Day 5: Dublin

Monday morning we took the train into Dublin, where we stayed overnight before heading back to England. This was the only day of our trip where we experienced adverse weather, as it rained heavily for much of the day.

Despite the rain, we did catch a few of the sights in Dublin, but not quite as many as we had hoped.

First, we went to Dublin Cathedral, at the insistence of Jen, as some of the sermons she has written about in her studies were penned there.


Here is a plaque in Latin, which says something like "Jonathan Swift has been interred here", as far as I can tell.


Next up is a statue of St. Patrick casting the snakes out of Ireland. When St. Patrick casts you out, you STAY OUT!


Here is an picture of the interior. It's a big place.


Below is a picture of the Door of Reconciliation. Rather than recounting the story here, I would encourage you to read it yourself.


It's a beautiful place, but it's hard to imagine actually going to church in a place like that.

Next, we went to Dublin Castle, and took a tour there. It's really hard to capture how big this place is in pictures, but I'll try.


This is a very cool painting in the entrance hall. It didn't turn out as well as I would've liked, but you can still get the effect of it.


The receiving room, where eligible young ladies would wait for a man to come ask them to dance; each pair of chairs are angled such that there will be no doubt which lady said gentleman has come to ask, thus sparing the other embarrasment.


The throne of Ireland. Need I say more?


Next, a rather marvellous chandelier in the throne room.


This was formerly a ballroom, now used for governmental purposes, with beautiful paintings on the ceiling, one of which I will show below.


The aforementioned painting:


Adjacent to Dublin Castle, the Dubhlinn Gardens.



Well, that's enough for this post. I will put up some more pictures of Dublin later, covering the following morning, before we took the ferry to Hollyhead that afternoon.

Day 4 continued: Tintern Abbey

Well, if anyone is still interested, I will continue my account of our travels over seas.

After we were finished our exploits along the coast of Ireland, we took a trip out to Tintern Abbey. This is a beautiful building, currently undergoing restoration, of (I believe) 12th century origin. It also has some significance to my family, in that my great-great-grandmother worked there in the 1800s as a lady's companion. On my previous trip over to Ireland, Jen and I were able to go inside and look around, but this time it was closed. However, there are some beautiful walking trails in the area, a neat old cemetary, and a wonderfully overgrown tower.


Above is a picture of the abbey, and you can also see the scaffolding where restoration work is going on.


Next, here is a picture of the grounds, including a lovely old bridge.


Above is the remains of an old church (as near as I can tell), there are a number of tombs inside it, and an old graveyard surrounding it.


Here you can see some of the gravestones, and below is the interior of the church.



Next we come to one of the neatest parts of our afternoon, an overgrown tower hidden away in the woods surrounding the abbey. None of us, our hosts included, had seen it before, but it's really neat. For all you can tell, all the vines and foliage growing on this structure may be the only thing holding it together!


Here is the interior:



And a picture of my family, taken through a window in the tower.



Last, but not least, is a photo I took of a sign explaining about the walkways, and the origins of the abbey. This is primarily put up for Karl's sake, as I know he has an interest in monks and the like, although I'm sure some others will also find it of interest. (Note: You'll have to click on the picture and enlarge it to make it readable; sorry, this is the best I could do in the post.)



Next stop: Dublin!

Sometimes life is good

I had a good day today. Although I would've preferred to be running in Saskatchewan Marathon this morning, my injury prevented it, so I made the best of things and headed out on my bike. Jason Warrich and Martin Keino were competing against one another in the half-marathon, along with Ted Jaleta, my friend and coach. So, I got a few pictures of them, and then spent a good portion of the half-marathon riding along beside Ted, cheering him on.


From left to right: Matt Scobie (doing the 10km), Jason Warrick, Martin Keino, Ted Jaleta.
Jason ended up edging out Martin at the finish, and Ted came in third.

It started raining quite heavily partway through, and I ended up getting soaked, but had a good time despite that. After Ted finished, I went out looking for my friend and training partner, Jason Tomaz, who was participating in the full marathon. He was doing well when I found him, but may have pushed the pace a little bit too much, as he had a difficult second half. He managed to finish in 6th place, with a time of 3 hr 11 min, which isn't bad, but still considerably slower than he had hoped for.

