Last Tuesday my dear friend Cathy arrived in Dublin for a week-long visit. It was obviously a week I'd been looking forward to for some time, and now I'm a bit sad that it has come and gone so quickly. But it was so wonderful having her here, and we had such a great time. We spent a couple of evenings hanging about in Dublin, having dinner at a pub that's housed in an old church (only in Europe do they have enough churches to turn old, unused ones into pubs), and partaking in the literary pub crawl. The crawl was very inspiring as we were treated to snippet performances of some of the most famous Irish literary works -- Waiting for Godot being one -- and told colourful stories about James Joyce, Brendan Behan, and Samuel Beckett. It reminded me that I'd like to read more of these writers...perhaps not Joyce's Ulysses, but maybe start with The Dubliners or something a little more accessible!
On Good Friday Cathy and I took the train to Galway, the largest city on the west coast, and spent the day there. There are two days in the entire year when you can't buy a drop of alcohol in Ireland and Good Friday is one of them (Christmas day is the other). Luckily we had known about this and brought a bottle of wine with us:) We spent the day wandering around Galway Bay, getting lost while looking for the cathedral (there's never just one cathedral), and having a fabulous Irish breakfast at 3 in the afternoon...yum...
Saturday morning we took the ferry to Inisheer, which is the smallest of the three islands off the west coast, collectively referred to as the Aran islands. These islands have been at the top of my list of places to visit since I arrived in Ireland, so I was excited to get there! And Inisheer lived up to the hype -- it's totally gorgeous and charming. It has literally thousands of low stone walls and has a wild, windswept, almost desolate feel. We spent most of our time wandering around the island, checking out the shipwreck of the Plassy on the east side, and the lighthouse at the southern tip, as well as the ruins of O'Brien's castle.
On Saturday afternoon we stumbled onto a teahouse run out of a local home by a woman named Mairéad (pronounced Mar-ade, the Irish version of Margaret). Meeting Mairéad was the highlight of the weekend. She's a woman of 60, originally from Cork, who married an islander. Mairéad is one of those totally dynamic women who people fall in love with and want to take home with them -- at least that happened to me:) She has run the teahouse for several years and is a whiz with textiles -- she spins and dyes her own wool, knits incredible things with the wool, and also crochets, weaves, sews and anything else involving fabric. She served us tea and scrumptious cakes, then sat and talked to us about the island and about knitting.
I learned to knit a few weeks ago (yes, Braden, I know, I'm old before my time) and Mairéad gave me some beginner tips. I bought quite a bit of her wool -- hand spun and dyed -- and am planning to make some special things with it. While we were at Mairéad's, two girls who were artists in residence on the island came in. They are studying at an art school in Holland, and are on the island for 6 weeks. They are living in an old factory that has been converted into an arts and culture centre. On Sunday we returned to Mairéad's for more of her yummy cooking and then went with her up to see the girls in the residence. They have a gorgeous studio with high ceilings and a view of the west side of the island, which means they see stunning sunsets from the comfort of their couch. I was drooling with jealousy and was trying to think about what artistic talent I might have that could be parlayed into this situation...but, no luck.
Anyway, it was a wonderful, magical four-day Easter weekend, and it was a treat having Cathy here. Cathy and I lived in residence at UBC together way back in 1995 (!!) so we've known each other for a long time. It was so nice to have someone here to talk to who knows me -- my friends and family and life history. It was like having a piece of home here in Ireland.
Pictures from the weekend are on my Flickr site.
Till next time, then!
Love to all of you,
Tessa
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Bristol, Bath, and Stonehenge
I spent this past weekend in Bristol, which is in the southwest part of England, on the coast near the Welsh border. My friend Kristine is living there right now with her husband. Kristine and I kind of grew up together in Kimberley, as our moms taught together and were good friends. Kris and I also went to elementary school together for three years and have kept in touch over the years mostly through our parents, but have seen each other rarely. But there's something about knowing someone for most of your life that makes it okay to see each other every five years and then visit for a whole weekend and have it be easy and comfortable.
