Philip and Jenny Cain: InspiredMumblings

So they tell you to take a back up pair of glasses with you for good reason!  I mean, you never think you’re glasses are going to really and truly break when you’re on vacation, do you?  I mean, you’re on vacation! Well, Phil’s did.  And nothing caused it that we know.  Just good ol’ wear and tear.  The side piece just up and snapped in two as he was putting them on.  We tried scotch taping them just for a temporary solution and it looked sooo bad!  We had to actually tape part of the lens in order to hold the side piece on hahahaha. So that didn’t work.

Our hostess’ name that day was Mary, and she was a lovely Irish women who we talked with over breakfast.  She was great fun to talk to. So colorful and animated and funny! Well, she was so nice with the whole situation.  She called her optician’s office to see if they could help us and they had a repair person on sight! So she sent us off and we had to go into Limerick but it was worth it.  The repair guy was soooooo nice!

He took a look and sadly, it was a no go on repairing it.  The side piece was made out of titanium, so no chance of saudering it.  He couldn’t unscrew it from the lens and just put on a whole new side b/c the lens was actually cracked and that is why they broke.  If he took the screw out a chunk of lens would just fall off. Phil has rimless glasses, which are a) expensive and b) more fragile and fickle but c) very nice looking for someone who has to wear glasses all the time!

Well, we said oh well, he did bring his sunglasses as a back up pair (but Phil didnt like them and so wasn’t going to really wear them, and plus, who wants to wear sunglasses inside?) And, again, who really thinks their glasses are going to break while you are oversees on holiday?  They tell you to take a copy of your prescription too.  Phil didn’t b/c he thought he’d just call if anything happened.  That’s a fine idea until you realize that it’s 2 am back home!!  And plus, new glasses over there would have cost us an arm and a leg.

Sooooo, how does the story resolve you are probably wondering.  A happy ending!  He found out we had the sunglasses and said he could lighten the lenses for us.  So we gave him the sunglasses and he set to work.  He wasn’t able to lighten the lenses…at least not quickly.  So, he all of a sudden comes out of his little office and has the sunglasses frames and in them are clear lenses.  He cut new lenses right there for the frames and somehow got the prescription from the tinted lenses!!! Yay!!!  And he wouldn’t let us give him one single penny for it.  Not one. Not even let us buy his lunch. Sweet, sweet man.

Yay! Phil has glasses again.  The lenses aren’t perfect….I’m guessing it’s probably b/c of his astigmatism in one eye and the lens isn’t fitted for that so it’s a little blurry for him in the right eye.  But, he can see and enjoy Paris, and I think he looks hot in his box-frame trendy glasses

Moral of the story: Yes, your glasses could just randomly break while you are overseas and with as much irony of situation as possible!

Hello from Paris, France!!! We arrived at 5:30 pm (8:30 am your time) and had to take a bus into Paris (1 hour ride).  Next, we walked a few minutes to the nearest metro station and took that for about 1/2 hour to our stop. Then, we walked about 5 minutes or so down the street and found our hotel.  Piece of cake!

Our hotel is very nice.  We are staying here for 5 nights which will be a nice change from changing places every night like we did in Ireland.  We are staying in the right bank of Paris (which means North of the Seine River).  It is close to attractions such as the Bastille and L’Opera Garnier, and is not terribly far from the Louvre or Arc de Triomphe via la metro.

Once we checked into our hotel, we unpacked a bit. Again, it felt nice to be able to spread our our stuff in anticipation of a longer stay, rather than trying to keep it ready to move on the next night.  We are in desperate need of doing some laundry, although we did resort to some sink washing of necessities in Ireland to get us by.  It’s a nice room, although pretty tiny….but hey, who needs a big room? Just a comfortable bed and bathroom.

I was personally starving so we set out in search of some food in the local area.  I had the inspiration of just getting some bread, cheese and wine for dinner.  Each item had to be acquired from a different shop (which I was aware of and, I thought, part of the fun!).  We first went to une boulangerie/patisserie (bakery/pastry shop) just across the street for some fresh baked baguettes.  Next, around the corner we found a little shop selling assorted beverages. I’m not sure what you call that.  But we bought a bottle of beaujolais (a light burgundy) and a bottle of water for extremely cheap and the wine is VERY tasty.  No wonder they drink so much of it here!  Finally, we found a supermarche (supermarket) where I bought some fromage (cheese), salami and macaroons (also very cheap).  We came back to hotel, asked the front deks to open our wine and tucked in.  Tear off a hunk of baguette, slap on a slice of salami, and tear off a piece of cheese to put on it and voila! an instant sandwich!  Add a sip of wine from our hotel-room-cup (ghetto!!) and yum!!!!!! An authentic French meal, in our eyes, anyway!  Here is a pic of our first meal in Paris:

