Life After People

Love this show; but this particular episode is fascinating for its look at Chicago.

One tree at a time leads to hope

National Geographic's NatGeo News Watch blog carried the following news article today, about Armenia's efforts to re-forest the country. (Video below; playing time approx. 16 minutes.)

At the very end of the 20th century, Armenia ended up deforesting itself as wood was its primary fuel source. The article states that through the efforts of initiatives such as Armenia Tree Project, that the country has restored about 7-8% of its forests (their goal is at least 25%). The planting of trees is not only important for the country's environmental health, but has been good for the spirits of its people as well.

Ireland, part 2

Chapel in Bohermore Cemetery (previously known as 'New Cemetery')
Galway, Ireland

Galway, on the central west coast of Ireland, is home to a large and striking cemetery now known as Bohermore. Located within the cemetery, not too far from this chapel, is the memorial for the victims of Hugo de Groot, KLM flight 607-E, which crashed off the coast of Ireland on August 14, 1958. The memorial is elegantly simple, and perhaps all the more humbling as you look at the side by side graves and see how many are marked simply, "Unknown".

William Butler Yeats grave, Drumcliff
"Cast a cold Eye / On Life, on Death. / Horseman, pass by."

Further across the Burrens, in the village of Drumcliff in County Sligo, one of Ireland's favorite literary sons - William Butler Yeats - is buried. Technically, he was re-buried here, as he died in France and was originally buried in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. St. Columba's Church of Ireland and its cemetery lay just off the main road through town; the cemetery is a tumble of well-weathered Celtic crosses and old graves with a beautiful central chapel on the grounds.

Oddly enough, on the fringes of the cemetery's parking lot is a small shop, perhaps seven or eight feet square, where a local artisan sells their wool products - sweaters, scarves, hats, etc. I bought two hats here - one a traditional, off-white woolen winter cap, the other a more rakish, modern hat in a stormy blue color - and I delight in the knowledge of where I got them. I am especially glad I bought them straight from the artist and not in one of the "traditional Irish crafts" stores that seem to dot the major population centers.

This was seen in a castle courtyard. We had planned to take the tour, but they weren't open yet. However, there were a pair of extremely friendly local cats who said hello to us while we decided what to do next instead.

Golf course, Portstewart(?), Northern Ireland

On a more cheerful note... the Irish are just as mad about golf as the Scots are. And since prime agricultural land must of course be saved for food and grazing, you will see golf courses carved out along the coastline - a player's joyful challenge of gorgeous vistas combined with impressively rugged fairways that meander among dunes and rock formations.

After seeing many of such golf courses, it occured to me that learning to golf in Ireland would be like learning to ski in New England: once you can do it there, and do it there well, you can do it anywhere with confidence.

This coffee house's name amused me, simply because I thought it was funny to find a place called "Bubba's" in Portrush, Northern Ireland.

Yeah, maybe I lived down South a little too long.

Northern Irish coast
View of Portballintrae from near Giant's Causeway

One of the absolutely-must-see sights to see of Ireland is Giant's Causeway, on the Antrim coast between Portballintrae and Dunseverick, Northern Ireland. It is a natural wonder that was formed as the result of volcanic activity, which, as it cooled, formed hexagonal columns.

Giant's Causeway

Local legend is far more colorful, however, stating that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the Causeway in order to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart, named Benandonner. There are variants on the legend, but Benadonner was fooled into thinking the sleeping Finn was in fact Finn's son, and he thought that if the child was that big that the father himself muts be gigantic indeed, so he fled back to Scotland and destroyed the causeway.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
Ballintoy, Northern Ireland

A little further east along the coast from Giant's Causeway is another highly popular attraction, the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. The walk to the bridge is very scenic and worth the walk, even if you don't make the walk across the bridge itself; on clear days, you can see across the water to Scotland.

Originally, the bridge was constructed by fishermen to allow them to more easily cross to the island to check their nets. Today, the bridge stretches approximately 60 feet across a chasm that is about 70 feet deep.

Clonmacnoise
County Offaly, Ireland

After spending a week circling Ireland, we then moved inland to see two of Ireland's great historic treasures.

The first was Clonmacnoise, an extensive religious site along the banks of the River Shannon that was founded by St. Ciaran, and was once a major center of religion, trade, politics, learning, trade, and craftsmanship. Its position put it along a major crossroads and was, for many years, benefitted by its allegiances with local kings.

Although it was plundered many times over the years, it was rebuilt again and again, until it began to fall into decline and was eventually destroyed in 1552. In 1877, it was designated as a national monument, and although it has not been rebuilt, work does continue to preserve the existing buildings and gravestones, and to continue to unearth gravestones which time has buried.

Some of the finest examples of Celtic stone art can be found on this site. The only new buildings here are the museum, and the pavillion which was built to honor Pope John Paul II's visit in 1979.

During the summer, you can ride Viking boats from Shannonbridge to Conmacnoise.

