Scotland: Bad Karoke, Bagpipes, and Beer Tents

After my stay in Ireland, I went to Scotland (Glasgow & Edinburgh) with three of my Chicago friends (Anne, Katie, and Kelly). Both cities were beautifully old yet surprisingly modern in their night lives albeit many bad Karoke bars. We spent a lot of time laughing at locals who apparently think that Lionel Richie's "Three Times a Lady" is still cool (was it ever?). Both cities had international festivals going on while we were there: A bagpipe fest in Glasgow and the famous Fringe fest in Edinburgh. The Fringe fest is like SXSW for theater and comedy, but the coolest part was an outdoor beer tent called the Speigeltent which is pretty much SummerFest in Milwaukee without the live music. We also had an amazing dinner at the Atrium in Edinburgh where we ate Coq au Vin and drank a bottle of Cakebread Cab. We had a bit of a B&B debacle--See picture below--in which we ended up sleeping in a kitchen for a night (good thing we got the night free, after fighting with the owner). We can laugh now. We also discovered the "macaroni pie"--a late-night wonder of Scotland, but only if you know the right alley-way bakery to sell it to you at 3 AM. By far the highlight: Having a Scotish Bagpiper/Folk Singer sing "The Gambler" for us at a local pub in the GrassMarket in Edinburgh. If only he could have played "Pour Some Sugar On Me," we may have remained there forever--no need to go to Lange's anymore. He called us the girls from "West Virginia" after we belted out John Denver's "Country Road" while the rest of the bar was silent. Oh, and I have video of most of this.

Our musician friend who sang " The Gambler"
In the Speigeltent.

Glasgow
In Glasgow

University of Glasgow

Edinburgh Castle View of Edinburgh city from Castle
Anne, Kelly, Katie, and me
Laughing at Bad Karoke
Eating "macaroni pie" late night in our B&B, which was a bunk bed in a kitchen--long story!

Ireland: More Pictures

Boats docks in the harbor in Castletownbere
At Castletownbere
Cahir Castle
Me and my roomates in the herb garden outside Barryscourt Castle
Fish in the English Market.

One of my favorite parts of Cork was the English Market, where we would shop for groceries, drink coffee, and people watch.

Ireland: Beamish, Bodies of Water, and JM Synge

I'm back from my five-week study abroad trip in Cork, Ireland.

Here are the highlights:

+ A 2K swim in the River Lee, the river that runs through Cork. The water was freezing, about 60 degrees. I did not wear a wet suit.

+ Discovering Beamish, Cork's verison of Guinness that's so much tastier. And drinking at pubs and meeting locals.

+ Reading The Aran Islands by J.M. Synge--and then traveling there for the second time. The view from Dun Aengus--the deep boom of the Atlantic 100 meters below. I became obsessed with Synge's work. He's a playwright who is most well-known for his controverisal The Playboy of the Western World. Most of the research I did for my Irish Lit class was about him. The title is of this blog is a quote of his.

+ Writing three creative nonfiction essays about my travels in Ireland for my travel writing course: one about the Aran Island; another about Castletownbere (a harbor town that I spent time in in 2001 during my first trip to Ireland and I returned to this trip); and a final one about the swim in the River Lee. I would post those piece here, but I'm submitting them to lit mags, so I need to hold off on self-publishing them.

+ Falling in love with Ireland all over again.




More pictures:

Me swimming in the River Lee.
A pint of Beamish
Me at Dun Aengus.
The Atlantic crashing into the cliffs at Dun Aengus.
Me and some my classmates.

I will post more pictures in the next post.