stranger things...

Monday morning, after the bank holiday revelry, I figure we’d better get another room. Not sure about Janet, but MA can’t deal with it! We get a new room across the hall, identical but not connected to the courtyard/beer garden, get settled in and it’s like a whole new world! Lovely and quiet, you can hear a bit of traffic and the birds chirping, nice! The beer garden goes steady all day, varying acts from Irish dancing and Irish singers, everyone looks to be having a fun time and we’ve found a back way out to avoid the crowd!

We go on a local hike through part of the Killarney National Park, quite close to our hotel, our guide giving us little snippets of history and folk lore. We see herds of red deer, Kerry dairy cattle (for which the area is famous - totally
 

black cows with very rich milk that is used to produce Irish butter and other dairy products), people on horseback and in horse drawn wagons and lovely scenic views. We get a good overview of the area and an idea of what we can expect over the next few days. It’s beautiful and sunny, not too hot with a nice breeze now and then.

Returning to town, we stop for lunch at a cafe set up in an old house, very nice! I ordered poached egg on kale with avocado for lunch, feeling very virtuous about the kale - greens and veggies seem really hard to come by (€10, about $14).

A little wander around the local shopping fills the afternoon - lots of ‘Irish’ tourist shops with jewellery, Aran sweaters and of course, the shamrock-y and leprechaun stuff.

Quinllan’s seafood for supper - an actual salad (close anyway) with Atlantic wild caught prawns (we’d called them shrimp) - a very busy, family place with no liquor - very unusual! Again, people are so friendly, they greet you from the next table and ask how you’re doing and continue a conversation if you are willing! Funny thing I’ve noticed, the locals order deep fried battered fish and then peel the batter/skin off and eat only the inside white part of the fish...

Food prices in the restaurants seem to vary quite a bit, the average for lunch about €12-15 with dinners ranging from €15-30. A pint of Guinness is  about €4.95. Tipping is supposed to be based on quality of service with 12% being acceptable. The good thing about prices is that what you see is what you are charged as the VAT/value added tax is already included in the price. If you go to purchase a retail item, they will deduct the tax off the price and you have to fill out a form (which the merchant may happily give you or not) and you turn it in at the airport when you’re leaving the country. The VAT is 23% so it makes quite a difference as something marked €45 is really €36. 

That rounds out our day and we’ve logged about 15km.

over in Killarney...

We got the train to Killarney, without incident, on a lovely sunny day.

Kind of surprising to find your name in lights above the seats! As we got seated, we were surrounded by a group of men of varying ages, travelling together. They were all good looking, fit and casual but neatly dressed. A couple of them offered assistance with stowing our luggage overhead, much appreciated. As the train got underway, they were talking soccer and you know how you sort of eavesdrop but try to seem uninterested. Next thing I know they are all talking dancing, salsa in particular and discussing different dance instructors and whether they do their own choreography and that morphed into judges, competitions, and what all, all the time I was trying to concentrate on finishing up my ‘X’, Sue Grafton, used bookstore buy from last week. Soon the guys are breaking out snacks and, I notice one of them putting out a round of shots - I had already identified him as Polish from my shameless interest in their conversations, early thirties- he was facing me but across the aisle and we’d been making eye-contact and exchanging smiles - I was particularly interested because my daughter-in-law is Polish and I had gone to her mom’s birthday party a few weeks back and been treated to the ‘shots’ of liquor then so I knew what was expected. The man sitting at our table began including us in the conversations and they asked where we were from, etc. He was Irish and the oldest of the seven, fifty-ish, I thought. Anyway, turns out they were all professional dancers, (one Portuguese, one Italian, and two other Irishmen) who were going to Killarney for a dance event and celebrating a bachelor party for the youngest guy who was soon to be married. He was from Brazil and he later explained to me that he came to Ireland to learn English because it would help with his dance career,  and met the woman of his dreams - his English wasn’t too bad. I was dying to ask if they knew Len or Bruno or Tristan from ‘Dancing With the Stars’ but I held back.

