Lelu and Janey go to Ireland
Somehow a couple months ago when Leana and I decided we’d travel together to the UK and Ireland, we had this idea that planning where to go, what to see, and where to stay would be easy — just show up, decide, and we’re good to go. Now after having spent about four weeks where my full-time job could have been in trip-planning and finding after all that exactly one of the over-a-dozen tickets we’d book in advance did we actually use, I’d say I’ve developed some slightly more realistic expectations when it comes to actual vacationing! Here’s an overview of our two weeks:
We arrived into London on the evening of the 28th. I am so thankful that some family friends were so kind to agree to meet us there and drive us to their house… I was completely disoriented and distimeated. They live in Southampton, which can claim to its name being the port of departure for both Mayflower and the Titanic. It is also fun to walk around the town because there are bits of the “old city walls” here and there, dating back to medieval times. Our second day there we went South-west along the Jurassic coastline, which has some exciting cliff-faces and where you can see rock that was created back in… yup, the Jurassic period. It was very pretty there, with quaint little towns full of buildings with thatch roofing, rolling hills, red clay soil, and the pounding ocean. Next we headed north to Glastonbury, supposedly associated with King Arthur and with Druids…. basically it was completely disappointing because there was a lot of stuff but no information as to why any of it is important or what it was doing. Apparently that’s to be expected cause it’s all basically all myth or legend and there IS no information, but what can I say, I’m American, I expected at least made-up information. There was a badger tree back in the corner of the abbey grounds that was pretty cool… basically a bunch of holes under a tree with some scraping marks and scat and stuff…. I didn’t see any badgers although it was dusk, I guess January is one of the least likely times to see them because the females are due soon and it’s cold out. British badgers are smaller and less scary than US badgers; it would be cool to see one!
On New Year’s Eve we left Southampton and flew into Dublin. Then we bussed for 4 hours across Ireland sat in a bus next to some of the most typical cringeworthy Americans you can imagine, which was depressing to go to Ireland just to listen to some Chicagoite try to impress some ditzy girls. Anyways, we spent the next week in Galway, where Leana has a good friend who we stayed with. Overall, I like Galway as a city. It has an educated, progressive, university-town feel to it, almost like the Ann Arbor of Ireland I would say. Mostly we amused ourselves with window shopping, wandering around back roads, and a few pub-crawls. One night we went to the “serious music pub” where a live band was playing traditional Irish tunes, and whenever the music was playing people were not allowed to talk. It’s kind of weird to be in a pub and have someone shhh you if you even whisper to your friends! Did Ireland feel very different from England…. definitely, but I can’t quite put into words exactly why. I think it just FEELS like a smaller island. People feel a bit more ancy to be going somewhere, a bit more proud to be Irish, and a bit more opinionated about everything. But then we really only knew like 5 people there. Compared with the US I think that the Irish were more willing to take the time to actually listen to what we had to say, were less inclined toward histrionics, and more comfortable with being themselves.
We intended to leave Galway on the 6th to fly back into England, but, as everyone told us almost every time we left the house, “careful, it’s icy out!”. So yeah, we made it to the airport alright, made it through all the security, and then sat in the lounge for about 5 hours waiting to hear that the flight had been cancelled. Grrrr. And we’d gotten rid of all our euro and the ATM wasn’t working…. so luckily bus drivers in Ireland are incredibly helpful and were determined to get us somewhere safe that night, so we made it back to Galway…. another day in Galway spend rearranging ALL the bus and hotel tickets we’d arranged before…… and then back to the stupid airport where we actually got on a plane and took off. It’s really sad how poorly prepared they are for the snow over here… some lady in Ireland was out salting around her car with the container of table salt, and pretty much every day on the news in England they were worried about not having enough grit for the roads….
So the 8th we arrived into the Bristol airport where we met with Leana’s grandpa’s second cousin…. or something like that, I got a little lost in all the relatedness talk. They live halfway between Bristol and Bath in a nice house with full British hospitality of amazing multi-course meals, tea about 3 times a day, and yummy sugary snacks to go with every tea-time. They took us to see Bath, which is an incongruence of beautiful old architecture and ancient buildings with modern road-signs or advertisements plastered on them. We didn’t get to go in the water or touch it or anything, but we could see the ancient spa room which is very pretty and we could see the steam rising off the water, tantalising on a cold January day!
Walking through the giant ballrooms and along the beautiful roads with apartments that cost enough per week that you could probably rent a house for a year for less, I had to think about wealth and money and how different class and wealth is here compared to in America. I still definitely don’t understand the workings of the class system here, and I definitely haven’t seen much of the poorer neighbourhoods, but I think most importantly what I have seen is that wealth and class go together here. What I mean is that maybe wealth tends to be spent on things like beautiful houses in the countryside, a better education, a pony, and the luxury of working less and enjoying more. Compared with in the US where wealth gets spent on consecutively bigger and better electronics, gaudy jewellery, or simply put into the bank to create dividends. I digress….
After Bath Leana and I took the bus to London where we stayed with a friend of mine in basically the best part of London to stay in as a tourist. Without ever taking public transport, we managed in one day to see: the Victoria and Albert Museum (sculptures and relics from all over Europe mostly), the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Big Ben (the clock on the Houses of Parliament that dongs the hours), the “London Eye” (a Ferris wheel… big whoop I know who cares but I guess it’s famous or something), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the back of Buckingham palace where there are about 6 different sorts of wire and stakes supposed to keep out random brits who think it would be a good laugh to break in, the Prime Ministers house, lots of statues, fish and chips, and dinner and drinks at a pub…. I actually didn’t mind London. I thought I would find it totally overwhelming and hate it, but at least the bit we were in was never crowded and I never wondered if someone was looking at me wrong or thinking of mugging me.
The morning of the 11th I took the underground out to Heathrow with Leana, saw her to her check-in point, and then headed off to begin the next section of my Europe adventure!
AVZ
Jan 19, '10—7:19 pm
Fun to hear about your adventures. Sounds like it worked out OK after all and in spite of the weather.
So I think I finally figured it out…”distimeated” is your own creative word for jet-lagged!!!! Am I right?
Hope you do get to see a European Badger, and all sorts of other European wildlife and birds. Their robins are cute. They make me think of “The Secret Garden”.
Hope all continues to go well. I look forward to your next installment.
ant
Jan 20, '10—12:57 pm
Brilliant! Your blogs are worth a thousand tweets…
Marijane Boomer
Jan 21, '10—2:45 pm
Thank you! What an adventure… can’t wait to hear what comes next.
Al and Karen Gallup
Feb 14, '10—10:06 am
Happy Birthday!!!
Where are you now? We are in Florida – yesterday morning it was 26 degrees. Today, almost balmy – 32.
take care and have fun.
Love, Buffy & Dapa