Yesterday, I finally finished Cryptonomicon, the 1200-page epic by Neal Stephenson. The story takes place in two time periods--World War II and the present day--and deals primarily with two families, the Waterhouses and the Shaftoes.
The plot is incredibly convoluted, but it deals with cryptography and cryptanalysis (that's the sciences of code-breaking and code-writing, respectively), and their roles in fighting the Japanese and Germans during WWII; a mission to hide and then uncover a vast store of stolen gold; an American soldier's attempt to return to the Philippines and find his lover amidst the tumult of WWII; the invention of the first digital computer; and a modern-day businessman's attempt to set up the world's most secure data haven against an army of rivals and lawyers.
The book is heavily steeped in technical jargon and concepts. Stephenson does an excellent job at distilling the more complicated concepts in the story, but people without any sort of technical background would probably not follow some of his explanations. There's a four-page description of how one of the characters eats Cap'n Crunch.
That said, I DO have a technical background, and I really enjoyed the somewhat long-winded technical and mathematical descriptions of otherwise mundane or confusing concepts. However, the book is really long...REALLY long, and I was ready for it to be over a couple hundred pages before it was. Maybe that's just my short attention span coming through, but 1200 pages is a lot of pages.
I have another book of his, Snow Crash, which is set in the future but is also filled with technojargon and lots of roundabout explanations of obscure concepts. (I'm seeing a trend here.) Great stuff! If you can handle it. I've got another one or two books of his in my wish list, so this won't be the last I read of Stephenson. If you like Tom Clancy but you prefer technical computer stuff instead of "military porn," Stephenson is your guy.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Excuses
Some of you may have noticed that I haven't finished updating about my England trip. I have a good excuses, first, I had to catch up on lots of work at my jobs. Second, and more importantly, I was picked for jury duty this week so I had to hurry and finish my other book so I could have a new one for jury week. After I finished The Constant Princess I picked up the copy of Twilight that I had gotten as a birthday present last year or the year before. Since Monday I have not only managed to finish that book entirely while serving on a jury, I have read 350 pages of the next one. So if you don't hear from me for awhile I am still reading the series. The good news is that the last one comes out next Friday and I am going with my friend to go pick it up at midnight (as something fun to do) and I can't imagine that it will take me more than that weekend to finish. You are not the only ones who are being neglected, I think T feels like a book widower.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Scum
I saw this article today, and it filled me with blinding rage. I just couldn't believe how much this turd kid (and his worthless mother, for turning a blind eye, for what I'm sure isn't the first time, at what her spawn had done) need to be put down like rabid dogs. I am pretty sure I'm never going to understand what is wrong with our society that causes people to think this thug 'culture' is laudable or praiseworthy. The real tragedy here is that this waste of skin killed an innocent pedestrian, rather than one or more of his equally worthless friends. People like this are like turds floating aimlessly through life's septic tank.
Then it got me thinking about many other people in the news whose mere names cause my eyes to roll instantly upwards. I'd love to see the following people disappear from the news tomorrow, and not come back:
--Madonna. If she was ever relevant, or interesting, I must have missed it. Every few months, like a bad case of some chronic itchy disease, she keeps popping back up for no real reason. Oh, hey, she's got a new album full of bland, obnoxious, overly-produced music. Oh, look, she's having a kid or adopting a kid or stealing someone else's kid or something. Hey, she's getting married, or divorced, or starting a clothing line or whatever. I would love to never hear about her ever again.
--Al Gore. His inclusion here has nothing to do with his politics, or his global warming stuff, or whatever. I'm just sick of hearing about how guilty we all are for living our lives and trying to make ends meet. Hey, dude, maybe you should give up your private jet and one or more of your colossal mansions before you tell me that my cheap little car is ruining the world, mmmkay? Please fall into a well and biodegrade.
--Amy Winehouse. She came out of nowhere a year or so ago and we started seeing pictures of her emaciated body and stupid bouffant hairdo everywhere. Ooh, she's a singer and she loves crack. We stopped caring about Whitney Houston, so why do we care about this whore now? And it just happened overnight, too--one day, she just started showing up everywhere. Why?
