Back from the Aran Islands!

Innishmor was unbelieveable. We had a fabulous time. I can't explain the crazy feeling you get at these islands. Unbelievable. I'll put some photos up soon, but today I'll add some googled photos. This fort is right at the edge of 300 foot cliffs into the atlantic! We crawled up to the edge, and I almost wet myself I think. Stupid teenagers were walking up with such reckless abandon. I wanted to yell at them. Funny. Anyway, I'll post some good ones soon. We had awesome weather yesterday, but now we are soaking wet, as it was pouring all day today. After a bit of fortress/cliff touring, we went to our empty house-hostel to dry off. A nice fire and a glass of Jameson made it perfect!

Also, I'm adding captions to the photos in the last blog, so you know what they are.

Also Also, mom and dad, get a hotmail address or a gmail address so I can send you big files, and Chris, I love the sounds of your new job.

Take care!

Luke

PHOTOS

The doorway to Trinity College in Dublin


Leslie, Rafa, and Ashka at the site


My Living Room


Galway city... Shop Street


The site we were working on


Heathrow airport

April 22nd

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. Life is treating me quite nicely lately, except for a strong cold I seem to have picked up. It will have just enough time to get really bad before its back to work on monday... Aw, I will be fine! Nicole arrived on thursday night, she caught a cab all the way from Knock, almost an hour and a half away! It was cheaper for her than staying the night and bussing the next day. I started work on a new site last tuesday, and we've been slowly picking away at that. Its been mostly stripping back the topsoil so far, and we seem to have mostly a collection of pits and features. Nothing too exciting yet, but good solid archaeology all the same. It looks pretty old, probably prehistoric. The weather here has been really nice, lots of brilliant sun and mooing cows. The new site borders on a horse's pasture, and we have to push through a herd of small cows every day to get there. One of my friends have been trying to pet them, but they just give her scared eyes and run off. It's funny that I come from agri-land in Canada, and haven't been so close to cows so often before. We booked some tickets to go to the famous Aran Islands today, and we set off with a group of friends next weekend. I can't wait. I'm going to try to get across to the smaller middle island, which is apparently the un-touristy jewel of the three. It is a bit of a time warp, too, with a lot of people still speaking exclusively irish and living the old way.

Should be brilliant. I was going to try to post photos, but, of course, there is some error that won't allow me to. No photos for you! I have a ton to post. I'll send my disc back home soon though, so I'll have to post those much later I guess.

Miss you all,

Luke

Hello from Galway City

Hello all,

I have suspicions that other archaeologists from my dig may have found this blog. If so, hi! I hope you like it. I find it an excellent way to keep my friends and family back home informed.

Finally made it to a computer, and spent a long time already emailing and catching up on other people's lives. I found out that Paul Pain, my barber, died of pneumonia. This was a huge shock. He was young, and seemed pretty healthy. I feel really badly for all of his close friends and family. I'll miss you, Paul.

Took a day trip to Galway city today, only a short one though, so I have to come back to have a proper look. It seems nice so far, but I've only seen a bit. There is far too much to type in one sitting here, so I think I'm going to go point form. Here goes:

-Found a wonderful place, and moved in. I'm sharing with another archaeologist, an Italian named Anita. A good fireplace, nice colours, windows, and lots of room for three. Also right across the hospital, and next door to a supermarket. Yay!

-Decided I like the term "proper", as in "I have to comeback to have a proper look".

-Fell down the stairs at my house yesterday. No, no alcohol had been consumed. Just a misstep. I felt pretty foolish. I rounded the corner too tightly to go around anita who was coming up the other way (the carpeted stairs take a turn high up) but there just wasn't enough step. I think I even knocked a step loose with my massive weight. Well, down the stairs I bounced, and now my back hurts quite a bit. Much better than yesterday, though. I think that means no permanent damage.

-Finished up on the site with Mick et al. It looks really good. I took some photos, which I will try to get burned to a disc and sent home. I'll also try to post some on here for a change. Sorry there hasn't been any for a long time. The only odd thing was that at the end, the millrace turns into an underground tunnel (I got to dig it out, it was awesome) but it seems to turn into just a tiny stream of about 3 inches wide and deep. Just a tiny little line of poorly laid stones no bigger than an eavestrough. What the hell? I have no explanation, except that it must have been deeper down, or something. We're talking a big amount of water here. I blamed leprechauns at the site, to little laughter. I think Mick holds a lot of respect for Irish myth and legend, as he should, so foreigners joking about leprechauns may not be his favorite thing. Oh well. I've been the butt of MANY beaver and lumberjack jokes, though not from Mick, to his credit.

-I've decided that Irish beer is awesome, but they need to branch out. Try some other things... Man, I miss Pilsener. And trad, and KEITHS. There's no shortage of good stouts (especially Murphy's, which is about 47% better than Guinness. Smoothest beer I've ever had) but I haven't found Kilkenny on tap, and most of the other, lighter options are Carlsberg or Budweiser, etc. Also, the dark rum selection is ATROCIOUS. Oh well, I guess I'm not here to discover the true meaning of rum. See Blog Header....

