Long overdue...

Weekend adventures

Friday morning, there was some sunshine so I got to it with the patio weeds for a bit, and then Beryl and I spent a bit of time babysitting the new goat, Liam, who really has some dependency issues. Then it was suddenly noon and Michael, the New Yorker couchsurfer, was in Ballina to pick me up for a drive north and an adventurous weekend. (This was all arranged rather at the last minute, but turned out. It should not surprise you much by now, I guess.) We drove rather quickly north, as though we had a pressing need to be someplace, and stopped for just long enough in the town of Donegal to grab a traditional marzipan and fruit cake layered easter cake at a little bakery and have a look at the shi-shi hotel. In fairness, we were meeting another Dublin-based couchsurfer in Derry that evening, and we got there in just about perfect time. From there up to Carndonaugh where we met up with our host, Ed, and his 4 housemates and a whole pile of other folks who were already beginning to assemble for a Good Friday party at about 7pm. (The Good Friday party is a distinctly Irish sort of phenomenon... Good Friday being one of the two days in the year during which one may not purchase alcohol in the Republic of Ireland, folks stock up and have private house parties and get especially wasted, just to make a point.)

This was all in good fun, though, and the party was silly – reminding me very much of KAOS parties back in NZ. Different, to be sure, but similar. The music was largely from the 80's – like all the popular fashion here, oi! - and I only got in a couple decent dances, but it was fun to hang back and watch the party unfold, with many impromptu performances by the household and guests. Lots of conversation, too. Finally exhausted to bed around 4am... to get up again at 7, being out-of-sorts with the traveling vibe and planning to clean up a bit before heading out to explore the Inishowen peninsula.

And what a peninsula! It was gorgeous :) I am eager to return to Co. Donegal to hike away a summer. Beautiful coastal vistas and hills and tucked-away enchanting little landscapes. We drove all day around to various points and heads. The company helped me to develop a deeper appreciation for my own good traveling friends, my companions for the weekend being... fine enough as folks, but, well I actually don't want to go into it, but I did struggle, in moments, to enjoy this amazing journey – sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get something else entirely. I considered other options, but decided to stick it out and I think it turned out fine in the end, providing me a relatively comfortable and flexible opportunity to see a lot of Ireland and yet another handful of lessons about “myself and others”. Which sounds like a good title for a sitcom.

12 April - ish
So... while away from the net I failed to keep a very good daily record... so you'll be getting a condensed version of the last week or so.

From Belfast, where I stayed with Natalie, a lovely Australian girl who took me jogging with her and took extra time out of her free day to show me and several other couchsurfers (including a crew of French boys fresh off the bus from Dublin) around to the murals and notable neighborhoods of Belfast. It was excellent – a drink in the Crown Bar was definitely worth it, just to spend a few minutes inside, looking around. I had difficulties getting in touch with Isa, and at the last minute finally did – and was able to catch the last evening bus to Enniskillen, after trying to catch the one before and getting myself fully lost in Belfast city center, working my way out eventually, with a lot of unhelpful stops to request directions. Anyway – the bus ride was fine, and Isa picked me up at the station to bring me out to the countryside near Blacklion, which is not even on the map. Nevertheless, it is gorgeous out here. Monday night and I find myself on a little smallholding in County Cavan – the home of Isa, her boyfriend Andy, and her 3 kids; Siog, Oisin and Siaorse. And the goats, chickens, horses, cats, dogs.... etc. The weather was lovely all last weekend for traveling, and this week it will be touch and go, as it is, clear one day, rain the next.

We went to Sligo Tuesday for a day in town – errands and such. WWOOF work here has involved sawing wood, gathering ivy and willow, doing the chicken rounds, tending the goats a bit, an odd handful of gardening – weeding, always, planting potatoes and onions now - and washing a lot of dishes. It's a good mix. Isa has shared her art with me – which has been inspiring – and a lot of philosophy about life and fairies... some knowledge about herbs, and she has done several tarot readings for me. Which has all been interesting at least. I discovered tansy here, it is a highly aromatic herb meant to keep flies away. I like it plenty. Also, I discovered that gorse flowers smell something like coconut and vanilla, but taste rather like cucumber.

