Europe Part V: Edinburgh (+Glasgow)

Current State
It's Sunday evening and I'm at Robyn and Neil's apartment in the Tollcross neighborhood of Edinburgh. We had dinner and are spending some time catching up on work / blogging / rest before Robyn and I leave for London early tomorrow morning. More on that later.

View of Edinburgh Castle, stumbled upon during a walk.

Edinburgh Castle

On Thursday, Robyn had to work so I went sightseeing on my own. I considered getting tickets for a bus tour or walking tour of some kind, but ultimately I decided to buy tickets to see Edinburgh Castle first and figure the rest out later. I after buying my ticket from a tourist info shop, I walked up the Royal Mile toward the castle. The Royal Mile is a street that runs between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Edinburgh Castle is a medieval structure that has been used as a home for Scotland's royalty as well as a fortress for defending the city and holding prisoners of war. Holyroodhouse is a royal palace that still serves as the Queen's official residence in Scotland. I'll talk more about that later, since I got to visit the Palace on Sunday (today).

Edinburgh Castle has the absolute best views of the city and is the best part of the skyline. Similar to building restrictions in Washington, D.C., the city of Edinburgh does not allow anything to be taller than the Castle. This would be challenging anyway since the Castle is on a hill, but it does mean that there aren't any significantly large buildings apart from the Castle. It also means you can see the Castle from various points in the city, which has made many of the walks I've taken exceptionally beautiful.

When I first entered the grounds, I decided to do a self-guided tour but was disappointed in the lack of information provided on the plaques at the different sites. When I realized this, I went back to the entry and bought an audioguide. This was a good choice as it provided TONS more information than the little written plaques did. Guided tours are provided free with the entry fee but you have to catch them at the right time and the audioguide still has more detail, so I would have rather had the audioguide included.

Various parts of the Castle have been built at different times, starting in the 12th century. The oldest building on the grounds, also probably the oldest building in the city, is St. Margaret's chapel. It's a tiny (but still beautiful) chapel that was built by King David I in the early- to mid-12th century to honor his mother, Margaret of Wessex (canonized in 1250). It's partly the oldest surviving building because Robert the Bruce allowed it to stand when he took control of the Castle in 1306 and destroyed most of its buildings. He also left money toward the end of his life for the restoration and preservation of the chapel. The audioguide talked quite a bit about Robert the Bruce because he helped re-establish Scotland as an independent nation after a few years of turmoil and partial English control.

Quite a few of the sites were about different battles that had happened at the Castle, particularly sieges on it relating to contentious orders or succession and/or England trying to control Scotland. I didn't find this as interesting, so I won't go into much detail here. Suffice it to say, the Castle has a very important role in Scotland's military history. More interesting was the fact that it was used as a prison during various British wars in the 18th and 19th century, specifically the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. They had a place where visitors could go and see the doors to the prisons, including various writing and drawing prisoners had carved into the wood. Also in this exhibit was information about the lives of the prisoners while captive, including their rations of food and examples of their craftsmanship. Apparently, the prisoners would make items and trade them with the citizens of Edinburgh for tobacco, letter writing materials, money, etc. The things they made were beautiful - you would have no idea that they came from various parts of their rations unless told. They also had a couple of bunk rooms set up to look like they would have in those years, complete with audio of actors pretending to be prisoners talking about topics like the American Revolution.

The big exhibit surrounds the Honours of Scotland, including how they arrived in Scotland and which monarchs have been crowned using them. The oldest is the Stone of Destiny (Stone of Scone), a stone seat that Scottish rulers sit on to be crowned. It was taken from Scotland in the late 13th century by King Edward I of England and remained there until the 1990s. Most English rulers have been crowned on the stone, including Queen Elizabeth II. Although the stone is now stored in Perth, Scotland, it will travel to Westminster Abbey whenever the next coronation happens (assuming Scotland doesn't declare its independence first...). The main part of the exhibit is about the crown jewels, which are the Crown, the Scepter, and the Sword of State. Mary, Queen of Scots was the first monarch crowned using all three together (at the reasonable age of 9 months). The Honours were also used to crown Queen Mary's one-year-old son, James VI (who later became James I of England), and James VI's son, Charles I (who was so unpopular, they executed him and began stripping power from the monarchy). When Scotland and England were officially unified into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, the Honours were determined to have no purpose to the new kingdom and hidden in a chest in Edinburgh Castle. Sir Walter Scott, the famous Scottish writer, got permission to uncover the Honours in 1818 and they have been on display virtually ever since. The one exception was during WWII, when people feared Germany would attack Great Britain - during this time, the Honours were hidden in the basement of a decrepit tower (David's Tower) at the Castle.