Tomorrow we start the sight-seeing. We haven’t decided yet what we are going to do first.  We have 4 full days to cram as much in as possible, so we shall see! Some things from our “must see” list include the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, L’Opera Garnier, and a trip up/down the Seine River.  Well, it’s 10:12 here and I’ve got 1/4 bottle of wine left to finish before I pass out…errr, I mean fall asleep

(posted 1pm Irish Standard Time)

We started the drive around the southwestern tip of Ireland, called the Ring of Kerry. Luckily, a little beach bar had open WiFi, so we’re trying to get our most recent photos uploaded pronto.

Ireland ‘08 Flickr set
(being updated as I type)

London ‘08 Flickr set
(in case you missed it)

(Don’t forget to check out the Ireland Flickr set)

*We are sorry for the delay in blogging, but wifi is not available in all the places we are staying.

Sunday:  We woke up after the shortest night of the year (summer solstice!) to a very windy, very rainy, very cold day.  Unfortunately, this was only the start of a pattern for the rest of our trip.  We had breakfast and then it was time to check out.  I was not looking forward to what I had to do next….drive a car!! We took a taxi to the rental car place since it was miserable outside.  We did all the paper work, etc, and then were handed the keys and off we went - no practice, no time for orientation as they were anxious to move us out of the space.  Aaagggghhh!!! Driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting in the wrong side of the car, driving in a city with loads of traffic and very different traffic signals.  First lesson:  the streets signs are very hard to see on the side of buildings or nonexistent. Second lesson: the names of streets change every few blocks.  Third lesson:  a street rarely goes straight.

Add in remembering to stay in the left lane at all times, yielding on a right hand turn, and figuring out the traffic lights (you could have a green arrow for going straight but still a red light at the same time if you are turning right).  Also, add in tons of pedestrians wandering and crossing (which we were doing when we were pedestrians) and very aggressive drivers that are not patient with the foreign drivers.  I understand why they recommend tourists to NOT drive in Dublin!!

Despite the aforementioned obstacles, we figured out a route to our next destination in the city - the Guinness Storehouse!  This was a very fun place where we got to learn how they brew the world famous Guinness.  It was a self guided tour inside the storehouse (no visitors are allowed in the actual brewery) finished with a free pint of the beer itself at the end.  Very tasty! We also ate lunch there and had some roast pork with mash and gravy that was also very tasty.  We ended the trip by shopping in the gift shop, of course!

Next, we got back in the car, left our parking spot and ended up coming right back to it as it was the best place to park for our next destination!  It was our last day in Dublin and so we were trying to squeeze in as much as possible.  We went next to the historic part of Dublin next to see Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Audoen’s Church and park, Dvblinia, and City Hall.  We did not do any inside tours as we were on a tight schedule, and quite honestly, a little “toured” out.  However, we enjoyed seeing everything and snapped many pictures.

Finally, it was time to head out of the city.  This was harder than it sounds b/c of navigation obstacles.  But we made it out and onto the M1 (”M” for motorway, which is like an interstate for us).  We were heading north to a little town on the coast called Skerries.  It was still in County Dublin, but out of the city.  We definitely took some wrong turns and got a little lost.  We had to stop at this little pub off the road and get directions from some old, very Irish men drinking Guinness :P  We made it Skerries and our B & B was a farmhouse out in the beautiful countryside.  It was also very close to Ardgillan Castle.  So, before checking in, we went and wander the grounds of the castle.  It was soooooo beautiful and right off the coast!  We weren’t unable to do a tour of the inside, unfortunately, b/c it was past closing time (everything here closes at 5!!).  Still, just the outside was amazing.

Finally, we checked into our room in a very tiny little farmhouse, rested a bit and then drove into town for some dinner.  We ate at a very odd pizza place. We were Americans in Ireland, eating an Italian pizza with an American Indian theme (the place was called “The Apache” and the name of the pizza was “the Tomahawk”) and it was made by Asians.

Finally finally….we went to bed! Whew! What a long day.

Monday:

To Dublin and Beyond!

