwynap pit where john wesley once preached to seeing pendennis point and walking through some ruins to visiting pendennis castle. pendennis castle was built by henry the 8th and is known as cornwall's greatest fortress. it has been around for 450 years and was used throughout the two world wars. cornwall is a fascinating place. it is absolutely gorgeous with harbours & ocean views & hills & fields & narrow windy streets. but there is a sadness too. beki was telling me about how within the last 30-40 years life for the people of cornwall has changed drastically. when the tin mines went under, unemployment rose from 10% to 70% overnight but between that & harbour work there isn't much else available so there's all these workers with nothing else to do. cornwall is also hoping to become separate from england like scotland & wales & to revive the cornish language, which is similar to welsh & gaelic.

london on monday was brilliant. i arrived at victoria station near 11:30am and dropped my hiking bag off at left luggage for just ? before heading off into the city. i traipsed around for seven hours straight seeing westminister cathedral, westminster abbey, parliament & big ben, tate britain, tower hill monument, tower of london, tower bridge, royal london hospital in whitechapel, st paul's cathedral, picadilli circus, trafalgar square. i walked along the thames, i took the tube. at the tate, i finally got to see my favourite painting, waterhouse's "the lady of shalott". last time it was down due to construction & i might not see it either. when i walked in the room & turned & saw it, i caught my breath. it was larger than i'd imagined & it was so lovely. to stand before the original is something else. i could have stood there for a long time just looking, but there was still more of london to take in. after my long day, i got to wait in victoria coach (bus) station from 8:30 to 11:30pm when i got on my overnight coach on my way to truro where beki picked me up at 7:45am next morning.

btw, if anyone needs a book suggestion, i already finished daphne du maurier's "the glassblowers" which is a fictionalized account of her forebearers. and i'm now enjoying dostoyevski's "the adolescent". i recommend both.

monday 28 february 2005 9:56pm

ah oxford. not quite sure what first stuck out to me about oxford, but i always remember upholding it even in my younger years. oddly enough, ever since i first attempted for the rhodes scholarship (and subsequently failed to achieve it), i have felt a particular belonging to this place and thoroughly enjoyed my brief visit in september 2001 and am loving my few days here now.

i'm staying with my friends jackie & clint who are a joy to be with. clint is working towards his doctorate at regent's park in oxford, researching the illusive baptist, thomas grantham. jackie is teaching "maths" in a public school just outside of town. sunday morning we attended church at st. epps, ate lunch at the eagle & child (where tolkien & lewis frequented with their fellow inklings), browsed through the ashmolean museum (mummified cats, fish, a woman's hand, and a body from like 500 bc!!; plus, engraved stones from sennacherib in old testament times, some absolutely gorgeous stringed instruments; basically one of the best museums i've been to), saw the monument standing a few yards from where ridley, latimer & cranmer were burned at the stake for not recanting their protestant beliefs under queen mary, we were able to visit several colleges--regent's park, brasenose, christ church--as clint has free access to them all. interestingly enough each college has it's own library, which you have to key in a code to enter. so often students will stake out a spot at a particular table in the library and leave their stuff there (books, notes, laptop, etc) all term, all year, with only a little piece of paper basically stating "this is my spot" - and no one messes with it. :)

tuesday 01 march 2005 10:54pm

last night in oxford. yesterday & today i plunged into the city about 9:30am and got back to the flat around 5:30pm. it's a good twenty minute walk into town but with all the walking i've been doing almost since i arrived in ireland - it doesn't seem like much anymore. :) yesterday i kind of wandered around getting my bearings, taking pictures, enjoying cream tea (two scones with devonshire cream & strawberry jam and tea--whoo!) at the queen's lane coffee house, which boasts being the oldest coffee shop in europe started in 1645 by cirque jobson, and finding some fun gifts. one shop i particularly enjoyed was the oxford university press bookshop. the actual press building is not open to the public, but this little shop had LOADS of excellent books. i had to keep telling myself that i can get them cheaper on the half.com and don't have room in my bag anyway. it started snowing around 4pm, nice fluffly flakes just kind of drifting around. i also got some film developed (though i nearly lost where i'd dropped it off! had to retrace my steps for nearly ten minutes). just two rolls to make sure everything was going okay. not sure if i'll be able to scan them whilst traveling or not.