Great Hall - famous for hosting a banquet for James VI/I.

Ornate fireplace featuring crest of combined thrones.

Original thatched roof of the Great Hall.

After seeing the Honours (which were, of course, very beautiful), I saw the part of the Castle that was most recently used as a royal palace. After the creation of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the 15th century, Edinburgh Castle became a less popular choice for royal residence. However, visitors can see the bedchamber where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI as well as the Great Hall that was used as a dining room. It's not clear to me why she chose to give birth here, given that she spent most of her time in Scotland at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. James VI only ever returned to the Castle once and it has not been used as a royal residence since 1633, when Charles I stayed there on the eve of his coronation as King of Scotland.

Overall, I really enjoyed my visit and the views it provided! I took plenty of pictures to show how pleased I was :)

View of Edinburgh from the Castle grounds.

Thursday Evening & Friday
On Thursday evening, Robyn and I read news reports about the Brexit vote and went to bed thinking (like most people) that remain would win easily. We woke up on Friday morning to the news that the leave campaign had succeeded and the pound had already dropped 15-20 cents to the dollar. I'll make a separate post about the Brexit vote and its aftermath, but we took it as an excuse to go shopping on Friday afternoon since the exchange rate was the best it has been since the 80s. First, we walked through the Morningside neighborhood, which is where Robyn will be living next year with three of her friends (Neil will be doing a medical residency in a town called Elgin, about four hours North of Edinburgh). It was a very cute neighborhood with mixed age demographics. We also popped in a grocery store, which is when I realized that people in the UK don't refrigerate their eggs. It was a weird sight, but I did some research and it's all because of the different production processes in the US and UK. I won't go into it further, but you can read more here and here.

We then took a bus to Prince's street, the main shopping street in Edinburgh. We went in several uniquely British / European shops, including Oliver Bonas (which Robyn describes as a cross between Anthropologie and Forever 21) and Primark (kind of like if Target only made clothes and they were about 1/3 of the cost). We ate dinner at Bread Meats Bread, a restaurant that specializes in meaty sandwiches. I had a cheeseburger but I swapped the American Cheese for Mull of Kintyre Aged Cheddar. I only note this because on the receipt they charged it as "Posh Cheese," which I really enjoyed. We also had sweet potato fries - it's been a long time since I've had them and I had forgotten how good they are! The orange drink in the picture is IRN BRU ("iron brew"), the most popular soft drink in Scotland. It's basically a type of soda made in Scotland, but it doesn't taste quite the same as any soda I've had. The best description of the taste I can think of is if you melted an orange lollipop and added carbonated water. It's pretty good, and they have it everywhere here!

That night, we hung out with Robyn's friends Gaby, Fraser, and George at a bar near Robyn's house. I met Gaby and Fraser just after I arrived on Monday, when we had dinner and watched Game of Thrones with them. This was my first time meeting George, who is dating another of Robyn's good friends. Fraser and George both live in Edinburgh but Gaby currently lives in Glasgow. We played Pub Quiz, which is basically the British trivial pursuit, lamented the Brexit vote, and sampled whisky (different than whiskey or bourbon, I'm told).

Glasgow
On Saturday, Robyn and I took the train to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland. It's only about an hour away by train, so it was an easy jaunt. There, we met up with Neil (who had been visiting his family in Lanarkshire, close to Glasgow), Gaby, and Fraser. We first went to the Lighthouse, which is the city's hub of architecture and has amazing views of the city. Gaby works for the Cultural Trust of Scotland, so she had actually helped create some of the exhibits in the building related to the celebration of Scottish culture. Uncle Timm might enjoy knowing that one of the exhibits was about various architectural uses of timber, including awards for "Best Use of Timber."

