The American Fjords ...not cool at all!

So, apparently some band calling themselves the Fjords has surfaced in South Carolina or something. We emailed them and informed them of the problem, and they said, "maybe it will be ok, we pronounce it the 'Fords'". Hmph. Not cool at all!

Other than that, I haven't much to say. Long live the real Fjords! (Just to note, I am NOT going to resort to calling our band "The Real Fjords" like the Ghostbusters had to do in cartoon form.

In Solidarity,

Luke

World Cup

I have world cup fever. Well, not really. I do, however, have 5 bucks riding on the thing. Some friends and I have a bit of a pool going, and whoever wins gets 50 Euros. My not-so-lucky pick was Ghana. However, if Ghana are one of the first four to get knocked out, I get to randomly pick from 4 more, among which are England, Argentina, and Portugal. That's a bit better! Anyway, now at least I have a reason to watch the games, and try to get into world cup spirit. Dave and Chris, I know that you boys are interested in that Soccer stuff, I haven't been keeping track, are your picks still in it? I wish that Ireland was in it, things would be FAR more interesting!

An interesting fact: unlike other Europeans, irish people call Soccer "Soccer",and not "football", so as not to confuse it with Gaelic Football. Hurling, another irish game, is a cool one that you all should look up. It's quite the sport, Nicole and I caught a bit of a game one day on our way home from the grocery store.

We're here in Athlone today, and are having a nice time. I picked up some Capris (are they called capris when guys wear them?), two light t-shirts and some Euro-looking Clarks sandals for upcoming summer weather. Apparently it is consistently over 40 degrees in Spain right now, and I'm a bit worried I won't be able to handle the heat. I may have to start hanging out in the sauna at the local pool to train my body. We're going to try to go to Andulisia (sp) in the southeast, where apparently the sea keeps things a bit cooler.

Anyway, I hope all is well with everyone,

Talk to you soon!

Luke

Movin' Up

Hi Hi,

It's been a good week, but we've been pretty tired! The days have been flying past, and tomorrow is FRIDAY. What's going on back home? I think all of you should comment with your weekend plans.

I talked to my boss the other day about getting bumped up in pay, and it looks like its going to happen. I was hired as a "General Operative" (sounds like C.I.A. talk), but over the past few months I've decided that I'm just as qualified as any of the other "Site Assistants", and deserve to be one. I think it will mean another 40 or 50 Euros a week, so yay!

Last night Nicole and I were terribly bored, (our soccer game got rained out) so we decided to go to Fun World. Fun World is a VLT centre, where you can bet about 10 cents or less per play. We played an old-school slot machine with the big lever and dinging bells, and for one Euro we could pull the lever 50 times! 2 cent bets. Hilarious. The european VLT's are ridiculous. They are often found alongside shops selling massive 1 KG Dairy Milk bars in the hallowed halls of Heathrow airport. There seems to be some sort of proper way to play them, but Nicole and I couldn't make much sense of it. Usually we ended up laughing. One machine had a button called "Psycho Play" which, after just one push, simply drained our money away automatically, 20 cents at a time. Luckily we had only plugged 1 euro in! We managed to break even on one particularly crazy machine. We put 20 cents into it, pushed the "play" button, and off it went. It was dinging, ringing, buzzing, clanging, and shaking. There were all sorts of flashing buttons, arrows, and lights. We decided after some time that we were supposed to press one of the buttons. After pressing about 6 random buttons (which only seemed to change the type flashing and dinging)the thing made a huge crashing noise and spit 10 Euros at us. We looked at each other and burst out laughing. I don't think we'll return to Fun World!

Well, there is a big line, I had better go.

Have a nice weekend!

Luke

Odd days.

Well, we saw the strange Irish weather today in full effect. It was a mix of hard rains, sun, heat, all sorts of stuff. Nicole and I were digging out features that turned into nothing, and then we started a ditch slot (pretty much digging a ditch-yay!). Not as bad as it sounds, today went by quite well,and I am a big fan of the cookies Piotr brought for tea.

I was glad to hear yesterday that the package I sent home last week got there already, and that everyone liked the stuff in it. Mom and dad, I'll try to send more pics soon!

I also wanted to thank Jocelyne for all of her work toward the improvement of this blog. Keep it up!! It is sure appreciated!

Luke

No Takers Yet?

Well, no donations yet. I can't say I'm not disappointed! Come on, people, this blog is only as good as YOU make it. I could be writing about helicopter tours or wine tasting trips or something! Well, I guess cork is cool. Cork is quite a cool city. Definitely a fave. We got up at 5:15 today to drive out here. Nicole and I slept in the car quite well, but once again I'm finding myself very tired and lazy on my big tourist days off. A bit of a shame! I bought a sleeveless t-shirt to try to work on my farmer's tan before Spain. It is definitely going to be a task... One funny thing about these cities is that they are really quite small. Cork is somewhere I've definitely heard of all of my life, and it has less people than Regina. Cool pedestrian streets, though, and a fabulous market with all sorts of awesome looking cheese. I almost bought a big slab of locally made cheddar to munch on. We stopped in Mitchelstown on the way here, the place where our next project will centre around. It was ok, but it seemed even quieter than Ballinasloe. Not exactly a seething metropolis. It is about an hour from Cork, so we probably don't want to be based in the City. Alas, I think I saw a few tumbleweeds blow by... More interesting was the town of Fermoy, only about 7K away. Bigger, more alive, more colourful and very, very pretty! Might be a good place to try to find a flat. Here's a picture, though not a great one:



Anyway, off to see more CORK.