After eating a full Irish breakfast, we checked out and headed back to Dublin for just a brief period.  We went straight to the Library, which was had unfortunately missed during our stay in Dublin.  Phil really wanted to do some genealogy research. We spent a few hours there and came away with a few leads.  I’ll let Phil blog about all that if he wants.  We then had to find our way out of the city again, but south this time.  We were heading in the general direction of *Waterford.  We stopped at a pub along somewhere along the way and picked out where we were going to stay that night.  It was a lovely-looking place in County Waterford, by the city of Ardmore, which is a historic seaside village.  The place was beautiful! It was nestled into green hills facing the atlantic ocean.  We explored the ruins of St. Declan’s  church and very old, yet still active, graveyard.

Tuesday:

On to New Sights

We were tempted to stay a second night at the Newtown B & B b/c it was such a lovely place.  However, we had to push on if we wanted to see as much of Ireland as we could with our remaining time.  It was another rainy day, which has worked out ok since it was another driving day.  We went to the city of Cork and explored for a few hours until the weather drove us back to our car.  We picked out our place for tonight, which is called River Meadows.  I think the places we stay automatically get better and better!  This place is incredible as well. The view from out our window gives us mountains, trees and a very green meadow complete with cows! The drive from Cork to here was really pretty, as we took a smaller, more direct road to get here instead of the major road.  It is right off the famous Ring of Kerry driving route, which we will do tomorrow.  I hope the weather is better!  We head for Limerick tomorrow.  Sadly, we are not going to have time to explore Galway, which I personally really wanted to see.  It is just too far out of the way So sad.  But we will get to see the Cliffs of Mohar and the Aran Islands, I think!

June 21st: woke up around 9:00, went down to enjoy our first full Irish breakfast here at the hotel. It was buffet style, so no worries about getting something undesirable (like black pudding!). It was a feast! I think I ate more than Phil (what?). My sleeping schedule may have adjusted, but my eating schedule hasn’t, so I’m really, really hungry at times. We enjoyed fried eggs, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, tomatoes, croissants and scones (with jam and butter, of course!) and tea.

Next we headed out for a day of sightseeing. Our plan was to find a place to rent some bikes to give our feet a break. Problem: it was raining!!! and cold!!! Problem #2: we had no jackets! (limited packing space, something easy to buy over here) So we set off in search of something warm. We got distracted along the way looking for the Irish National Library to look up Phil’s geneology. We got distracted along that way by the Irish Museum of history. This place was free (yay!) and very interesting as it went over the history of Ireland from Pre-historic times, to Viking times to Medieval times and beyond. Very cool. We didn’t find the library until later and by then it was closed, so we’ve adjusted our plans slightly to be able to come back to it Monday morning.

Next, we ended up buying tourist sweatshirts for ourselves. Mine is pretty discreet, but they didn’t have the one I bought in Phil’s size. Actually, they had hardly any in Phil’s size. All of the ones he liked were not in his size. So he ended up with one that will be nice to wear back in the states, but for now it points him out as an obvious tourist. Oh well - it’s warm, right? It’s green, although it’s not a bright, obnoxious green, that says “Ireland” on it. Hehe. Mine is blue with a little “Dublin” in the corner. However, they kept us toasty warm for the rest of the day, so yay for that since it rained ALL DAY LONG! We found these in the shopping part of town so we spent most of the day wandering this district. We also ate at a tasty little pub called “The Duke”. For lunch I had Irish stew (soooo good!) and Phil had a gammon sandwich (ham , cheese and butter sandwich on white bread - also very good!). I enjoyed a Carlsberg lager along with it. After that we wandered into St. Stephen’s Green (a park in the centre of town) which was beautiful! Next, we went into a shopping mall called St. Stephen Green Shopping Centre and wandered around that for quite some time b/c it was warm and dry! We also enjoyed an ice cream cone. Finally, we were ready to head back to the hotel and rest our aching feet. We will probably just eat dinner here in the hotel tonight since prices are comparable or even cheaper. There is some live piano jazz music at the pub on the corner that I would like to go listen to while drinking some Guinness.

Tomorrow is up in the air as we are trying to stay on another day in this hotel (not originally planned). So we will see what tomorrow brings. There are some priorities, like the Guinness Storehouse, since we didn’t end up seeing it today. Also, Christ’s Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and the Jameson Distillery are on the “must” list also. Stay tuned….

This is an ode to my beer buddies: So much good beer (and whiskey!), so few to enjoy it with….sigh. I miss you, beer-drinking friends of mine!

We’ve had fun noticing the differences in language and culture. Here is a list of things we’ve noticed so far, and we’ll continually update it when we find something new!