And ah the glorious sunny days of the weekend, complete with trips out and around the countryside to see the wells, the ancient sweat lodge and graveyard... the forest park, the lakes, the charming local pub(s). Saturday was a party for Siog's 10th birthday – so we went out to Boyle Forest Park (Lough key) for a little party. Picnic in the park and a walk while the kids went into the activity center whwere they have obstacle puzzles set up. Looked like fun. It was good to interact with some other adults... I felt inspired and sociable... this week I had been feeling reserved and quiet and wondering a little what happened between the motivation to come do this thing and being here, in a perpetually subdued condition. I know I am getting something out of all this, but 'what' is not always apparent from day to day. I haven't been swimming since DC. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Following Tuesday morning, up early (god, I never got enough sleep this week and was seriously collapsing by the time I got to bed each night) and off to Sligo to catch the bus to Ballina. On the way: kids to school, eggs to Bee and the cat to the vet to have the metal pin removed from his leg (he is recovering from a forklift accident.) Drowsy on the bus but couldn't stand to miss the view under the extraordinary sunlight today, so kept awake and trekked it from the Sligo road back down to Beryl's – where her taxi met me along the road just as I was about ready for a rest- perfect timing. Straight into the garden with us. So satisfying to be working outside in this weather!

The weather, oh god the weather! Ballina is so much more pleasant under this light.

Feeling that old motivation come 'round to tug me along to be more productive, in some abstract way I never have quite defined.

22 April
Last minute and I hear from Dawn (the French one) in Ballina about a trip to Galway for a couchsurfing meetup at Quay's Pub. It was a quick turnaround, less than 24 hours really at Beryl's, and I thought about staying just to have enough time to get some work done in return for her hospitality, but she encouraged me to go, and I really thought it would be a good chance to see this other bit of the island. It turned out to be an excellent night!
Dawn drove, and we had good conversation and new countryside to view the whole afternoon. (She had to wait for me a bit because there was this little washing fiasco... I tried to plan for enough time for everything to line dry – but I was surprised when the wash took 3 hours... something funny about these little front-loader machines. Then it began to cloud over and rain a bit, so I was draping things over radiators and still packed it damp. Argh. These little details of life get exhausting. But I guess we can get used to anything, given enough time and resolution.)
We had dinner at Fat Freddie's – where I had a really nice salad – with her friend Marie, also from France, with a much more Irish sounding accent, and with whom we would stay for the night. Then next door to the pub to meet up with about a dozen other folks. A lovely time, complete with live music – lots of rock covers, but played quite well. Chair dancing ensued. I have been desperate to hear 'Float On' for days and frustrated I did not bring it with me - and they played it, all unexpectedly. That was a standing dance.
I left the evening with a tourist guide for the Czech Republic, and I'm thinking 'go with the flow (?)'.... It was an unexpected and welcome gift.

23 April
On a train leaving Galway for Dublin and no plan for what I will do for the night because I never did get in touch with my friends there about this quick trip through, carrying everything with me and hoping to leave most of it with someone in Dublin rather than take it all to Norway, which costs a load via RyanAir, and which would also be generally a burden.
Galway is a lovely, interesting city that I bet would suit me, for a while at least. Wish I had more time to spend, but at least the weather obliged with sun and comfort for walking about today.
I'm glad I wound up, by luck alone, with a seat at a table on this train; it is packed. I found out that I could have had a bus for 5Euro, and the train was 15... point being: it is nice to see cheap public transit options. (There are 3 teenage girls sitting in this vicinity, all 80's get-up, making quite a fuss of putting on their makeup between invections of gossip.)
So, with all this unexpected time away from the net and running about, I failed to plan my trip to Norway via Dublin tonight and I am very last-minute frantically trying to piece it together. But suddenly got a text from a friend of a friend of Ellen Marie who will take me in for the night :) I could always grab a hostel, but it is so much more satisfying to spend the evening weaving the network, one degree or six at a time. Ah, if it keeps always coming together so nicely, what will ever encourage me to plan things better?
On this trip, the landscape is relatively flat... different – another glad opportunity with a new vista. (Athlone looks like a cute little place worth checking out. At least from the train it does.)
Ah... getting attacked by the train sleepies now, and suddenly it is a different world. So interesting, how quickly we can seem to leave one thing behind... whether or not it is truly left behind is another psychological endeavor entirely. And these are the sorts of musings you get from a drowsy Laura.
In Dublin, exercise for my shoulders, walk in the drizzle a few km, trail a tipsy crowd of women who are walking too slow for my taste, but not slow enough to justify passing on the narrow path with this wide load – they turn out to be all visiting together from Norway, and are delighted when I mention I am going tomorrow, stop in to Avoca for a scone, then to Trinity College to meet Jess (in a master's program in literature), Rachel (EM's friend from undergrad), and a number of their friends for dinner at Mona Lisa (not recommended, though they were accommodating to our requests and the gigantic backpack I dragged in) before heading out to Jess' student apartment to crash.

