kareina

The below was typed now and then on my phone while traveling this past week, trying to keep the adventures current, even if I am no longer able to post to DreamWidth/LiveJournal from my phone. I managed that far in typing before heading to the SCA event and getting too busy to write each day, so the rest of the trip will have to wait till I have time to type...


Tuesday evening would normally have been Phire practice from 16:30 to 18:30, followed by choir from 19:00 to 20:30. However, I wound up working too late Monday night and didn't make it to bed till 02:00. I had no problems getting up on time to make it to work for my 09:00 meeting, nor in processing the data from that last laser map I had run to give them some good images to take to their meeting at the Mine on Friday.

But then I was very sleepy, so I went home and took a three hour nap, after which I needed to accomplish a few things before leaving town, which meant that I didn't actually get on the road till 19:30.

It is only a 50 minute drive to Kalix, which gave me time to visit some with Å and do my yoga before taking a 3 hour nap. Not that I slept very deeply, since I really didn't want to oversleep, so I wound up waking enough to look at the time at least five times.

I started driving at 02:00, which is good, since it turned out to be blowing snow enough that visibility wasn't so good, so I took it slower than I normally might have, but I had budgeted enough time for that, so was still at the airport in time enough to go through security, get more water, repack things how I want them for the flight (which is not how they were for security), realize that my banana must have fallen out of the food bag into the car, so I asked security if I could go back to the car to get it, and, since it is Kemi, of course they said yes (it was in the car, so I brought it in and ate it before the flight).

I got a nap on the first flight, but much sooner than expected they woke me for landing (I had been laying done across both seats, since there were not so many folk on board). It turns out that we had an intermediate stop at some airport somewhere on the way to Helsinki.

Once we reached Helsinki I walked straight to my next gate, getting there just on time for the last bus to the plane. Therefore I think that my first flight must have been running a bit late, as there was supposed to be more time between flights than that.

Kaarina was already on board when I got there and we happily chatted for an hour or so before deciding it was time for a nap. Once we reached Dublin she went straight out to the wesrmt coast for adventures and I was met by my friend Marcus, who used to live in Luleå and we took the bus to his apartment, whixh isn't so far from the airport. He was working from home that day, so I took a nap on the couch while he worked, and then I got yo and went for a 45 minute walk in the nice, huge park across the street.

Once he was off work he and I walked to a grocery store and picked up a few things, then headed back and I made homemade noodles with butter and fresh spinach for dinner.

He works a fairly early shift, and I was tired even with all of those naps (I don't think it had added up to a reasonable amount of sleep), so I had a shower and went to sleep.

This meant I had no problems getting up and 05:00 when he did, so I used the time to bake a quick loaf of reiska and have a lazy morning before leaving the house at 08:30 to take the bus to the city centre.

The bus I happened to get ended on the north side of the river, not far from Trinity College. So I walked that way, saw the length of the line waiting to glimpse the book of Kells, and was certain I wasn't interested. So inteaad I used a toilet on campus and walked a couple more blocks to the National Archaeological Museum, arriving just as they opened their doors at 10:00. I spent three hours there and then thought about going to find the green "Hop on, hop off" tourist bus, since my bus pass was good for that.

However, before I reached the next bus stop I saw a shop selling hand woven and hand knit items, so, of course, I went in. Lovely stuff. Had I been feeling rich quite a few items could have followed me home. Not everything was hand made, some of it was from Irish weaving companies that use machines, but really nice yarns to produce lovely, decadent wool twills. They also had some nice quality raincoats and rain hats that wrre tempting, since my raincoat, bought for my field work in the Brooks Range in 1995, is not so waterproof any more.

However, the double whammy of student budget and flying carry-on only made it easy to resist, and after taking my time to look at everything and chat with the lovely lady working there, I went to leave.

Just as E., an SCA friend living in Germany, walked in the door! So she and I decided to go get a tea and carch up (after she looked at some of the lovely items in the shop). The first tea shop we passed looked a bit to Starbucks for our taste, so she consulted Google and we went to another, which was a place to buy a huge variety of teas, many of which I are made from plants I haven't even heard of. They also had a small cafe, and the menu said that the day's soup was Spinach and Broccoli. By that point it was 14:20, and I was hungry again, so I had some. As with all restaurant food, I would have made it a bit differently, which would have better suited my tastes, but it tasted fine, and I knew I wouldn't get a chance to cook for myself till it was too late in the day to be hungry anyway.

When we arrived I sent Marcus a text message with the name and address of the shop, thinking that when he got off of work he could either join us, or suggest someplace else to meet.

However, none of the messages I sent him reached him, so at 15:30 he called to say he was done, and I told him where we were. He wasn't able to find it, so a bbit later he suggested that we come find him near the Half Penny Bridge, so we did. At that point E. wanted to head to some book stores and he and I opted to take the bus home. It being almost a 40 minute trip at that time of day durme to traffic (only 20 minutes in for him in the morning, since rush hour hasn't started yet), I ate the last of the food I had with me on the bus. This is a good thing, since his roommate, Chris (also from Sweden, but they met here) works from home, with his office just off the kitchen and no door between them. His shift goes till 20:00, and he is doing customer support, so it isn't an option to cook while he is working as the noise would be a problem.

