Edinburgh

Like prior posts involving things that lead to me owing people MAJOR favours, this post will begin with its greatest heroes.

Aunt Irene, for helping us get in contact with her sister Isabel when we couldn't find a place to stay.  I appreciate your patience.  If there is anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask.

Greyfriars Cemetery

Uncle Merv and Aunt Ardell: they were staying with Isabel when we left Dublin, and we missed them in Edinburgh by mere hours.  They also helped to facilitate the arrangement making in Edinburgh, and left us a much needed boost to our finances.  It was very wisely and carefully spent.  You have no idea how much you've helped us.

Though they may be last, they are by far the most important on today's list of heroes in our travels: Isabel Ward and her partner Rab.

They opened their home to us and made us feel welcome from the moment Isabel met us at the train station to the time we all parted ways to go on our respective journeys.  There is so much to recount that it will have to be explained through the progress of our stay here that I will simply have to tell it as I go.  Otherwise this introduction will be incredibly lengthy.  Sufficed to say we are very much indebted to them, and look forward to seeing them when they come to Canada for Merv's birthday in 2016.  Our home is definitely open to they and theirs when we have a home to call our own again.  I'm usually not too bad with words, but this time I lack the eloquence to express the gratitude we both feel and it will not be the last post you'll read that begins this way.

The Journey

I left off my last post as I watched Dublin disappearing behind the ferry.  We arrived back at the ferryport in Holyhead, Wales at midnight and slept there for a few hours while we waited for the train to arrive, which it did at 4 AM.  Yes, we did a lot of traveling at night because it meant not having to pay for accommodation: we could sleep on the bus/ferry to wherever we were going.  In fact, I only remember being awake for maybe two hours on the 6 hour train-ride to Edinburgh -- and only because we had to change platforms at a small town in England that I don't remember the name of (Sarah says it might have been Warrington?).  I don't even remember the full story of the dream that I had between this town and our destination, only that it was a horror movie with the percussion and periodic screeching on the rails beneath me infused it as the soundtrack of a horror film.  It's the only thing I remember before waking up just as the train pulled into Waverly station.  Isabel was already waiting for us at the platform, and I can only imagine the sight we must have been on first impression.


Our Hosts

When we say that Isabel and Rab were magnificent, we mean it.  Seriously.

They helped to feed us, they took us on shopping trips to help us resupply for our stay, and subsequent trip to Paris.  They taught us about Groupon -- which we are going to have to look up in the future (and see if there's an equivalent in Canada).  They gave us some ideas on where to look for English schools to apply at, and showed us around Edinburgh for the small window in which they had time.  They got to explore some new places too.

Isabel and Rab

I suppose that I should explain why we came upon such difficulties trying to find a place to stay in Scotland, since it illuminates how we came to be at the little cottage on the grounds of Stuart's Mellville College and why we went to Paris instead of continuing into the highlands.  If traveling in peak season isn't bad enough, the fact that the Commonwealth Games was going on in Glasgow created the result that every hostel in Scotland that was accessible to someone without a vehicle was jam-packed.  I'm not kidding.  The week that we stayed in Edinburgh was also spent looking for places we could go.  We called a lot of places and could find nothing.  Going to Scotland was a must-do, though.  I have no regrets on the matter whatsoever.  Except for the part where our job interview didn't turn out the way we had hoped.  Same old "we like you, but we don't want to jump through the hurdles of getting your work permits."

Day 1

Fog on the Royal Mile

Isabel took us to get settled at the cottage after meeting us at the train station.  It's actually a rather short commute, but picturesque nonetheless.  Since we arrived at our destination in the morning we still had the whole day in front of us and were excited to see the city.  We stayed at the cottage for tea before the three of us went out to get more supplies for the week.  Isabel told us the best ways to get around while we waited for Rab to finish work, then we all went to an Indian restaurant for supper.  This isn't going to be the last time we offered to pay our own way and got dismissive waves and sly bill stealing tactics in response.  We will repay the favour, I swear it.

Afterward, we let them enjoy a nice evening to themselves at the bowling club while we took the opportunity to explore a very misty Edinburgh (with the parting shot that we brought the bad weather with us from Dublin).  Our meanderings took us through nearby Greyfriar's Cemetery, past the Elephant Café where the first Harry Potter books were penned, and up to the Royal Mile.  Due to a concert happening at the castle, we couldn't go all the way up so we just kept walking downhill instead.  It was well after dark when we began to head back to the cottage, as we had stopped to speak to a few tour guides who had dressed themselves up to conduct their tours of haunted Edinburgh.  They gave us a great deal of information on some of the places they liked to visit in town, and one of them even knew a local armourer who sometimes let people visit his workshop.

