I know it's been a while since my last email as I don't want to inundate people's inboxes (we all know how wordy I can be:), but thought it was time for a seasonal update.
The weather in Ireland this summer has been…well, not very summery – a strange combination of humid/windy/cold – not sure how that's really possible. It's hard to know how to dress in the morning because we really do get the "four seasons in one day." Vancouver has that too, I know, but not so much in the summer, and not every day. Very frustrating. I get now why people in Ireland go south in the summer…as well as every other season.
Anyway, things are otherwise good…going pretty swimmingly at the moment. Had a brief scare a few weeks ago when it seemed like a requirement for my getting a work permit was leaving the country for three weeks while the visa application was submitted and processed. At first I panicked thinking of the financial implications of having such a long unpaid vacation, but then I began to focus on the vacation aspect of the situation, and was almost disappointed when, after a visit to immigration, I was allowed both to stay in the country and to work while the permit is processed. Incidentally, this is almost unprecedented, so luck was on my side that day! So it's all good – this permit will allow me to live and work in Ireland for another year, and is easy to renew.
In travel news, my luck continues with friends coming to Europe. I spent a long weekend in Amsterdam with my old housemate Pete and his wife Wendie, as well as Wendie's brother and dad. They had rented a house about an hour outside the city, so it was great to have such a nice space to cook meals in and just to visit. Amsterdam lives up to its hype and is a super cool place to visit – great architecture, tons of character, the canals and the "cafes," and of course, the red light district… Such an interesting place to experience in a cultural sense – no place on earth quite like it.
In mid-August I went to Irish west coast to visit my friend Robin, who is actually a friend of my cousin Marla's. Robin moved to Ireland in the spring and we'd been emailing since she arrived, trying to find a weekend when we could visit each other and it finally worked out. She lives in County Kerry, and we rented a car and drove the "Ring of Kerry" which is apparently one of the most spectacular coastal drives in the country. And spectacular it was…made me want to move there. And in an almost supernatural stroke of luck, we had gorgeous weather – sun and blue sky – while several other parts of the country were flooding (no joke).
And most recently, my friend Fiona came to Dublin for nearly three weeks – ten days of which we spent in Prague – yay! My cousin Erik, who I spent Christmas with in Israel, moved to Prague a few months ago, so it was great to see him again. Fiona and I stayed with Erik and his girlfriend for a few days, and the four of us visited a town called Kutna Hora, home to an ossuary, which is – according to Wikipedia – "a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains." And yes, it was as creepy as it sounds…but pretty cool all the same. This is an article about the ossuary we visited – note that it was visited by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on their "Long Way Round" journey:) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary
Fiona and I moved to a hotel when my friend Michele arrived for a few days on her Eastern Europe holiday. She had a car so we did a day trip to a nearby town called Karlstein, which had perhaps the most perfect Disney-like castle I've ever seen – keeping in mind I've never been to Disneyland:) So it was an embarassment of riches, visiting with friends and family in the impossibly beautiful city of Prague. I'll let the photos do the talking! The food was great, though heavy on meat and potatoes. We searched high and low for veggies and salads, but they were hard to come by.
Lastly, in other news, I've been published in the Irish magazine world!! I started a writing group a few months ago – just a place for people who are interested in doing more creative/personal writing – and one of the women in the group is a journalist for a bi-weekly mag called Business & Finance. She was doing a supplement on India, and because most of my pieces in the group are travel-focused, she asked if I'd be interested in writing a piece about my travels in India. If you're interested in reading it, email me and I'll send you a low-res pdf of it.
That's about it for now. I have a couple more weekend trips to the continent planned, and then I'm laying low till December, when I'll be back in Vancouver/Calgary for Christmas!! Woo hoo, I'm psyched!! I'll send dates and details a little closer to December to those who will be in/near those cities.
Photos of Amsterdam, County Kerry, and Prague are on my Flickr site. Peruse at your leisure.
Missing you all more and more.
Love Tessa
Monday, September 15, 2008
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