Farewell to Eire

one last entry...

well, here it is, the last day of my wonderful trip to ireland. and a wonderful trip it has been.

there were good times and some not so good times, but all in all, it was well worth it and i would do it a hundred times over again.

i of course have been missing all of you, my friends and family back home, and so for you, this is not a farewell but a see you soon. still, part of me wishes it didn't have to end, just that you could all join me here. :)

so, at the end of the day (metaphorically right now), i couldn't have asked for a better semester. well...i could have asked for it, but i would have been a fool to expect it. so, for all of those i am returning to, i look forward to seeing all of you and the good times we will have, and for those i am leaving, rest assured, i will not let all this be left behind, and we will meet again.



so, as i gaze once more at the liffey, trying desparately not to wax nostalgic (and failing miserably), i know dublin will always be here, and always be a home to me. have absolutely no clue what the future holds for me, from 6 months to 6 years to 6 decades from now, but i do know one thing,

i will be back.

until then,

cheers,

scott

the island of saints and scholars

that's right, did you know that ireland is known as the island of saints and scholars? cause i found that out about a million times over yesterday. but more on that later.

as my time in dublin draws to a close, which is very sad mind you, i've been thinking about what i have left to do. the answer is a whole lot. there is far too much to do in this country to do in 4 months. or 4 years for that matter. but, in spite of all that, i felt i did an awful lot, and a good amount for the time i was here, including one senior thesis play to boot.

actually, i had my first reading last wednesday, which went very well, thanks to many of the delightful actor-types here in our program. now i get to take the show back to oregon, revise once again, and put it on one more time at good ole WU. (anyone want to direct? let me know) so, that's done.

now all that was left, besides buying all the souvineers that ireland has to offer (i'm almost done, i think), is one final jaunt out of dublin before it's off to the airport after many goodbyes and goodbye pints. we decided to ham it up a bit, and play the tourist, and so mary kate, logan and i headed on a day tour up to newgrange and the hill of tara. what are those, you ask? i'm so glad you did, let me tell you.

newgrange is a really cool tomb/astronimical observatory/what have you from the neolithic period. it is the oldest astronomical observatory in europe or something like that. basically it comes from a time we know very little about, and people we know even less about. so, what it actually is, is a mystery, although there are many theories. here is a picture, and then i will explain more...



so this is the front of the monument. now, not all of this is absolutely authentic from the time period. the wooden steps are an obvious addition. also, the dark rocks were added there for support, so it wouldn't collapse and they could allow tourists and stuff inside. so that's forgivable. the white rocks are mostly quartz, and they are a matter of some debate. see, the major excavation of newgrange was back in the 1960s when professor O'Kelly began doing it. he found these quartz rocks scattered around the outside of the walls, and thought that maybe they were on the walls at one point. he experimentally put them up, and it worked. they didn't stay long, however, and soon slid and fell down. however, they fell basically the same way he found them originally, so this he took as confirmation and put them back up, this time to stay. this is a topic of huge debate, because there are many engineering types who think this is not how they would be. oh well. they look good. anyway, if you'll notice, there are two doors. one big one, and one smaller one directly above it. this is what the monument was for. this particular monment is lined up directly for the winter solstice (dec 21). there are other monuments for summer solstice and the equinoxes. so what happens is when the sun comes over the ridge on the winter solstice, the rays go directly into that upper door, and all the way through the tunnel to light up the inside. pretty darn cool. they used this in some sort of ritual, and they are pretty sure it was used in conjunction with the ashes of their dead, as if returning them to the sun/earth or something like that. this is why it is sometimes thought to be a tomb, but there isn't proof that they kept the ashes in there, or if they just brought them in for ceremony. anyway, it's cool. and yes, you can go in on the solstice to see this phenomenon, but there is a lottery, and a waiting list that is literally years long. so good luck. the other cool thing about newgrange, which you can kind of see in the picture is the carvings on the rock in front. here is a close up of this particular rock.