-Walked over to the Ballinasloe cemetery and took some photos. Absolutely incredible. Just goregeous. There's so many pretty stone wall, abbeys and cathedrals here that it all blends together after a while. Now I just need to see some fortresses and suits of armor, etc, to get my knights and castles fix.

-Looks like Nic is really getting here on Thursday! I can't wait.

Well, off I go. Miss you all a lot, and I'm doing very well.

Dave, if Twyla has her baby, have someone tell me, ok? And chris, I'm zeroing in on your club.
Jeff, turn that rawlco application in!

Luke

Sunburn. Geez.

Sorry people, I only have about a minute as I am in between people who are booked into the library computers. I just wanted to let you all know I got a hell of a sunburn today. In Ireland. In April. What the hell, eh?

All the best!
Luke

The Grand National

Hello all,

I'd like you all to know that I altered the comments function to allow anyone to leave comments. Sorry, I thought I already had, but it didn't seem to work before. Hopefully it works now. I'd love to hear whats going on with you! Also, I'm going to try to load some photos up onto this thing somehow.

Also.... Dad, could you look into how much it would be to buy a photo attachment for my ipod? Maybe Nicole could bring it with her on the 19th, and I could dump all the photos off of the camera. If it works on your camera, it will work on mine here....

Anyway,

Saturday Afternoon.

I wandered around all day, enjoying the crazy irish weather and the interesting sights. I happened upon Simon, the cheerful driver for the dig, at the Internet cafe (where I am now) who told me he had just walked by the cattle sale in a parking lot. I guess he saw someone buy a calf, hogtie it, and load it into their car trunk! Jesus. There's a Vegan on site who won't be happy to hear that! We also chatted about accomodations. He thinks he can chat up the owner of a B&B that I was looking at to get a healthy rate. I believe him, to be honest, because he's quite the fast talker, especially compared to myself. Simon and I walked around town afterward, had some tea, and lost a few Euros on a brutally rough horse race called the Grand National. This horse race was an incredible cultural experience, I have to admit. There are a good many booking offices in Ballinasloe, and we walked into one around 3:15 to place our bets for the 4:15 race. After another cup of tea, we wandered over to a different booking office to watch the race. The place was lined up out the door! We managed to squeeze in, and the room was absolutely electric. People going crazy about the race. The race itself was 3 miles of carnage: hedge jumping, people and horses were falling like dominoes, and empty horses running along beside the leaders. The race was horrific, but the booking office was one hell of a specatacle.
We're off to the pub now, (its getting close to 5:30, after all) where I'm going to try a famous Irish stout called Murphy's. Fantastic. I need to ask around to see if I can play any of these pubs! Probably just for beer, but hey, if it saves me some Euros on beer...

Miss you all.

Luke

Ballinasloe

Well, here I am!

I've been in Ballinasloe for three nights now. I rolled in to town on the 5th around 5:00, and felt odd with my huge backpack, guitar, and other backpack strolling past the little shops. I must have looked pretty funny. I found my B&B, the Curra Mor house, run by a very nice woman, and got settled in. I called Fiona, and she said she'd pick me up the next morning at 8. So,after a bang-up irish breakfast of toast, tea, orange juice, cereal, an egg, sausage and bacon (the best bacon I've ever had, sorry Yard and Flagon)it was off to the site. Fiona is a small, elfin irish woman with a million things to do and a tiny little car that she drives like Michael Shumacher. After blazing down the winding roads for a few moments, I arrived at our site. It turns out I'm working with the mobile team, the one cleaning up the little satelite projects around the bigger ones. Our current site is a 19th century mill complete with the Millrace, cut out of native limestone. Beautiful. My coworkers are a very mixed bunch: Jason, from Adelade, Australia, Leslie, from Windsor, Ontario, Anita from northern Italy, Raphael from Poland (speaks barely a word of english), Sarah (I think..., crap, I forget her name for sure), an irish girl just here for a few days and Mick, our supervisor. All are characters in their own rights, and all are very pleasant. Mick, unfortunately, is moving back to Cork in a week or so. He is all you could ask for in an employer. He looks like an Irish, dark/grey dreadlocked/bearded Ewan MacGregor with a possible military background and a twinkle in his eye. Hell of a guy. He is extremely encouraging, and very passionate about his work, making everything interesting and exciting. He likes to provide exciting historical backgrounds, and to give out little projects, outlining an archaeological question about the site, and having you "investigate" the problem by digging a certain area, etc. Brilliant. Very open to ideas, as well. He'll be sadly missed, I'm afraid. Alas. The site has an interesting possible history, as the region we are digging in has an odd name "Coololla" that means Land of the Ulster Men, apparently. According to Mick, a number of linen makers were forced out of northern ireland a few hundred years ago due to religious reasons, and apparently settled in this area, though there was no hard evidence or record of where. Coololla implies it was there, but no one knew for sure. Well, now we've found a linen mill (with a lime processing spot nearby, used for linen production, among other things) where there are traditionally very few, and may have solved a bit of the puzzle. Fantastic!

