slan go leir

hi everyone
Today's the leaving of Dublin day. Sad, but I'm looking forward to our trip out to the west. My friend Eileen arrived on Thursday am. We've been doing dublin stuff since then, including watching the last 2 matches of the Rugby yesterday. England just slammed Ireland; there were sad faces all around. Wales won over France so that made everyone happy. When La Marseilles was sung at the beginning everybody in the pub sang along, but no one sang the words. It was all just la la la la la LAAA la la, etc. It was hilarious. Of course we all joined in at the tops of our lungs. Silly. Of course, no one can figure out the Welch national anthem; it's kinda mournful.
So, going to get a move on to get ready. We'll haul our stuff out to the dublin airport, pick up the rental car, drive to Dingle for tonight. We'll stay in Dingle for 2 nights and then set off for West Cork and probably a night in Cork city as well. We'll be travelling for 8 days. So this will probably be the last post. Time's a wasting.

Bye everyone. Thanks for sharing in my Ireland adventure with me. Miss you all, but will see you soon.
Love
Lynn

Castles

hi
As everyone probably knows, there's a castle on about every street corner and in every piece of land in this country. Between last Tuesday and yesterday I saw 3 of the more well maintained ones. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, I went on the bus to Donegal Town in Cty. Donegal. Gorgeous scenery all along the way. But all of the time I spent in Donegal Town, the rain poured down. So I did more poking around in the shops than I did walking around the town. There is a castle there, fairly well maintained and unfortunately not open to the public on Tuesday and Wednesday, the days I was there.
Then on this past Monday, I went on the train down to Kilkenny, one of the prettiest places I have ever seen. West Kerry has spectacular scenery, Donegal was wild, Galway County very pretty. But Kilkenny was gently beautiful. It was snowing that day so everything was under a tiny blanket of snow. It all blew away by lunchtime. There's a castle there that I was able to take the tour in.
On Tuesday I went out to Dalkey and Dun Laoghaire just to walk around and look at things. I think if I were going to live in greater Dublin (and if I were a millionaire) Dun Laoghaire would be the place I would choose. It's an absolutely gorgeous sea side town. The James Joyce Museum is there in Sandycove in the Martello tower at the beginning of Ulysses. Was it open? Nope - closed from October to March, rats.
In Dalkey, another adorable town, where I guess a couple of the members of U2 live, there is a castle open for viewing. I did get into see that one. It was really tiny and featured a garderobe. I'm so glad I didn't live back then, yuck! Right across the street from that castle was another one of the same vintage, or so it looked. That one is kind of in ruins, but it made me wonder about getting along with your neighbors went when everybody was up on the battlements.
So, then yesterday, Wednesday, I went to Malahide, another beautiful Dublin sea side town. The castle there is supposed to be wonderful. I had found out it too is closed between October and March, but figured I'd take a walk through the demesne to look at the outside of it. Well, after walking and walking through the most beautiful parkland, I came upon some workmen felling trees. Couldn't get through. So, I'm having mixed luck here with my sightseeing!
Oh well, can't complain too much. Tomorrow is LONDON - can't imagine my good fortune. Saturday is Bath, Sunday and Monday the Cornwall Coast. Not too bad, I think.
Today was the last day of the computer classes I've been helping out with. Everyone has been so nice. The class gave the tutors cards and gifts. My new friend Jenny who had crocheted me a scarf a few weeks ago, gave me a crocheted hat to go with it. It's just so sweet and has been such a wonderful experience.
Having trouble getting photos to upload. Computer's been sluggish, so no photos, sorry.
talk soon
Lynn

Greystones and Bray

On Sunday, I took the Dart from Howth out to Greystones. (photo on the bottom) Howth is the furthest station out on the north side of Dublin Bay and Greystones is the furthest out on the south side of the bay and it's in County Wicklow. They're both seaside towns. Howth is definetly a fishing town. People come out here to buy fish fresh off of the boats. Greystones looks to me more like a holiday town, colorful houses, lots of people about. There's a cliff walk that I'd heard lots about and I wanted to go walk it. It goes from Greystones to Bray, (photo on the top) the second to last stop on the Dart on the south side, a distance of about 5 miles. Bray reminds me a lot of Misquamicut or Hampton Beach; very 'beachy' kind of boardwalk, lots of ice cream, chips, ballons vendors. Lots of little kids running around on the beach. And - lots of people swimming in the sea both in Greystones and in Bray - it was kind of a mild day, but I cannot imagine getting into the Irish Sea at this time of year.

