Categories
Cork City Ireland

Just hanging out

The initial wave of OMG Let’s go see everything has worn off a bit, so a lazy morning at the apartment doesn’t seem such a crime. I’ve traded my view of the trees in our yard and neighborhood dog walkers for watching the clouds and the seagulls floating past the window. Occasionally a parade of pigeons waddles past on the balcony.

Barry has been making good use of the laptop for editing his many photos. The appliance behind him is our combo washer/dryer. It’s very quiet, but also small and slow, so our usually routine of two loads on a Sunday night (followed by folding and an episode of Star Trek) will likely change to a small load any night we’re here at home.

Barry also cooked a huge breakfast of bangers and eggs and potatoes this morning, so we’re both moving pretty slow.

Categories
Athlone Ireland

A couple days in Athlone

Barry has clearly been spending more time on this blog than I, since I’m still several days behind. We were in Athlone Thursday through Saturday. Why Athlone? When we went there in 2017, it was because I wanted to see the town where my maternal grandfather grew up. On that trip we discovered Sean’s Bar, supposedly the oldest bar in Ireland, founded by Vikings some time around 900. Since we were just passing through, I got to quaff a brew with my ancestors’ ghosts, but Barry the Driver did not. So we returned so that he could enjoy Sean’s together (it was lovely, with a small fire in the fireplace, quiet on Thursday afternoon but hopping on Friday evening).

We managed to explore the town, as well as take some walks along the River Shannon and the canal that parallels the river. It’s a wide and very swift river, and apparently both the river and Lough Ree just to the north are noted for fishing, especially pike.

Our first afternoon was quite balmy for Ireland, in the low 50s, but the next morning was pretty windy walking along the river. We also had our first taste of Italian food in Ireland. The mushroom risotto was lovely, but don’t get Barry started on the pizza.

Categories
Cork City Ireland Traveling

We made it.

Wow, is it Monday already? We left early Wednesday for a grueling day and night of travel. The low point of which was my breaking down sobbing in the PHL airport as we shlepped across four terminals with 2 suitcases and 5 carry-ons, the high point of which was chatting with John Prine while waiting to board. Make me an angel that flies from Philadelphia!

I watched an episode of The Good Place last night which had a line to the effect of “Humans live around 80 years and they spend most of that time waiting for things to be over.” Which pretty much describes the flights, baggage, customs, car rental, and driving in Dublin.

We had one lively and idyllic stop on the way from Dublin to Athlone, at Saint Brigid’s Well. Barry took pictures, I did not, so I will defer to his posts for photographic documentation. He has about 900 pounds of camera equipment; I have my phone.

Driving here is stressful, but not because of the other-side-of-the-road stuff so much as unfamiliar signage, very narrow roads and lanes in some places, only having phone service while on Wi-Fi and therefore not being able to set or modify routes on the fly, and a navigator who hates being a passenger in a car almost as much as she hates driving. But it’s a Catholic country so I figure they accept silent Hail Mary’s even from atheists.

More soon on Athlone and Cashel, but now going to watch the light fade over the skyline and enjoy our first home-cooked meal here in Cork.

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Uncategorized

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This is a test. This is only a test. If this were a real post, I would undoubtedly say something urbane and witty.

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