Ireland: Days 3&4 and Coming Home

We spent the morning exploring Dublin on foot. The tourist part of the city is not big at all, so it’s easy to see on foot in very little time. Our first stop was Trinity College, to see the famous Book of Kells—an illuminated Gospel hand-written and –drawn in Ireland around 800—and the Trinity College Library. 

The Book of Kells has unbelievably intricate illustrations, featuring the biblical figures and decorated letters typical of illuminated religious texts, but with lots of Celtic touches like intricate knots. Some of the images are so finely detailed that the academics in charge think they must have had some kind of magnification device, but we don’t know what they would have used since they didn’t have lenses back then. We think.

 

An illumnated page from the book. This is about 18 inches by 12 inches.

 

Same page, zoomed in. Look how complicated!! (Both museum pictures)

The Old Library, built in 1592, is the kind of beautiful high-ceilinged wooden room that most bookworms see in their dreams. It functions as the Library of Congress for Ireland, and also as a repository and curating facility for old and valuable books. They had a number of very cool displays about the importance and process of book preservation. I have to admit, it made me want to change degrees…I think it’s a little too late.

 

Heaven.

We also went to the National Museum of Ireland, which was full of the incredible treasures people have found buried or hidden in bushes over the years. Ireland has been occupied by humans since about 8000 BC (more than 10,000 years ago!), so a lot of this stuff redefines ancient. Caches—collections of ancient objects found or dug up by normal people—range from well-preserved tools, cauldrons, and even mummified people pulled from peat bogs to enormous finds of prehistoric gold jewelry and coins.

 

I want to move there and just dig holes all the time (official museum picture).

Again, the museum featured Celtic knot-type artwork done by monks, but this time it was metal- or enamelwork on religious artifacts or jewelry. If the Book of Kells made scholars think they must have had magnification, this stuff is even more intricate. Half the time, we didn’t even realize the level of detail until we looked at the enormously magnified images of the objects displayed next to them. Apparently, it was a work of devotion and a monk would spend his entire life decorating one crucifix. The results are unbelievable.

This doesn't do it justice. I need infinite zoom or something (official museum picture).

After checking out the rest of Dublin’s highlights and grabbing some lunch, we got on the highway and drove all the way across Ireland to the west coast city of Galway. Again our hostel was amazing, and again we headed out to do some sightseeing before dark, when we had dinner at a pub and explored the High Street area. Galway is more industrial than Dublin, and we really enjoyed being right on the water.

 

 Galway! (not my picture)

The next morning we finished our sightseeing and drove north along the coast to the airport in Knock. We didn’t have time to drive the outermost coastal road so we took the inland scenic route, which was probably the most beautiful part of a very very beautiful country. We were all alone on narrow roads driving through sheep fields (fun fact: in the spring, farmers tie bags of colored chalk to the chests of the rams, and they can tell which ewes should be pregnant over the winter by the chalk transferred onto their backs! Lots of red-backed sheep out there…), mountains—including the one St. Patrick delivered a famous sermon from—and really wonderful dark and windswept lakes. If I ever decide that I have to go somewhere to be meditative or something, this is where I’m going!

Seriously, this whole country is too beautiful to be real. Not my picture, thanks google!

We flew back to England, spent one night and flew back home to Switzerland and California respectively. It was an awesome trip, and I’m so glad I got to see my sister! When I got home, Martin and I spent the weekend hiking near Liechtenstein and watching his brother be awesome at beach volleyball.

This one actually is my picture! Alpine hut in Switzerland near Liechtenstein.

All of Liechtenstein is in this picture. It's everything on the far side of the river, up to the ridge of the far mountain. On the right, it's until the river meets the mountain. On the left it's a little harder to see. The near side of the river is Switzerland, and the far left of the picture is Austria.

 Martin on the trail!

