May 26, 2010
This past weekend was Victoria Day Weekend, affectionately known in these parts as May 2-4. That does not mean it happens from May 2nd to 4th, as my lovably dopey husband thought, it means it happens on the Monday of or preceding the 24th of May. It is the unofficial start for the Canadian summer, and seeing as we live in the Golden Horseshoe now, Alan and I had to do what everyone else in the GTA and surrounding area does on this weekend. Leave. head north. If you are to believe the Toronto media, every resident of the Greater Toronto Area goes camping in the Muskokas this weekend.
We went way north. Norther (more north?) than anyone else we know. We went eight hours north to see Lemmers and the rest of the Lemmers clan. Another pair of guys I went to high school with went as well. We left on Saturday morning at six, and got to Kirkland Lake around 3, and then proceded to drink beer and play euchre and Rock Band, and look at pretty stuff. We had fireworks with the neighbours, which were interrupted by a small firework injury, a small shed fire, and the OPP asking us about our fireworks permit. It was a great weekend. Despite the 1200 km we put on the car.
We brought both our cameras with us and here are the results:
It was a really nice weekend. The drive home wasn’t as terrible as I had been expecting, and I think Alan had just as good a time as I did. I hope that we will be able to go back for another weekend, or that the Lemmers clan can come south and see us some time this summer.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Life |
May 10, 2010
So when we last left off, I had failed to visit the town of Kanturk, but found castles and pretty stuff anyways. I am now down to the last three days in Ireland.
Thursday of last week, I decided that I wanted to see the Cork City Gaol and some of the other cool old stuff in the city. I set off in the morning and jumped on the City Centre tourist bus, which cost about 10 euro, and drives around to all the cool stuff all day. The tour is narrated, and gives some of the history of the things you are passing, and makes about six or seven stops around the city. Most of the things I wanted to see, but the gaol wasn’t, so I stopped there first, and toured the building, which is very beautiful. I was there for about two hours, taking pictures and looking around, and then I got back on the bus for the rest of the tour. Other stops I made on Thursday in Cork were at St Finbarrs Cathedral, Crawford Art Gallery, The English Market, and then I spent the rest of the day wandering around the island(s).
I also learned that the island I thought we were staying on is actually 14 islands, that quay is pronounced the same way as “key”, and a lot of the crazy city center streets were at one point rivers. It makes the crazy streets seem a little more logical.
Friday I went to Cobh, which is pronounced “Cove”, which at one point was called Queenstown. It was the final port of call for the Titanic, and where survivors of the Lusitania were brought. It was also highly involved in emigration to the United States, Canada, and Australia during the potato famine and into the twentieth century. There was a big exhibit on Cobh’s maritime adventures, and it was a beautiful town, but it was raining, so no pictures. After that, I went to Midleton to see the Jameson Whiskey Distillery, and then I went to Kinsale, but got mad at the terrible parking and one way street situation and stopped by the seaside somewhere else instead.
We had a lovely last dinner in Cork, packed, and on Saturday we spent all day in planes and airports. It was not awesome, but we got home safely.
Overall, I loved my Ireland adventure. I spent most of my time at least slightly lost, and it was pretty fun. After a while, I started figuring out where I was, but I was never exactly sure. The country was absolutely beautiful, and on the rare moments when I wasn’t completely terrified on them, the roads were kind of fun. About half of the time I couldn’t understand what people were saying due to their lovely accents, and even when I understood the words sometimes it didn’t make sense. It was a lot of fun and I would go back in a heartbeat.
Pictures are collective from the last time I put up pictures.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Life |
May 6, 2010
Chocolate bars are much much better here. The birds are giant. Moss is growing on everything.
Everything that is old is probably a church, a jail, or a castle. Cork has been a city for over 800 years. That’s astounding to me. I’m sitting beside a wall that was built in the 1100s.
I have had chief custody of Alan’s iPhone during the days and almost don’t hate the keyboard now. Maybe that’s just because it gives me the Internets.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Life |
May 5, 2010
So it’s now Wednesday and I have four days to recap.