now, there are designs like this all around the monument, but nobody knows what they mean. there are about as many theories as there are people to present them, but some of the big ones include psychotropic drugs, and ancient mathematical systems. all are valid though, so make up your own and call it good. Logan figured aliens.

and now we'll take a little detour to talk about the trip in between. our tour guide on the trip was hilarious. she sounded like she knew what she was talking about, in a way, but more like she had read a few books and stretched what she had read as much as she could. she kept talking in circles, and making all these contradictions to what we heard elsewhere, including on the newgrange tour. very humurous. by the end we could recite along with her what she was saying. such as "this was ireland's golden age. this is when young people would come from all over europe to study at the great irish monastaries. this is why ireland was known as the island of saints and scholars." see, told ya. it was hilarious. so, now i could give the tour if i wanted to. plus she could stand to brush up her info on the celtic druidic system.

anyway, our second stop was the hill of tara. but first a little background. in the ancient irish feudal system, there were kings (eg, king of munster, king of leinster, etc), and then the one high king above them. they would meet and discuss the countries issues and stuff. so, the hill of tara was where the high king held court, and where he was crowned. so pretty important stuff. it just so happens, by the by, that one of the ancient kings of leinster (the east of ireland, where dublin is) was dermot macmurrough, which then became mcmorrow in the us, and then became morrow. so there ya go, i'm royalty. anyway, here is the hill...

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most of these divets and tracks and stuff were man made, used for shelter, ceremony, court and whatnot. there was this big mound called the mound of hostages, from the top of which you can see 28 or ireland's 32 counties. that's pretty cool. i took a 360 degree picture, but it's too big to put on here, so you'll have to specially request it. if you want it. this is where they crowned the actual kings though...



so there it is. yeah. i don't know exactly what it is, but it was kind of the focus point of the hill. also on the hill was a really cool gothic looking church with dead trees all around filled with ravens. very edgar allen poe. anyway, we also looked about this old book store for a long time and found a lot of very expensive books. nothing very interesting though. then we went home and collapsed for the rest of the day. we did have to get up early for the tour anyhow.

so that was my last jaunt out of dublin. it is now sunday, and i leave friday morning. crazy. so, since i may or may not have time/take the effort to relate my boring last week packing and whatnot on here, if you don't hear anything from me again, it's because i'm back in the states, and i'll probably be contacting you in person. it's been a great trip, and there's still lots left to do when i come back.

until then,

cheers,

scott

quickie update

hello,

well, sadly for everyone, i don't really have any new pictures to share. that's because nothing terribly exciting has happened over the past few weeks. mostly i've been working on my play and reading in my spare time. (some great books though, i definitely recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell to anyone who isn't scared off by 1000 page books).

anyway, i thought i would give a quick update on things going down on this side. i finished the first draft of my play, and am currently procrastinating before i start revisions. i figure i'll actually start sometime next week. like i said, i've been reading a lot, and spending far too much money on books.

the big news i guess would be that we did actually have thanksgiving here. my initial plan was to go to a pub somewhere and have irish stew and a guiness, but it seemed that it wasn't in the cards, and so i joined the rest of the crew for a gigantic potluck dinner, with all the fixin's. we also had some live irish music, which was very cool. overall, the evening was lots of fun. i hope everyone out there in americaland had a good thanksgiving too, and ate far too much turkey and stuffing.

things are kind of winding down here. i'm only here for a little over 3 weeks more, and while it seems like there is still quite a bit to do, we ar definitely on the home stretch. i've been off spending lots of money on gifts for everyone, and even more money on myself (mostly food). and so i will likely land in seattle with little to my name except for lots of cheesy irish memorabilia for people. oh well, it's the nature of such trips i guess.

well, i suppose i will sign off now, not having anything else to say. although, i feel i should put at least one picture up here for the time being, so i'm going to root through my collection and see what i can find. hold on...



