Hey, Europe!

Phew! The past couple of weeks have been busy, and not just because the end of term is coming up (though that doesn't help). Jon and I have been bouncing around Europe visiting Scotland, Spain, and France!

Scotland was great because we were able to catch up with some Cobleskill friends, and hang out with them for the weekend. Then on Sunday before we flew back to Dublin, we spent the day in Edinburgh. After enjoying Scotland for a couple of days, I cannot wait to go back.

Pictured here from the top left, is my friend Jess, who we were visiting; me and Jon on top of Hailes Castle; and a shot of Hailes Castle. The castle was right down the hill from where we were staying - on a farm. 

The crest at Edinburgh Castle, Jon and I at Edinburgh Castle looking over the city, Edinburgh Castle, and the world's best bagpiper (because it can't actually play- hah!) and Jon.

Spain was phenomenal. We really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere here. We toured around the city, visited another castle, rode in a cable car, and enjoyed a very sunny day at the beach.

We picked up my brother Logan in Barcelona, and the three of us made our way to Paris. We took a bicycle tour around the city and got to see some of the incredible sights. We also enjoyed a delicious crepe for lunch. Logan and I stayed in Versailles, and were able to see the Palace of Versailles (bottom left picture).

Logan and I flew back to Dublin after a slightly disappointing time in France. We were supposed to visit Normandy, but with the Easter holiday, the tour company's wires got crossed and gave us the wrong info. Long story short, we didn't go to Normandy :(. While in Ireland, I took Logan up to Northern Ireland for a day trip to the Giant's Causeway, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and Belfast. We had gorgeous weather for a day on the northern coast.

I had a ton of fun adventuring around with my not-so-little brother. Hopefully we'll get to do it again in the future. Can't believe that boy graduates from high school in June. Man, I'm getting old.

Ducks across Ireland

While we were home for the holidays a retired racing duck found its way into our luggage bound for Dublin. The duck, a former member of the Oswegatchie Adironduck fleet, used to spend its days swimming down the West Branch of the Oswegatchie River. Now, the duck is making its way around the Emerald Isle.

Last week while my parents were visiting, the duck got a grand tour around Ireland.

From the top left: the duck with the infamous Molly Malone, who in addition to delivering cockles and mussels, enjoyed a trollop with the scallops; Me, a leprechaun, and the duck; the duck and it's handsome Irish duck friend; and, my dad and the duck having a blast at Bunratty Castle.

From the top left: the duck enjoying the local libations at the Old Jameson Distillery; the duck along the coast in Northern Ireland; me and the duck at the Cliffs of Moher; and, the duck at the Giants Causeway.

Stay tuned for more quack-tastic adventures of me and the duck. If you're interested in adopting a retired racing duck of your own, give Oswegatchie Education Center a shout. All money raised goes to a great cause - sending kids to summer camp!

Oh yeah, we saw Ireland

Last week mom, dad, and I were able to drink in the gorgeous Irish countryside. We toured the west of Ireland, visiting the Cliffs of Moher, Doolen, The Burren, Connemara, Kylemore Abbey, and Galway. We also were able to head north to check out Belfast, Carrick-a-Rede, the Giants Causeway, and other beautiful spots along the northern coast.

Images from top going clockwise-ish: Cliffs of Moher; me and dad crossing the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge: Dad, mom and me at Carrick-a-Rede; Mom and dad at The Burren; and the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.

All of these images are from the Giants Causeway up in Northern Ireland. 

We had a fantastic time seeing everything, but I think the highlight, for me, was the northern tour of Carrick-a-Rede and the Giants Causeway. These are truly beautiful, well respected places - something that's hard to come by these days. And, I can't wait to go back (I think I'll take my brother north when he visits in April).

Flat Stanley Does Connemara, part 2

Our intrepid travelling friend, Flat Stanley, continues. This time, the three of us headed to the west of Ireland to check out Connemara.

Flat Stanley and his new pal the retired racing duck from Oswegatchie Education Center. Stay tuned for more duck shenanigans.

Flat Stanley chillaxing at an old friary.

Us at Kylemore Abbey. It poured the entire day, so Stanley spent a lot of time couped up in my purse. You have to play it safe when one of your travel companions is paper, and could literally fall apart in the rain.

Us at the Quite Man museum in Cong. This area is where the movie was filmed.

Our Irish Cottage

We moved into a new home last weekend! This sweet little cottage is our home sweet home for the next year.

