Dun Aengus photos

Here are some pics from our exploring around the fortress. To see what Dun Aengus looks like from above, visit http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/HistoricSites/West/DunAonghasaGalway

Aran Islands

I need to wrap up our Ireland trip and get on to other things we've been up to! The last full day in Ireland we took a ferry trip from Galway to the Aran Islands. Again we lucked out and had great weather for the trip. It was cloudy and cool on the way over, but the sun came out while we visited and it was definitely welcomed. The Aran Islands are comprised of three separate islands, but we visited the largest island, Inishmore (in Gaelic Irish: Inis Mór) to see some of the Iron Age relics still on the island.

Irish Gaelic is the spoken language on the islands among the few inhabitants, but because of the number of tourists in the summer months, they also speak English. The islands have a unique geography, in that there is not any land for farming or raising livestock because the ground is mostly limestone. Through the centuries, the island people have moved the limestone rocks and make small stone walls with them, which has cleared out areas to build homes and have some horses or cows. But trees and plants don't really grow there, although weeds and brush have found their way between the limestone.

Upon our arrival, we rented bicycles, as they suggest it's the best way to travel on the island. We also grabbed a quick lunch at one of the few restaurants, so we wouldn't have to worry about getting hungry in the middle of nowhere! Once we were ready to venture out, we hadn't gotten far down the road and my bike tire went flat. I was wondering why the three of them were going so fast and I was struggling to keep up! Luckily, Ruairi has an Irish mobile phone on him and we called the bike company. They just drove up the road with a new bike and picked up the flat one. It only held us up for 15 minutes, so that was good.

We then headed straight away to the other side of the island, about 8 miles away. On the route, we stopped at the old stone lighthouse tower to check it out. We couldn't go in the lighthouse, but there was a small farmhouse next to it with an old bed, and cupboard and fire pit to show how the people used to live on the island.

We then rode to the pre-Christian ancient site of Dún Aengus (I'll show pics from Dún Aengus in the next post). It's a prehistoric, Bronze Age fort on the edge of a 100- meter high cliff overlooking the ocean. The fort has three enormous half circle stone walls that go right up to the edge of the cliff. We went to walk around within the walls and peer over the cliff - which was pretty scary but really cool.

On our way back to the port, we had to do the touristy thing and stop at a couple of the shops with trinkets and knitted sweaters (or jumpers as they call them in England). Aran wool sweaters are well known as the wool used retains some of the natural oils. This helps the fishermen when they get sprayed with water, the sweater repels the water and keeps the fishermen dry. We didn't buy a sweater (too itchy and spendy!), but I found a lovely wool scarf and Brian found a grey wool knitted hat.

We headed back to Galway on the ferry and Andrea and Ruairi took a little snooze. That night we just grabbed dinner at a place close to the flat, and then headed back into the main town area for the pub for one last drink together.

Brian and I headed back for England fairly early the next morning. We had to take the train from Galway to Dublin (about 2.5-3 hours), city bus from train station to Dublin airport, then fly to London (1 hour in air, but all that airport waiting time), then take the London to Oxford coach bus (about 2.5 hours) and then the city bus to our flat. So it was full day of travel, but luckily it went off without a hitch. We'd definitely say we had an awesome time in Ireland and were so grateful to spend quality time with our good friends and Ands and Ruairi as well.

More Galway pics

On to Galway

Woke up early enough to enjoy our full Irish breakfast at the B&B. Well, I did since it included many types of meat, as we all know Brian won't go near it. But he did have some eggs, toast and more Irish brown soda bread which he took a strong fancy too. Now the full Irish breakfast is basically the same as the English breakfast, which includes two eggs, bacon [which is more like Canadian bacon), sausage links (taste different too, but still good), fried mushrooms (yuck!), cooked tomatoes, beans and bread of some sort. The one thing I'm leaving out is the black or white pudding. I think the English eat this too, but it seemed more prevalent in the Irish breakfasts we had. If I haven't explained the pudding before, it's a mixture of meat (like ground sausage) some oat type stuff, seasoning and it's fried in little patties. The difference between white and black is that the black pudding contains blood! YUCK! I ate the white pudding and definitely liked it, but I was still pretty sketched out by the black pudding and just tasted like the smallest bit ever, and will never again!

So enough about breakfast. Brian and I walked into Tullamore and were on the hunt for more Irish brown bread to buy at a bakery and take to Galway with us. I was also having some allergy issues, so we were looking for eye drops to relieve itchiness. Ands and Ruairi were hanging with his fam, and we were all going to meet up in the afternoon. Brian and I just nosed around town and checked out the shops and delis and such and had fun just hanging around. We grabbed a simple lunch at one of the delis and ate in the little park. On our way back to the B&B we stopped at a local pub to have a quick pint before heading out.