There are lots of other targets that I won't get into here because, frankly, we've stopped hearing about recently (half a dozen 20-year-old female actress/singer/whore names should come instantly to mind; Michael Jackson; etc.). I just feel like I've heard all I need to about the people listed above to last me the rest of my life.
Then it got me thinking about many other people in the news whose mere names cause my eyes to roll instantly upwards. I'd love to see the following people disappear from the news tomorrow, and not come back:
--Madonna. If she was ever relevant, or interesting, I must have missed it. Every few months, like a bad case of some chronic itchy disease, she keeps popping back up for no real reason. Oh, hey, she's got a new album full of bland, obnoxious, overly-produced music. Oh, look, she's having a kid or adopting a kid or stealing someone else's kid or something. Hey, she's getting married, or divorced, or starting a clothing line or whatever. I would love to never hear about her ever again.
--Al Gore. His inclusion here has nothing to do with his politics, or his global warming stuff, or whatever. I'm just sick of hearing about how guilty we all are for living our lives and trying to make ends meet. Hey, dude, maybe you should give up your private jet and one or more of your colossal mansions before you tell me that my cheap little car is ruining the world, mmmkay? Please fall into a well and biodegrade.
--Amy Winehouse. She came out of nowhere a year or so ago and we started seeing pictures of her emaciated body and stupid bouffant hairdo everywhere. Ooh, she's a singer and she loves crack. We stopped caring about Whitney Houston, so why do we care about this whore now? And it just happened overnight, too--one day, she just started showing up everywhere. Why?
There are lots of other targets that I won't get into here because, frankly, we've stopped hearing about recently (half a dozen 20-year-old female actress/singer/whore names should come instantly to mind; Michael Jackson; etc.). I just feel like I've heard all I need to about the people listed above to last me the rest of my life.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Kiplin Hall, Part II
Monday we went to Middlesborough, which is an old industrial town that is dying due to the loss of the coal and mineral industry in Britain. We first went to the Teeside Archives. I promised I wouldn't bore you again with detail so all I would say is that they were unusual in that they housed archives of the old industrial companies exclusively.
After lunch, which was a delicious Shepherd's Pie, we climbed the Transporter Bridge. Built in 1911, it was created to ferry people from one side to the other via a cable car or they could walk across the top of it. It still ferries cars from one side to the other, but the pedestrian part is closed to the public now. But being that we are special, we got to climb to the top and get a tour. Despite some people being afraid of heights, all but one of us made it to the top. We got a spectacular view of the area, steam cooling towers of a coal plant and all.
Tuesday we went to Harewood House which was, and still is, owned by a Lord and Lady. The upstairs is used as the private apartment and the rest of the house is restored to different time periods. The family is known for having large art collections and the current owner is into modern art, so there was a wide range of styles. Our guide was this funny and charismatic young curator who told us not only the history and issues, but also the juicier details about the family. It was interesting to also see the contrast between how the house was constructed and what the Victorians did. The Victorians can probably be described as the worst era for preservation.
Wednesday and Thursday was project days, so we spent our time in the town of Leyburn doing research or at home working on what we had. We at this point had just met the person who was assigning our task, so we were a little behind the other groups and in a sort of manic mode trying to imagine being able to complete the tasks.
Thursday night was our celebration for the two birthdays we had while over in England. After dinner we gave them the presents we had purchased for them at various gift shops along the way and then took a nice stroll around the lake. Since the sun stays up until almost 11, we decided to play Bagmitton until it got dark. We only had a clothes line to use as a net in the original tennis court, but it worked.
Friday we went to Whitby which is a coastal town famous for being described in Dracula. The first place we went to was the Abbey that is the site of the scene in Dracula. There was a thick fret that made the sight perfectly spooky looking. After the tour of the ruins we were set free to roam about the town. The town is a tourist trap basically but they had a beautiful beach and some neat little shops to goof around in. After Whitby we drove to Robin Hood's Bay, which was a smaller and less touristy coastal town. We walked along the beach and when we turned back we realized that tide had come in quite a bit. Luckily there was a ramp further down the beach where we could get back up to the parking lot.