today, i got to wander in the rain. every time it rains here i am surprised. (not because it's raining obviously, but how it rains.) it really is the strangest thing. it's raining loads - you can definitely see it, but when you feel it, it's like a mere misting so that it almost seems like you're not getting that wet and then eventually you look down and see that actually you're soaked. never experienced anything like it in the states. just the uk & ireland. bizarre. anyway, it made traipsing around a bit harder as i wasn't too keen on my cameras getting waterlogged. but i mostly braved it anyway. i tried to get around to the colleges i had not yet seen where people went that i liked.** such as exeter (founded in 1314) where tolkien studied & taught & the pre-raphaelite painter burne-jones also attended, university (first collegiate foundation in england in the 13th century) where lewis studied & magdalen (founded in the 1400s) where he taught & where wilde also attended, hertford where donne studied starting at the ripe old age of 12, merton (13th century) where eliot studied, balliol (founded in 1260) where hopkins studied. i also "visited" what i could of the bodleian library. it overwhelms the street. opening in 1602, it is one of the oldest public libraries in europe. five million books on eighty miles of shelves; it holds a copy of every book published in britain. and somewhere in there the original map of narnia, though not where i was told apparently. i also made it into one of the most world-renowned bookshops, blackwell's, founded in 1879. once again i had a bit of a struggle exiting without purchasing. but i fought and won! you think borders is big, barnes & noble maybe? check out blackwell's. it's a masterpiece of a bookshop. :) i ate lunch at the eagle & child once more. had a coffee in the crypt beneath st. mary's cathedral, where cranmer was to recant his protestant beliefs and instead, recanted his recantation and chose to walk down to fire and first burn his hand that had made the mark & where the wesleys & the man better known as lewis carroll had preached. i stopped into the ashmolean again briefly. and realized too late that there were some burne-jones sketches available in a room that closed an hour earlier. can't catch 'em all. had lingered enough in the city to catch a lovely subtle sunset over port meadow on my walk home. and tonight, jackie, clint & i walked back in to treat ourselves to some ice cream @ gene & davies'. all in all this has been a wonderful few days in oxford.

**that is, jrr tolkien, edward burne-jones, cs lewis, oscar wilde, john donne, ts eliot, gerard manley hopkins

backtracking a bit, i stayed on with beki in cornwall through tue, feb 22, when i hopped on another overnight coach to cambridge. seriously, i wouldn't wish those on anyone. think i managed two hours total sleep and not all together. the first day i arrived we went to swanpool & gyllyngvase beaches, which were both quite nice and only a short drive from beki's house. the saturday in cornwall we went carboot shopping, similar to garage sales except it's out of people's cars in a big field. we also went down to mullion cove with stunning cliffs jutting out of the ocean. that sunday i got to explore in the ruins & woods one street down from beki's house. experienced play group on mon & tue in falmouth with beki & lucy at one of the local churches. a bunch of british toddlers running around & their british mums running after them and snack time where the adults get tea/coffee & biscuits. definitely a unique experience all round. saw carn brae monday afternoon, which is basically a monument and huge rock piles (as in large rocks piled together) on a hill. lovely views and an interesting castle with one of the bottom corners consisting of an actual pile of rocks rather than laid stone. bit confused by that but it looks cool. tuesday afternoon we checked out the big flat load, which is an old tin mine. it was really cool, too, and also wickedly cold. could barely press the shutter on my camera. once again, all in all a wonderful time spent in cornwall. and the pasties (pronounced past-ease) are brilliant. there really is no pasty like a true cornish pasty.

