Looking over the Pond

Today (our last day in Ireland) is my 31st birthday, so Sarah surprised me with a great breakfast of scones and fruit. We're getting ready to go out on a drive and walk somewhere now. After three beautiful days, the weather is turning more typical, so we'll brace ourselves and go out into the wind and drizzle and enjoy the last full day of this trip. Tonight we're going out for a celebratory pint at a local pub.

Tomorrow we have an early flight back to the States. This adventure will switch gears at this point, with Sarah heading up to Minnesota to see her family and work on some various projects she's interested in doing. More on that later. I'm heading down to South America with my buddy Johnny B in a few days, so both Sarah and I are going to enjoy the few days at home in New Mexico by eating lots of good Mexican food and ice cream and spending time with my family, including my new little niece. Thanks for joining us on the adventure so far. It's been an amazing one!

-Matt! and Sarah

Dublin, Bray, and Wicklow Mountains National Park

Sarah and the rental car, Bray, Ireland

Wicklow Mountains at sunset through the car window

Wicklow Mountains, Ireland

The Mucky Duck, site of my birthday beer

the seaside village of Bray

Give that dog a red card! No fouling!

The cliffside walk from Bray to Greystones

Sarah and Matt on a hike

cute picture of Sarah

Matt at the Guinness Brewery

Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin

The Temple Bar neighborhood, Dublin

St. Stephan's Green, Dublin

Guinness. 

Believe it or not, we did actually manage to do some sightseeing while here. We took a day and went into Dublin on the train. The first strop in town was the Guinness Brewery (St. James Gate Brewery), since it was close to the station. This massive brewery complex churns out 2.5 million pints of Guinness every day. The brewery tour cost $21 per person, so we skipped that and simply went into the gift shop, Once there we were able to listen to the beginning of a tour, and could easily have gone on the whole thing without anyone noticing. A trip up to the restroom also let us see a couple more floors of the amazing multi-media extravaganza that is the Guinness Storehouse. We left feeling like we had done the tour anyway, and realized that really what people are paying for with their entrance fee was a $21 pint of Guinness at the bar at the top of the building. Guinness is a decent beer, but it isn't worth that much!

After the brewery, we wandered the streets of Dublin down to the city centre, where we ate out picnic lunch of soda bread, Irish cheese, and apples on the grounds of the Christchurch Cathedral, then wandered down through the manicured lawns of Trinity College and stopped at the bookstore and library where the famous Book of Kells is housed. After we left campus, we looped around to St. Stephan's Green, where people were out lounging in the sunny (!) fall weather. I bought the requisite fish and chips from a little place on the pedestrian shopping area of Grafton Street, then we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the site of St. Patrick's holy well where he supposedly baptized the "heathen" Irish. We walked back to the train station through the neighborhood called "The Liberties", where we found a small pub and popped in for a pint. It was pretty fun to drink a Guinness just down the street from where it's brewed (and best of all, it was only old-timer locals in the bar). Though Guinness is a mediocre beer as far as taste goes, it is certainly the most beautiful beer out there, bar-none. Watching a Guinness being poured is like watching someone create a fine work of art. 

After spending the day in Dublin, if I didn't know better, I would guess that the official language of Ireland wasn't English but was some Slavic tongue. We were blown away by how many Poles, Slovenians, and other Eastern Europeans have migrated to Dublin with the incorporation of their countries into the European Union. I would be willing to say that 3 of 5 people who were obviously local and not tourists didn't speak English as their first language. Very surprising.

Yesterday we put the car into use and headed down to the seaside community of Bray, just south of Dublin. Our goal for the day was to do the seaside cliff walk from Bray to Greystones. Once again, we lucked out with a beautifully sunny day, with a slight breeze coming off the ocean. The cliffs along Bray Head are nice and craggy, and held groups of European Shag and Great Cormorant, as well as Eurasian Oystercatcher and Great Black-backed Gull. There was a single Razorback off the coast at one point, and a migrating Whinchat in the cliffside heath. Once we'd hiked the seven kilometers to Greystones, we decided to hike back rather than catch a train. Once again, we were struck by the sheer number of languages being spoken by the people along the trail. This time, as we walked along the winding path along the cliffs, it provided an interesting analogy to our trip; we've wandered in a linear path through so many cultures and languages since we landed in China, and here we were seeing our trip in a microcosm. The diversity of this planet is stunning. I have to give Sarah credit for noticing this, since she was the one who made the observation.