View down the other side (into Appenzellerland) from the summit! It's good to be home :)

 

Love Katie

Ireland: Day 2

On our second day in Ireland, we finished up the north coast and headed south to Dublin. There were a few more things worth seeing up north that we’d run out of daylight on the day before, so we headed out in the rain (perfectly Irish, so no big deal) to see the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. This bridge has existed in some form to connect a rocky island to the mainland for about 350 years, so that salmon fishermen could use the island. It’s a nice little hike to the bridge along the cliffs, and once you’ve crossed you can explore the teeny island.

The bridge

 

 

Sarah on the bridge!

After the rope bridge, we went to the Old Bushmills Distillery, which is the oldest distiller of whiskey (note that it’s got an e here, whereas in Scotland it’s just whisky. The things you learn!). They offer a factory tour, so we signed up and had delicious lunch in their canteen before taking the tour. We learned a lot and factory tours are always cool, and we got a free sample at the end. Neither Sarah nor I are big whiskey drinkers, but we tried their basic flavor and a hot toddy (hot water, honey, spices, whiskey). The toddy was pretty tasty on a cold rainy day, and while we didn’t have anything against the plain stuff it was a little strong for us so we didn’t finish our tiny sample. I’m sure the locals were very impressed

 

They keep sauna levels of warm in here, which is really nice on a cold day!

Our last stop before heading south was the Dunluce castle, which is a ruin that was built in medieval times right on the very point of a cliff overlooking the sea. On clear days, you can actually see Scotland from the castle, and the people who lived there did get a lot of their necessities from Scotland because it was easier than getting it over land from Ireland. My favorite thing was the remaining frames of the bay windows they had in the great room. It must have been really beautiful when it was still whole.

Perfection as a castle ruin. Misty and everything!

 

The bay windows were framed in sandstone. I would love to sit by this window with a crackling fire and a cup of tea!

Especially with this view.

 

Done with our northern sight-seeing, we hit the road headed south towards Dublin. It was a very nice drive, but with the occasional stop and frequent tiny roads and towns, it took us most of the afternoon. We arrived in Dublin to discover that our city map was woefully inadequate, and found our hostel only because Sarah is an unqualified genius. It turned out to be a really cool hostel, and if I’m ever in the area again I’ll definitely be staying there. 

  This is our hostel, pretty cool.

It was past dinnertime but not late, so we went for a wander through the streets of Dublin. The city isn’t large, especially not the city center part, so we were able to see most of the pub and nightlife districts and a couple of landmarks before we went home for the night. The Temple Bar district—full of very typical Irish pubs and revelers—was especially cool.

 

Dublin's Temple Bar district, from Google. My phone didn't do a very good job :)

 

Love Katie

Ireland: Day 1

After Scotland, I flew down to meet Sarah (my sister!) at Kentwell Manor near Long Melford, England, where she was working on a Tudor-era reenactment that happens there every year. If you haven’t heard of any of those places don’t worry, they’re about the size of your left thumbnail, and all you need to know is that they’re not too far from the London Stansted airport. Sarah had done London last summer on her honeymoon, so we decided to grab the cheapest Ryanair flight out of Stansted. We went to Ireland!

Kentwell Hall

 

Sarah hard at work Sunday

 

Once we got there, we hopped in our mercifully tiny rental car and headed north. I was driving since Sarah isn’t a huge fan of manual transmissions, and the car I’d had in England to pick her up was almost SUV-sized, which was no fun while I was getting used to driving on the left, being on the wrong side of the car, and shifting with my left hand! It was much easier to navigate very narrow country roads in something more suited to size.

Our first stop was Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland, like Scotland, is part of the UK along with England. England and Scotland are both on the island of Great Britain, so they’re both considered British (to varying degrees—Scots are basically just Scottish as far as they’re concerned), while only people in England are English and everybody is part of the UK. The southern part of Ireland—most of the island—is the Republic of Ireland, which is independent and part of the EU. So there.

  Belfast city hall

In Belfast we checked out the city and had lunch and tea. One thing I really loved about being in the UK/Ireland was that I could indulge my desire for a pot of tea at basically every meal, and I did! Belfast has a rough history as the site of a lot of sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants, and between the British and Irish revolutionaries. It’s peaceful now, but you can still see the seams. The city is also known for shipbuilding, and built the Titanic and her two sister ships. They just opened an exhibit on that that’s supposed to be pretty cool.

