Monday, April 30, 2007

Another locked-down net cafe

Grrr... Another cafe that won't allow logins to
Blogger. So, another post mailed in...

Anyways, I'm at the airport right now, waiting for my
flight back to Galway. I've got about 4 hours to
kill, so I thought I'd kill one of them here.

On the bus on the way from Venice to the airport, I
started flipping through my pictures. The ones I took
in Rome seem like such an incredibly long time ago, I
can't believe it was only a week and a half.

Galway, too, seems quite distant at the moment. It'll
be strange arriving "home" there later tonight.

One of small frustrations about travelling has been
that my favorite things to post are the short
vignettes about particular thoughts or experiences.
Its the little things, really, that make travels
interesting. But my time online has been so limited
and I've felt the need to provide the 'big picture'
details in order to put everything in a frame of
reference, so a lot of those great little posts and
stories that I composed in my head while wandering
about this town or that were skipped or forgotten.

Hopefully, several of them will come back to me over
the next couple of days.

Here's a couple quick thoughts on Venice though, while
they're fresh...

First off, its one of the few places I've been that
has turned out to be more or less exactly as I
expected it. You've all seen it in movies,
commercials, etc. They don't pick a few key
highlights to loop over and over... that's really what
the whole town is like. It's cool, and yet, at the
same time, after a day or two, it gets somewhat
repetitive.

Venice is also without a doubt, the most difficult and
confusing city I've ever tried to navigate. One of
the top things the guidebook suggested was to just get
lost in the city.

Fortunately, that's one of the easiest things to do in
Venice, particularly when you have a map that only
occassionally represents reality.

Also fortunately, you really can't go wrong in doing
so. It's an island, and a rather small one at that,
and at least during daylight, I really don't think
there were any areas you wouldn't feel safe wandering.
I did find myself in some awfully quiet streets on my
way back from dinner last night, but eventually found
the main flow of traffic once again.

Here's a random thought... For a tiny, isolated
tourist town, Venice has an extremely disproportionate
number of toy and hobby shops! And not just
traditionally crafty souvenier toys, but full-out
action figure/collectible type places, with a small,
but diverse selection of model kits, including many
premium brand stuff that you would only find in the
increasingly rare hardcore hobby shops back home. In
fact, I really had to struggle and reason with
temptation when, in one shop, I found a Trumpeter kit
of the John W. Brown--the WWII Liberty Ship upon which
I sailed with my grandparents several years ago when
it was touring the Great Lakes.

My next update will be from back in Ireland, and I'll
get my pictures up over the next few days. There's
over 500 of them, so I'll have to pick and choose and
slim down the list a bit.

Now on to planning my next side trip.

Scotland/England/Wales with Justin G in June? Or will
I fit something else in first? France? Poland?
Amsterdam??

I've got 17 minutes left. Let's see what Ryan Air has
available in the next few weeks..........

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around

http://mail.yahoo.com

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Ahhh, Venice...

...where internet rates are freaking insane!

Therefore, just a quickie to let you know I made it here to my final destination on this trek. Unless I happen to find a more reasonably priced net cafe, (maybe at the train station or airport on my way out of town?) this will probably be my last post until I get back to Galway late Monday/early Tuesday A.M.

It's really been a cool trip and I'll have many more details and pictures to post up about it over the next week or so. I can't believe it's only been a little over a week since I left Ireland, and yet already almost a month since I left home!

Friday, April 27, 2007

P.S.

This net cafe seems to be blocking a lot of stuff and
won´t let me log in to Blogger, for example. This
post and the last one were made via email, hence the
weird formatting and the Yahoo mail tagline at the
bottom. Just ignore that.

I also wanted to update the ´1000 Words...´ but that
will have to wait until I can actually log into the
blog later.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around

http://mail.yahoo.com

Ulm Sweet Ulm

After the sidetrip to Pisa from Florence turned out
to be so easy and cheap, I had been hoping I could do
a quick sidetrip to Ulm this morning and then go to
Salzberg this afternoon, but it turned out both
tickets were much more expensive than I thought, and I
wouldn´t really have enough time to make it worth it,
so I had to choose just one.

I heard many great things about Salzberg, and what I
saw of Austria coming through it on the train really
made me want to go back. The only thing I heard about
Ulm from people I´d asked was ´its like Des Moines,
but with a few gothic buildings´.

Well, nonetheless, I chose Ulm. I believe I have
family roots here, as my Great Grandmother´s maiden
name was Ulm, and I do have relatives living in this
general part of Germany to this day. In addition, my
Grandfather apparently always had a fascination with
the Ulm Cathederal. After seeing it, I can understand
why. So Ulm won out on the personal and sentimental
vote.

Overall, Ulm is actually a rather pleasant city. Not
quite a tiny town, but easy enough to walk and cover
most of the city in a few hours...

A couple of interesting highlights beside the
cathederal... its birthplace of Einstein! Also, you
may have you seen a commercial recently (I think its
for a bank or credit card company) guy with a homemade
glider is going to jump and try and fly across the
river with the whole town watching. An old guy says
something like ´ah, but can he swim?´ He jumps and of
course, lands in the river.

Well, that really happened, just a few hundred yards
down the Danube river from where I´m sitting right
now!

Pretty cool... There are some other neat buildings,
around town, too.

Maybe Des Moines wouldn´t be that bad, either.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around

http://mail.yahoo.com

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Oh my... the stereotypes are true

I was at a beerhall for dinner just now, and spotted a guy wearing a T-shirt bearing the likeness of the man known to my generation as Michael Knight, the man behind the wheel of the Knight Industries Two Thousand. It read,

"DON´T HASSLE THE HOFF".

I kid you not.


So again, everything ebbs and flows... I left the hostel this morning and managed to find a nice pension (guesthouse...basically a B&B as it includes breakfast even) just a few blocks away. The room is tiny, and there is a shared bathroom, but at least I have my own room, and the place is clean, quiet, and thus-far, anyways, devoid of any shit outside the toilet.

It sounds like I lucked into it as they had a last-minute cancellation. I´m not complaining. It´s just about perfect for my idea of budget travel, and reminds me a lot of the B&B I stayed at in Dingle 2 years ago. Minus the scenery and twice the price, but whatever... A huge step up from the hostel, and actually quite a bit less than I was willing to pay to get out of the hostel for tonight.


Oh yeah, while chatting with my buddy Rob the other day, who spent a few months living in Brussels for work a few years back, he mentioned that living abroad will surely teach you a lot about yourself. Along those lines, I´ve learned in the past day that it turns out I really like weiner schnitzel! Go figure. A dishonor to my German heritage, I´m embarrassed to say I really didn´t even know what it was until I got here. Breaded and fried cutlet of pork or veal, with a little bit of lemon squeezed over the top, usually served with fries or mashed potatoes?

Good stuff.

Anyways... just got done with dinner and am on my way over to check out Frülingsfest... i.e. Springfest, the ´little sister´ to Oktoberfest.

Scheiße!

Wow... Not quite sure what to say. I finish off my beer last night, lock up my stuff in the locker and head on down to the dorm. I fell asleep easy enough, but at some point in the night, the lights all come on and someone is talking loudly. The lights are on a timer, so they keep going off, but this guy keeps turning them back on again, still talking loudly, obviously trying to wake somebody. I figured its early morning and he and his buddy need to leave, and they´re just being really inconsiderate.

Well, to make a long and disgusting story short, but no less disgusting, apparently some old guy completely shit himself in his bunk on the other side of the dorm! The guy I heard talking was kicking him out. The old guy took his bedding with him, but as a final F-U, dumped a bunch of its contents right in the doorway! Soon, everyone was awake from the noise and the lights and the smell. Staff soon came in and cleaned it up, but that took a while, and the smell lingered for a while.

I eventually nodded back off, but with folks coming and going, it was not a restful night. I was woken up by my neighbor´s alarm which repeatedly shouted "Gooooooooood morning Vietnam!!!!!!! This is not a test, this is rock and roll, from the delta to the DMZ!!!!" in progressively louder voices, waking everyone around except its intended. I stumbled out of bed and headed down to the showers.

They were cold. That was the last straw.

My first order of business for today is to try to find another room for tonight. I´ve pre-paid for another bed there, but that´s a definite plan B--make that, like... Plan X--at this point.

There´s a tourist office nearby that will help with rooms, but they don´t open until 10:00 so I´m killing time here.

Unfortunately, right now is Springfest, the ´little brother´ of Oktoberfest, so rooms are scarce and pricy, so I may be back there again. At least I´ll be in a smaller 5-person dorm, rather than the big 25-person one from last night, and really... not to tempt fate here, but could it get much worse??

I know many of you have said you´re living vicariously through this blog... Just wanted you to know that not everything has been all smelling like roses! ;)

I´ll get through it though... live and learn.

Lessons Learned:
The good... hostels are cheap
The bad... there´s a reason
The ugly... Scheiße!!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Life is gut

I´m sitting in the bar at the hostel, which has a net cafe attached to it, semi-watching the Liverpool-Chelsea match--the finals of the UEFA Champions League. Drinking Augustiner Dunkel (dark) and just soaking up the crazy atmosphere and circumstances... Who´da thunk it.

Life is good. (in case anyone thought I was really saying ´gut´, as in beer gut, which could be fitting, too...)

MMmmm... Bratwurst, sauerkraut and hefeweisen...