Next, we went to lunch at a vegan restaurant called the Flying Duck. It was a basement bar that served vegan versions of all sorts of classic food - for example, I had a chili cheese dog made with a vegan hot dog and vegan cheese. It was delicious. We then took the subway to the Kelvin Bridge so that we could walk along the River Kelvin on the Kelvin walkway. We hit the walk at just the right time to miss the rain, and it was quite lovely. Glasgow is known as a dirtier and rougher city than Edinburgh; we did see some evidence of this (i.e. trash in the river), but mostly the areas we visited were very nice. At the end of the walkway, we climbed a set of stairs to the Botanical Gardens. We walked around the outside as well as inside the "hothouses" (greenhouses). After this, it was time for dinner in the West End neighborhood. This was a nice, trendy area of town and we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Hanoi Bike Shop. The food was delicious and we were joined by two of Gaby's friends, a gay couple named Zach and Dave. Zach is from California's central valley and Dave is from Australia, but they met in San Francisco. They moved to Scotland a few years ago when Dave got a job at the university in Glasgow.

When we finished dinner, we (sans Dave) went to Swing Club because someone told Gaby they were having a big jazz night. When we saw how small the venue was and realized the music wouldn't be on until well past 9, we decided to go to a nearby bar to get a drink and chat instead. Around 9:45 we started talking about leaving, but we thought we had until 10:30 to catch the train. Then around 9:55, someone remembered that rail strikes are going on so the second-to-last train was leaving at 10:08. Robyn, Neil, Fraser, and I rushed to the station and barely caught the train, but we ultimately made it back to Edinburgh by 11:15.

Palace of Holyroodhouse
On Sunday, Robyn had to work again, so I went back to the Royal Mile. This time, I visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the opposite end from Edinburgh Castle. They only allow pictures outside the grounds, but I assure you that the inside was equally aesthetically appealing. Holyroodhouse has been used as a royal residence since James IV and James V (grandfather and father, respectively, of Mary, Queen of Scots) conducted extensive repairs and additions to it in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. However, much of the existing palace wasn't built until the middle of the 17th century and it wasn't used regularly until the reign of Queen Victoria. I was doubly lucky in my timing because they are currently doing an exhibition on Queen Elizabeth II's wardrobe in honor of her 90th birthday AND this was the last day the Palace will be open in June because Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Prince of Edinburgh will be taking up their annual residence there next week!

Entrance to the Palace includes an audioguide, which leads you through the various display rooms. After entering, I understood why we're not allowed to take photos: Much of the decor on display is extremely old, including quite a few tapestries that are beginning to look worn by age. The tour progressed through the dinning room, the state rooms, and the apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots. The audioguide provided both historical and current uses for all of the rooms, as well as the option to hear more detailed information on various topics or continue more quickly. Most of it is what you would expect - this is where the Queen hosts formal dinners, this is where the Queen met the Pope, etc. - but some of it was new to me. For example, the tour discussed how Queen Victoria brought the Palace back into more regular use because of her love for Scotland. She acquired Balmoral Castle early in her reign, and Holyroodhouse was a convenient stopping point on the way there. She also brought tartan into the royal wardrobe, including the fashioning of several tartans for the royal family. Tartans are the traditional patterns woven into wool for kilts, sashes, scarves, etc. We generally think of them as plaid, but that's technically not accurate. They are an extremely important part of Scottish heritage and it's common for Scots to wear their tartans at significant life events, such as weddings and graduations. There are distinctive patterns for each Scottish clan (as well as many Scottish institutions, such as universities) that emerged during the 19th century. The English banned the wearing of tartans, along with other aspects of Gaelic culture, from 1746-1782. So, although Queen Victoria wasn't the one to lift the ban, she was the first British monarch to fully embrace wearing tartans / Scotland's national dress.