After Belfast, we headed even farther north and out of civilization to the very northernmost coast, towards the Giant’s Causeway. The drive was unbelievably beautiful, with green hills ending in cliffs above the sea, and tiny seaswept towns every so often along the coast. We really enjoyed the ride.

  

Crazy beautiful

 

The Giant’s Causeway is an area with crazy polygonal rock columns, formed in a pool of lava that cooled slowly and allowed the rock to crystallize. The local legend is that two rival giants in Ireland and Scotland had built it so that they could duel each other, but when the Scottish giant came over the Irish giant realized he was much bigger and ran home in fear. His wife disguised him as an infant, and when the Scottish giant arrived at their house she pretended that he was their son and the giant was away. Seeing the size of the “baby,” the Scottish giant estimated how big his father must be and ran away, smashing the bridge as he went. The remaining pillars form the causeway as it is now.

They're like this naturally!

Another view of the Causeway

People have been coming to visit the causeway for a very long time, and there was a lot of history about the people who lived and worked there as tour guides a few hundred years ago. One castle—that we’ll get to later—even used some of the stones as building blocks since they’re so geometrically shaped.

  

Sarah!

 

Me!

  

Another formation in the area is the Giant’s Organ, made up of exposed columns of rock high in the cliffs. You can get a sense of how giant everything is—and how far it might extend both into the ground beneath and throughout the hills in the area—from looking at it. It was really helpful having Sarah—the science teacher—along to explain everything!

  

Do you see Sarah? It's enormous!

 

After the Giant’s Causeway it was getting late, so we got directions to a grocery store from very nice locals and munched in the car on the way to our hostel. We got a tiny bit lost—although Sarah should still get a medal for navigating us everywhere on one sub-par map—but eventually found our hostel in a barn at the edge of a forest in rolling hills. Both of us were reminded of Alaska, which was surprising but not too unrealistic given that we were very far north.

  Beautiful Irish countryside!

 

There weren’t many people staying at the hostel—it was a Monday—but all of the three staff and three guests sat around the big kitchen table drinking tea or beers and telling stories until it was very late. I think that was the most Irish experience we had—we all took turns telling stories, both personal and traditional folk tales, and singing songs until we basically fell asleep at the table. I loved the traditional Irish stories I learned, and the stories that everyone told from their own lives were alternately funny and philosophical.

 Love Katie

Scotland!

Scotland

I got to go to Edinburgh, Scotland for a conference at the end of June. It was a great conference, and I got to see a few of the city’s highlights.

The first day, I checked into my adorable and conveniently located B&B (I felt very fancy staying somewhere other than a hostel!) and walked out to the High Street, called the Royal Mile for a little sightseeing and a quick meeting. The Royal Mile is the center of the Old Town, and it runs from Edinburgh Castle at one and to the Scottish Parliament at the other. The street is lined with mostly tourist shops and cafes, selling tartan everything, shortbread, woolens, and whisky. I picked up a Sherlock Holmes book from a used bookstore. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the stories here (mostly), and the character was inspired by a professor he had at the University! I was also excited because the book I got has stories that don't show up in the compendiums I've read before.

 

My pictures weren't the best, so here's one from Google!

 

 Edinburgh Castle! Again, not my picture.

Near where I was staying is the large parkland area that contains Arthur’s Seat, the highest point in Edinburgh. The Arthur in question is the legendary King Arthur of Camelot fame, and the whole area is full of trails for hiking and walking. I ran to the top of the seat my first morning there. It was a fantastic run—definitely challenging with the ascent—and at the top I got a fantastic 360-degree view of the city, surrounding countryside, and the sea. 

 

Running up!

 

The seat itself.

 

 

My non-panoramic panorama from the top!

 

The way down. I love trails!