Since the weather was so grand, we decided to drive the backroads back to Celbridge, and made a winding path south to Wicklow, then west through the Wicklow Mountains and up over Sally Gap. I had no idea there was such stunning scenery in Ireland. Up in the high heath, I felt like I'd driven right back to Alaska. The sun shining on the grassy mountainsides turned everything golden, and the green fields full of fluffy white sheep provided good counterpoint to the desolate gorse and heather higher up. Calling Ireland's hills "mountains" might be a bit of a stretch, but once you are up there, it's obvious the weather and topography makes it a tough place to live.

Irish hospitality

With this trip amazingly drawing to a close, Sarah and I set our sights toward Ireland, the last destination on our itinerary before we fly home. The reason we ended up doing this jump is that we were able to get extremely cheap tickets from Budapest to Dublin on Ryanair, a low cost airline in Europe. Flying Ryanair is a lot like riding the local bus -- the clientele is similar and the feel is the same. They don't do reserve seating (kinda like Southwest Airlines used to do), so there is a mad dash to push to the front of the line to get the best seats. But since our tickets cost $15 each (that includes taxes), I guess we can't complain. =)

The flight ended up being delayed for three hours (of course), due to a radar failure in London airspace that disrupted air travel all across Europe. This was going to be our one flight the entire trip that didn't require getting up early or staying up ridiculously late, but with the delay we didn't get into Dublin airport until 2am local time, which meant that by the time we were settled for the night, it was 4am by our clocks (and 3am locally). But, the Budapest airport was comfortable, the flight was smooth, and we had a great place to stay in Ireland, so all was well.

We have been looking forward to this part of the trip for awhile, since my friend Joan McDonnell has a house just outside of Dublin and graciously allowed us to stay during our four days in Ireland. She and her husband Joe live currently live in Phoenix, so we weren't able to actually see them, but it was great to have an actual home to stay in! Their son John was home from university for the weekend, so it was nice to meet him. The house is located out in Celbridge, about 15 miles west of Dublin city centre. It is a small village that has grown a lot in recent years as the city has reached out to engulf it. Nevertheless, there are wonderful green fields and woods all around and the town feels fairly rural still.

We had done a little research and found that it cost as much to rent a car for the duration of our Irish visit as it did to take a taxi one way from the airport to their house, so that's what we did! We could have gotten there by public transport during the day, but our flight came in too late to catch a train out of town (even before the delay). So we picked up our Nissan Mirca and I tried my hand at driving on the left side of the road. Luckily it was the middle of the night and I was able to practice without many drivers on the road. The rental car was a standard, and I was concerned that the pedals were going to be switched around and I'd have to learn to push the gas with the left and the gear shift with the right, but luckily, that wasn't the case. Irish roads are often poorly signed and very narrow with no shoulder, so this just adds to the excitement!

Though Joan wasn't in Ireland to see us, we have been very well taken care of by her neighbors, David and Cooleen. We arrived at the house to find the bed all made up, a fresh, home-baked loaf of Irish soda bread on the counter, and even some groceries in the fridge! And if that wasn't enough, they also invited us over for dinner the evening after our arrival. We were treated to a wonderful, multi-course spread of melon and prosciutto, wine, rack of lamb, ratatouille, garlic scalloped potatoes, a french cheese, and finally, tea and an almond tort. This was hands-down the best meal of our entire trip, and Sarah and I left their house after 4 hours hardly able to walk! Irish hospitality is a beautiful thing to behold. =) We will be forever grateful to Joan and Joe and David and Cooleen for making our stay in Ireland so great.