In otherwords, München!

Wonderful train ride up through the Alps this afternoon. Austria is simply stunning. I´m now going to be having my first hostel experience. Found a place just outside the train station. Cheap, seems safe enough... Good to be saving a few Euros for a change. But definitely a change from the rather swanky hotels I had in Rome and Florence.

Much more later. I just was getting used to those goofy Italian keyboards where they moved all the punctuation around. Now on top of that, the Germans swap the ´z´ and ´y´ keys, and add a few extras. Fun!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Not gonna start living in fear now

Despite this article that Dad sent me, I decided to go ahead with my plans to hit Munich. I've got my train ticket for tomorrow, and a return ticket to Venice overnight Friday-Saturday. So the rest of my itinerary should now be set. I already have arrangements in Venice for Saturday and Sunday nights before heading back to Galway on Monday. Now I just need to find a place to stay in Munich, and I'm golden.

I'll be extra cautious, which will unfortunately dampen my mood and enjoyment of the place, but I'm looking forward to finally seeing at least one country where I have some definite, known ancestry.

By the way, for those fans of the GASTLR, I've been trying my best to keep a running tally that I'll update in full when I get back. Italy has not been so pro-UM and pro-Detroit, although I did see a Tigers hat while waiting in line to see The David this afternoon, and inside the gallery, there was a family with a college-aged kid wearing not only a UM hat, but an Ashley's T-Shirt. With that shirt, I knew he'd appreciate a hearty 'Go Blue' and found out that he was born in Port Huron as the family had lived in Croswell for a while before moving to Grand Rapids. A small world indeed.

Oh, I did get to see The David, but didn't make it into the Uffuzi today, unfortunately. Just one of those days, which started with me locking my luggage keys inside my backpack by mistake. It's gotten better though, and I'm now off back to the hotel to hope to try and reconnect with Jen and her cousins, otherwise it looks like another dinner alone shortly.

Oh, finally... GO WINGS! Glad to see they finally made it out of the first round again. Now can they go the distance???

Well, I'm in Greece Florence!

This is a fantastic town! Rome was great for the significant sites to see there, but overall, it had that rushed, big city feel. While Florence isn't a 'small town' (pop. 350,000 give or take) it has much more of a quieter, small town feel, not to mention some great historical and architectural sites in its own right!

Yesterday, we (oh yeah, I did manage to meet up with Jen and her cousins, btw. They all say 'hi') climbed the Duomo (dome of the cathederal)--a mere 466 steps compared to the 550+ of St. Peters. Then a quick stop at San Croce, another cathederal, which just happens to also have inside it, within a couple dozen yards of each other, the final resting places of Galilleo, Michaelangelo, Dante and Machiavelli, among others!

In the afternoon, we hopped a train for a quick side-trip over to Pisa. Aside from the leaning tower, and the piazza and cathederal near it, there's not too much else in that town, though the main street up towards the piazza from the train station has a sort of dingy, creepy but cool feel that I have always imagined New Orleans to be like. (Who would've guessed I'd see Pisa before seeing the French Quarter?).

Today I'm hoping to catch the Uffuzi Gallery and the Gallerie dell'Acadamia, which houses Michaelangelo's David. But first I need to spend some time figuring out where I'm going tomorrow.

I think I'm going to head up to Munich for a few days before heading back down to Venice on Saturday. Although Dad just forwarded me a new travel alert for threats against US interests in Germany. Great. We'll see what the train schedules and costs are going to be first, but if I head up there, I'll be going with great caution.

More when I can...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

on the train

or on A train anyways. Hopefully its the train to Florence. if not... Greece?

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Postscript

Last night, while meandering some narrow streets near Piazza Navonna, I came across a busker playing an accordion. I always have a soft spot for street musicians, so I plopped down a .50 cent coin as I walked by. As I did so, I noticed most of the other coins in the stack were 1 and 2 euro coins.

I got a few steps further away, and he started playing the theme to 'The Godfather.'

I picked up my pace.

Veni Vidi Vici

I'm not sure whether I've conquered Rome, or Rome has conquered me, but either way, there's been a whole lotta conquering going on!

Either way, we'll both live to fight another day, but I am beat for now.

I got up early this morning and headed more or less straight to the Colosseum. Now, granted, its only half the size of Michigan Stadium, and is almost as run-down as Ohio Stadium, but I gotta admit, I was impressed.

I guess its just something that I found I could relate to, much more than all the grandeur and history of the Vatican. I guess if I were more religious, The Vatican would have just floored me (as it was, it was impressive as, uh... heck). But being inside the Colosseum was just really, really cool. The fact that it was the only thing I absolutely wanted to do today, and I got there early and it was still nice and relatively cool, helped. I took my time walking around it several times, and plopped down on some steps 'on the 50' for a while and just let my imagination wander.

My name is Tristan, and I'm a stadium-a-holic.

After that, I wandered over and had some lunch, then caught a tour of Palatine over-looking The Forum. By this time, though, the mid-day heat was brutal, and I was already feeling exhausted after yesterday. (I estimate that I probably walked at least 10 miles yesterday, and that's not including the 550+ steps I climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter's.)

I slowly made my way over to San Clemente, which was really cool in more ways than one--a 4th century church, with a 2nd century church that's been excavated beneath it, with a pagan temple one level below that, even! Aside from being fascinating, it was a great reprieve from the heat on the street.

By the way, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans', in my experience here, primarily means, 'jaywalk like a crazy mofo'. Seriously, that's been the one thing I've followed the locals' lead on. They're pretty insane, but it seems to be the only way to get across a lot of the busy streets.

Anyways, Rome has been great, and while I'm sure I could spend weeks here discovering great new stuff all the time, I've seen all the highlights I was hoping for, and frankly am ready to be done with it.

Tomorrow I catch a train up to Florence and should be seeing a familiar face (my friend Jen) for the first time in three weeks! I'm looking forward to that more than anything right now. Except maybe a shower and a good night's sleep.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Things just have a way of working out

Yes, this leg started out a bit rough at first. A couple of expensive cab rides to get things going, but the second hotel at least has a 4 euro shuttle into the city, and I got there just in time to catch the last one in at 11 this morning.

I've had a great day since then, hoofing it on foot all the way over to the Vatican. I got to check out all I wanted to see there (St. Peter's, the museums, Sistene Chapel, etc), and the lines and crowds were remarkably low. I even hooked up with a free guided tour by a guy from Louisiana for St. Peter's, and it was so good I agreed to cough up 25 euro for part 2, which covered the museums and the sistene chapel.

Then got a chance to check out Piazza Navonna, the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps after a good pizza dinner. Now I'm just killing some time before the shuttle bus back to the hotel.

Tomorrow I should have plenty of time to explore the ancient Rome sights I want to see, like the Colosseum, the Forum, and Palatine.

Will update more when I can.

Perspective

I hadn't planned to rush to the first internet terminal available, but I really wanted to post this while it was fresh.

In the 10 minutes I was at the internet terminal in Shannon bitching about my hotel SNAFU, about 200 U.S. soldiers and sailors had appeared in the waiting area lounge in combat fatigues. I turned around from the net terminal and there was a line of khaki that stretched the entire length of the waiting area. I realized quickly they were all lined up to put an order in at the bar.

At first, it was solemnly intriguing, but the more I looked at them, the more emotionally jarring it was. All of them lined up, and I wondered how many of them might be having their last pint of Guinness. Looking at the faces, I wondered how many of them might be having their first. I got a little choked up thinking about it.

Just as my flight was being called, I finally talked to one of them, briefly, to thank him.

They were on their way home.

And here I am feeling lucky to have made it to Rome safely.

I can deal with whatever hotel and taxi issues await me the next few days.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Knew everything was going too well

I decided to drop a euro in the net kiosk to double-check the location of my hotel in Rome. I'd seen the location when I made the reservation, and I had the address, but when I was looking at the maps in the guidebook, I couldn't find the street where I thought the location was.

So I just popped on and double-checked it, and I don't know what map I got from where when I was booking it, but the hotel is WAY outside town! :( I guess that explains the rate, but I'm going to make up for it and then some in taxis and or goods picked on busses, etc.

Damn.

Oh well... I'm going to title this chapter of my book "Rome The Hard Way".

checked in @ Shannon

travel is so much more enjoyable when you're not rushed. No prob with the bus, check in,or security. Flight boards in an hour.

Now that's more like it...

All packed up, bus ticket bought, important info collected, dishes done, lunch eaten, room cleaned up, and still about 40 minutes until I have to head out to the bus station. Not quite the same as my frantic maelstrom that my departures from Chicago and Detroit both were.

As I mentioned, updates will likely be pretty sporadic for the next 11 days or so. I fly back April 30th, but won't get back to Galway until well after midnight. I just double-checked my bus ticket and this is interesting... she sold me a ticket for the 12:30am bus for May 1st, but according to their website, the 12:30am bus only runs Wednesday and Friday. May 1st is a Tuesday. I'll have to try and sort that out when I head down to the station. Hopefully the website is wrong, but there's one at 1:15 regardless. Either way its going to be damn late by the time I get back here, especially since I'll be an hour ahead.

Anyways, its hard to believe I'm already leaving Ireland, though its not like I won't be back soon. Hopefully customs and immigration is just as smooth coming back in the country as it was the first time.

Take care, and I'll be in touch when I can!

Ciao!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Holy crap!