The more modern part of Edinburgh is called—creatively—the New Town, and it has a more standard High Street called Princes Street with shops like H&M, Topshop, and Primark. I hadn’t been in Primark before, but I had to leave because I had fully packed my Ryanair/Easyjet baggage allowance and couldn’t afford to buy anything…even if the prices are less than a third of Swiss prices and everything was on sale! I did get to pick up a few things at the heritage shops, since my family does have some Scottish heritage. And while I didn’t really sample the whisky, I did enjoy the shortbread cookies my hosts left in my room every day!

The city of Edinburgh is very walkable, and very dense. You can walk from the Scottish National Museum to the National Library in a minute or less, and be in an adorable pub-filled square (Grassmarket Square might be my new favorite name) right beneath the castle’s cliffs in another minute. One big highlight for me was the Elephant House Café, where J.K. Rowling famously nursed one cup of tea a day while writing the first few Harry Potter books. I had to go see that!

This is it!

They had a little plaque and everything! Please excuse me carrying all my luggage...

 

After the conference, I took the train to Scotland’s other big city, Glasgow. It’s only a one-hour train ride away since they’re both in the Scottish lowlands, and I saved a bit by spending the night at the hostel there instead of enjoying my B&B for one more night. Saturday morning I set out to explore Glasgow, only to find that this fairly notorious party city was completely empty! I went for a run and took my time getting ready, but I was still out the door looking for breakfast in a city of closed everything.

I was set to spend the day alone in Glasgow (before flying down to the London area to meet up with my sister Sarah!), and I was figuring out what to do when I met two wonderful sisters (also from Switzerland!) who were also seeing Glasgow that day. I ended up getting to spend the whole day with them—down to pubbing and karaoke adventures that night—and we had a fantastic time seeing the city. I’m so glad they’re Swiss so I get to see them again!

Pipe and drum group on the street in Glasgow! 

Part of the University, with a museum inside.

 

The museum, in a very cool space. It was full of the collections of Victorian-era armchair anthropologist types.

Botanical Gardens. The whole thing originally existed on the estate of a very wealthy Glaswegian (that's how you say it, like Norwegian) and when he donated it to the city, they took it apart and shipped it downstream!

Another museum. but we can pretend it's a castle.

 

After Glasgow, I got up way too early on Sunday to fly down and meet Sarah! We went to Ireland together, which is coming up next.

Love Katie

Dubai Creek: The Old Town

--> Friday afternoon and Saturday morning we explored the older parts of Dubai. There isn’t a lot of really old stuff in Dubai; the area might have been civilized for a very long time but it wasn’t the kind of civilization that builds things that would survive until today. The creek was the one part of this region that was livable before electricity and water services, and it was a trading hub on the Persian Gulf that today is a mix of old souks, riverboats, and neighborhoods with high rises and urban grunge. There are four main souks (markets) in the area: textiles, gold, spices, and fish. Textiles are on one side of the creek (actually a gulf inlet the width of the Mississippi), gold and spices are together on the other, and fish is right against the sea. Old-style canopied wooden taxi boats still provide the only means of pedestrian crossing, but at 1 Dirham (about 25 cents) a ride, it’s really affordable.

 

Boats lining up to get passengers.

  

One of the boats. 

  

We took the metro to the Textiles side of the area and walked for a while up the river until we found the souk. Friday is the Sabbath in Isalm, so it wasn’t at full bustle but there was still plenty going on. Direct salesmanship—where the merchant will come up to you and try to sell you things or direct you to his shop—is very much the practice here, and it took us a moment to warm up to it. I love a market, but my reflex is to say no if someone tries to shove something in my face! We got our rhythm, and started checking out the stalls and shops. Martin is a champion haggler (I tend to give up too soon), so he was put in charge of the purse strings. He did really well! At one shop I was buying a few silk scarves and he talked the shopkeeper down from 400 Dirham each ($100) to 40 ($10)! I always start to feel guilty, but Martin has a point: they wouldn’t sell it if it wasn’t worth it to them.

 

Textile souk!

