The Americans are coming - The Americans are coming

With not much in the way of time, in Dublin, we pretty much just went to our hostel which was in Temple Bar Area at Oliver St John Gogarty. We were told that the area was a little sketchy because it was so touristy (huh?). That morning we (I) woke up around 7:57 and picked up a little quick breakfast before catching the 747 shuttle to the 737 plane...we were only about an hour "early" but luckily we skirted through security quickly.

Heathrow's location on the Picadilly tube line made it convenient to get to the hotel (also on the same line). Dad set us up in what is described as the Boardwalk of London, Mayfair. In fact, my sister told a guy in Madrid that she stayed in Mayfair to which he responded "That's pretty posh!" As Dad said, posh means something different to Europeans. It was very very ordinary, but it doesn't get more convenient location wise.

After putting our bags down we made a bee line to Westminster Abbey which, according to Dad, is apparently featured prominently in The Da Vinci Code. It was closed, so we went to Trafalgar Square.

Emily: I want to feed the birds

Joey: I will not permit you to waste your money on ragamuffin birds. When we go the bank I'll show you what you can do with your tuppence and I think you will find it most interesting

Trafalgar Square looks a wee different (btw, my Irish relatives have inspired me to bring the word 'wee' into my everyday speech). Nelson's column is being worked on, presumably for the summer tourist season. Okay 0 for 2. On to Picadilly, which was the part of London I was most interested in since it reminded Emily of Times Square and Puerta Del Sol in Madrid.It is really cool, but smaller than I thought it would be.

We finished our sightseeing by having a shortbread and soda dinner along the Thames with a view of Parliament and the London Eye.





Changing of the guard


The changing of the guard happens at 11:30 at Buckingham Palace. The cornerstone of the security appears to lulling any would by intruders into a deep sleep from the sheer boredom/pagentry. After they make their entrance into the gates they just click their heels and shuffle a little bit before two of them just stare at each other for a while. Someone spoiled the ending for me (highlight to read: gasp...one of the guards replaces the other) so we decided to get a jump on the next attraction, Westminster Abbey.




...Hands down the best Abbey

In our second attempt we got to Westminster and after a very minor security check, we went through to the doors. When I was in Vienna, the write up on the Domkirche said it was meant to rival St Peter's Basillica. People need to stop using that comparison, because little does. That said, Westminster is one of those places that does. Almost every member of the royal family up until George II (Windsor Castle is now the preferred location) is buried there along with notable writers, musicians, artists and scientists. In fact, Charles Darwin (how is that for irony?) is among those buried there.

But here is the coolest part. As Em and I are walking through the choir section we noticed there are two tiles missing. We ask a worker what he was doing (although it didn't sound like that when we said it) and he told us that occasionally some of the marble tiles get significant cracks which pose a danger (all the crypts and chambers under the church make it difficult to avoid) and as such anytime it is determined that a tile is unsafe/a knighting is coming it most be replaced. He then added "You are welcome to take a piece" referring to the chipped marble in the bucket. Best...souvenir...ever!

The Tower of London

After having lunch at the Abbey we decided to leave for the Tower of London exhibition. One of the highlights of the tour is that they have storytellers that cover events from the prison. It changes (Em heard the Gunpowder Treason plot last time she was there) and this time they told a (true) story about a Jesuit priest planning an escape with fellow inmates.

We went walked across the London Tower Bridge (which I always had confused with London Bridge). It was built in the late 19th century...out of wood, and was refurbished after the war which explains why it looks so new. As an added bonus, we got to see it open for a ship.