It's not that we didn't like our old studio apartment, but our bed served as a dining room table, desk, and couch, and that got kind of old pretty quickly. Our new cottage has a bit more space - two bedrooms, a nice kitchen, and a cozy living room.

More pictures will be posted when we've settled in and unpacked. For now enjoy the outside of our little Irish cottage.

Flat Stanley Does Dublin: Part 1

I visited my mom's preschool while I was home in Lowville over the holidays, and her class had been learning about Flat Stanley, a beloved children's book character. They asked if there was enough room in my luggage for him to fly back to Dublin with me. Naturally, Stanley being nice and flat and accommodating, he fit perfectly into my suitcase.

Since Stanley has been in Dublin, we have been quite busy. Follow along as Jon and I show our flat friend around our fair city.

 

Flat Stanley is excited for his journey to Ireland!

 

Flat Stanley visited Jon at work - The Bald Barista. He makes delicious coffee!

 He got to ride on a double-decker bus around Dublin.

 

Flat Stanley visited Gammell's Bakery, where he and I enjoyed tea and Cornish Pasty.

 

We cruised around the city on my bike. Flat Stanley had to hang on tight in my basket because it was so windy!

  

The Temple Bar Cultural Trust had a Chinese New Year celebration.
We decided to check it out. There was a dancing dragon and people playing these cool drums. It was pretty awesome.

Gardens in December, why not?

The arctic weather has descended upon Dublin, though sadly, there hasn't been snow. Well, I take that back, there was a dusting the other morning, not enough to say so, but just enough to throw every single Irish person in this city into a tizzy. Ah, good times.

 This was the only snow we witnessed, just a dusting on the roof out back.

Jon had a couple of days off, and even though I was feeling dreadfully under the weather, we decided to get out of our tiny flat and go on an adventure to the National Botanic Gardens. We hopped on a bus and headed up to the north side for what seems like forever (I swear a trip to the north side seems to be at least an hour long... what is up with that?) and ended up in Glasnevan. Luckily, like many other museums, the Botanical Gardens are free! Because we were a bit drowsy from the bus ride, we, in true Irish fashion, had some tea and gingerbread cookies, before we even began to wander the gardens.

 Because the weather was quite wintery, we decided to stick to exploring the greenhouses. It was just what the doctor ordered. There was one that was full of beautiful red poinsettias - perfect for this time of year. The others were full of plants from all over the world. It was really quite beautiful and warm, pleasantly warm.

I was a little more than excited to be in a warm, slightly tropical climate, even if it was only for a few hours. :)

Jon managed to find bamboo, again...

There was a really lovely rock garden, with this cool waterfall and tree covered walk way.

 Pretty trees among the rock garden, with two pretty/handsome people.

Pasties in the park

After Jon and I wandered around Dublin finishing up nearly all of our Christmas shopping, we decided to celebrate with pasties in St. Stephen's Green park. It's a nice little place to escape in this city.

Now, you may think that pasties (a pastry filled with stew-like things and other types of goodness) are the only thing Jon and I eat, but alas, they are not. These pasties were good, I opted for the cheese and broccoli one, while Jon went for the traditional Cornish pasty, but they are no Gammell's Cornish pasty. Gammell's is this awesome little bakery just down the road in Ranelagh and their pasties are killer.

The park was looking mighty fine today on this crisp, nearly winter-ish day. Don't let the sunny photos kid you, it was chilly, but pretty.

Grassy spaces.

Pretty fountains.

Obligatory lake with random swans and ducks.

Beachy keen

After one of our professors decided to cancel class at the last minute, myself, Jillian (the other American), and Dag of Ethiopia, decided to get off campus and explore. So we hopped on the first bus off campus and ended up at the beach, on December 1. Oh yeah!

The tide was out so we were able to walk out quite far.

 

 It was a lovely day at the beach, despite it being December.
We collected sea shells by the sea shore.

 

Jillian, me and Dag.

  

And, yes, for those of you who forgot that Ireland is a lovely tropical location, they've got palm trees here. Who'da thunk it?!

It really was one of the best days I've had here on the Emerald Isle in my nearly four months here.

My Irish Thanksgiving

My friend Jillian (she's in my program and the only other American in our class) and I wanted to cook up a Thanksgiving feast. We cooked up our vegan feast at Seomra Spraoi, a social center on the north side of the city, where a few of our classmates joined us and nearly 30 enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Sadly because I was busy in the kitchen I managed only a couple of photos.

