a lazy day...

Due to winter weather conditions, a certain laziness has set in.

In Ireland I lay curled up by the fire, warming up one end of my body at a time, rotating myself until I was cooked.

Here I sit in front of the computer, looking out at the "cold-grey-wintry" sky, rather pleased with myself for getting out this morning to walk the dog. He ran circles around me!

So let's see- New Year's was a blur...


We saw Avatar!


This is the bar where Phil's brother works- it's called the Standard, short for Royal Standard of London. http://www.rsoe.co.uk/




Very atmospheric!


I am amazed at the lovely selection of far out brews they have here- cask ales with names like "Old Peculiar", "Doom Bar" and "Tanglefoot"

One of my favorite things about traveling to other places is the variety of familiar items that aren't quite exactly the same as what we have back home...


and then I went off to Ireland. Winter there was acting up something fierce for that part of the world, with ice and snow slicking up the roadways... We tried to go the scenic route but ended up almost sliding backwards down the hill.

Luckily the gritters came right up behind us and that helped the car get some traction. Another time we had to get out and push the car up the little path that led up to the house.


The house was so quaint and rustic- built of stone, it was the old groom's quarters behind the main house. The path up to it was lined with a manicured garden and antique black lamposts. Covered with snow, the whole thing looked like a page out of a fairy tale! The ceilings were high, the beams were wooden, and the area surrounding it was absolutely quiet. There was a conservatory in the back, a room made of glass, freezing cold but bound to be beautiful in the summer. We were in Enfield, about 30 miles south of Dublin.

I went to Galway, all the way on the west coast of Ireland. It only took 3 hours by bus. Emma-Jane wasn't feeling well, so I went on my own.
As soon as I got to the hostel, I checked in, dropped off my stuff, and went downstairs to ask the hostelfolk for the best walk around town. Turns out I wasn't the only one with this plan- Elody and Daniel were also looking to have a breath of fresh air, so we all went off walking in the direction of Salthill.



It was beautiful!
Later we had dinner...



Then made the rounds to several pubs.

It was a great night!

The next morning I woke up early to get on a bus tour of the Cliffs of Moher. It had snowed overnight, and everyone was amazed- nobody had seen weather like this in decades...


And quite unexpectedly, the clouds cleared up in time for us to actually see the Cliffs of Moher!






It was quite a surreal landscape.





We also passed by an old abbey.


From there I hopped back on the bus for the return trip back to Galway. 18 euro roundtrip!
I did get into Dublin for a little sightseeing.


Although I didn't get a picture of it, the Charles Beatty Library turned out to be really interesting. He was a wealthy American who amassed a large number of religious manuscripts and artifacts from Judaism, Christianity, Muslim, Buddhism and Hinduism.

This is where I caught the ferry from Dublin Port to Holyhead. It had been cancelled the night I was supposed to go due to inclement weather, so I had to catch the early one the next day.


View from inside the ferry.


On the way back, I got a shot of the longest train station name in the world! "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysilio-gogogoch" It means "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave". It's in Wales.



When I got back to England, I found that it had been snowing a bit here too. I found time to visit Mestre Poncianinho's Cordao de Ouro class in London on Friday night- great class, really fun and lots of nice people! Too bad it was so out of the way- 2 hours by bus, train and tube to get there!

Well that's all the news for now! Until next time...

Merry Christmas and beating on Boxing day!

Merry Christmas from abroad once more!

Arrival back in England safely, without any more snowy mishaps blocking the road. The bus took the train back, went right into the train box and rumbled on into the night, under the sea, and back onto the road, this time on the left!



And I planned it right this time, (had to wait quite a bit for the tube train) got off at Marylebone, checked the schedule for the High Wycombe stop on the National train, and rushed and bought a Cornish Pasty before jumping on for the final stop.

Christmas Eve started off at noon with the annual local pub crawl...





Then a quick visit back home to eat a delicious homemade fish pie before heading out again into Wycombe for live music and a taxi ride home... (Fish, prawns and potatoes simmered in a cream sauce with spinach and baked under a layer of mashed potatoes... yum! Btw, ever hear of Jamie Oliver?)



Christmas day was really nice, nothing out of the ordinary (except for the snow! Which I heard was quite unusual for this part of England). Woke up to a houseful of Gaspers, followed a by plenty of food and drink- organic pork from Wales plus all kinds of trimmings, roasted vegies, green beans, red cabbage, what else all I don't remember, but what I do remember is the dessert, which was a bunch of fresh berries, raisins, dried cranberries, soaked in amaretto and poured over with heavy cream, then topped by a dollop of clotted cream... and I thought that was it but I didn't realize that later we were going to have yet another meal- this time more characterized by appetizers and crunchy fried things, melted camembert, Welsh beer, and champagne... Then we got into teams and played a quiz game orchestrated by Phil's mom. (My team got second place by 1 and a half points... So much for having the Yank on your team guys!)

The best present was the Horsey Hoppers game, that Zoe got for her brothers. Quite a success, we cleared out the kitchen and took turns racing across the floor- I need to post some photos!

What else... Oh, right! the next day we went beating! In England it's called Boxing Day, from when the servants were given this day off after spending Christmas Day catering for their employers and then were sent off with boxes of leftovers...

So, what is beating you may ask? Well, this is how it goes.



The gamekeeper raises pheasants and fowl to release them into the wild for subsequent hunting. On the day of the hunt the hunters prepare themselves with guns and camoflauge clothing, and position in the field in strategic locations. Today the hunters are young lads who usually work as beaters during the year, and the beaters are an assorted bunch of volunteers, including this American girl!



