Saltimbanco

For my birthday a few weeks ago, Jon got me tickets to see Cirque du Soleil in Dublin this weekend. They are a Quebec-based group whose shows have become famous world-wide, and we were very excited about this weekend escapade. The performance we saw was called Saltimbanco. It is one of their earliest shows, and it is still amazing. The whole experience is really wonderful. The costumes are outstanding and full of colour, the music enhances every act, and the skills of the performers are simply outrageous! There are acrobats, drummers, dancers, singers, trapeze artists, clowns, mimes.... it's a fantastic and unique sensory experience.

The Final Countdown

I bought my ticket home to Canada.
I'll be flying on August 24th.
Only 7.5 more weeks left in Ireland.
It's strange how time crawls and even seems to stop sometimes, and now it's just flying forward too fast for me to catch up with it. I feel out of breath.

Onward and Upward

I have been accepted to the Counselling Psychology M.Ed. program at OISE, a department of the University of Toronto, beginning this September. I'm thrilled!

We certainly have a lot to deal with now, since Jon's work contract here in Ireland does not end until early December, but we will figure it all out somehow. I will find a place to stay on my own for a few months in Toronto and he will move into a smaller (cheaper) place for his last few months here, and we will LOVE skype. It will be complicated, but on the long term it will be great.

The next adventure is on the horizon.

So Behind in My Blogging, I've Given Up Apologizing.

So much to tell.

Jon & I made the final lap in our wedding extravaganza. This one, organized by my mother and held in Tel Aviv on April 30th 2010, was a luncheon affair. Despite the fact that it rained a bit, a rather shocking weather event for Tel Aviv at the end of April, the party was wonderful and we all enjoyed ourselves. The photographer, Nicole de Castro, took some fantastic pictures:












After breaking the glass.










After the wedding grand finale, we took some time to hang out and enjoy Israel. We spent time with family, lay on the beach, went to Jerusalem, and checked out some fun stuff around Tel Aviv.


The cousins at a tapas bar in downtown Tel Aviv


Quiet Tel Aviv beach


View over Jerusalem's Old City


The new Design Museum in Holon




Ottoman ruins in Tel Afek




Orchid garden at Utopia Botanical Park




Carnivorous plant at Utopia



Now that you have had some measure of an update on my month abroad, at least via photos, I feel I can begin to tell you about life in the present. We are back in Cork, and Jon is working while I am doing volunteer work for the Cork Simon community. We are busy and the weather is a bit more summery, so generally things are good here. Still, I must admit that I am happy to know that after this summer it will be time to go home to Toronto. It's a sort of a countdown in my mind now. But until then, I hope to suck up every moment of our European adventure!

Karma

Recently the sun has made an appearance in Cork, and with it came a flood of happy pedestrians in skirts and shorts, eating ice cream and popsicles. Those first few days of warm weather are always like a drug, it seems.

Even before the really warm days arrived, we took advantage of the slight upward swing in temperature and went on a little weekend escapade. Jon's ex-coworker invited us to a party at his father's pub in Shanagolden, a small village in County Limerick. It was to be a proper Irish party, with a pig roast, some local musicians, and all the proceeds going to charity. How could we say no??

We rented a car and set off towards Connemara. See this beautiful map I made for you? Ah, how skilled I am, yes, yes.... Now what was I saying? Oh yes, Point A on the map (that may or may not have taken me over 30 minutes to create and paste in here, omigod) ahem, Point A is our departure point, the fair city of Cork. And originally we planned to spend our first night in Galway. It's supposed to be a fun place.


View Larger Map

You may notice, however, that the line crosses Galway and keeps going. Yes, a very astute observation. We sort of got on a whim... a whim to get into nature as opposed to staying in the city. So we cancelled our B&B reservation in Galway and made a last-minute reservation just outside a place called Clifden (Point B). We used our handy-dandy Lonely Planet guide, so we figured the place would be decent. We also knew that Clifden was in an area called Connemara that has a reputation for being very beautiful.

When we arrived at Mallmore B&B, here is what we found:


Uh, is this really our humble B&B...?


The sink in our room


Our room's wallpaper


More of our room


The hallway

AND the breakfast was good. So let's see, amazingly beautiful B&B bursting at the seams with character, plus good food... Yes, I recommend this place! Yes, yes, yes, I give it 5 stars, or 6, or whatever the maximum is of starrability. It's all starry, trust me.

So on to the rest of our trip. Here are some more of my favourite images:














Kylemore Abbey (Point C on the map)



And, of course, the grand finale - the party in Shanagolden:





Unfortunately the nice weather forgot to stay nice until we got home, so it started to rain while we were driving home on Monday morning. While the rain was coming down and things were turning muddy, Jon suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and informed me that we had a flat tire. I'd been napping (my favourite post-party on-the-road past-time) so I was oblivious, but apparently it was fairly severe. We very unhappily hauled ourselves out of the car and into the mud & rain, only to discover that we are both pathetically inept tire-changers. Soon enough we were reading the manual out loud to each other as the pages became soaked and destroyed. I finally tried to flag down some help. I swear, nothing will make you feel more rejected than when NOBODY STOPS TO HELP YOU and you are jumping around and waving your arms like a moron at the side of the road. Thankfully, a man (my hero!) eventually stopped and helped us with the entire process. He was so nice, I just hope all that karma stuff is true. He really deserves a big bunch of goodness for stopping to help us. Thank you, anonymous guy!!

Paddy's Day

Last year was our first St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, and we dove in head first. We were full of enthusiasm, and we celebrated until we could not celebrate any more.

This year we were a little more relaxed about the whole thing. Amazingly, the weather cooperated again (no rain for two years in a row is a big deal around here). It is a day off work and school for everyone other than some bartenders and restaurateurs, so we went out with friends the night before and completely wiped ourselves out. After sleeping in on the day itself, we had a nice brunch and caught a bit of the parade mayhem. Then a friend mentioned that he was thinking of driving out to Youghal, a seaside town about 40 minutes outside of Cork City, to go for a walk along the beach. We decided that a little afternoon trip out of the city and some fresh air might do us good, so off we went.

We parked on one end of the beach and walked for about 40 minutes along the sand to the other end, where we sat in a hotel restaurant. Although the beach was quite empty and we saw no revellers in Youghal, at the hotel restaurant on the beach some of the kids had Irish flags and shamrocks painted on their faces. St. Patrick's Day managed to infiltrate even the quiet little corners.

After sitting down for a bit, we walked back along the beach to the car and our friend drove us home. It was such a nice little spontaneous getaway.

Kilkenny

Jon surprised me this past weekend with a trip to Kilkenny. He rented a car and we spent Saturday & Sunday driving to Kilkenny city and through part of County Kilkenny. It was such a great gift!

The photo above was taken in an area across from Kilkenny Castle which used to be the horse stables. The old building is still there but has been converted into some stores, craft shops and art galleries.

We had a lot of fun walking around there, as well as the rest of Kilkenny. We even had fairly decent weather.








We drove home the long pretty way, through County Kilkenny and then down to the coast road, stopping to see a few ruins along the way. They were sites from the 12-15th century and although it was a weekend, there was nobody else there, often giving the places a sort of creepy-but-amazing vibe.






Next we hit the Gaeltacht in County Waterford, where the views were stunning. Oh, and there were sheep, of course. I hadn't seen them in a couple of months, so that was nice.







All in all, a wonderful few days. Thank you so much Jon!