Northern-to-West Day 6, August 25th

Friendly hosts served marvelous breakfast and we got on our way, taking ferry at Magilligan Point, enjoying the beautiful views on the other side, getting the new share of the precious jewels at the Ballyhillin beach and going up to Malin Head – the North-most point in Ireland.

We’ve been remarkably lucky so far – every time we get out of the car the rain or drizzle, if there is one at the time – stops.

To pay our dues to the gods of rain, we never get out of the car without our rain jackets. Speaking of lucky, Dan found a bee inside his t-shirt. Luckily it only scratched him near his neck. The area swelled up but we gave him several Zyrtecs, Ibuprophens, and put anti-inflammatory steroid on the scratch and it stopped swelling.

The next stop was Londonberry. The guide described it as charming and adorable. I had to be on a call during my time in town but my fellow travelers did not find much charm. Dirty, polluted and with way too many malls. 

Add to it blasting Madonna songs on the mall radio, youths dressed in Adidas track suit, and one gets the idea. Don’t get me wrong. The city wall is amazing, few places on earth had seen the Guildhall of this level of opulence, but something about the feeling of our group, or the city – we just could not get along.

We decided to call it a day and drive to Carnaween House, Pornoo to enjoy more time at the beach. From our last time here we remembered it as haven of peaceful white beauty on the beach, and equally peaceful white beauty at the beautifully designed hotel/restaurant. Unfortunately the absolutely awful service by the staff made it anything but peaceful. 

At first, Polina & I had to fight for the rooms that were booked and paid for in advance. They were finding our reservations piecemeal. Finally we decided to join kids & boys at the beach but decided to check on the dinner reservations – that too had a problem. Some prior restaurant guests had come in really late and so we would have to wait until they were done.

We joined kids and dads at the beach briefly. Impressive to, once again, see Irish vacationing families prevail over weather with wetsuits, wintercoats over bare legs, and just plain underwear. We watched, shivered, and went back inside.

The fun continued through dinner. Waiters distributed the wrong menu and then shushed each other over them out of guest’s ear, spilled some sugar and then gathered it u by hand back into the sugar box, dropped things and put them up on the table. Romik, is a staunch non-carb-eater very expressly asked to not serve him any carbs. He got his hake slathered in mashed potatoes & veggie mix, poor guy. At one point we got tired of waiting for our drinks and got our wine, coke and water from the car. The sad part is they are the best game town – the chef is awesome, incredible and so even horrendous service will keep the customers coming back for more.

 

We calmed our nerves somewhat during the long walk on the beach and got ready for the next day of fun.

Northern Route, Day 5, August 24

We made an attempt to view the murals but the day was gloomy and we could not find the right ones so we rushed up North for Carrick-a-Rede. Wonderful as ever!! Polinka took a pass. 

Same for the Giant’s Causeway. Everyone got to enjoy this magical place. Georgia volunteered the tale of two Giants who built the staircase during the walk to the Cathedral formation and back out. What’s really cool is that we saw the mini-version of the Giant’s causeway earlier in the year in Iceland… So the legend is true?

Lunch at a non-mention-worthy Cod-way in Bushmills. Then again cod is really not the fish of choice. While we waited, we took turns at the art stores around. We continue to be impressed with incredible imagination. Lots of bunny imagery 😊

The next stop was Dunluce castle, back at the coast. We enjoyed the colorful ruin in the light of the fading sun. To make the most of the day we relocated to the sandy beach a few miles west. Aww – lots and lots of sea buckthorn bushes.

We all grabbed us some berries and tasted their tart taste.

Kids ran around the beach. We marveled the white limestone caves & black giant volcanic rocks on the beach (reminiscent of the giant’s poop).

 The final stop was our hotel Harmony Hill Country House at Ballymoney. At first, we accidentally stopped at the derelict mill next door. Horrifying red brick building looked abandoned. Google confirmed that this is it. Fortunately a passing trucker saw our shocked faces and pointed out and to the driveway on the left. 

A few minutes later we were at the former manor house of the lords of the mill. Fantastic (read: old and weird) rooms – Romik’s had a fireplace, enormous bed, ancient (Russian style) bathroom, and kid’s room perched up above the wall ladder on the second floor. Our long room was in the attic. Owner’s toddler toys were lying around – toddlers should have been 20-30 years gone.

