Hello Loyal followers,
Thought I'd send a quick note to let you all know we're heading out on our first adventure tomorrow morning. We'll take a 3 hour train ride, south, to Cork.
We decided, on a whim, to go somewhere for New Year's even though we'll be confined to our hotel room after 8 pm with our little one. Such is life with a baby.
I'll be sure to post pictures once we're back.
Oh! Had to add:
We were all set to stay at the Maldron Hotel in Cork City when I went to 'google' it last night. I think I wanted to get a better map for it. Well, I type in "Maldron Hotel Cork" and what comes up in the search bar:
"Maldron Hotel Cork"
"Maldron Hotel Cork Haunted"
AHHH!! Of course I clicked on it and sure 'nuff, there are about 5 links about how this hotel is haunted.
Here's one:
http://www.peoplesrepublicofcork.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168675&page=3
NEEDLESS to say, I called and cancelled our reservation. You've got to be out of your mind! Are you KIDDING ME?! What if I hadn't googled it the night before?? It was once a hospital for those terminally ill AND a morgue! Eww! And operating as one up until 1987! No, not 1887 as I would've preferred. It was a creepy hospital up until 1987. Eww!
Now, we're safely booked at a lovely hotel far from this one. Just had to share that near disaster.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Walk through Dun Laoghaire - Houses I want
This morning we took another walk through Dun Laoghaire. It is so peaceful here after Christmas. Apparently everyone here, EVERYONE, has the week after Christmas off. Absolutely everything is still closed. (the grocery store opened yesterday, thankfully but that's it)
But, this all makes for some beautiful, peaceful walks. It also helps that it's 14 degrees out (about 54 F)! It's beyond perfect temperature for nearly January.
But, this all makes for some beautiful, peaceful walks. It also helps that it's 14 degrees out (about 54 F)! It's beyond perfect temperature for nearly January.
Pier across the road from us.
There are always loads of people walking on this pier (about 1.5 miles to the end)
The school up the road from us (about a 10 minute walk)
Girls entrance
Presbyterian Church
Norah and Mommy
Anyway, we discovered an adorable area close to us and I took some photos of houses I loved. These are all in the 230,000 EURO range (about $290,000 range so not insane by any means).
I would like to have this one, please.
Or this one.
This is what most houses look like here. They call them semi-detached but I think they're pretty much all-Attached. But you can't blame 'em for putting a postive spin on it.
Or this one....
Rich folks with a mote.
Adorable
Apparently this place is so tiny they decided to put the tree outside - and then rig it to the house in case that hurricane comes through. This looks eerily like something my Dad might concoct.
Oh this is just a Post Office box IN the stone wall from the 1700s. No biggy.
A little alleyway in this tiny neighborhood. So cute. For any of you that know the movie Labrynth - doesn't that hole in the wall remind you of "Elllo? I said, Ello! Want to come in for a cup a tea?"
This is only about 10 minutes walk from us - this cute little suburb street. We kept saying we felt like we were in a movie set of Dublin.
Another "Movie Set" lookin' street.
Soap Opera at Clearwater Cove
December 27, 2011
Where to start. Well, we live in Clearwater Cove which is a huge apartment/condo complex here in Dun Laoghaire. I believe there are 100 units. Well, we were lucky enough to be put in the unit next to a real live Irish soap opera - complete with binge drinking, hot pink leggings, dog-custody wars and one-night stands. The insulation here is OK....but when you have a 22 year old girl with more drama than a bad reality TV show, then no walls are thick enough...
It started the week before Christmas. Leading up to this we've not been big fans of them because they smoke like chimneys which makes our entire apartment smell like their 'chimney', they come home at crazy hours of the night slamming their door (for good measure), and they only speak in insanely high volumes, apparently right next to their front door. And yes, yes we are senior citizens who like people to be silent after 8 pm, when Norah goes to bed. =) (If any of you readers have children, you know the sanctity that is 'the hours after your child has fallen asleep'. Anyone who threatens that peace is an enemy.) Henceforth, we hate our neighbor.