Newgrange

The other historic site we visited was the Newgrange Megalithic passage tomb, part of the Brú na Bóinne complex in County Meath.

Older than the Great Pyramid of Giza by 500 years, and Stonehenge by 1,000, the tomb dates to approximately 3,100-2,900 B.C. It lay covered and unknown for many years until its discovery in 1699. Although studied for many years, it was not fully excavated and restored until between 1962-1975.

Like many of the great Neolithic/Megalithic sites, Newgrange is attuned to the seasons. On the winter solstice in December, the rising sun shines directly into the tomb's interior passage, illuminating the central chamber floor for about 17 minutes. Although today the sun takes a few minutes after sunrise to reach this point, when the tomb was built, it would have happened immediately at sunrise. An annual lottery is held for a total of 100 spaces to witness this event each year; however, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, it is recreated multiple times daily for visitors taking the tour.

Ireland, part 1

Since it's St. Patrick's Day, I thought it would be a good day to take a look back at a trip to Ireland I made with my folks several years ago (2003).

At the time, I had one of my first digital cameras, an Olympus D380. I thought this was a pretty awesome digital camera at the time: it took good pictures even in really low lighting conditions; it made zero noise; it fit easily in your pocket or purse. Unfortunately, one day it just quit working. It's sort of funny - I thought the camera was so awesome when I had it (and I still have it, although it's only useful as a paperweight), but I look back at the pictures I took with it, and, well - perhaps it is the original quality of the pictures. Perhaps the e-files are just degrading over time. Maybe I just shot the pictures at the lowest quality to fit as many as I could onto the camera's memory.

Let's just say they haven't all held up over time, but at least enough of them do that I can present this photo essay, and the pictures are enough to make me return to Ireland and 1. take along a much better camera; and 2. (more importantly) have a much more leisurely, non-rush-rush trip around the beautiful island that is Ireland.

Replica(?) of the harp of Brian Boru, the symbol of Guinness

 If you're visiting Dublin, whether or not you actually enjoy beer, it is worth a visit to the Guinness Storehouse at St. James Gate. The self-guided tour is pretty interesting, and at the end of it, you get to go up to their 7th-story bar (called the Sky Bar) for fantastic 360-degree views of Dublin, and belly up to the incredibly-crowded bar for a slow-pulled pint (included as part of the tour fee). My dad didn't drink and neither my mother or I find stout appealing (personally, I think it tastes like liquid peat), so we made some other tourists happy by giving them our drink tokens.

As a final souvenir, however, you get a little plastic paperweight with a splash worth of Guinness sealed inside, which I thought was kind of cool.

My biggest disappointment in Dublin was that I couldn't take pictures inside the Trinity Library (home to the famous Book of Kells). This is one of the most gorgeous, amazing libraries on the planet, and well, I'm a bibliophile.

Ah, well, that's what postcards are for.

The Roseville Inn near Waterford

From Dublin, we headed south towards Waterford, home of the famous crystal-making company. Unfortunately, this beautiful inn was all full up (and we were "winging it" around the country, with a guide to Irish B&Bs in hand) so we ended up further down the road at a place called the Bromley B&B.

The Waterford factory tour is also worth taking, although obviously if you find crystal interesting, you'll get a lot more out of it. It's fascinating stuff to watch the glassmakers at work, and they serve many years' apprenticeship before they're allowed to do the really cool glasswork.

We went out for a bite to eat in Waterford, and this was the sign on the pub we ended up choosing. It reads:

"This pub has been granted the JAMES JOYCE PUB AWARD for being an authentic Irish pub. 'A good puzzle would be to cross.... Ireland without passing a pub,' Ulysses. James Joyce identified and described the characteristic ambiance of the Irish pub so successfully that the characters in Ulysses may be fictional, but they are based on a multitude of living beings, characters who Joyce found in pubs just like this one. The establishment remains an outstanding example of tradition which Joyce immortalised in his works and is an authentic Irish pub which retains a genuineness of atmosphere, friendliness and presence of good company. Best drinks - Best bar."

Although I tried to keep an eye out for more of these signs as we made our loop tour around Ireland, I can say I don't recall seeing more of these signs in any of the pubs we happened to stop in, but I may simply have missed them.

Blarney Castle

From Waterford, it was on to Blarney Castle. Although the castle itself is in a state of semi-ruin, it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland, and yes, we made the climb to the top, although I was the only one of us who paid to kiss the Stone of Eloquence, more commonly known as the Blarney Stone. Let me say that this is probably one of the scariest things I've ever done as a tourist, and not because of the... ahem, let's call it "heresay about local rumors".

No, no - in order to lay a smooch on the stone, you lay on your back and grasp onto two thin rails fastened to the crumbly castle wall. Then, because of somebody's quirky sense of humor about where this stone should be mounted, you hold onto those rails and lean way back over nothing, about five stories up. Ok - for safety's sake, there's a guy there to hold onto you, and you're not exactly over "nothing", there are three iron bars which will assumably keep you from falling down, but as you're attempting to do a backbend over a sizable opening in the castle wall, and reach the stone to smooch it, all the blood is rushing to your head, and you get an interesting view of the countryside below. I've done it once - I don't know if it made me any more eloquent or not - so it's not something I will repeat if I ever return to Blarney!

