Friday, April 11, 2008

I flew out of Indianapolis International Airport (IND) via United Airlines at 4:00PM. I arrived at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) at 4:13PM. No, it didn't just take thirteen minutes to get to Chicago from Indianapolis. It's the time difference between the two cities. A couple of hours after arriving in Chicago, I flew out to Dublin, Ireland. That's a seven and a half hour flight. We flew into the sunrise, forward in time, arriving in Dublin at 8:15AM. The the first of many new and exciting adventures on my trip of a lifetime.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

After going through immigration, and then waiting for my luggage to meet me at the carrousel, I sat down to watch Saturday morning news on the TV in the reception area to wait for Dianne to meet me. She was a little bit late but nothing major. We took a bus to the city centre to get the bus to take us to Enniskillen. The bus trip from Dublin to Enniskillen was approximately three hours long (about 109 miles.) We were fortunate in that Alan, Dianne's husband, was able to meet us at the bus station and take us right home with him when he got off from work. I'd say that it is about a ten mile drive to their home from Enniskillen bus station.

While riding down O'Connell Street in Dublin on our bus, I was surprised to see artwork I am familiar with from my hometown of Indianapolis. It turns out, Julian Opie, a leading contemporary English artist, who uses computerised imagery, has done work for both Dublin and Indianapolis  (as well as Blur's best of album and an LED screen depicting an aimlessly walking man for the stage of U2's Vertigo World Tour.) I am most fond of his "Ann Dancing."

Dianne and Alan live on a beautiful farm in Northern Ireland. They have a mature national forest behind their property, and Alan has recently planted a new crop of evergreens. It takes about thirty years for a crop of trees to mature. Dianne has two cats that live outside and in the outlying buildings. She also has two goats. They have several farm type buildings behind their house where machinery, etc. is stored as well as where the goats stay when they aren't outside in their pen. The goats enjoy eatting just about anything they can get ahold of. They nibbled on my coat as a matter of fact.

What a beautiful view from their front picture window in the livingroom! If you look in the distance on the horizon, you can see a wind farm with about twenty windmills. It's all very rural. Even more rural than the farm where I stayed in Hillsboro, Tennessee!

   A lane near Dianne's house.

  The abandoned house at the end of the lane.

Northern Ireland, for those who don't know, is a part of the United Kingdom and hence, use pounds sterling as their currency. The Republic of Ireland is a separate country. It is a country that belongs to the European Union and chooses to use the Euro as it's currency. So, I've been left with alot of each kind of change. No worries. I plan to go back in the future. I'll just use it then.

  Each bank prints its own paper currency.

  Pounds & pence

  Euros & cents

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Sunday night, we drove to Omagh (the site of the 1998 bombing where twenty-nine people were killed and 220 injured) and went to a few pubs. On the way there, I got to see one of the wind farms up close. It was quite an experience viewing the windmills up close. The sound of them going around was awesome, too. Whoosh. Whoosh.

I got to experience an authentic Irish pub. This was the real deal. There was a traditional Irish band playing at that pub. I was fascinated by the fact that they were playing while sitting in a booth. Two booths away from ours, I might add. The bartender didn't know what a Bloody Mary was. I have a feeling if it was beer or whiskey, the guy was going to be acquainted with it. I ended up with a glass full of ice and some vodka in it and the tiniest glass bottle of orange juice I'd ever seen. It was like 120ml or something.

 

After leaving that bar, we walked a bit. I was wearing a brand new outfit, so of course I was destined to do something stupid and dangerous. I tripped over a little rounded brick curb. Cute, quaint and deadly. I fell essentially on my face. Luckily, my face was one of the only things that didn't come into contact with the pavement. I ripped both knees in my brand new pants. I scuffed the toes of my brand new shiny black shoes. I even skinned up the tops of my feet. That limited which shoes I was able to wear the whole rest of the trip. Seriously. Oh, and my camera flew out of my coat pocket. Fortunately, my camera didn't break, but I discovered at a later time that the pop-out chip thing had popped out (not lost, just not engaged), and I was from that moment on saving my photos to the internal memory. Anyway, my dignity is bruised. My knees are bleeding. What now? Go to another pub, of course!