We looked into a London Walk but unfortunately we were about 20 minutes too late so we headed to St Paul's Cathedral and stopped off for a Cask Ale (Young's Bitter and Greene King IPA). A Cask Conditioned Ale is unfiltered, unpasteurized goodness (aka Real Ale) and is highly different than what most fizzy yellow lager (BudMillerCoors) drinkers are used to. This is type of beer that makes people say the Brits drink warm beer (they don't; it is typically served at ~60F or 15C) that is flat (they don't artificially add CO2). The Cask Ale tradition is in a bit of jeopardy. Younger Brits are moving to malternatives, hard liquor, and macro beers from Europe and the States. Cask Ales are also more difficult to preserve due to their traditionally wee alcohol content (usually 3-4%) but CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) has been actively defending and promoting the style. Make sure your visit to London (or the UK in general) includes a tasting.

Since we were still in the neighborhood we took the tube to Tower Hill to see London Tower and the Tower Bridge at night. The area was deserted so we were reluctant to spend too much time showing off our tourist status by snapping photos like crazy. Fortunately when we approached the water a ship pulled in with school age kids in formal wear, so that put our fears to rest. For all we know that area is perfectly safe but not knowing London, popping out in the slightly sketchy London Bridge station put us a wee bit on edge.

Since it was approaching 11 we headed back to the hotel so we could get up early. Mom and Dad called and left a message for us to leave four and a half before the 12:30 flight. That struck us as a wee bit excessive. Although 8ish seemed like a good time to wake up, so we could grab breakfast, pack etc. and be on our way to the airport by 9:15 to 9:30 which would still give us 2 hours to wait.

I think the plan was pretty good. We should have followed it. We arrived at the airport check-in desk with 57 minutes to go. 3 minutes too late to check the baggage. We called home and woke Mom up who woke Dad up to see if we could catch the Northwest flight later. Between not having "money" on the ticket, and Continental issuing us a paper ticket we couldn't make the last flight out of Gatwick, nor the last flight out of Heathrow (we would have arrived with roughly an hour left) so we departed a day late.

Bonus Day

Dad got us the hotel again so we headed back just in time for the 7:30 Jack the Ripper walk. We got Shaun (the other guide is Donald Rumbelow, who wrote 'The Complete Jack the Ripper' and has been referenced for every major work based on the show) who was a fantastic guide. We ventured into the 'East End' and the dividing street is still somewhat obvious though now a lot of the flats have gone condo for the yuppies and a lot are fetching over a seven figure price tags.

The tour ends near the Waterloo tube stop. I wanted to check out one of the famous London curry houses but Em was not feeling as adventurous so we checked out the "modern" curry houses which would be more likely to have the hamburger that she was craving. Ripoff. So we went to a sandwich shop that advertised hamburgers and subs. Nice surprise, they have Chicken Curry and rice. Em tries to swap out the fries for a potato but it got a wee lost in translation. She got just the potato and ended up digging the chicken curry. At least Trafalgar Square was a great place to enjoy dinner.

Not wanting to do anything resembling the disaster of the morning we went back early, got up early and arrived in plenty of time for the flight. Our take off was smooth and as we were descending the ride got real bumpy and I was hoping that the bigger drops would be when the altitude was shown, I swear a few were 30-40 feet easy. To make up for it the landing was so soft I barely noticed we were on the ground.

The flight to Tampa was smooth in the flying sort of way but was awful in another. These two old New York broads talked the whole trip. One did about 80% of the talking while the other would just respond with cliches. "You got to live life" "You get what you pay for" and "If the shoe fits" to name but a few. In fact she one time followed up the "If the shoe fits" with "He knows the shoe fits" since the former did not get a response. I felt like saying "Yeah that's the way to make a cliche relevant and insightful, Lucille Ball voice from the late 60s, repeat it". The best part? The main talker's actual seat was 12 rows up, she just came back because she was motion sick...who knew it was contagious?

It is nice to be home. I will be back on the daily blog (http://joeyisrighthere.blogspot.com) and I attempt to do a monthly post here to keep it "active". I will have one more post here to show the photos I will enlarge this time around.

The Temple Bar District:



--Joey

The London Temp Blog

Em and I arrived around 2ish got to the hotel by 3:30ish and headed to Westminster, Picadilly and Trafalgar. We are burning off our photos so we can take some more, mom will get an email.