There was a folder with Hotel’s history. The owner who built the mill was successful entrepreneur. His two “wayward” sons had the misfortune of driving one of the revolts against the British in the uprising of 1798. It was interesting to continue to get more color on the relationship between Ireland and Britain. The sons were both captured and condemned to be executed as traitors. When it happened, a member of British military force came to the mill a few days after vining and dining there and burned the place down. The father was able to get the sons freed under condition that they give up everything they had and leave the country. They went to the United States and successfully rebuilt their life there. Even started their own B&B upstate NY.

Reception area had enormous bookcases that could swing open to open an office, a living room, and the part of the house where we’ve stayed. Whether this development was to increase privacy, or make better use of the space or both. It was an interesting thought to contemplate that they could have locked our bookcase forever with us behind. On that happy thought, we’ve consulted the friendly owners who had the place for 30 years on a good dinner choice and they suggested Molly’s pub in town.

Excellent choice. We ended up all ordering international food –Indian, Thai. Kind of amazing to get this many options and so well executed. While we were waiting for our food, the boys stopped by at the supermarket and got some options for the drinks in the living room of the house. We came back, put kids to sleep, and went to the living room, lit up the fire and enjoyed. This place lost Internet connectivity after a bad rain storm a few days ago. It was nice to take a break from work at last. I lasted a whole of half of my drink before going to sleep on the couch.

Pic on the right is Isabella contemplating her lost tooth immediately prior to crossing the rope bridge. Not to worry - the new tooth already erupted. Tooth fairy had made the reparations as well. 

Bru Na Boine, Day 4, August 23

Today we repeated our trip four years ago with the exception of Trim castle. Not missing it one bit and travel is so much better when you do it with friends.

Grabbed our breakfast at Starbucks and picked up our car from the lot a few blocks away and started on our way. After a quick 1.5 hour ride we stopped at the visitor center in Bru Na Boine and bought our tour tickets. The site is as impressive as it ever was. 

It is interesting that Newgrange shows a different interpretation of white stones that surrounded the passage graves. The archaeologist that restored that building thought that they and round brown stones had to line the façade. The one who restored Knowth site thought they had to lie on the ground around the site and saw some precise patterns in which it was laid out. As the tour guide said: “Any theory is good as any” but the truth is only one of them is true. This site is 4-5 thousand years old and had work done on it the last 50-60. It is possible that the future generations will find the right answer.

I did decide this time around that the astronomical feat is that that huge. One of the amazing features of Newgrange is that it is perfectly aligned with the direction of the raising sun at winter solstice. Once a year a ray of sun breaks through the 19-meter passage and floods the ceremonial room inside with light for 19 or so minutes. The other large sites are oriented East to West. It seems like an incredible accomplishment to build a site that predates Egyptian pyramids and takes several generations to build and still get this main piece right. But they’ve started building it from the bottom layer and so had had the opportunity over the several years it takes to lay the foundation to monitor the path of the rising sun with the sticks in the ground watching for the stick after which the sun path started to shift back to its spring journey. This, of course does not take away from the incredible accomplishment of the site itself.

One thing the current keepers of the place messed up in a bad way was the food at the place cafe. So many options and all bland and tasteless. Yak-nourshed we made our way to the hill of Tara. Somehow it did not impress the same way as the last time. Looks like a large field with a few sites on it. I don’t want to diminish from the spiritual & physical beauty of the place – it was the place of crowning of the pagan kings, and St. Patrick did deliver his famous sermon that made it clear that the holy trinity is everywhere – through the shrewd use of shamrock plant. But I guess it has to be experienced in the right frame of mind. Kids had their fun time running like mad in all directions after being stuck in the car & at the more restrained Bru site for most of the day.

Next stop was Cisterian monastery. We rushed through it trying to wrap up our program before the rest of the places close. Grabbed some blackberries that were growing like a weed in the perimeter of it. The final stop prior to Belfast was Monasterboice. It features two of the largest most elaborate crosses in Ireland & a supply tower. The carvings on the crosses are but wiped away by the elements. Helpful legend showed where they featured the stories from the bible and other elements that included the signs of the zodiac – to keep it interesting for the visitors. This was a educational tool. The crosses and the tower are located inside the cemetery. Must be a very desirable place for the members of the local families to be buried there. Sad to see some additions from our last time.