The reality is sinking in that in just over 24 hours, I'm going to be in Italy.

This being but a side trip from this rather significant primary adventure has kept me from realizing just how cool this trip is going to be in its own right. But its hitting me like a load of bricks now. Wow. I'm stoked!

I've never been to the mainland of Europe before. I guess I've been to non-English speaking nations before--even travelling by myself when I went to Tel Aviv. But that was for work and all I really had to worry about was getting up and getting a taxi to the office each morning, so its not quite comparable.

The language thing though really shouldn't be a problem, from everything that I've heard. But you never know what interesting experience you might run into!

The plans are about as firm as they're going to get at this point. Nothing much has changed from my last post, other than that I've decided Venice will be the end of the trip. I've made reservations in what seems like a nice place there for Saturday and Sunday nights. So I'll have from Wednesday to Saturday to get from Florence to Venice, via whatever circuitous route I may take. I'm definitely hoping it includes Munich, and I've heard from multiple sources that Salzburg is a can't miss, but who knows what might come up along the way.

Blogging on the go is a go!

The side effect of my new phone is I can now post updates by phone once again, wherever I have service. Ironically, it was one more attempt at getting the settings right for that on my old phone that apparently did it in.

I'm not certain what my international roaming is going to be like, but I'm pretty sure I'll have service and therefore be able to post a few very brief updates from Italy/Germany/wherever I end up.

Which, omigosh... I leave for tomorrow!

Kind of funny that something like that is enough of a sidenote to hardly get mentioned, but I've been scrambling this week to try and make my arrangements. I underestimated how busy Rome would be this time of year and finding a room for this weekend was tough, but I've got one now.

I don't have a full itinerary, but this is roughly what it is looking like...

Thursday - head down to Shannon in the afternoon, fly out to Rome in the evening.
Friday and Saturday - explore Rome
Sunday - head up to Florence, meet up with Jen and her cousins
Monday, Tuesday and maybe Wednesday - explore Florence--and maybe Pisa?

Now here's where it gets a bit fuzzy... I'll have until the following Sunday--correction, Monday--when I fly back to Shannon from Venice. Originally, it sounded like Jen and her cousins were going to head up to Venice on maybe Tuesday or so, but I'm not sure if that's still the case. Either way, I'll be heading north from Florence on Tuesday or Wednesday, either to Venice, or possibly straight up to Munich. I'll kind of see where the wind takes me, I suppose, but am hoping to spend a few days each in Venice, Munich, and possibly Salzburg.

Unfortunately, I never managed to track down my relatives who are supposedly living just outside Munich, so that'll have to be saved for another time. I might like to try and get to the town of Ulm, which is close to Munich, though. My great grandmother's maiden name was 'Ulm', so I'm going to assume there's some family connection there.

Whether I'm able to blog-by-phone or not, I'll try and hit a few net cafes along the way to keep you posted and keep in touch a bit more.

Whatever happens, I'm sure its going to be a great ride!

This one's for Pat up in the middle of the state

So I'm walking around town this afternoon, trying to find someone to fix my phone (70 Euro later, I now have a new phone. :( ). I'm wearing my Tigers sweatshirt, and out of the corner of my ear, I hear someone say 'Detroit!'. My head twists around, and there's a guy wearing a Red Wings sweatshirt! Schweet!

So the first non-baseball entry into the pro ranks is none other than the Wings! Too bad they're playing on ridiculous west-coast time, or I'd be drifting off to sleep listing to Ken Kal and Mickey Redmond right now... but with another hour to go until face off, I just don't think I'm going to make it.

Tack on another Red Sox hat, too, although it was hideously mis-colored.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Arrrgh! My phone just died...

Should I have known something was up when I got not one, but TWO reminders about an optional protection plan for the phone I bought off of eBay???

I was tinkering with the settings earlier, still trying to get it set up to send email. I turned it off and back on and I get a Boot Loader message and a bunch of diagnostic crap. Fanfreakintastic!

Oh, and the best part? This was about one hour before I was to have a phone interview with that company... I might've mentioned them before. The one who's sight you might GO to OGLE pictures of... whatever you'd want to ogle? Yeah. Luckily, I managed to figure out the land line number here at the house and get that to them in time.

The interview went okay, I think. It's hard to tell. If I do get it, it's going to make for some extremely difficult decision making...

Anyways, I'm off to see if I might be able to find some place in town that can take a look at my phone, or if not, try and find a cheap replacement. Luckily, if I get a new phone, I should just have to swap the sim card out and I'll be back up and running with the same number and all. But what timing.

Eventful day, and it's not over yet...

More pics and a historical snippet

I took some more pictures around town yesterday. They can be seen here.

Near the end of the set are some pics of and from the park near my house. The center of the park, I learned is Emancipation Rock:



I did a quick search to find out what was significant about it, and came across this short article from the Galway Advertiser with a bit of history of Emancipation Rock and the Shantalla neighborhood where I'm living.

Ireland loves the Ducks!

Chalk up another Oregon Ducks shirt! With another M shirt spotted at the farmer's market the other day, the 'good guys' are still in the lead. Penn State and Vermont (Hi, Meg!) have entered the race as well. I'm really surprised by the lack of ND stuff. But I'm not complaining.

Michigan 3
Oregon 2
Michigan State 1
Notre Dame 1
Penn State 1
Vermont 1

In the pro rankings, things have been quiet, but there's been another D sighting, a Philly's shirt and another Red Sox cap:

Yankees: *still disqualified*
Tigers: 3
Red Sox: 2
Indians: 1
Phillies: 1

I'm still a little surprised there've been so few pro teams and nothing outside of baseball. I did spot someone with a "Detroit Basketball" shirt the other day, but it was clearly nothing official or tied to the Pistons in any way.

btw... some have accused me, when I've played this game in the past, of being more attuned to seeing the teams I like and not noticing the others, slanting the rankings. I suppose its possible, but I'm pretty darn observative, attentive and fair. Regardless, it's my game and I'll play it how I like! :P

Monday, April 16, 2007

I'm officially a nobody in the Irish music scene

No, this isn't a frustrated, downtrodden post about my lack of skills, but rather an amusing bit about how I got to help someone out by using my lack of status.

At The Crane once again last night. Good session going on, and I end up chatting it up with accordion player Sean Gavin. Sean's brother Frankie is one of, and possibly THE best fiddle player in Irish music today, and Sean is no slouch on the box. They'd been playing there earlier, and unfortunately I missed seeing them play, but Sean was still around the pub well into the session that followed and is a helluva nice guy.

After a bit though, he asked if I could do him a favor. Turns out he'd left his accordion up near where the session (which was featuring Jackie and Tony Smalls, along with several other assorted players) was going on. He said he needed to leave, but that if he went up to get it, he'd get snookered into joining the session for a few tunes. (And I have no doubt he was right). So he asked if I'd go up and grab his accordion for him, to help him make a clean get away. I happily obliged.

We exchanged contact info, and he said he'd help me track down a pipes teacher in town, so we'll see where that goes...

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Well that was disappointing

After having an awesome falafel pita from a stand at the farmer's market yesterday, I got inspired and decided I was going to treat myself to one of my favorite dishes to make for dinner tonight--my clone recipe of La Shish's hummus with sauteed lamb and pine nuts. MMMmmm.

I found some diced lamb at Dunnes and picked up some pita and a can of hummus from the Mediterranean Store across the street from Dunnes. I didn't see any rice pilaf mix stuff, but figured some good brown rice would suffice. I decided to add a bit of dill to the rice (call it the Chicago Andes/Reza's influence) to make up for it. I set up the marinade last night and let the lamb sit in it for a day. I was really looking forward to this.

Well, I guess I'm still getting used to this stove. I completely toasted the rice. Absolutely inedible. The kernels that weren't burnt were still raw. Not off to a good start. The pita and hummus were disappointing, too. The pita might've just needed a bit more time to warm in the oven, but it was pretty dry and stiff. The lamb turned out okay. The marinade was fine, but the lamb was a little tough and the chunks were larger than I thought.

On the plus, side, I made enough to have leftovers for tomorrow. :/

Oh well... at least I managed to tune in and am listening to the final minutes of the Wings game right now as they're about to go up 2 games to 1 on the Flames. Go Wings!

Oh yeah, for anyone that's curious, here's the marinade recipe. It works well for chicken as well, if you're not a lamb fan:

1/2 cup lemon juice
4 T. olive oil
2 t. salt
1 t. oregano
1/2 t. pepper

I also occasionally add some dill, too.

Not sure it's all that close to La Shish's, but its pretty good.

Oh yeah, and the Wings won, 3-1 final. :)

Picture! Picture!

I opted for a quiet (aka 'cheap') night in last night, which gave me a chance to get all my photos to date uploaded to Flickr. I've added a link to the right under the '1000 words in a box' that'll take you to all my galleries, but here's a list of what's up so far:

Last Day at Work + Whirlyball - pics of co-workers from my last day in the office, the jam session that night, and the Whirleyball/Lasertag outing just before I left.

Moving Day, take 1 - pics of my first load of stuff to leave Chicago, plus some of my helpers!

Pirates Game - pics from the Port Huron Pirates - Rochester Raiders indoor football game that Mom took my to on my last night in the thumb. Our seats were amazing, so some of the pictures are fantastic!

The Flowing Tide Music School - pics taken in and around the school and its surrounding areas near Doonbeg, Co. Clare.