ok, so here we are back in blarney. this is a picture of the fairy glade. i know before there was a picture of the tree, but this is the glade. i just like this picture, and this was, in the whole trip, probably the most magical place i've been, so here ya go. a good picture, of a good place.

so, with that, i will sign off, leaving you to contemplate if anything exciting will happen between now and when i leave, and whether or not it's worth it to check out this site ever again.

cheers,

scott

Belfast

hello hello hello,

so, being behind the times as i am, two weeks ago we went to belfast, ireland's "other" capital. let me tell you, it is very different than dublin. we had a very short trip, only one night, and so there wasn't a lot to take pictures of. two main events were picture worthy. actually, it was basically the only two events we did. we took a tour of the political murals around the city, and then we went to the ulster transportation museum. the only other things we did were eat too much indian food at a swell restaurant, and go to the strangest nightclub where i had the worst pint of guiness i've ever had. (literally. the worst. i even sent it back and asked him to repour it, but no improvement.)

so anyway, before i show you the pictures, here is a bit of background, so you can understand a bit of what i'm saying.

first off, there are the two sides. one, the unionists. these are the guys who want britain to remain in power over ulster (northern ireland), and are totally loyal to the queen, etc. they are often deemed "more british than the british." this is rather ironic because during the original invasion of ireland by the british, the lords that were placed here to keep charge were often sucked into the local culture and deemed "more irish than the irish." unionists are also called loyalists.
the other side is the nationalists. they are the ones that are for home rule, and are often represented by the IRA and sinn fein (pronounced shin fane). nationalists are also called republicans, which believe me, was difficult to get used to.
now, throughout belfast, you move in and out of unionist and nationalist sections very quickly, and often without realizing it. the best ways to tell are by looking at the murals, or looking at the curbs. in nationalist areas, the curbs are often painted white, green and orange (the colors of the irish flag), and in unionist areas, they are often painted red, white and blue (the colors of the union jack). important to keep in mind if you want to go spouting off political phrases in belfast.

so, after that brief history lesson, if you are still awake, here are the pictures...



this is a typical nationalist mural. note the hands in chains (pretty obvious representation), and the dove at the top. also, note how they have many portraits of specific people, along with the names. these are people who were imprisoned or died for the cause of a united ireland. nationalist murals attempt to give a face to those involved, and acknowledged what has been done. i also like this mural because they quot bob dylan, right in the middle. see? see?



now, this is a typical unionist mural. they prefer to remain somewhat faceless, and represent their cause by masked rebels with guns. UFF stands for ulster freedom fighters, and it is interesting to note that it is not actually a real organization. there are no actual members of the UFF, just on murals. it was created as a representation of the struggle, but was never meant to actually exist in material form. this is not to say that there aren't many unionist organizations, many of which use guns and masked rebels, just not the UFF.



this is an aboriginal mural. it has no relavance to the cause, or the struggles in northern ireland or belfast. but it's very cool. it was right next to the "free the POWs" mural above. but, completely out of place among all the political messages. it was nice to have a breath between the blatent hostility between the two sides. of course, there could be some obscure political reference that we aren't getting, but i don't think so.



this is a mural in two pictures that i attempted to merge. the angles are a bit off, but i still like it. it shows a much more peaceful example of a unionist mural, and represents why they continually hold the upper hand in the fight. britain is in charge, not the republic. and as MLK has said, those in power almost never willingly give it up. so, the struggle continues.

that was the political side of belfast. in part two, i show you more of the fun side...things with motors. that's right, it's the ulster transportation museum. it was quite neat. so check out the next post. it's worth it. i swear.