So, I'm home alone one day (when Wayne went to study at UCD) when I hear this couple screaming at each other in the hall. So, naturally, being the human that I am, I run to the peephole to watch. (I'm not insanely proud of this but it really is completely out of my control.)
Anyway, they're yelling at eachother about some nonsense and then they go back into their apartment and slam the door. (I wait at the peephole in case they come back out, but eventually I go back into the living room to my 18-month-old, playing by herself. Yes, that's good parenting).
To give you an idea for the logistics of this. Our apartment is at the end of the hall looking back at all the other doors down the hallway. So, this girl's unit is directly perpendicular to our door. So if someone is standing at her door, I look directly at the side of their face.
Which brings me to the next part...
Again, I hear them yelling and the sound of some rustling in the hallway. Back to the peephole I go. (by now I've gotten stealth reflexes which allow me to sprint to the peephole and get my face against the door, silently) I look out to see the boyfriend holding their tiny dog while she is trying to wrestle the dog away from him and block the door out to the elevator.
Neighbor girl: "You're not taking him!"
Boyfriend: "He's my dog!"
Neighbor girl: "You're being a psycho right now" (while jumping on his back to try and get the dog...go figure - HE'S the psycho.)
Boyfriend: "I'm taking him" (he gets around her and walks out the door to the elevator)
She goes in and slams the door.
yadda, yadda, yadda. I get bored and walk away.
A few minutes later I hear him back at the door and return to my post. So I'm looking out directly at his face. So sad....(on both our parts)
He's standing there, holding the dog in a cradle position, staring at her door. He keeps knocking but she's ignoring him now. Finally....she opens. He tries to look very pathetic (not hard) and say "You can keep him"
She says, "I don't want him. You keep him"
Boy: "Why?"
Ohhh barf. I then realize how young they really are and walk away. I can still hear the interchange though.
"I would never put him out on the balcony in the cold"
"I didn't"
"Yes you did"
"It was just for a second so he could pee"
"I wouldn't. Ever. Not even for a second."
Barf.
(He goes into the apartment, they yell most of the afternoon and lo and behold, the next morning, we hear him leave the apartment. Yes, I DID run to the peephole when I heard the door open at 8 am.)
Apparently everything is back on.... NOT.
Fast forward one day. 10 pm - we hear her cackling with a few girlfriends - plainly drinking and talking about the break up with the boyfriend. (Of course, Norah is sleeping so we're pissed that this girl is threatening to wake her up with every second of their drunken, inane conversation)
10:30 pm rolls around and I've run to the peephole because I hear them coming out. Yep, there it is. Three 21/22 year old girls, skanked out to "the nines" with platform heels, (the main girl is wearing HOT PINK spandex leggings with FIVE inch heels!), fur coats and "bump it's" in their hair. I knnooow where they're going......Clubbin'. This was just the pre-funk. It's rebound time ladies.
They stand in the hall for a few minutes, one girl literally chugging on a fifth of some liquor and the other two fumbling to lock the door. Off they go.
We fall asleep about 10 minutes later. Old folks. But of course, 3 am rolls around and I hear people talking in the hall. How do I know it's 3 am? Oh because I just tap my very flashy Indigo Timex watch and blammmo, 3 am. Anywho, we both wake up and hear this girl at her door talking to some real catch she's bringing home from the bar.
Bar "Catch": "Are you suuure you don't have a boyfriend?"
Neighbor Girl: "Oh, look at you, a nice guy eh?"
(We pass back out)
In the morning I leave to run some errands and what do I see? A nice little "Hansel and Gretel" trail of potato chips leading to the drunken girl's apartment. There's two chips, smashed into the carpet just outside her door. Oh here's 3 more over by the door to the elevator. Ahhh, 3 more crushed on the floor IN the elevator and down in the lobby, yep, there's the rest. Did they actually EAT any? (I really comtemplated picking them all up and putting them in front of her door with a note that said "You dropped these" but Wayne forbade it...Good man.) I just felt so bad for the cleaning crew that had to clean up after her, which they did, that afternoon.