We made homemade cranberry sauce, a vat of mashed potatoes, tasty mushroom gravy, lentil veggie loaf- or as we called it Thanksgiving loaf, and stuffing. To top it off we baked up mini pumpkin pies from fresh pumpkin! It was a lovely and made being away from friends and family back in the states a little bit better.

I did get to visit the family via Skype (thank god for technology) and chatted with the houseful of my family, which was pretty cool.

Hope your holiday was full of thanks, love, family and friends, oh, and plenty of good food!

DIY Weekend

Jon and I spent the weekend meeting some new and wonderful people thanks to the DIY Skillshare event! It was really lovely. I mean, it was nice to talk with someone other than Jon, and it was nice to get outside and enjoy this fall-ish weather. Kudos to the folks who put this shin dig together. And, major kudos to the chefs for keeping everyone well fed!

We constructed a compost bin out of materials we found in the skip (aka garbage. Words are fun here!)

The finished product!

People rode really awesome bikes. The bike guys also juggled random things all weekend, in addition to helping people fix up their bikes. It was fun.

We made wreaths out of scavenged greenery. It's pretty amazing what a city can offer. Jillian made hers out of really poky greenery.

 My wreath is made of different types of ivy and is hanging proudly in our flat over the couch.

We're a no car family! Yeah, we're one of those families....

This isn't necessarily news anymore, but I think it's worth sharing. Before moving to Ireland I sold my beloved "Suzie," my trusty Subaru Outback. It was a sad day for me, but I knew she was going to a good home This is her hiding under a crap ton of snow.

 When we arrived in Ireland, our first order of business was to score some sweet bikes, since that and public transportation would be our wheels. Easy peasy.

This is my sweet ride Loretta. 

Jon didn't have luck selling his beloved Jeep aka Rubin before we left, so the Jeep camped out with the uncle for a couple months in hopes of finding a new home. 

Here's Rubin all gussied up at the wedding.

Well, luck be a lady tonight! Rubin has been sold and is now living in Queens with a new family. This means The Downes' are a no car family. Pretty freaking awesome if you ask me. Yeah, yeah, we know, we won't have a car when/if we come home... How will we survive? Well, right now we're managing quite well in a foreign country without a vehicle. And, I can honestly say I haven't missed having a car once since I've been here (traffic is insaneo, and petrol is 1.49 euros a liter). Ok, maybe yesterday it would have been handy to have a car, but still, that's one day in the past two months.

So, for now, we're going to continue cycling around this city and totally own being a no car family.

Umbrellas: the most dangerous invention ever

Yeah, so the Irish weather is a fickle beast. We can literally have four seasons in one day. Take today for example: this morning it was lovely, a bit overcast, but in the mid 50s. Not more than two hours later there were gale force winds and torrential downpours... this bit lasted for most of the day. I was hoping it would let up so I wouldn't get soaked walking to the bus stop on campus, but I was sooo wrong. (I knew I shold have worn my Wellies). The skies opened up and poured out everything they had, the entire way home.

To add salt to a very soggy wound, the walk home to the flat from the bus stop got even worse. Yup, worse than wet jeans and a soaked through raincoat...

Almost immediately after getting off the bus, I was jabbed in the abdomen by a man wielding a giant golf umbrella. He was struggling to open it, not paying attention to where he was walking, and jabbed me. Super. This is extra awful, because as some of you may know, getting my eye poked out by an umbrella is one of my craziest fears. Well, since living in Ireland, I no longer think it's that crazy of a fear.

I got splashed/soaked by three different vehicles, because properly built drainage systems in Ireland don't seem to exist, so roads always flood. AND, as I was crossing the road, I nearly got run over. Most of the cars here are standard, so there's a bit of a roll-back before they go forward, well I thought I had taken that into account when crossing the street. Apparently not. The driver let it roll back a lot, and bumped me. WITH HIS CAR! It scared the BAJEESUS right out of me. At this point, I was no more than 5 minutes from home and was completely drenched and looked like a drowned rat. That is one hell of a way to end what I thought was going to be a good day. Note: I measure good days by whether or not I catch the express bus to campus in the morning.

The day did turn around, I got to Skype with my lovely sister-friend and nephew(ish) for nearly an hour today and the husband took me out for a killer burger. Life is soggy, yet grand.

Let's do this!

Since we've been delinquent for a year on this space,  I figured an adventure in Ireland is a good time to resurrect this business. So here it is: Jon and I are cooking, crocheting and studying our way across this lovely country. We will try to be much more diligent about updating the blog, and keep you all apprised of our crazy adventures....