It's A Small World After All!

I recently found out about this cool site - Flickrvision.com. It’s connected to the photo-sharing site Flickr. Flickrvision shows you in real time photos that people are posting from all over the world, including the city/town from where the person is posting. I logged on and the first three photos were from 1) Leesburg, VA (woo hoo, my old neck of the woods!), 2) Kapellen, Belgium (a town near where I visit my friends the Winslows) and 3) Freiburg, Germany (the town where from where my classmate Christian hails). Wacky!

Speaking of all around the world, my beloved address book (Italian leather, gift from mom) containing the ‘411’ of all you far-flung friends and family has gone completely AWOL! A thorough search of my flat has come up empty! Soo annoying! Not only did it hold addresses, but also birthdays. Could folks please email me their info? Am going go get new one or at least in the meantime, start keeping them electronically. Thanks!

Culture update – Saw an AMAZING production of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at Donmar Warehouse! That theatre can do no wrong. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen there this year. I did not enjoy Andrew L. Weber sending home the ‘wrong’ Joseph yet again on “Any Dream Will Do.” Yes folks, my tastes range from the sublime to the ridiculous here in the UK. More cultural news, the Culture Vultures (the team formerly known as “The Alliance”) were back to their winning pub quiz ways last week! Woo hoo, that 10 pounds I won will come in handy (for about a carton of milk and cereal..lol).

In other news, I continue to plug along on thesis and coursework, but have to admit my mojo is fading (despite finding references to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” in not one, but two academic journal articles for research)! Must be the ‘final semester blues,’ compounded by the fact that I am also starting the job/housing search. I’ve decided to try and stay here ‘across the pond’ if I can. Any and all recommendations/suggestions welcome. Can’t believe on Friday it will be June! A big happy birthday that day to my Mom and also Greg J.

The Wild, Wild West

The final days of our Ireland adventure were spent exploring the GORGEOUS West coast of the country. We left Killarney, took a fun ferry ride across the river Shannon and then lost our way a bit heading to the Cliffs of Moher. Serendipity led us to Kilkee, an Adorable seaside town whose locals claimed that their own cliffs were just as nice, if not nicer than Moher's. After taking a great hour long hike along them, I think I'd have to agree with that. What Moher has in size, Kilkee makes up for with more variety and quantity.

It was at the Cliffs of Moher where we had another "small world of Ireland" encounter. Walking up the trail, I ran into a nice couple from New Zealand who sat across from us on our Ring of Kerry bus tour! They were then heading to Galway as we were, but first we had some other sidetrips to make. Our first stop was St. Bridget's Well, right at the foot of Moher. This is known as a healing well where people come and leave religious objects like images of the Virgin Mary or Rosary beads (not to mention gym shorts - I wish I was kidding!)

The Burren was next up. Talk about amazing views and landscape. Feels like your on the surface of the moon with all limestone. We were able to also see one of the more famous Dolmen portal tombs and then did some serious off-the-beaten-path trekking to find some other burial sites that the Dolmen docent told us about.

We then made it safely to Galway where we had an amazing seafood dinner followed by Frank's (my 2nd favorite B&B owner) wonderful breakfast the next morning. Definitely best breakfast of the trip! Two words: potato waffles! And now four more words: Con-ne-mar-a. OMG! Now that is some seriously gorgeous countryside we drove through on the way to Sligo. Stopped for lunch in the great town of Clifden and ate at the tasty Two Dog Cafe (also home to the Westernmost Internet Cafe in Europe - I bought the t-shirt!). En route to Sligo we stopped in at the Kylemore Abbey - home to the Benedictine nuns of Ireland, but also home to a very pricey admissions fee, so we just took exterior photos!

Our final day was spent in Sligo - aka Yeats country! We saw Yeats' grave as well as some beautiful coastlines and castles. Alas our journey then came to an end as we headed to Knock airport to fly back to London. Not to knock Knock, but well, you have to pay 10 GBP at their "redevelopment fund" counter before you can get on the plane!

Speaking of develop, the final set of photos has been developed on Snapfish. Some of the shots may look familiar to you if you're a fan of the "Today" show. Turns out that the week after our trip, Matt Lauer took his "Where in the World" series to Cliffs of Moher/Galway, etc. Can't believe we just missed him!

So now it's back to reality and back to school. Can't believe I'm already half-way through my final semester! This year is Flying by.

Kerry is So Very

With apologies to Johnny Cash, but "We fell in love with the Ring of Kerry. We rode up, up, up, boy those roads they sure were scary. But oh those views...the Ring of Kerry, the Ring of Kerry!"