Anyway, this is all we have thus far but I'm sure this girl will give us much more material. Ahh to be 21 and completely self-absorbed again....
Where to start. Well, we live in Clearwater Cove which is a huge apartment/condo complex here in Dun Laoghaire. I believe there are 100 units. Well, we were lucky enough to be put in the unit next to a real live Irish soap opera - complete with binge drinking, hot pink leggings, dog-custody wars and one-night stands. The insulation here is OK....but when you have a 22 year old girl with more drama than a bad reality TV show, then no walls are thick enough...
It started the week before Christmas. Leading up to this we've not been big fans of them because they smoke like chimneys which makes our entire apartment smell like their 'chimney', they come home at crazy hours of the night slamming their door (for good measure), and they only speak in insanely high volumes, apparently right next to their front door. And yes, yes we are senior citizens who like people to be silent after 8 pm, when Norah goes to bed. =) (If any of you readers have children, you know the sanctity that is 'the hours after your child has fallen asleep'. Anyone who threatens that peace is an enemy.) Henceforth, we hate our neighbor.
So, I'm home alone one day (when Wayne went to study at UCD) when I hear this couple screaming at each other in the hall. So, naturally, being the human that I am, I run to the peephole to watch. (I'm not insanely proud of this but it really is completely out of my control.)
Anyway, they're yelling at eachother about some nonsense and then they go back into their apartment and slam the door. (I wait at the peephole in case they come back out, but eventually I go back into the living room to my 18-month-old, playing by herself. Yes, that's good parenting).
To give you an idea for the logistics of this. Our apartment is at the end of the hall looking back at all the other doors down the hallway. So, this girl's unit is directly perpendicular to our door. So if someone is standing at her door, I look directly at the side of their face.
Which brings me to the next part...
Again, I hear them yelling and the sound of some rustling in the hallway. Back to the peephole I go. (by now I've gotten stealth reflexes which allow me to sprint to the peephole and get my face against the door, silently) I look out to see the boyfriend holding their tiny dog while she is trying to wrestle the dog away from him and block the door out to the elevator.
Neighbor girl: "You're not taking him!"
Boyfriend: "He's my dog!"
Neighbor girl: "You're being a psycho right now" (while jumping on his back to try and get the dog...go figure - HE'S the psycho.)
Boyfriend: "I'm taking him" (he gets around her and walks out the door to the elevator)
She goes in and slams the door.
yadda, yadda, yadda. I get bored and walk away.
A few minutes later I hear him back at the door and return to my post. So I'm looking out directly at his face. So sad....(on both our parts)
He's standing there, holding the dog in a cradle position, staring at her door. He keeps knocking but she's ignoring him now. Finally....she opens. He tries to look very pathetic (not hard) and say "You can keep him"
She says, "I don't want him. You keep him"
Boy: "Why?"
Ohhh barf. I then realize how young they really are and walk away. I can still hear the interchange though.
"I would never put him out on the balcony in the cold"
"I didn't"
"Yes you did"
"It was just for a second so he could pee"
"I wouldn't. Ever. Not even for a second."
Barf.
(He goes into the apartment, they yell most of the afternoon and lo and behold, the next morning, we hear him leave the apartment. Yes, I DID run to the peephole when I heard the door open at 8 am.)
Apparently everything is back on.... NOT.
Fast forward one day. 10 pm - we hear her cackling with a few girlfriends - plainly drinking and talking about the break up with the boyfriend. (Of course, Norah is sleeping so we're pissed that this girl is threatening to wake her up with every second of their drunken, inane conversation)
10:30 pm rolls around and I've run to the peephole because I hear them coming out. Yep, there it is. Three 21/22 year old girls, skanked out to "the nines" with platform heels, (the main girl is wearing HOT PINK spandex leggings with FIVE inch heels!), fur coats and "bump it's" in their hair. I knnooow where they're going......Clubbin'. This was just the pre-funk. It's rebound time ladies.