Belfast pt 2

so, the second picture-worthy event that took place in belfast, the ulster transportation museum. now, all we were told upon coming here was that it was cool and that we could see a delorean. luckily, it was better than just that...



that's right, they had motorcycles. and so, i was very happy. they actually had tons of old bikes, and i have many more pictures, but i could only post so many, so i chose some that really sum up the whole thing. this is a 1919 skootamota. i know, cool name, huh? now, i don't know for sure, but this has to be one of the first scooters, and damn is it cool. i've decided that i want one of these. i'll get one, you'll see.



this is a 1960 bianchi. the quintissential cafe racer. for those of you who don't know, the cafe racers were a bunch of people who hung out in cafes, had fast bikes and...well...raced. their idea of a good bike is fast, stripped down and cool. this bike embraces all of these things, and is italian to boot. much better than a ducati anyday. then we went on to the cars...



this is something that really should be around more, an amphicar. that's right, this car can go in and out of water. i think it speaks for itself. nice.



and finally, the delorean. yes, it was cool. yes, it had wing doors. no, it could not go back to 1955, or 2015, or 1885, or any other time. and no, i did not see doc brown. sadly. anyway, if you were to see the other side of the platform, you would see a big sign that says "no climbing" and "do not enter car" and other such signs. needless to say, many people took pictures inside the delorean. this is sean and rebecca, and i think they look pretty good.

so, that was belfast, the good, the bad and the ugly. hope you enjoyed it, it was a very different experience from dublin, and i recommend it just as highly.

cheers!

scott

halloween

ok...

so i realize that halloween was actually about 2 weeks ago, and while i accept that i am sorely behind the times, i have been rather busy actually doing work over here, so i'm a little behind on my blogging. sorry.

so here is a brief update bringing you the best of dublin halloween costumes 2005. as worn by tisch dublin students.



here we have logan. logan is a vampire hunter. specifically he is sephiroth, who is apparently a bad guy from final fantasy VII (he just told me that). anyway, a cool costume. note the excellent katana he pieced together from two shorter ones.



here we have me. now, hard as it may be to notice, i am actually wearing a costume. everyone (as in a few people) decided on a superhero theme this year for halloween, and not wanting to disappoint, but still needing to be as annoying unique as the scott you have all come to know and love, i decided to be spaceman spiff. that's right, one of calvin's alter egos from the comic strip. now, i think i pulled it off rather well, but let me know what you think. really. tell me, please.



now, if there was a contest for the sexiest costume, i'm sure one of these two would win. don't ask me which, i'd get in trouble no matter who i said (i love you, steph). both were fantastic costumes, steph as superwoman and meg as robin. both great costumes, both great people. good times.

and of course, i had to save the best for last...



this is trip. he wanted to be nightcrawler, so he painted himself blue. all blue. it took him about 3 hours, but it looks awesome. we went out walking in temple bar that night, just all of us in costume, and people were constantly stopping him and asking to have their picture taken with him. it was hilarious. and cool. anyway, trip was king of temple bar that night, and king of halloween dublin.

so that was halloween. sorry it's late, but here it is. next up will be our trip to belfast, which was last weekend, but i'll probably take another few days to update. it will be good though, so be patient.

until then,

cheers!

scott

not just a stone pt 2

...and so we went to the grounds.

which were awesome! seriously, the castle was cool, but the grounds were much much cooler. anyway, we had wandered around the grounds a bit before we entered the castle, and we had thought we saw most of it, so we thought we would just take a final stroll around and then be done with it. here is a picture of the grounds from the top of the castle. or at least, the grounds we could see...



turns out that this is very little of the actual grounds. you see the wall toward the back of the yard? well, there is a tunnnel going through that wall, and that's where all the cool stuff is. if you ever go to blarney, be sure to go through that wall. it was amazingly beautiful in the grounds, and it was full of natural wonders and cool stuff. there were some of the most beautiful plants that i had ever seen, wonderful colors of reds, greens, yellows and oranges, and everything was glistening from the rain. we came upon a carved stone stairwell leading down through a tunnel, called the wishing steps, and came upon even more cool stuff. the first thing we saw upon leaving the stairwell was this really cool bog swamp thing. trees were hangin down over the green water, and well, it's really hard to explain, so here's a picture of it.



we continued on this very cool path going through the forest, all with a hundred other paths leading off to glades and thickets. the trees were fantasticly thick and alive, and you could feel an energy radiating out from the entire place. it was very very cool.

