Me in Place

Look what showed up in our mail on Monday! The word “Chocolate” on a customs label?

Thanks to our friends in Ireland, we enjoyed some delicious chocolate:

Guess which one was for me? Yep – the Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted – a delicious chocolate bar filled with that ooey gooey orange/white stuff.

And guess which one was for SuperBoy?

Yes, of course… The Yorkie bar! It’s not for girls! (We couldn’t exactly figure out why it wasn’t for girls. It was just pure chocolate. And you can bet he enjoyed keeping it from his sisters.)

You’ll be thankful to know we’ve reached the end of the trip! Here are just a few random photos to wrap it all up.

For the first few days we were there, Steve worked with Roger and others at the radio station. One specific job he had was coming up with new jingles for the station. They had a brainstorming session one night. Travel Buddy and I went along and it was fun to watch.

(Note the traditional Irish didgeridoo.) (That was a joke. )

Ah, here’s a traditional bodhran. Yes, we came home with one. They’re so cool.

Steve tries out the bouzouki (traditional to Greek music and similar to the mandolin).

Two parts to the next story:

1. In our rental car, we had a gps system and, as always, we picked our British friend, Jane. You know her?

2. There were no four-way stop signs – everything was a roundabout. So you came up to the roundabout, yielded to the person on your right, then went when there was nobody coming…and tried frantically to find the right exit off the roundabout.

Now combine the Brit Jane and the roundabouts, and you’ll get our  most oft-repeated thing from Ireland: “Take the second exit at the roundabout.” Or, our personal favorite: “Turn left and board ferry.” A ferry, Jane? No other warning but that? (It was a little five minute ferry across the river.)

Just for you:

And, the most often asked question we get: “Did it rain a lot?” Nope. Not a drop. Nada. Nothing. It’s a lie. Like leprechauns! It rained the very last day we were there. That was it.The night before we left, I went outside the hotel and stood in the Irish rain, just to soak up the memories. And we took a picture just to prove that we did see drops:

And that was that. The end. I’ll skip the details of the three hour flight delay that extended our layover to seven hours long. I’ll skip the Travel Buddy throwing up thing, I’ll skip the fact that the in-flight entertainment system broke, so everybody talked the entire flight home and the little kids sitting beside us screaming… Yep. I figured it was our punishment for having such a great trip!

Again, if you have extra money laying about and want to help support the work at the station, consider giving a one-time (or on-going) gift to Roger Basick, care of HCJB:

HCJB Global
PO Box 39800
Colorado Springs, CO 80949-9800. They are moving over there in June and could use your support.

Edited to Add: Mike got it! (And I’m sure you did, too, Tammy!) So – down at the bottom of this post, I’ve posted the clip from the movie we all know and love. “I don’t think him is who we think him is.”

On Tuesday, we got in our cute little bug of a rental car and drove up to the Cliffs of Moher. Beautiful site – but it was freezing and windy, so I can’t say we stayed outside long before we ran back in and got yet another cuppa hot tea.

If you can see it, there is a little castle in the picture below. Back in the 1800’s, the man who owned that land built the castle so he could charge tourists to climb up and view the cliffs. Yep, tourism was alive and kicking back then, too.

They had creepy signs about people falling off these cliffs and, indeed, people do fall (either by accident or on purpose). This sent Steve and I straight into acting like little old worrywart ladies. “I can’t believe those people are getting so close to the edge!” We stared in horror as a normal, middle-aged pudgy dad explained to his family how he had laid on his stomach and reached his camera over the edge of the cliffs to get a great picture. What??!? I can’t even explain how funny our behavior was – we were so horrified by stupid tourists and we couldn’t shut up about it! Maybe you had to be there. Anyway, we did not climb around and over the signs. We stayed right where we were supposed to be – in the tourist center having our cuppa.

And, the Bonus Round! Can you name the movie these cliffs take a prominent part in? You all know it!! Don’t Google it. Just guess.

To go along with the post below:

Listen to Rachel Allen’s beautiful accent as she cooks:



My new favoritest magazine ever:
BBC Good Cooking Magazine (I found it at Barnes & Noble in Geneva the other day). Their site is great and filled with new recipes to try! Go HERE

After our picnic, we drove to the Ballymaloe Cookery School where there is a cooking school, a hotel and a cafe. We just visited the shop, because I knew that’s where I was going to find my souvenir of Ireland! I hope I have the facts right, as I tell you that this school was started by a lady back in the ’80’s, which is when Slow Cooking (or natural/organic cooking) started to gain popularity in Ireland – we had Alice Waters in the ’70’s here in America, doncha know? Then she had a son who married a student who came to the school and she became quite popular, Darina Allen (I was told she was like Martha Stewart there), and then she had a son who married a student who came to the school and has become quite popular as a cook on tv. The granddaughter’s name is Rachel Allen and you can find a couple of her cookbooks on Amazon.com if you’re interested.

