irish castles

blarney castle

i think this post should be mostly about the photos...castles are one of the highlights of ireland...they're amazing, and they're everywhere...some are more famous than others, and some aren't famous at all...we were constantly driving by family castles in the countryside, and if i had been on my own, i would've stopped the car nearly every time...lol...i chose only a few photos for this post, but it would've been easy to post a whole LOT more...i took more photos of castles than anything else during the trip! but to most people, most castles probably look the same...most churches start looking the same after a while, castles do too...

kissing the blarney stone

blarney castle is a famous castle, because of the stone on top...the legend says that if you kiss the stone on the top of the castle you'll be given the gift of blarney...i kissed the rock...twice! the day we visited blarney castle was the only day we had rain during the entire trip...but that didn't stop any of us from having fun:)...everyone was pretty well wet by the time we got back in the cars, but it was worth it...and it was never a downpour, just constant rain...thank goodness for mostly water resistant coats!! i was more worried about my camera than anything, and it turned out fine...

bunratty castle dining room


bunratty castle was the 3rd castle we visited...it was the only castle in which we saw the inside of the castle the way it used to be...furniture was still in the castle, and it was easy to imagine how life would've been lived in the castle...bunratty castle had tons and tons of stairs, it was confusing figuring out which stairs i had climbed, and which rooms i had already seen...i don't know how effective that fireplace would've been back in the day, since castles always seem cold and damp to me, but who knows...


bunratty castle

 not only did bunratty have furniture and such inside the castle, but it is surrounded by a village...the village is set up the way a village would've been set up back then...small cottages of families who work in specific industries...a blacksmith, a baker, a post, etc...and farms...i loved watching the animals...the babies in particular, just because they're so cute! i got so wrapped up in taking different photos that i was the last person in the group to return to the carpark...whoops...hee hee...while on my way out i bought a couple chocolate bars...butlers chocolate, mint truffle...YUM...some of the best chocolate bars i've ever had...i knew straightaway that i needed to get more before leaving the country:)



carlingford priory

 obviously not everything in this post is a castle as such, but i put all ruins made of stone in the same album/post...
carlingford priory is in the town of carlingford, which is northeast of dublin...it's also just down the road from omeath village...we stopped at the priory while driving through carlingford on the way to finding our house in omeath...we knew we wouldn't be finding a lot of food options in omeath, so it was more as a way of figuring out the way carlingford was set up...i love ruins, and this one had a sign, so i was thrilled...the priory was built at a time when the church was more about amassing wealth than doing good work, and some people wanted to change that...the priory encouraged working with the poor and making other changes...i think...i have to double check my information photos...(i take photos of information boards, so i don't have to write things down, and use those photos later to remember stuff)...behind this main building was another area of ruins, we didn't know if they were part of the priory, or just other ruins in general...either way, i loved looking around and climbing, just as i always do:)...magan climbed up with me for a photo or two as well...


dunguaire


dunguaire was a castle we saw on the way to galway...while driving past we thought about stopping, but didn't see any place to park...on the way back from galway we figured out where to park, and everyone piled out of the cars...
go figure, dunguaire wasn't open...and we got the feeling it isn't ever open to the public, despite there being a specified carpark, and sign on the road pointing to the castle...hmmm...but that didn't stop us, or the other few people there at the same time from walking around the castle, and just enjoying the great day...the water you see in the photo probably looks different at different times of the day, depending on tide level...at least, that's what i am guessing...who knows...i would've loved to have known who lived here, and whether it was a family castle, or a lord's castle, or what...we were back in the cars after only about 30 minutes...

we visited hore abbey the same day we visited the rock of cashel...you can see it quite clearly from the rock of cashel, and i asked folks if they were up for it...there is no specific carpark for the abbey, we were actually wondering if it was even open for visitors...from where we parked, it looked as if the gates were closed...but they weren't, they were just the type of gates where you have to go around one gate and through...that probably doesn't make any sense, but the gates are made that way so that animals don't get through...and this being ireland, there are always sheep and cows everywhere you look...we were the only people at the abbey, and there were a few places we found to climb up for better views and photos...as always, the great weather made for awesome photos, as long as you got the light going in the right direction...lol...i did carwheels in the field, and ran around in general...i'm such a kid:)


rock of cashel

 the rock of cashel was the first castle we visited on the trip...not too far from dungarvan, where we were staying...you can see the rock almost as soon as you drive into the town of cashel, though the road most definitely does not go straight...they are doing majour reconstruction work on the rock, so the best photos are ruined by all the scaffolding set up on one side of the rock...there were paintings in the chapel of the rock, and preservation work is being done on those...after walking around for a while i thought i had seen everything, and got ready to go back to the carpark...then i saw one more little hallway, which almost looked as if it were blocked off due to construction...but it wasn't...it was just the hallway built by the construction people to get you into the chapel w/out ruining anything else...i hadn't seen the chapel, and was happy to go inside...it was damp, and according to the sign they occasionally close it off so they can do work with UV lighting...i guess the UV rays kill off the bacteria/mold growing on the walls, so they can actually get to the paintings...something like that anywho...

rock of cashel


on the same grounds as the rock of cashel was a graveyard...(in ireland they call them graveyards, not cemetaries...it's more accurate, don't you think? a yard full of graves)...i loved the lighting, and i loved the celtic crosses...i could only judge my photos based on what i could see on the tiny little screen on the back of the camera, oh well...several of them looked quite different when blown up on a computer screen...but it was still fun...standing in the shade also made my hands cold...the sun was bright, but since it was only the middle of march, it definitely wasn't warm...oh well...as we were leaving the castle, a couple other groups were coming it, so we figured it was perfect timing...it's so much more fun to wander around ruins and explore when you're the only one, or it's only your group:)

rock of cashel

irish cities

waterford

waterford was our first city in the land of the green...the rest of the group landed in the dublin airport the morning of st patricks day...immediately upon arrival we got our hire cars, figured out who was driving, and left the city...no one in the group is big into partying, and dublin would've been an absolute madhouse had we stayed to celebrate...we got to waterford in time to see the st patricks day parade, which was great...apparently every town in ireland has a parade on this day, and it was nifty to see the whole town come out to celebrate their national day...the parade was filled with costumed folks, and kids walking with their local activity groups...we watched the parade for a while, then wandered through town a bit...i don't know how long the whole parade was, or how many groups were walking, or how many people stayed along the parade route to watch the entire thing...apparently the weather that day was way better than normal, which probably accounted for some of the people who were out and about...it's a cute little town...i found cupcakes!! they weren't fabulous, but they looked fabulous, and i'm a sucker for good looking cupcakes!!