Saturday we moved to Richmond, which was a disaster. The professor and her family were too stressed out about the whole thing and made it more complicated than it had to be. So when we got to our new place, called Middleton Place, we all headed into town to get away. We went to an Indian restaurant that night and had the worst service ever. Not only were they rude to us, they charged us $40 too much and we didn't get all our orders. Of course they refused to give us a receipt so we didn't have much of a leg to stand on to get our money back. We also went and sang karaoke that night. One of the girls used to be in a wedding band and does theater, so she brought the house down. I got the nerve to sing in front of everyone, thank you Rock Band game.
Sunday we were all so warn out from going, going, going that we sat around the house and did nothing. It really feels good to be lazy when you have earned it.
After lunch, which was a delicious Shepherd's Pie, we climbed the Transporter Bridge. Built in 1911, it was created to ferry people from one side to the other via a cable car or they could walk across the top of it. It still ferries cars from one side to the other, but the pedestrian part is closed to the public now. But being that we are special, we got to climb to the top and get a tour. Despite some people being afraid of heights, all but one of us made it to the top. We got a spectacular view of the area, steam cooling towers of a coal plant and all.
Tuesday we went to Harewood House which was, and still is, owned by a Lord and Lady. The upstairs is used as the private apartment and the rest of the house is restored to different time periods. The family is known for having large art collections and the current owner is into modern art, so there was a wide range of styles. Our guide was this funny and charismatic young curator who told us not only the history and issues, but also the juicier details about the family. It was interesting to also see the contrast between how the house was constructed and what the Victorians did. The Victorians can probably be described as the worst era for preservation.
Wednesday and Thursday was project days, so we spent our time in the town of Leyburn doing research or at home working on what we had. We at this point had just met the person who was assigning our task, so we were a little behind the other groups and in a sort of manic mode trying to imagine being able to complete the tasks.
Thursday night was our celebration for the two birthdays we had while over in England. After dinner we gave them the presents we had purchased for them at various gift shops along the way and then took a nice stroll around the lake. Since the sun stays up until almost 11, we decided to play Bagmitton until it got dark. We only had a clothes line to use as a net in the original tennis court, but it worked.
Friday we went to Whitby which is a coastal town famous for being described in Dracula. The first place we went to was the Abbey that is the site of the scene in Dracula. There was a thick fret that made the sight perfectly spooky looking. After the tour of the ruins we were set free to roam about the town. The town is a tourist trap basically but they had a beautiful beach and some neat little shops to goof around in. After Whitby we drove to Robin Hood's Bay, which was a smaller and less touristy coastal town. We walked along the beach and when we turned back we realized that tide had come in quite a bit. Luckily there was a ramp further down the beach where we could get back up to the parking lot.
Saturday we moved to Richmond, which was a disaster. The professor and her family were too stressed out about the whole thing and made it more complicated than it had to be. So when we got to our new place, called Middleton Place, we all headed into town to get away. We went to an Indian restaurant that night and had the worst service ever. Not only were they rude to us, they charged us $40 too much and we didn't get all our orders. Of course they refused to give us a receipt so we didn't have much of a leg to stand on to get our money back. We also went and sang karaoke that night. One of the girls used to be in a wedding band and does theater, so she brought the house down. I got the nerve to sing in front of everyone, thank you Rock Band game.
Sunday we were all so warn out from going, going, going that we sat around the house and did nothing. It really feels good to be lazy when you have earned it.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
No update tonight
My friend A is spending the night so that I can help her format her thesis that she successfully defended today. That means I can't update the blog on my trip, so I will be behind. Maybe if you are lucky I will post two tomorrow to make up for it.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Kiplin Hall, Part I
We arrived at Kiplin Hall after some delay at the airport. It turns out that our short flight from Dublin to Leeds Bradford was delayed because a bird had gotten sucked into the turbine and they needed to inspect the plane before take off. We eventually got on our way and were greeted by our professor at the airport. We drove through the English countryside for about an hour to get to our destination. It was great scenery with rolling hills filled with bright yellow fields of rape. (Awful name I know.)
Our home for the next two weeks is a place called Kiplin Hall. Built by the Lord Baltimore family in the 1600s, it has been drastically altered, expanded, demolished, etc since. We were staying in the coach house which had been converted into dorms for the University of Maryland. The grounds were enormous and contained a man-made lake built in the last 20 years to cover the quarry that they created in order to get funding to save the building. You never would have known that it was man-made unless someone told you because it was pristine and filled with wildlife. After we all arrived, we took a lovely stroll around the grounds as our introduction to the place.