Place at which I bought my souvenir…er, um, three souvenir cookbooks.

We all started yelling at Steve when we saw these lambs: “Take a picture! You have to stop! Take a picture, Steve!” I don’t know why. But hey, here’s the picture.

From there, we left our friends and drove to Kinsale. Outside of Kinsale is the Old Head of Kinsale, which is actually the point off of which the Lusitania sunk. There is another little memorial to the Lusitania. You can’t go all the way to the tip of the Old Head, because there is a super fancy elite golf course there (I heard Tiger had played there.)

We then drove back into Kinsale and hunted for a restaurant and finally, nigh unto starvation, found a little cafe that was open. It was a delightful little meal and I remember it as the only meal at which the server was actually friendly. That’s because he obviously wasn’t from around there, he’d come from Spain (ooh, sensing a little hidden undercurrent of frustration here?). Here’s me and Travel Buddy – the Weary Travelers:

View of Kinsale for Sue – who has a cousin who lives there. Maybe if you look closely enough, you can see her?

Ahhhh….. retreating to my comfort zone.

When we had visited our new friends’ house for dinner, I noticed she had made a pavlova for dessert. My one major collection is my cookbooks and when we travel, I buy a cookbook from the place we’ve visited. So when I saw her bring out her pavlova with the chocolate drizzled strawberries on top…ooh, I knew I had met my expert who could advise me on a good Irish cookbook. My question precipitated an invitation to join them for a walk along the cliffs and then a visit to a well-known cookery school on Monday. So Monday morning we drove back down to Cobh to meet them for our walk. This turned out to be my very favorite FAVORITER, favoritest thing we did the whole time and was our favorite scenery and oh, it was the day I think back on when I think back to our trip. There’s really not much for me to say about our hike, except to show you the pictures. Hopefully they capture a bit of the beauty.

We drove from Cobh over to Ballycotton…which is right on the Atlantic. It was just us and a windy day. We passed maybe four people on the hike. They’ve created a little dirt path that follows the cliffs and walks you through farmer’s fields (with little concrete twisty things – like a turnstile – that you have to twist through…this is so the animals can’t get out.)

Finally! Someone to walk with! Steve laughs at me, because in our vacation pics, there’s always just a ton of the back of me. I walk way ahead of everyone else. Which is not my fault. It’s the way I was raised – the Massey influence in my life. “So much to see and do! Don’t dawdle! Get to work!” But here, I had met my match in Ann…the fastest walker this side…er, that side of the Atlantic!

This yellow-flowering bush is the gorsebush. Remember gorsebush? Eeyore gets stuck in it? Which made me think of my dad. Which made me sad. But sad in a good way, if that’s possible. I knew he would have loved hearing my stories of Ireland. Remember his interest (obsession?) in St Patrick? On St Patrick’s Day, we went to a service at night where the pastor talked about the real St Patrick. I was blinking back tears, knowing Dad would have loved to hear the sermon spoken in an Irish brogue in Ireland. Sniff.

We walked (Maybe a mile and half? mile?) to this little hidden beach.

Steve tests the waters to see if he could just swim back home.

Back to the start for our picnic.

Lighthouse – at the begining of the trail. Remember our obsession with lighthouses? It was fun to see one here!

You’ll be thankful to know we’re almost at the end of our trip! But first, a stop at Blarney Castle. The castle itself is beautiful and on gorgeous grounds. It’s also the most touristy place we stopped. (But we loved it!)

The Blarney Stone you kiss? It’s way up at the top of this:

Most awkward moment award goes to…

To kiss the stone, you have to lean over backward, grab on to the bars and then reach out to kiss the stone  – which is on the parapet around the tower. They have bars there so you don’t fall to your death (has happened) and a man who holds on to you. Travel Buddy spotted a bottle of anti-bacterial spray cleaner…we were relieved to see that. It took some convincing, but Travel Buddy did it too. (We suddenly realized how silly it sounded when we tried to explain to her that she HAD to kiss this stone!)