"To the Earl's bedroom" - and you complain about your house!

Glenbeigh on the Ring of Kerry

From Blarney, it was north to the Kerry peninsula (also known as the "Ring of Kerry"). Alas, we were plagued by rain much of the week, with the sun teasing us on occasion. You can bet that if our plans called for us to be indoors much of the day, it was a glorious sunny day, and if we were planning on seeing lots of stunning natural vistas, it was pouring buckets. Oh well. The country was still beautiful, even soaking wet, and everything was so brilliantly green.

We saw a lot of glorious sunsets in Ireland, however. It seemed like wherever we were in the country, at the end of the day, the sun would manage to break through the clouds and show off the glory of nature.

Typical Irish pub, Glenbeigh

In Glenbeigh, we found a local pub, and I had some of the best fish chowder I've ever eaten. It's funny - before I went to Ireland, a lot of people told me that Irish cuisine consisted of "meat and potatoes with all the flavor boiled out of them." They could not have been more wrong. (Well, there was one fish and chips place we stopped in Dublin that was awful beyond belief. But as it appeared to be some sort of chain/franchaise, I would not deem it "cuisine".)

So to clarify: modern Irish cooking = fantastic.

Adare, Ireland

In some aspects, our trip around Ireland was very random. My father's goal for the trip was to see the whole island. He didn't have any particular sights in mind, however, so choosing what to see what left up to my mother and I. Armed with a couple maps from the tourist board, and an Eyewitness Travel Guide, we picked the obvious "big" sights and tried to pepper in as many other things as we could along the way.

In Adare, we found the Trinitarian Abbey church. Within the church is a sculpture, which contains a piece of rock identified as "a 5 million year old piece of marble from Jerusalem."

The Roadside Tavern, Lisdoovarna

We spent a night in Lisdoovarna, best known as the matchmaking capital of the world. They are also home to many music festivals, and originally was famous as a spa town. The town of about 880 (and apparently quite a few cows) swells to some 40,000 during the September matchmaking festivities.

In Ireland, they refer to fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation as "craic", although you will occasionally see it referred to as "crack". In light of other meanings of "crack", some signs for "craic" can be amusing to outsiders.

Cliffs of Moher

Along the southwest edge of the Burren and near the town of Doolin are the famous Cliffs of Moher. These striking shale and sandstone cliffs rise 400-700 feet above the surging waters of the ocean below, and film fans may recognize them as the Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride, or as seen in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The wearin' o' the green

"Irish lads" as seen at Navy Pier

March 14, 2010

I might have missed the annual bright-green Chicago River, but it's impossible to miss the Irish spirit around Chicago in the days leading up to St. Patrick's Day. Long one of the city's favorite holidays, the city celebrates with an annual parade (there used to be two, but the South Side one apparently "got out of hand" and the 2009 one was its last), dying the river green, and basically turning into West Dublin, U.S.A.

These strappin' lads were spied at Navy Pier on Sunday - from their heads to their toes, fully in the holiday spirit!

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Also, because I welcome any opportunity to point out one of the funniest blogs on the 'net, Cakewrecks (cakewrecks.blogspot.com) has an outstanding collection of Irish-themed cakes under the header "I'm Looking Over My Wrecked Up Clover".

St. Patrick's Day is nearly here!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Chicago 2009

The annual Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade turns out and dyes the city green - literally - this Saturday, March 13th. Kicking off with the "dying of the river" at 10:45 am, when the Chicago River is dyed a brilliant shade of green, the festivities continue at noon with a parade up Columbus from Balbo to Monroe. 

Get there early for the good viewing spots; this is one of Chicago's favorite festivities, when everybody is Irish for a day!

The Olympians are home

Well, they had to come to an end, eventually. And while of course I was disappointed that the U.S. hockey team didn't get the gold, they got silver, and that's something to be proud of. That final game was outstanding, couldn't ask for a more exciting final game.

And now the NHL season resumes, with approximately six weeks left in the regular season before the playoffs for the Stanley Cup.

As the teams welcome their players back, they honor their Olympians, and Chicago was no exception.

Before their game against the Edmunton Oilers, the Blackhawk Olympians were recognized. The cheering for the hometown boys was deafening. And although the fans briefly booed at the reminder of the loss to the Canadian team (come on! get over it), the fans couldn't be prouder of ALL of the players and how well they did in the Olympics, with Patrick Kane and team Captain Jonathan Toews getting the loudest cheers of all.

This picture is especially for my Canadian friends:

Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith were on the Canadian hockey team and played great.

One of these days I'll, oh, I don't know, win the lottery or something, and actually get to sit down on the glass, instead of up in the nosebleed section and rely on my telephoto lens. :)


Onward to the Stanley Cup!