Ennistymon, Lahinch

Hello. I just got back from wandering around Ennistymon and Lahinch, while Jimmy took the kids to their grandparents'. He's apparently putting in a fence for his brother. :)

So I had him drop me off in Ennistymon, a sweet little town where Jeanne works as a pharmacist. Almost the first thing you see when you enter it is the cascades, a very impressive waterfall that the road goes over. There is just about one main street, with small shops all along it. Quite a few of them are closed. This might have something to do with the "Fitz's Supervalu" up the road. There is a Supervalu in every town of a certain size, and they all have a name in front, "Dermot's Supervalu," etc. Probably to try and personalize them.

I walked aimlessly, then followed a sign saying "Burren Chernobyl Project" (what?). It brought me to a gallery/studio space, which had some exhibitions on. One of the women who works at the front desk invited me to join them for coffee, so I did, with two Jackies and a Dara. Dara was talking about a "biscuit cake" (made with crushed-up biscuits) she was making for a wedding. One Jackie was an artist there, the other had been an artist. Dara seemed a bit grumpy, and repelled anyone's suggestions on how to make her cake taste better by saying that she would follow the recipe to the letter, thank you. Then we examined the art around us--some beautiful portrait paintings and an umbrella that had been sewn with pins coming down from the inside of it, like rain. "This is pretty good," said Dara. "Some of the artists... well, they do work very hard on their stuff..." "We've seen some pretty horrible things in here," confided one of the Jackies.

I visited an abandoned school, one of many broken-down boarded-up buildings around. The Burren Chernobyl Project turns out to be an exchange program between the Ennistymon area and somewhere up in Russia, with kids from both places visiting the other. Then I went to see Jeanne, who told me there was a path along the river, so off I went. It was beautiful. I took some pictures with my phone... now to get them off of it and onto the internet. :P But here's someone else's picture.

Oh yeah, and I had a traditional gluten-free Irish crêpe, and bought some traditional Irish tofu. And talked to the guy in the health food store, where I bought the tofu; he was originally from Bavaria but had been in Ireland for 30 years. He said that, from his perspective, Ireland was not as relaxed as Italy, but more relaxed than Germany; you could do your own thing as long as you didn't step on anyone's toes. "Hang upside-down from a tree? Go ahead," he said. 

I believe that Ireland is relaxed, since none of the buses seem to leave on time! Jimmy went to pick Jeanne up from work today, and three hours later they were still away. It turns out that they decided to go see a friend's new house, and then stopped a cafe, and then eight of their friends turned up. 

But anyway, I started walking the 20-minute walk from Ennistymon to Lahinch, the next town along, hoping to then hitch from Lahinch to Liscannor, where I live. Everyone here recommends hitchhiking as the best way to travel when you don't have other transportation. When it started to rain, someone pulled over and asked if I wanted a lift. Her name was Dee, and she lived in Lahinch, and vaguely knew Tess, one of Jeanne's friends, when I started running through people, certain that in a town that size we had to have someone in common. In Lahinch, I bought fudge, and then stood by the road with my thumb out.

A lot of people make inexplicable hand gestures at you when you're hitchhiking. As if I'm supposed to know what pointing at my side of the road, pointing at the other side of the road, or pointing straight ahead are supposed to mean. Are you giving me silent advice on where to stand? Or just pointing and laughing? Anyway, after a while, a bus came along, but it was going the wrong direction. 

Then a vanload of Germans stopped next to me. They were staying just down the road from us (not saying too much though, since there are only about three roads in Liscannor). We spoke a mixture of German and English to each other. I was grateful for the German practice. They're here in the west of Ireland because various relatives like to ride motorbikes. Why Ireland and not somewhere with straighter roads and better weather? I suppose variety is a good thing. :) 

So that's how I got home. Sadly, when I got home, I realized that Jimmy had locked the door before he left, assuming that Jeanne had given me a key... so I had to climb through a not-very-big window, accidentally stepping on a picture frame in the process. Oops. :(

Clare

Back in Liscannor (pronounced liss-SCANNER), where my dry throat has turned into full-fledged something. I hope it's not strep. :P The kids all have it too, lots of coughing and fever. This makes them extremely irritable. Last night at 1 AM, I found Beau sitting in the middle of the hallway, sobbing his heart out because he couldn't find a clean pair of pajama pants. There was a chorus of wailing from him and Eli, the baby, before bed. Beau because he was itchy. His mother, Jeanne, called him a drama queen.

The joys of taking care of three kids...

Beau is the oldest, at 5 years. He goes to school on weekdays, this must be his first year. He is full of energy and tends to throw himself everywhere. He can be very sincere, but also very cheeky. He likes building boats and forts and whatever you like out of couch cushions and other objects, and also looking over my shoulder whenever I'm on the computer (which means I have to be careful). He has longish brown hair and huge blue eyes that are pretty amazing. I'm not surprised that he already has older girls following him around the playground. :) He's losing his milk teeth at the moment.