Alas, the library is closing for lunch.

I gotta go.
Things are great!

Luke

Dublin

Well, here I am in Dublin. I rolled in around 7 oclock last night, and after a brief bit of paperwork at the airport (I didn't go through any sort of customs that I could tell-no dogs, it was a nice thing), I'm actually legally in another country. I never thought it would happen! The Ashfield House where I stayed the night is quite a nice spot, with cheap internet (2 euros for 40 minutes!) and phone cards and stuff. Right across the street from the Irish Times building. I tried to use a payphone, but couldn't figure it out. Oh well, that's what this thing is for I guess. Dublin is an incredibly beautiful city. Old, pretty, and full of life. Far more going on than all of the photos of it even suggest. My first meal here: The Hard Rock Cafe. LAME! Oh well. I needed a bit of home, and I got it. I've had better Guinness at several pubs in Saskatoon. The chips were called "fries" on the menu. Hilarious. Well, today I am off to Ballinasloe, but not until this afternoon. It's about 7:15 AM right now. I woke up at 5:45 ready to go! I'm just about to have a spot of tea or something and then I'm going to walk around and take photos before I have to check out at 10:00.

Miss you all!
Luke

Sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time

Watching the incredibly big 747s roll by the window made me think of that Otis Redding tune, where he talks about watching the ships rolling in and out. I'm afraid Heathrow's charm wore off kind of quick, Mostly because I now realize that I haven't slept in forever.... I remember someone telling me that your eq (I think I mean IQ...) drops drastically when you are short of sleep. After re-reading my last blog, I'm starting to believe it. Needless to say I fixed it up a bit. I should mention, I'm having a wonderful time. I'm drinking water (bottled), and having fun browsing duty free stores. Speaking of which, I love duty free stores. I wish they were everywhere. You can buy a litre of Bailey's for 11 pounds. Thats still cheaper than in Saskatoon, conversion included. Can you imagine how cheap that would be for a brit? Man. And my FAVORITE thing they have here at the duty free store is the massive 1kg dairy milk bars, about 1.25 feet by 10 inches, and THICK, for 7 pounds. Wait, theres more. They are TWO FOR ONE. That's two kilos of dairy milk for 7 pounds. Roughly 16 dollars, I think. Still a deal, I say. Mom, if they had dark chocolate, I would have sent you 4! I also love how they sell pints at all the coffee shops. Just out in the open. And fun stuff, like Guinness, Stella, Heineken, and something called Tetley's that I'll have to try somtetime.
Anyway, I'm off to wander a bit more. Hopefully I won't go the wrong way and end up having to circle back through security...already did that once this afternoon.

Luke

Beatleland

Well, here I am in London England. The terminal smells like cigarettes, the people are fabulously nice, and the escalators are on the left. What's a prairie boy to do? JUMP IN. The flight was definitely a matter of necessity, and thats about it. The meals were quite nice(2), and if I'd been thinking, I would have taken advantage of the free booze, but hey. To me, its 7Am, and I haven't had a wink of sleep, so I have a bit of a stomach ache as a result. Otherwise, I feel good.

England looked extremely cool from the air. Everything is so perfect and artificial, yet so mixed up and randomly arranged. Single hardwood trees stand on tiny islands of dirt in the middle of man made lakes.

I caught my first sight of Ireland through breaks in the clouds, and around the wings of the plane. Pretty incredible. The West coast was amazing, with mountains and rugged country. I think it will be VERY different from England. I can't wait. I'll have to get back here too, I'm just so close... I practically watched all of Ireland fly by below me. I think it took about 15 or 20 minutes. A cup of tea, maybe, and a bit of a muffin, and poof, we were over the Celtic sea.

Well, off I go to explore beatleland a bit...

Luke

One Leg Down, two to go

Well, let the journey begin! I'm at T.O. Pearson's huge new terminal, and it feels like West Edmonton Mall. I have about 2 hours more to kill before boarding my first international flight. I know, I know, you all are thinking, "what a novice!". Ha. So far I've been enjoying myself taking photos with chris' camera. Thanks, man. We flew over thunderheads on the way here, it was absolutely beautiful. Here at the oirtThey have a big huge LED screen made of large LED lights,all shaped like a huge suitcase... Looks like something from the Coldplay video "Speed Of Sound." I'll try to get a photo of it that does it justice. Funny thing, my mom sent an email saying that, on their way home, they saw a deer in Thornton park by my house! Must have gotten lost, I guess! Pretty cool, I think.

I've been doing a lot of reading of my lonely planet... I'm going to be able to rate every B&B south of belfast by hearty the time I get to Heathrow.

Well, have fun all!

Luke