We caught the midafternoon train and just in time as it started to downpour outside! Luckily we were safe in the train and Ruairi's younger sister Claire was with us to Galway as well. She actually attends university there, and has kept her apartment for the summer. So that is where we were all crashing for two nights.


We arrived with time to go walking around the city and see some sights before dinner. We visited the University of Galway campus and the shoreline where many B&Bs and vacation hotels are located. The west coast of Ireland still speaks Gaelic, almost more so than English, so all the signs and such were now in Gaelic, and not in both Gaelic and English like they are in the rest of the country.

We found a great seafood restaurant for dinner and then found a pub with some authentic Irish pub music playing. Galway is a very up and coming, happening city and has a really fun center where everyone goes out for the night for dinner, drinking and dancing. We're getting a bit old, so after the pub we headed to the flat to crash out. But Ruairi's sister Claire and her cute friends went out to the clubs!

VIsit to Tullamore, Ireland

After our quick tour of Dublin, we caught the afternoon train to Tullamore. Tullamore is a town of about 25,000 people in the middle of the country. It's where Ruairi grew up and where his parents still live. It's a beautiful and active town and has many national government offices based there as well.

Andrea and Ruairi's mom Dell, picked us up from the train station and drove us to our B&B. It was close enough to walk, but since we had luggage they were kind enough to give us a lift. It was quite warm and sunny that afternoon, and coming from England, we didn't expect the summery weather, but definitely enjoyed it.

We settled in and after a bit met up with Ands and Ruairi for a nice long walk along the canal running through Tullamore and then into the surrounding farm land. I don't know how else to explain it, but it felt like a cross between Iowa farmland and England farmland. I guess since that's all that I know! But I thought it was beautiful, and there were many cows, sheep and horses in the area farms. The animals are free to roam along the canal, so we ran into a flock of sheep who checked us out as much as we checked them out! It was a great walk and good exercise. We realized we walked for about 6 miles! It was so great to chat and catch up with Ands and Ruairi. And luckily there was a pub at the end to cool down with a cold Balmers beer! Balmers is a popular Irish cider which we really liked. It's not too strong and they serve it over ice. Yum!

Ruairi's dad picked us up from our walk and we all visited Ruairi's parents house for tea. Tea in this instance means a light dinner, and Ruairi's mom had some cold cuts and sandwich fixings, Irish brown bread, coleslaw (which is popular in England too) and a yummy rhubarb crumble for dessert. And of course tea with milk.

Brian and I were able to walk back to our B&B to clean up and then we met up with Ands and Ruairi for a night cap drink at the posh hotel in the middle of town. Our plans for the next day included some sightseeing around Tullamore, then catching the afternoon train to the west coast city of Galway.

Touring Dublin

Brian and I got up early enough on Sunday so we could spend a half day exploring Dublin. It wasn't a ton of time to really see everything, but we weren't really focused on big city touring, but rather to see the countryside and our friends. But since we flew into Dublin, we wanted to spend a bit of time at least getting an idea of what Dublin has to offer. We definitely went the tourist route though!

At DCU, breakfast was included in our room rate. So we headed to the cafeteria and there was a big buffet of full Irish breakfast food and other fruit and baked goods. So I was in heaven. We filled up there and then caught the city bus into the city center. Immediately we caught one of the open top tourist buses to loop around the city. It has a recorded tour commentary which tells us about all the sites to see. Luckily, we had great weather and it was sunny the whole day. Some sights we thought we pretty cool was the Christ Church Cathedral (see pic), St. Patrick's Cathedral (yes the St. Patrick that all Irish and many Americans celebrate on March 17) and their enormous city Phoenix Park where the Dublin Zoo is located. Fun fact: when you watch MGM movies, and you see the lion roar in the beginning, it's a lion from the Dublin Zoo. Oh, and of course the most popular site, the Guinness Brewery! Which was our second stop of our whirlwind Dublin Tour.



The Guinness Brewery has self-guided tour at their Guinness Storehouse. You don't actually get to see the real operations happening, but they have built an impressive seven-story interactive tour building with free samples, old school advertising showcases and videos and replicas of all that has gone into and currently goes into making Guinness beer. The highlight of the tour is reaching the top of the seven stories to enjoy your free pint of Guinness at the glass wall circular bar overlooking the Dublin skyline. I have always enjoyed the taste of Guinness, but find it a pretty heavy beer to drink. Brian isn't much a fan at all, but still enjoyed the tour and free pint of course!

The train station was close to the brewery, where we were catching a mid-afternoon train to Tullamore to meet up with Andrea and Ruairi.