The next day we all woke up at our leisure and our professor took us through Kiplin Hall and gave us the historical background of the manor. The restoration effort on the main house was spectacular, however, some misguided architect told the trust in the 1970s that the later additions were not as important and they should be torn down so about half of the estate is missing. Not to mention the vast amounts of land that have had to be sold since the family lost their fortune. At one point they owned about 600 acres, and now they only own about 40.
Our first official day of class we went to Easby Abbey outside of Richmond. Being our first official site we were all wowed by the ruins of the once vast monastery. The grounds are now used by the locals as a park with people running all over the ruins, which was startling for us. We as historians are so used to the "don't touch or you will ruin it" philosophy of America. After our tour we walked across some fields to the city of Richmond which has a tremendous castle ruin with a square keep. The walk was great as we got to see many bunnies (which amused the guide since they see them as vermin) and some Scottish cattle; that is until we got to this hill that must have been a 25% grade. Most of us were still feeling some jetlag, but the worst part is that we are grad students so for the most part we are out of shape as well. When we got to dinner, which was fish and chips, we inhaled the giant pieces.
The next day was quite an adventure. We drove up to the Moors which meant I got my first experience driving in England. It was pretty intense if I do say so myself. The driving on the wrong side of the road was nothing, it was the crazy switchbacks and narrow roads with oncoming traffic that was scary. We drove to the tallest pub in England, the Tan Hill. The door had a sign about keeping it closed to not let in the sheep which we thought was a joke, but we soon found out was not. The sheep were cold from the wind and did everything possible to get inside.
Tuesday we went to the town of North Allerton to meet with the County Archives. This will be the only time I bore you with the details of an archive because we saw several and if you have seen one archive you have really seen them all. They discussed the problems they have with storage, digital data transfer and funding. They took us to see their digitization office with the giant digital camera, which was pretty neat to see how it was done. Then they showed us their mobile shelving. It was a non-stop roller coaster of fun, we could hardly contain our excitement. After we were allowed to roam the town for a bit before we went to the Central Archaeology office. The town was one of many market towns we would see with small shops crowded together and a central area that was used for stalls on certain days. The Central Archaeology office was interesting to me, being the only archaeological trained person, because they discussed how GIS is used with archaeology.
Wednesday we went to Rievaulx Abbey, Rievaulx Terrace and a Starfish site. The abbey was giant and in far better shape than the first abbey because the British government had a program during the 1920s that went to certain sites and rebuilt them in a manner that no one could tell by simply looking at them. Up on the terrace, which had been built by the aristocratic family that owned the abbey and surrounding land in the 18th and 19th century, you could get a great view of the abbey and a nice walk between the two follies (fake Greek and Roman temples in this case, but can also be fake anything really.)After our guide took us to a field out in the middle of nowhere to this strange little building in a sheep field. It turns out it was a Starfish site which was a decoy created during WWII to fool the Germans into bombing areas of no importance instead of cities like Birmingham. The way it worked was the site was manned by a few men who watched the skies for German planes. When they saw planes on the radar or in the sky they would ignite tanks underground that made the area look like petroleum plants or other industrial sites. They dotted the entire English isle at one point, but only a few survive because there wasn't much to them above ground. I had to admit it was the strangest historical monument I had ever seen.
Thursday was our introduction to our projects day. Each of us was assigned a partner and given a project to do while in England. Mine, along with C, was to do a historical research report and assessment of the city of Leyburn, an old market town. It dated back to the Middle Ages and some of the buildings still survived from that area. We spent the day walking around town getting a feel for the architectural style and then went to the library to do research.
Friday we went to the Bowes Museum, which was built to look like a French chateau but was built specifically to be an art museum. We met with the curators to discuss issues of collection, storage, restoration, etc. They showed us their store rooms, conservation lab, and other behind the scenes places. The museum was trying to move away from the period room type of display (where they set up a room to look as if someone lived there during a certain era) and they showed us one of the rooms where they were making this change. I noticed a large mirror off by itself in the corner and realized that I must have found the Mirror of Erised! I couldn't make my way over to it though.
We were allowed some time to wander through the museum itself. It had lots of interesting pieces of work, but the best piece had to be the mechanical swan made of sterling silver. They operate it two times a day and we happened to be there when it was turned on.