Then they got into playing some games for the bachelor. One guy got out a stack of cards, like, things to do and gave the first one to Dennis, the bridegroom from Brazil. Evidently, he had to engage a lady nearby and teach her the first three lines of his national anthem and get her to sing them with him. It was pretty funny because he didn’t really know it himself, but he had already chose me as his target. While he was blundering through a line or two, I had no idea what he was saying and I offered to teach him ‘Oh Canada!’ instead. Thankfully one of the others found the Brazilian anthem on his cellphone with the words so we were able to complete the task, badly, but they were not judgy!  The prize was he and I were to do shots! It was just after noon by then, so I was up for it and I downed mine clean. He was having about his fourth and was a little slow - I beat him so they were going to pull his man card - quite a lot of teasing, he was dressed with a huge polka dot bow tie and a strange set of black antlers. It was quite fun to see the camaraderie and the engaging spirit of all of them and to be a part of it!

Arriving in Killarney, we made our way to the Scotts Hotel, our home for the next week. It’s a new-ish (most of it built in the last thirty years), relatively modern venue and our hiking tour group is meeting here on Tuesday afternoon. As this is the hotel for the tour, we booked in ahead of time so we wouldn’t have to scramble around and try to find it etc. thinking this would be easier. Turns out the Scotts has the best beer garden in all Ireland, at least according to the billboard beside the live band playing in the open-air courtyard that we had to elbow our way through. The front desk assured us this event is unusual because tomorrow is a ‘bank holiday‘ Monday which is equivalent to our stat holidays and there is a local football event with Kerry, the local team, playing. We get to our room and there is only one bed so Janet goes back down to ask for a change because she had called in person several weeks back and was assured that 2 beds would be standard. While waiting, sitting in the room, I felt like I was in the middle of the beer garden without benefit of beer. We got a new room, it did have two beds with a window that opened out right above the beer garden. OMG! There is no air conditioning and without the window open it feels like 100 degrees in there. We go out walking, the breeze outside is nice. We have a late dinner at the top local restaurant, according to Trip Advisor - it was alright, nothing special. Get back to our room and the music and noise of the crowd is crazy. The front desk told us it would be over by 11:30, so, we’re Canadian, we can live with that...Janet takes out her hearing aids and goes to bed. The band did quit at 11:30 but the crowd stayed for another couple of hours, singing without the band. Next morning, they are setting up for another all-day event and we see in the elevator, a billing, advertising all the bands for the coming month. We go down and request a new room, not linked to the courtyard.

banner day...

Started off a little slow, the weather has been cool and rainy and it’s kind of hard to entertain yourself outdoors when it’s like that. We had been taking the bus into Dublin which is a bit of a chore in itself. Riding up top of the double decker is similar to an unruly carnival ride where they speed it up on the curves just to see what happens! OMG! A short person who can’t quite get both feet on the floor at the same time needs to be able to hang on with both hands! We did spend the last two days doing that just to be out of the rain but the novelty has worn off. 

Anyway, it’s Saturday and our last full day here at Donabate. We took the DART/tram/train into the next village (the station reminded me of Downton Abbey!) and then decided to check out our journey for the next day, getting to the train station in Dublin for our trip to Killarney.  A cab ride would be about €50 and we still have the Leap pass to travel on so if we can do it by tram/DART, bus and Luas/light rail, it’s covered already so, like free! We had differing suggestions from our landlady and her daughter and, google maps is sometimes out to lunch so we wanted to do a dry run to be sure because we’ve already paid the €28 each for the train ride and have to be there for 10am. It’s about an hour’s worth from here if all goes well but the first tram doesn’t leave from here until 8:30 am so there is not a lot of room for error. 

We got that sorted by noon, know what to do tomorrow and also picked up our tickets - we were able to book them online from home but you have to pick them up in person - another little detail that could throw a screw into a tight timeline. Somewhere along the way Janet picked up an abandoned magazine that had a listing of the best restaurants throughout Ireland and she discovered there was a Michelin 3 star in Malahyde which is the tram stop before ours.We decided to give it a try for lunch because it’s likely already booked  for the evening. Called Old Street Restaurant, on Old Street, of course,

it was very nicely done. The menu was small but we chose to have the 3 course special for €29 each. There were three choices for each course. Janet had the cauliflower soup to start and I chose the fried polenta with a spicy bechamel and roasted corn. Both were delicious. We each chose the same entree of roasted chicken breast with pea and garlic purée and smoked gubeen puff (which was a type of cheese) and some foam bits - not an overly large portion but really yummy! Janet’s dessert was a lemon tart with coconut ice cream while I scarfed down the sticky toffee pudding with ginger ice cream. Wow! Everything was delish!