London to Dublin

Our weekend trip to Ireland started on Saturday with a bus ride to London Gatwick airport at about noon, and then a hour and half flight delay. We were flying on one of the European budget airlines for the first time, Ryan Air, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. Besides the delay in leaving, it was a pretty decent airline for a quick trip. It's one of those no frills airlines and even drinks cost money on the plane, and checking even one piece of baggage costs extra money. But that's their point of being really cheap. Also, you don't get assigned seats, so you want to que early enough to get a seat sitting together. With only the two of us, it wasn't too big of a deal.

We arrived in Dublin later than expected, but luckily hadn't planned to meet up with Andrea and Ruairi until later the next day. We arrived to our accommodations by 9 p.m. and were staying at Dublin City University. It was a cheap way to stay in the city, and found the room to be one step up from a typical dorm room. So it basically had everything we needed including an ensuite bathroom and comfy bed. It wasn't in the city center, but we could catch the city bus close by in the morning.

Because we arrived late, we just looked for the closest food source which ended up being Chinese take out! Not quite the Irish food experience, but at least we knew what were getting in to! Then we found a corner pub and enjoy a pint or two with the locals. We were surprised to see some popular American beers on tap there - mainly Bud Light. England won't touch American beers with a ten-foot pole, let alone have them on tap. Maybe you can get a Bud heavy (regular Budweiser) in a bottle at a few pubs or even the supermarket. But so far that's all I've seen here.

Was a long day of travel to get to our destination, but it all worked out great and we were excited for time to explore and visit with our friends.

The pics here are of DCU where we stayed for our accommodations.

Trip to Ireland

Last week we took a long weekend trip to Ireland to visit with my good college friend Andrea and her Irish husband Ruairi. They live in Chicago, and I was a reader in their wedding last summer. Ruairi's family lives in Tullamore, Ireland, and Andrea and Ruairi were taking their summer holiday to visit his friends and family and attend a wedding. Brian and I figured we should pop over there since we live pretty close and take advantage of having them show us around. Overall it was a great trip and I'll blog about each day in separate entries.

Brian's new BBQ Grill

The American in us just can't stand it any longer - we had to find a BBQ grill! Charcoal grills are the preferred version here in the UK (it's the "proper" way to grill we've heard) but we still like the easy 'ol gas grill. So we found one at a decent price - mainly because it's a self assembly. But Brian liked facing a new manly project and put it together last weekend. We've already had grilled chicken almost every night since! We'll plan to have grill outs with the Swedish neighbors and some new neighbors in our building. Talk about a small world, they are American and Brian already knows the husband! He was a grad student at Oregon and had the same advisor as Brian. Graduated a few years before Brian, so they didn't cross paths then, but have met at conferences and such. And here we are all living in Oxford in the same building! So will be fun to have some American neighbors to hang out with too.

I think what I'm missing the most right now during the summer (well other than the sun since it hasn't been warm or sunny lately) is having a bit of grass or a deck or something of our own to enjoy the evenings outside. The closest park is about a 20 minute walk from here and we only have a gravel parking lot outside our flat. There is plenty of room in the parking lot to grill and set up a chair, but it's just not a nice green sunny place to hang out for grilling dinner and having a beer, or lounging outside in the sun during the day. I guess we've been spoiled by living in the midwest and in Oregon where there is plenty of green grass and trees to go around!

Gina in the hospital!

I introduced Gina a few entries ago, but a quick reminder. . . Gina is an American postdoc in Brian's office from Colorado. She arrived a few weeks after we did and I went on a fun shopping trip with her to London a few weeks ago. She had the unfortunate experience of falling off her bike on her way into work last week and ended up in the hospital with a shattered elbow! She had to spend five days in there and had surgery to repair the bone. I went and picked up some necessities for her and she had a good steady stream of visitors from Brian's lab. We've decided we better warn the next American postdoc joining their lab, since they end up visiting the hospital! (Brian stabbing himself and now Gina.) And it seems to get worse each time! :) But Gina's back home and has about 60% mobility of her arm, so she's hanging in there. She's already off to a conference in Germany and glad to have about four of the guys from the lab here going so they can carry her briefcase and papers!

Cotswold Wildlife Park

Looks like I have some catching up to do! We've been busy, busy, so I finally have time to fill you in on our latest happenings. I'll start with last Friday's trip to the Cotswold Wildlife Park. Brian didn't go, but I went with our Swedish neighbors. It was a trip put on by the newcomer's club, and tailored towards young families and little kids. But Kelly tagged along anyway! I wanted to see the animals and hopefully some new baby animals since it's spring. It was an easy trip by coach bus, less than an hour away. We had fun checking out the variety of animals surrounding the old castle in the middle of the grounds. Everyone had brought a picnic lunch (which is a very British thing) and ate together. We were off towards home again by 3ish, so it was quick but enjoyable day!