Around Galway - pretty self-explanatory: pics taken around town on a few recent walks.

House in Galway - pics of where I'm staying for the time being.


Next up will be getting a few videos up on YouTube...

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Map mystery solved?

After a bit of tinkering, and a couple emails with Jason, who runs Blogabond, I think I have the map widget straightened out. It seems like you need IE 7 or Firefox to view the map embedded on the page here. You may also need to turn off any script or pop-up blockers you have on.

If you don't want to switch browsers, but still want to see the map, I've added a link under it which goes directly to my page on Blogabond, which hosts the original map, so you can see a full version of it by clicking there. That should work with all browsers.

Sparty's on the board!

At the Crane last night, a guy walked in with a Michigan State shirt. Now, people the world over will wear Michigan, Notre Dame and New York Freakin' Yankees stuff without a clue, but let's face it... no one wears Sparty gear unless they're a Sparty. So I went over to talk to him. He didn't go there, but was from East Lansing. We chatted for a bit, and it turned out he also lived about 2 blocks from my old place in Chicago for a while. I'm growing used to these coincidences, but they still amuse me.

Oh yeah, and I also spotted an M cap at the Roisin Dubh, bringing the college totals to:
M 2
MSU 1
ND 1
Oregon 1

Oh yeah, forgot to mention...

I'm now back on yahoo messenger, at least. UserID: tristan_pruss. Feel free to add me to your list and drop me a line if you see me online. I've also installed skype and will be getting that all tested and configured soon, so if you want to 'skype' with me, let me know...

Just back from the pub

MMMmmm... Guinness... and tunes.

Headed out to the Crane Bar with Conal for a bit tonight, then to the Roisin Dubh (Black Rose), the local club. Good time, and a few pints. It's nice to be able to ramble some drunken thoughts before bed now that I'm home. Nothing too much else exciting to report. That thing about more 'quality' in the posts? Yeah, yeah... I'll start tomorrow.

Friday, April 13, 2007

As good as a pint of Guinness

The sweet elixir that flows at 6MB/sec.

We just got our cable modem and wifi set up at the house. I feel like a tool being such a slave to the net, but really... it's my primary portal with my life as it existed two weeks ago. It's also the single most useful tool for acquiring any/all knowledge that I might need over here. You really don't realize how dependant you are on internet access until you are used to having it available 24/7 for several years, and then suddenly find yourself with only sporadic (and typically limited and expensive) access to it for an extended period, in a time when you may arguably find it more useful than ever! It's never been so bad when on a brief vacation, but this situation has been completely different.

Anyways, now that I have it set up, I'm making several pledges to myself: 1) that I will not allow myself to frivolously waste away huge chunks of time doing meaningless stuff on-line in lieu of the opportunities that I have in front of me at the moment. 2) to increase the quality, of posts to this blog. Everything so far since I've left has been rather long, incoherent summaries of the nuances of each day, jumbled and pieced together due to the limitations of when I was able to post. I still plan on posting frequently, but I'm going to try and focus more on observations and perceptions, and less on the 'today I went for a walk. It was nice' type drivel. Although, it's all going to be drivel at some level or another, so we'll just see. 3) Start getting some photos up. 4) Try and sort out the mess with that map on this page or find some alternative. 5) Keep up with other folks blogs better!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Back in Ennis, briefly

I've only been here 10 days and don't really know too many people, so I wouldn't expect to have someone honk and call out to me by name while I'm walking down the street, but that's just what happened about 10 minutes ago.

It was Blackie, my pipes teacher.

I just came back down to Ennis to collect my last bag from Bill. I had asked him about trying possibly setting up another lesson with Blackie while I was down here, but he either hadn't talked to him, or hadn't been able to set up a time. Either way, he told me it probably wouldn't work out. No biggie, I need a lot more practice anyways.

So Bill and Tania met me at the bus station and I got my bag, but they had to head straight out. I checked the bus schedule and had almost an hour until the next bus back to Galway, so I decided I'd walk around town a bit and try and find my way back over here to the library. It was further than I thought, but when I was about a block away, I hear a honk and my name and look up, and there's Blackie!

We chatted for a minute while he was at a red light, but then he went on his way and I made it over here.

Well, that "next bus" back to Galway leaves in 5 minutes. I'm not going to make that one, but I think I'll try head back out and maybe catch some lunch on my way back over to the station to catch the 2:25 bus.

My next update, hopefully, will be from home over our freshly set-up broadband!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Go Get 'Em, Tigers!

I had a nice walk around town this morning/afternoon. It was the first chance I got to get over into the heart of the city centre shopping and entertainment district. What a great town. All the roads in the middle of town are pedestrian for the bulk of the day, making it a great area to just walk around, shop, eat and people watch. And today ended up being the first really nice day since the day I arrived in town, too, which helped! Of course, I didn't bring my camera with me again, which is a shame, but there will be other chances.

Walking down Quay Street, I spotted a busker (street musician) wearing a cap with a familiar olde English 'D' and 'Tigers' in script across the top. Later, on my way back to the house, I saw another guy with a Tigers cap! So not including the disqualified Yankees, that puts the Tigs in first place in the Great American Sports Teams Licensed Gear Race! I guess being the AL pays off, eh! And good to see the boys have climbed back into second in the AL Central, too.

By the way, Last night I went out to the Crane Bar with Conal to see The Mulcahy's, a family musical act. I can honestly say I've never seen a more attractive uilleann piper!

There probably won't be any updates tomorrow as I'm supposed to go back down to Ennis to meet up with Bill and collect the rest of my stuff. But by Friday, we should have broadband set up at the house.

Can't. Wait.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Settling in

Looks like I should have broadband set up at the house on Friday. My "communications" budget is getting shredded, but that's how it goes. I'm still a bit ahead of the game overall due to rent being a lot less than I'd originally anticipated, so life is good. I spoke with Aoife last night, and it turns out she'll be home tonight or tomorrow, rather than May. I'm looking forward to meeting her.

At the moment, I'm back at Mocha Beans, the local free wireless cafe. They haven't kicked me out or barred me from entering yet, so they must be tolerating my utter abuse of their 30 minute policy.

Oh, here's an update on the Great American Sports Team Licensed Goods Race: I've decided to just completely disqualify Yankees stuff once I saw an entire display at Dunnes Stores of Yankees hats in all various combinations of colors. If those folks who like to crack down on unlicensed merchandise and get their mugs on TV before every Super Bowl, Final Four, etc, really want to have some fun, all they'd need to do is spend a weekend in Ireland, targetting only Yankees properties. Seriously, everyone's wearing that crap around here. Its ridiculous.

Aside from that, I'm happy to report that during my first grocery shopping trip, I spotted a Michigan sweatshirt. Score. Unfortunately, I do think I had seen a guy with an ND hat at the bus stop the day before, so as far as college stuff goes, they're tied up at 1 each with no other competitors so far. As I was approaching the cafe, I saw someone with a Cleveland Indians hat, and that's about it. So, the standings:

Yankees: *disqualified*
Red Sox: 1
Indians: 1

Michigan: 1
Notre Dame: 1

Monday, April 9, 2007

Caught up? Maybe?

After a frantic burst, I think I'm more or less caught up on the posts. I've gone back and added several, again backdating them to approximately when they were actually written, so have a skim back through the older posts and you might just find something new!

My main mission for now is working to get a broadband connection set up at the house. I think I'm getting the evil eye from the cafe folks here. The sign on the door says 30 minute limit for wireless with any purchase. I've made two purchases, but I've been here about 3 hours. I hate feeling rushed online and really want to have things all squared away to just surf at my leisure at home. We'll see.

I'm going to try and get some photo galleries up sometime soon, but may try and wait until we have net access at home.

At least now that the Easter holiday is done and I'm settled in Galway, I should be able to hop online at least for a little bit more or less every day until we get the connection up. Hopefully.

Home is where you hang your flag




I think I can call this place home--at least for the time being. It's not a fancy place, by any means. In fact, it reminds me of my place on John Street back during my last year of college. It's got character, and more importantly, characters. Well, for the moment, anyways, its just Conal and I. Aoife is in France for a bit and will be getting back just before I head out for Italy, so I really won't get much of a chance to know her until May. The fourth room is vacant at the moment, but someone is coming to check the room out this afternoon. Conal is leaving in May, so if nothing else, this place should give me ample chance to meet a bunch of folks.

I know I was torn for a while between living in a place as large as even Galway, or trying out the country life for a good, serene chance to enjoy the quiet and reflect. Well, I had the latter for the past week at The Flowing Tide, and while it was blissfully quiet and peaceful, I think I'm quite ready for just a bit more civilization, thank you very much. Going from Chicago to a country road not even in Doonbeg, but rather between Doonbeg and Quilty was just a bit much. I could see possibly trying to find a spot in one of the mid-sized towns, like Westport or even Ennis, maybe, but I think I'm going to be quite happy here in Galway. If not... I'll try something else next month!

I was given the choice of two rooms when I arrived. The first is on the first floor, just inside the doorway. It's large, by Irish standards anyways and had a window looking out to the street and another that looked back to the patio. The second room is at the top of the stairs and is smaller, but has good character, although some hideous carpeting. It has two windows that both look out onto the street, including a small one right along side my bed. After four and a half years of living in a "garden" level (i.e. basement) room with no natural light because I had to keep the shades pulled at all times or else have everyone walking by on the sidewalk looking down into my room, I opted for the second-floor room. Not that there's much of a view, mind-you. Just a pleasant little street and some rooftops beyond it, but just being able to look outside right from my bed and have some natural light is an improvement, atmosphere-wise.