They stand in the hall for a few minutes, one girl literally chugging on a fifth of some liquor and the other two fumbling to lock the door. Off they go.
We fall asleep about 10 minutes later. Old folks. But of course, 3 am rolls around and I hear people talking in the hall. How do I know it's 3 am? Oh because I just tap my very flashy Indigo Timex watch and blammmo, 3 am. Anywho, we both wake up and hear this girl at her door talking to some real catch she's bringing home from the bar.
Bar "Catch": "Are you suuure you don't have a boyfriend?"
Neighbor Girl: "Oh, look at you, a nice guy eh?"
(We pass back out)
In the morning I leave to run some errands and what do I see? A nice little "Hansel and Gretel" trail of potato chips leading to the drunken girl's apartment. There's two chips, smashed into the carpet just outside her door. Oh here's 3 more over by the door to the elevator. Ahhh, 3 more crushed on the floor IN the elevator and down in the lobby, yep, there's the rest. Did they actually EAT any? (I really comtemplated picking them all up and putting them in front of her door with a note that said "You dropped these" but Wayne forbade it...Good man.) I just felt so bad for the cleaning crew that had to clean up after her, which they did, that afternoon.
Anyway, this is all we have thus far but I'm sure this girl will give us much more material. Ahh to be 21 and completely self-absorbed again....
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Happy Christmas from Dublin (and the week leading to Christmas)
Here, they say "Happy Christmas" so this is what I'll wish you. Happy Christmas from Ireland!
Today we woke up to the most magnificent sunrise I have ever seen. It was verging on scary, it was so beautiful.
(oops, forgot to rotate in the camera before uploading but you get the gist. This is Norah with Miguel - her buddy)
And then later that same day we walked over to Mimi and Jem's house which just happened to be less than a mile from Andy. It's convenient when your only two friends live close. =)
You may have seen in one of the earlier posts, Mimi was another PhD student at UCD but she just finished. So, we met her at the pub night with the other staff and students from the Psychology department and then later, she called to invite us to her home for dinner! Incredible.
We had the best time there! They have a beautiful home with a huge open chef's kitchen and thousands of books. It's kind of our dream-Irish-home now.
Mimi cooked an incredible dinner, we had wine and Irish stout and they even had a Christmas present under the tree for Norah! Who are these people? =)
I noticed Mimi had about 200 cookbooks on the shelves (no kidding) so I asked if they were all hers and she says, very non-chalantly and humbly, "Oh I used to be a food writer for some newspapers here". Oh and not just any newspapers, the MAIN newspapers in Dublin (the equivalent of the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI for reference - not sure on a comparison for Ontario). She did this for years and then, just as humbly, throws in, "I've written a couple cookbooks too". What?! So, she had a set column in a couple newspapers that would run each week and eventually turned a lot of those into books. She says this was her previous life before deciding to switch gears and get a PhD in Psychology. My, do we meet some interesting friends.
So, go figure we had an amazing dinner cooked by Mimi. Their family is so lovely too. And Jem is hilarious. He had this adorable puppy-puzzle that he had gotten in Lithuania (of all places) and said he hadn't really gotten it for anyone specific so he wanted Norah to have it.
Today we woke up to the most magnificent sunrise I have ever seen. It was verging on scary, it was so beautiful.
INCREDIBLE!
I took these from the balcony off our kitchen.
We felt a little bad that these were the only presents Norah had to open (because none of them are from us - these are from Aunt Mary and Oma D.. Thank GOODNESS). (and no tree this year because we didn't want to carry one all the way home) Her expression seems to say "Is this really it?" but it's just an illusion - I just caught her with a funny expression. In fact she had a ball asking me to re-wrap the presents so she could untie the ribbons again.
She loved this little snowman from Oma
And Oma made us these little coasters too! Which we have desperately needed so it was so nice to open these.