Sunday we toured about half of the Galway region. We went along the coast to we think Cashla Bay but we don’t really know because things in Galway are even more poorly labelled than the rest of Ireland. We then went north to Maam Cross (which we saw spelled two different ways on the local signage, both of which were different than the way it was spelled on either of our maps). Apparently this region of Ireland was J.R.R. Tolkein’s inspiration for Mordor in the Lord of the Rings universe. It was the most beautiful version of desolate I’ve seen in a long time.
The drive from Galway back to Cork took almost all afternoon but the sun was shining and there were beautiful clouds in the sky. We passed the most adorable herds of sheep with tiny little adorable lambs, and I really regret not stopping to take adorable pictures, but very few of the Irish roads have anything a North American driver would consider an acceptable shoulder. We also passed lots of pretty cattle herds.
Most of the cattle pastures tend to have a mixture of dairy and beef cattle. I’ve seen a lot of Holsteins and another dairy breed I didn’t know. They are slightly smaller with similar markings but a sandy brown colour… would need my Dad’s help identifying them. Maybe Brown Swiss? Most of the beef cattle seem to be Herefords or a solid black breed. No idea what they are. There are also some super ugly cattle up in the mountains that are shaggy and white and look malnourished buy probably aren’t. Other livestock we have seen are horses, donkies, and I think it was a llama but it could have been an alpaca.
In the mountains they spray paint the sheep at the rump and the top of their head. At first I thought it was so drivers could see them better but I hear it’s a form of branding. Anyways, the painted sheep are cute.
For a country that loves their pork products, we have not seen or smelled evidence of pork production. But I digress.
I forgot to mention that on Saturday we passed what I initially called a tractor parade. I wasn’t far off. It was a tractor run, and there were probably a total of fifteen tractors participating. They were raising money for Cancer research. This is all we know of the tractor parade.
Monday we went south to the Kinsale area because Alan wanted to see a lighthouse. Unfortunately the lighthouse we picked was on a private golf course. Luckily the view was incredible even from outside the golf course fence. There was also a castle. After the lighthouse search, we went to the Timoleague Abbey and the Drombeg stone circle which I have already told about.
Yesterday I was sick so I stayed close to the hotel. I did get out for about an hour’s walk but that was about it. And all I did on the walk was buy nail clippers. How exciting. Oh and the lady from The Weakest Link is an unbelievably monstrous bitch.
Today I tried to go to Kanturk because there was supposed to be some nice scenery and old buildings there, but I missed it completely and ended up in some little town that isn’t even on my map. I turned around and tried again but ended up in Blarney. I toured the village which is entirely composed of tourist traps, pubs and antique stores, and then went through some narrow and steep and terrifying Cork streets back to Ballincolig, and read for an hour or so while I waited for Alan to get off work.
Air space was closed for some of yesterday and some airports are closed today. Looks like I’m going to have to work on my Icelandic in order to appease the angry volcano gods.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Life |
May 2, 2010
Friday I was tasked with laundry which wasn’t super exciting and didn’t result in many pictures. I did learn there is no such thing as a coin-operated laundromat in Ireland, that there are launderettes which are like dry cleaning services but with laundry. It costs more, and probably takes more time, but is pretty convenient if you hate doing laundry. I spent the day wandering through the super confusing streets of the city centre. It was fun, and I got myself a kick-ass Dalek lighter which will make my nerdier friends very envious.
Yesterday morning we headed off on our weekend adventure. I wanted to make sure Alan saw some cool things while he was here, and I’d heard from a few people about things to do that were further away than could be done in a day trip. We headed west towards Killarney to go through some pretty mountains, and then headed up to the Shannon Ferry, which was pretty cool. We ate lunch in a beautiful little seaside town named Kilkey, and then we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which everyone should go see; they’re incredible. We didn’t really get fantastic photos, but hopefully they’re good enough to get an idea.
Last night we stayed in Gort, and today we will be going to Galway and seeing other cool things in the area before heading back to Cork tonight. Tomorrow is the Bank Holiday, and we have planned to probably go to Killarney National Park for the day. No time right now to narrate the photos; make up your own story.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Life |