I've hung my M flag up on the wall opposite the bed, and my Tigers and Michigan caps had hanging hooks that just seemed to be waiting for them. I need to get some push pins or poster putty to mount my family pictures I brought from home nearby and then it'll be complete.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Happy (belated) Easter!

Made it through the first night, and I don't appear to be having convulsions, or cold sweats or any other horrible symptoms, so I think I'm hopefully in the clear as far as the water contamination goes.

By the way, it is Cryptosporidium.

It was a bit of a lazy Easter Sunday. I didn't really leave the house today. The sky's been threatening to drip, although nothing's fallen all day. I also wanted to hang around for a while in mid day because someone else was coming to check out the fourth room and I wanted to be here to meet any potential future housemates. She ended up not coming around until almost dinner time, though. But between those two excuses, and figuring that not much would be open on Easter Sunday anyways, it was a good day to just hang around the house.

Nonetheless, I didn't let myself waste away the entire day sitting in my room or in front of the TV. Now here's something you probably didn't expect to read about in my adventures: I spent a good chunk of the day gardening. Or, landscaping, at least. The house has a really nice backyard. Well, for an Irish city backyard, anyways, which is to say it's a fairly good-sized concrete patio, closed in by cinder block walls, with some planting areas around the sides. It'd been long over-run by weeds, though, so I spent a few hours pulling dandelions, nettles, and rogue rose vines. I tried to keep as many of the rose vines intact as I could, so long as they kept to the planting troughs. In the middle of the patio was a large circular area of dirt and stone. It may have been for planting at one time, but there was nothing but dandelions in there now, so we (by this point, Conal had joined in the effort) dug up what should make a great little bonfire pit in the middle and pulled the weeds from the rest.

It needs a little more work, and maybe we can get some good stuff to plant along the sides, but a few chairs, maybe a table and a grill, and we've got ourselves what'll be an awesome little outdoor space to hang out in for the summer!

After that, I came back in, had a frozen pizza and watched a couple episodes of The Simpsons. (How's that for some down home American comfort!) Apparently RTE runs Simpsons marathons just about every holiday. It seems that there are more current American shows broadcast over here than I expected. Lost, Scrubs and 24 are available for sure, and Conal thinks Heroes is as well. I'll have to try and look up some listings online to find out if I'll be able to keep up with The Office, or maybe even Veronica Mars! No word yet on how far behind any of them are, though.

I just got a call from Nate he passed the phone around the Easter gathering at Dad's. I even got to talk to Ethan for a second. I then gave Mom a quick call since she was the only one I hadn't talked to yet.

So life is good.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Goal for tonight: Don't get The Plague

This afternoon, after getting back from the store, I poured myself a nice glass of water. I very briefly paused, and wondered whether it was safe to drink the tap water, then reminded myself--hey, eejit, you're in Ireland, not Guatamala: the water's fine. And proceeded to down half the glass.

Later, after dinner, I thought about my slight hesitation and checked with Conal about the tap water to be sure.

"Oh yeah, I should've probably mentioned that to you. It's not drinkable. It's got, like, The Plague or something".

Only then did it come back to me--a brief note I saw flash across the news ticker along the bottom of the screen of the tiny TV at Bill and Tania's, about a water contamination crisis in Galway. I remember thinking to myself at the time, that I better find out more about that.

I really think I better find out more about that.

So far, I'm fine. As long as I'm still feeling fine in the morning, I doubt I have much to worry about. That'd be all I need, though. Some E Coli poisining or whatever it is.

Grocery Shopping Ain't What it Used to Be

I suppose one of the key, distinguishing factors between living someplace and visiting someplace is the menial tasks one does not have to partake in when only visiting--tasks such as washing dishes, changing lightbulbs, or grocery shopping. That said, while I've only been here about 6 hours, I can safely say that I'm now living in Galway.

Bill drove me into Ennis this morning and I said my farewell, although I'll be seeing him again very soon. To lighten my load on the bus and while getting around Galway, he offered to let me keep some of my stuff at his place for the time being. In hindsight, it wasn't really necessary, as I ended up taking a cab from the bus stop back to the house anyways (an overstuffed backpack and two shoulder bags was a bit more than I felt like lugging on a 15-20 minute walk, and although Conal met me at the bus stop and offered to help, I felt that wouldn't have been a great way to start off roommate relations, so a cab it was). Regardless, it'll give me a good excuse to get out of the house, and if it works out, I'm hoping to get one more pipes lesson with Blackie while I'm in Ennis to meet Bill and collect my last bag sometime next week.

So, after parting ways with Bill, I hopped on the bus for the hour long ride up to Galway.

As a side note, I love how small Ireland is. Imagine starting your morning in Portland and driving up to Seattle to briefly check out the Cascades or Mt. St. Helens or something, then heading back down through Portland and all the way over to Washington, DC, getting in just before dark and having time to check into a hotel before heading out to catch dinner and hit the town a bit. Then, the next day, you pop over to Las Vegas, while stopping to check out Smokey Mountain National Park and something cool--let's say some Mormon cathedral in Salt Lake City--on the way. Finally, on the third day, you head over to Los Angeles, take the Pacific Coast Highway down to San Diego, cruising slowly and stopping often to take in the sights, before circling back around and heading back to Phoenix for the night.

That's roughly the geographical equivalent of the last three travelling days of mine and Sarah's trip here in 2005. Just substitute Donegal for Portland, Slieve League for the Cascades, Dublin for DC, the Wicklows for the Smokey's, Rock of Cashel for the Mormon Cathederal, Killarney for Vegas, the Ring of Kerry for the PCH and Cork for Pheonix. It was a few long days, but perfectly workable.

Now, back to Galway...

As I mentioned, Conal met me at the bus stop, which was helpful, although again, since we ended up taking a cab back to the house, it wasn't really necessary, but nice of him. He seems like a really good guy. He's from Philadelphia, and other than being about 12 years younger than me (damn!), we seem to have quite a bit in common. The biggest difference is that instead of waiting until he was nearly too old for such adventures, he decided to delay college and try life abroad right after high school. He's been here since September now. Being a first generation American of Irish descent, he's qualified for dual citizenship, so he has no concerns about the nastiness of immigration and 90 day limits and such. Lucky bastard.

After giving me a key and showing me the house, which, I had pretty much decided I was going to take unless it was an absolute dump, I dropped my stuff and we headed pretty much directly for the coffee shop with free wireless. I was starving and even more, jonesing for some net access! We both checked email and had a bite, then he headed back to the house while I continued to smack away at the net like the junkie I apparently am, until they kicked me out of the place (they close at 5. What a shame.).

When I got back, I decided I better make a trip to the store to get some food, with tomorrow being Easter Sunday and all and not knowing what places would be open. There's a Dunnes Stores (have I mentioned my extended stay in the fine Dunnes Stores in Ennis?) about a 5 minute walk from here. Really, the place great. It's about as close as you'll get to a Meijers' here, I think. Full grocery, clothes, house goods, etc. Kind of a strange setup with the grocery having its own check out lanes that are kind of right in the middle of the store, semi-separating the grocery from the rest of the store, which apparently has its own check out lanes elsewhere.

Getting back to menial tasks, the fun thing about living someplace completely different is that even the menial tasks take on a bit of a new twist. There was a twisted little smile I couldn't keep from my face (the other folks in the store must have thought I was just batty) due to the sheer absurdity of the fact that I was doing such a normal thing as grocery shopping in a place that, to me, is anything but the norm. Aside from that, shopping itself was a bit of an adventure. Not that it was akin to swimming off the Great Barrier Reef with a slab of raw meat strapped to leg or anything, but in the words of Vincent Vega, "You know what the funny thing about Europe is? It's the little differences". I got so wrapped up in just looking around at what was and wasn't available, that I practically forgot to shop.

Of course, the other aspect that was new and different to me was that I've never really been a particularly cost-conscious shopper. I may occasionally look for something that's on sale, but I've never been one to scan an entire shelf to find the very cheapest brand of a particular item, or to only buy things when they are on sale. Also, I've never really been concerned about the size of a particular load of groceries, but I'm currently limited first off by what I can carry, and secondly, by value. I'm not sure, but I've read that there may be a limit to how much I can spend at a grocery store with a foreign credit card, so for the time being, I'm going to try and keep my trips limited to my available cash.

Wow... I've just rambled on for three long paragraphs about a trip to the grocery store and you're still reading? Now THAT'S dedication, folks! Give yourselves a hand! Cut to the chase--I bought some food. Bananas, a few instant noodle things, some granola bars, yogurt, OJ and a couple frozen pizzas, etc. Picked up some lightbulbs for my room and some adhesive hooks, and kept it all to just over 20 euros.

And I only got slightly lost on the way to the store the first time.

Oh yeah, and in case I need a quick taste of home, there's a McDonalds right in front of the Dunnes Stores, and a Subway across the street. I wonder if McDonald's will be open for breakfast on Easter morning.

Getting there...

I've got a couple backlogged posts up, but the net cafe is closing down now, so I'll have to finish catching up later.