Next Up...
Robyn and I will leave very early tomorrow morning for London! We are flying out of Edinburgh at 7:00 am and plan to spend the day walking around the city and possibly going on the London Eye. We are planning to try to get day-of tickets to the Mousetrap on Tuesday, but if that fails then I will likely go alone after she is back in Edinburgh. More soon.

Cheers (as they say here),
Colleen

Europe 2016, Part IV: From Ireland to Scotland

Goodbye, Galway

The back of Keogh's chips, explaining how
natural their products are.

After saying goodbye to my wonderful hosts Mary and Tom on Saturday morning, I went to the shops to finally buy my Irish sweater and some snacks for my bus ride. I've been trying to sample some different brands of snacks that we can't find in the US. They pretty much have the same types of snacks, candy, etc. and don't taste significantly different, but I have noticed that more of the products here have some kind of health- or environment-related labeling (e.g. organic, all-natural, etc.). I took the CityLink bus back to Dublin at 12:15, arriving around 2:45 or 3 in the afternoon. CityLink is kind of like the Irish version of BoltBus (the UK has MegaBus, just like in some parts of the US). I explored the Temple Bar area that evening, which is mostly just pubs and a few shops. I had dinner at a chain called Boojum, which a Willamette friend described to me as "Irish Chipotle" - an extremely accurate descriptor.

Boojum Restaurant

I thought about doing Airbnb again but I decided to book a hostel room instead to save money. I found a spot in a 12-bed all-female dorm at Jacob's Inn for less than 15 euro. Jacob's Inn had good reviews on Trip Advisor and was close to the route of the only public bus that goes to the ferry port. I was a little worried about staying there on my own, but it ended up being one of my favorite nights of the trip! The hostel was clean and inviting - the walls were brightly colored and there were plenty of open common spaces where people were chatting, playing pool, etc. When I got to my room, I saw that only one of the other beds appeared to be taken for the night. Ultimately, there were two other women around my age - one from Taiwan who had just finished biking through Ireland and one from Australia who was getting toward the end of three months of backpacking through Europe. The Australian woman, and I chatted for several hours and she gave me some great suggestions for my trip. She has also done extensive traveling through the US because she studied abroad in Alaska and used the grace period at the end of her semester to do a road trip in the Southwest. She also told me the place she most wants to visit in the US is Portland, so we may cross paths again. We became friends on Facebook to make that a little more likely. Also, her name is Kirrily, which I didn't find out until we had already talked for a few hours! 

In the morning, I got up early and took the bus to the ferry port. I arrived extremely early because the bus only comes once per hour, so I got to watch some Irish news about "Brexit" (the UK referendum on whether or not they want to remain in the EU). As I mentioned in Part II, the ferry and train rides were all lovely and I'm very glad I got to experience a different type of travel than flying while here.

Hello, Edinburgh (pronounced ed-in-bra)

I arrived into Edinburgh's Waverly Station around 6:20pm (18:20, as they would write here). My friend Robyn and her boyfriend Neil met me at the station and we took a cab (taxi) back to their apartment (flat). For those who don't know, Robyn is a friend from Lincoln - we both did theatre and full IB, so we had lots of classes and after-school time together. She studied abroad for a year at University of Edinburgh during her undergrad, then came back to do her master's and now PhD in English Literature with an emphasis in Book History. She met Neil during her study abroad year and they started dating when she came back to the city.

That night, we ordered pizza and watched the latest Game of Thrones with some of their friends. This is a weekly ritual for them, and I was happy to get to see this piece of their lives. I hadn't seen GoT before, but now I see why everyone is obsessed! It's really engaging and well-done, I definitely want to start watching it. After that, we went to a bar to celebrate Neil passing his comprehensive medical degree exams / officially becoming a doctor with some of his fellow graduates. In the UK, medical degrees are done as an extended undergraduate program, so Neil is now heading into his residency even though he's the same age as Robyn and I are. Neil is also from Scotland, so it's been interesting to hear his take on the National Health Service and Brexit. 