This coming week - an overnight in Donegal Town. I won't have a car so I won't be able to get out to the Donegal countryside, but I'll watch out the bus windows.

Hope everyone is grand

love

Lynn

My colleagues in the Getting Started program

Hi all:

Here's a photo of the five of us who teach a Monday afternoon class of elders learning to use computers. Yesterday was the last day all of us will be together so picture taking was appropriate. I was helping out a very nice woman named Josephine yesterday. We were practicing writing docs and then saving them to a file. Her three docs read: 1.I love this class. It's the best class I've ever taken. 2. I can't wait to get home and try this myself. 3. I am going to love shopping on the Internet.

I gave her the zappos.com address and asked her not to hate me too much after she spent all her money on shoes.

So anyway - in the photo, the woman with dark hair directly to my right is Margaret, the program director. She has an amazing amount of energy, has been all over the world, including 4 years in Boston working for a computer company. She knows the difference between Boston and the rest of the state!

Galway City

Hi
Spent 3 days in Galway this past week. I had not been to Galway City before and have always wanted to see what it looks like. I've been all around the County of Galway, but this was the first time into the city. It looks just like its pictures make it look. The inner part of it is called the medieval city. Very old buildings all holding shops and cafes. I heard some good music, had some nice conversations managed not to buy anything. Last week, friends of Linda and Dennis' came over to visit. The three of us went into Dublin so I could show them around a little. Imagine - I'm the tour guide! We all three succumbed to sweater buying so I have a gorgeous new sweater. Outside of a couple of books and cds, though that has been my only splurge (oh yeah and the scarf to go with the sweater, sigh).

This coming week, more computer classes. I have also told Gerry, the librarian at Age Action, that I would be happy to enter new books into their database. It's not a shared database like C/W MARS, but an old stand alone type of system. So, I'll learn something new- not a bad thing!

Music highlight of the week - Linda and I have tickets to go see the Saw Doctors here in Dublin. That's kinda sacred!

Hope everyone is doing well
Lynn

This and that (or seo agus sin)

Nothing earth shatteringly new here. I feel like I live here over the past few days. Just settling in to a routine of doing the volunteering stuff. Today, I helped unpack about 1/2 of the Age Action Library; couldn't finish, though, because I went off to another class. This is a new one meeting on Monday afternoons. I really, really like doing the classes. Everyone is so nice. In this new class, there is a woman who has been a missionary in Ghana for 27 years and is just recently back in Ireland. There are 11 other people all wanting to just jump in and figure out these damned computers.

On the agenda is a trip out to Galway city later in the week (psyched!). Train and B&Bs. Also, we planned for a trip to London and the Cornwall coast for early March. It will cost about 50 euro round trip to fly there and back - why not go?

I watched part of a rugby match on Saturday between Ireland and France. France won. There is a big to do going on called Six Nations . VERY big deal around these parts. On March 15 Ireland are playing England at Croke Park. Tickets to the game are gone, gone, gone, but we're planning to go into Dublin, find a pub, and watch the game there. The one on Saturday was quite exciting - even for those of us who know nothing about rugby.

Anyway - that's that - just being a Dub for a short time - v. cool.
Lynn

Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats

Dia doibh go leir

Yesterday, I had no schedule on me until 6 pm when I met Linda and Dennis at the American Democrats Abroad shindig. What a crush of people there were. They know that there are about 400 Americans living in Ireland and I think that many of them were there.

In the afternoon, I visited the National Library . There is a fabulous exhibit featuring Yeats' work and life there. I had tried to visit it when I was here in April 06, but a fire alarm went off and we were all evacuated. I was so glad to see that it was still here. There is a circular space in which a poem at a time is projected on a screen. People have been recorded reading them (Sinead O'Conner, Seamus Heaney and lots of others). Music and photos compliment the poems. It's very powerful. I haven't read any Yeats for years and now think I should get back to it. Wonderful work.

Then, I schlepped over to Merrion Sq. What a beautiful green spot it is. Across the street from one corner of it is the house in which Oscar Wilde was born and on that corner of it is a stature of Oscar himself reclining on a rock. He looks a bit pie-eyed.

anyway, today, Linda has to go to Monaghan on business so i'll tag along to see another part of Ireland.

bye for now

Lynn