the most beautiful part was called the fairy's glen, which was just a little glen beneath a few trees. the leaves fallen in the glen, however, were the most brilliant red i have ever seen, and standing in there, you could feel the magick of the place. it was truly truly beautiful. of course it helps to be there with someone you love...
anyway, there were natural stone formations creating mossy walls around the glen, and a carpet of bright, red leaves, glistening with the rain. there is no true way to give justice to such a place, but i like this picture anyway. this is one that steph took, and it is very good.



there was really too much stuff we saw to describe it all, and so i'm really not going to try. if anyone wants to see more pictures, send me an email, and i'll send you some personally. it just takes too long to post them all here.

the last picture here is the only one of me and steph from the entire trip. most of our trip was us going solo, which is not a bad thing by any means, but it also meant that we could only take pictures of ourselves. this is us in a place in the grounds where the witches lived back when it was still a castle. there was the witches stone nearby, and this is the witches' kitchen. there is a cave behind us under the tree, and there was an old fire pit inside. very neat. just around the corner from us was the druids' cave, also very cool. but here is us...



anyway, we ended up spending about two and a half hours wandering around the grounds, before we decided to go get some lunch. on the way back out past the castle, we noticed that we had completely neglected the ground entrance to the castle, which housed the dungeons. we of course had to check it out. it turned out to be very very dark, and so we went to the gift shop in the vain hope of finding a flashlight. lucky for us, they had flashlights for that express purpose! (that and exploring the caves, which were around the other side of the castle) so, we purchased a torch for the mighty price of 8 euro, and went back to the caves and the dungeons. the caves were pretty cool, but i had to stoop quite a bit, and they looked like they could go for miles pretty much looking the same, so we decided to save them for another day when we were more prepared. the dungeons were equally disappointing. the stairways quickly disappeared into a small, rocky stone tunnel, which one would have to get on hands and knees to navigate. we saw a few of the cells, and decided that we would not want to be prisoners there. that, plus an almost-fatal spider attack on steph, and we decided it was time for lunch.

we retrieved our stuff and headed for the kopi cafe, which was a neat place with fantastic soup. i ordered the tomato basil, and steph got the potato and leek. we ended up liking each other's more, and so we switched, but both were very good. while we were sitting there, soaked, tired and cold, eating our delicious soup, we discussed the remainder of our trip. we had planned to go to new ross, which was to be our final stop, and there was some cool stuff there, but we didn't know where we were staying, and even if we would make it to new ross that same day. we decided that if we saw everything we wanted to in ireland this trip, there would be no reason to return, and so we decided to go to cork and then catch a bus back to dublin one night early, and have another day on the town.

before we left, though, we went around to some of the shops, and had some claustrophobic experiences in the woolen mill, due to their annual sale. think nordstrom's annual sale. suck. then when we were in cork, we found that we had to wait a bit before the dublin bus, and so we went wandering to a music shop, where i purchased a wooden flute. i now plan to teach myself celtic flute, now that i have one, and so all should be fun with that.

our bus ride back to dublin was, to say the least, intolerable, thanks to some cork valley girls and some eastern european tourists who were having (apparently) hilarious phone conversations.

we got back to dublin ok, ate some greasy food at eddie rocket's 50s cafe (cheesy americana, terrible but wonderful), and slept in the next day. then we saw wallace and gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit. a great flick. recommended to all. we then went to a halloween party, pictures from which will be posted soon.

and that was our glorious irish vacation! i highly recommend it to anyone who has too much money and a few weeks to spare.

until next time, don't stop the music!

cheers,

scott

not just a stone in ireland...

that's right, we went to blarney. and blarney it indeed was. no, just kidding, it was actually a very nice town.

