Going home and knowing that I will likely be staying in one place for a long time is a sobering thought now. Don't get me wrong, I love Colorado, but I will be looking for new towns and places to explore around home when I get back. Cowtown is just not big enough to continuously hold my attention. I've travelled within the States by subway, car, and (most recently) a mini-van, but this semester traveling means going somewhere that I have never been before to see things that are usually unlike anything I've ever seen. I love being able to leave the dorm, jump on a train, bus or a plane and find whole new places. Case in point, the first weekend of November was spent in Yorkshire, England. Thursday night, once my school week officially ended, Alanna and I headed to the Dublin airport yet again. After enduring a short jaunt on another wonderful Ryanair flight full of turbulence and stewardesses trying to sell you everything under the sun, we made it to Leeds. We had a "picnic" of pork pies, Botham's cakes, and other extremely English goodies courtesy of Alanna's grandma in a hotel parking lot by the airport before trekking back to Whitby for a 2am arrival.
Random timing that it was, we ended up being in England for Bonfire weekend and Guy Fawkes day, which is celebrated by building massive bonfires and shooting off fireworks. Alanna's accommodating grandparents drove us around Scarborough and through the English moors. Dinner was an English carvery, complete with Yorkshire puddings, spuds, and big slices of roast meat...even thinking about it is making me hungry again. The bonfire in Scarborough that night was enormous! It was still burning strong after an hour and a half! The fireworks lit up the sky and hundreds of people piled onto the lawn by the beach for the show. Saturday, we went wandering in Robin Hood's Bay, a beautiful sea town on the English coast. The houses are all built on top of one another at the edge of the sea, with little alleyways winding through gardens and along entranceways. I don't think I saw a strictly rectangular building in among all of the houses. Geraniums and other flowers made big splashes of color amidst the "higgledy-piggledy" houses. Terra-cotta tiles capped most of the buildings and big electrical poles sprouted wires in every direction, burrowing straight into the walls of some of the houses. Guess they figured that if the picturesque town of "unusually" constructed houses could survive the tests of time, why not add some unique electrical engineering to the mix?
Full of tea and flapjacks (not pancakes, but chocolate and caramel covered shortbread squares), we meandered back to Whitby Abbey, an old abbey perched overlooking the town of Whitby. Bram Stoker was inspired by Whitby and its' foreboding abbey while he was writing Dracula, so on Halloween weekend the town is flooded with Victorian-style goths. The most gothic people I saw in Whitby besides the pictures in the paper were pale tourists, but the crumbling walls and the graveyard overlooking the sea were more than interesting enough. A walk along the pier and a lunch of fresh fish and chips was a perfect way to end the afternoon in town before going to watch my first ever rugby game (not live, but still...).
Sunday, after meeting and lunch in an old, converted barn loft, Alanna and I walked the streets of York. Clifford's Tower rose up on a mound of ground across the street from the Hilton and a huge outdoor market popped up along the streets near the city's center. A green-haired musician jammed with his equally unusual, but very talented, band. Vendors were shouting for attention, and the one with the most sugar snagged our attention with his colorful fudge. York Minster towered nearby and after a few confused detours, we made it to the giant church and surrounding gardens. A talented pianist in fingerless gloves and striped clown pants played a red piano on the square nearby, providing a convenient soundtrack for the scenery. After making our way through the gardens behind the church, we found the museum gardens! The cold was starting to seep into our bones by now so after playing around in some leaves and filling up another memory card, it was way past time for a Costa break. We called the city-crawling quits after strolling around on some of the giant stone walls built by the founders of York all around the city. The sporadic lack of railings to keep a person from falling off the back side of the wall deterred our curiosity fairly quickly. More of Alanna's relatives took us in for the night, and her uncle was even kind enough to wake up at 3:40 to take us to the airport the next morning.
Weekends with nothing to do are few and far between since August and I absolutely love it. I spend most of the three days a week that I have class planning where I'm going to go next...and have successfully filled every weekend from now until I fly home. With the clock's minutes spinning away and rain lashing against my bedroom window, I'm calling it a night, but I'll still be dreaming about European adventures and grand trips to who knows where.
Irish-isms:
boot - trunk of a car
savage/deadly - cool
Thanks a mil! - Thanks a million! (even if it's something as simple as grabbing a Kleenex).
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
[Insert witty saying of choice]
I have resigned myself to the fact that catching up on a day-to-day blog at this point is an exercise in futility. I have notes of everything, so some day (or week) that I'm procrastinating once my life is back to normal in the spring, you might see some random posts about days spent by the Irish Sea and adventures around Ireland. Looking back over older posts, I've realized that this blog is not so much a blog as a long diary entry journaling all of the steps I have taken...which, let's face it, is more to jog my memory than to entertain the few people who stumble upon the page. So, this is now day one of productivity since coming over the Atlantic. With exercise beyond running in random patterns during P.E. and some actual homework done (for the first time since August) this morning, this seems like the perfect time to start fresh.