View from the bottom looking up to where you kiss the stone:

Strange warriors (?) hiding out in caves beneath castle:

Wrong stone, Steve.

Getting my Tourist on…

The next day we left bright and early with our new friend, Kai. We were out to conquer the Ring of Kerry. I’ve read that it is one of the Top Ten Scenic Drives in the World. The world. Now… Top Ten Scenic Drive and you want me to keep the post short? Hm. I’ll try! Here we go:

On a Top Ten Scenic Drive you:

1. Come upon rundown castles in people’s backyards.

2. Come upon very cool, very old bridges. Which are one lane and scary. But pretty.

3. You stop to get your photo taken so you can prove you’ve been on a Top Ten Scenic Drive. You get your photo taken on rocks that  have been there forever and then you’re there for one minute and then you’re gone. And you wonder if you really matter in the scheme of things. But if we hadn’t stopped for that one minute, maybe we would have put into place something dire and drastic.

4. You and Travel Buddy try not to get carsick in the backseat on the scenic roads.

5. You admire the scenic nature of the scenic nature.

6. You get your picture taken with a statue of Charlie Chaplin. Of course!

7. You stop and let the boys climb on the random, rundown castles. Boys will be boys.

8. You feel very much the fool for being hooked into paying 3.50 Euro to see cliffs. Long story, but I’m A) pretty sure I got charged more for being from Chicago and B) when your Travel Buddy has to go, she has to GO and it’s worth every little cent. (Oh, and in the distance, you can see the Skellig Islands. Ever heard of them? Very cool. One is called Skellig Michael and has a monastery on it that you can visit in the summer months. Skellig Michael is the farthest one on the right.)

9. You find only one cafe open in the entire town on the Top Ten Scenic Drive if you’re Top Ten Scenic Driving in the off-season. But, hey, it was the best chocolate filled croissant I’ve ever had. Maybe this angry man came in the off-season and really, he was just hungry.

10. You stand in front of old scenic houses. In your head and heart, you’re thanking the Lord for bringing you safely along a windy, one laned Top Ten Scenic Drive. Maybe you can live to see Top Ten Scenic Drive #2.

Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?

He is Risen!

Travel Buddy and I hopped the train back down to Cobh and met up with Steve (Mr MIP) and the other guys. We had been graciously invited to dinner at a house that ended up being right on the harbor. So beautiful to look out their front picture window and see the water. As a side note, the previous time we had been to Cobh, we asked about visiting the cemetery to see the Lusitania grave, the lady said, oh, maybe a twenty minute walk… yeah, um, not so much. We walked FOREVER and were about to give up after the second hill, but I said to my Travel Buddy, “We cannot travel all the way from Aurora to Cobh and give up five minutes away from our destination!” After having pulled out the Mom’s Motivational Speech for Walking Really Far Without Complaining, we finally found the cemetery. It was funny, then, that we were in Cobh a total of three times, two of which we could have just asked them to drive us out there. Oh well, we suffered for family. Tradition! Tradition!

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Before dinner we had a wonderful walk along the harbor with Ted as our host and tour guide. He gave information about the city’s history and the city’s future plans and was very interesting to talk to. He was originally from South Africa and also told me interesting stories about his time working for the Dept of Agriculture in South Africa. He would go to different small farms and teach the farmers how best to use their land, etc. Very interesting. Here are various pictures from our walk:

Downtown (I hope you’re noting the narrow, narrow streets!)

Apparently nobody told them the news. It’s gonna be a long wait for your boat, guys!

Another first for us! Travel Buddy gets to ride a scooter for the first time! I’m in the background, making a weird face as Ted tells us cool stories.

I actually really liked this statue. It was called “The Navigator,” and he’s looking on the ships – helping them get safely to their destination. (Obviously, he was only built A.F.  – After Flooding.) (See where the buildings start to curve in? Right there is where the Lusitania memorial is – right in the middle of that street.)

Okay – again, not the best photo. But it’s to show you how their apartment looks onto the harbor there. Go beyond that harbor and you’re in the Atlantic Ocean. And, for a certain occasional reader of my blog, ahem…look closely enough and you’ll see the Caprese Salad. I ate a whole extra serving in your honor.

As an additional note, they recommended a movie made about a man from South Africa who has had a great outreach to people with the gospel. The movie’s title is Faith Like Potatoes. It’s a true story and they highly recommended it. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my Netflix list. Just thought you might like to put it on your list.