Category Archives: Travel Musings

Getting Down in Galway

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

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On December 7, 2012, I took part in my first ever dance competition, the inaugural Galway Lindy Hop Championships!To be clear, I’m not a huge fan of competing in dance. As I mentioned before, I don’t dance to compete, and that was partially why I was never a huge ballroom dancer. I dance for the music and the company and the fun. So when my buddy in Kilkenny suggested we compete, I refused at first. Sure, part of it had to do with saving face; after all, in most of the videos I’ve ever seen from comps at lindy events in the USA, the dancers are shazam good. Like, really. And I knew I wasn’t at that level of anything. I’m not a conscientious enough dancer, I don’t pay enough attention to technique, yadda yadda. But he was persuasive, as was another friend, and they assured me it’d be a supportive environment. It’d just be for the craic, after all. So I caved.

And so it was that I found myself being bussed to the Connemara Coast Hotel with a bunch of other dancers, most of whom I’d met along my travels through Ireland. The venue was very nice; along the coast of Ireland, they had decked out the ballroom with a lovely banner and the floor was a nice, live wood. Seeing so many familiar faces from nights out swing dancing in Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny and Galway made me feel better, although I was still nervous as heck!

I had signed up for 2 events: Jack & Jill, which is where you don’t know who your partner will be until the dance itself, and the Open Lindy–often also called a “strictly”–where you choose your partner beforehand. I was dancing with Rory, with whom I’d be dancing basically for 3 weeks straight only a short time before.

They finally called my heat to dance, and I was wildly nervous. So nervous, in fact, that although I was given 2 great leads to dance with, I totally let my butterflies get the best of me and didn’t allow myself to follow, or be creative, or basically do anything right at all (at least, that’s how it felt.)

Disclaimer: For some reason, some of these videos may not be visible in the USA. I’m not sure why…so sorry in advance if you can’t watch some of them! Also, if you’re interested in watching the whole competition–including fabulous solo charleston, great up-and-comers, and more, you can do so here at the Galway Swing YouTube channel!
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Why I Love to Lindy

13 Thursday Dec 2012

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I love to dance. Evidence of this goes back pretty far, the proof of which is a 22-year-old VHS tape of a three-year-old me whirling around our family’s living room rocking out to “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. As a wee lass I did “creative movement,” but didn’t really do any formal dance classes until university, when I joined the ballroom dance team. Blame Disney for that one, too; I had always loved the idea of knowing how to waltz like Cinderella, and my Cuban roots instilled in me a love of Latin music, which is written specifically for hip-shaking.

From back in my ballroom days at a comp in Vegas…

Then, in 2006, I learned how to lindy hop. It kind of changed my life.

From the Tucson Lindy Bomb 2007, I think.
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Awards Night, or: The Night I Saw Jaime Lannister

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

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Ok, so my tendency to get starstruck is quite high. Maybe higher than a lot of other folks. Basically, whenever I see/meet a celebrity, I either just get so excited that I”m afraid I’ll pass out (Exhibit A) or I just become incoherent, like that time I met Seth Rogen.

That being said, I always pounce on the opportunity to embarrass myself, so when I found out Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, aka Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones, was going to be in Kilkenny for Subtitle, their first European film festival, I couldn’t resist trying to catch a sighting.

 No, I didn’t get a chance to see any films in the festival (to be fair, I wanted to but it never quite worked with my schedule).

 Yes, I paid 20 euro to watch awards being given to people whose work I hadn’t seen (sorry about that, again. I hear the festival was super.).

Yes, I felt like a bit of a poser. BUT, it was, as the Irish say, good craic. Some friends and I got gussied up, had a couple glasses of wine with some of Ireland’s finest (Jim Sheridan was there, whom I had to google but should have known), and enjoyed the awards ceremony, which was held in The Set, a really lovely theatre in Kilkenny.

My goal was to get a photo with the debonair Nikolaj. He arrived just before the awards began, and left almost immediately after. But not before I got a photo with him (technically) and ordered a drink at the bar next to him. Unlike my other undignified encounters with famous actors, I restrained myself. I didn’t interrupt him while we were at the bar as he chatted with one of the Romanian actors, but I did note that he had a Kindle in the same black case that I have. E-reader twinsies!

Here’s my photo with the Kingslayer.

Falling in Love With Fall

24 Saturday Nov 2012

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Ok, so those of you who know me well know I hate the cold. I’m a desert gal, after all, so for most of my life if the temperature dropped below 75 it was cause for me to bust out a sweater. “Winter” in Tucson was almost always mild, and it’d be a stretch for us to don scarves and hats most of the time. “Boot weather” is defined very differently where I came from than where I’ve been traveling lately, considering the fact that boots here are likely more necessity than fashion choice.