waterford

waterford is probably best known for waterford crystal...if you think you have waterford crystal, look at the bottom, and you should see the harp that is the symbol of the company...the factory is just outside town...at least, we think it is...the gps in the hire car didn't always work properly, so we weren't always sure where we were...we actually spent parts of two days in waterford, the second day was when we tried to find the crystal factory...we missed the last tour of the showroom building by only 30 minutes or so...argh...walking around the showroom was pretty impressive...it's a good thing i don't have the taste for waterford crystal, it isn't cheap!! i saw several items available for a measly 30,000 euro...even if i had gotten them tax free, that's still a whole LOT of money for pretty glass!! i liked some of the glasses, but would anyone really appreciate them any more than lookalike glasses you can get at target? probably not...then again, we all have different priorities when it comes to spending money...

cashel

another town we visited was cashel...we mainly visited to see the rock of cashel, which is on the edge of town, but lunchtime was also in the town...it's small, and i think i walked around most of it during lunchtime...while everyone else in the group went into restaurants to eat, i found a bakery, bought way too many things (they all looked good, and i'm terrible at saying no in bakeries, especially since the bakeries in korea are severely lacking) and kept walking...the weather was absolutely lovely, and i didn't know if we'd continue to have the amazing weather, so i figured i should take advantage...i found the local information board, which mentioned a few sights around town, and getting around was easy...i found several more bakeries (i always go in them, even if i'm already carrying something from another bakery!) and then moved on to the sights...there was a famine wall, a lady's well, a fountain, etc...since it was a small town, pretty much every sight was just a little thing with a little sign...i enjoyed seeing an old dominican abbey too...too bad the gates were closed...

cashel

this church was what i liked the best though...so colourful on the outside, and i loved the guy who came up to me in the carpark as i was taking photos, and told me about the church...needless to say, i've forgotten all of what he told me, but i loved hearing his enthusiasm for the church, and for the town in general...that seems to be typical of ireland, people love where they live, and they're proud of it...i don't often find that feeling...most of the time i get the feeling that people live someplace just because...i love meeting people who have that sense of happiness with life...the church was just as pretty on the inside as the outside...and the graveyard next door was full of celtic crosses...with the blue sky as background i tried to take a few arty sort of photos, but they didn't really turn out the way i hoped...one of these days i really need to look into getting a better camera...if only good cameras weren't so big...carrying around a big camera is no fun, especially when the rest of my life for five months fits into a pack and a day pack...anywho...

cashel

you see family castles all over ireland...usually they are in the middle of the countryside, kinda popping up in the middle of nowhere...you look out the window of the car, and boom, there's a castle...but in this case, it was in the middle of the street in cashel...go figure...this was a former family castle, it's long since been turned into a fancy hotel and restaurant...how awesome would it be to stay in a castle in ireland? (we're all constantly encouraging jon and kelley to get a move on it for buying their castle in ireland...then we can all say we've stayed in a castle!...i'm such a dork)...every street in cashel had this same sort of look...colourful buildings attached to each other...if i had had another hour or two, i would've continued wandering and wandering...i don't know that i would've seen anything in particular, but it really was a lovely day...and i was thoroughly pleased by the goodies i had picked up at the bakery...oh how i miss european bakeries on a regular basis...that right there is reason enough to find a way to move back to europe...western europe in particular...lol...

dublin

dublin...the capital city...this particular photo was taken from the gravity bar on the top of the guinness storehouse...again with the totally awesome weather...YAY!! during the entire trip we had rainy weather only once...that's amazing...everyone we talked to said we were incredibly lucky...apparently every year there is about a month of really good weather sometime in spring, and we were lucky enough to visit during that time...woo hoo!! we only had one day in dublin, of which the morning was filled with the guinness tour...if i go back to ireland, and i definitely want to go back, i'll make sure to spend more time in dublin...actually, if nothing else, i'll buy the guidebook for ireland...since this trip was all about kelley and jon, i had no guidebook...i barely had any idea where we were going each day until we got there...which is crazy, as i'm normally all about maps at the very least...at the brewery i was able to pick up a tourist map of the city, which helped enormously as i wandered around in the afternoon...i loved the parks, green spaces and open areas of the city...(partly because that isn't so common in seoul)...sport and family time is an important part of irish society, and it was neat to see that...

dublin

my first stop after the morning guinness tour was the old kilmainham gaol...it's an important part of irish history because of all the people who were held there during it's time as a functioning prison...many of the people held there were political prisoners, they were leaders in various irish revolution movements...at some point i'll come back to this post, and fill in more names...(someone is going to have to remind me to do so)...this photo is of the east wing of the gaol, which was a new wing...at the time it was built, it was the latest in architecture for gaols...all the cells could be seen by standing in the middle of the walkways...it meant that there didn't have to be nearly as many security people working at the prison...these walkways and stairs were only available to the wardens...the prisoners had a spiral staircase for their use...which was deliberate, as it's hard to move quickly going up or down a spiral staircase...all architecture in a prison is based on controlling the behaviour of the prisoners...controlling movement makes it harder for the prisoners to get together and cause chaos...