The rest of the time, I was cheering on pretty much everyone else. You can really tell how much some of the people out there appreciate the encouragement, they always give you a big smile. Sometimes one of the runners will be suffering a bit, or getting tired, but a few words are enough to get them to dig a little deeper, and pick up the pace again. I'm glad I could do my little bit to help out.

I ended up being out on my bike for about 4 hours, and by the end of that my leg wasn't particularly happy with me, but I'm really glad I was out there. I ended up being about an hour late for church, showing up just before they took communion, but I think I made the right decision to go out there and cheer people on. I could've stayed home and felt sorry for myself because I wasn't able to run the race I'd been looking forward to for the last eight months, but that wouldn't have accomplished much, and I think this is a better way to deal with adversity.

When life gives you lemons, spray the juice from them into their eyes, and blind them! Or something like that.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled posts about Ireland.

Hiatus done...One task done, one task not happening

So, this morning I wrote my professional practice exam, it went fairly well, I guess. I could have used a little more time, and my hand was sore from writing so much, but I'm pretty confident I passed. All it needed was a 65% passing mark, so that's not so bad.

I won't be running the Saskatchewan Marathon this year, which really sucks, especially since I've been planning on doing it since last fall. However, tendonitis in my right leg is a real pain, and right I'm doubtful that I could run 2 km at race-pace, much less 42. I've been out for a couple of runs in the past few days, and although I can run for a little while at a slow pace, there's no way I could sustain the kind of pace I'd want to run at the marathon. I walked to and from my exam, about a half-hour each way, and on the way home even that was painful.

On my walk home I got to thinking about this. Now, it's looking like I'm going to have to rest my leg for some time to let it heal. However, I don't want to go without doing any exercise during that time, so I have to find something that will give me a bit of a cardio workout without using my leg. Then I remembered a post that Shannon put up a while ago, and the solution came to mind.

Even though I disproved (or, at the very least, cast serious doubt on) the position put forth in Shannon's post, the basic premise might still be a valid form of exercise, just not burning calories at the inflated rate put forth in the post.

So, if anyone would like to participate in this form of exercise with me, the offer is open. Note, applicants must be female, born between 1977 and 1983, and, preferably, be residents of Saskatoon. Any takers? :P

Oh, and pretty soon, I'll have up more pictures from my trip. Just not today.

Hiatus due to Insanity

Well, for all those eagerly awaiting the update of my blog with the rest of the Ireland pictures (including Tintern Abbey, which I almost forgot to include!), you will have to wait a little longer.

I have just returned from my various adventures, and now have to go back to work. Any time I'm not working over the next few days will be spent:
a) Studying - My 3 hour professional practice exam is on Saturday.
b) Marathon prep - The Saskatchewan Marathon is this Sunday. Right now I'm taking anti-inflamatory medication to deal with the tendonitis in my right leg. I need to get out for some runs in the next couple of days to determine whether I can actually run the marathon, as well as make sure I'm eating properly and hydrating. I also need to find some way to carry an energy bar that won't be annoying during the race. I'd appreciate prayer for the healing of my leg.
c) Miscellaneous every day tasks that need to get done when you've been gone for almost a month. Like grocery shopping. Mmm...food.

When life is sane again (next Monday), I will continue with discussion of my trip, and see if I can get some of my pictures up on Flickr as well.

Day 4: The Irish Coast

This day we returned to Ballyteige (the cats needed feeding, after all), and then took a drive to Kilmore Quay, and Ballyteige Bay. I'd like to spend some more time along the coast at some point. As one of the prairie-folk, I didn't even see the ocean until my first trip to the U.K. a couple of years back. It's really quite breath-taking.

This first image is near the town of Kilmore Quay.



Next, is the harbour at Kilmore Quay. It's amazing seeing all of these ships, although some were real rustbuckets.



This image is of the harbour edge, with numerous, massive concrete breakwaters. They look just like big jacks.