On our way back to the house we made a stop off at the oldest church in England. The Saxa Gotha church was built out of pieces of Roman roads, pagan alters and old Christian crosses. The person who showed us around was the sweetest and funniest old lady we met the entire trip. Our professor has brought over a group for twenty years and she is retiring this year, so the two ladies had tea and dessert for us. We really enjoyed meeting them.
On the weekend we were free to do as we wished, so we all piled into a car and went into North Allerton to do some shopping and be lazy. I had been trying to get a picture of me standing a field of rape because I thought the yellow blooms were so pretty, and I managed to get the picture finally on our way out. On Sunday a few of us went out to the Lake District to visit the area and see Beatrix Potter's house. It was a pleasant drive and we made lots of Pride and Prejudice quotes. (One of the girls brought the movie and we watched it almost every day.)
Our home for the next two weeks is a place called Kiplin Hall. Built by the Lord Baltimore family in the 1600s, it has been drastically altered, expanded, demolished, etc since. We were staying in the coach house which had been converted into dorms for the University of Maryland. The grounds were enormous and contained a man-made lake built in the last 20 years to cover the quarry that they created in order to get funding to save the building. You never would have known that it was man-made unless someone told you because it was pristine and filled with wildlife. After we all arrived, we took a lovely stroll around the grounds as our introduction to the place.
The next day we all woke up at our leisure and our professor took us through Kiplin Hall and gave us the historical background of the manor. The restoration effort on the main house was spectacular, however, some misguided architect told the trust in the 1970s that the later additions were not as important and they should be torn down so about half of the estate is missing. Not to mention the vast amounts of land that have had to be sold since the family lost their fortune. At one point they owned about 600 acres, and now they only own about 40.
Our first official day of class we went to Easby Abbey outside of Richmond. Being our first official site we were all wowed by the ruins of the once vast monastery. The grounds are now used by the locals as a park with people running all over the ruins, which was startling for us. We as historians are so used to the "don't touch or you will ruin it" philosophy of America. After our tour we walked across some fields to the city of Richmond which has a tremendous castle ruin with a square keep. The walk was great as we got to see many bunnies (which amused the guide since they see them as vermin) and some Scottish cattle; that is until we got to this hill that must have been a 25% grade. Most of us were still feeling some jetlag, but the worst part is that we are grad students so for the most part we are out of shape as well. When we got to dinner, which was fish and chips, we inhaled the giant pieces.
The next day was quite an adventure. We drove up to the Moors which meant I got my first experience driving in England. It was pretty intense if I do say so myself. The driving on the wrong side of the road was nothing, it was the crazy switchbacks and narrow roads with oncoming traffic that was scary. We drove to the tallest pub in England, the Tan Hill. The door had a sign about keeping it closed to not let in the sheep which we thought was a joke, but we soon found out was not. The sheep were cold from the wind and did everything possible to get inside.
Tuesday we went to the town of North Allerton to meet with the County Archives. This will be the only time I bore you with the details of an archive because we saw several and if you have seen one archive you have really seen them all. They discussed the problems they have with storage, digital data transfer and funding. They took us to see their digitization office with the giant digital camera, which was pretty neat to see how it was done. Then they showed us their mobile shelving. It was a non-stop roller coaster of fun, we could hardly contain our excitement. After we were allowed to roam the town for a bit before we went to the Central Archaeology office. The town was one of many market towns we would see with small shops crowded together and a central area that was used for stalls on certain days. The Central Archaeology office was interesting to me, being the only archaeological trained person, because they discussed how GIS is used with archaeology.
Wednesday we went to Rievaulx Abbey, Rievaulx Terrace and a Starfish site. The abbey was giant and in far better shape than the first abbey because the British government had a program during the 1920s that went to certain sites and rebuilt them in a manner that no one could tell by simply looking at them. Up on the terrace, which had been built by the aristocratic family that owned the abbey and surrounding land in the 18th and 19th century, you could get a great view of the abbey and a nice walk between the two follies (fake Greek and Roman temples in this case, but can also be fake anything really.)After our guide took us to a field out in the middle of nowhere to this strange little building in a sheep field. It turns out it was a Starfish site which was a decoy created during WWII to fool the Germans into bombing areas of no importance instead of cities like Birmingham. The way it worked was the site was manned by a few men who watched the skies for German planes. When they saw planes on the radar or in the sky they would ignite tanks underground that made the area look like petroleum plants or other industrial sites. They dotted the entire English isle at one point, but only a few survive because there wasn't much to them above ground. I had to admit it was the strangest historical monument I had ever seen.