Hungary anyone?

a cool coffee machine, Budapest

Parliament, Budapest

A Common Quail that hit a window on the Royal Palace, Budapest

Sarah and Matt at the Royal Palace, Budapest

Sarah on top of Citadel Hill, Budapest

The former Nazi Headquarters which was later occupied by Russian KGB during the cold war. Now a museum.

The weirdest bike I've ever seen. How do you ride it?

Hungary is known for its chile too!

Sarah with lunch: a dark beer, strudel, and goulash soup.

Central Market, Budapest

Budapest at night

Janos, Sarah and Matt!

Part of a holocaust memorial on the side of the Danube River where the Nazis lined up prisoners and shot them so they fell in the river. They always took off their shoes first, so the memorial is dozens of cast iron shoes along the bank of the river.

Budapest

Budapest

After a wonderful (and cheap) stay in Vienna with Eva, we boarded a train for a three hour ride to Budapest, Hungary's capitol city. This particular train trip turned out to be one of the easiest travel days of our entire trip. It was nice to have an easy one after some of the hellacious journeys we've been on. =)

Budapest is another big city situated along the Danube River. It was originally two towns, Buda and Pest, until it grew up and was eventually connected by a bunch of bridges. Buda is the hilly side, and has a wonderful historical district and a royal Hapsburg palace perched above the surrounding city. Pest is flatter and more of a shopping and governmental district now. This city is definitely rushing headlong out of the years of decline behind the Iron Curtain, with massive infrastructure projects going on all over the city (new metro lines, building refurbishing, bridge maintenance, etc). It'll be a totally different city in 10 years.


We stayed with a man named Janos (pronounced Ya-no-sh), whom we found on http://www.couchsurfing.com/. For those of you who may not have heard of this particular website, it is a wonderful way to stay places when travelling. Members offer up a room or bed in their home to travellers, but at no charge. The idea is cultural sharing, making new friends, and simple good hospitality. After a stay, there is a rating system for both guests and couch owners, so the whole system stays honest, fun, and safe. We've hosted a few people in Tucson, and will likely do so again. Anyway, Janos was a real gem. Not only did he put us up, he also made dinner for us the first night and ate dinner with us each night we were there. On our last evening, he took us out on a driving tour of the city at night, which I must say is quite a sight. Janos has one of the more interesting jobs I've ever encountered. In addition to working on his PHD in Norwegian/European Union interactions, he is a translator for English and Norwegian TV shows into Hungarian (which is a pretty tough and weird language, frankly). His translations are used for both subtitles and dubbing. He does all the translating work for such series as Bones, the Amazing Spiderman (a cartoon), nature shows, etc. What a crazy job! He is also an avid traveller, and jets off to some interesting destination several times a year. He has been in every single country in Europe (including all the little ones, like Monaco) except Lativa and Malta (we're talking over 40 countries here, from Ireland to Russia, Kosovo, and the Ukraine). He's going to Lativa in a couple months, and if Obama wins the election, he'll celebrate with a ticket to Malta. Anyway, he was a really interesting, intelligent, and caring host, so we enjoyed our stay immensely.

Other than that, we basically spent three days walking all over the city (literally), crossing back and forth over the Danube and seeing the sights. We especially enjoyed the Central Market -- it was slightly touristy, but we were able to get cheap and tasty strudel in various flavors (sour cherry, apricot and cottage cheese, etc) and do some great people watching. There was a line of food vendors on a balcony overlooking the market where I discovered Dreher Bak (a great dark beer) and Sarah found some great creme cake, so we sat and watched all the locals chatting over pints before they headed home. Interestingly (to me at least), Hungary is famous for its chile and paprika (though they call them both paprika), so it felt a bit like home to see all the chile ristras and tourist shops selling goods with peppers printed on them. Just like New Mexico!

Oh, and I had one of the absolute best burgers of my entire life here, too.

One of the "must do" activities in Budapest are the thermal baths that dot the city. I contented myself with looking into a couple instead of actually bathing, because even at home I'm not particularly interested in soaking in hot pools. I'm not sure why, but I've never been a fan. Sarah had the public hot bath (Hammam) experience when she was in Morocco a couple years ago, so she wasn't ready to jump in either. The bath buildings themselves were really neat -- some are many hundreds of years old.