Finally, from the Quay, I give you Jake. Jake is a seal that's been living in and around the harbour for quite a few years. Actually, given that "Jake" gives birth to a litter of seal pups every year, maybe "Jackie" would be more appropriate. "If I should die before I wake...feed Jake." Got to love the Pirates of the Mississippi!



After this, we wandered back to Ballyteige Bay. This is a lovely beach, but unfortunately the water was a bit cold to go swimming. We did do a bit of wading, though.



Here is a view of the length of the Bay. Pretty, isn't it?



Here's my dad playing in the water. I think he got a bit too close!



Finally, I give this lovely view, taken a little ways back from the shoreline.

Day 3 Addendum

Okay, I'm going to put up a few pictures from the Irish National Heritage Park. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that my pictures really do this site justice, nor are they as spectacular as some of the other ones I've posted (or have yet to put up!).


First up is an early Irish farmstead, from the Neolithic period.


This is part of an early Christian monastery.


The above image is a Crannog. This is loch-dwelling settlement, of a type found in Scotland and Ireland. They were built out in the water for defensive reasons, on artificial islands. From what I've read about them, it would've taken a lot of work to put one of these together.


This is a Viking shipbuilders yard. There is a man from Denmark that works at the Heritage Park who builds ships using the same techniques and tools they would have used back in the 12th century. He was kind enough to show us the ship he was building, and tell us a bit about what he does. The following picture shows inside the workshop.


I'll wrap up with this rather spectacular view taken from a hill at the end of the Heritage Park walk...nothing to do with the park itself, but doesn't it look nice?

Day 3: Ballyteige Castle, Johnstone Castle and the Irish National Heritage Park

On Saturday, one of our hosts took us around to see some of the local sites. I had been to two of the places before, Ballyteige and Johnstone, but I was happy to go see them again!

Ballyteige Castle dates back to the 14th century, and came into the possession of part of my mother's side of the family in the 19th century. Up until the early 90's, our relatives lived in the adjoining house, before moving into Tullabards House, shown in the previous post.


We heard about this place so much growing up, it's really neat going there. Ballyteige is one of the few privately-owned castles left in this part of Ireland (incidentally, we saw one of the others, Ballyhealy Castle, and it's up for sale. Anyone have a million Euros floating around and looking to buy?), and although it's not in the best of shape anymore, it was still wonderful to see. There are a number of feral cats who live in some of the buildings there, and our hosts, the McMorris family, feed them every day.

After our visit there to feed the cats, we went on to the Johnstone Castle Gardens. Johnstone Castle is a 19th century Gothic revival building with a 15th century tower castle at its core.


The castle itself has been converted into governments offices(!), and there are lovely walking paths surrounding a small lake. The trees here are gorgeous, with a great variety of species.


There is a walled garden area, although unfortunately coming at the time of year that we did, it had not been fully planted yet. There really is so much to see here, it's hard to know what to show you! There are swans swimming in the lake, peacocks roaming the grounds, and a couple of towers, ornamental in the style of Johnstone Castle, and more original dating several hundred years earlier.

Here are a few of the many pictures I took there:





We then moved onto the Irish National Heritage Park. This is an interesting place, which includes seventeen archeological and historical reconstructions of how people lived in Ireland, from 7000 B.C. up to the arrival of the Normans in the 12th century. I'll add some pictures from this site later, but for now I'm running out of steam.

Day Two: Travel to Ireland

Friday morning (May 5th), my family and I took the train from Reading to Fishguard, Wales, and then proceeded to travel by ferry to Roselare Harbour on the southwest coast of Ireland.

There was one item of note on the train journey: our train was stopped outside the town of Cardiff for about 20 minutes, due to an incident involving armed police. We later learned that there was a man carrying a machete and a gun on the platform, and he had to be removed by the police. Fortunately, no one was harmed.

Here is a view of Roselare Harbour taken from the ferry as we came into port.


Over the weekend we stayed with some of our relatives (on my mother's side) who live in County Wexford, at their beautiful home, Tullabard's House.