Before hitting the ring, though, we drove to the teeny, tiny town of Inchigeelagh in southwest Cork to see the town from where my Arlington priest Fr. Gerry Creedon hails. Alas, we weren't able to meet up with the family as they'd had to go into the larger town of Macroom for the day, though the nice maintenance man let us rest a bit in Creedon's Hotel (of which there turn out to be two!) We stopped at one earlier on the route and this woman came out and said "oh are you one of Fr.Gerald's parishoners? You need to keep driving." (Those 4 last words were becoming my least favorite words to hear as my knees were not loving the hell of the tiny Hyundai).

However we then made it safely to Killarney where my knees got a rest as we put ourselves in the able hands of Michael our Ring of Kerry tour bus driver. Spent the whole day touring the Ring which is, in a word, GORGEOUS (as was Michael, who looks like actor John Slattery, aka politician on Sex/City and Desperate Housewives).

We also ventured at dusk to Ross Castle, set along Ross Lake and it was just Breathtaking! We also were able to get in on the last tour of Muckross House, during which we met a friendly couple from Rhode Island who gave us a ride back to our hotel (we'd planned to walk, but turns out it was much farther than our concierge had said). While our fellow Americans were fine in the House, once we got in their (equally tiny car) they turned in to the Bickersons. OMG, hope they survived the rest of their journey!

The photos of this part of our journey are now up on Snapfish.

Coming up next: "The Cliffs of Kilkee are just as nice, if not nicer than Cliffs of Moher"

It's a Long Way to Tipperary

We left Kilkenny and made our way to Tipperary to the fabulously situated Rock of Cashel. Talk about views! It was nice and empty so we could easily roam (and dance) around the grounds. The only disappointment was finding the much-hyped-by-Rick Steves "Granny's Kitchen" closed.

Our next destination was Cork, but Gretchen talked Steph into a little, well, umm, detour that became the LONG way around Tipperary as we went in search of Andrew Lloyd Weber's castle in the teeny, tiny town of Fethard. The castle was the site of early episodes of my new guilty pleasure, "Any Dream Will Do," aka the casting show for London's new production of "Joseph...Dreamcoat." (Go Keith, Lee or Daniel!). Anyhoo, having just a picture in my head from what it looked like on t.v., we went driving around til a friendly local pointed us in the right direction. We finally found it, but alas, it was pretty much blocked off. All we caught was a glimpse of the turrets! Oh well, at least we can say we, um, turned around in his driveway!

After a long day o' driving we were thrilled to hit Cork and stay at the BEST B&B of the trip! Tom/Tony (long story, but it's really Tony, sigh... loved him!) and his wife Avril, their nice daughters and cute dog were the friendliest of hosts, sending us to a fantastic restaurant for dinner, cooking us a wonderful breakfast and providing the nicest/biggest room of the trip. If you're heading to Cork, don't stay anywhere else but Fernroyd House. It's smack-dab next to Cork's lovely University and a 7-8 minute walk into the city.

Next up was Blarney Castle and kissing the Blarney stone! We scored on this as well as we were a 10 minute drive away so got there right when it opened. Steph passed on trekking to the top to kiss it, but I made it and now possess the gift of gab (or well, perhaps an even more intense gift of gab?) Guidebooks had said the castle was not much, but it's on GORGEOUS grounds, with a beautiful park and sets of druid stones throughout.

We wrapped up our Cork stay with an open-air bus tour of the city and a lunch stop in one of Europe's biggest markets - the Old English Market. Two words: Tas-ty!

The photos for this part of the trip are now on Snapfish.

Next up? Kerry is so very.....breathtaking!

As God Is My Witness...

...I'll be heading back to Ireland, particularly the Hill of Tara, which was just beautiful. It was fitting that we left Dublin to explore this site and Newgrange on a foggy, misty morning. It just added to the mystical, mythical atmosphere surrounding the area.

The sun broke out later though as we headed south to explore Kilkenny, where my mother's family hails from. It is the prettiest city with two beautiful cathedrals and one gorgeous castle. Oh, and lots of cool pubs and restaurants too. We couldn't believe it when we stopped in at Kytetler's pub and ran into a family from the States who had been with us on the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl 2 nights earlier! It's a small world in Ireland.

Further road trips brought us more connections with fellow travelers, not to mention all the sheep and cows. Some of whom shared the road with us! They also share a lot, well, more of themselves, in the countryside. Needless to say it's a good thing I don't have a sense of smell!...lol

See all the latest pics online and keep stopping back for further stories from those wild Irish roads!