from cornwall i moved on to saffron walden (via cambridge). i stayed with my friend karen & her husband, tim, and daughter eleanor. found out she's pregnant with her second child and due in just 6 weeks! eleanor was fun to hang out with. so funny how individual kids are even at such a young age. both lucy & eleanor are definitely in my top five little girls, though. i'm thankful to have lived with each of them and watch their whole day progress. saffron walden is a lovely town. seemed similar to stratford-upon-avon in that it almost appears styled somehow. not in a forced way, but as i walked around things seemed to always fit, look just as "they should". karen toured me around and we traded pushchair duty, both trying to keep those wheels in line! we saw her church, the anglican st. mary's, very lovely. we saw checked out the ancient line maze, which is cut into the grass (and now marked by bricks) in this curvy line that you walk. we also went to the victorian gardens and walked through a real hedge maze. on thursday we stopped at kim's coffee house and i got a scone with devonshire cream, which was of course wonderful. you just can't pass those up. try one. trust me. on saturday we took the bus in to cambridge (karen got to run with the pushchair & i with my pack to make sure we caught that bus) and toured around for a little over an hour before eating and then rushing again to make our separate buses, she back home & i to oxford. the one college we checked out in cambridge, was king's college where the olympic runners came from in "chariot's of fire". (i love that movie!) we also saw the round church, which is a small round church, very picturesque.

i think i have mostly caught everything up now. i have currently paused in dostoyevski's "adolescent" and proceeded in lewis's "problem of pain", which i would also recommend.

saturday 05 march 2005 8:33pm

i'm now in edinburgh. arrived on thursday afternoon and soon realized, this had to be a several day town as several weeks would never do it justice. i met up with my friend, heleen, from holland, whom i met in stratford upon avon my last journey over on her last day at the hostel. she's since moved to edinburgh, so we traipsed around a bit, stopped for some hot chocolate which was appropriately accompanied with shortbread, and later dined at the "end of the world", which once was the last building before the city walls, thus its name seemed true for the people of edinburgh. friday i set out to see john knox' house which is just yards up the street from my hostel, but alas, it is under construction until after easter, so i turned about and continued on down the royal mile towards the st. giles' cathedral & the castle. i stopped off for a tour in mary king's close, which was absolutely fascinating, as the city chambers building today is actually built over the old city streets & closes (tenament buildings) where people once lived & worked. definitely an experience. st. giles' is lovely. there seemed a much starker contrast between the dark stone & the brightly coloured stained glass windows. there's a statue of john knox & one of the windows was designed by burton-jones, which was my favourite. i stopped by the writer's museum, which commemorates sir walter scott, robert burns & robert louis stevenson. the stevenson portion was closed, but the rest was interesting. particularly on scott. there is a monument on prince's street across the bridge from the royal mile to scott, that towers over the buildings around. it's known as the steeple without a church. i think it was not long after his death that the statue was started and it was to be tall enough to show how high the peoples honour for scott was. so when you look across & see it tower as high as any other steeple or turret on that side of city, it's enough to make you choke up a bit. then, on up to black friar's church & graveyard. i think burns is buried there, but i couldn't find the stone. there were some fascinating markers there nonetheless. something a bit eerie, too. especially when you know the graverobbers burke & harris (?) dug there for their body supply. it started snowing whilst i was exploring the grounds, made for a very picturesque moment there in the old graveyard. then, on to the castle. didn't go in, but did take some pictures of the surrounding view, the castle itself, and some of the monument crosses in the lot there. also signed up for the highland day tour i went on today! :) later ended up meeting my friend, nuala, from ireland, whom i met in dublin my last journey as well, who also now lives in edinburgh, for dinner with two of her scottish friends.

as for this past wednesday, i took the train from oxford to york (having to run w/ my pack again, as i was running a bit late) and stayed the night in york. btw, trains are much better than coaches! :) york was a brilliant stop. i'm so pleased i did. the city centre is surrounded by the old medieval wall that you can still walk along with four gates, two of which have museums (neither of which i had time to see). york minster is stunning. the largest gothic cathedral in europe. the immensity swallows you up. thursday morning before i had to leave, i went to clifford's tower, which has a dark history. and actually climbed to the top and all the way around! (i'm afraid of heights, so this was a big feat - even though i did have to kneel to take a photo, b/c i couldn't take standing without holding on. *grin*) the views were gorgeous and well worth the slight trauma. :)

i know i'm cutting things a bit short & leaving out the lovely highlands from today, but my time is running low, so i'm off for now.

wednesday 09 march 2005 5:44pm

so now i'm in stirling for my second day. i had planned on staying here for just one night, then going to st. andrews for a night before heading up to the orkneys. however, i decided stirling deserved at least two nights and it's more of a straight shot north from here than st. andrews, which would take me east again. so, i must save st. andrews til next time. stirling has proved well worth the extra day, so i am not disappointed.