after our wonderful adventure with the hostels in dingle, steph and i decided to treat ourselves to a nice reserved stay in a B and B, with reservations. i know i said that twice, but it was a big deal at the time. so anyway, we got off the bus in blarney, and we knew we had a bit of a walk, but man was it worth it! ya see, we piced a random B and B out of the guide book, but we didn't know that we were going to pick the largest in blarney! it was huge! it was a 3 story brick house or something like that, with a huge yard and very nice green grass. we were in heaven. needless to say, we took off our shoes and tested the bed. (a nap, what did you think i meant?) then we took advantage of our private bathroom and took some glorious showers/baths (one apiece), and went down to the town to look for some dinner.

the town of blarney is very small indeed. there are two filling stations, one pub, the blarney woolen mill, and some souvineer shops. the rest is all hotels and B and Bs. that being said, it is a very delightful town. we wandered around looking for a decently nice restaurant that wasn't terribly expensive, but once again, like dingle, we found it was not to be. after not really finding anyplace (and hearing what sounded suspiciously like a gunshot in the nearby underbrush), we decided to dine at the pub. luckily, we found that the restaurant was upstairs, separate from the actual pub area, and it turned out to be very nice. we had some wine, and a most delicious meal. i had penne bolognese, and steph had some delightful salmon. then, we split the most amazing strawberry cheescake ever, and i mean ever! damn. it was good. talk to steph. amazing.

we spent the rest of the night hanging out in the pub (which, incidentally, was called the muskery arms. highly recommended for both dining and drinking if you are ever in blarney), and listening to good music. there was a live band, and although the jazz festival was in cork, we were treated to good old favorites such as van morrison, oasis and the dubliners. this is not meant to be sarcastic, it was very good stuff. we learned a new song by the dubliners that was immediately added to my repetoire and will be forever stuck in our heads. it's called seven drunken nights, and a most delightful romp it is.

after sleeping a very nice night, we awakened too early to promises of the latter B of our accommodations. breakfast was ok, not great, but we needed our strength for our later adventures in Blarney castle. after breakfast, and finding out once again that no one in ireland takes credit (luckily we had the cash on us), we headed down to the castle. that is, we swam down to the castle. it was raining quite hard, and so we bundled up all we could and had a jolly time making our way down the hill, dodging the muddy water begin splashed up by the passing traffic as it hit the all-too-frequent puddles. luckily, we made it down mostly unscathed (except from above), and headed to the castle. the lady at the ticket booth was kind enough to let us leave our bags in the storage room for the gift shop, and so with our burdens lifted from our backs (literally), we went to see what all the fuss was about.

upon entering the grounds, we decided to not go to the castle right away, and instead decided to simply walk around a bit. this turned out to be the right way to do things, as the grounds were exceedingly lovely, and (as we would find later) much better than the castle. but more on them later. we ended up going to the castle the back way, and coming upon from the battlements. as seen here, with steph casting her glance at the battles of yesteryears.



we continued on through the battlements, marvelling at the changing scenery merely from gap to gap, and finally came upon the castle, as seen here.



upon entering the castle, right next to the giant sign saying "THIS WAY TO THE STONE!!!!" we came upon...a gift shop. the bastard demons of commercialism have decided that the chance to spend money at the gates was not enough, and you needed to actually buy something when you were physically inside the castle, including authentic certificates saying that you really did kiss the stone. ugh.

we went on bravely, hoping the commercialism would not persist throughout a potentially fascinating ruin. luckily, that was the end, and we made our way up the castle, through many a room and up some very steep spiraling stairs to the top. the castle was very cool on the interior, but it was mostly that, just a castle. nothing out of the ordinary if you have seen one. that is not to say it wasn't cool, though.

so we got to the top, and were initially a little comfused about where the actual stone was. when we finally found out, it was a little interesting. the stone is actually part of the wall, and below the walkway, and so a tour guide has to hold you as you lean over backwards to kiss the stone. if you want proof, here is steph and myself kissing the actual stone. check it out!





yes, we did it. we kissed the stone. that's why i've been able to ramble on as i have just now. so, anyway, after that, we headed back down through the castle and headed onto the grounds, not really knowing what to expect.

to be continued...