By the time lunch was over the weather cleared up and it was beautiful and sunny. We headed back to Donabate, one last stop and hiked out to the beach! It was glorious, about 20C, with a good breeze, and the first time we clicked over 10km (13 actually) on foot, for the day’s tally! Finally something worth leaving home for!

The Emerald Isle...

We made it! Landed safely in Dublin the other day. The flight was a non-event, only a six hour direct flight. The food was food, nothing special but we didn’t starve. Upon landing, it was 6 am here and we’d been up all night. We were in no rush to leave the airport at that time as our lodging wasn’t available until much later. We had a breakfast and then went in search of a new SIM card for Janet’s phone so it would not cost exorbitantly for keeping in touch with email, text and wifi for googling directions on the go. It was 25 euros here for a month’s use and without that her home cell coverage would have charged $10 per day...things to know ahead of time! BTW, my suitcase is awesome! We had quite a bit of wheeling to do and it was a piece of cake with my new Heys bag!

We also purchased a three-day ‘Leap’ pass for 19 euros each which gives us unlimited use of the Dublin bus/dart/tram, a really good saving as opposed to pay-as-you-go. 

We then went to try it out and rode the bus for a couple of hours, not exactly by design but we finally got to our village of Donabate where our first lodging is, an Airbnb booking - I think I mentioned I was a little apprehensive after the fact because it seemed so cheap but it’s good, I think we lucked out. It’s a little small, especially by North American standards but the good parts outweigh that once we got organized. Suitcase open, shoved under the bed works for me! The shower is another story. They have this little box on the wall in the shower which is a version of hot water-on-demand but it’s brutal. It alternates between scalding hot and icy cold...hopefully we won’t encounter that in our hotel accommodations! Both Janet and I have experienced this technology in the past so it isn’t a complete surprise but we still don’t know how to deal with it any better. 

People here seem really friendly and extremely helpful, most go out of their way to chat and offer directions, even if you don’t ask! Janet and I must have ‘tourist’ written all over because  everyone seems to be looking out for us, checking to see if we know where we are going and then asking where we are from.  One guy thought we were Americans and when I corrected him and said we were Canadian he apologized all over and then told us it was just like people away accusing him of being English!

We went to a pub that night for dinner and got another rude awakening. Ordering a salad! Yikes! Not Canadian standards or mine! A few weeny, tiny greens, a couple of cherry tomatoes cut in half, a small handful of diced peppers and cucumber and it’s all slathered in something totally gross called ‘salad cream’. That’s the UK version of a watered-down version of a yukky mayonnaise! It’s not a good thing. Tonight at a different restaurant, Janet ordered the ‘New York-style’ Caesar salad. It came in a large soup bowl - maybe a handful of iceberg lettuce cut into one inch pieces, a handful of croutons, quite a bit of bacon cut into about half inch chunks and drizzled with a creamy, whitish dressing over the top - you could see the zigzag drizzle pattern... she didn’t really complain. I did have my first pint of Guinness - it was pretty good!

Recycling....

We are just hanging out in Toronto - it’s way too hot for me (36C/92F with humidity) and Janet does not have air conditioning. Our flight to Dublin is this afternoon at 5 pm and it is much cooler in Ireland - the forecast is showing 17 to 20C (62-68F) for the whole time which is just fine for me. Apparently one does not go to Ireland for the weather but it works for me!