on saturday last, i took the day highland tour from edinburgh to oban (on the west coast) and back. we passed through the trossachs, a forested area in the highlands, and loch after loch (loch = lake), particularly loch lomond which we reached in the gloaming (dusk) and caught the sunset over the water, ben after ben (ben = hill/mountain). the scenery was lovely - and the history rich, with rob roy this and robert the bruce that. we saw highland cattle, plenty of sheep, and a red deer park. and the guide was in full dress kilt and had a song for every scene, always fishing around for different cassettes and popping them in at the appropriate time. the day was very enjoyable.

"you take the high road and i'll take the low road and i'll be in scotland afore ye...on the bonnie, bonnie banks of loch lomond..."

sunday, i hiked up arthur's seat in holyrood park on the east side of the city. it's some 820 feet and was quite an ordeal for me. :) once again, afraid of heights, there were moments i had to give myself a pep talk, but the views, oh, wow. they were worth everything. at the top, i sat & drank it all in. before heading down i read isaiah 42 & 43 and was amazed at how the view below so well illustrated the words spoken so long ago. on the way down, i ran into an older lady and we exchanged a hello & lovely day, etc before passing on. then, a few minutes later, we met again and ending up chatting. she was waiting on her husband and said they made this walk every sunday morning. bruce & eileen ended up walking me down to the bottom (a much easier path than i took up) and by the end of our walk & chat, eileen gave me the honour of saying, just before parting, "you are a traveler, not a tourist". i felt knighted. a lovely couple. a lovely morning. the rest of the day was mostly taken up with touring different museums--national museum (which houses dolly the cloned sheep, now dead), scottish museum (great carved stones & more!), and the national gallery.

monday i ended up going to edinburgh castle and spent several hours wandering through it. the one place i couldn't take pictures or video was the war memorial - and it is stunning. the artisans who made it knew what they were doing. you enter & you feel the weight, the honour. in the central room, the stained glass is some of the loveliest i've seen as are the carvings. i itched to sneak out my camera, but withheld. i also liked st margaret's chapel, the oldest building in the castle - tiny but lovely. later in the afternoon i went to the dean cemetary (i saw it from the steps of the dean gallery) and it had some amazing old celtic cross headstones. couldn't take enough photos! :) then, i got to have dinner at nuala's flat a bit south of the old town & later met up with some of her friends at a local pub.

so, tuesday morn i took a train from edinburgh to stirling and once in stirling went on to the wallace monument (yes, william wallace). more to come on this...

tuesday 15 march 2005 11:01pm

wow. i see that i stopped on the wallace monument - and now so much has happened since then...i'm currently in westray, which is one of the orkney islands. i've already been to the mainland (orkney) three times, stayed on hoy for from friday to this morning and visited flotta sunday afternoon.

the coach ride up from stirling to scrabster pier (where i caught a ferry up to stromness on orkney) was quite a trip. such lovely views along the way, but with rain & dust on the windows it's pointless to take photos or video and there's no way the driver's going to stop for a kodak moment. :) however, here are some tidbits i wrote whilst riding through it all that might capture what i saw in words at least...

the highlands: i can hear someone back home seeing photos or video of the highlands and commenting, "oh, that's like colorado. yes, i've seen something just like that in colorado." please hold back such words or thoughts. one view here or there may in fact remind you of colorado but if you could stand in the highlands (even gaze from a bus) and see all around you - see the flat, which is not quite flat, farmland, the grazing grazing sheep, the mysterious trees singularly spotting the fields--trees surely hundreds of years old, all knotty & gnarled, the brush, the mossy grasses windswept & trecherously blanketing the potted ground, and all around dippin up here and there - the hills, green & brown, the mountains, capped with snow & trees, some faintly blue in the distance, sparkling lochs sighted here and there, highland cattle - long-haired red-brown that fits with the grasses it eats. this is not colorado. and this is not yet even the time for blooming heather - the highlands are not yet unveiled - even so in their dormancy, they are striking. stern with the knowledge of their history -- clans who fought each other to survive, who fought together for their freedom for scotland; home to heroes, to song and sotry, to poem and art. william wallce this, robert the bruce that, rob roy here and there. the story of scotland is written in these hills and trees and lakes - you might see it if you leave all comparisons behind.