Joey

Westport -> Sligo -> Ballyshannon -> Beleek and that was before 3

Em and I got some Fish and Chips in Westport and headed back to the hostel to get some sleep. We ended up with room mates after all; five Slovakian kids going camping. Luckily they more or less shut up around 12.

We picked up the bus heading to Sligo where we had a break before grabbing the (London)Derry bus which has a stop in Ballyshannon. The Irish public transportation system lacks a bit but once you get used to it, you can get almost anywhere as long as you have plenty of time.

From Ballyshannon we called Sarah, our 1st cousin twice removed. We told her we could walk it but she insisted on coming to get us (turned out as soon as we hung up it started raining, so we are glad they made the offer). Paddy and Sarah arrived and within a few minutes we were at the birthhouse of my great grandmother. As soon as we arrived we put our things down and got the tour. Sarah is such a sweet old woman that it struck Emily and me funny when she offered us a drink of whiskey. We ended up having Bailey's and biscuits (cookies) as a warm up for a lamb, cabbage, carrots and chips lunch.

We got some great family tree information and few steps down and out pretty far. Sarah's memory is absolutely amazing. Apparently we have a LOT of relatives in the US, some are even in Florida (New Smyrna Beach and, I think, Jupiter). 10 of the 12 brothers and sisters of my great grandmother left for the US and many descendents of them (including us) have visited the old homestead.


Em and I got to take a look around the property and a walk down the road. It was such a nice area and we got a great night's sleep in the Irish countryside. This morning we met Paddy's side before going to the cemetery and on to the bus stop.

We got a direct bus to Dublin, from here we will leave for London tomorrow at noon. I am so glad we made the side trip to Beleek, it was so well worth it and made the entire trip very memorable!







--Joey

PS As I was writing this, I look over and hear a familiar voice. Who is it? Yup Monica, my classmate, that I met in Vienna. Are you putting me on?

Pictures that didn't make the blog but should have and weren't / couldn't or didn't / wont't ...huh?

Em wrote a continuation for this blog at the bottom...

Heuston we have a conundrum

I checked out from Avalon House, and picked Em up from the airport on time which is remarkable given my narrow window and her having no checked baggage. At the airport we got our train tickets to Galway (open ended) and the bus fare to get to the Heuston station. Once we arrived there was a long queque (line), so I suggested that we go to the Guinness Brewery tour and take the next train, only thing is, that next train was only an hour and 20 minutes later, which is barley enough time even if you hop to it; it takes 90 minutes at yeast.

The train after that one, gets to Galway leaving us 25 minutes to get to the hostel, to then take the direct shuttle to Connemara (the Killary Fjord). We thought Galway should be small enough that we could swing it, but if we missed it we would be stuck in Galway.

Toura-loo-ra-loo-ra-ing St James Gate

Given that I had already been through the tour, and Em's interest in beer is not as much as mine we were able to go through a bit faster. I thought she would like the very beginning (the water fall) and the very end (Gravity Bar panorama of Dublin) but she really enjoyed it all. She even had a full pint of Guinness. I am very proud of her ::single tear::

So after that we went back to the train station to get the Galway train (which we almost missed because the locker room wasn't manned). The scenery between the two cities is pretty nice even if we took most the opportunity to sleep most of the way.

Once at the Galway station, we asked about getting to the Sleepzone Hostel. Right across from Eyre Square, which is right across from the station. We got a little turned around and a car pulls up and says "You look lost, can we help you find something?" (I think what tipped him off was the fact that the wind and rain had flipped the umbrella inside out and I was pouring out the excess water that had been collecting in the hemisphere above my head)

Em said that I looked like quite a tool. Anyway the Irish are great and the two pointed us right to where we needed to go and before we knew it we were off to Connemara.