the bad wheels

I left Thunder Bay on Sunday afternoon, with my bargain, hard side, spinner, wheelie suitcase, weighing in at 40 lb.  Arriving in Toronto, I had to find a place to purchase a TTC token to get on the bus to get to Janet’s. This part, getting myself to Janet’s on my own, using public transit, is my personal litmus test for the practicalities for our trip. I need to be able to manage everything on my own. Of course, it’s been a year since I did this and things have changed. After getting my luggage and trundling up and down a few times, I found someone to ask and was informed that there was a machine that dispensed them now and it should be back that way on the left. I went back, couldn’t find it, asked again. Again directed the other way. Finally spotted two tiny red kiosks with a small little TTC symbol on the side. Spent 10 minutes pressing buttons on alternate machines before I decided they were both non operational. Gave up, went outside to try and bluff my way. I found the proper pillar to get the bus I wanted, having googled the directions beforehand. Of course, there was construction and after asking another bus driver where to get #52 and if I could just pay cash (yes but they do not give change, hence the need for a token) I moved down to the next pillar. That bus driver looked at my ten dollar bill and said that's too much, just get in and never mind. I thought it must have been my curly hair and nice smile! On the bus, rode for about an hour, got off at Lawrence West where Janet was to meet me at an hour and a half after my flight arrived - I do not have a cell phone so this is old-school and why I was maybe getting a little flustered with the delay in the token-search.  Turned out it was perfect timing. Janet was there and we then went downstairs to catch the subway, going one stop to the nearest to her door. Lift the bag up a hefty flight of stairs to street level, drag it a block or so.  Needless to say, I was worn out and already cursing the virtually useless wheels on this bag.  At this point I’ll pay anything for another bag that actually wheels! 

That night, we had a nice little Maher family, Toronto-based, get together - brother Patrick and his wife Irm, nephew David and his wife Cathy,  Janet and I, with Janet having made ribs, risotto and veggies with affogato for dessert,  an at-home dinner.  It was a nice evening and good to catch up with everyone.

Next morning we went downtown for Janet to pick up euros so we would have some cash.  Wouldn’t you know my luck, there was a shoe store almost next door and I scored a pair of the coolest sneakers! They feel like slippers (a good thing) but they kinda look like oven mitts - they’re grey/silver and I couldn’t resist because it means I can delete two pairs  of others from my current 40-pound status. I later found out they light up like a hologram in the sunlight!

We had another stop to make and found Winners nearby and realized they have luggage! Oh man, I’m so happy! I got a Heys bag the exact size I originally wanted,  (24 x 16 x 10 with the expander feature) matching that cute little sky/clouds one I’d left at home and for under a hundred bucks! I know it has great wheels and will do the job no matter how heavy I pack it! And it's much nicer inside with a couple of zippered pouches. After paying, we toss our current purchases inside, remove the tags and wheel to the bus stop! It was so cute - we went into the subway, me with my bag, and a really nice man came over and offered to carry my suitcase down the stairs. I laughed, raised it up one-handed and said, it’s empty but thanks anyway! He chuckled and said have a great trip! Back at Janet’s, I transferred everything to the new bag and Janet took it down to the trash area in her building. She stopped off to check the mail and when going back to the elevator, spotted a person happily wheeling that bad bag to its new home!

The moral of the story, don’t cheap out on luggage unless you are bringing a strong, good-looking porter with you all the way!

four more sleeps...

until Ireland! I didn't count Tuesday night because we will be in flight and I don't really do well sleeping on a plane.

Dublin here we come! Getting pretty excited now. My  sister Janet and I are heading to Ireland for a couple of weeks. We have four days in Dublin on our own then we travel by train to Killarney and join up with Comfortable Hiking Holidays, a Canadian tour company. Spend 10 days with them total, ending back in Dublin. Then we have another five days to do whatever before returning to Toronto on the 20th of June. We booked this  last year just after returning from Australia. This hiking tour company is based in Toronto and is a much smaller scale outfit than Backroads which was the American company doing the New Zealand package. It is less pricey and it will be interesting to see the differences in experiences. Backroads was first class all the way and they had lots of extras but there was not a lot of free time.
 