Our stay in Budapest was really great. I highly recommend a visit if you ever get the chance.

Weinerschnitzl

Hello from Vienna!

For the first time this entire trip, we entered familiar territory. I last visited this beautilful city in the winter almost twelve years ago, and Sarah was here about three years ago. This was an unplanned stop, but we decided that it was worth it to come here and see my good friend Eva Kuntschner.

Eva and I had last seen each other 7 years ago when she came to visit me in Las Cruces, so we had some catching up to do. We originally met in Minneapolis when we were both at school there about a decade ago (yikes, I am getting old!).

Eva graciously offered up her place to us, so we have spent the last couple of days doing typically Viennese things: drinking coffee in funky coffeeshops, going out for a nightcap and conversation at night (the current seasons drink is Sturm, young wine), and making meals at her downtown Vienna apartment. It has been pretty great. We did make some time to walk the old city districts, so we got our requisite sightseeing in. One new sight for me was the Hundertwasser house and art museum. Hundertwasser was a famous archtect, philosopher, and artist who believed in organic and curving structures, as well as bright colors and uneven floors. The neighborhood where he built a building according to his ideas is a neat site to visit. Sarah loves his work, so she was excited to go back and see it again.

The weather has continued to be cold, windy, and rainy, which encourages the sitting around in coffeeshops. Apparently, the weather was beautiful and warm here until last week. Of course.

We are backtracking a bit tomorrow and taking the train to Budapest for a couple days before our flight to Ireland.

I will write again from Hungary.
matt!


Sarah at McDonalds. Yes, we ate there. It was warm and cheap. Get over it!


Hundertwasser House, Vienna


Matt! and Eva at the street market, Vienna


Eva and Sarah, Vienna


Some important building, Vienna

Down for the Count!

Bla! Velcom to Dracula's hometown!

Sighisoara was a short overnight stop for us. It's a fortified hill citadel city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the heart of Transylvania, and so was worth a stop since we were in the area. The old part of the town is a small collection of towering spires of churches, old buildings, and graveyards. The whole place was a bit of a mess, since UNESCO funds are hard at work restoring and upgrading the historic area. We walked around the old town for a while and enjoyed the old town feel, and then spent the rest of the time we were there in the flatter areas of town and on walks into the countryside. The rain and wind and gray added to the Transylvanian atmosphere, but the hillsides were green, forested and beautiful.

We found a little Italian place for dinner that made great pizza (Romanians seem to love pizza).

One funny incident of note happened in the graveyard at the top of the hill. Keeping in mind where we are (Vlad Dracul's hometown), we were joking that the graveyard we walked into up there would probably be a creepy place at night. As soon as I made the comment, a little, short legged dog came trotting by us. Suddenly, about ten feet away, it started barking its fool head off at a gravestone! Needless to say, we jumped. It barked and barked at the gravestone, and then we finally figured out why: a squirrel had scampered up the tree behind the headstone. Ha! Great timing, little dog.

We are on our way to Vienna to see a friend next. It will be nice to have a little visit with someone familiar for the first time in four months.

Matt!

Matt! and Sarah, Sighisoara, Romania


Sighisoara, Transylvania


near the train station, Sighisoara


Reading a scary book, Sighisoara


The house of Dracula, jr.


old town Sighisoara, Romania


A graveyard


The citidel on the hill, Sighisoara


Cute Sarah in the Romanian countryside

Photos from Brasov and around

In Turkey boarding the train to Romania - We're in the Schlafwagen.


After no sleep in the Bucharest Train Station.


Beautiful Brasov, Romania


Genuine Romania -- a 2-Liter bottle of beer for 2 bucks-- that's a lot of beer after almost none for an entire month in Nepal and India.


Dinner in our room, Brasov


Sarah in Brasov


Sarah with the same bottle of beer and pizza for dinner!


A view of Brasov from the top of the mountain


Fall is in the air