Today we will cook our mini-Christmas feast. I got a small ham, a small turkey, and I'll be making stuffing, roasted carrots and parsnips, and mashed potatoes & gravy. Then for dessert we'll have Irish Christmas Pudding (which I bought at Avoca - my favorite little market).
This evening we'll go to church (attending the service, via Skype at our church back in Seattle) and then we'll Skype with family in Seattle and Ontario. All in all, not too shabby. Oh and we had pancakes and rashers (bacon) for breakfast so it was a great start to our first Christmas in Dublin.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Here she's saying "Ho, Ho, Ho" with her arms out. =)
And the week before Christmast we had quite the busy social calendar. Ok, it was just Thursday the 22nd and we had two get-together's but still....that's a lot considering we have zero friends here. (correction - TWO groups of friends, count 'em, two)
So, on Thursday afternoon we made our way to UCD so Wayne could check out his school books and keep them over the University's holiday break. Then we took the bus back up the road to Andy's house. We had a great visit with tea and Andrea even made us homemade mince-meat pies. Despite the name - these are not 'pot-pies' with meat - they are little mini-tart-pies filled with a spice mixture of raisins, various fruit, cloves, and a few other things I'm not too sure about. They're fantastic. And Andrea's were much better than the one's we bought at Avoca so she's quite talented. (She wants to be a pastry chef so figures.) =)
And Norah helped:
And then later that same day we walked over to Mimi and Jem's house which just happened to be less than a mile from Andy. It's convenient when your only two friends live close. =)
You may have seen in one of the earlier posts, Mimi was another PhD student at UCD but she just finished. So, we met her at the pub night with the other staff and students from the Psychology department and then later, she called to invite us to her home for dinner! Incredible.
Mimi cooked an incredible dinner, we had wine and Irish stout and they even had a Christmas present under the tree for Norah! Who are these people? =)
I noticed Mimi had about 200 cookbooks on the shelves (no kidding) so I asked if they were all hers and she says, very non-chalantly and humbly, "Oh I used to be a food writer for some newspapers here". Oh and not just any newspapers, the MAIN newspapers in Dublin (the equivalent of the Seattle Times and the Seattle PI for reference - not sure on a comparison for Ontario). She did this for years and then, just as humbly, throws in, "I've written a couple cookbooks too". What?! So, she had a set column in a couple newspapers that would run each week and eventually turned a lot of those into books. She says this was her previous life before deciding to switch gears and get a PhD in Psychology. My, do we meet some interesting friends.
So, go figure we had an amazing dinner cooked by Mimi. Their family is so lovely too. And Jem is hilarious. He had this adorable puppy-puzzle that he had gotten in Lithuania (of all places) and said he hadn't really gotten it for anyone specific so he wanted Norah to have it.
Our many, many Christmas cards mailed from the States and Canada. We feel SO SO loved. I kid you not, this is actually more than we would receive back at home so we were very impressed with our family and friends.
Thought I'd show this too. This is my montage-collage =) of our family (just immediate family, grandparents and a couple randoms). I put it on a corkboard and then hung it up on those hooks you stick to the wall (since we're not allowed to put nails in the walls) pfff..
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Kilmainham Gaol (Prison)
Kilmainham Gaol (Prison) has certainly been the most interesting experience I've had yet in Dublin (in my very long 2 1/2 weeks here). It really was incredible and I hope to go again, several times, when you wonderful people come to visit us.
Surprisingly, there are not any thorough histories online but I had hoped to give you all a little snippet of history. I'll try my best to be brief and concise.
Essentially it was opened in the 1790s to be a prison for all of County Dublin. I believe he said there were 8 other prisons, just for the city of Dublin at that time so it was meant to be a smaller addition to help out the outlying areas. Through the many political revolutions however, it became a prison for a very small area around Dublin city.
At one point, it became so overcrowded, they ended up shipping over 4,000 (THOUSAND!) prisoners to Australia. (and these were for offenses like "stealing a wheel off a cart", petty theft, larceny, - and on up to murder). Also, I believe he said they had about 100 cells and one year they had more than 12,000 prisoners come through the doors. You can only imagine the conditions.
