10 memorable slow-travel moments in Ireland
24 Feb 2011 12 Comments
in Grantourismo Competition Tags: 10 most memorable travel moments, blogging, contest, experiences, February, Grantourismo Travel Blogging Competition, HomeAway Holiday Rentals, ireland, slow travel, top 10, travel, travel writing, wwoofing
Gumboots ready for WWOOFing on the farm
1. Exploring my ancestry in the huge red volumes at the Irish Life Centre. An afternoon spent researching led to a reunion with my Great Aunt and cousins the next day – Finding family in Dublin
2. Meeting Italian English-student, Valentina, who demonstrated her family recipe for kneading and rolling handmade Gnocchi. In exchange I taught her Aussie-English phrases such as “how are ya?” and “no worries” – Cooking in Cork
3. Volunteering on an eco-retreat and persevering with a compost toilet. Every scoop of sawdust and visit to the humanure compost heap was a lesson in sustainable living – WWOOFing in Dromahair
4. Appreciating traditional farming skills as I spent the day building and rebuilding a 200 year-old stone wall - Farming in Wexford
5. Stepping on many Irish toes while learning the reel, jig and polka – Set dancing in Bantry
6. Drinking at a trad seisiún of guitars, fiddles and flutes, violins, accordions and a bodhran – Listening to music in Ballydehob
7. Chatting about politics, religion and family with a local who’s Grandma made bombs for the IRA – Understanding history in Derry
8. Meditating by the Atlantic at the Dzogchen Beara Buddhist Temple – Practising mindfulness on the Beara Peninsula
9. Hitchhiking to Croagh Patrick and overcoming fog and fear to climb to the peak – Making a spiritual pilgrimage in Westport
10. Devouring eggs, bacon, fried chips, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding and endless cups of tea. Sharing stories, laughter and sleep-deprivation – Staying with family in Dublin
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This post has been entered into the Grantourimo HomeAway Holiday-Rentals travel blogging competition.
2010 in review
04 Jan 2011 3 Comments
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,500 times in 2010. That’s about 11 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 15 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 77 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 143mb. That’s about a picture per week.
The busiest day of the year was April 24th with 113 views. The most popular post that day was leaving London and the city behind.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were stumbleupon.com, digg.com, matadoru.com, twitter.com, and slashingtongue.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for kyoto, irish family, kinsella family tree, rebecca kinsella, and kyoto garden london.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
leaving London and the city behind April 2010
12 comments
About Me December 2009
7 comments
10 Travel Quotes I love July 2010
9 comments
Photo Essay: Kyoto Garden, London May 2010
11 comments
Writing February 2010
PocketCultures e-book Concept: Children’s Games
07 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: "children's book", culture, games, pocketcultures
Over at PocketCultures we are producing an e-book on children’s games around the world.
We are in the concept-development phase and researching how potential readers would like the book to look.
If you’d like to help out, please complete this quick survey and share the link with anyone you think might be interested. More specifically, anyone who is a parent, teacher, language learner or involved in the literary world would be great.
This survey will stay open until 14th August and we’d love to have your input.
http://polldaddy.com/s/E5FB78F57E203206
Thanks for your help! And check out PocketCultures to learn more about world cultures.
St. Patrick’s Day Parade, New York City
21 Jul 2010 5 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: Grantourismo, HomeAway Holiday Rentals, ireland, new york, st patrick's day, travel writing
The parade marches down Fifth Avenue, NYC
Her curly blonde hair was clipped back with a shamrock, and she sat high above us on her Dad’s shoulders. Their home-made sign was covered in glitter pen, and it buckled in the breeze. But she didn’t care.
Across Fifth Avenue, the crowd wore Aran knitwear, peak caps and Celtic gear. Anything they’d collected on a trip to Ireland was now proudly displayed.
The hot dog stands were selling green fairy floss and shamrock-shaped cookies. And on the side streets, doughnuts with green sprinkles and fluro-green bagels coloured the shop windows.
On the street, high-school cheerleaders twirled batons, marching bands thrashed on drums and policemen paraded past. A couple of boy scouts ran from over to the metal barricades, and high-fived me in excitement as they ran by. It was so American. Just like I’d thought it would be – and I loved it!