I've backdated all the posts to about the time they were written, so that they show up in roughly chronological order, so you'll need to go back and read from a few days back to start getting caught up.

There's plenty more coming, but it'll probably be up tomorrow...

I'm alive and well.

Wow, I did not expect to be completely cut off from internet access for the entire week, nor did I anticipate what tremors and withdrawl I'd go through without it!

But I'm back in the relative civilization of Galway city after a wonderful week in the wilds of West Clare!

I've got a backlog of posts on my thoughts from the past week that I'm going to still get posted up here shortly, but wanted to just let everyone know I haven't fallen off the sea cliffs or anything.

More in a few...

Friday, April 6, 2007

Return to Ennistimon

Did you hear the one about the Yank, the Brit, the Russkie and the two Paddy's in the car on their way to a session? If you had, I wish you would've told me how it'd end.

Actually, it was quite grand, but the ride up to Ennistimon was definitely one of those moments where you just have to sit back and smile and take a look at your situation and wonder if you could ever have imagined yourself right there and right then. That it was dusk on yet another beautiful night here weather-wise (my apologies to all those back home--apparently I brought all the good weather here with me!) just added to the moment.

Bill had a gig tonight at the Falls Hotel in Ennistimon. Tania--a classically trained pianist from Russia--was taking her electronic keyboard along. We were picked up at Bill's place by--no joke here--Richard Gere (name may be spelled differently), a Welshman via England, only transplanted to Ireland 6 years ago. A few miles up the road in Quilty, we picked up Martin, an accordion player. We all crammed in, with Richard's guitar, Martin's two accordions, Tania's electric keyboard and Bill's assortment of flutes and whistles. Keep in mind that cars in Ireland are typically pretty small. This particular car was typical.

I was excited to re-visit the town of arguably my most memorable night on my last trip. Keeping in mind my interactions with some of the local colorful characters, I made sure to transfer my wallet to my front pocket for safe keeping. Ha. I needn't have bothered.

Today is Good Friday, the only day of the year (Christmas apparently being only partially compliant these days) when pubs are closed across Ireland. Hotels such as The Falls were apparently able to keep their pubs open, but only for guests (and musicians, and musicians' guests). The local characters like Jerry, Jimmy and Jamesy would likely never be allowed inside The Falls on a normal occasion, and certainly wouldn't have been able to take of the drink tonight, so there wouldn't have been much point.

Driving into town, I got a quick glimpse at the quiet, darkened town and tried to stitch together my current impressions with my recollections. Franco's Fast Food was still there. I spotted the Chinese take-out place, though I think it may have changed names. The Carraig is now The Fisherman's Roost or something like that and looks to be cleaned up a bit, from the outside anyways. I wonder if its still 'The Hatchet' to the locals.

Of course, Cooley's House was still there. It was smaller than the grand memories it holds for me, but it was good to see it again. Bill mentioned that it's been sold in the past year or so, for some ungodly amount of money. I wonder if Joan still works there, or if she's kicking it in style in the Carribbean these days.

Inside The Falls, the bar--The Dylan Thomas Bar, no less--was fairly full, but not packed. It was a pretty typical classy hotel bar. In other words...nice, but not overly dripping with character. As settings for traditional music go, it was 'meh', but if the tunes are good, the setting is not so important. And the tunes (and a few songs, compliments of Richard) were just fine.

As everyone I knew in the place was playing and there were no empty tables nearby anyway, I pulled up a chair next to Bill and just had a good listen for a while. About an hour in, a fellow rolled up with a bodhran. Now either my sense of rhythm is even more terrible than I thought, or this guy's was worse. I think I'm starting to see where the hate for bodhrans comes from.

After I was pretty sure that no matter what I did, I couldn't be any worse, I asked him if he'd mind if I took a spin with it at some point. He tried to hand it over to me right away, but they were in the middle of a set of hornpipes--not my percussive forte--so I declined. The next jig that came up though, he again thrust it at me, and I somewhat reluctantly took and with that, popped my session cherry for the trip. After a few tunes on the drum, Martin asked if I had anything I'd like to play on the whistle, and Bill handed over his Chris Abell D in blackwood--probably the finest whistle I've ever laid my hands on. (Although I must say, based on first impressions, I prefer my Glen Schultz Thin Weasel. Give me a bit more time to get used to the Abell and I might change my mind, though).

I gave the old college try to the Castle Ceili Band hornpipe set--Scully Casey's into Humours of Tullycrine--that we learned in class. I kept the pace nice and slow, and only butchered that one spot that I always butcher, so I came away satisfied. Apparently it wasn't too terrible as they pressed me for another and Martin backed me on The Silver Spear. They tried for another, but I needed some time to try and come up with something else that I really had down pat enough to try and do well. Unfortunately, it never came back around to me as the session was wrapping up, though I'd decided on a few slides that I enjoy playing, and figured since they'd likely be letting me solo it anyways, no one would mind a few Kerry tunes in Clare that night.

Either way, it had to figure that my first chance to play in public on this trip would be in the very town where two years ago I was corralled on stage for an awful, drunken rendition of Star of the County Down on my harmonica.

I'll have to make it back again on a Saturday night though before I leave, just to take in the Folk Songs and Ballads at Cooley's House once more.

Futility is...

... trying to get internet access of ANY kind in Doonbeg on Good Friday.

... trying to get fresh paint out of jeans with only a sponge and hot water.

... hanging a load of laundry out to "dry" in the midst of a thick Irish sea mist.

... learning to play the uilleann pipes.

That's been my day so far. How about yours?

Update: Two hours later, the paint is hardly noticeable on my jeans, the sea mist has burned off and my clothes are nearly dry, and the B part of "Gander in the Pratie Hole" (what did I just say about those tune names???) is coming along rather nicely.

But you're reading this no less than a day (ed. try 3 days!) after I'm writing it because I still can't get my flippin' phone to send email, let alone a real net connection of any sort.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Day 3: Me, the Bike and the Neighbor's Dog

Bill, Tania and I talked a bit over breakfast this morning about the humor and at times, absurdity, of traditional tune names. Tunes like "Mickey Chewing Bubble Gum", and "The Britches Full of Stitches" and "Tripping up the Stairs". And yet, strange and funny as many of them may be, they have an honest truth to their origin. Someone had a dandy little polka melody pop into their head while watching Mickey chew on a wad of bubblegum one day who knows how many (or how few) years ago, and there you have it.

While a tune didn't come to me at the time, I decided after this morning, that if a fast, frantic and ominous reel ever materializes in my head, I'll call it "Me, the bike, and the neighbor's dog".

Bill and Tania left to head back into Ennis for the day, leaving me as master of the house to practice and relax as I saw fit. Bill also left out his bike for me, pointing out that it would be a beautiful day for a ride (and it was! If I improved my piping every time someone's mentioned to me how lucky I've been with the weather we've had the past few days, I'd be Seamus Ennis himself!)

After a short and frustrating morning practice session, I decided to hop on the bike and ride the couple hundred yards down the road to the beach. About halfway there, I heard a dog start barking and looked to see a golden lab hell bent for leather in the yard just ahead off to my right. The yard was closed in by a short stone and dirt berm, so I wasn't too concerned at first, but I picked up my pace anyways. The dog did not slow his as he approached the berm just about even with me (good pursuit angles on that one) and I realized he had every intention and ability to leap it without breaking stride.

Now I'm not normally scared of dogs. I know that if you show no fear, tell them 'no' and 'go home' in a loud stern voice, you'll usually be fine. But I was on a bike (for the first time in over a year, no less) in strange terrain on a narrow, loose gravel road without anyone who had any inkling of who I was within at least an hour drive. And this dog looked like he meant serious business. And I'm not sure what the vaccination laws are in this country. I pedalled my heart out with the dog running right along side me for about a hundred yards before he finally dropped back and eventually gave up chase.

Just around a bend I passed a small house sitting practically on the road, and laying in front of it was a black dog, who eyed me curiously without moving a muscle outside his face as I rode past.

"Go have a chat with your pal down the street about how to greet strangers", I thought to him.

I reached the beach in one piece, pulled the bike off the road and stowed it against the seawall and proceeded to walk the beach and the stone dam just behind it, closing off a small man made lake from the sea for about the next hour. It's been quite surreal and at the same time, hyper-realistic absorbing the natural setting that I've found myself in the past few days. The sights, the smells and the sounds (or more notably, lack thereof) are simultaneously comforting and jarring. Its been representative of my overall mood, too, as I've been in a bit of a tweener state lately, not quite feeling the relaxed and unbridled joy that comes of being someplace on vacation, yet knowing I certainly am not 'home', either.

After a bit, I headed back up to the bike, and started the short ride back to the school, bracing myself for another encounter with the yellow dog. As I approached, I strategized that my best plan would be to build up enough speed as I approached that he'd have less time to react and perhaps I could be well past before he even made it out to the road. I was building up speed as I passed the black dog, still laying in the same spot, who gave me a look as if to say, "you know that'll never work, right?".

