final days in ireland

we spent a few final hours in kilkenny and then headed about two hours north to dublin. we stayed at the beautiful carton house hotel, a beautiful historic building with contrasting modern amenities…

we spent some time about the city and treated ourselves to a delicious chocolate pyramid 🙂

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thomas thoroughly enjoyed the breakfasts in ireland – at the hotel, you always had the option of the traditional irish breakfast.  it is a vegetarian’s nightmare and consists of pretty much every animal you can imagine fried to a crisp..i opted for the eggs 🙂
The grand finale to our adventure was a tour of the guinness factory, complete with a free pint at the end. seven floors of the wonder and history – thomas was in heaven 🙂

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The seventh floor overlooked the entire city of dublin…

Overlooking Dublin from top of Guinness Brewery
we traveled from the east coast to the west coast, about 3 and a half hours to prepare for our flight out of shannon the next morning, we spent a little time in the larger city of limerick before heading home…

the trip home was the final, and only leg without complication but with plenty of time to catch up on sleep…the last two and half weeks could not have been more perfect!

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kilkenny

the drive was about two hours north east of killarney. kilkenny is an adorable and busy tourist town and we stayed in a wonderful countryside b&b a few miles out. we arrived very hungry and enjoyed some highly recommended authentic irish cuisine at a popular local pub. i found in ireland that in general, you have pubs and pubs that serve food – the restaurant is a less common phenomenon 🙂

guinness is truly a national heritage here, thomas is showing his ability to drink his beer faster 😛

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the famous guinness and beef casserole…

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we then went to another local pub with fantastic live irish musicians 🙂

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A view of the town at night…

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and the next morning, we headed off to the killkenny castle. A 12th century castle that had been remodeled during the victorian era. Truly magnificent inside though we weren’t able to get any pictures on the guided tour. There is a very extensive park around the outside that was filled with people, we took some great pictures from there…
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beautiful southern ireland

there is no other way to describe the southern coast of ireland than truly breathtaking. according to the owner of the local b&b we stayed at, the weather could not have been more perfect for our drive around the ring of kerry which started in scenic killarny.
the ring consists of beautiful coastal and countryside views passing though small towns with little shops and pubs.

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a sunday morning in killorglin. the only things open are the churches and the pubs 🙂

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beautiful views near cahersiveen:

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the beach near caherdaniel. yes, irish people actually attempting to get a tan and really most of them were turning into lobsters. someone should really tell them its a bad idea 🙂

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i love the sheep! a very important element of the irish landscape 🙂

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this is bob the sheep, he was particularly annoyed by our attempts to photograph him.

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the largest (and most intact) stone fort in ireland which, as it turns out, they do not know much about the people who lived inside…

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on the way back to killarney, we came up on the large national park and beautiful views of the three lakes in the area as the sun was setting…

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the next day, we decided to head back to the park for some hiking before we headed to kilkenny, we started at ross castle and headed on…

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wedding in ireland

getting to ireland was quite an adventure and consisted of spending the night at the stansed airport in london followed by an early morning flight into dublin. once we arrived, we secured our little rental car and learned how to drive on the left hand side of the narrow winding roads 5 hours to the town of killarney.

people in ireland were so friendly! as soon as we opened a map on the street, at least two people would stop to offer to help us. with the massive amounts of tourism, you would think they would be tired of the confused people 😉

while we unfortunately missed the ceremony, we attended a fabulous wedding once we arrived, good food, drinks, and dancing! the irish really know how to party, we left at 2am from sheer exhaustion and most were still going strong!

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last days in sweden…

we finally had a perfect day without rain….

i met up with some exended family that live both in stockholm and the surrounding towns a little farther south – they took us to the skansen zoo in stockholm. unlike any other one i had been to, this one had not only animals native to that region but also buildings that had been imported from all over the country including farm houses, churches, mills, and houses. it was a huge place located high on a hill and gave us fantastic views overlooking the entire city…

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the final treat was a show of traditional swedish folk dances…

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we enjoyed a fabulous meal of fresh fish and wine, i am really going to miss this food in ireland!
the final day before we left, we trekked back over to old town area on foot enjoying the warm weather. there was the ‘tall boat race’ fair just starting and the preparations for the race itself underway. we got some fantastic photos of some of the really old boats docked. it looked to be a huge event with stages for entertainment and vendors. crowds of people were milling around the docks and lounging on the boats. the weather was absolutely perfect.

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of course just as we pack our bags to head back to the airport, we get got in torrential downpour – so unpredictable!

