Ireland Post No. 1 – First Day in Kinsdale
8/3/09 5:45 pm. After Luke dropped me off at the airport, an 8-hour overnight flight from Atlanta to Dublin leaving Sunday at 8:55 pm EST and arriving 10:15 am the next day (Monday) in Dublin, another 30-minute Ryanair flight to Kinsale, a 40 € (about $1.42/€) taxi wild ride from the airport to the apartment, I AM HERE IN http://www.kinsaleapartment.com/. I am sitting at the counter looking out the window at the beautiful very old St. Multose stone church (original church built on this site in the 6th century, present one in 1195) directly across the narrow street, (all streets are very narrow in this village). “The statue of the saint carrying a block, over the west door, reminds one of the legend which says that only strangers will prosper in Kinsale.” Wow – that sounds like good news for me! The church has been in continuous use as a place of worship for 1000 years. (Two other churches in Ireland can claim that also.)
It is raining. (I expect that sentence to appear in most of my posts.) It is cool – sweater and raincoat weather.
My apartment is directly above the Fishy Fish shop (original Fishy Fish restaurant now moved to new location near the pier). Margie (an owner of my apartment) met me here and explained all the appliances, etc. And, supplied me with a mobile phone.. AND, with home-made black currant jam, bread, eggs, butter, milk, fruit, and a couple of bakery goodies for a start on food supply!
If you are reading this, I learned how to use the internet café less than 50 yards down the street – probably tomorrow morning. I did a bit of exploring this afternoon to find a local hair salon, a tiny grocery store (closed today????), and a “beer and spirits” store for a bottle of nice Italian Pino Grigio.
The bells are ringing at St. Multose! It’s six o’clock.
Ireland Post 2. Tuesday, 4Aug9, 12:05
Tuesday crafts fair and food market this morning. Bought some kind of bread (starts with a C I think) that has no yeast, raised naturally, soft both inside and out – this has chopped black olives in it. I almost asked the vendor to spell it – yes I had in my hearing aids – but since so often vendors can’t spell, I didn’t. Anyhow, bread, Irish brie, bean and peppers salad, basmati rice, etc – and of course, there’s all kinds of other stuff for sale – from nuts to soup – literally – most of which I can’t name. (I know it’s usually “soup to nuts” but I’m still not quite oriented here.
Found the web café so will go back there and send after I finish this.
Alana, the other apartment owner, showed up this morning about 9:00 to tell me about the Tuesday open market and invite me to Wednesday evening Rotary tomorrow night. She had texted me, but I don’t yet know how to answer the phone – do know how to send calls to her, but haven’t yet figured out how to answer the phone they gave me.
The sun is shining this morning! Oh, a true delight is that both upstairs bedrooms have skylights! And, mine looks directly at St. Multose’s steeple cross! What a lovely way to awaken.
Discovered why no freezer compartment in my fridge – no frozen food sections in the grocery stores! And, of course, they don’t put ice in their whiskey!
All kinds of new discoveries occurring – that’s why I need a couple of months to figure all this stuff out! Like just because my computer is plugged into the wall doesn’t mean it is getting juice – which is why it was operating on battery which ended up “critcally low”– there’s also a switch you have to flip for every outlet! And, the one for the shower is not in the bathroom but on the bedroom wall – hence nothing but cold water till you find the switch.
Enough – time to find out if I can actually post this stuff.
8/3/09 5:45 pm. After Luke dropped me off at the airport, an 8-hour overnight flight from Atlanta to Dublin leaving Sunday at 8:55 pm EST and arriving 10:15 am the next day (Monday) in Dublin, another 30-minute Ryanair flight to Kinsale, a 40 € (about $1.42/€) taxi wild ride from the airport to the apartment, I AM HERE IN http://www.kinsaleapartment.com/. I am sitting at the counter looking out the window at the beautiful very old St. Multose stone church (original church built on this site in the 6th century, present one in 1195) directly across the narrow street, (all streets are very narrow in this village). “The statue of the saint carrying a block, over the west door, reminds one of the legend which says that only strangers will prosper in Kinsale.” Wow – that sounds like good news for me! The church has been in continuous use as a place of worship for 1000 years. (Two other churches in Ireland can claim that also.)
It is raining. (I expect that sentence to appear in most of my posts.) It is cool – sweater and raincoat weather.
My apartment is directly above the Fishy Fish shop (original Fishy Fish restaurant now moved to new location near the pier). Margie (an owner of my apartment) met me here and explained all the appliances, etc. And, supplied me with a mobile phone.. AND, with home-made black currant jam, bread, eggs, butter, milk, fruit, and a couple of bakery goodies for a start on food supply!
If you are reading this, I learned how to use the internet café less than 50 yards down the street – probably tomorrow morning. I did a bit of exploring this afternoon to find a local hair salon, a tiny grocery store (closed today????), and a “beer and spirits” store for a bottle of nice Italian Pino Grigio.
The bells are ringing at St. Multose! It’s six o’clock.
Ireland Post 2. Tuesday, 4Aug9, 12:05
Tuesday crafts fair and food market this morning. Bought some kind of bread (starts with a C I think) that has no yeast, raised naturally, soft both inside and out – this has chopped black olives in it. I almost asked the vendor to spell it – yes I had in my hearing aids – but since so often vendors can’t spell, I didn’t. Anyhow, bread, Irish brie, bean and peppers salad, basmati rice, etc – and of course, there’s all kinds of other stuff for sale – from nuts to soup – literally – most of which I can’t name. (I know it’s usually “soup to nuts” but I’m still not quite oriented here.
Found the web café so will go back there and send after I finish this.
Alana, the other apartment owner, showed up this morning about 9:00 to tell me about the Tuesday open market and invite me to Wednesday evening Rotary tomorrow night. She had texted me, but I don’t yet know how to answer the phone – do know how to send calls to her, but haven’t yet figured out how to answer the phone they gave me.
The sun is shining this morning! Oh, a true delight is that both upstairs bedrooms have skylights! And, mine looks directly at St. Multose’s steeple cross! What a lovely way to awaken.
Discovered why no freezer compartment in my fridge – no frozen food sections in the grocery stores! And, of course, they don’t put ice in their whiskey!
All kinds of new discoveries occurring – that’s why I need a couple of months to figure all this stuff out! Like just because my computer is plugged into the wall doesn’t mean it is getting juice – which is why it was operating on battery which ended up “critcally low”– there’s also a switch you have to flip for every outlet! And, the one for the shower is not in the bathroom but on the bedroom wall – hence nothing but cold water till you find the switch.
Enough – time to find out if I can actually post this stuff.
way to go Mom! xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteJust wish you were here! Mom
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