Ruby is the middle child, at 3. She is very style-conscious, and always wants to know what colour toes (socks) someone has, and whether they match hers. And she likes nailpolish. She loves Peppa Pig. I don't mind Peppa Pig, so far at least, because it gets them quiet! She has the requisite pink stuff everywhere. She's also very independent, and rebels against being told to do things, by telling adults (usually me) what to do in the same tone of voice. She'll also tell me that other adults have said things are or are not ok... for example, when I cut my finger and put a plaster on it, she said that mummy had said they were mummy's special plasters and nobody else could use them. And her daddy apparently said that nailpolish was not for adults. She's also frequently reminded me, when I say that I need privacy in my room, that it's not actually "my" room! She will also put stickers on anyone who stays still enough.

Eli is the baby, at about 1 and a half. He's just beginning to talk, and walk without support. "At's dis?" or "A dat?" he'll ask, pointing at something, and repeat it until you duly tell him that it's dog (bow-wow), duck, strawberry, or whatever, whereupon he makes the sound of whatever it is--"oof oof!" for dog is his favourite, probably because there is an actual dog hanging around outside. He also does high fives, and blows people kisses, and gives his siblings spontaneous hugs, especially when he's been walking on his own and is pleased with himself. He can also be a little rascal and does things even when I say no, giving me a huge smile as he does them...

Benny is the dog, who's never been trained to do anything, and you can't walk or bike down the road without him following, crossing the road, chasing cars, running in front of cars, etc.

Jeanne and Jimmy are the parents, and they're both really nice people; Jeanne works in a pharmacy and Jimmy works in a bar. They're not married, which apparently offends some members of her family. They plan to marry at some point, though. They're both from Ennis, which is not very far away.

I am trying to spend more time outside, as it's difficult with a crawling baby to look after and the unpredictable dog, who Ruby is scared of. But I did take a bike trip to the Cliffs of Moher a couple of weekends ago. That was mostly uphill, and when I got to the car park, I realized that I didn't have a bike lock and didn't want to leave it somewhere unattended, and also they were charging €6 to see a piece of coast! But I did get to see St. Brigid's Well. There's a pub called Murphy's right beside it, and someone hangs their washing practically inside the graveyard there. On the way back, it was a dream! I practically coasted the whole way!

The weather has been warm and sunny one day, and rainy and cold the next. Lahinch, the town down the road, is very nice. Lots of people go surfing there. The other day we went to a beach cleanup along the coast. We found a lot of horrible plastic stuff. And I went to a traditional session at the local pub. Apparently Christy Moore's brother, Luka Bloom, was there; I didn't know, and I don't really know who he is anyway. But hey, cool.

Actually, this place reminds me quite a bit of Iowa. Even the accents sometimes sound the same to my ears... I don't know how... I'm going back to London at the beginning of July, and it will be a bit of a relief to get back to somewhere where you can walk to the nearest shop. But the scenery is quite beautiful.

Galway (still)

I'm writing this post having just missed the bus back to Clare. Woop. Since the next one is tomorrow morning, I've got another night here... somewhat stressful, since both Jeanne and Jimmy (the parents of the kids I'm looking after--no, none of the kids' names begin with J) have to work early in the morning. They're trying to get somebody to be there for the two hours that I can't.

I went out the door at almost 11 this morning hoping to get to Quaker meeting less than 20 minutes late, and arrived back here at 5:30 wearing a completely different outfit, carrying a hula hoop and 2 more bags than I previously had, and found that nobody was answering the door, no matter how much I shouted and rang. My phone was out of batteries and had been for most of the day, so I couldn't contact my host. What was I to do?

--flashback to earlier--

So after getting distracted by the internet, I went out the door hoping not to be too late for meeting. I'd looked at the map and it seemed pretty straightforward. That road, that road, then after the river you turn to the left. However, having reached the university campus and not finding the bridge I was expecting to find (and none of the streets have signs, of course), I asked a university student where "University Road" was. I was working on the assumption that the road going through the university would be University Road.

However, I was wrong. And she pointed, not to the real University Road, but to a motorway that crossed the river. This put me wildly off course (I suspected something when it started to look a bit like countryside), and I ended up at the Galway Shopping Centre. Which was lucky because I'd had a mission to get a swimsuit and an Irish SIM card for my phone, but unlucky because I completely missed Quaker meeting. I had lunch sitting in an abandoned lot.