dublin

during the way we had to wander around dublin, i used the city sightseeing bus to get around town...it's 16€, and is one of those hop on hop off deals...i jumped on at guinness, went to the gaol, then went "downtown"...i don't know if the area is called downtown or not, but that's how i thought of it...dublin is the capital of the country, but after living in seoul, it felt like a small-ish town to me...not a lot of tall buildings, very few in fact...people walking all over...i walked into a couple big cathedrals, which i had to pay to do...i wasn't any more impressed with them than some of the other churches i saw in the country...the population of dublin is over a million people, and growing quickly...depending on who is measuring, and what exactly they're measuring, the population is expected to go over 2 million by 2020...

dungarvan

dungarvan was actually the first town in which we stayed...instead of booking hotel rooms for all of us for the entire trip, kelley and jon rented houses...kelley is great at doing research and finding good bargains...they paid far less renting the houses than they would've paying for hotels...finding the house in dungarvan wasn't so easy...we had directions, but they took us through what was part of the st patricks day parade route...to avoid that, we had to make a turn that wasn't in the directions...street signage in ireland isn't at all what we're used to in the states, so it wasn't easy to figure out what street we were on, even when following the directions!! at one point, we ended up part of the parade...whoops...one of the police guys monitoring everything directed us (and the car that had fallen in behind us) out of the parade...luckily, he directed us onto the street we were looking for, though we didn't know it at the time...eventually, we did find the house, and it was great...there were 6 bedrooms!! how awesome is that?!?! a huge kitchen, a huge dining room and lounge...we weren't far from the local supermarket, so it was easy to get food for dinner each night...one night we had spaghetti bolognese, and the other night magan made mac and cheese...sooooo good!!

fethard

on our way somewhere one day, we passed this little walled town of fethard...it's beautiful...a fully functioning walled town...there can't be many of those left in the world...and, it was beautiful...while driving by kelley realized that it would be a nifty kodak moment...since kelley doesn't like to be in photos, and insists that she is terrible at taking them, she doesn't often see these "kodak moments"...i was thrilled she saw this one...i think everyone enjoyed attempting to take picturesque photos...pretty much every photo was gorgeous, with this weather, and the beautiful town...us girls had fun goofing for a few photos, and at one point we got a picture of 8 of the 9 of us...yay for quick stops!!

galway

obviously kelley has spent time in ireland previously...she wanted the make the trip the best possible for all of us, so all the places we stopped were what she thought are among the highlights of ireland...i don't think any of us had done any research ourselves, we were all thrilled with everything we did...
while staying in miltown malbay, we went to galway for a day...it's a port town, not that i ever got to the port...whoops...it's supposed to have great seafood restaurants, i missed those too...for reasons that i don't want to explain in public, lori and i decided to join forces that day...and it was great...lori is jon's mom, she lives in oregon...we walked around together all day, and had an awesome time...we had salads for lunch at a little out of the way bakery...lori doesn't eat gluten, which limits a lot of what she can eat...since we hadn't been having many veggies as a group, both of us were thrilled with the salad option...over the rest of the day, i dragged her into nearly every bakery in the city...lol...it felt as though i bought something at every bakery...everything looked soooo good! we found a cheese shop, that also had yummy things like stuffed peppers and artichoke hearts and stuffed olives...well, i don't think olives are good...ever...but kelley loves them...lol...

galway

galway has a big, main cathedral...from the outside you can tell it's big, but the outside isn't nearly as fancy as other churches i've seen...the inside was great though, and i'm really glad we wandered around...the lighting was terrible at the time, and i wasn't able to get a good outside shot, and the picture above is the best i got inside...there is something about the little candles people light that absolutely fascinates me...i believe in God, but i've always wondered about praying for specific requests...how often do those requests come true? as the garth brooks song says, sometimes the best gifts are unanswered prayers...(though it usually takes a while to figure out that the unanswered prayer is actually the best option...these flags are the flags of the families of the area...i think...again, it was great to see so many people out enjoying the wonderful weather...

galway

i'd never seen a swing like this...lori had though, and knew what to do...it's basically a bucket that goes around and swings you upside down if you let it...that probably doesn't make any sense with this photo, but it was awesome...i was also slightly motion sick when i tried to stand up...lol...there was a small playground area as part of the square area that was the center of town...a lovely place to hang out...lori and i found the nearby tourist information office, and were able to pick up town maps, and come up with a plan of sorts to see what we could...galway doesn't have a lot of sights persay, but it has a lot of character...we stopped in several chocolate shops in addition to all the bakeries...and, of course, i bought postcards...when do i not buy postcards?!?!

miltown malbay

we stayed in miltown malbay when our next tourist sight was the cliffs of moher...our house in miltown malbay was small, there were some interesting room sharing situations...and those situations shifted after i discovered that chris wasn't the only snorer in the group...i slept a whole lot better after that switch occurred...
miltown malbay is a very small town, there is hardly anything to it...it was about a five minute walk to a little market where we picked up food for dinner...everyone was on their own one of the nights in MM, i think i ended up with a meat and cheese sandwich...the other night kelley and jon made tacos...yum...i definitely could've eaten more of those...again, i noticed most people in the group didn't help themselves to as many of the veggie options for their tacos...why not? one evening i went for a walk just because i could...the weather was still great, and i figured i should take advantage...i think all of us were expecting the great weather to end at any moment, so waking up every morning to a mostly blue sky was lovely...

miltown malbay

ireland is known for it's pub culture, so you would think we would've gone out more than we did...but we hardly went out at all...actually, there was only one night of going to a pub during our entire time in ireland...wierd...i'm holding a glass of guinness in this photo, just for fun...obviously, i didn't drink it...this night out was lori's idea, she said kelley and jon needed alone time...she made the plans and told the rest of us w/out telling jon and kelley...they were a bit confused to see the rest of us ready to go out, when they had no idea what was happening...hee hee...the night was fun...one of the locals in the pub decided to put inappropriate songs on the "jukebox" much to our amusement...big bamboo and did you ever get the ride are classics by seamus moore...(and i'd love to get them in mp3 form, we all laughed nonstop while listening)...i splurged and had a couple orange juices...lol...that's my idea of a big night out, in any country!