driving from inverness to scrabster pier: inverness seemed like not much but a big dark town. but crossing the bridge on our way north, the view improved into splendour. the silver loch beneath stretching its arms east & west, embracing the north, yearning for the sea.

a bit further on... it had recently rained. grey clouds hung low. the flight of a gull was barely visible against the thick white of the sky. down fields - some green, some brown, some gold - lay the glistening loch, stretching west & east, and on the other shore rose hills, patched with fields seen as through a misty veil. beyond, blue hills glowed faintly. and over all, a translucent silver blanket left after the rain.

okay, so i still haven't talked about stirling, which would make one think it wasn't that great, when in fact, i loved it. a brilliant city. but, it's not getting near 1am and so, i think i'm going to have to save it for another time. hope you enjoy the tidbits above, nonetheless, and i will write on stirling soon.

friday 18 march 2005 6:32pm

i made it to sligo this afternoon, so i'm finally back in the republic of ireland, very happy to be using the euro again, which only costs $1.33 rather than $1.90. and it's ireland. :) for those of you who know how much i love saint patrick's day, i don't have anything exciting to report as my travel planning didn't work out to provide me with a free day yesterday. thus, i spent it traveling across scotland on bus & then catching a ferry over to belfast, where i arrived after 10pm, tired & weary & feeling the affect of the ferry. the views of scotland were lovely & it was neat to think on saint patrick's day, i was in both the countries that were most significant to him (came from scotland, ministered in ireland). i'll just count my whole two months as a celebration of saint patrick. :)

for those who don't know, sligo is known as yeats' country (w.b.yeats the irish poet). from what i've seen of the town thus far, it's pretty fun. and i plan on going to drumcliffe just a 20 minute bus ride out of town where he's buried, tomorrow morning. so i'll have more to report later.

and yes, i will get back to stirling, the orkneys, etc...

saturday 19 march 2005 5:55pm

just finished watching ireland lose the climactic rugby match against wales in hergadon bros pub. quite fun during the first half, being the only girl amidst a crowd of mostly older irish men with their pints of guinness. the pub was mentioned to me by a nice shopkeeper on stephen street. he said there's not a one like it in america. built in the early 1800s, it hasn't been altered much, except that they let women sit with the men, when previously they were confined to a wee room off the bar, glassed in with just enough room for their drinks to come in. and above the door leading into the room, the line from dante's inferno, "abandon all hope, you who enter here". rugby really is a fascinating game - i'm surprised it isn't popular in the states. much better than american football, i think. alas, ireland lost. but wales did win the grand slam (they won all their matches), so good on them.

found out the hostel i'm staying in currently used to belong to yeats' cousin. pretty cool. :) besides the 15 odd minute walk from the bus station, it's really pretty nice. also found out that the pastor i knew whilst in kilkenny in december 2001 is now the methodist pastor here in sligo, so i'll go check out that church tomorrow morning. the wesley brothers came to that particular church several times throughout their ministry. i did a mini walking tour early this morning mostly before the shops were open & people were out, so it was nice & quiet. then, i took a bus into drumcliffe, just north of town, where yeats is buried. there's an old high cross there, along with a round tower that date back to the late 500s when st columcille founded a monastery there. st columba's church nearby is where yeats' great-grandfather was rector in the early 19th century and yeats & his wife are buried next to the church. the grave is really quite simple and there was only a single grassy plant next to the gravestone. yeats died in france during the world war two and thus was buried there. however, a year before his death he'd composed his epitaph...

under bare benbublen's head
in drumcliffe churchyard yeats is laid.
an ancestor was rector there
long years ago, a church stands near,
by the road an ancient cross.
no marble, no conventional phrase;
on limestone quarried near the spot
by his command these words are cut;
cast a cold eye
on life, on death.
horseman pass by!