After using wifi to find out where I was --M*D*n*ld's has free wifi over here -- I headed back to the city centre and walked down the aptly named Shop Street, in search of the sea. I found the sea, and also a free market next to the Spanish Arch! There were many hippies there, sitting on the steps, playing the djembe (of course), hula-hooping (of course), and tending to the clothes, books and DVDs spread out over the ground. I got me some nice new/old clothes more suited to the warm weather (it was cold and rainy yesterday), and then bought a hula hoop (probably against my better judgment). They also had a big potluck feast on the grass.

After that, it was definitely time to go... but as I said, when I got to the house, it was locked and nobody was in. My laptop, however, WAS in there. Thankfully, a neighbor was willing to let me into the house to use his phone charger. I called Arianne, my host, and it turned out that she had been less than 50 feet away from me, sitting on the grass near the Spanish Arch, but neither of us had seen the other. She was waiting for me to call or text for her to come home, but my phone had lost its charge at the shopping centre. "I'll be there in 15 minutes," she said. It was 5:40 and my bus was at 6:05. Long story short, I missed my bus.

--

Last night was pretty good. Jeanne had told me that her brother worked in Galway, at the King's Head. I caught up with him and though he couldn't host me, he pointed out some events in the Galway Sessions that he thought we should go to. I was going to follow his advice, but Arianne wanted to go to a salsa night. So off we went.

There were a lot of good dancers there! I taught Arianne and her friend basic salsa steps, which is really all I know myself, whereupon some grey-haired dude in a tipped-down fedora grabbed my hands and tried to do all these fancy moves with me. I can usually follow a bit where someone leads, but he was mostly showing off and it was disastrous.

I noticed a guy dressed in a very strange outfit standing next to the bar -- bowler hat, leather waistcoat, linen shirt, and leather bellbottoms (!) so I struck up a conversation with him, asking him if he was a performer.

He told me that his friend and he were carpenters from Germany, and had decided to go on a traditional journey, called a "Waltz." Look!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journeyman_years One of them was very tall and had pretty good sideburns, the other one was short. They gave us mentholated snuff, on the back of the hand, and recited something in German. Apparently it translates (roughly) to "On all the ships that sail on the sea, one man is lonely. No matter how big or small the ship, one man on it is lonely." Haunting.

Once again, I was feeling rough and my voice was giving up, so I decided to go early. It felt good to walk by the river, by myself, through the quiet hospital grounds, past the mortuary (!). You don't get much time to yourself, dealing with three kids.

Galway

I am gratified that I actually found an available blog name that doesn't have a bunch of numbers in it. Hopefully it will be memorable. I used to have an email address that began with memorable_address. Hmm...

I'm in Galway, and the Galway Sessions are on, which should be called the Stirling Sessions, because it's a bunch of musicians from Stirling who are coming down to Ireland to play music. Plus some others. I come to Ireland and what do I get? More Scottish people. :)

I got into town at about 6 PM, checked into my hostel, put my laptop in the safety deposit box. Looked up restaurants online. As my friend Zoe had recommended Tigh Neachtain, a pub just down the street, I looked up their menu--it looked good and not too expensive. So I went, only to find that it wasn't a pub with food, it was an attached restaurant above the pub. And I'd been looking at the starters menu, not the main courses. It was a place where people wore nice clothes, and there I was, in a hoodie and jeans, looking at €15 dishes. But I thought to myself, well, why not. Life is for enjoying yourself. So I had a damn good risotto and an excellent glass of wine. And realized that I was very lucky to have come at the right moment, as others were turned away who didn't have reservations. I probably didn't spend much more than I would have at the other pubs on the street.


Then I went to an event that I'd seen advertised on couchsurfing, which was excellent, an album release gig at Roisin Dubh for this band: http://walkperson.net/#listen/ and hung out with them and their friends afterwards in the Crane Pub, which was too crowded. I still had no idea where I was going to stay the next night, and I didn't really want to stay in a hostel again. But Kiata, who had organized the event, suggested we ask a likely-looking person who was sitting at the other end of the table if I could stay with her... After a bout of daring each other to ask her, I plucked up my courage. So that's where I'm staying. She happens to be on couchsurfing as well. I suppose it's becoming more and more frequent. :) 


I had to leave because of a waning voice caused by cigarette smoke and my stubborn cold (everyone in Galway seems to smoke). There was a rock cover band outside the hostel window that thankfully stopped playing at 2 am. That would have been fine, except that some kind of roaring noise filled the room at 8 am, I suspect something kitchen-related. Augh. 


So I waited for Arianne (my host) to show up this morning, then we went to the Galway market that happens every Saturday and Sunday, and then--at her flat that she said was 10 minutes away, I don't believe it--crashed out for most of the afternoon. This evening we're going out to another music thing. Then tomorrow I'm wandering around the town centre before going back to Clare, and back to au pairing for three kids. More on that later.