Approaching that yard again, I was on full alert. No sign of--wait a minute, there's vicious dogs alright. I can hear one of them now. Peddle harder. Did I mention this dog has a great sense of pursuit angles? My pre-emptive speed build up gained me nothing. He met me at full speed and hopped the berm just ahead of me. Swerving to avoid him, I went off the road slightly into the grass and weeds and for a moment, I thought that was it. But I somehow kept the bike upright and just kept peddling. My mind immediately began racing to try and recall/calculate the distance between where the dog had given up the first place and the projecting that along this route back to determine where I might loose him. I did mention that the entire route from the school to the beach is only a few hundred yards, right? And I'd estimated he'd chased me about a hundred yards on the way out. I think you see where I'm going with this. And the dog seemed to be hanging right close by. Fortunately, he did drop off just before I reached the school, but had he held out any longer, I don't think I could've continued to outrun him past the school. Not to mention that there's a T-Junction just beyond the school, so the prospect of having to slow down for a turn or take my chances on the loose gravel wasn't particularly appealing, either.

I decided that tomorrow, if I go for a bike ride, I'll have a look down the other way and see what's on at least one end of that T-Junction.

When Bill and Tania got home and asked if I'd gone for a ride, I mentioned that I had a bit of a close call with the neighbors dog. Bill asked, "Oh, did ye ride off that way, then did ye?" and indicated the intended direction of tomorrow's ride.

Maybe I'll just stay here and practice all day tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Day 2: Observations from Ennis

Day 2 dawned early for a trip into Ennis to meet with Michael 'Blackie' O'Connell, who would be my pipes instructor. First stop was the public library for me to get my internet fix. After that, Bill decided to show me around town a bit while waiting for Michael to return his call regarding the scheduling of my lesson. As I'd later find out, Bill had talked to him two days prior, but hadn't really arranged much in terms of a schedule. Such is the Irish way.

Eventually, he got in touch with Michael to find out that he was working and wouldn't be able to do the lesson until around 5. So, we proceeded to kick around town a bit to kill some time. At one point, Bill dumped me off on my own to explore the glór music center, which I inquired about after having seen it profiled on a segment of a travel show a few weeks back. It turned out to be rather disappointing, as the show and other things I'd heard made it sound as if it were a place where there was musical magic happening all the time, but in reality, it's essentially just a small--albeit very nice--music venue, and there were no performances going on during the day while I was there, although there was a nice cafe and a beautiful gallery of photos from Kilkee, just down the coast from Bill's school.

After my visit to glór, I was to meet Bill at the Dunnes Stores across the street "in about an hour". Irish time being what it is, I finally caught up with him about 3 hours later after an extended period of sitting in the cafe at the store, sipping a cappuccino, people watching and consciously working to remind myself that a constant need to be in touch and have everything happening against a pre-determined schedule is not essential to life. Still, I did make a few phone calls to Bill, leaving voice mail once after about an hour beyond the scheduled meeting time and getting through to him again about a half hour later, when he informed me he'd be there in "fifteen minutes". Another half hour later, I spotted him down the aisle. To be fair, it turned out one of his many daughters had had some car trouble, and he'd been helping her out. I'd say all was quickly forgiven, but there was really no fault to find in the first place. We still had nearly an hour until the lesson, and there wasn't too much else to be seen in town at that point.

We headed back to the car to collect my pipes, then made our way over to Michael's place for the lesson. Bill dropped me off and left us to it. Michael was much younger than I suppose I had expected (and younger still than I had thought when I found out his age after spending nearly the full 90 minutes with him). I had pegged him to be about my age, give or take, but turned out to be off by about 6 or 7 years, apparently. Regardless, he is a fantastic piper and a very friendly fellow indeed. And patient too, which was an absolute necessity, given my state of affairs once I strapped into this beast that passes for an instrument in some parts. And that's really about all that needs to be said about the specifics of the lesson itself, other than to state that I'll be seeing him again on Friday, so either it wasn't that bad, or he is really desperate for the money.

Here's a few observations and thoughts from wandering around town with Bill:

1. It's always interesting, and sometimes a bit of a fun game, to try and figure out whether someone Bill greets and exchanges pleasantries with on the street or in a store is a random stranger, a friend or acquaintance, or one of his 15 children. We've gone into many stores, and I've lost count now of how many of them were tended by one of his daughters.

2. Given that I was meeting my pipes instructor for the first time--and also that I expected it to be someone much older--I made the decision to, not necessarily "dress up" as in suit and tie or anything, but to put on a good appearance. I wanted to convey that I was serious about this, and not give the impression of being some schleppy young American without a decent sense of respect for the elders in the music community and the tradition, so I put on my corduroys and a solid button down shirt. Since it was a bit chilly, I also had a light sweater on over top. Back home, this would be considered a solid "business casual" getup. Through my observations on the street and in the shopping aisles of Dunnes, I was a bit comically horror-stricken to realize that I was dressed nearly identically to just about every 60+ year old man (Bill included) I saw. Had I only substituted jeans for the cords, I could've at least brought myself down into the mid 40's to mid 50's range. To be fair, I hadn't exactly planned on spending the entire day seeing and being seen around town like that. I thought we were going in more or less directly for the lesson and back out (as did Bill, apparently). Of course, when I met Michael and found him to be in his mid-20's and dressed far more casual and hip than myself, it made the whole exercise even more pointless, but... so goes it. Friday, I'll be a bit more comfortable for sure.

3. Another little game I like to play when people watching, either while on a trip or in some other large, mixed crowd, is to keep a mental tally of American sports team/college paraphernalia I see. So far, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox appear to be the only ones on the board, with the Yankees having about a 6-1 lead over the BoSox. It seemed to be about that way on my last visit too, as Yankees gear is incredibly popular, for no particular reason other than its association with America (which, shockingly, still seems to hold some fashion appeal, anyways). I'm a bit surprised I haven't seen any Notre Dame gear yet, and though I'm sure it will lead the college rankings in the long run, I do so hope that Michigan can somehow jump out to an early lead.

On a related note, I can say that I've had my first quasi-UM connection though: I spoke with one of my potential future Galway housemates the other day, and it turns out her father is a fellow Michigan grad.

Quick update from Ennis

I apologize for the lack of updates since Chicago. It turns out my Irish phone isn't set up to send email at the moment, so I haven't been able to blog-by-phone as I was from my old phone, and the school I'm at doesn't have internet right now (they've cancelled their dial-up in anticipation of getting broadband, but so far, it hasn't come through yet). I'm at the public library in Ennis at the moment, soon to be heading over for my first lesson on the pipes. I'm a bit nervous, but excited.

I have a few long posts that I've been collecting on the plane and before bed last night on the travels so far, but I'm going to have to wait until a later time to get them transferred up here.

Suffice to say at the moment that everything has been terrific! I had no problems getting through immigration and customs, my even made the flight, and I had a wonderful first day/evening with Bill and Tania at The Flowing Tide Music School and am looking forward to the rest of my week here in Clare before moving on up to Galway next week.

Note: I just switched the timezone settings over to Irish time, which apparently changed the time for all posts, current and past. Not sure if I'll keep it that way, or set it back to EDT or CDT, but it is what it is for now.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Day 1: Thoughts from sea level, give or take a few

As it goes, there's something to the luck of the Irish, and it extends to long-term visitors as well apparently. I debarked at Shannon and took a deep breath as I approached passport control. I handed over my passport and landing card and the fellow asked how long I was staying. When I replied "just under 90 days", he got just the slightest trace of a scowl--slight enough that I may very well have imagined it, even--and asked why. I replied tourism and explained that I was on a sabbatical from work. He wasn't smiling, but he asked no further questions as he stamped my passport and signed off on a 90 day permission to remain in the country. No need to show a return ticket, no need to show financial viability or proof of medical insurance. With that, I was in the country with full permission to stay for the duration of my trip (now granted, returning from any side treks I may undertake will be a different case each time, but one step at a time).

After passing through passport control, I took up station at the baggage carousel next to Dobbs and lamented how pointless it probably was for me to be standing there waiting. While our delay at the gate in Detroit probably improved the chances that my bags made it onto that flight to Chicago, I really doubted they'd made the jump in Chicago to the Dublin/Shannon flight. And yet, low and behold, after about 7 minutes, off rolls an Eagle Creek backpack with neon green luggage tags. A moment later, my roller bag was right behind it!

There was no line at customs either, and I passed through there with no problems whatsoever and was out in the terminal, right where two years ago I met a very frazzled Sarah, after her day-long delay in London en route to Shannon.

It took me a few minutes of wandering about and finally asking someone where the bus pickup was, but made my way out to the bus stop with plenty of time to catch my bus to Ennis. I managed to get in touch with Bill's wife, Tania to let her know I was in and on schedule to be arriving in Ennis at around 12:25 and she assured me Bill would be there to meet me.

I boarded the bus, which was over half-empty, giving me plenty of room to stretch out, and proceeded to try and post an update to the blog. However, it looks like at the moment, I'm not set up to send email from my phone, a bit to my dismay. I've looked through the set up stuff, but I may need to call o2 to see what I need to do to get that up and running.

The bus ride from Shannon to Ennis was a bit surreal, as has been the rest of the day, really. Its so strange to be in someplace so foreign, and yet still so familiar. The giddy excitement of seeing someplace new really is only good for a first time viewing. I found myself somewhat amused at how unimpressed I was by the fact that I was now riding along in a foreign country, 3000 miles from home. However, the first time I looked up and out my window on the right side of the bus and saw a car zip by in that lane to our right, it still was enough of a jolt to force a wry smile across my face.

At the Ennis bus station, Bill was there to meet me as promised. He drove me over first to the classical music school in town where Tania is teaching so that I could meet her briefly, though I would be seeing her back at the school/their home (which are one in the same) later.