Fireworks at Edinburgh Castle on a misty night

As we walked past Princes Gardens on our way back, I noticed that there were lit torches along the castle's battlements and a fireworks show began even as Sarah started taking pictures.  The fog made it difficult to see everything, but it almost looked as though there were a battle taking place there instead of a show for the arts festival.  We planned to walk back to where we were staying because we understood it to be a short trip on foot, but it turned out to be a two hour journey given our tired feet and Sarah's preferred speed of movement.  All future trips to the town centre after this were made on the public transit system, as even I didn't feel entirely comfortable walking around at night.

I think recounting our adventures in and around Edinburgh is going to necessitate multiple posts.  This one is getting pretty long already.

Dublin

We didn't spend as much time in Dublin as we would have loved to.  It wasn't a matter of things being cost prohibitive so much as the fact that it simply wasn't possible to find a place to crash over the weekend as basically every form of inexpensive accommodation was booked solid.  We got there in the evening after leaving Galway around 4 in the afternoon -- probably the shortest journey we've had since the plane ride from Katowice -- and after stopping to get a bite to eat and find our bearings managed to make it to the hostel.

The courtyard at Dublin Castle

The layout of the dorm rooms is actually really interesting at the Avalon Hostel: the main bulk of the bunks in the rooms are on the lower floor, but a small spiral staircase takes you up to a loft with beds in semi-private little cubbies.  We would dearly have loved to take one of the loft rooms, but we were thankful to see them occupied when we discovered later that the room only had a grand total of two electrical outlets that they expected twelve people to share.  We actually encountered a similar problem when we were in Galway: while the room had a total of 5 outlets, 2 weren't functioning so there were 3 for 10 people.  It gets kinda frustrating when all of you have to charge your devices.

The last surviving tower of Dublin Castle and the chapel that helped inspire Bram Stoker to write Dracula.

We had actually managed to choose a really nice spot close to the old market and within a 5 minute walk of the Temple Bar district.  We were very conscious of doing things that were free, as we became painfully aware of our dwindling budget by the time we left Galway and had to book accommodation for our last few days in Ireland.  We spent our first night in Galway planning our time there and looking for potential schools to get in contact with.  No dice on the job front, but we had a good time anyway.  We tried our best to get in contact with Laura, a former classmate from TRU, but she was simply too busy while we were there.  One day we will be back.  Apparently she's not the only old friend I need to get in touch with in Dublin.

Dublin Gardens: named for the black pool of water the Norse discovered when they came.

Casts of Norse artifacts found in excavations of the oldest part of Dublin.

Our morning began (as has mostly become our habit) with a free walking tour of the area we were staying in.  Matt -- our guide thanks to Coole tours -- took us around to some of the more historic places around the old part of Dublin.  We went through the historic Temple Bar district, got a brief glance at the Trinity campus, the Bank of Ireland building, the old City Hall, and the site of the original Norse settlement (also Dublin Castle and the garden of the same name).  He told us stories that spanned over a thousand years of the city's history -- covering everything from the coming of the Celts and the Norse settlements, through the coming of the English, the 1916 uprising and ensuing civil war (complete with the formation of the IRA), all the way up to the present day.  We went for lunch at Merchant's Arch (on the River Liffy), then went back to the hostel to rest for a bit and plan the next leg of our journey.  We discovered the one critical flaw in the functioning of Megabus: they require you to print of your tickets at one of their electronic kiosks, but do not have any outside the United Kingdom (of which only Northern Ireland is part).  When we got frustrated to the point where we needed to walk away we decided to go out and enjoy our last evening in Dublin properly.

Twilight on the River Liffy

We purchased a small picnic for ourselves and went for a leisurely stroll along the river, enjoying the live music pouring out of every pub in Temple Bar.  We chose a bench on a promenade along the Liffy and ate our little feast, watching the cars and people go by in the moonlight.  We did note as we wandered that the custom of putting locks on bridges over rivers and streams seems to be pretty prevalent all over Europe -- not just on the Lovelocks Bridge in Paris.  We still need to leave ours on the bridge close to our original flat in Gliwice.  We could have put it anywhere, I suppose, but that's been our home abroad.  We wandered for a while, listening at the doors of various pubs and taking in the street performers before meandering back to the hostel to try and book our means of returning to Great Britain.