I celebrated among generations of Irish-Americans and hundreds who had made the pilgrimage to the biggest St. Paddy’s Day parade in the world.
At night the beer flowed green, the Empire State building flickered green and a billboard at Times Square flashed green, asking “Who’s your Paddy?”.
It was the first St. Paddy’s I’d celebrated since researching my Irish ancestry and finding my relatives in Dublin. And although I couldn’t be with them, or my own family in Australia, in New York I shared a sense of patriotism and belonging with others who’d come to call Ireland home.
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This post has been entered into the Grantourismo and HomeAway Holiday-Rentals travel blogging competition.
10 Travel Quotes I love
16 Jul 2010 13 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: 10 travel quotes, James Joyce, Lillian Smith, Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, Peter Allen, quotes, Robert Frost, Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Johnson, St. Augustine, Tim Cahill, top 10 travel quotes, travel, travel writing
1. “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends
into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world
within.” – Lillian Smith
Inishmore, Aran Islands, Ireland
2. “When a man is tired of London he is tired of life.” – Samuel Johnson
Tower Bridge, London UK
3.“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine
Jungfrau, Switzerland
4. “When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.” – James Joyce
Glendalough, Ireland
5. “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all
peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that
if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” – Maya Angelou
Berlin Wall, Germany
6. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
Brighton Beach, Brighton UK
7. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill
Backpacking Ireland
8. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” – Robert Frost
Wicklow Mountains, Ireland
9. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Night time views from the Empire State Building, NYC
10. “No matter how far or how wide I roam/I still call Australia home.” – Peter Allen
St KIlda Sunset, Melbourne Australia
All photos by author
no-work-wednesday
27 May 2010 8 Comments
this city and its people are breaking my spirit. work. no work. call back friday. sun. no sun. house. hostel. house. never my house. bed. couch. air bed. interest. romance. disinterest. finding friends - and farewelling those friends. tube. delays. maintainance. failures. gut decisions. wrong decisions…every day is no-work-wednesday
Photo Essay: Kyoto Garden, London
14 May 2010 13 Comments
in MatadorU Tags: kyoto garden, london, photo essay
This photo essay was completed as my final assignment for MatadorU and submitted to Photo Friday at Delicious Baby
leaving London and the city behind
24 Apr 2010 13 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: Grantourismo, HomeAway Holiday Rentals, travel writing
The longest named station in Britain
Men in business suits reclaim their reserved tables, quickly locating power sockets for laptops and mobiles. Children instruct their parents where to sit, and an elderly couple shuffle hand in hand, in search of the buffet car. The other 200 passages are at the luggage rack. It’s jammed with a pram, backpacks and suitcases; a guitar case rests precariously on this tower of luggage. I shove my suitcase in the bottom rack, securing it with a kick.
“Ah, fair play to yer” an Irishman nods approvingly. The train steadily speeds up over the railway tracks as we finally leave London and the city behind.
I’m traveling by rail from London to the Welsh ferry port of Holyhead, and then on to Dublin by ferry. The railway was originally extended to establish a Royal Mail postal route between England and Ireland. The tracks run through the East Midlands of England, over green fields dotted with lazy sheep and hay bales.
A couple of hours out of London, the doors open and the grassy smells of the Welsh countryside board the train. As I breathe in, the cool air it tickles the inside of my nose. I take a strong, deep breath. A breath not permitted in my usual inner-city living. The breeze whips strands of blonde hair around my face and I sit back and let it. The doors close and the train swishes on.
At each stop, both my scenery and my company continue to change. Unlike London’s underground, people search out other faces. They make eye contact and smile. There’s no need to hide in my book or close my eyes to my iPod. I smile back. A young English mum takes the seat opposite me. She nods her head towards the scenery. “Lovely innit” she remarks. It is.
I look to my right and see the medieval towers of Conwy Castle rush by. The castle was built as a fortress by Edward I between 1283 and 1289. The walled town stretches over three-quarters of a mile long and is guarded by 22 towers. The carriage continues along the coast, by the shallow tides of the Menai Strait and over the Britannia Bridge into Anglesey.