muckross

muckross was another place where we had trouble finding the house...it didn't help that it was long after dark, and we didn't have specific directions...in the end, we called the guy, who was able to see our car lights and directed us right to the house...we had a photo of it in the daylight, but didn't know how it would appear in the dark...we didn't know for sure which side of the road we needed, how far it was off the road, etc...this ended up feeling like the biggest house...the kitchen was GINORMOUS...it took a while for the boys to figure out the heating, but the house warmed up nicely...

muckross

both of these photos were taken in the morning...i ended up waking up earlier than most people in the house, and morning seemed to be a quiet time for everyone, regardless of who woke up when...these clouds came in fast, and for a while i wasn't even able to see the mountains/hills behind them...this was the view from the front of the house...from the back of the house we had other great views...if i lived there i'm not sure i'd ever want to leave the house! the only other time i've felt that way was in jill and howard's house near urenui, new zealand...

omeath

omeath was the last place we stayed...it's a small village just down the road from carlingford, which is a small town to begin with...the house at omeath had the fewest bedrooms, but somehow we made it all work anywho...it also had a balcony, so the guys smoked cuban cigars out there one night...ewww, gross...we played a lot of uno in that house...actually, the group played uno quite a few nights...since i'm one for going to bed early, i missed most of those nights, but i did play one night in omeath...that game has the potential to go on and on and on!! our first night i went for a walk before dinner...the weather was a bit chillier, but still sunny, and i liked being out during the sunset time...

omeath

there is a beach of sorts near omeath, and i loved sitting and just watching the water...i'm a swimmer at heart, and probably always will be...water will always put my mind to rest...i would've stayed out there for way longer, except that it was getting pretty chilly...
omeath was where we stayed during the last couple nights in ireland...by that point we were all saddened to realize that the trip was almost over...i loved it all, and have to figure out a way to get back someday!!

cliffs of moher

when kelley and jon were originally planning their wedding, they wanted it to take place at the cliffs of moher on the west coast of ireland...for several reasons, that didn't happen...but they still made it a point to visit the cliffs during the trip...it's kelley's favourite place in the whole country...

and i can see why kelley likes the place so much after seeing it myself...it's amazing...the cliffs are straight down, and you can see the sedimentary effect that created them over the years...you can also see the water crashing at the base of the cliffs...i'm pretty sure i could've watched the water for hours and hours, though that would've been pretty chilly...

you can also feel the wind...which is crazy strong...you don't get to go anywhere near the edge of the cliffs, though apparently one or two people still fall off and die each year...you don't actually get to walk along much of the cliffs at the area we visited, a good portion of the cliffs are on private propery...the cliffs go on for five kilometers or so, i don't know if there are any other spots to see them...

at first, i respected the "don't go past here, it's private property" sign...i turned around, and went to investigate the visitors center...but when i came back out, to see the sunset, i saw that quite a few people had gone past the sign...so i did too...i probably shouldn't admit that, but i did...and the photos were amazing...

irish alcohol

bunratty mead

the most green country i've ever seen, ireland is known for alcohol, and it's drinkers...it's not that all irish alcohols are fantastic, or that all irish are alcoholics, but it's definitely a strong part of the culture...kelley and jon had their actual wedding in an irish pub in bloomington, indiana...this mead is what they served at their wedding...mead is honey based wine, created originally by irish monks...after a wedding, couples were given enough mead to toast themselves for one full moon, usually about a month...hence the term we all know and love "honeymoon"...references to mead have been found in writing all the way back to the 5th century, and there are a bunch of stories of miracles occuring with mead involved...one of the castles we visited during this trip is bunratty castle, which has it's own winery just down the road...not only did they have mead, they had their version of moonshine, which apparently is now legal to export, according to the label...not surprisingly, the drinkers in the group were happy to have samples of both the mead and moonshine...hee hee...

the name of heaven in a glass...who doesn't know  of this amazing meal in a glass? the first time i ever drank it i lived in garmisch, germany...not surprisingly, i drank it at an irish pub...guinness...it's thick, dark stout...jon not only brews his own beer, he grows his own hops, one of the main ingredients in beer...since he's interested in anything beer related, of course he signed all of us up to take the brewers tour at the guinness storehouse in dublin...the guinness storehouse is open to the public, but the great majourity of people take the regular tour, which is self guided...you're greeted by a staffer, handed the recording gizmo, then sent on your way...the building is 7 stories tall i think, the top floor being a bar called zero gravity...obviously, it's not really zero gravity, but the views almost all the way around are amazing, especially on the day we had, with ridiculously fantastic weather...

we were met on the first floor by our guide...since we were signed up for a special tour, that meant we had a guide walking with us the whole way...we still wore the headset gizmos, it was much easier to hear him that way...the building was designed by a chicago architect, (or maybe it was based on chicago style architecture? i don't remember exactly, other than the word chicago was said...in a fantastic connection sort of way, chicago is likely the city in which jon and kelley will live for a while after jon gets his degree)...the guinness storehouse building is shaped like a draft glass inside, or so we were told...i don't have a lot of imagination, so i didn't really see it, but i think everyone else in the group did...i'm so lame...
i don't remember the name of the guide, whoops...he was blonde, and young, and if i remember correctly, not originally from dublin...guinness is now owned by an international conglomerate called diageo...other well known brands they own are jose quervo, smirnoff, bailey's, johnnie walker, captain morgan, gordon's, hennessy, and a whole lot more...the identification tags worn by the staff of guinness are on diageo lanyards...i don't know when the sale occurred, though he probably told us...until that sale, guinness had been a family operation for several generations...