This past weekend was spent exploring a bit around Belfast. Halloween in Dublin promised to be crazy, so I figured it was a good time avoid a weekend of drunk people in costumes & go on a mini-road trip with a few of the members of my Irish family. (Like it or not, the family that has taken me in for so many weekends is now, quite possibly, stuck with me. (: & once you've sung ABBA & the Eagles while doing the dishes, you are officially too much like my biological family to not be adopted!) So my three Irish sisters and I piled into the little Peugeot in rainy Blackrock and headed north. I was overly prepared for the border crossing into Northern Ireland with my passport & Garda cards safely tucked into my bags...border patrol between the two parts of Ireland was a text message from O2 telling us that it was now twice as expensive to use our phones. We arrived at the get-together fashionably late, but it ended up balancing out since we were up talking until 4 a.m. I love the Northern Irish accent! It's almost lyrical sounding. The next day was rainy and gray...perfect for sleeping in and spending the rest of the day at W5. W5 is an awesome science museum in Belfast. The average age of our group was about ten years older than every other child-less guest in the museum, but I think we had at least as much fun. The musical stairs chimed as you climbed them and there was 3-D connect four! How could you not be excited?
Saturday we went out for breakfast at a Portuguese restaurant before going into Belfast's city center area for the rest of the day. St. George's Market was the first stop. People peddling everything from bonsai trees to knit hats to curries filled a massive warehouse-style building. The place was buzzing with everybody chattering at each other. Some of the more interesting sights: a dead fish wearing glasses, a roast pig on a spit, a lady with some kind of plant sticking out of her backpack, violet cupcakes, baby hats, muddy carrots freshly pulled, and wacky wool and button pins. A band played music on a makeshift stage in the center of the milling crowds. We taste-tested about everything, following anything iffy with a taster from one of pastry booths. A need for fresh air kicked in and we wandered out around the city towards Victoria's Square. Belfast's City Hall popped up in among the buildings, with great pillars and a meticulously kept lawn. Northern Ireland's pink double decker buses zigged and zagged among the pedestrians. We got to Victoria's Square, crowned by the dome of clear glass on top of it and festively adorned with a white balloon ghost floating around the second floor. After window shopping and looking out over Belfast from the observation platform at the top of the dome, it was time for a Starbucks break and people watching. Club employees passing out flyers in full Halloween costumes, "healers" laying hands on anybody willing to pay them, and making up backstories for random strangers kept us entertained for hours. When we went down to leave, Lady Gaga wandered by in a huge white wig surrounded by security and a stream of random fans. On that bizarre note, we left the north for Irish countryside once again.
Sunday after the morning meeting, we headed back to Dublin, spotting trick-or-treaters, Halloween lanterns, and fireworks on the way to gospel meeting. A few confused individuals are still setting off fireworks tonight...apparently Halloween is a 3-day event for some people in Ireland.
(Northern) Irish-isms:
weeins - "wee ones," little kids
slag - make fun of, tease (okay, that's all of Ireland, but northerners say it too)
This past weekend was spent exploring a bit around Belfast. Halloween in Dublin promised to be crazy, so I figured it was a good time avoid a weekend of drunk people in costumes & go on a mini-road trip with a few of the members of my Irish family. (Like it or not, the family that has taken me in for so many weekends is now, quite possibly, stuck with me. (: & once you've sung ABBA & the Eagles while doing the dishes, you are officially too much like my biological family to not be adopted!) So my three Irish sisters and I piled into the little Peugeot in rainy Blackrock and headed north. I was overly prepared for the border crossing into Northern Ireland with my passport & Garda cards safely tucked into my bags...border patrol between the two parts of Ireland was a text message from O2 telling us that it was now twice as expensive to use our phones. We arrived at the get-together fashionably late, but it ended up balancing out since we were up talking until 4 a.m. I love the Northern Irish accent! It's almost lyrical sounding. The next day was rainy and gray...perfect for sleeping in and spending the rest of the day at W5. W5 is an awesome science museum in Belfast. The average age of our group was about ten years older than every other child-less guest in the museum, but I think we had at least as much fun. The musical stairs chimed as you climbed them and there was 3-D connect four! How could you not be excited?
Saturday we went out for breakfast at a Portuguese restaurant before going into Belfast's city center area for the rest of the day. St. George's Market was the first stop. People peddling everything from bonsai trees to knit hats to curries filled a massive warehouse-style building. The place was buzzing with everybody chattering at each other. Some of the more interesting sights: a dead fish wearing glasses, a roast pig on a spit, a lady with some kind of plant sticking out of her backpack, violet cupcakes, baby hats, muddy carrots freshly pulled, and wacky wool and button pins. A band played music on a makeshift stage in the center of the milling crowds. We taste-tested about everything, following anything iffy with a taster from one of pastry booths. A need for fresh air kicked in and we wandered out around the city towards Victoria's Square. Belfast's City Hall popped up in among the buildings, with great pillars and a meticulously kept lawn. Northern Ireland's pink double decker buses zigged and zagged among the pedestrians. We got to Victoria's Square, crowned by the dome of clear glass on top of it and festively adorned with a white balloon ghost floating around the second floor. After window shopping and looking out over Belfast from the observation platform at the top of the dome, it was time for a Starbucks break and people watching. Club employees passing out flyers in full Halloween costumes, "healers" laying hands on anybody willing to pay them, and making up backstories for random strangers kept us entertained for hours. When we went down to leave, Lady Gaga wandered by in a huge white wig surrounded by security and a stream of random fans. On that bizarre note, we left the north for Irish countryside once again.
Sunday after the morning meeting, we headed back to Dublin, spotting trick-or-treaters, Halloween lanterns, and fireworks on the way to gospel meeting. A few confused individuals are still setting off fireworks tonight...apparently Halloween is a 3-day event for some people in Ireland.
(Northern) Irish-isms:
weeins - "wee ones," little kids
slag - make fun of, tease (okay, that's all of Ireland, but northerners say it too)
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