  

We wandered the area a bit, crossed the creek, and headed home. That evening we walked the marina area and got Lebanese food, which is very common there. It’s kind of the local cuisine (again, this area was not heavily settled), with Hummus, Lebneh (delicious yogurt and mint mixture), Pita bread (fresh pita bread is a revelation), and lots of lamb. We had traditional-style tea and coffee after, and they were both delicious but super sweet! Mine was a little bit syrupy, but Martin’s coffee was thick almost like a milkshake.

 

Martin on the crossing boat

    

View from the boat. I love the old boat and the high rises in the background.

 One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet but that I was obsessed with the entire time is the local lemonade made with mint. Not just a few mint leaves mixed in, but completely juiced or pulverized mint to the point that the lemonade is green like wheatgrass or something. It was unbelievably delicious (I’m growing mint when I get home just for this) and I had it at almost every meal.

 

This is from google, but it conveys the green-ness. So tasty...

After dinner we went to Barasti, which is an enormous beach bar near the marina. We got some looks for walking there instead of driving (car culture is huge. Incidentally, if you’re a car fan there are plenty of very fancy cars driving around to ogle), but it wasn’t far from the restaurant! Barasti had three levels descending to the sea, and it was full of twenty-somethings. It was fun to be in a crowd our age after the swankiness of the night before, and being on the beach was great. We walked home after and crashed after a very long and fabulous day.

  

Old town!

Saturday morning we got up early again, grabbed breakfast at the Marina Mall, and took a cab back towards the Dubai Creek area to the Jumierah Mosque. That is the only mosque in Dubai where non-muslims are allowed, and they offer a tour/cultural information session/question and answer time through the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding. We both had to dress modestly—maxidress, cardigan, and head scarf for me, long pants and a t shirt for Martin, plus they gave him the white tunic—and take off our shoes at the entrance. A very knowledgeable woman explained many of the local and religious traditions and they encouraged asking questions and taking pictures as she and a man demonstrated variations on traditional dress and customs. After seeing so many people in different variations on traditional dress, it was really interesting to be able to ask questions. There were a lot of other Western tourists there, and it was clear that everyone had things they wanted to know. The hosts really wanted to answer any and all questions we had, even ones based on something we had seen on the news, and seemed eager to explain the beliefs or practicalities behind what people had been seeing.

Jumierah Mosque

After the mosque, I stuffed my warm layers in my purse and we headed to the gold souk! You should google image that right now, it’s pretty cool. The official souks are along covered streets, you can clearly tell when you’re in the souk and when you’ve gone off-route. Within the souk there are strict quality control measures so people can be assured they’re buying the real thing. Apparently, as much as 25% of the world’s gold supply is in Dubai, and I would believe it! As you walk along the official street, salesmen from the unofficial side streets try to lure you into back allies with promises of “good copy” designer handbags, sunglasses, and other goods. It’s a pretty fun combination of fancy and sketchy. If you do explore the back alleys, it’s a warren of complicated, narrow streets and stores selling all kinds of knockoff and kitchy goods.

Gold souk!

A few streets down from the gold souk is the spice souk. I was really excited about this one, and Martin and I went into it with a strategy. We went in nearly every shop and inquired about the prices of the things we were interested in, and didn’t buy anything unless it was way lower than other stalls. Martin was after Turkish or Arabic coffees, and he got offers of everywhere from 5 Dirham (about $1.25) per 100g to 25 Dirham ($6.25). Eventually we found good prices, and I got some green tea with mint and a couple of vanilla beans (in Zurich it’s vanilla sugar, you can’t get the extract and I’m pretty sure you have to trade in a finger or your firstborn child for the beans). I didn’t want to get too much because I have to get everything home, but I might be e-mailing Martin in a few weeks asking for certain spices when he comes home.

 

View of the textile souk side from the water 

After a long, hot morning, we grabbed lunch and went to the beach to nap and relax. We got some ice cream on the way home (lemon mint sorbet!) and spent the evening packing, organizing, working out, eating delivery food again, and trying to find the Champions League Final among the thousand multi-lingual channels available on his TV. This morning we were up at 4:30 to catch early flights back to Saudi Arabia and Zurich, and an absolutely amazing weekend is over.

Love Katie