We'reherea Gal./Connemara

Our hostel is right on the Killary Fjord in the Galway / Connemara area. I have to agree with my fellow backpackers that this may be the best situated hostel in Europe even if it is in the middle of nowhere. In fact, this location was on the list of "49 unforgettable places to visit" but the fact that Rome/The Vatican isn't there makes me wonder why they didn't spring for the even 50.

We found out that getting out of the town is difficult and that the most popular way of doing so (outside the summer high season) is to hitchhike. Apparently it is quite safe so we may end up doing that.


How about this for a view?

Here's Emmy:

Counting sheep when you're trying to... hitchhike...

After leaving SleepZone in Killary we walked down their 1 kilometer "driveway" to the main road. We were hoping to catch a ride from someone on the way to Westport. On the way, we passed probably 20 sheep relatively close to the road. Joey and I saw these sheep yesterday when we were on the bus to SleepZone, but what was cool about being on foot was we got to hear them.

(Note to Aunt Laura: They sound exactly like "Kiwi", my stuffed sheep that baaahs when you flip it over, that you got me from New Zealand!!)

So it's just the sound of our shoes dragging across the gravel road, trickling streams, the occasional car whizzing by, and the sheep talking to each other.

We ended up walking about 4 miles before we reached a town called Leenan where we ate lunch and finally got a ride- The people that picked us up were very nice!

We then checked in to the Oldmill Holiday Hostel in Westport and walked around the metropolis (compared to Kilary and Leenan). Now we are off to eat dinner at an Irish Pub! Slainte!

"My blog is so baaa-d", Em said sheepishly :-)

The Vienna Opera

After the night of Mozart and Strauss (which BTW, Aunt Laura nailed the Sousa-ish piece as the Radetsky March) I decided to press my luck and see what was playing at the Vienna Opera House. Honestly, I didn't care. It could have been a reading of the phonebook for all I cared (turns out that would have been preferable) as long as I got a look inside. It was that attitude is what made me not realize I was going to a ballet, Onegin, until the thing had started.




Onegin tells the touching story of very limber women on their way to putting a podiatrist's kids through college and men that like to frolic effeminately. The more cultured girls in front of me explained that it was actually a tragic lovestory, where one woman was sought after by two men. A love triangle. Why do the supposed "cultural" pieces usually have the thematic diversity of "Gilligan's Island"?

Niles : You have been an applause junkie ever since you first set foot on a grammar school stage.

Frasier : (enraged) I was drawn to the theater because of it's discipline and collaborative spirit!

Niles : Oh, please. In your sixth-grade production of Oklahoma you took so many curtain calls, Mrs. Van Raaphorst had to lasso you and pull you from the stage.

Frasier : That woman never understood me or the roll of farmer number three!

At the end of the performance there were three curtain calls, and people threw dozens of flowers out to the dancers. I just felt like yelling out, "Don't do that! It only encourages them to put on more of this dreck".

So after walking back, I decided to hit the sack and get up early. Well that didn't happen and I got to Salzburg around 4:30ish for my flight at 8:50. I did get to see Mozart's birthhome and the Domkirche, but not much else. Given my past experience with Charleroi airport and Ryanair I wanted to take no chances on getting to the airport late and missing the flight, though I suppose there are worse things than being (von)Trapped in Salzburg.

The flight was a hell of a deal, €30 euros to fly to Dublin. So naturally I was not expecting much (drinks etc, have to be purchased) but man the landing was bad. When they repressurized the cabin my ears hurt and my eyes even worse. They were watering like crazy. Oh and the touchdown was with gusto :-P

Outside I found my 16A bus that goes "next to the hostel" but it was full. Instead, I listened to an Irish couple that said, this bus goes to the center. I kept looking for Temple Bar or the Connoley street spire as they would be good landmarks. I saw the latter, but it was still in the distance. As time went on, we got further away before last stop. Nuts. The area appeared sketchy so I followed some Canadians and 20 minutes later I hailed a cab. The cabbie later told me that I was lucky to get out of that part of town with my belongings. Tourists are a delicasy, and he said multiple ones traveling together just egg them on.