We tried both laptops in an effort to call the company over Skype, but the call quality was so terrible they actually hung up on us seven times.  Sarah got tired sometime around two or three in the morning and decided to go to bed, leaving me to try to figure the BS of Megabus out.  When I gave up and came to bed, I expected a darkened room full of snoring people.  What I actually found was a man sitting on the edge of Sarah's bunk, chatting with her rather loudly while he plugged in his cell.  She told me later that he had turned on all the lights in the room and tried to crawl into my bunk.  Everyone in the room was awake by this point, trying to feign sleep.  I could tell when I came to talk to him that he was wasted, and VERY determined to help us book our crossing.  Sometimes I'm too nice to people, but at least on this night my patience paid off a little.  I was rewarded for my two hours of agony by learning from this man that it is possible to get a combination ferry/rail ticket from Dublin to Edinburgh for the same price as a single walk-on ticket that only covered the ferry.

Sarah and Harry

Even though I was at the edge of my own patience by the time it paid off, I thanked him kindly and explained that I was also quite tired and would finish making arrangements in the morning.  While that was true, I also didn't want him looking over my shoulder while I tried to enter credit card numbers.  Sarah and I got up early to be packed and gone prior to checkout, booked a couple storage lockers at the hostel so we wouldn't have to carry our bags around, and got breakfast.  Afterward, we went to the Archaeological Museum -- which was an incredibly short walk from where we were staying.  If you are interested in Neolithic artifacts, Celts, the Norse, Medieval artifacts, or bog mummies, it is certainly worth a visit.  It was while Sarah was taking pictures of some of the early Christian relics that we met Harry Hackett, the security guard.  This man is amazing, and if you ever find your way there be sure to talk to him.  Tell him the English teachers from Canada sent you.

It started with him cheekily asking Sarah if she'd managed to take pictures of everything -- which she was actually trying to do.  She explained that she was taking pictures of extant pieces in case any of our SCA friends wanted inspiration, which led to her explaining the things we do for fun.  The end result was him deciding to give us a tour of the lower floor of the museum, free of charge.  In fact, he gave us a roll of posters and some workbooks for nothing at all, just because we were teachers.  The depth of knowledge he has on the exhibits just goes to show you how much he enjoys his job and his pride in the place he calls home.  I definitely learned a LOT from this man.  And he is a total sweetheart.  We kept running into him and just kept talking and talking together every time.

Yes, this thing is solid gold.  In fact this museum apparently has the most gold on display of any other in Europe.  It is a Norse piece that gives insight to how the Norse arrived in Ireland (viking is a verb, not a noun).

When the kings failed to do what they promised for their people, there was no hesitation whatsoever so sacrifice him to the gods.  They can't tell if this man was killed by the blow to the head, the disembowelment, or the mistletoe they found in his stomach.

We went back to the hostel and arranged for a cab to pick us up, as we didn't know the transit system very well and it was a considerable way to the ferry terminal.  Our cabbie was an MTF trans by the name of Fearghal Maceoin -- who from here on in will be referred to as Sylvia.  The first thing she did was give us hugs and high fives when she saw the rainbow bracelets we were both wearing.  Some days I wonder if it isn't part of a cabbie's job to also be a tour guide some days.  As we drove along she pointed out some of the more interesting sites and facts about the places along the drive to the ferry terminal.  She also mentioned a festival she had just returned from in Wales, and suggested it to us for future travels.  It was apparently a fortuitous call for her, since we arrived at the terminal just as the ferry from Holyhead was disembarking.  We parted company from Sylvia with hugs and well-wishes for future travels.  She means to come to the Vancouver Pride Parade one day.  Hopefully she remembers to look us up.

Sarah says I put too many pictures of her on this blog, so she made me put one of myself here instead.  The writing says "trust me, you're lovely."  She's a brat.

Leaving Ireland

Sometimes I wonder if there isn't something to the theories behind genetic memory.  I felt nothing but excitement when I boarded the plane that would take me away from the only home I had ever known for an undetermined amount of time, and felt only the smallest pangs of regret when we left the flat in Gliwice.  Leaving Cardiff was sad as well, but not nearly as heartbreaking as watching the Irish coastline slipping away into the sunset and not knowing when I'll be back.  Maybe I'm just being over-sensitive, but I do have to admit it made me incredibly sad to turn my back on the little island that made me feel so at home. 

Galway

First glimpses of the Irish coast.

We watched the sun rise.

After 15 hours spent on buses and ferries (mostly asleep) from Cardiff, we arrived safe and sound in Galway.  The Sleepzone hostel was only a few blocks away from the bus station where we arrived, but since it was still another 3 hours before our room would be ready (we arrived around noon), we decided to drop our bags in the luggage room and head out on a free walking tour of the city.  This is something I honestly recommend doing no matter what your destination is as long as they're available.  Especially in a place as small as Galway, where that tour proved fairly invaluable to us in our attempts to find our way around later.  You learn a lot about the people who built the places you visit, and it teaches you a thing or two about the locals living there now.