He took me back to the school via the scenic route, passing through the hills of west Clare en route to Miltown Malbay, Quilty, and eventually the school, which is situated in the middle of rural farmlands, right along the coast. The view out the window of my room looks across fields with the sea just beyond it. It is quiet, serene, and smells alternately of peat fires and cow manure. I love it.

I am the only "student" here this week, so it is just to be Bill, Tania and myself. He has arranged for lessons from a piper in Ennis, so we'll be driving back out to Ennis tomorrow for said lessons. If you're reading this now, I've made it that far and am at the internet cafe in Ennis (edit: Actually, I only checked in briefly from the library in Ennis and wasn't able to get this updated until now, in Galway), as it turns out they don't even have dial-up here at the moment. Broadband is on its way, but they have apparently cancelled their dial-up in anticipation of that, and it has taken longer than expected.

Bill gave me the grand tour of the place, which, as I mentioned is his and Tania's rather modest home. There are a few extra rooms for student/guests, and there is a "music room" that is attached, but has its own exterior entrance only. He then made me a "light snack" of a couple of the freshest eggs I've had in many years, soft-boiled, with a bowl of Mueslix, then left me to take a nap as he ran back into town to run some errands.

He woke me out of a solid slumber a couple hours later to inform me that dinner was going to be ready in 10 minutes time. I had lamb with vegetables that had been slow cooking all day, along with boiled potatoes and what I first thought was spinach, but which was apparently a type of local sea grass. A very traditional meal, all told, but what it may have lacked in flavor, it made up for in freshness and authenticity. I'm not always a big lamb fan, but the meat was very tender and rather tasty.

After dinner I spent some time reading "The Lost Continent" by Bill Bryson, which Bill handed to me. Very enjoyable and entertaining read of an American brought up in Des Moines, Iowa, who fled Iowa to live a life abroad when he reached adulthood, and later in life, embarked on a journey of nostalgia and observation through small-town America. His observations and recollections of life in Iowa struck a very familiar and humorous chord to my experiences growing up in Michigan's 'thumb' region. Enough so that while it was a hilarious read, it was also giving traces of home sickness already in just my first hours away.

Just before turning in for the night, I asked Bill if he'd be so kind as to play a few tunes for me on the flute and he happily obliged. As Tania went up to bed, Bill and I had a nightcap of warm scotch as he shared with me many thoughts on traditional music and its place in the world and the local (as well as his personal) history that it is rooted in. To sum up the conversation in a few words or paragraphs put out via electrons and spread across the globe would be to do a disservice to the very nature of the conversation. But I feel like I learned more about what it really means and takes to play traditional music in that 30 minutes or so without having picked up an instrument than in many classes and practice sessions on my own.

One key thing that I got out of the talk though, was about where so many of the student's Bill has hosted at the school have come from. Germany, the US, and even Japan. All around the world, Bill explained, there are pockets of people who find themselves deeply rooted to the soul of the tradition. He even offered some anthropological theories on this, but the main point I took away from it is that the love and passion of folk music and the tradition runs much deeper than even a few generations of ancestry (and in many cases, older than the tunes currently in the tradition themselves). It immediately helped to put my mind at ease about the self-consciousness I've always had about my interest in Irish music and culture, despite no known Irish roots in my family tree. Whether its in fact due to some fairly ancient ties to the bardic tribes that scattered across Europe many centuries ago or not, it is clear that under Bill's roof, all who feel the love of the music and who respect it are welcome to be a part of it.

Thoughts from 37,000

Well, I'm not sure it's the total and absolute relieved and content feeling I expected it to be, but its pretty damn close. There's still shades of giddyness and apprehension (I really doubt that my bags are on this plane.) and am still winding down somewhat from the mad dash that this entire day turned out to be, but I'd be lying if I said the bottom line feeling was anything but G-R-E-A-T right now.

I've now had two bottles of wine (airline sampler size, unfortunately, so little more than a glass each, and unfortunately a rather disappointing wine at that, but its helped take the edge off a bit, anyways.) and am sitting here typing away, listening to some tunes (Eoin Duignan, the piper I got to see perform in Dingle on my last trip, who may be the one most solely responsible for inspiring me to try my hand at the pipes).

I was glad I held onto my old phone and was able to text in a few updates up until my departure from Chicago, but I want to take a second here to go back and flush out a bit more of what this day's been like. I should mention that when travelling, I really like to give myself LOTS of extra time. I have no problem sitting at a gate waiting 45 minutes or so for a flight, if it means I'm not stressing or freaking out about whether I'm going to make the flight, etc.

Still, the process of finalizing my packing just kept dragging out further and further. When I left Chicago Friday morning, I had all the stuff I was taking in about 5 bags. That didn't really get a chance to change until this morning. Yesterday (Saturday) was a day spent enjoying my remaining time with my family and by the time it was winding down after dinner, I had to regrettably extract myself from the celebrations somewhat to try and take care of some paperwork details and such, and was absolutely exhausted. The only period in my life that I can think of that is comparable to how the past months, weeks and ultimately, days have been like in terms the level of work, stress and exhaustion is the client merger project that I went through at work two years ago. By last night, I was feeling a lot of similarities. The one, glaring difference, obviously, is the end result of said work and stress.

This morning (Sunday), I tried to sleep in a bit, but still had a lot to do. I was up before 9, and was off and running. Dad and I went to visit Grandma, then ran a few last minute errands and stopped to grab breakfast--a ham and cheese omelet from Leo's Coney Island was my last meal on American soil for a while. Breakfast took longer than it should've and by the time we got home, it was already after 1pm. I scrambled through finishing my packing, deciding I didn't have time to try and optimize my luggage enough to get it down to just the one checked bag, so my backpack and roller bag it is. Getting a nice, meaningful update to the blog and sending out an overdue email to co-workers got cut out of the schedule, but we managed to get everything necessary done and packed up and were out the door by around 2:30, getting us to Metro Airport around 2:45--just under the recommended 2 hours for international flights.

Good thing we didn't cut it any closer. For whatever reason, American Airlines only had one person working the check-in for international and though the line wasn't that long when we got there, it took over an hour to get checked in! Thankfully, Dad and Judy stuck with me right up until I got in the security line, so they helped me to pass the time and keep my sanity. Although I think I owe Dad for what had to be a ridiculous "short term" parking bill at the end of it!

My one hope through the whole time in line was that at least the security line might not be too bad, because by the time I was checked in, it was already after 4pm, with my flight scheduled for a 4:40 departure. When we came around the corner and saw what a zoo security was, I immediately resigned to the fact that I was not going to make the flight.

As backed up as it was, however, I have to give credit to the TSA folks for pushing people through quickly and was shocked at how quickly I was through security. Of course, I have to hope no one was planning any evil doing today, because I can't imagine the checks were very thorough. The fact that I sent through an aluminum case packed with metal tubes with holes drilled in them and assorted electronics and wires and they didn't even seem to look twice or ask me if it was mine was simultaneously relieving and worrisome. Then again, perhaps someone goes through with a case full of pennywhistles, harmonicas and uilleann pipes a couple times a day.

I got to the gate just after the flight had started boarding and my boarding group was called just after I arrived. Perfect! I had some doubts whether my bags were going to make it, but at least I was on the flight. In a middle seat. Between a guy who was about 6'4" and had to be pushing 350, and a woman who was five months pregnant (and already fairly heavyset to begin with). Of course, I'm no stick either, so needless to say, we were wedged into that row pretty tight.

But we were on the flight and all looked good. Until the announcement came. For a few minutes, I held hope that we had a flight crew who had a bad sense of humor on April Fool's Day. But no, they were serious. Traffic control in Chicago was not going to be able to clear us for landing until an hour and fifteen minutes after our scheduled arrival, and we were going to be sitting there at the gate in the meanwhile. Unreal.

Well, a little luck came our way and we got off the ground "only" about 50 minutes later than scheduled. The flight to Chicago was fine, and I chatted quite a bit with the woman in the window seat (Sam, I believe her name was). A bit more luck had us arriving just two gates down from my departing flight to Ireland. Of course, I was in nearly the last row of the first flight, so by the time I got to the gate, they were nearly done boarding, but I made it.

Fortunately, its not a full flight, so I had no problem bringing both my laptop bag and my pipes case onboard. So that's one big worry that was a complete non-factor. I was once again in a middle seat (middle of the block of 3 in the middle section, but as it turns out, the seat to my right was empty, so I'm now in a seat with an aisle on my right and an empty seat to my left. Also, no one in front of me to lean back and crowd my space, so all told, it's about as comfortable a set up as you can have for an international flight.

The fellow on the other side of the empty seat to my left is a Galway man named Dobbs, who I've chatted with quite a bit already. He'd been visiting friends in Wisconsin for the past three weeks. Sounds like he's a frequent visitor to Coli's, which is one of several pubs that have been recommended to me for great sessions, so I suspect I'll be seeing him again before my travels are done.

Well, it is currently 3:30am Irish time. I just changed the clock on my laptop over, and the long haul of the past few days is starting to catch up with me, so I think I'm going to try and knock off for a couple hours at least. Tomorrow is going to be a long and rough enough day, especially depending on what I need to do about my luggage, assuming it didn't make this flight with me. But, then, perhaps I'll have just one more struck of luck and find both my bags waiting for me at baggage claim in the morning. We'll just have to wait and see.