1. Instead of saying “exit” they say “way out”
2. The subway is called the Underground, the Tube or the Subway
3. Street signs are posted on building corners, not on poles
4. Fries are called “chips”
5. Restrooms are called “toilets” (on signs)
6. Chicken fingers are really little strips of fried chicken
7. Bacon isn’t in strips - it’s in big ol’ slabs (which is awesome!)
8. Black pudding (if you don’t know what that is….click the link)
9. Theaters are called cinemas
10. Vacation is called a holiday
11. TV is called the “telly”
12. The check for your food is called a bill
13. You don’t tip at most restaraunts /pubs…we came across a few that you do but even then it’s only like 12%)
14. When walking down a two-way sidewalk you walk on the left, not the right (like how they drive here) However, on escalators or stairs you are asked the stand to the right to let people pass, which is like what we are used to.
15. The U.K. airport only allows you ONE bag total through security, that has size and weight restrictions.
16. We’ve had to pay a few times to use public toilets
17. There are no Walgreens. However, in London the popular chain seemed to be “Boots”. We’ve seen no chain pharmacy in Dublin.
18. There ARE Starbucks all over (not quite as much as in America though)
19. Ham is called “gammon”
20. Butter is put on sandwiches in place of mayonnaise (and it’s very tasty!)
21. It’s standard to put butter and jam on your already-high-fat croissant (so tasty though!)

update
22. Street signs in Irish cities - there are very few or none at all!!!!!!!
23. We’ve stayed in four different places so far and none have had clocks in the room
24. At the B & B we stayed at last night the sink had the hot and cold taps come out of different faucets so that there was no way to get warm water - just cold or very hot
25. You’ll get a yellow light before the light turns green in addition to before it turns red
26. Light switches are pressed down to turn on and up to turn off (backwards!)
27. (Phil’s input) an EEE PC costs 320 euros where as it cost $299 in the US
28. Update about food: it is all about the same price no matter whether restaraunt, fast food or pub and it is really quite reasonable in euros but very expensive in US dollars. I won’t even tell you how much we paid for McDonald’s today…..

Some random other cool things we’ve found:
1. Our key card for our hotel room here in Dublin is neat! You just wave it in front of the light on the handle and it unlocks. And the card just looks like a blank, white card.
2. Our room comes with a water boiler for tea instead of a coffee maker, along with a tea cup, saucer, cream, sugar and a stirring spoon
3. Carlsberg lager is a very tasty beer
3. Most pubs stopped serving food at 8 pm or sooner (not so cool, actually very sad )
4. London and Dublin are both VERY international - so many people from all over the world all the time!!

Well, here we are in Dublin, Ireland! Here is a recap of the past few days - sorry for the gap…wifi is impossible to come by for free, sigh. Here is the recap from the past few days:

June 19th: We slept in until noon! Our bodies were still adjusting to the time change, not to mention completely worn out from all the walking the previous day. We got up, hit a local pub for lunch (steak and onion sandwich and a BLT, along with hot apple pie and warm chocolate pudding for dessert) and headed out for museums (which were free!!!!!!). We got on the tube like pros and got off at South Kensington Station. Oh yeah, over here the exit signs say “way out” instead. We first went to the Natural History Museum where we saw an impressive dinosaur display. That was the most impressive. The rest were just mammals and rocks, etc. The building was beautiful, though! Next we walked down the street to the Science Museum. We only wandered in the space section (saw some old, huge mega - computers!) After we were kicked out of the museum (it was closing time, haha!) we hopped back on the tube to Sloane Square for some shopping. This was a fancy shopping district with very high end stores that were way out of our price range, but fun to wander and people watch nonetheless. Next, we hopped the tube once more to go see Buckingham Palace. We saw it, although there were none of those crazy looking guards outside (there were guards, but dressed in regular clothes - bummer!). St. James’s park (and yes, the apostrophe “s” is supposed to be that way) is right next to the palace and very beautiful, so we couldn’t resist a stroll through it. There is a lake in the middle which offers some stunning photo opportunities. By now it was starting to get well into the evening. Another weird thing here is that it stays light really late. It’s 11:00pm right now and it is still in the twilight phase of the sunset here. Crazy!!! So we found a pub right next to the tube station and ordered some food and ale. I have to say it was the best food so far for me. I ordered a steak and potoato pie with mash and peas. It was delicious!! Whoever says that English food is bland doesn’t have tastebuds. I also ordered some authentic English Ale called Red Speckled Hen. Funny name, eh? Finally, rode the subway back to Earls court, and went to the internet cafe to print off documents needed for today’s traveling. Went back to the hotel for a much needed night of sleep. Whew!