I had a great time hanging out with Kris this weekend, as well as her husband Chris (definitely some name confusion because I have always called Kristine Kris), and their little boy Cole. Chris works for Nokia and has been assigned temporarily to the office in Bristol. First it was going to be for six months, but now it could be a year... Kristine is on her maternity leave, so she's at home taking care of Cole, who's about nine months old and a cutie-pie!
On Saturday we drove to Stonehenge. What a cool sight to see... It's such an enduring image, and sometimes when you see those really iconic landmarks they can be disappointing, but I was fully satisfied with Stonehenge. We walked around it in a long slow circle and I liked how it changed so much depending on where you were standing, and how different it looked against different parts of the sky. We lucked out with the weather as it only started raining when we were leaving, when the massive hordes of tourists were arriving:)
On Sunday, Kristine, Cole, and I ventured out into Bristol to see some sights. It was quite cold and windy, but again, no rain. I quite liked Bristol, even though it's not exactly a pretty city, but it's one of those towns built on industry so it has a lot of character -- lots of boats and cranes, but like everywhere else in Europe, mingled with gorgeous cathedrals and churches.
On Monday, we went to Bath, which is just a 10-minute train ride away. If Bristol is a typical working class industry town, Bath is at the other end of the spectrum. It's a classically gorgeous Georgian town -- sort of what you might picture Jane Austen's England to look like. Jane Austen actually lived in Bath for periods of time and and we went into some assembly rooms that made me feel like I was on the set of Pride and Prejudice.
We visited the Roman baths, which were so cool, and were lucky enough to have a sunny afternoon so the creme coloured stone looked warm and glowing. The baths are just in front of the Bath Abbey, an absolutely massive Gothic church, which creates a really dramatic backdrop for the baths, where you can imagine Romans in togas hanging out by the sides of the pools.
Was a great weekend. I hope they stay in Bristol till at least the end of the year, so I can go back and visit again!
Pictures from the weekend are on my Flickr site.
I had a great time hanging out with Kris this weekend, as well as her husband Chris (definitely some name confusion because I have always called Kristine Kris), and their little boy Cole. Chris works for Nokia and has been assigned temporarily to the office in Bristol. First it was going to be for six months, but now it could be a year... Kristine is on her maternity leave, so she's at home taking care of Cole, who's about nine months old and a cutie-pie!
On Saturday we drove to Stonehenge. What a cool sight to see... It's such an enduring image, and sometimes when you see those really iconic landmarks they can be disappointing, but I was fully satisfied with Stonehenge. We walked around it in a long slow circle and I liked how it changed so much depending on where you were standing, and how different it looked against different parts of the sky. We lucked out with the weather as it only started raining when we were leaving, when the massive hordes of tourists were arriving:)
On Sunday, Kristine, Cole, and I ventured out into Bristol to see some sights. It was quite cold and windy, but again, no rain. I quite liked Bristol, even though it's not exactly a pretty city, but it's one of those towns built on industry so it has a lot of character -- lots of boats and cranes, but like everywhere else in Europe, mingled with gorgeous cathedrals and churches.
On Monday, we went to Bath, which is just a 10-minute train ride away. If Bristol is a typical working class industry town, Bath is at the other end of the spectrum. It's a classically gorgeous Georgian town -- sort of what you might picture Jane Austen's England to look like. Jane Austen actually lived in Bath for periods of time and and we went into some assembly rooms that made me feel like I was on the set of Pride and Prejudice.
We visited the Roman baths, which were so cool, and were lucky enough to have a sunny afternoon so the creme coloured stone looked warm and glowing. The baths are just in front of the Bath Abbey, an absolutely massive Gothic church, which creates a really dramatic backdrop for the baths, where you can imagine Romans in togas hanging out by the sides of the pools.
Was a great weekend. I hope they stay in Bristol till at least the end of the year, so I can go back and visit again!
Pictures from the weekend are on my Flickr site.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)