The rest of the day was mostly spent visiting, and resting from all of our journeys.

Day One: Reading and Oxford

So, here I will begin to recount our trip.

We flew from Regina to Toronto, and from there onto Heathrow airport in London, arriving on Thursday, May 4th. Jen came to meet us at the airport, and from there we took the bus to the Reading. We dropped off our luggage at her place, and then took the train to Oxford, where we spent the afternoon.

Since we were there in the middle of exam time, the colleges were closed to the public, but we did tour around the exterior of some of them.


We also returned to two museums Jen and I visited on my list trip to England, the Oxford Museum of Natural History, and the connected Pitts River Museum, which is an archaeological/anthropological museum. Both are very cool, with lots of neat things to see. Here are a few pictures from these two sites:


Here is a rather large fossil ammonite. We were hoping to find similar samples during our later visit to Lyme Regis.


More fossils, this time of plesiosaurs (I believe).


The above image is from the Pitts River museum, featuring a very intricately carved set of concentric ivory balls. The picture truly doesn't do it justice.

This really gives only a bare glimpse of that afternoon, but it's impractical to put up more than a few photos per post here. As previously mentioned, I hope to put up some of my pictures on Flickr, or a similar site, and perhaps will get to share them with some of you in person. Nex on our tour: Ireland!

Home

Well, I have returned from my trip to England and Ireland. It's nice to be home, even though I'm a bit under the weather, and have been up for several hours now. (yes, it is 6 a.m. sigh.)

We had a really good time, although, sadly, I did not meet a pretty Irish lass. Such is life.

I'll put up some posts detailing the trip, soon, for those who are interested.

Brief Update

Hi everybody! I'm enjoying my time overseas, returned from Ireland yesterday and everything is going well. We're spending the day in Reading, which will be pleasant; it'll be nice to not spend hours on the train.

Unfortunately, I have neither the time nor the means for a more extended update on my trip, and likely will not until my return.

Take care all!

Departure...T-3 hours and counting

Well, the day has finally come. Today, my parents and I leave for England. Yay! It doesn't seem quite real, yet, but I suppose it will soon. I'm packed, I'm taking my huge backpack, and a carrion bag (Oops! I meant carry-on...really) I borrowed from Joel.

We picked a pretty good day to leave, too. It's been raining here in beautiful Regina, and there's even been a forecast for snow! So, soon we'll be heading to rain...I mean, sunny London, for two weeks of travel in England and Ireland.

I don't know how frequently I'll have access to the internet during my travels, but I'll try to put up posts of the various places we visit as often as I can.

For those who care, our itinerary is as follows:
11:20 a.m., Woden's Day: Leave Regina.
some other time, same day: Arrive in Toronto, sit there for a while.
mid-morning, Thor's Day: Arrive in London. We are then going to spend the afternoon in Oxford. I've been there once before, there are so many neat places to see there! I particularly liked going to the various colleges, including going to the one where Tolkien lectured at.
Freya's Day: We've got a 'sail and rail' package set-up to head over to Ireland. We take the train to Fishguard, Wales, and then take the ferry over to Rosslare, Ireland. We'll be spending Saturn's Day and Sun's Day with our relatives in Ireland, and, among other sights, will get to see the castle in our family, Ballyteige.


On Moon's Day, we head into Dublin, and spend the rest of that day and half of Tiu's Day there, before taking the ferry from Dublin to Hollyhead Island, and then the train back to Reading.

After that, the itinerary gets a little fuzzy...I know we'll be spending a day at Avesbury, we have an overnight trip planned to Lyme Regis, and a day in London. There will be a few other places as well, I'm just not sure yet what they will be.

Then we return to Regina on Moon's Day, May 15th! Anyway, I will take many pictures on my trip, and will hope to show them to all of you upon my return...unless I meet a pretty Irish girl and decide not to come back. You know how it is. How can you say 'no' to the Irish?

As I don't have any more pictures from the current trip, and the one of the castle above was sort of cheating (seeing as how it was from last trip), I leave you with a picture of Bo. Isn't she cute?