June 20th (today) Ugh. I won’t even get into our unpleasantries we experienced today. All I can say is avoid any U.K. airport at all costs!!!!! It wasn’t horrible, but it made for a very long day. Once we got to Ireland, all was fine. We rode a bus to our hotel, which is very nice. Showered, bought some wifi access (yes, had to pay!) and set off to find food. That was tougher than it seems, as most of the pubs stop serving food at 8 pm. Again, that throws us off b/c it seems like it is 5 pm b/c it is so sunny and light outside for so late! So we walked a couple of miles checking here and there and finally ended up at….TGI Friday’s. I know, I know! But it was that or Burger King, seriously! We’ll hit the pubs tomorrow for lunch And the prices here are crazy. We thought London was bad, but here it is even worse. Let’s just say a burger costs about $20!!!!! Hopefully, prices will lessen as we hit smaller towns. So far, Dublin doesn’t feel very “Irish” and it’s a lot dirtier than London (which was very clean!!). The people are friendly enough, although we are hit up every block by homeless beggars. We are here in Dublin for another night and then we pick up our rental car. Tomorrow we hope to be able to rent some bikes so we can give our feet a break. I really want to go to the Guinness Storehouse (the brewery isn’t open to the public), the Jameson Distillery, and who knows what else. Just explore the city, I guess.

We’ve uploaded more pics, so keep checking our flickr!

June 17th: We arrived here in the U.K. on the about 9 am (on the 17th) London time. I managed to get a few very uncomfortable hours of sleep on the plane. Phil was able to get none at all! We made it through landing, customs and riding the tube in a sleepy stupor, but still managed to enjoy the pretty, green scenery that passed by. After about a 45 minute ride to our stop - Earl’s Court Station - we got off and wandered the local streets for a few hours. First priority? Finding me a bag with wheels!!!!! My duffle bag was VERY uncomfortable to tote around. Second? EAT! (airplane food just doesn’t cut it!) Third? Enjoy the town. Fourth? Find our hotel once it was late enough to check in. Fifth? SLEEP (and shower!!)

You can view our photos on our flickr site in the London set

June 18th: After some very refreshing sleep (we slept most of the night) on full bellies from this amazing Itailian place. we were ready to face some major sightseeing…after a full English breakfast, of course! We went back to the little pub down the street that we ate lunch at the day before and ordered breakfast and tea (which was delicious!). Then….we hit the tube for an all day pass and headed to Westminster!

In Westminister, we saw such wondrous sights such as the river Thames, Big Ben, Parliament, St. Margarets Church, and Westminster Abbey. We bought tickets into Westminster for a steep price ($25 each!!!) but it was well worth it! It was a multiple hour dive into the rich past history of England. We saw tombs, sculptures, paintings and architecture dating back from Medieval times. We saw the tombs of previous Kings and Queens (Edward III, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, etc) All this was viewed with the help of a personal audio guide device, narrated by Jeremy Irons. Several hours and 4 aching feet later, we emerged into the sunlight. We scoped out any remaining picturesque spots and then jumped back on the tube.

Our next destination was Tower Hill, where resides the Tower of London. Here we were again greeted by spectacular sights and photo opportunities. We did not do the tour of the Tower of London, as it cost $70!!!!! So we contented ourselves to enjoy it from the outside. We ate lunch by the Thames, chomping on a delicious cheese and sausage sandwich from this little French bakery stand. We had a spectacular view of the Tower Bridge from where we were sitting and could not resist a walk across it, despite our weary feet. So off we trekked and actually did the unguided tour where we were free to roam the upper walkways and the steam engine room, and learn the history through some very cheezy videos. The view was amazing from so far up and it was nice to get out of the wind and cold for a bit.

As we came out we were distracted by an alley way of shops that reminded us of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. So we explored that for a bit and then began the walk back across the bridge to the tube station. We were very glad to rest our feet for awhile. We came straight back to the hotel and collapsed into bed around 7 pm, London time. It’s now 3:19 am and I’m up blogging, trying to lull myself back to sleep!

Day 1: showering, replacing sprinkler heads last minute, trimming Phil’s hair. We are all packed and ready to go! And yes, we managed to pack all our schtuff in one carry on each. Our flight leaves at 10:55 am to Dallas/Ft. Worth….leaves for London somewhere around 5 ish.