Friday 24 April
Whew! Morning meant packing down in to a tiny backpack I could carry-on so as to avoid the RyanAir 30 Euro checked-bag fee, (almost got stuck with a 20Euro fee because I was 5 minutes late for the online check-in, but somehow by a twist of fate at the airport, I escaped that one, and was almost stopped at the gate because I actually had a small bag strapped to the outside of me backpack, but the guy was obviously stressed and could not hold up the line to fuss with me and my little bag), bus to City Center from jess's place, another bus to the airport form there, and I was finally in the air. Made it to Oslo... after finding myself in a tiny airport in Torp through which it took ages to get though passport control lines and then find some cash to be on my way by bus to Oslo. Chatted with a lovely woman on the bus the whole way – 90 minutes or so – and Ellen Marie was waiting patiently for me at the station. Late night by then, and a full day.


Saturday 25 April
EM's brother invited us out to Drammen, about 25 minutes on the train from Oslo center, to visit with him and his son and daughter while the son was taking part in the St. George's Day festivities for scouts... and we all got to participate! They had scores of booths and activities set up for the scouts to hone their skills – I sampled coffee and lefse and campfire-cooked popcorn and bread. (Some of these ideas were excellent! Like the bread dough wrapped on a stick and cooked over coals. Seriously.)
Home, exhausted, in the afternoon (after a stop to get contact lens solution, which I managed to spend $18 on – maybe should have paid RyanAir that 30Euro to check a bag after all and brought illicit eye-hygiene supplies for resale... phew) and green veggie curry for dinner. We were invited to a birthday party for a friend of EM and we were late, but it was going strong the whole time. Delicious carrot cake and fruit-muffiny cupcakes. And weird little smoke-flavor orange-colored pasta-shaped crisps. And lots of people talking in Norwegian... unless they wanted to include me in the conversation, which was often enough. No dancing though. :(

Sunday 26 April
Supposedly there was a big cultural festival at the roof of the new opera house in Oslo, so we went down to check it out, but it turned out that there was only a remainder of the festival that was on yesterday. But we did get to sit in on a rehearsal happening on a ship which involved a female British conductor, an orchestra of mid-age Norwegians and a battery of teenage mixed-ethnicity drummers. It was pretty good stuff. Outside the rehearsal area, we had some damn good fried spring rolls while we listened to the DJ's choice of reggae.
Walked out and around the old city fortress, around into city center where we treated ourselves to ice cream, then found our way home in time for dinner – salad and rice porridge. Yum. Watched a little documentary about an American woman who came from a wealthy East coast family and settled in a remote area in Norway to homestead and learn traditional crafts and generally be self-sufficient. Took it easy in the evening, early to bed with work looming tomorrow. I finally began to catch up on... everything, but slowly.

Monday 27 April
After getting up to have cappuccino with EM, she went off to work and I got to it with my application for the Christine Mirzayan Science Policy Fellowship with the National Academies of Science. I struggled with that all day until it was time to make a bite of dinner before EM came home – then we took the train about 25 minutes out to the end of the line and were in the mountains, forest, compelte with ski and hiking trails with a fair bit of snow still on the ground. We started walking around 7 pom and it was nice that the twilight lingered until about 10:30 because we needed every last bit of it to get to the end of our trail, where we just missed the waiting train by half an arm's length.. But the next came after 30 minutes and we arrived home pleasantly exhausted.

Tuesday 28 April
EM likes to make cappuccino in the morning and I don't mind the little ritual myself. Still struggling with the sleepies... but I am glad to be up in the morning – I need to get to bed a bit earlier.
Finished the fellowship application, went walking to celebratre. Got some fancy seeeded sourdough bread and then to Asylet to attend the Oslo monthly couchsurfer meeting. Luck, again, that I happened to be here for the event. It started early, 6pm, with a small group of 3, 6, 10.... and by the time I left at 9:30, there were certainly 50 or more. It was nice, lots of conversation, many languages – I used my teensy bit of Norwegian, just for fun, as well as Russian, Spanish and some Farsi. Again, new people and new conversation was all good – no dancing, yet again. We left a bit early because we were starving. I had a little waffel there, but it was not so great. I cooked \up a bit of random-leftover veggie curry for a late dinner and we packed up and crashed.

29 April
On a train to Bergen, 8am. And I say 'helloooooo Norway!' Spectacular. Plunging slopes carpeted in forest, glassy fjords and wild, rushing rivers. Sweet little farms with white houses and red barns. Patches and splashes of different greens, greys, black, blue... so much grandeur. Really, spectacular.
EM made coffee again for our morning, and oatmeal. Snack of crispbread with salty crunchy peanut butter and apple jam. Uytz! (That's the first time I have tried transliterating that little thing I like to say... I don't know if it works, but experimentation begets innovation.) I am enjoying being with her, just happy to share and catch up and feel more at-home.
Tonight I will meet her charming boyfriend, CP, who has promised to take me dancing and hiking.