Dianne and I go directly to the restroom, straight past the Irish lounge singer. I try to stop the bleeding and collect my senses. It just so happens, the lady that owns the bar is in the restroom with us. She asks if I fell down outside or inside. I tell her that it happened outside, which it did. But I think she thought I meant it happened outside her establishment. I'm sure she was a very nice woman anyway, but she really poured on the concern. Free coffee and "plasters." (Band-aids.) As I'm walking back to my seat at the bar to watch Tiger Woods in the Masters, the Irish singer/guitar player/pensioner points at me and says, "America!" I start to ignore him, but I realize, that's impossible. I am the only American in the place. How does he know I'm an American? He says it again. "America!" So, I stop, turn around and take his held out hand. He sings some little dittie I'd never heard about Indiana (he'd asked me where I was from.) I finally escape to my free coffee and Tiger Woods. We're entertained by some very cute little children, a little girl and a slightly older little boy, dancing. Arm in arm dancing. Dressed up in their Sunday best. Very sweet.

After waving goodbye to the singer as we walk out the door, we went down the road to another pub. At first, we thought it was closing early. There were a couple tough, older guys outside, rolling down the window covering. You know, to keep people from breaking the glass. So, we started to try somewhere else. In a minute, we realize that they are rolling the coverings back up. We walked over and asked what was going on. They were actually open. Seems that if there appears to be trouble brewing, they roll down the window coverings, just in case. So, we went in, had a couple drinks Not wanting to even ask for a Bloody Mary again, I had a blue vodka drink in a bottle called WKD. Very tasty.  And very easy to order.  I stood up, leaned over the bar, pointed at the cooler and said, "I'd like a blue one, please!"

WKD Official website

Wikipedia explanation of WKD

The band actually played the song "Okie From Muskogee." I about fell out. 

Here are the enlightening words:

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free.

I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all

We don't make a party out of lovin';
We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo;
We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy,
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.

And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball.
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all.

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;
Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen.
Football's still the roughest thing on campus,
And the kids here still respect the college dean.

We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.

Kind of surreal, if you ask me.  After that gem, I decided to go to the restroom. When I was about finished washing my hands, a woman joins me. She said something to me, I responded, she pointed at me and said, "America!" I just had to agree. Yes, indeed, America. She was very nice. I made a point of saying goodbye to her when I passed her sitting with her friends at the bar as I left.

After all that fun and excitement, we thought we'd better get going home. It is a twenty mile or so drive back to the farm.

Monday, April 14, 2008

On Monday, Alan was able to show us many attractions. We started off going to Brookeborough, the nearest town. Alan had some errands to run, so I got to see a little of the village. I was able to see the Brookeborough Station House which now houses various community associations, including the historical society to which Dianne belongs.

On we drove to Enniskillen (the site of the 1987 Remembrance Day bombing when eleven people were killed.) We visited the Enniskillen Castle but did not get to tour it. We made a walk once around the grounds. We walked around on the Main Street or High Street, going in and out of shops. Very picturesque. Much of what I saw during my entire trip could be described as picturesque. Ireland and Scotland, both.

  Alan & Dianne walking down the sidewalk in Enniskillen.

We rounded out the day by having Alan drive us out in the country and show us some beautiful sights. We went to Marble Arch Caves and Nature Reserve although we didn't do a tour. They were getting ready to close if they didn't have to do another tour. We were more than happy to let them off early. We checked out the museum and gift shop. Still very interesting. Alan drove us all around to see the beautiful scenery.

  This is an example of peat at the Marble Arch Caves and Nature Reserve.

   The yellow flowering shrubs are hawthorne.  They were everywhere as well as daffodils.  Lots of yellow, even though it's the Emerald Isle.

We finished up our evening with tea at Killyhevlin Hotel.  Very lovely grounds.

To be continued . . .