There were prisoners here as young as FIVE (who would stay several months to years for things like petty theft). One young man was sent here at the age of 10, and died there at 12, after getting sick (because, well, they had a "Dr." but he lied about being a "Dr." and therefore could not treat/save this poor little boy). Our guide told us, in the 1800s, children here worked from the age of 8 and they figured, "if you were old enough to work, you were old enough to be in prison".
And, most famously, Kilmainham became the prison for nearly every revolutionary in Ireland's history. Most notably, each of the men involved in the 1916 Easter Rising were executed here. 14 in all. At the end, you will see the two pictures of black crosses in the courtyard. At one, 12 of them were executed and at the 2nd cross, the last two.
One beautiful/tragic/awful story was that of Joseph Plunkett (look for the pictures of his door) and Grace Gifford. He was a member of the Rising and was sentenced to death.
When she learned that her fiancé was to be executed, she persuaded the authorities to allow the wedding to go ahead in the prison. Thus on May 3rd 1916 the two were married in the small prison chapel.
There were over 150 people executed here (around 10 of which were women). Approximately 50 executions took place at the front gate of the prison which were each a public spectacle. The majority were executed within the prison but some were killed at the sites of their offenses and some at others sites around the city.
The last prisoner held in Kilmainham was anti- treaty IRA leader Eamonn De Valera, who in later years served first as Toiseach (Prime Minister) and subsequently President of Ireland. I guess he's the only happy ending in this place. He actually got to walk out the doors. He lived until the age of 93.
These are a bit creepy but I love them!
haunting...
(one of the females executed)
Surprisingly, there are not any thorough histories online but I had hoped to give you all a little snippet of history. I'll try my best to be brief and concise.
Essentially it was opened in the 1790s to be a prison for all of County Dublin. I believe he said there were 8 other prisons, just for the city of Dublin at that time so it was meant to be a smaller addition to help out the outlying areas. Through the many political revolutions however, it became a prison for a very small area around Dublin city.
At one point, it became so overcrowded, they ended up shipping over 4,000 (THOUSAND!) prisoners to Australia. (and these were for offenses like "stealing a wheel off a cart", petty theft, larceny, - and on up to murder). Also, I believe he said they had about 100 cells and one year they had more than 12,000 prisoners come through the doors. You can only imagine the conditions.
There were prisoners here as young as FIVE (who would stay several months to years for things like petty theft). One young man was sent here at the age of 10, and died there at 12, after getting sick (because, well, they had a "Dr." but he lied about being a "Dr." and therefore could not treat/save this poor little boy). Our guide told us, in the 1800s, children here worked from the age of 8 and they figured, "if you were old enough to work, you were old enough to be in prison".
And, most famously, Kilmainham became the prison for nearly every revolutionary in Ireland's history. Most notably, each of the men involved in the 1916 Easter Rising were executed here. 14 in all. At the end, you will see the two pictures of black crosses in the courtyard. At one, 12 of them were executed and at the 2nd cross, the last two.
The first 12 were each killed at this spot, by a firing squad of 12 men.
And here, at the other end of the courtyard, the last 2 were executed.
"One of the most poignant events that ever took place in Kilmainham was the marriage of Joseph Plunkett, one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising, and Grace Gifford.
The next morning Joseph Plunkett was shot by a firing squad. Grace lived until 1955 and never remarried. Grace herself became a prisoner in Kilmainham in February 1923, during the Civil War."
As our guide told us, they were married at 11:45 pm in the chapel (where our tour started) and 3 hours later he was executed. Awful...
Sadly (poetically?) this is the long hallway from the chapel to Joseph Plunkett's door where he was married for 3 hours before being executed.
The last prisoner held in Kilmainham was anti- treaty IRA leader Eamonn De Valera, who in later years served first as Toiseach (Prime Minister) and subsequently President of Ireland. I guess he's the only happy ending in this place. He actually got to walk out the doors. He lived until the age of 93.
This is about 1 inch x 1.5 inch
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)