the first thing the guide showed us was a replication of the lease contract originally signed by the family...the lease length is 9000 years!! i don't think it's possible to get a lease for that long now...the company doesn't know how that length was decided, but it's pretty nifty...obviously, they'll be around for a long time to come...and based on profits and such, anyone related will be very wealthy...
it turns out that the guiness we all now and love now isn't what the company originally started out making...they used to make a lighter lager...porter is dark because it's made with roasted barley...i think...it was originally a drink that was drunk by porters running around the city...guinness discovered that they really liked it, and were willing to pay for it...so guinness switched from the lighter lager to making porter full time...obviously, it was a good choice...too bad i only drank guiness for four short years of my life...come to think of it, i didn't start drinking guiness until i moved to germany, so i drank it for less than 3 years total...sooo much yumminess i've missed out on over the past 7+ years...yup, it's been over 7 years since i've had alcohol...WOW...

what many beer drinkers call heaven in a glass has just a few basic ingredients...barley, hops, malt, yeast and water...some of the barley is roasted, which is what makes guiness so dark and yummy...according to the guide, if you lift the glass up to the light it's actually dark red, not black...during the tasting session everyone did this, and surprise surprise, it is red:)...the water used all comes from one specific river, of which i can't remember the name off the top of my head...the company uses eight million liters a day!! eeeeeek!! this river is said to be clean and obviously that's a necessity for good beer...the ingredient to which i'm allergic is actually added last, i've forgotten why...(i have it written down in a little notebook, and will fix this part of this entry when i have time)...i wonder how different it would taste if the yeast wasn't added? hmmmm...maybe i can suggest it to guinness and see what they do? oddly enough, the hops guinness uses isn't grown in ireland...if i remember correctly, it's grown in the states!! jon grows his own hops, he's got it going up and down the side of his house...maybe he can start selling to guiness? hee hee...

the guide told us how each step of the brewing process goes...none of it meant much to me, obviously...from start to finish the process is about 10 days...there are specific temperatures for specific steps of course, and ideally the beer is drunk as soon as possible afterward...according to the guide, guinness really does change day by day...also according to the guide, new zealand and australia are too far away to send guinness draught, as by the time it would get there it would be past the drinking date...i kept meaning to ask, but does that mean there is no guinness on tap in aussie and nz? does anyone know the answer to this question?
guinness is ideally served at 6 degrees celsius...i don't know how that exact temperature was figured out...
one of the parts of the tour the guys in particular enjoyed was the tasting session...in the states we don't get all the types of guinness, but i don't remember why...i also don't remember the exact differences between the different types...probably since i can't have any of them, why would it matter to me? hee hee...everyone got to taste guinness extra stout, extra foreign stout (that isn't available in the states) and of course after pouring it, guinness draught in a glass...i'm sure people had a favourite, but again, i wasn't paying that much attention at that point...

my favourite part of the tour was learning how to pour a proper guinness...who knew it was so specific? (probably everyone who has ever bartended at an irish pub anywhere in the world)...a perfect pour takes 119.5 seconds...or so we were told...you have to put the glass at a 45 degree angle, and pour till it reaches a certain point by pulling the handle toward you...when it gets to the middle of the harp that's enough, and you put it on the holder thingy to wait until the "waterfall" effect is done...when that's finished, you put it back under the tap, and by pushing the tap forward, you top it off...pushing the tap forward means less gass comes out with the beer, and this is how you get the perfect head...even though i couldn't drink, i still learned how to pour...needless to say, it wasn't hard to find a volunteer to drink my beer...hee hee...i even got a certificate saying i had finished the "class" and passed...

the tour ended up on the 7th floor, in the bar they call zero gravity...you can see out over most of dublin, and since the weather was great, we could see for a long way...out of curiosity, i asked one of the bartenders how many pints she pours on an average day, she said 2000...and that's just her...i think i saw 3 bartenders? she said on st patty's day she alone poured 4000 pints...that's a LOT of beer!! apparently the place was absolutely crazy...which isn't at all surprising...i used my ticket to have a glass of sprite...with a lemon! that's about as crazy as i'll ever get:)

ireland is also known for whisky...according to the people in the jameson distillery, it was irish monks who originally taught the scots how to make whisky...i never drank whisky even when i could drink, it's not sweet enough for me...but i was still excited to go on the tour...at some alcohol event in the states, jon had scored tickets for free tours for all of us from a jameson representative, which was pretty fantastic...he had enough tickets that we all could've done the tour twice...hee hee...in addition to brewing his own beer, jon also judges beer contests, and has met a lot of interesting people that way...

we arrived in midleton at 0930, before jameson even opens...(is it wrong that we were at both jameson and guinness before 10 in the morning? some people would say that qualifies our group as a bunch of alcoholics:)...so to kill time we stopped at a farmers market...cheese, chocolate, fresh baked bread, organic veggies, what else could a girl want?

jameson was actually founded in dublin, but has been distilling in midleton for quite some time...the very original distillery in dublin is now open for tours, but it's not nearly as big as the distillery in midleton...in midleton we toured the old distillery, as the new distillery is where ALL guinness is produced now, and it's a whole lot more modern...plus, they're never going to show tourists the actual place the stuff is produced...that would be sharing secrets, or at least the potential would be there for that to happen...
the reception area is full of jameson bottles, and there is even a little bar set up...you can walk into the gift shop, which of course is full of jameson stuff in general...golf bags, polo shirts, different types of jameson, golf tees, postcards, just about anything you could dream of...i think some of the boys started salivating just by walking into the gift shop, lol...

our tour guide met us in the reception room, and took us into a theatre where we watched an introduction sort of video...it told the basic story of how jameson became a company...an irishman a few years back decided that he wanted to be a success, and decided to go for it with making whiskey...it's a process that takes quite a while, so he was putting his life on the line, with no guarantee of a return...obviously, things worked out pretty well...i don't remember when the distillery moved from dublin to midleton, but now all jameson is distilled in midleton...our tour was of the "old" distillery, the modern, "new" distillery is right next door...for the same reasons as with any other majour name brand, we didn't get to tour the current distillery...which is okay, i'm sure the story was way better by walking around the old distillery...
our guide then took us outside, and started the tour...the main ingredient in whiskey is barley...part of it is slightly sprouted to make something else, which is also really important...our guide told us some of the biggest differences between irish and scotch whiskeys, naturally there is a rivalry...irish whiskeys are distilled 3 times, whereas scotch whiskeys are only distilled twice...(the irish say their whiskeys are more pure)...also, when the barley sprouts into the something else, that happens because it's being heated...the scotch provide the heat with anthracite, and don't block the grain from the smoke, so it picks up the smokiness, which apparently comes through in the whiskey itself...the irish use something else as a heat source, and block the smoke, so the grain just sprouts, but doesn't pick up the smokiness...