I bought some new luggage for this trip - last year’s LLBean duffel bag that I took to Oz was not to my liking - it was like putting everything into a black hole and to find one thing was tedious. I wanted to keep it as small as possible. I got a Heys bag as a Christmas present and though I had specified 24 inch, it was actually 26 inch - a really nice bag but too big for my specs for travelling on my own. I did try it out and it’s great if someone else is around to take charge of toting and hoisting but way too big for me to be lifting here and there on my own. My next purchase was too small, a really nice carryon that would be perfect for an extra long weekend but not for 3 weeks worth. I had a hard time finding something in between and ended up with a bargain 24 incher, that weighed eight pounds empty. When it’s loaded up, the wheels don’t seem that great, on carpet anyway...I’ll keep you posted. I did a dry run the other day and I was at 32 pounds with still a bit of space left, which is pretty good. I’ll work on paring down my toiletries and not taking a hair blower or flatiron - I’ll stick with curly hair the whole time - the weather will likely help with that!

We’ve been advised about rain gear (which we have but never have had to use) and CCH also recommended a waterproof cover for backpacks. I pondered this and decided that mine might just be waterproof already as it is made of ripstop nylon. It was raining the other night so I put a couple of things - a hoodie, a book and an envelope  - in and left it out on the deck overnight - ha! I’m good - everything inside was all dry and perfect still, in the morning! 

Did a drugstore run for my first aid kit - Voltaren, wild oil of oregano, cough drops, Advil, digestive aids, bandaids, foot powder, cold stuff, etc. It always seems difficult to find in a foreign country and if you need something, always good to have.

Hit the used bookstore for a couple of books that will cover me for at least the flight to Dublin and can be left behind. 

Broke my own rules already! The Airbnb we booked in Dublin for 4 nights is just under $300 CAD - less than half the price of the next best...it promises a private twin room with ensuite and separate entrance - fingers crossed!

and the secret ingredient is....

Last year when sister Janet and I were in Australia, I discovered these yummy eats – the original vendor in Manly called them figgy seed bars. I was in love with them! We later went to New Zealand and visited Janet’s friend’s brother whose wife made ‘Sticky Seed Flapjacks’ from a recipe book she had. They were close to the Manly bars but something was missing and when I told her I liked to hack recipes, she offered me hers as a starter.
Apparently Birdseed Bars are a thing in NZ - in one of our lodgings (they all had cookbooks, Jamie Oliver being the most popular) I found a recipe by Angela Langbein which I unabashedly copied!
 Back at home in Thunder Bay, I began experimenting.
Spoiler Alert – these are not a cheap, quick snack but they are well worth the effort. I made them several times over the summer, getting progressively closer but something was still missing.
When I was out in Vancouver last October visiting other sister, Marnie, I found a homemade style granola bar at Meinhardt on Granville Street – they call it their ‘Grind’ bar (why, I don’t know) – it was quite different and not exactly my favourite thing but there was just something about it that triggered the missing component for me – theirs did have an ingredient list and there it was, staring me in the face – molasses!
After many batches and trials, here’s my last version:
Figgy Nutbars
1 1/2 C chopped pitted dates
1 1/2 C chopped figs
1 C cashews
1 C hazelnuts or almonds
2 Tbsp molasses
3 1/2 C old fashioned oatmeal
1 C pumpkin seeds
1/2 C sunflower seeds
2Tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp sea salt
Preheat oven to 350F.
Roast nuts for 10 minutes.
Line half sheet tray (12” X 8”) with parchment.
Place chopped dates and figs in pot with 2 C water. Bring to a boil and simmer to soften. Take off heat and allow to cool slightly. Put into food processor (should now be about 4 cups). Add the molasses. Whiz/pulse 2-3 times – I like it chunky, so you still know there are dates and figs. Remove to large mixing bowl.
Put roasted nuts in processor bowl (no need to clean in between) with 3/4 C water and blitz till smooth. Add to date mixture.
In same processor bowl, put oats and salt and pulse about 1 minute to rough chop. Add 1/2 C pumpkin seeds, 1/4 C sunflower seeds and 1 Tbsp chia seeds and pulse for another 15 seconds. Add to date/nut mixture. Stir/mix by hand thoroughly.
Spread mixture in sheet tray to 1.5/2 cm. Sprinkle the remaining pumpkin, chia and sunflower seeds over and press down to set them into the mixture.
Bake for 35 minutes.
Cool for 1 hour before cutting into bars.

For more details and close-up photos check out my food blogpost at cooktasteyum.blogspot.com

Janet and I are off to Ireland at the end of May – we’d love for you to join us!