Pear tart from Love Crumbs

Tuesday and Wednesday

On my first full day in Edinburgh, both Robyn and I needed to finish some work for our respective post-graduate degrees. We had breakfast with Neil at a cute cafe called Love Crumbs that specializes in making cakes and pastries. I ate a pear tart, which is sort of a cake with pears on top, and drank Earl Grey tea. After that, Robyn took me on a mini walking tour through the city to the neighborhood of Stockbridge, which is one of her favorite areas. It's kind of on the edge of the city, and there are several prestigious private schools there. I know because we saw lots of students walk past the window in their uniforms when school got out for the afternoon. We sat in a cafe and did our work for several hours, then got Thai food to go (take away) and ate at her apartment. After dinner, we went for a walk through the University of Edinburgh campus and got a drink in an area that I would equate to the Southwest Waterfront in Portland. 

Selfie in Stirling City Centre

On Wednesday, Robyn and I took the train to Stirling. The trains here are really amazing - we made the 35 mile trip in about 50 minutes, roughly the same as it would have been to drive, and it cost less than 10 pounds. After a delicious lunch at an Indian restaurant, we walked up to Stirling Castle. We didn't go into the castle because it was kind of expensive and we still had beautiful views of the city from the grounds (photos below). I don't think I'll ever get enough of these stunning views. We finished our time in Stirling by wandering around the centre and popping in a few shops. On our way back from Stirling, we stopped in Falkirk to see the Sauter family. Josh, the oldest Sauter, and his wife, Kristin, have lived in Scotland for about six years. My mom found out that Robin would be here at the same time as I am because Josh and Kristin were expecting their second baby on the 26th. Lucky for us, little Finley Mason arrived last week! We also got to see their toddler, Cayden. Both are as adorable as you would expect a six-day-old baby and a toddler to be. It was great to chat with Robin, Kristin, and Josh. This trip is giving me so many lovely examples of just how small the world can be. After visiting with the Sauters for a little over an hour, we caught the train back to Edinburgh and had dinner at the University of Edinburgh Student Association building. The restaurant is in an old library, or at least is decorated to look like an old library, and they serve cheap pub food. It seemed surprisingly crowded for a Wednesday evening in the summer, but apparently it's the week before graduation so plenty of students are still around.

Today, I explored Edinburgh Castle on my own, but the stories and photos will have to wait until my next opportunity to write.

Love,
Colleen

  

Europe 2016, Part III: Highlights of My Galway Walking Tour

Browne's Door - Eyre Square.

Ancient City Wall in Eyre Square Mall.

I started in Eyre Square (pronounced “a-er square”), a little park between where I was staying and the city centre. Inside are a statue of JFK and the Browne door, the original medieval door to the Browne family house. The house wasn't actually on that site, but they had to move it from its original location several years ago and placed it in a more prominent location. Next, I went to see the "city wall." This is literally part of the medieval wall of Galway and is (where else?) in the middle of the Eyre Square mall. Seriously. I walked through the mall a little confused and finally came upon this giant wall and tour with history plaques handing from it. So bizarre and awesome. Galway was run during this time by 14 Tribes (families) and their crests hang on flags in various parts of the city.

Left: Flags of the crests for the 14 Tribes of Galway.
Above: Statue of Oscar Wilde and Eduard Vilde.

This guy was playing some
kind of traditional music in
front of Lynch's Castle. His
instrument also controlled the
puppets on the ground!

Doorway to Lynch's Castle.

After seeing this, I continued down the street to the statues of Oscar Wilde and Estonian writer Eduard Vilde (Wilde) – they are sitting on a bench as though they’re having a conversation. I’m not sure that they ever met, though they were both writing in the same general time. Estonia gifted the statue to Ireland in 2004. A little further down the street, I came to Lynch’s castle. It’s a medieval home/castle built by (you guessed it) the Lynch family, one of the original 14 Tribes of Galway. They’ve turned it into a bank now, but the first floor has some large posters detailing the history of the building and some of the notable features you can see. The most interesting feature to me was the giant fireplace in the main first floor room. Apparently it was common to build a fireplace when a couple got married and carve the initials of the couple into the mantle. There was an example of this and it was the biggest fireplace I've ever seen. Very cool.