i could bore you with the details of the whole process of whiskey making, but it's really only interesting if you are walking through the distillery...we got to see the original distiller, which is huge...the whiskey is distilled three times, which leads to a higher alcohol percentage each time...after the third distillation, it's put into casks...curiously, these casks come from other countries, not ireland...each country that makes the casks has used them for something else, a different type of alcohol i think...they're also made from different types of woods...
the whiskey is put into the casks, and stays there for a minimum of 5 years...considering all the whiskey produced, i wonder how they have room to store all those casks!! in the above picture you can see what the whiskey looks like immediately after the 3rd distillation, then after a few years, then more years, and so on...the third cask is what is sold as normal jameson...the whiskeys that are aged longer are also sold, for a higher price, as better quality whiskey...since i wasn't a whiskey drinker even when i did drink, the differences don't mean anything to me, but to people who like the stuff, the longer it's aged, the better...
after that room, the tour was over, and we ended in the bar...8 people in our tour group were chosen to be part of a whiskey tasting...they got to taste the differences in scotch, irish and american whiskeys...since jon had arranged the tour for us in the first place, and he was a new groom, we made sure he was in the tasting group...he had fun...

 

part of our tour tickets included a free drink in the bar...obviously, most people have jameson...straight, on the rocks, or with a mixer...out of curiosity, i asked the bartender two questions...one, how do most people take their whiskey...straight...and two, what is his favourite drink...i was saddened and disappointed to find out that he prefers budweiser over everything else...of all the choices he has, he chooses budweiser?!?!

the last picture is of the bottles of midleton rare...it's jameson, but has been aged at least 15 years, maybe as much as 25 years...each year the master distiller chooses a batch that deserves to be sold as midleton rare, and only 35,000 bottles are sold...each bottle is numbered...jon and eric and andrew tried a shot of midleton rare, and loved it...jon bought a bottle...it's not cheap stuff, at 129 euro a bottle!!

you might say i'm obsessed...

this is not the first post i've written about tombs in seoul...and it probably won't be the last...as one korean friend (a classmate from primary school!) noted recently, i've probably seen more tombs than most koreans...when i tell koreans which tombs i've seen, they're usually quite surprised, if they even know what i'm talking about...i love the tomb areas because they're peaceful, and i can learn a bit of history...

there is a map of all the tombs in one of the brochures i got at an earlier tomb, and until i saw that map, i had no idea how many tombs there are in seoul and around...TONS!!...something like 42 different tombs, when each complex is added up...i've had fun crossing them off as i get to each one...(yes, i know, i'm a geek)...some of them are closed to the public, so i'll never get to all of them...

anywho, this sunday i again had the best of intentions in terms of what time i wanted to leave my apartment...buuuuut, again, that didn't happen...what is it that makes it so hard for me to get out before noon? i'm awake long before then, and ready to go long before then, but it still doesn't happen...

this time i picked two tomb areas, both in seoul...at least, that's what i thought...i thought they looked to be relatively close to each other...not surprisingly, i was wrong...oops...i forgot that the subway lines definitely don't go straight, and that buses don't usually come as regularly as subway trains...

my first complex had two tombs...to get there i was supposed to get to a certain exit of a certain subway station, then look for three different buses...but when i got to that exit, none of those buses came to that stop...at all...argh...you'd think the information would be correct, but i have now been to at least three tombs where the bus numbers have been incorrect...is it really that hard? anywho, i started my korean reading again (slow as, but hey, i'm trying) and figured out a bus that would take me where i wanted to go...the bus ride was longer than i expected, and into an area of the city that isn't so commercial...fortunately, the route map and the announcements matched up, as well as the signs on the street, so it was easy to figure out where/when to get off the bus...then all i had to do was follow the street signs to get to the actual complex...thankfully there was a bridge to cross the street, as it was a highway...a few hundred meters down the road i passed the tomb keepers house (not in the actual complex itself, unlike other tomb keepers houses i've seen)...i haven't yet gone into one of these houses, i'm not sure if i'm supposed to...heck, i don't even know if anyone lives in these houses, or just if someone used to...

my first tomb complex of the day was called hoeilleung...two tombs...heolleung and illeung...and i love this area...the ticket guys were nice, to start with...as i walked through the gate to illeung, i noticed a little girl and her grandmother...holding hands, walking around, the grandmother appearing to teach the little girl...(at least, that's what it looked like to me)...it was just cute...on the right  side of the hill i saw a staircase...yahoooo!!! it was obvious that you're supposed to walk up those stairs to get close to the tomb area up at the top of the hill...this was the first time i'd seen such stairs, normally it doesn't seem like you're supposed to go anywhere near the top of the hill, nowhere near the actual tomb itself...at the top of the staircase is a wider, boardwalk sort of area...again, it's obvious you're supposed to stay there and look at the tomb...i was happy to be close enough to the tomb that my camera could zoom and get a good photo of the soldiers and ministers and animals in front of the tomb...the wall around the tomb is obviously in great shape...the trees behind the tomb were actually a bit behind the tomb, not right up on the wall...seeing that made me happy, as i realized i could get a photo from behind the tomb, which is a viewpoint i like just as much as right in front of the tomb...there was no obvious exit from the viewing platform on which i was standing, but i knew i could step over the little ropes...hee hee...