and thus it now is. but they had to wait until the war was over before they could disinter his body and sail it home to ireland where it now rests. the little church is lovely - simple, too, but there is an aged stillness that kind of settles into you as you approach, as you enter. today has been gorgeous weather. bright sun & sky, warm, slight breeze. i just wish i didn't have to lug around my coat & jacket. :) after checking out the church, graveyard, and river, i went in search of lambs. i'd seen several fields on the bus ride up, so i thought i'd try to walk down a ways and capture some lambs on video. took me a while but i finally found some. never got very close, but with the zoom, i think i've got enough to enjoy. they're just so cute. :)

monday 21 march 2005 5:10pm

now finally back to the wallace monument...arriving in stirling is quite exciting for someone who loves william wallace and robert the bruce (even if braveheart is not the most historically accurate of stories). the lay of the land starts bringing to light the stories of what was fought over, of how battles were won. the town lies between two hills--on one stands stirling castle, a lesser version of its early days but still stark and stately on the cliff edge, on the other, the wallace monument, a towering spear, stands proudly over the battle stie where william wallace, a commoner, defeated the english army at stirling bridge. scotland is proud of her heroes - to see such monuments, tall as cathedrals, lets you see how much. i took a bus out to the base of the hill. while waiting for the bus, i checked with an older lady next to me about the cost to get that far. nother older lady several feet away had obviously over heard and a little later, she jabbed her finger at an approaching bus--"that's the one you want; you'd best take that one". then both ladies proceeded to call after me how i'd know when to get off. it's always rewarding to have the locals glad to see you enjoying their sites. it's a bit of a trek up the hill amidst trees to the base of the monument. so even from there you can catch quite a view. inside you climb a tightly winding staircase with glassless window slits, which seem nice at first, getting a bit of breeze, but higher up, the whistling wind made me "hold" more tightly to the walls as i climbed. there are three inside stops on the way up. the first gives a history of wallace and robert the bruce - and most importantly is home to wallace's sword. the sword is so tall and heavy they recon he had to be at least 6'6" and very strong. feels strange to stand beside it, unmoving, encased in glass. i think the sword has twice been stolen by scottish groups wanting to draw attention to their own fights for freedom. the second stop is the hall of heroes, put together in the 1800s with busts of other scottish heroes like, robert burns, john knox, david livingstone, walter scott, and two stained glass windows show wallace & the bruce. the third stop tells the history of the monument itself - really quite fascinating and some of the tale brought tears to my eyes to see how important it is for a people to commemorate their heroes who have done so much for them. then, you're on top and the view is magnificent. in some ways though, i think my favourite times were on the stairs, enclosed in the cold stone, knowing where you are, wondering what next you'll see. and the story of wallace walks with you on those stairs.

a week later, when i rode past stirling on the coach en route to stranraer and the ferry to belfast, i wrote this...closing my eyes for a moment, upon opening again, in the misty alcove before me stood the wallace monument - my heart was glad to see the town of stirling again, spread out between monument and castle.

so then, now i'm in galway for two nights. it's pouring rain, so i'm hoping for sun tomorrow as i'd like to tour the connemara region, since i've missed that the other three times i was in galway last time. my three nights in sligo were cool. i got to see drumcliffe on saturday and then, sunday met up with an aussie lad who drove me out to glencoe waterfall, a mysterious ruin somehow connected to the spanish armada that crashed on the irish shores in the 1400s, and some stone circles west of sligo (which technically, we shouldn't have seen, but tim has a way around that, luckily for me). also met up with some girls from milan and had an interesting evening of playing cards and trying to understand each other. :) sadly, i did not meet up with the kilkenny pastor as he only preaches at the sligo church every other week and this sunday was the "other". alas, can't hit everything spot on.

home is on the horizon.

wednesday 23 march 2005 7:53pm

in kilkenny now. felt like coming home. not too surprising as i did live here for a month last time (& almost had two different jobs!), but it was a nice feeling. wish i had a bit more time here. my bus from galway to dublin was way late so i missed the bus down to kilkenny and didn't get in until evening so now i just have tomorrow to look around - will have to get up extra early. :) my time in galway was okay, nothing grand though. the connemara tour was nice - finally got to see kylemore abbey and the hills that i wrote a story about before ever seeing. however, i wish i'd stayed in sligo for two more days. ah well.