Thursday was our introduction to our projects day. Each of us was assigned a partner and given a project to do while in England. Mine, along with C, was to do a historical research report and assessment of the city of Leyburn, an old market town. It dated back to the Middle Ages and some of the buildings still survived from that area. We spent the day walking around town getting a feel for the architectural style and then went to the library to do research.
Friday we went to the Bowes Museum, which was built to look like a French chateau but was built specifically to be an art museum. We met with the curators to discuss issues of collection, storage, restoration, etc. They showed us their store rooms, conservation lab, and other behind the scenes places. The museum was trying to move away from the period room type of display (where they set up a room to look as if someone lived there during a certain era) and they showed us one of the rooms where they were making this change. I noticed a large mirror off by itself in the corner and realized that I must have found the Mirror of Erised! I couldn't make my way over to it though.
We were allowed some time to wander through the museum itself. It had lots of interesting pieces of work, but the best piece had to be the mechanical swan made of sterling silver. They operate it two times a day and we happened to be there when it was turned on.
On our way back to the house we made a stop off at the oldest church in England. The Saxa Gotha church was built out of pieces of Roman roads, pagan alters and old Christian crosses. The person who showed us around was the sweetest and funniest old lady we met the entire trip. Our professor has brought over a group for twenty years and she is retiring this year, so the two ladies had tea and dessert for us. We really enjoyed meeting them.
On the weekend we were free to do as we wished, so we all piled into a car and went into North Allerton to do some shopping and be lazy. I had been trying to get a picture of me standing a field of rape because I thought the yellow blooms were so pretty, and I managed to get the picture finally on our way out. On Sunday a few of us went out to the Lake District to visit the area and see Beatrix Potter's house. It was a pleasant drive and we made lots of Pride and Prejudice quotes. (One of the girls brought the movie and we watched it almost every day.)
Dublin, Part II
I forgot to mention that I also saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College and went to St. Patrick's Cathedral for Evensong. Both were amazing. The exhibit for the Book of Kells was well done and they change out the books so you can see four different ones. It is stunning and unbelievable that they have survived for so long. At St Patrick's you can only see the inside if you go for one of their worship times, so we lucked out. The singing wasn't the best since their male choir was only seven members, but we were able to sit up front and view all the beautiful stainglass and architecture.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Ireland
I left on May 19th with many tears. T had to leave the same day as me to go to a conference for work, which was great cause I got to sit next to him in the airport till he left. I had to fly from Charlotte to Atlanta and then sit there for three hours. My friend C, who was also part of the class, got the same flight out so I had company in the airport. After a long overnight flight we took another flight to Dublin. All told I spent almost 24 hours flying. It was exhausting.
We managed to find the apartment we were staying at with little difficulty but the other two girls who came with us were not so lucky. One had a $100 taxi ride cause the guy couldn't find the place. The other spent an hour in passport control because the agent felt it was strange that she didn't know the address she was staying at. (This was after the couple in front of her told the agent they had no itinerary or hotel reservations.) The apartment belonged to an ex-boyfriend of a friend of ours who spends months at a time in Turkmenistan so he wasn't home and was happy to have someone house sit for him.
The first day we were there was a wash because we were all so jet lagged and the late arrival of the other two girls, so we only managed to see the neighborhood we were in and eat at a restaurant.
The second day we went to the Guiness factory. (I was a good sport and went along.) It was not a bad tour. It was self guided and there were interesting exhibits on each floor ranging from old timey advertising (my favorite) to how the product is made. I also liked the exhibit on how they make the casks for the beer. We walked around the city a bit. I must say I was sadly disappointed with Dublin. The city is dirty (dog poop everywhere) and there are not enough historic buildings left to give it that European feel. The modern feel made the city feel more like Krakow than an old Irish city.
