Lyoo-blee-yana

Hi folks! We've arrived safely and without incident; in fact, aside from having forgotten how crazy-making the 10 hour flight can be, our travel was perfectly smooth. 19 hours from door to door.

We flew in a 747 on the way here, which was my first time in a plane with an actual upstairs. This was made less exciting when we realized that it seemed the airline had strategically placed all families with young children in our smallish upper seating area. Erin I. managed to make friends with a small blond boy named Raul who walked into our row to say hello and inspect our water bottles. I was more in a raised-eyebrow kind of relationship with him. Speaking of our water bottles, here they are:

Erin I. bought them for us a few weeks back, but we both labeled them in this way INDEPENDENTLY of each other.

We had a brief layover at the airport in Paris, which was a welcome break from the plane. Time to check e-mail, and notice how perfectly I blended in with the furniture:

Then, a few hours later, arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Flying into this small country's only airport quite reminded me of flying into Kauai, actually...except instead of tropical forest it was mountains and pine forests, scattered with little villages whose church steeples we could see from the plane. And instead of friendly local Hawaiians speaking English there was a large Arabic-speaking tourist group and definitely no Americans to be seen. (We still don't think we've seen any - definitely haven't heard them.) The airport was tiny - we walked off the plane onto the tarmac and were picked up in a tram and driven a few hundred yards to the arrival hall. No customs, a quick stop at the baggage claim carousel, and then we were out on the street. I was particularly charmed by the earnest tone of the advertisements at the airport:



Our room here at Slamic B&B is perfect. It reminds me of my freshman year dorm at UC Davis, at least the way the beds are. Our view includes charming old roofs AND geraniums:

We got some advice about where to catch the World Cup semifinal and headed out to dinner after a 2 hour (much needed) nap. Despite how I roll my eyes when other people take excited pictures of their food while at restaurants, here's our meal:

Erin ordered traditional Slovenian buckwheat porridge with mushrooms. It was good, but, um, it was a LOT of buckwheat. Mine is pork medallions, mushrooms, potatoes and peppers. Also pictured is the worst glass of rose I've ever had. For reals. At least it was only $1.50.

Our view of the match, until a rude man came and stood right where that beer is. We couldn't figure out who the crowd was cheering for - I think in the end they were just cheering when anything exciting happened.

We strolled home after dinner along the river through the town center. Groups of people were gathered everywhere watching the game as it neared its end. One of the main bridges had the game projected right underneath so we stopped there to watch the end and then hear the jubilant cries of the Spanish fans on both sides of the river.

We're back in our room now; it's been a long day. I'm blogging, of course, but I thought I'd also share what Erin I. is doing. See you tomorrow!

Quirks

We all have quirks - some more than others. Certainly I have my fair share. As I was packing tonight, I took a picture of a few small details. Stay tuned to the end of the post for an introduction to an important new travel partner!

Each bag has exactly 27 vitamins and q-tips, respectively. It's my own little way of counting down the days of vacation. I love the tidiness of having no extra at the end of the trip.

The spreadsheet. Love it. Can't wait to see the places I've been reading about.

My new reading companion. It's an eclectic and optimistic list, I'll admit.

No need to stop at the ATM right away! I uncovered some Euros from last summer that will come in handy.

The story of this candle is a perfect example of how I can turn a simple thing into one that's quite complex. When we went to Greece, Sharon gave Lo and I some little travel candles to take. One in particular is called "Fig", and we would take it up to the roof patio of our hotel in Athens, enjoy the view of the brightly-lit Parthenon, and play cribbage in the late evenings when things finally cooled down. Smelling this candle brings me right back to that lovely rooftop, and I wanted one to bring on this trip. Unfortunately, it's very very hard to find this candle ANYWHERE around here (believe me, I tried), but I finally found a company in Virginia and after one failed shipment process, I finally got my little fig candle in the mail last week. See? Complicated.

And now...introducing a slimmer and more colorful version of Big Mama:


I call him Popeye.

Coming in July 2010

This year, from July 6 to August 2, I'm headed to the homeland. Slovenia, of course! Turns out that my great great grandmother emigrated from a community of Germans living in present-day Slovenia around the turn of the century. Her name was Mary, and she brought her two brothers with her, pretending they were her children. I never knew her of course; I didn't even meet my grandfather, her grandson, my mom's dad. But thanks to the magic of the interwebs, I have found the village she was from, and with GPS in my rental car...we'll see what I can find.

But Slovenia is only a part of the trip. My friend (also named Erin, so be prepared for some sort of delightful shorthand on the blog, a la Erin 1 and Erin 2...I haven't decided quite what, yet) and I will drive to Croatia, and travel along the Dalmatian coast. Then, we fly to Krakow, visit Auschwitz, then train to Berlin where we'll meet up with Erin's friend who will host us for a few days. We shall part ways in Berlin, but no sooner will I have said goodbye to one friend, then another will join me! Donica has managed to escape a very demanding new job for just one week, during which we will visit Berlin, parts of the Czech Republic, and end in Prague. Phew.

All Good Things...