So while he worked Marcus showed me photos of his God-Mother's house on the Swedish High Coast, near Skulleberget (the mountain I always stop to climb when doing a road trip to southern Sweden). Sadly she passed away this year, and, having no kids of her own, left the house to him.

It is a cute place, in a beautiful setting (and the photos of the God-Mother were cute too, she looks like she was a very happy lady). He intends to use it as a summer house for now, unless he can manage to find work that would let him live there. He also promises me that I may stay there if I want to do High Coast adventures or just do the drive south in two days instead of one. I intend to take him up on this offer.

There are now more photos of my time in Ireland this summer. Tania posted photos on her blog sharing the highlights of all of the visitors they've hosted this summer. I like the lighting on the one of me in the entrance to Kells Priory, and am delighted that the one of the two of us on the top of Brandon hill came out, since it was taken on her phone, using the timer. She had no idea if there would be enough time to run from the rock the phone was on to the top of the hill before the photo was taken.

My normal habit when flying out of Linate airport is to walk 20 minutes and then catch the city bus that heads to the airport, which makes the total time elapsed between leaving the house and arriving at the airport about 30 minutes. (Have I mentioned that this is my favourite of the three Milan airports--the other two require a 30 minute walk and a hour bus ride that costs ~8 Euros one way). However, Thursday morning it was raining heavily. Therefore I opted to take a bus to the airport bus, in an attempt to keep my luggage from getting too soaked before the flight.

It is a 2.5 hour flight from Milan to Dublin, and then another three hours by bus to Thomastown, which is the nearest stop to Tania and Mike's house. They picked me up and took me to their delightful home, a stone house near Inistioge in Kilkenny Ireland, where they fed me a wonderful meal before she and I went for a walk in the neighbourhood, which is lovely. That evening they took me to a pub for a music session, and I made progress on my nålbinding while enjoying the music. This prompted one of the folk to dedicate a song to "the lady knitting", which caused me to comment to Tania that I really should learn how to knit some day. At the end of the evening one of the other musicians (who can play the harmonica at the same time as he plays the guitar!) brought his guitar over to me, snuggled up close, and made up a song on the spot, the chorus of which was "knit me a jumper, and I'll sing you a song". If he means one song in exchange for an entire jumper (sweater for the Americans in the audience), the deal wouldn't be so good. But if he's offering to sing for the entire time it takes to make one via nålbinding (since I can't knit), it would be a pretty darn good deal for me. His song had me smiling so hard my cheeks hurt, though Mike teased me the rest of the trip about the musician being sweet on me. (note: I didn't see him again the rest of the trip, but I did really enjoy the gift--I've had people write me songs before, but this was the first one that was accompanied with guitar music and written as it was sung.)


On Friday we wandered around the town of Inistioge, and took the nature walk along the river and then up the hill to Woodstock, the old estate of the region. The highlight of which is the Mount Sandford "castle", which was built in 1765 for the sole purpose of enjoying the view of the village and bridge over the river. In the evening we had planned to first attend a performance of a band they know followed by a music session that meets the first Friday of every month, but which they'd not yet managed to attend in the years since they moved there (they are only part time in Ireland, and the rest in the US or on tour elsewhere). However, the band was on Irish Time, and hadn't started playing for their 9pm show when we left at quarter to 10pm. In addition, the fates seem to be against the thought of their ever attending this music session, since this month the people who normally run it had conflicts, so moved it to last week, instead, and we didn't find out till we arrived at the pub and found only a Hen's Night (party for the bride).

Saturday Tania and I climbed Brandon's Hill in the morning, went home for lunch and then the three of us explored an old ruined Castle at Thomastown, and then went out to see the Kells Priory ruins (not the same Kells as in "book of") and the nearby (and much younger) old Mills. While at one of the mills we heard music and applause, so we investigated and found a private concert in progress in a backyard of one of the large homes there. T&M left their cards with the host indicating a willingness to perform at that venue when they return next summer (she flies back to the US on Friday).

From there we went to another music session at another pub, and stayed till it was time to take me back to Thomastown to catch the 02:00 bus back to the airport. My flight didn't leave till 07:00, and at that hour it is only a two-hour bus ride (oh the difference traffic and the need to actually stop to pick up and drop off passengers makes--on the way to the airport no one wanted off the bus till we got there), so I had oodles of time to clear security. The next bus would have left at 04:00, but that one would have left me only 30 minutes between arriving at the airport and my plane departing, which is simply not enough time. So I napped on the flight, and again at the airport, and again on the flight back to Milan, and again when I got home. Not the same as a good night's sleep, but it did well enough to let me catch up on my on-line reading (I didn't bring a computer with me, so I hadn't been on line) and post photos to facebook (see above links + more in the albums).

All in all a wonderful trip. The chance to spend time with an old friend, adventures, and yummy food!