Irish Stew.  What else do you think I would eat for my first meal in Ireland?

Meanwhile, Sarah went for lamb.  These meals only set us back 10 Euro a piece and we needed cranes when we were ready to leave.  (Below: One of the schools we applied at is in an old flour mill.  While the building has been re-purposed, the old workings have been lovingly restored and maintained.)

 

An archaeological site in Galway.  They expanded the building over it and left the site open to the public.

Sarah at the ring fort outside Ballyvaughan.

The second day was spent looking for work and wandering around Galway -- a town that is shockingly smaller than Kamloops in both population and footprint given that it was once one of the busiest port cities in Ireland.  Even though nobody seemed certain that there would be anything in the way of a job for us, they were all sweet and welcoming.  I know there are a lot of places in the world where people say the locals are rather cold toward strangers, but not Ireland.  There are no strangers there, just friends you haven't met yet.  Come to think of it, our overall experience there made me think of family gatherings back home.

Sometimes people leave offerings for the fairies who supposedly use the circles as portals between their world and ours.  I don't know why they leave lipstick and hair ties though.

Paul and Sarah making friends.

Our third day was spent on a bus tour of the Burren -- which means "the rocky place" when translated from Gaelic -- a UNESCO world heritage site and geopark famous for its Neolithic tombs and barren landscape with plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.  We went through Galway Tour Company, with a guide named Paul who was supposed to have the day off.  At least until so many people booked the tour that they needed to hire extra buses.  He isn't one of those guides that just points out interesting landmarks and talks about interesting things related to them.  He tells stories about the places you visit, and the history related to them -- though some of that may also be because in his estimation he's done that particular tour almost 2000 times.  He talked non-stop about everything imaginable, though it was sometimes punctuated by random exclamations from a city girl from Sweden who got excited every time she saw a farm animal.

The dolmen at Poll na mBrón (pronounced poll-na-broon).  More information can be found here:  http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/06/poulnabrone-tomb-life-and-death-in-the-burren/

Generally when you think of Ireland, you think of greenery, right?  There are also lots of rocks.

The Cliffs of Moher

As we drove through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moher he told us stories of the fairy rings, and the more colourful figures in the history of the region (such as Moira Ruadh -- Red Mary), and of a few superstitions -- like why many Irish men are actually afraid of red-headed women.  The Cliffs are stunning.  If you're ever in the area, you have to go.  There is no question of that.  Just do it.  Sarah may not have particularly enjoyed the steepness of the climb, but I don't think she regrets it.  I think that pictures will honestly go farther at this point, because words won't do this place justice.

Chorco Modhruadh  (cork-um-roah) Abbey outside Ballyvaughan

Dun Guaire Castle, Kinvara

When we got back we were doing a final wander of the Latin Quarter of Galway when we noticed a

Kirwan Lane: One of the oldest parts of Galway.

sign outside a pub on Kirwan lane advertising that the Black Magic Big Band would be playing there that night, free of charge.  Even though we took care to arrive quite early, the place was packed (aided by the fact that there was also a major arts festival beginning just as we were leaving).  One gentleman was kind enough to give us a space at his table even though there were two other women coming to join him later on.  We learned -- to our surprise -- that there are actually people in the world who know where Kamloops is without being told of its proximity to Vancouver.  We were confused until he explained that he was very fond of Vernon and the surrounding area with plans to go back one day.  I hope he does.  Anyway, we had a great view of the band and the dance floor during the first set, but after the intermission people just stood in front of us the whole time and there was no room for anybody to dance.  I managed to record one number, but had to stand on my seat in order to be able to do it.  The other people at nearby tables seemed to think this was quite rude and we continually had to play the cup game so that people randomly leavings their drink on our table wouldn't result in us wearing them.  It didn't stop us from enjoying the music though.

The Claddaugh, as seen from Spanish Arch

One day, I will teach Sarah how to dance.

One day.

Spanish Arch

Our bus to Dublin wasn't until the next afternoon, so we wandered around Galway for a little while after we checked out from the hostel, getting one last glance at some of our favorite places.  The festival meant that you couldn't wander very far without coming across a street performer or a craftsman selling their wares on the cobblestone.  This city is beautiful without a doubt, and returning here is very firmly entrenched on my bucket list as a destination at which to spend more time.

(Actually written now that we're settled in Gliwice again)

Galway Tour Company

The Burren Geopark