Tomorrow, after a final delicious breakfast, we catch a bus to the airport and then fly to Heathrow, Toronto, and finally San Francisco...and regular life resumes. We had a great last day:

Oscar Wilde and I, hanging out in the park near where he grew up

Our very understated hotel entrance - and our splurge of the trip. All the old-world elegance had one drawback, however: 72 stairs to our top-floor room.

We went to the national gallery today, as I was very keen on seeing the Vermeer. I do love Vermeer, but it was a Caravaggio that really caught our attention. But my favorite of all was a Velazquez that I'd never seen before. After lots more walking around listening to our downloaded Dublin walking tours on our ipods, plus some shopping, Lo got tired and headed home. I stayed out for one more thing I'd been wanting to see, which was worth the aching feet at the end of the day. The Chester Beatty Library here in Dublin has an amazing collection of old, old religious texts, including fragments of some of the earliest copies of the gospels and Paul's letters, to name just a few. Seeing these fragments - Greek writing on scraps of papyrus that are dated to 150 A.D. - was a highlight of my day. Wish I could have taken pictures.

After a quick rest, we headed back out for another walk across town, but this one rewarded by a very delicious dinner at The Winding Stair. They serve Irish food, which we've been happily eating all vacation, but with a more high-end twist. And, bonus, their Valhrona brownie with lemon curd and organic vanilla ice cream was better than my own brownie recipe, and that's saying something. :)

Two happy vacationers after dinner on the Ha'penny Bridge over the River Liffey...

and two big thumbs up for a great trip!

Guinness, It's Good For You!

This is indeed one of the advertising slogans we've seen everywhere, and today we made the trek out to the Guinness homeworld. I had heard that it was a pretty cheesy, touristy place and had skipped it last time I was in Dublin, but I'm glad we went. Touristy - yes. Cheesy - no. In fact, many things about it reminded Lo of the way the folks at Peets Coffee and Tea talk about their product - nothing short of reverential.

Just a few gallons of beer up there...

We started at the bottom floor with a quick primer on the four ingredients of Guinness (little trivia question, anyone?). The entrance comes with one free pint, which you could enjoy on the top floor Gravity Bar (360 degree view of Dublin, but slammed with people today), or you could learn to pull it yourself at a little lesson area. Lo did the lesson:

The first step - 45 degree angle, then straighten up and fill almost to the top...

Then wait for a bit while it settles before you top it off. Actually, "a bit" is too imprecise. You are to wait 119.5 seconds, then top off, then wait 30 seconds, then enjoy!

The little graduate with her pint and her certificate. She did a pretty good job, just a few bubbles on top indicated her lack of experience. The lady there said that if you get a Guinness that tastes off, the temperature could be wrong or they didn't let it settle properly - send it back!

Magnificent

You know how sometimes when you're really, really looking forward to something, and then when it comes closer you're not sure it's going to be able to stand up to your own ridiculously high expectations?

That was not the case this evening.

More Britsh than Britain

Back online after a few days with limited internet access...time to play a bit of catch up!

We've met several Americans in the various B&B's we've been at, and it seemed that only a few venture up to Northern Ireland. We're really glad we did. Belfast was fascinating, and more so because we splurged on something I've never done before - a taxi tour. A very kind man named Ken picked us up at Belfast's huge City Hall and drove us for over an hour through both the Catholic/Republican and Protestant/Unionist sections of Belfast. He made a point to emphasize that there was extremism and brutal killing on both sides of the conflict, and we certainly saw evidence of that. We went first to the Protestant Shankill road area, which Ken called "more British than Britain":


There were peaceful murals, like this one:


And less peaceful, like this one, in which the gun barrel points at you from wherever you look at it:


And this church behind the locked up gate made me kind of sad:


We drove along the "Peace Wall" that divides the two communities and stopped to make a graffiti contribution. Lo wrote her name considerably bigger than mine...can you find it?



Then we drove through the gate (there are several throughout the city between the two communities, most close at the end of the work day, a few stay open to midnight or so), and headed to the Catholic section of town. The Sinn Fein headquarters were just a few minutes away, with this picture of Ireland that wouldn't be at all popular just down the road:


A mural of the IRA hunger strikers that died in prison as they protested being treated like criminals rather than political prisoners back in the early 80's:


And who knew that Frederick Douglass had such a strong Irish connection? I'm sure I was supposed to learn and retain that in some college class that I took, actually...


Here's Lo in the back of our little taxi, waving at me obligingly as always:


And this saying painted on a wall in a nondescript Belfast street was one of my favorite things we saw:


Belfast was our last day in Northern Ireland. We headed back south the next day for a last night in the Irish countryside before being back in Dublin for our final three days. On the way, we passed through Downpatrick, which is where the story of St. Patrick in Ireland begins and ends. He's buried there under this simple, massive, stone:


There was a really well done little center that walks visitors through his life and times, using his own words. It was unabashedly and unapologetically spiritual and a very glowing take on Ireland's favorite saint.

We ended our day in Trim, which was a really, really important town about 800 years ago. This castle is what it's famous for now. Here's the keep, and me trying to scare off intruders at one of the gate houses:



Our B&B in Trim came with a kind, chatty owner called Anne, whose husband raises bird hunting dogs, and their dog had just had a litter of irresistable puppies. So irresistable, in fact, that the previous guests (Americans from Florida) had taken one home with them. We resisted, but Lo had a great time with the little puppy family.