as i turned around to get closer to the ropes and go over them, i heard a little voice...it was the little girl, offering me a cracker!! how cute is that?!?! i knew the grandmother had told her to do so, but the fact that she did was really impressive...she wasn't afraid of me!! kids cry or turn away from me all the time, partly because i'm big, and partly because i look different from anything i know...anywho, i was happy to take a cracker...in my really broken korean, i asked her if she liked crackers, and she said she did...i was pretty excited that she understood me, and didn't just look at me like i was a freak...(come to think of it, kids often understand me, even though i know i'm not using proper grammar, it's the adults who don't have a clue)...the grandmother wanted to take a picture of the two of us together, and i was happy to do so...of course i asked her to take one with my camera as well...obviously, she isn't exactly smiling, but she is making that V symbol so many asians make in pictures...i wonder what that's all about...when the teachers at school tell the kids to make that symbol, they say "vwee"...(the korean language doesn't actually have a V sound, they only have a B sound)...after the photos she offered me another cracker (of her own volition this time i think:) then she and grandma said goodbye and started walking back down the stairs...

i let them get halfway down before stepping over the ropes...hee hee...i could tell i wasn't the first to do so, the grass was matted down, and i could see a few footprints...i stayed in the trees, and walked behind the tomb...some of the trees had even been cut down, it didn't feel nearly as foresty...the place i ended up standing to take my photo was actually the remaining stump:)...the view from the stump was perfect...i could see everything, and it was high enough up that the different parts of the tomb didn't block each other out in the photo...(i can't believe i thought about that, and actually wrote it!)...i couldn't figure out if it was "forbidden" to be back there, but i didn't want to push it...by the time i got back down to the viewing platform area there were a bunch of young guys (i'm thinking upper high school age?) there, who all gave me a funny look...which i pretended to ignore...i don't know if the funny look was because i was clearly not inside the 'boundaries' or because i am a foreigner and i was at a place you don't see a lot of foreigners...i should mention that i've never seen another foreigner - white person, that is - at any of the tombs i've visited, except for when i was with cory)...i calmly walked back over the rope, and down the stairs...

illeung is the tomb of two people...i think it's the first time i've seen two people buried in the same mound...king sunjo and queen sunwon...sunjo ascended to the throne when he was only 11, his grandmother ruled "behind the veil"...he took over direct rule when he was 14...i wouldn't think that old enough to rule a country, but who am i to say...he died in 1834 at the ripe old age of 44 or so...(i could be totally wrong on this)...this tomb was originally in the town of paju, northwest of seoul...it was moved in 1856, and the queen was buried in 1857...
a side note: the soldiers and ministers in front of illeung all look different because they were created by different artists...
while going from illeung to hoelleung, i walked through a wooded area, full of alder trees...apparently the city thinks they're so beautiful that the area was designated an ecological reserve by the city...
hoellung is a double mounded tomb...buried there are king taejong, and queen wongyeong...he was the 5th son of king taejo...he got to be king because he fought with his brothers...while king, he made royal authority stronger by getting rid of privately organized militias, and making ministers report directly to him...(to whom were they reporting before?)...he also moved the capital of the country from gaegyong (i don't know where this is) to hanyang (which is now called seoul)...
there was another set of stairs, this time on the left side...at the top, there was a gate, which was open!! AND, there was a guide sort of guy in the tomb area, talking to three people...i was thrilled to see this, it was obvious i could go in the area and look around...i could get really close to the animals, the people, the tombs themselves...woo hoo!!! i was actually able to walk down the hill back to the red pointed gate, i didn't have to go down the stairs!! i didn't do that, but i saw a korean family doing so...the building that normally has the stele of the person in the tomb had turtle thingies...the door was open, i could walk in there as well...yahoooooo!!

i took a different bus back to the subway station, rode the trains to a different stop, and took another bus...when i started the day i thought the two areas i wanted to visit were somewhat close to each other, this is when i found out they weren't at all close...the bus ride was a LOT longer than i thought...and the announcement for the stop i was expecting wasn't the name that i expected...again, thank goodness for reading street signs...
my second tomb area is called donggureung...as far as tomb complexes go, it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest...9 tombs total...
as i walked toward the entrance, i passed the kids played by the ginormous ice tower...i thought the kids were cute and all, but i was more fascinated by the huge block of ice...i couldn't figure out how it got there, in that particular shape...maybe there is something under the ice that i can't see?
the entry price for donggureung is the same as every other tomb complex, even though this complex is so much bigger...in total there are 17 kings and queens of the joseon dynasty buried here...the tomb complex was built after king taejo died, and was originally called dongoreung, then dongchilleung...when i walked in, i took a picture of the map of the area because there are so many tombs and i wanted to make sure i saw all of them, even though i knew they'd all look generally the same...i am SUCH the geek...i also wanted to make sure i didn't get lost...(i'm always terrified of being lost, even though it doesn't happen easily in the city)...i decided to start on one side, and make my way to the other, which ended up being a really convenient route...
i went first to sungneung, the tomb of king hyeongjong...and his wife, queen myeongseong...according to the brochure, he's the only joseon dynasty ruler not born in korea...he was born while his dad was being held hostage by the manchus in china, as they were invading korea...he made the military stronger, and cleaned up the financial system of korea, which had been screwed up by fighting wars with both china and japan...

the next tomb was hyereung, the burial place of queen danui...she wasn't a queen when she died, she was only crown princess...her husband, king gyeongjong (the 20th monarch of the joseon dynasty) didn't sit on the throne until 1720, she died in 1718...i couldn't tell when she "received" her posthumous title...was it while he was king?
my third tomb in this visit is called gyeongneung...the only triple mounded tomb in all of the joseon dynasty...i was keen to see this one, just cause it's a little different from the others...but as it turned out, i wasn't actually able to see all three mounds from any one vantage point...gutted...i could see each of the side mounds, but not the one in the middle...and there was a very clear set of fences along the bottom of the hill, so it was obvious i couldn't walk up anywhere to get a better view...i tried to see the hill behind, to see if there was a vantage point for a photo, but i saw nothing...argh...anywho...king heongjong succeeded his grandfather to the throne at the wise old age of 8...his grandmother ruled from 'behind the veil' until he was 15...in one of the mounds is his first queen, queen hyohyeon, who died after only 6 years of being queen...the next year he married queen hyojeong, who lived 50 years past her husband...she's the other mound...the tomb was actually created as a tomb for queen hyohyeon in 1843, and her husband was added in 1849...then queen hyojeong was buried there 50 years later...i wonder who decided to bury her there? as a ruler, king heonjong built damns in each province, and published a few books...believe me when i say none of the titles sound very interesting...