Luxurious accommodations in Belfast – Cordia serviced apartments. Brand-fresh-paint-smell-new, very large two bedrooms each with everything one needed. We enjoyed for a few minutes, kids played hide and seek, and then set out in a search for dinner. Tried one place – were told that since they won’t be able to serve us food by nine, we cannot go in with kids. The second place had a similar story. Finally, Solo let us in for a magnificent Indian meal with wine. Apparently, some crazy rule that in the places that may operate as a bar, kids may be present, but as long as they get their meal by 9 and finish by 9:30pm. Sounds kind of crazy. 

Dan & Romik suggested that it may had been inspired by the families dragging their kids with them for the night of drinking. And then such kids are exposed by that too early and also are having a harder time to go to school next day. The state trying to change the habit into something positive and had to set the line a 9:30pm. On that happy note, we went back to our hotels and went to sleep. To entertain kids on the walk back to the apartments we discussed the tale of Tristan and Isolde. Inspired much follow up discussion.

Dublin & Powercourt Day 3, August 22

Heavy culture day today. We wanted to get a bit of context for our subsequent travels here. Started with the Book of Kells exhibition at the Trinity library. All were equally impressed with the incredible work of the monks who apparently dedicated their lifetimes to creating incredible illustrated copies of the bible.

Ran over to take a look at the Dublin Castle and decided against visiting the apartments there. Many more things to see so we walked back past Trinity to visit the Archaeology museum - excellent museum full of the wonderful artifacts that included the bog mummies in the various states of "completeness," the Tara Brooch with its immaculate detail, golden beads the size of a 5-year old's fist, and a good medieval collection

With some of the massive golden necklaces it would appear that this is an African collection but it is a part of Ireland's ancient past.


After a brief stop for lunch at the Bank on the college green, where we've been trying to get in for the last two days, and ultimately came out disappointed with the combination of decor, service, and food (it is a nice place really but the being situated in the former Bank of Ireland bank, puts certain higher standard expectations  on the place), we visited our favorite souvenir place and Polina, kids, and I took the cabs to the Kilmainham Gaol museum, while Dan & Romik went to pick up our car.

Wholly impressed about what we learned at our tour of the jail. Excellent tour guide Alghe (pronounced as Elfee) there. Sad and inspiring moment of Ireland's & England's past. Glad we visited.

One of the highlights, Alghe was speaking of one of the former inmates who was executed by hanging and then chopping off his head.

One of the visitors asked what came first. She hesitated a moment before answering with a completely straight face. Incidentally, that inmate was supposed to be hanged and then quartered. The reason he lost only his head was because, the executioner showed up drunk and forgot his instruments. Had to settle for the borrowed cleaver at the nearest butcher.

I could do another little museum trip to wrap things up but we ran out of the day. Boys picked us up and we went to the Powercourt Estate out of the city. Navigating the narrow lanes in our giant of the car adds extra level of excitement we had long forgotten about. At the Powercourt, the clerk refused to sell is the tickets for 50 Euro because we will not get our money worth in the remaining 30 minutes of the open time. So we went to see the Powercourt Waterfall.

Finished the day at the Bray and Sandycove. Went to the excellent Fishshack at the Sandycove. Ready to start our country adventures tomorrow!! 

Dublin Day 2, August 21

We've started the day at the lovely The Loving Spoon. Great food, fantastic decor with the little fairies coming out of the odd spots here and there.

The daily tour started at  St Patrick Cathedral. I guess we are a bit out-cathedraled, after the lifetime off. We found Swift's grave inside the church and the associated memorabilia including several death masks and a cast of this skull the most fascinating.

Next onto the Christ's church. There the kids enjoyed the mummy's of a cat & a rat. We continued walking stopping at the interesting spots. The agenda was no agenda. Just make most of the day and stay out as much as possible while it does not rain.

Tried to make it to Kilmaiham Gaol but they were sold out. Bought the tickets for tomorrow and made our way back to the center for Murphy's.

Finished the day at Fitzsimmons, at the Temple Bar, accompanied by the uplifting live music. Speaking of food, we've also made stops through the day at the Powercourt for a snack & at the Farm for lunch. We did not remember the city having so many awesome food options and there will surely be consequences. Speaking of the spirits, we've been lucky so far with only about 1/2 or 1/4 of the day raining so the spirits are up :)

Today was the day of the eclipse in the US. We enjoy the many pictures we see online and sent by the friends. It seems so far away - almost unreal. Trying to disengage a bit from the work a bit too while we are getting our final break prior to the fall season.