Ok so, the beaters spread out surrounding an area where the fowl like to hide, usually in the underbrush and trees. We then follow directions from Andy the gamekeeper as we advance, slowly and steadily through the woods, whacking flags made from feed bags and making lots of noise. (We also spend a lot of time waiting around as everyone else gets into position.)





Andy's dogs are advancing with us, most of them well trained and at attention, minus one, by the name of Tucker, whose name we hear constantly- "Tucker!" "Tucker!" because he doesn't stay behind us and keeps going running off... Tucker is actually Zoe's dog, so in his defense, he's not really trained as a hunting dog. As we reach the end and the birds lose their cover, they start to fly up into the air. Then there is lots of shooting and pellets raining down from the sky, and, as well, birds, falling down, from the sky.

The dogs at this point are running around like crazy, and they rush off and grab birds that have fallen and bring them back.

We went out four times, going back to the barn for tea and cookies (and a nip of brandy) halfway through. It was cold and brisk out, snow on the ground and romping up and down the rolling hills of Wycombe, good fun!

I conked out after that, felled by some combination of cold weather and traveling... All in all, a really nice weekend back in England. Looking forward to seeing Avatar in 3D tonight and homemade potato leek soup!

Thanks to the most snow in Holland for many many years, trains haven't been running, so I've been spending my time in Utrecht- really not a bad place to be!



I can walk to the main part of town from Sita's house. There are picturesque canals, and a huge tower, and lots of cute shops.

Her house is also really comfortable, and I've been eating WAAAAY too much!



On Sunday Sita threw out the suggestion of having a snowball fight instead of a capoeira roda... Imagine 20 or so capoeiristas running around in the plaza under the Domtower, snow flying, (and falling from the sky!) and everybody out of breath from laughing and having snow in their face. And of course we had to play a little capoeira in all the winter coats and scarves!



Then it began, the food fest. First off, hot chocolate with rum to warm up again. Then walking over to a local pub for a tapas appetizer and Christmas ale.



Next stop was next door, a sister store to the restaurant where Richard works in Amsterdam. There were multiple little dishes filled with Indonesian delectables- each one different and more delicious than the last. Walking home was beautiful that night, it was bright as day due to the reflection of the streetlamps off the snow, and it had stopped snowing...





Last night I went to the Monday night capoeira class, but it was really small, because people couldn't get to town with the trains not running and all. It was fun anyways, meeting new capoeiristas is always a good time!

and more snow...

Big fat snowflakes are falling from the sky, fascinating! Wind is blowing snow off the neighboring roofs in whoofs of blurry white.

Flights have been grounded and Eurostar trains were stuck in the Chunnel Tunnel yesterday.

And we're not going to the Hague today to see the windmills. We'll stay in town and avoid the highways. Even local trains and buses are not running today.

Yesterday we went to the Van Gogh museum, went through the Heineken experience and the red light district, ate Chinese food and met up with Amr for a hot chocolate.

The Van Gogh museum was really interesting- he wrote a lot of letters to his family throughout his lifetime, and exerpts were displayed next to the paintings, which made them make so much more sense. It revealed more of his character and personality and the background behind each iconic painting. It made me want to buy a book of his letters and read them all- biographical information is so interesting to me as I face the challenge of choosing the next step along my life's path.

The Heineken experience was also more interesting than I thought, it was huge and interactive, complete with a tasting and chance to pour your own drink! I think it did taste better here than it does in the states. At any rate, it was a good look at the history of a successful international enterprise- more biographical information!

And meeting up with Amr was a pleasant surprise- he moved out to Amsterdam over a year ago... after Chinese for dinner he took us on a tour of the infamous red light district... The oldest profession. Later we met up with some of his friends at a cozy bar and drank hot chocolate spiked with Stroh... Went home to bed early (just 2am) after a long day of walking in the cold.

This morning we woke up to a light snowfall which gradually thickened, and is still going. It's nice here inside though-

Soon we'll go out to buy chocolate sprinkles and walk around Utrecht.

Snowing!!!

And I'm free!

A lonely traveler once again, stepping in and out of people's lives like bread into a fondue pot.

It was snowing on the day I left Paris, and OuiFM sang me a song in french about how "it's not goodbye, when you're coming back!"



Chocolat, le chat noir, wanted to go out onto the balcony and came back in all snowy white.

The bus ride took 11 hours- I forgot why I never take day bus trips longer than 4 or 5 hours... I think the reasoning this time was that I wanted to see the scenery... I was remembering the 24 hour bus trip from Fortaleza to Salvador in Brasil, where the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful and I felt that I was witness to some kind of endless panoramic IMAX vista through the windows of the bus.



This time I thought of the Chronicles of Narnia, I thought of Dersu Usala and Napolean and his army... It was snowing and blowing the whole way through, and we went about 10 miles an hour the entire time.

Sita met me at the bus station and whisked me away to Indonesian dinner followed by a Spanish bar in the basements along the canals in Utrecht. There was live music played by live volunteers from the audience, people who brought in their own instruments, who danced and sang until all hours of the night.



We ate smoked slices of meat from a cow's leg held suspended above the table, it was soooo good!



And to wrap it up we had turkish pizza wraps at a little cafe close to the house. Home to bed at 4 in the morning...

I feel comfortable in Sita's house, as if I've been here before. As if I've already climbed the steep stairway many times and looked out the bathroom window. The open stairwell with no guard rail is oddly familiar, as is the warm yellow of the knotty pine wooden floorboards in the living room.



Tomorrow we plan to storm Amsterdam, hitting up various museums and attractions as listed in the "Holland Pass, size XL"! (I finally got smart and decided to buy a discount pass, trying to save some euros here!")