The third day we went on a train ride to Blarney castle, Cork, and several spots along the way. Our tour guide was this little old Irish man who smoked like a chimney but was so sweet. The Blarney Castle was our first stop. All of us in our little group kissed the stone since we figured we would probably never get a chance like that again any time soon. The area was green and beautiful so I felt much better about coming to Ireland than I did in Dublin. After we went to the site of the Lusitania graves at this small little cemetery. We followed on to the city Queenstown (Cove or Cobh to the natives) which was the destination of the Lusitania. There was a museum that discussed the international route that was key to the Irish immigration route to America. There was also the White Star Line office and a beautiful gothic cathedral. On our way back to Dublin we ran into a little trouble because the transportation unions were holding a lightning strike for a few hours. It delayed us about three hours all told, but we got back to the apartment safe and sound.
The fourth day we split up. Two of the girls wanted to go shopping but me and another girl wanted to do more site seeing. I wanted to see the Gaol, but the other girl wanted to see this coastal town called Haught (or at least that was how the locals said it.) I didn't want to go around Dublin by myself so I went to the little town instead and I was glad I did. It was amazingly beautiful. They had cliffs covered in birds and yellow bushes, a little lighthouse, seals in the bays, old fishing ships, and great panoramic views. My classmate was especially happy to see the seals, which are her favorite animal. It was a great day and it only cost us a few euros to get there.
The next morning we got up and went to the airport to fly to England to begin our class. I was glad we went early because it did take me several days to feel human again. It was also nice because I got to know the two other girls better.
We managed to find the apartment we were staying at with little difficulty but the other two girls who came with us were not so lucky. One had a $100 taxi ride cause the guy couldn't find the place. The other spent an hour in passport control because the agent felt it was strange that she didn't know the address she was staying at. (This was after the couple in front of her told the agent they had no itinerary or hotel reservations.) The apartment belonged to an ex-boyfriend of a friend of ours who spends months at a time in Turkmenistan so he wasn't home and was happy to have someone house sit for him.
The first day we were there was a wash because we were all so jet lagged and the late arrival of the other two girls, so we only managed to see the neighborhood we were in and eat at a restaurant.
The second day we went to the Guiness factory. (I was a good sport and went along.) It was not a bad tour. It was self guided and there were interesting exhibits on each floor ranging from old timey advertising (my favorite) to how the product is made. I also liked the exhibit on how they make the casks for the beer. We walked around the city a bit. I must say I was sadly disappointed with Dublin. The city is dirty (dog poop everywhere) and there are not enough historic buildings left to give it that European feel. The modern feel made the city feel more like Krakow than an old Irish city.
The third day we went on a train ride to Blarney castle, Cork, and several spots along the way. Our tour guide was this little old Irish man who smoked like a chimney but was so sweet. The Blarney Castle was our first stop. All of us in our little group kissed the stone since we figured we would probably never get a chance like that again any time soon. The area was green and beautiful so I felt much better about coming to Ireland than I did in Dublin. After we went to the site of the Lusitania graves at this small little cemetery. We followed on to the city Queenstown (Cove or Cobh to the natives) which was the destination of the Lusitania. There was a museum that discussed the international route that was key to the Irish immigration route to America. There was also the White Star Line office and a beautiful gothic cathedral. On our way back to Dublin we ran into a little trouble because the transportation unions were holding a lightning strike for a few hours. It delayed us about three hours all told, but we got back to the apartment safe and sound.
The fourth day we split up. Two of the girls wanted to go shopping but me and another girl wanted to do more site seeing. I wanted to see the Gaol, but the other girl wanted to see this coastal town called Haught (or at least that was how the locals said it.) I didn't want to go around Dublin by myself so I went to the little town instead and I was glad I did. It was amazingly beautiful. They had cliffs covered in birds and yellow bushes, a little lighthouse, seals in the bays, old fishing ships, and great panoramic views. My classmate was especially happy to see the seals, which are her favorite animal. It was a great day and it only cost us a few euros to get there.
The next morning we got up and went to the airport to fly to England to begin our class. I was glad we went early because it did take me several days to feel human again. It was also nice because I got to know the two other girls better.
The Long Awaited England Update
I am back in the United States and have good internet access for the first time in almost two months. To prevent overload of information I will post highlights from each week, hopefully a new one each day. If all works out, I should finish the whole trip in one week.
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