St. Nicholas from the outside.

Inside of St. Nicholas.

Above and left: Remains from the floor of the
Hall of the Red Earl, excavated in 1997.

I then stopped at the St. Nicholas church, which is incredibly old but still in use today. They have it set up as a free (suggested donation) museum where all the features are numbered and you go around with a little guidebook to see and read about them. The stained glass, in particular, was stunningly beautiful. It was hard to capture in a photo, but I did my best. I also went to the Hall of the Red Earl, which is the remains of a medieval municipal building that were discovered in 1997. They had really great diagrams pointing out the remains and how they fit into a drawing of the original building, as well as where the building was on the ancient map of Galway. Another site was the home of James Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle, which has been turned into a small museum. I walked to it only to find the museum was closed that day. 

The Spanish Arch is the little stone building on the right.

Later, I walked through the Spanish Arch to get to the city museum. The Spanish Arch was used as a lookout point for Elizabeth I’s forces during naval battles with the Spanish armada, but there’s not much to see. The city museum was small, but interesting. On the first floor, they had the beginnings of an exhibit on the history of Irish women, which is set to debut later this summer. The plaques they had up already were wonderful mini biographies on various women who played significant roles in the shaping of the Republic of Ireland. Fascinating! Upstairs, they had an overview of the 1916 Revolution and its aftermath, focusing on events in Galway and the war that led to independence. It was a great follow-up to the bus tour I did in Dublin earlier in the week. They also had a few other exhibits, but they were less interesting to me and I had to go to meet the Smith’s by this point.

Europe 2016, Part II: Galway

Monday, June 20, 2016

Current State

View from the ferry - bye, Ireland!

As I write, I’m sitting on a train from Warrington Bank Quay (pronounced “key”) to Edinburgh – about 20 minutes into a nearly 3-hour trip. This morning, I took a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, Wales, where I spent a little over an hour before catching a train to Warrington Bank Quay (pronounced “key”). Then, I waited just a few minutes for the train to Edinburgh. The ferry was great – it was a quick two-hour trip over the Irish sea. I sat at a table by a window and watched the coastline of Ireland slip into the horizon and out of sight before turning my attention to reading Yes Please by Amy Poehler. Upon arrival at Holyhead, I had to show my passport to a gentleman greeting us after baggage claim. I was expecting to go through some kind of customs process as Ireland and the UK are different countries, but the man just glanced at my passport to check if I looked like the picture and waved me through with no stamp. I was a little confused by this because I think usually you have to go through customs in each country even when coming from within the EU. And I won’t lie, I’m a little disappointed I won’t have that extra stamp in my passport. The train I’m on now, operated by a company called Virgin Trains, is really nice. I’m seated at a table facing forward. Technically, I have the window seat, but since no one is seated next to me, I’ve put some of my things there and am sitting in the aisle. The train technically has wifi, but you have to pay for it and I was having some trouble loading the page where you enter your credit card info, so I’m going wireless for this trip. My first train was older and not as comfortable. However, instead of a little convenience store-type stand at the end of the car (coach) like this train has, they had a snack cart. The guy would come through every 20-30 minutes and say “Anything off the trolley?” just like in Harry Potter!!!

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to between arriving in Galway and sitting on this train to Edinburgh…

Bethany

I stayed at another Airbnb in Galway, which the hosts call Bethany (not really sure why). Mary and Tom, the homeowners / hosts, were wonderful and their house was the perfect set-up for an Airbnb. They are a middle-aged couple with four grown sons, so they turned all four of their upstairs bedrooms into Airbnb rooms. Two have twin beds and two have double beds so they can have up to six guests at a time. The room was small but had its own TV and sink, which meant the bathrooms were never crowded. I liked having the TV because I could watch little bits of the Euro Cup and see Irish news when I was getting ready or winding down.

