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Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
elvinnn
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8:00a
Hey folks,
I am sitting in the hostel kitchen while bunches of young and beautiful folk cook and wash dishes around me. It seems like more than half of the people at the hostel are Americans.... in fact there are a lot of Americans in Galway, or maybe I only notice them more often than anyone else.
Mark and I went on all day tour of the Cliffs of Moher, the burren (a huge rocky area full of limestone slabs) a few prehistoric grave sites, and some ruined castles. The tour was convenient, the guide was good natured, and we got to see a lot of the countryside. I only wish that the loud Italians in the front were more subdued, and that the really bitter, loud, American lady sitting up front would have been lost in a crack in the burren.
It is cool to travel in the off-season, the famous sites were almost deserted and the bitter chill was sort of exciting. I especially enjoyed how much fuss everyone was making over frost and a bit of a freeze. Literally the entire country halted for several days over 2 cm of snow. Buses cancelled, roads closed, etc.
This culture has a history of judging people based on their speech. An accent can tell you the locality and the class that the person belongs too. There are twenty or more accents in Ireland, and it is a very small country... anyway it is very strange to be so conscious when opening my mouth to speak. I am usually a casual and loud talker, but now I have an appreciation for Krishan and his ability to speak with different accents in different company, and for Michelle's fluency in French.
Mark doesn't have a very strong accent. His mother has an English accent, and Mark probably lost some of his more rural tones in his 8 years in Dublin. He has gotten more of a roll to his tongue since we've been here, but other folks from his same home town have a much thicker brogue.
Irish people are also king of nosy and chatty -- they want to know who you are and where you are from and what you are doing. For instance, the waitress at the little pub we ate at chatted with Mark to the point of realizing that Mark went to National School (ie grammar school) with the sister of the best friend of the waitress, and that they grew up within a few miles from each other.
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(comment on this) Monday, January 4th, 2010
elvinnn
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9:41a
Mark and I took a train from Dublin to Galway and we checked into a great hostel in the center of the city. We splurged for a private room with a private bathroom. The country side is very beautiful -- lots of fields, sheep, bogs, and stone walls. The accents are a bit stronger and the people are not quite so trendy.
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(comment on this) Friday, January 1st, 2010
(comment on this) Thursday, December 31st, 2009
(comment on this) Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
elvinnn
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5:38p
Happy New Years'!
I have been having trouble uploading more photos, the internet connection here in the apartment isn't so great.
I had a nasty cold that laid me low for four days, but I have officially recovered. We went to the National Museum and saw the bog bodies. There are four different preserved bodies that were found in peat bogs in Ireland and are on display. It was pretty amazing to see bodies with hair and skin from 2,000 years ago. I learned a lot about stone and bronze age settlements in Ireland--they have a great collection of artifacts and gold torques. There is also a lot of silver from the Viking era. I never knew that Dublin was a Viking settlement, and before they landed there were no towns or cities in Ireland. Also the redhead genes in Ireland are a result of the Vikings.
I just watched the year in review with Piers Morgan, a judge from X factor and Britain's Got Talent. Anyway it was funny to see all the big news from England broadcast in Ireland and viewed by me.
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(comment on this) Thursday, December 24th, 2009
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elvinnn
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11:22a
The Ha'Penny Bridge
Mark and I went on a walk through Dublin today. We were looking for a Woolen Mills to see if there was any cool yarn. The Woolen Mills didn't have anything special, I guess we'd have to go into the county side to find some hand spun stuff.
We also headed to the National Museum to look at the gold jewelry from ancient times, but that was closed as well.
Anyway, we had a nice walk. Now we are headed to a pub and "carvery" which has lots of different meat and potato dishes for our Christmas Eve meal. Merry Christmas!
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(comment on this) Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
elvinnn
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11:55a
Irish pub!
We went out to Temple Bar neighborhood last night and drank beers with Mark's good friends from University, Mel and Sarah. They are both super-nice.
We were pretty hung over. European pints are larger than US pints. I drank a beer called "Galway hooker" which was delicious. Everyone else in the place was drinking Guinness.
Today I went out to Grafton Street looking for a Christmas tree... they are sold out :(
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