wednesday 30 march 2005 7:04pm

the one day in kilkenny was good & actually worked out to be enough time to do all i really wanted to. it rained most of the day though there were a few bright spots. the saddest moment was when i went in the park behind kilkenny castle, armed with my good camera, loaded with black & white film, heading for the coolest tree i've ever seen, which i hadn't been able to adequately photograph my last trip - only to find it no longer stands! i couldn't believe it. i started doubting my memory of where it was, but finally had to take in the fact that in three years after standing for hundreds, it had been cut down. found some other cool trees to photograph, but nothing near as magnificent as the one that was no more. rather upsetting. besides that i was able to check out a few of my old haunts, which i enjoyed. and even the rain mixed well with my memories.

next on the trail was castlecomer, where i visited my friends james & rachel & their two sons, caleb & benjamin, who i met at kilkenny methodist last trip over. got to spend easter weekend with them, which was special as they have started a new church in port laoise. tagged along to a nigerian baby naming ceremony of a couple who attends their church, alpha & jennifer. in the nigerian culture, i guess babies are named on the 8th day after their birth & until the ceremony, no one can know the name. then, the father writes the name down & shows it to the pastor who then, at the ceremony, pronounces the full name three times & everyone else repeats it each time. there's lots of singing, rejoicing, and food. it was quite an experience. not your everyday american or irish fair. :) tried duck & a steamed suet pudding. suet is animal fat if that tells you anything. i actually got to help grate it. kind of have to focus your mind elsewhere. *grin* over all it was a fun hang out time with friends in the lovely irish countryside.

now, i'm in dublin. yesterday i checked out the brazen head which is the oldest pub in dublin, established in 1198. today i went on a day tour, northwest of dublin to see an fourknocks, ancient tomb 500 years older than the pyramids, monasterboice abbey & high crosses, mellifont abbey, hill of slane where saint patrick lit the pascal fire, and the hill of tara, seat of the high kings of ireland for over 4000 years. some beautiful countryside, nicely set against mist, which was quite appropriate for today's sites. tomorrow i'll just wander dublin and then friday i fly out! can't believe it's come down to the end. i feel blessed to have been able to experience this all again. it's been completely different than last time, but once again i've seen some beautiful, fascinating places, visted & met some grand people, and learned a lot.

may the LORD bless you all in your own adventures every day you live. dia dhuit (God to you).

dictionary

 
dear = expensive
chips = fries
crisps = chips
biscuits = cookies
white coffee = coffee with milk
take away = to go
pushchair = stroller
dummy = pacifier
nappie = diaper
toilet/loo = restroom
postbox = mailbox
shop = store
pavement = sidewalk
verge = roadside
lorry = semi
coach = bus
indicator = turn signal
traffic calming = slow down
zebra crossing = pedestrian crossing (only, cars have to stop WHENEVER anyone starts walking across)
lollipop wo/man = crossing guard
zed = z
naught/nil = zero
double eight = 88 (works for any double number or letter that is spoken whilst spelling or giving a phone number)
mobile = cellphone
maths = math
fringe = bangs (hair)
trainers = tennis shoes
jumper = sweater, sweatshirt
holiday = vacation
ring = call
cheers/ta = thanks
you alright? = how are you doing?
chuffed = pleased
sussed/sorted = figured out, taken care of
bang on = precisely
good on her/him = good for her/him
fair play = good job
mad = crazy
gutted = very upset
proper = correct/right
no bother = [scottish for] no worries, it's okay
haillie beoys = [orkney for] hailstones
oh my hooky = [orkney for] oh my goodness

Quotes

"...and I will lead the blind by a way they do not know,
in paths they do not know I will guide them.
I will make darkness into light before them
and rugged places into plains..."
[Isaiah 42:16]

"all those who wander are not lost."
[J R R Tolkien]

"Go within and scale the depths of your being
from which your very life springs forth.

"Destiny itself is like a wonderful wide tapestry in which every thread
is guided by an unspeakably tender hand, placed beside another thread,
and held and carried by a hundred others.

"...you stand before beginnings.

"...have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.
Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms
and like books written in a foreign language.
Do not now look for the answers.
They cannot now be given to you
because you could not live them.
It is a question of experiencing everything.
At present you need to live the question.

"Everything assigned to us is a challenge;
nearly everything that matters is a challenge,
and everything matters."
[Rainer Maria Rilke]

return home