The Avalon House hostel might be a remodeled YMCA, not sure. Not one of the better places I have stayed and certainly not deserving of its reputation, that said, it is very centrally located and decently priced.

Guinness Brewery Tour

Today I started the day with a lunch of Bangers and Mash and a pint of Guinness. I walked past a James Joyce statue, street, bar, cafe, plaza, hotel and probably other stuff. Ol JJ is to Dublin what Mozart is to Salzburg. I eventually made my way to the Guinness Brewery where they have a self guided tour that is not to be missed. The ticket is a paperweight with a drop of the black stuff inside. It also entitles you to a pint in the Gravity Bar where you get a view of Dublin that can't be beat! On the way back I stopped off for an early dinner of Irish Stew and Guinness (one more til I make it a half gallon) . Inside I met a group of four Americans traveling around from Austin. Maybe it was the beer, the layover from the flight, who knows but I got an invitation to stay with them if I am in Austin. Cool! Anyway, as with Germany, I am still waiting for this bad Irish food I hear about.

Emily arrives tomorrow where we head to Galway/Connemara where we have a hostel on a fjord. The next day is a trip to the old family homestead in Beleek then we return to Dublin and ultimately London before coming back to Tampa

Portrait of a blogger as a young man

--Joey

Temp blog

okay so after the music at schonbrun i headed to the opera in vienna around the cathedrals in vienna and salzburg and caught a flight to dublin where i am now

today looks to be organizing the galway/connemara trip/beleek trinity college guinness and maybe the gaol (jail)

em comes tomorrow

Iceland´s Green and Greenland´s Icy

Not bad photos Dad

Grüss Gött and happy Wiensday

I decided to make today, like yesterday a Vienna day and skip Bratislava all together. I think this will allow me to have a more relaxing final day here, get caught up on my laundry etc. so I can have an early day tomorrow (Vienna->Salzburg->Dublin).

I was walking around the town, specifically toward the Leopold museum in the Museum's quarter to pick up the U4 line to the Schönbrunn palace. Along the way I passed 3-4 shell games with a couple of unsuspecting looking people taking a peek. If you come to Europe, don't even acknowledge they exist. 9 out of 10 times you will lose your wallet etc.

Livin' La Vida Rococo

It was a good day in Vienna. I took Dad's advice and checked out the Schönbrunn royal palace. The name may ring a bell as the meeting place of Kennedy and Khruschev in the early sixties.

The palace tour is well done and gives you some interesting facts of the Austrian monarchy that lived there up until it was dissolved in 1918. If you go, get the Imperial tour, the Classic tour, gets you no benefit other than two to three other rooms in the palace (if you have seen 30 you have seen 33) and a strudel making show and sample, which can be purchased apart from the package.

The gardens are pretty spectacular, and there is even an on premise zoo if you are so inclined. Since it was hot, I decide to test my theory that a Radler may be more refreshing than beer. I think my hunch was right. After a little more touring I decided to go to a local restaurant that the hostel recommends. Mozart Strube is an old Vienna restaurant, and if you are at there between 18:00 and 06:00 and are staying at the Wombat, you can get a five euro Wienerschnitzel with french fries. What a deal!

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

So around 7:30 I headed back out. Where? Why Schönbrunn of course, to the nightly concert. Best euros ever spent! Only last night was extra special, usually the concert is held in a palace wing. Monthly or semiannually (I forgot what the guy said) they hold it in the Grand Hall. A grandiose setting for a concert of Austria's favorite sons, Strauß and Mozart. Since most of what we associate with Mozart are symphonies, I was not familiar with any (well maybe one) of the pieces selected. They ended the night with Wiener Blut, The Blue Danube Walz and another song that is well known, and unfortunately I can't recall the name (had a certain Sousa-ish quality to it) which led the audience to start clapping along. The maestro then turned around and started conducting the crowd. A night of rousing classical music without even the slightest pretension, the way that music should be enjoyed. All of which is not bad for a kid for whom a night of music usually consists of 8 or more people named "dawg", a drug addicted hasbeen and a curmudgeonly brit just bugged by the whole thing.