And then the trains arrives at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch – the longest named station in Britain. The translation for this Welsh town is “the church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near to the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave”. First-time travelers on this route push towards the window, while regular travelers just glance over and smile.
I search my handbag for my phone, instead finding old receipts, crumbs and too many lip balms. Finally I join the right had side of the carriage with noses and cameras pressed to the glass. Another photo for the trip, and I throw my phone back into my bag as the train rolls on towards the mountainous Snowdonia skyline.
I relax into my seat and into my thoughts.
…
This post has been entered into the Grantourismo-HomeAway travel writing competition
WanderFood Wednesday: Kendal Mint Cake
07 Apr 2010 7 Comments
in WanderFood Wednesday Tags: Kendal Mint Cake, Lake District, WanderFood Wednesday, Wanderlust and Lipstick
Sugary Sweetness
Normally I’d argue that stationery supplies are the way to a girl’s heart, but the Easter break has reaffirmed that it is indeed chocolate.
And all things sweet.
After four relaxing days in the UK’s Lake District it was time to sample the local delicacy – Kendal Mint Cake.
Now like all great inventions, such as penicillin, legend has it that the bloke who discovered Kendal Mint Cake did so through sheer luck.
A Kendal confectioner was making glacier mints when his eye wandered off the task at hand (and probably over a Kendal lady). He noticed that the mixture in his pan had started to ‘grain’ and turned cloudy, instead of clear. When he poured it out he’d created Mint Cake – too easy!
Manufacturer’s stories vary but Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake credit Joseph Wiper, who started production at his Kendal factory in 1869. In the early days it was only sold to the locals but it was such a hit that it made a weekly trip via Kendal’s Railway Station to areas around North East England
It’s made by combining water, sugar and glucose, so while it may not meet your daily nutritional requirements, it’s a stick of sickly sweetness. Sugar headache anyone?
Foodie Fact: Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake journeyed to the summit of Mount Everest on 29th May 1953 with Sir Edmund Hillary and Sirdar Tensing. The packaging quotes a member of the expedition revealing “we sat on the snow and looked at the country far below us…we nibbled Kendal Mint Cake”.
See WanderFood Wednesday for more foodie posts and travel tales.
Photo credit: Christabelle
I lived the life I wanted, not the life I could afford
02 Mar 2010 15 Comments
in MatadorU
When I read this line in a blog post it immediately resonated with me.
As I sat down to write yet another budget I knew I wouldn’t stick to, the guilt of living week to week and having absolutely no savings, was a little overwhelming.
I’ve always lived and travelled by the motto “it’s better to have debt than regret”. Surely, that’s what Twain was referring to when he spoke of dreams and regrets, and throwing off bowlines?
I’ve never felt like it was a case of competing with anyone, but just fulfilling my own needs. The need to live the life I wanted, not the life I could afford.
The funds to get through university, live on my own and travel overseas, have all been borrowed, consolidated, financed and refinanced. But now I’m 12,000 miles from home and my banks refuse to send my bills overseas. So, a nice lil’ pile of letters accumulates at my parent’s house, and then they pop them in the post. These bills arrive every few months, often in the same box as my birthday and Christmas presents – always a lovely ‘surprise’!
Mum and Dad are under strict instructions not to open my mail under any circumstances. All banking related correspondence MUST be posted directly to me. I think the knowledge that their adult daughter saved more in her primary school Dollarmite account, than what she can now, might be difficult to comprehend.
Saving $50 when you’re 8 is amazing. Saving $50 when you’re 28 is appalling.
The fact that my current job includes all food, rent and bills should really see me with much more cash left at the end of the week then what I have. I think it’s something to do with my unlimited entertainment and travel budget…
At this stage I’m not even thinking about trying to make money from my writing. I’m just excited that I’ve actually started writing again and my goals for the next 12 months are to update my blog weekly, publish one article a fortnight and complete a chapter of my book every two months.
My next big financial outlay will be a return ticket from the UK to Oz, however, at this stage overstaying my visa and risking deportation seems like a much cheaper option…
