BlogPostWed23Sept09
This morning seems like a good one to get off a post. I’m an early morning person, Kathy is sleeping in. I’ve got my green tea, have done 12 sun salutations - So, here I go.
Yesterday was a truly full one – as nearly all have been. Kathy took a very long walk – over towards Charles Fort and back through town and over to James Fort – all the way to the top and then back down past the marina where Margie hollered at her and she got a short visit with her again before walking back home.
I spent most of the day walking to and from the flat. First to the bakery for scones – Kathy’s first here. Used the pay phone to reserve a room in Cork (Michelle is working events and can’t really spend time with us) so we can spend Friday doing Cork and then go our separate ways. Kathy will bus to Shannon on Saturday, I’ll come back for one last night here – and a visit to the Tap Tavern and St. Multose before moving out to the Cork Airport hotel Sunday evening.
We did laundry yesterday and the lovely woman who owns the place was kind to me and weighed my box of stuff to mail home – exactly 5kg (about 10 pounds) which is the limit for the box I bought at the PO. Cost 55 euros to ship it home and the owner of the Kinsale Crystal shop advised me it was much cheaper than using other services. (He was one of many who just wanted to hear me talk southern.) One can ship DHL (or whatever those initials are – I forget) out of the Cork airport – but here you must call UPS or DHL and it would be much more expensive than the PO. They do have regular pickups from stores that have accounts with them, but not local offices. So after getting rid of that weight, I can bring home a few gifts. I will also leave behind some old clothes that I brought on purpose to wear and then leave behind. Delta is not a problem, but Ryanair has strict weight limits.
Yesterday was farmers’ market day so bought salads (beet and avocado; coucous and sun-dried tomatoes and cranberries) and almonds down by the pier where the carnival used to be – it closed until May. Many things changed as of the end of September. Longer times between road train trips to sites, cancellation of many bus day tours, shops closing earlier, etc. However, there is a big gourmet foods festival coming up in October, and all of Ireland is celebrating Arthur’s Day this Friday. So, by no means has everything stopped – just slowed down. Schools have opened and it’s fun to see the kids walking around in their uniforms. By the way, the teens have a really good reputation for courtesy here, and rightly so. As a matter of fact, everyone has been truly hospitable to us. Met a young lady in the Fat Face shop yesterday who was born in Phoenix and grew up in Alabama and Mississippi and now family has moved to Dublin – she is finishing a law degree at a college in Cork – she was delighted to meet a southerner visiting here and would have talked with me longer except for the other customers needing attention.
Last night we had a lovely dinner at Crackpots – a restaurant Kathy’s father had eaten in when he was here a few years ago. Also shared part of a bottle of champagne I had bought - 4l euros was the cheapest champagne the store had! That equates to about $60! That’s why we haven’t done that before! Wine is considerably less expensive. It is generally true that everything is about one and a half times the cost of the same thing in the States. So, you accept that and just ignore the difference and pretend it’s dollars, not euros, and all is well! The economy here is suffering – yesterday I saw a queue of about 40 people at the Kinsale social services office.
Tonight we will dine at the Spaniard and listen to music with our friends, Alana, Margie, and Joan – so Big Night Out tonight.
This morning seems like a good one to get off a post. I’m an early morning person, Kathy is sleeping in. I’ve got my green tea, have done 12 sun salutations - So, here I go.
Yesterday was a truly full one – as nearly all have been. Kathy took a very long walk – over towards Charles Fort and back through town and over to James Fort – all the way to the top and then back down past the marina where Margie hollered at her and she got a short visit with her again before walking back home.
I spent most of the day walking to and from the flat. First to the bakery for scones – Kathy’s first here. Used the pay phone to reserve a room in Cork (Michelle is working events and can’t really spend time with us) so we can spend Friday doing Cork and then go our separate ways. Kathy will bus to Shannon on Saturday, I’ll come back for one last night here – and a visit to the Tap Tavern and St. Multose before moving out to the Cork Airport hotel Sunday evening.
We did laundry yesterday and the lovely woman who owns the place was kind to me and weighed my box of stuff to mail home – exactly 5kg (about 10 pounds) which is the limit for the box I bought at the PO. Cost 55 euros to ship it home and the owner of the Kinsale Crystal shop advised me it was much cheaper than using other services. (He was one of many who just wanted to hear me talk southern.) One can ship DHL (or whatever those initials are – I forget) out of the Cork airport – but here you must call UPS or DHL and it would be much more expensive than the PO. They do have regular pickups from stores that have accounts with them, but not local offices. So after getting rid of that weight, I can bring home a few gifts. I will also leave behind some old clothes that I brought on purpose to wear and then leave behind. Delta is not a problem, but Ryanair has strict weight limits.
Yesterday was farmers’ market day so bought salads (beet and avocado; coucous and sun-dried tomatoes and cranberries) and almonds down by the pier where the carnival used to be – it closed until May. Many things changed as of the end of September. Longer times between road train trips to sites, cancellation of many bus day tours, shops closing earlier, etc. However, there is a big gourmet foods festival coming up in October, and all of Ireland is celebrating Arthur’s Day this Friday. So, by no means has everything stopped – just slowed down. Schools have opened and it’s fun to see the kids walking around in their uniforms. By the way, the teens have a really good reputation for courtesy here, and rightly so. As a matter of fact, everyone has been truly hospitable to us. Met a young lady in the Fat Face shop yesterday who was born in Phoenix and grew up in Alabama and Mississippi and now family has moved to Dublin – she is finishing a law degree at a college in Cork – she was delighted to meet a southerner visiting here and would have talked with me longer except for the other customers needing attention.
Last night we had a lovely dinner at Crackpots – a restaurant Kathy’s father had eaten in when he was here a few years ago. Also shared part of a bottle of champagne I had bought - 4l euros was the cheapest champagne the store had! That equates to about $60! That’s why we haven’t done that before! Wine is considerably less expensive. It is generally true that everything is about one and a half times the cost of the same thing in the States. So, you accept that and just ignore the difference and pretend it’s dollars, not euros, and all is well! The economy here is suffering – yesterday I saw a queue of about 40 people at the Kinsale social services office.
Tonight we will dine at the Spaniard and listen to music with our friends, Alana, Margie, and Joan – so Big Night Out tonight.
Safe travels!
ReplyDeleteYou, too! Did you guys get the same rain Atlanta got?
ReplyDelete