Dublin Day 1, August 20

Flew into Dublin early on Sunday morning. The plane was full of elders gathering up for their tours. I was sitting next to a husband and wife couple probably in their seventies. He had hearing aids in both ears, she had a medical bracelet with a medical highlights presumably on the skin facing portion of it.

As the night set it during our flight they remained alert, curious, asking those around them questions.

Hearing them talk about their lives was incredible. She was trained as a teacher but never really got the chance to practice due to a really bad case of vertigo. She did say that learning about history was more fun than teaching it. He was a programmer who too did not get to spend too many years (programming the paper cards?). They never had any kids. As disability & unemployment turned into retirement, they've continued to work on their bucket travel list and traveled extensively around the world. Two months a year they live in Florida where they love going to the Disney parks. Interesting angle on the live well-lived. Food for thought on the choices we are making. I've got to say though we really love what we had chosen to do and that includes travel.

Arriving to Dublin I had several tasks to accomplish before meeting up with Romiks whose flight was arriving in an hour after mine landed. I had to get some money from the ATM, buy sim cards for all, find out what terminal they were landing at and stand there with the sign. Several ATMs spit out my card indicating that there was something wrong with it. The three stores I went to ran out of sim card stock. Not a good start. Fortunately Romiks were landing at the same terminal. The bad news is that they had already landed and should have been coming out any minute. So I wrote up the sign and positioned myself in front of the doors and started waiting.

Connected w. Dan in Vilnius - he & kids were leaving to meet up with us in 4 hours. The magic of the free internet wifi! He reassured me that he had some cash in euro but could not get the ATM to work either. As I waited I stayed on the line waiting (without results) for someone from the bank to pick up. The magic on non-24-hour service and downtimes. Romik skyped me that they are waiting for their luggage. Soon they all came out as well and we went to look for the cab.

 Cab dispatcher outside sized us up and suggested to wait for a few minutes for a van to come up. To our feeble proposal to take two cabs he replied that we don't want to be paying twice. And pointed to the waiting area. :)

After we checked in, we located the nearest breakfast place, Ann's Bakery with fantastic looking pastries, got nourished, and walked around all day. During our walks we were able to get the cash from the ATM machine, and get the sim cards so the day went on really well.

Dan and the kids flew in in the evening and joined us for more walks and dinner.

Palanga

I'm so very sorry that I didn't write for the past few days. The thing is, we were in Palanga. If any of you don't know what Palanga is, then let me tell you. Palanga is a huge beach town, almost four hours away from Vilnius. Palanga is known most for it's bountiful amount of amber and beautiful sunsets. Anyhow, we stayed for three days in Palanga. There grandma rented out an apartment, right near the beach. The apartment was wonderful. It was on the third floor with two large windows. It had a tiny, cozy kitchen, an even tinier, bathroom. There were two floors, so Isabella and I took the two beds upstairs, while grandma and grandpa took the master bed downstairs. Grandma's friends, Oleg and Lena, rented out an apartment in the house right across from ours. We could wave to them from our apartment. One the first day in Palanga, well, more like on the first half day in Palanga, we went to beach and walked 4 miles from our house to the city center. There was so many people on main street, thus, grandma hated it the moment she stepped onto it.  We ate dinner in a really bad restaurant, outside. our table had no umbrella, so a bird pooped on our table and into grandma's coffee. I ordered a pizza called "Rome," which was a pizza topped with minced meat, onions, salami, and tomatoes. Isabella order the usual: cheese pizza. Grandma accidentally ordered an extra pizza, which we took home. After we ate the exceptionally funny dinner, we went to an illusion house. No, correction,, grandpa bough tickets for Isabella and I and we went in. There was a bunch of really fun stuff and a bunch of really scary stuff. For example, there was a mirror labyrinth were we got stuck. After the ever so fun illusion house, we met with grandpa's old friend. Skipping the very boring details ... I didn't have time for my blog.

On the next day, we met with Oleg and Lena on the beach and basically spent the whole morning there. The water was 18 degrees Celsius For lunch, Oleg bought two kinds of fish and we ate them on their terrace. After lunch, We went home, where, okay, I give in. I did watch movies for a little while. For dinner, Oleg, Lena and grandpa's friend joined us at a fancy restaurant. I ordered a so-called extraordinary snail soup. It was extraordinary, I tell you. Extraordinarily horrible. The one part I did like was the frog-leg. So crunchy! To walk off dinner, we went to a nearby park. The thing with all of our guests was that they walk excruciatingly slow. What we walked in that hour, we could walk in a half hour at most with Dad and Mom. Anyhow, I was too tried again, so I couldn't write.