I think I have made a decision, though. I like fall. A lot. I might even love fall, which has stunned me at every turn. I joke to people when I tell them where I”m from that I sound like a little kid running around here. “Ooh, look at the leaves! PRETTYYYYYYY! They’re so COLORFUL!” and people just laugh and shake their heads, kind of like when Kat & I were traveling in Scotland and marveled at the plethora of rainbows overhead every other day.

So why this change of heart? A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. Here are a few to explain why autumn has seduced me.

Thanksgiving 2012 Conclusion

23 Friday Nov 2012

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Thanksgiving 2012 in Kilkenny

My third Thanksgiving abroad went swimmingly. I accomplished so many things that I normally do on Thanksgiving:

  • Spend time with family (even if it’s via Skype)
  • Cook! The menu I planned turned out even better than I anticipated! Rory ended up doing the green beans, too, as I was busy chatting away with my family, and everything we had was really delicious.
  • OVEREAT. Our original 4-person meal turned into a 3-person one, so there was plenty of food to go around! We did finish off the potatoes and gravy, but there are definitely leftovers for today, despite our best efforts. We gorged ourselves and it was grand.

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Thanksgiving 2012: Some pre-meal thoughts and thankfulness

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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From Thanksgiving 2007 in Orvieto, Italy

Thanksgiving at my family’s household goes something like this: get up in the morning, start prepping. We shoot for our Thanksgiving meal around 1 p.m. although we are not always successful. My dad has already prepared the chicken stock, and the pecan pies, and the task of the morning is to get the turkey done, as well as a pancetta stuffing and my sweet potato cheesecake. Cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents filter in at different times, all bringing dishes, some that have become part of our holiday tradition. The Thanksgiving Day Parade is on in the background (and after that, our favorite part, the National Dog Show).  We cook together and drink OJ–or mimosas, or just champagne–and I always enjoy the hustle and bustle of the kitchen.

We get to the table around 1 or 2, and often the weather is good enough to eat outside in our patio. Today the high is projected to be 82F, so I imagine that’s where they’ll eat today. (In Kilkenny, the weather forecast is grim: high of 48 and rainy.)

But today I won’t be there. This will be my third Turkey Day away from my clan. Twice before I was away in Italy, but still celebrated Thanksgiving with other Americans, friends and a real roast turkey.

Today I will be the only American. I am planning the whole meal and cooking most of it for three other people who have become my makeshift Kilkenny family. Rather than a turkey, I think we’ll do a roast chicken, and I’m going to shoot for a cornbread, some mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, some sort of cranberry relish and tiramisu for dessert. I’ll write another post to let you guys all know how my Thanksgiving panned out (ha, get it? Pan!).

Although I’ll miss my family today (and Betty’s cranberry-citrus relish, and that awesome corn souffle, and my dad’s homemade pecan pies with heaps of whipped cream), I am happy to say that I have so, so much to be grateful for. Here are the main things. (Huge sap alert, btw.)

I am thankful for my incredible family, friends and boyfriend, all of whom supported me on this crazy life leap. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to make, for me to quit my job to travel for the year. It meant–and still means–spending time away from people I love.  But all of them encouraged me to pursue this passion, and to have this experience now rather than waiting. No “shoulda coulda woulda” for this gal–at least, not yet. Thank you, and I love you.

I am thankful for my amazing and generous friends abroad who have put me up AND put up with me! It would have been a very different trip if I had not gotten to spend time with all my wonderful friends in Europe: Alba, who picked me up from the train station late at night and gave me a bed for my triumphant return to Italia, Bonnie and VP for hosting me (and Bon for giving me some more wardrobe options!), Maddalena & Pompeo for continuing to be my Roman family, Stephen & Jenny for allowing me to disrupt their move to Siena, Emily & Logan, who shared the road and the Tuscan countryside with me. Robin & Michel treated me to Alsace, even during their busy work weeks. I truly treasured being able to spend so much time with my dear friend Marijn and her boyfriend Tijmen in their lovely home in Amsterdam, and hanging out with Jobie, too. These were all friendships from before this year, but all of them were strengthened. Thank you, and I love you.

I am thankful for the fellow travelers I’ve met in passing who have brightened my experience. These are people whose names maybe I never even learned, who I shared a hostel room with or a bus ride or a drink. They are the ones with whom I’ve exchanged good conversation and will probably never see again. But I’ll remember them as being part of the fabric of my travels, and for that, I”m thankful.