Mary and Tom live on the first floor and the only time I saw them was at breakfast each morning. They called it a continental breakfast and Mary made it sound very simple when we spoke at check-in. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they did a full set of the table and had a variety of cereal, cheese, bread, and fruit to choose from. Each morning, they offered me either tea or coffee. (I always chose coffee because it’s very hard to find non-espresso coffee here – when you order a “regular coffee” in a café, they give you an Americano. I don’t have anything against Americanos, but they’re not the same as a drip coffee.) They would then bring out either a French press of coffee or a small pot of tea for each person. Mary usually stayed to chat after bringing the coffee while Tom generally went right back to the adjacent kitchen. The first morning, I ate alone and had a nice conversation with Mary about her kids, traveling, and her experience as an Airbnb host (basically, she loves it!). The next two mornings, I ate with the Swedish couple staying in the room next to mine. They were very friendly and well-traveled, so we had lovely conversations both mornings. The third morning we were also joined by a young man from California who had just arrived the night before. I really enjoyed the breakfast, both for the food and the company.

Wednesday Evening Through Thursday Afternoon

Picture of the kitchen window at
The Cellar. "If your girlfriend is
an Irish soccer player, she's
definitely a keeper!" Go Ireland!

I arrived around 4 pm on Wednesday and stopped by the tourist office across from the bus station to get a map before walking to the Airbnb. The man who helped me was very friendly and suggested I try a bus tour to either Connemara or the Aran Islands while I was there. I didn’t really intend to go on either tour, but I took the brochures he gave me anyway. He also gave me a Galway city map, which had sites of interested highlighted and numbered. I attempted to use his instructions to get to the Airbnb but ended up missing my first turn and ended up on completely the wrong street. After a brief consultation with the map, I realized my mistake and backtracked to where I needed to be, wondering why I couldn’t have just brought a tiny backpack instead of a duffel bag.

Traditional Irish Breakfast

Mary greeted me at the door and showed me around briefly, then I got settled and started researching places to go to dinner. I decided on a pub because I knew Northern Ireland was playing in the Euros and I thought it would be fun to be able to watch the match while eating. The game turned out to be a really good one, and Northern Ireland won! To eat, I chose a traditional Irish breakfast, which included two rashers, two sausages, two fried eggs, black and white pudding, chips, and toast. I wasn’t really sure what all of those things were when I ordered, but it was a delicious choice. As it turned out, rashers are just ham, the puddings are some kind of grain stuck together with some kind of dry syrupy type thing, chips are (of course) thick French fries, and the beans are most similar to the baked beans people eat at BBQs. I was pretty skeptical about having beans with my breakfast food, but they turned out to be a great compliment to the eggs, sausages, and toast. After dinner, I walked around a few of the nearby shops before heading back to the Airbnb for a good night’s sleep.

Store where the original
Claddagh ring was made,
featuring an explanation of
the symbolism of the hands
(friendship), heart (love),
and crown (loyalty).

On Thursday, I decided to do a self-guided walking tour using the map from the info center. It had 15

different sites marked, and I got to a little over half of them while also making frequent stops in the various city centre shops. It was a very leisurely way to see the city and has been my favorite day so far – Galway is really delightful. The main area of the city is a handful of streets and side streets full of shops, pubs, cafés, etc. All of the businesses are inside these old buildings with cool architectural features and many of them are brightly colored. I was wandering through this area for at least four hours and still felt like I could have stayed longer.  I even got to see the store where the original Claddagh ring was made!!

Shop Street* in Galway's City Centre.
(*might be called something else entirely, street signs are impossible to find.)

While exploring, I fell in love with Irish sweaters – they have them in tons of the shops and they are beautiful cable knits. I didn’t bring any warm clothes with me and had been feeling fairly cold since arriving, so I thought I might like to buy one before leaving (especially thinking ahead to going on the ferry!). I spent the rest of my trip going back and forth about styles, colors, sizes, and prices, but eventually I decided on one I loved literally an hour before my bus left Galway – it’s merino wool with a pretty blue and purple dye pattern, knit in the traditional “Aran” style. (Fun fact: on the Aran Islands, there is a knitting pattern for each family!) It’s beautiful and I wore it for two straight days.