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we traveled back to a new airport this time via bus, the views out of the window were of endless blue skies and beautifully green landscapes. the air is so fresh, its no wonder that so much effort is put into preserving the environment. the swedish government and the people have put a great emphasis on this and it has really paid off. the city of stockholm seems to almost be built to preserve the natural beauty it exists in rather than exploit it. i have decided in my next trip that i will need to spend more time even further south. there is a bridge from the town of malmo that takes you straight to coppenhagen. naturally, i will have to visit this next time 🙂

on our way to ireland…

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the adventure continues

it seems to rain quite a bit here but for short periods. we bought an umbrella and we were promptly asked where we were from 🙂

on wednesday, we ventured all over the city – lots and lots of walking, public transportation is amazing here but we see so much more staying above ground.

we visited the city hall and home to the nobel prize ceremony. we took one of the tours and learned lots of interesting information about the artwork and architecture of the building. its one of the most popular places in sweden to get married, you have the option of the long ceremony which is 3 minutes long and the short ceremony which is 1 minute.

sweden is the most equal in terms of gender equality in the world, the least religious, and the country with the highest consumption rate of coffee – maybe i should move 😉

a picture of the city hall cannot really capture its beauty. we took a special guided tour so that i could practice walking up the ceremonial stairs, afterall i must prepare for my moment. i promise to invite all of you!

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i got myself the cheapest nokia gsm phone i could find so i could actually contact my relatives. so far so good though i can’t understand enough swedish to setup my voice mail…so please don’t leave a message.

one of most fascinating museums was the vasa museum, a ship that sunk in the baltic ocean in 1628 and then was recovered 333 years later nearly fully intact. it turns out the low salinity of the baltic ocean allows for much longer preservation (as the little decomposing sea worms cannot live there)

the museum was setup so you could view it on several levels, the essentially waxed the whole thing to preserve it…fascinating!

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on thursday, we headed off to gotland island, about 3 hours southeast of stockholm via ferry. it seems a lot of people can take the ferry over to a small airport that serves a host of locations throughout northern europe. sweden has a remarkable number of airports in general, all of them at least an hour from the city center. on the ferry, they showed a swedish movie, and though we could understand very little of it, we were highly entertained as it had all stereotypical elements of swedish culture. gotland had a ton of interesting history and a gorgeous place with great beaches, parks, and old style buildings, churches, and castles. the town of visby that we spent most of our time in was surrounded by a wall that has been since reconstructed in areas and maintains the city center. we spent the entire day in this picturesque setting…

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i was absolutely obsessed with these concrete sheep. they are everywhere on the island. apparently sheep herding must have occurred there. thomas now has a miniature sheep for his desk just like this. so very cute, i know.

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we made it…

we spent Friday night in little italy in new york, shared a bottle of wine over a plate of pasta at one of the sidewalk restaurants. Afterwards, we enjoyed gelato (one of my many favorite past-times) and walked around the city. We looked on in horror at the grown individuals waiting in line, dressed in capes at one of the local bookstores for the overly hyped children’s novel and entered a cute bar around the corner for drinks.

it was a fabulous evening, with the enhanced experience of joining overly intoxicated, scary people in the humid subway tunnels under the city around 3am…

we had an entire day to kill on Saturday before our flight (hopefully) would leave for stockholm. i added a few gray hairs to thomas’ collection when i suggested we head over toward penn station in newark to enjoy some food from the largest portuguese community in the united states. fantastic little bakeries and a fun area, definitely worth the detour.

back to the newark airport…only to find out we would be charged a “re-booking fee” by malaysian airlines for our troubles. yelling at them really didn’t help but i tired anyway and then befriended a nice swedish girl who had encountered the same problem…we met up again for much needed drinks at the bar in the international terminal 🙂

stockholm is amazing. the airport is straight out the ikea catalog (which as many of you know, could not make me happier). the subways are beautiful, clean, and air conditioned! the architecture is beautiful and the city is well-connected archipelago. we are staying in a charming little apartment. my only complaint is that shower heads should really be connected to the top of a bathroom, not the bottom. its very difficult to hold it over your head and wash your hair at the same time, someone should really send them an e-mail on this subject.

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today we explored the city. visited the tourist center, cursed my non-GSM phone and figured out how to use the pay phones. we discovered the huge expanse of shopping in the city center. we visited the national museum and picked up a little information on medieval and viking history. we walked around old town which contrasted the rest of the city with its narrow, winding streeets. It was lined with cliche touristy shops as well as an array of restuarants and cafes. it seems sweden in general is not lacking in any of the wordly cuisines.

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looking to try some authentic swedish cuisine, we stopped in the oldest restuarant (a german owned restaurant in fact) which was originally built in 1491 (since moved, moved again, and re-built). we had the pickled herring platter (which is family favorite of mine) and then some sesame-breaded perch with beets and potatoes. all was washed down with yummy german beer and lots of it!

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still in the garden state…

the plan was san diego -> phoenix -> newark -> stockholm. at some point in phoenix, we were informed storms in chicago were going to limit travel. 4 hours later and 30 minutes after our flight to stockholm left, we arrived in scenic new jersey. apparently malaysian airlines only flies to stockholm every 2 days or so…

today, i spent part of the day in the airport only to learn that malaysian airlines has no flights leaving today and will not be manning the ticket booth. i proceeded to resign myself to airport food.

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i also learned fascinating information about elizabeth, new jersey; the most informative being that terminal a of the airport is there and not actually in newark and exit 13a is “really exciting”. the mayor is very proud. on a high note, the hilton has adorable crabtree and evelyn travel sized accessories (its truly the little things at this point).

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we won’t mention the view from the window however 🙂img_1861.jpg

we will naturally make the best of the situation and leave new jersey for a night in new york…

we should be heading to stockholm around 10:00pm tomorrow.

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