the next tomb in the complex was called wolleung...the tomb of king yeongjo (21st monarch of the dynasty) and his second wife, queen jeongsun...he lived a looooong time, and was the longest ruling joseon king...according to the literature, he was fair, and treated all of his subjects well...(i'm pretty sure that even if the truth were the opposite, that's what would be written...in any case, negative things would never be written)...he wasn't the direct heir to the throne, at least that's what i understand...he was the 4th son of his father, and only came to the throne after the death of his half brother, king gyeongjong...considering how many kings died young, it's a good thing there were multiple wives and kids!!

his second wife (queen jeongsun) on the other hand, i would call a modern day gold digger...she was only 15 when she married the king after his first wife died...taking a second wife wasn't at all unusual, in fact i'm sure it was expected...but she was 15 and he was 66!! she only lived to be 60 years old!!...a 50 year age difference is ridiculous, in any society...(maybe that's just me, but i thought i'd put it out there)...not only did she marry the "old" king when she was so young, she was a majour influence in having his heir, crown prince sado killed...(crown prince sado was killed by being locked in a chest full of rice, how awful is that? the chest - or a likeness - is on display at changyeonggung, one of the palaces in seoul)...the next king was king sungjo, who ascended the throne at a young age, so she got to be dowager queen...apparently, she had "excessive" influence...it sounds like modern day historians (well, at least the people who write these brochures) didn't like her much either!

from there i walked to the tomb of queen jangnyeol... i think the pronunciation would be jang-nyeol...she was the second wife of king injo, the 16th king in the dynasty...of the jo family, she married the king in 1638, and became queen immediately...the brochure said she was "chosen" to be queen...who did the choosing, and how did they do so? i'm sure there were a number of families from which "acceptable" daughters could be chosen, i'm curious about the selection process...presumably, that sort of information isn't easily found for foreigners like me, who aren't real historians...i wouldn't know where to look, or who to ask, even if i did read/speak korean at an acceptable level...anywho...the brochure also says she was installed as queen...i wonder what the queen installation ceremony was like? obviously there wasn't nearly as much pomp and circumstance as there would be for a new king, but was there any? were there special costumes to be worn? were there a lot of people involved? she didn't have any kids with the king, which must have been rough...in those days, a measure of a woman's success in life (particularly a queen's success) would've been in producing an heir to the throne...even now, when the korean birth rate is one of the lowest in the whole world (barely over 1) it's still important to have a child...she became dowager queen at age 26 (can you imagine me having already been queen for 6 years?!?!) and lived through four more kings...it must've been a somewhat lonely life, as not many people lived that long back then...it doesn't mention whether she attempted to have any influence in the politics of the dynasty after her husband died...

the next tomb on the course was that of king taejo...he's pretty important...REALLY IMPORTANT...he founded the joseon dynasty...he was a general in the previous dynasty, the goryeo dynasty...he founded the new state in what is now kaesong, north korea in 1392...two years later, he relocated to what is now seoul...when he first founded the new dynasty, i don't know what the name was, he didn't give it the joseon name until 1394...he tried to get along with china, and encouraged agriculture...apparently the golden rule lessons didn't click with his sons, as they fought quite a bit...they fought so much he stepped down from the throne in 1398...he returned to his hometown, devoted himself to buddhism, and died in 1408...the grass on top of his tomb is said to come from his hometown, which apparently he missed very much when he wasn't there...pampas grass...it's the only joseon tomb to have such a covering...there are fences at the bottom of the hill to his tomb, so i couldn't get up close for a good photo...my zoom worked well enough, i suppose...when i first walked to this tomb i thought it hadn't been well taken care of, and just looked sloppy...at first i didn't know it was a special type of grass on top of the mound!

since i was being rushed out of donggureung by that point, i rushed through the last couple tomb areas...the first was hyeolleung, the tombs of king munjong and queen hyeondeok...two tombs, on two separate hills, with only one gate and one shrine...i liked the way it is set up...king munjong was crown prince for 29 years before sitting on the throne...during those years he focused on his academics (i guess the korean tradition of education started a looooooooong time ago:) and learned about politics...go figure, after all that studying, he only got to be king for a couple years, before dying of poor health...his queen definitely didn't start out that way...she entered the court as a court lady, then became a royal concubine...she married the crown prince, gave birth to an heir, and died a couple days later...she was posthumously given the title of queen when her husband was crowned...
from there i skimmed by sureung...the tomb of king munjo and queen sinjeong...they're buried in the same mound...i still wonder who decides this stuff...according to the brochure, he was never actually king, though he acted as regent? i don't think i understand what that means...the brochure says he surrounded himself with men of talent and sought to exercise politics for the good of the people...he died at only 22...he received his king title when his son was crowned, and later promoted to emperor...i guess there is life after death...queen sinjeong received the title of queen dowager at the same time as her dead husband got his king title...only she was still alive...she was involved in the politics of the dynasty until her death at age 83...

the only tombs i didn't see were in a set of three...not a triple mounder, as i tried to see earlier, but three hills with one gate, one shrine...called mongguneung...i think...as i was taking pictures of king taejo's tomb, i could tell that it was getting close to closing time, and the employee who came out of the woods at that point told me so as well...he wanted to chat too, which was fun...we talked about where i'm from, how old i am (he said 28!!:) and where he's been in the states...he said i should come back to donggureung in the future, and bring a friend...i laughed...as the conversation was ending, he asked when i was coming back...i guess he meant it...hee hee...even though i missed one set of tombs, i'm not likely to go back...there are enough other tombs and other stuff in seoul i still haven't seen...