For lunch on Thursday, I went to Cupán Tae, a traditional Irish tea shop. I ordered afternoon tea, and it’s exactly how you would picture it. A beautiful dish set and a little tea tray of egg salad sandwiches (cut into crust-less triangles), a scone, and miniature desserts. I got Galway Cream tea, a flavored black tea made especially and exclusively for the shop – the server recommended it, and it was delicious. I loved every minute of this and definitely want to go to another tea shop while on this trip.

I will share the highlights from my walking tour, with tons of photos, in a separate post.

Thursday Evening Through Friday

On Thursday evening, I had dinner with some of our Irish cousins who I met 10 years ago at a family reunion. Margaret, Aideen (daughter), and Lauren (granddaughter) suggested we meet at Milano, a nice Italian restaurant in the city centre. We had a delicious meal and it was wonderful to catch up and share updates about our families. Aideen’s boyfriend met us toward the end of the meal as well. They were all so nice and welcoming. This dinner made me incredibly thankful that my aunties found and maintained this connection.

One of our photo stops in Connemara. 

On Friday, I took a tour bus to Connemara, which is a rural area of County Galway. This is known as

the center of the Irish language, Gaelic. Apparently, many of the citizens in this region of the country use Gaelic as their primary language and I did notice that some of the signs only had the Gaelic names for locations, rather than both Gaelic and English. Apparently, there are also some camps in this region where teens are not allowed to use any technology or speak any English for a few weeks so that they can be fully immersed in Gaelic. There is quite the movement happening to make a significant number of the children in Ireland fully bilingual. Aideen and Emmett (her boyfriend) are sending their daughter, Lauren, to a Gaelic language public school when she starts kindergarten. Aideen said it’s very hard to get into because people want their children to grow up knowing Gaelic.

Panorama of Kylemore Abbey grounds.

Connemara is, in a word, stunning. It is some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, and I grew up less than an hour from the Columbia River Gorge. It is the area of Ireland that sees the most rain, and you can tell because everything is so green and lush. There are also a lot of lakes and streams in this area that add to the beauty. One of the biggest industries in the region is producing wool, so there are lots of sheep grazing in the fields along the highways. They would look like they were just roaming the wild except that they have paint splotches on their backs to help the different farmers keep track of their flocks. The tour guide told us they’re allowed to wander all day and then dogs are sent to shepherd them back to the farms. Another key industry of the area is mining and producing green marble, so lots of the gift shops we saw featured jewelry and artwork made with Connemara marble.

Panorama of Kylemore Abbey from the front.

The big highlight of the bus tour was a two-hour stop at Kylemore Abbey. Originally built as Kylemore Castle in the 1800s, it’s a stunning stone building on top of a hill in front of a lake. It’s truly incredible to see. A group of Benedictine nuns bought the Abbey in the early 1900s and started running a girls’ school there. The school was in operation all the way until 2010, featuring a mix of boarders and day students – apparently there were even some Indian princesses who attended! The nuns still own the property and use most of the Abbey, but some of the rooms on the first floor have been restored with furniture and history plaques describing their use. The rooms they have open are very reminiscent of Downton Abbey, particularly the dining room and sitting room. The property also features a beautiful garden about a mile from the Abbey, but I didn’t make it down there because I spent too long reading all the info in the restored rooms! I did get to see the Gothic Cathedral, which the original owner built as a memorial to his wife after she unexpectedly passed away.

Panorama of Kylemore Abbey grounds from the front.

Our last stop on the tour was in the village of Cong, which is on the boarder of County Galway and County Mayo. I don’t think it’s technically part of Connemara, but it’s a popular tourist destination in its own right because it’s where the movie “Quiet Man” (featuring John Wayne and Kathleen O’Hara) was filmed. Also, there is a beautiful historic building called Ashford Castle, which currently serves as a hotel and wedding venue. It’s probably very lavish and expensive because both Pierce Brosnan and Courtney Cox both had their weddings there!

That’s all for now, I’ll post soon about my last days in Galway and Dublin, as well as my first few days in Edinburgh!

Love,

Colleen