This was quite a night. When I went back to the hostel, I saw Marilyn, one of my roommates, waiting for the elevator. She asked what I did today, and I told her about the tour and the concert. Apparently she was there was well and got the word when someone dressed as Mozart approached her on the street. Weird huh?

Anyway, lest you think that all of this means I have become a mature dapper continental sophisticate, the earlier automated tourguide described the purpose of the Grand Hall as existing, "primarily to hold the Emperor's Balls" to which I responded by keeling over with laughter.

A view out the Grand Hall balcony...



--Joey

Finishing up in Munich

After dropping Dad at the airport, I headed back and took the Ubahn out to the soccer stadium. Germany has the World Cup this time around, and Munich is going to be featured prominently. Around the arena there are tons of little kids practicing their soccer skills much in the same way youngsters throw the (real) football around while tailgating.

The train to Vienna was at 23:44 (it was the same one to Budapest) so I had some time to kill. I went to the Hofbräuhaus one last time to get lunch, and write a post card to my Marbella host family, which I subsequently misplaced. They may get a photo once I get home.

So after doing my first load of laundry since I arrived (I stretched a few days more than I should have) and was on the train to Vienna. At first my double sleeper appeared to be empty and like last time the conductor accepted a 10 euro bribe to get a single, a considerable discount off the normal price and well worth it.

Vienna

I got into Vienna around 6am and found the streets surprisingly empty. Turns out May 1st is a European labor day in most countries. My hostel was wide open so I took an hour or so snooze. As I was getting ready to leave my room, a girl comes in that looks sort of familiar. Naturally I just chalk it up to coincidence, but when she asked me where I was from and I said Tampa, she said she also lived there. Monica went to Dunbar, Ben Hill and even Sickles (for my Freshman year) with me. Without a doubt the weirdest coincidence of this trip and probably the last one as well.

Since little was open, I decided to forget going to Bratislava. I still had my rail day left, so I headed to Mauthausen. A small town near Linz, right on the Danube. If the name sounds familiar it will only be because it housed one of the most infamous concentration camps of the Third Reich. In the photo to the right, you can see a sign in the lower left hand corner.

It was a 6km walk to the camp and back which gives the visitor plenty of time to think. The camp stopped operations on May 1st and was liberated May 5th of 1945. Since all the photos are in black and white, we (or at least I) always think of only bleakness surrounding these miserable places. Instead, the immediate area looks more like the "Sound of Music" than "Schindler's List". It appears Mother Nature is blissfully ignorant of the location's history.

The camp tour is a haunting experience. I was fully aware of what happened there before going, but there was always a certain level of abstraction to that horror. It feels a lot more real when you go from saying, ''This happened at a place'' versus "This happened at this place"

This particular camp was different from most. Jews were in the minority with the majority being political prisoners, captured POWs and the like. It was an extermination by labor camp, with a gas chamber added at the very end of the war to accomodate overflow prisoners from Auschwitz.

The work was primarily in the rock quarry, which had an incredibly steep stairs that to this day seems dangerous to climb and descend. 186 steps to the top, sickly dubbed Parachutist's wall, where innocent prisoners were pushed to their death on the whim of the SS. The stairs were its own cause of death. Prisoners carrying 50kg stones on their backs walking up stairs frequently collapsed causing a literal, and horrific, domino effect.

One of the more famous prisoners was famous Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal.

It was a long 6km back to the train station. The train was packed so I had to sit in the aisleway with others people including a woman with a Jack Russel terrier who ended up biting me (did not break the skin) at one point. It is amazing how little complaining you do when things are put in perspective for you.

It was an incredibly memorable day and while depressing, I don't regret going at all. I highly recommend anyone spending time in Europe make a stop at one of the memorials.

--Joey