I am also incalculably thankful for the people who started as strangers, and welcomed me into their homes and their lives without second thought.
I am continually blown away by the ceaseless generosity I have encountered in my life, and especially within the last four months. Whether I was traveling with Boris or with friends or alone, there have been people along the way who have given me a place to sleep, and food, and at every turn remind me how full of kindness and trust the world can be. Our wonderful host in Ankara, who gave up his bed for us and slept on the couch; Mehmet, our new friend and tour guide of that same city; the Halligan family, with whom I farmed and lived for a whole month in Umbria; the gals in Cork who told me I could stay as long as I liked; all the Irish swing dancers who have made me feel like part of their community, especially Michael, who took me surfing and dancing even though I burned the rice, and Rory, who hasn’t minded hanging out for the past couple weeks with a 25-year-old Yank who confuses Neil Diamond and Neil Young (and Anna, for watching American Horror Story with me); Becks & Tom, for the good craic & yoga & movie-watching & dance spotting.

 I hope that there will be more to come with these new friends, and that someday I can repay the hospitality and warmth that they showed me during my time away from home. They have all helped create new mini-homes and micro-families for me in new places, and for that, I am thankful.

Kilkenny Castle

12 Monday Nov 2012

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Today I took a bit of time to run over to Kilkenny Castle, one of the main attractions in my current town.

It was built in 1195 in Kilkenny, right on the river, and was initially home to the Pembrokes. At the end of the 14th century, the Butler clan bought it and owned it for more than 500 years; in the 1930’s, they immigrated to the USA and their family still lives in the Chicago area. The castle was sold  to the city of Kilkenny by the last Butler for 50 £ in 1967. 

 The castle itself was beautiful and old, and the exterior is a wonderfully haunting grey limestone. I’ll have to post photos later, as I went on a bit of a whim today and didn’t have my phone or camera.

The interior is grand and much had to be restored, because for 32 years the castle was uninhabited and dry rot corroded a lot of the building. They were able to restore the family’s drawing room to a replica, and their portrait and painting collection has been preserved, too. One of the cool pieces is a huge marble table in the reception room, which was also the family’s wake table where their deceased would rest for 3 days while family and friends would come and pay their respects.

My favorite tidbit I learned on the tour was about the “pole screens” that were in the drawing room. Basically, a pole screen is exactly what it sounds like: a little screen on a pole, often decorated, that was used to shield the ladies’ faces from the heat of the fire. They would use these to a) retain their ladylike complexions, and b) prevent their make-up, with a base of wax, from melting off. We get the phrase “saving face” from this. 

Cool, huh?

The other thing I asked about at the end of the tour was, of course, the ghost stories. I had this romantic notion upon coming to Ireland that I’d query every barman in the old pubs about ghost stories of the pubs and such, and so far have been disappointed. At Kyteler’s Inn, which should have some killer ghost stories,* the bartender just shrugged and said he didn’t know any. Lame. The guide at the castle, though, had a few tidbits for me. Here they are:

  • Unexplained whistling, especially in the west wing of the castle
  • Footsteps/sounds of running children, especially in December & January, coming from a locked room
  • Seeing a woman going down one of the corridors
  • This one’s the best: multiple people spread years apart have toured and said they’ve seen a man reading a newspaper in one of the bedrooms the tour group goes into.
The guide said that if they do have ghosts, they’re quite rude: they haven’t introduced themselves properly! 🙂
*The cool story  behind Kyteler’s Inn: Dame Alice de Kyteler was the first owner of the inn. She racked up a lot of dough and 4 husbands who all died under suspicious circumstances; after a while, she was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned at the stake. Her handservant, Pitronella, ended up dying in her stead and Dame Alice fled to England, never to be heard from again. Shouldn’t a place like that have some good stories!? The ghost of Pitronella wandering around, looking for justice for her wrongful death? 

Look What I Did Today!

21 Friday Sep 2012

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Can I please have a gold star now?I spent literally all day today (from about 9 a.m. after feeding the animals to 6 p.m., with the exception of an hour for lunch) working on building a new hut for the rabbit. I wrangled chicken wire, hammered, sawed, and even used an industrial-strength drill for the door hinges (with a little help on that item).

See how happy Rabby is in her new little home? 🙂

I’m quite pleased and proud of the work I did today! More coming soon about walnuts, chickens, and death at Happy Valley Farm.