On our second to last day, we again spent half of the day on the beach. Lena and Oleg were leaving so for lunch we went to one of their favorite places called "Ararat ." The food was really good and after lunch, I caught a lizard. When we were finished, we went home and I tried to write my blog, but alas, there was no internet connection, so I couldn't. I ended up watching movies again. For dinner grandpa took us to a restaurant with real bunnies on the roof. Can you believe it? Real bunnies. On. The. Roof. Anyway, I ordered roast bunny and then I felt really bad about it, so I fed the cockatoo that was there, all of my potatoes. After dinner, we went to a small town nearby where we watched, mesmerized, as the sun set into the ocean. We came home at eleven o'clock, so I didn't have time for blog.

This was the last day. We packed up in the morning and then went to the beach with grandma. She said that she was going to collect amber, but I didn't hear her. When she wasn't there in 10 minutes, I started to panic. I maybe, kinda, sorta, called grandpa and dad, a gazillion times. Anyway, for lunch, we had left-overs.Then, we set out on the long journey.

Anyway, a few more things had happened and sometime I will write about them. The important thing is that we are flying out to Dublin to meet up with Mom and Romik, Polinka, Anya & Maya for our vacation. Hurray!

Georgia

A Very Good Day in Vilnius

New Shoes

Today I had the last of my rabies shots. Before, though, we dropped off grandma and Isabella at my great-grandma's house. The nurse that usually did my shots wasn't there, but there was a very mean nurse. The way she did the shots was so painful! It even had blood! Anyhow, when we finished, we picked up my grandma and Isabella and drove to a shoe store called "Batu Kalnas". There I got a very cool pair of sneaker/sandals that were neon turquoise, neon orange, neon pink and white. Sneaker/sandals are lightweight sneakers with no shoelaces. We wanted to find new shoes for Isabella, but couldn't. After that, we went to a market near my great-grandma's house and bought cherries, blueberries, golden apples and a sweet surprise for Mom. Because it got so, so hot after 11:00, so we went home and spent the whole day there. For lunch, I had home-cooked chanterelles with onions and a sausage. Later, in made a treat for everyone. Frappuccino for grandma, and frosted peaches with lemon dip for everyone else. Isabella and I watched movies and played games after I cleaned up. For dinner, grandma, grandpa, Dad, Isabella and I went to a bar near our house. I don't know about the rest of the family, but my food was bad! The Kiev cutlet was too peppery and too dry. After dinner, Dad took Isabella and me to "Crustum." Isabella had a chocolate potato, while both Dad and I had poppy seed pastries. To walk off the million calorie dessert, we walked over to my great-grandma's house and back. Now I am writing this and trying not to fall asleep. Good night.

Chanterelles with onions

P.S. Tomorrow, I'm going to fly on a hot air balloon! Whoo-hoo! 

A Day to Remember

Hello, I am no other that Georgia Fishteyn, the host of Georgia News. Today we have a slight, 100% chance of rain. Now to the real news. Today was a day worth remembering. For breakfast, we had bread with meat paste and chicken dumplings. We were at home until 10:00, and Isabella and I were bouncing with energy when we finally left the house. Grandma chose a place called Suderve, a rock park. There was a beach and lots of poorly crafted "modern art" rock sculptures, with weird names. We played at the beach 'til lunch.

Senoji Trobele

For lunch, we drove to a new cafe in Vilnius. While I had borscht, Isabella had chicken broth and both grandma and grandpa had цеппелинs. The restaurant we ate at was called Senoji Trobele. It was a cute little restaurant.

We took grandma to see her three friends, Лида, Лида, and Лида, after we finished eating. Then we all went home. We watched movies for a couple of hours, and then Dad came home.

For dinner, we had roast carp, that grandpa roasted. It was exceptionally good. For dessert, we went to Sugamour, a sweet shop. The cakes tasted OK, though they were beautifully decorated. After dessert, we went down Prospect of Gediminas and to the river. We were caught in a horrible rain. Unfortunately, we didn't have our umbrellas with us, so when the sky cleared up, we were all soaking wet. P.S., the rain lasted like 15 minutes. Then all (not so) sore and wet, we went home. Now on to the weather channel. Tomorrow it'll be 82 degrees, party cloudy and with a 10% chance of rain. Hope you like the pictures!