Later!

Luke

On to Wales?

Hello all,

How are things? The week on site has been heavy duty, as we are cleaning back a big stony area. Nicole likes to throw the stones. No brooches yet, but I found some sort of small, curved metal blade today that seems to have been set into a handle at some point.

I've been a bit unsure of my future here, because Nico will be on to Wales in the fall, and I think I'll go too (until NOvember or so) if I can manage. Wales is nice, right? Why not? It would let me get a much better look at the UK, and maybe do a bit of travelling around other places too. I'd sure like to see some of the places where my family come from in Britain. Besides, you can drive to Moscow, Paris, Rome, and Barcelona from there.

This weekend we are off to Cork, where we hope to move for the last bit of summer after this project ends. There's work there for a good while. Cork sounds like a cool place, but possibly a bit quiet. You know, Ireland is QUIET! I can't quite believe how quiet it is. Sure, there are some busy places and times, but all in all, Ireland is a RURAL island.

Nicole is talking about securing a computer. I'd like one too. Hey, how about a brand new laptop? Haha. Anyway, it sounds like we may have more steady internet access in a few months. That would be sweet.

Any ideas for visiting in Wales? Or anywhere? Suggestions about securing visas in the UK from Ireland? What about monetary donations? Hey, there's an idea, this blog would get much more exciting if someone sent me a few grand! I take various currencies and payment types, but I'm not set up for Visa or Mastercard quite yet...

Hope all is well.

Luke

Doolin Banjos

Hello boys and girls,

Just got into Galway from spending the night in Doolin. Its been quite the weekend of relaxing. Thursday night at Maud's was quite a good one, I played without a P.A. but the crowd was very fine, listening very well and really seeming to enjoy the set. At the end a group of younger guys took over and started singing songs over top of me... That was interesting (one of them was really really good), but I got the reins back and we sang U2's "One" together for a big finale. Tough 50 euros, I gotta say ;). We caught the bus into Galway after work on friday. Friday was a great day at work. After finishing up digging the week before, we had been mapping all week, and in the process of mapping in a wall on Friday, I found the ring of a bronze (or copper alloy) penannular brooch sticking out of the wall! Brilliant! Anyway, then off to Galway. After an all-too-short nap at our little B&B above a taco shop, we hit the town. We started by walking on our work-ruined legs down to the river edge area to try to find some supper. We ended up going to an Indian restaraunt where we ate great food but got totally ripped off. They charged us 3.50 extra for rice with our curry, so that means I paid 12.95 for meat in sauce. A bit low, I'm afraid. Oh well. After that, things turned for the better, and we walked up Quay street where people were packed shoulder to shoulder drinking in the street. The pubs just spill out into the pedestrian street, and you can just take your pint right out the door. We tried a little place with some live music, and after talking to a friend from work there for a while, we wandered back into the fray to buy some pints for the walk home. Very nice. Saturday morning we dragged our sorry asses out of bed and checked out the internet cafe before catching the crazy bus to Doolin. Crazy indeed. These were the narrowest, windiest roads I've ever seen, and much of it was right along the coast. Mom, you would have found some parts a bit harrowing, but all in all, other than the sick stomachs, it was awesome. At one hill, the road made 4 180 degree turns, literally zigzagging up the road. We arrived in Doolin with weak knees, and wandered down to our hostel. It was a sharp little place, and our private room had a reasonably comfortable double bed. We then wandered around the shops and coastline for a while. The coast was definitely the highlight of the town, looking out on the cliffs of moher, with big waves and cool rocks everywhere. After supper in the pub and dessert in a cafe, we walked down to the shore with a bottle of red and watched the crashing water until sunset. Doolin's pubs are reknowned for their music, and there are two great traditional music shops and the headquarters of a label, magnetic music, in the town. We checked out the pubs after dark, and were very impressed by the caliber of the players. Flutes, whistles, guitars, pipes, great singers, we heard it all in Doolin. One pub had low end feedback that overwhelmed the players, but hey.

This morning we got up late, ate a pub breakfast,watched the sea for a while, and caught the bus to Galway, which brings us to now. We're off to the bus for home.

Hope all is well!

Luke

DUO-BLOG

Hello,

Today we are doing something special here at Digging For Guinness/ Nicole's Kitchen. We are duo-blogging.

Ok...so I get the first paragraph(nicole writing). We took the bus at 7:30 this morning from Ballinasloe and caught the bus to Belfast. It took about 5 hours and we rolled in around 1:00pm. Luke was cranky on the bus saying he was really tired and that the bus was WAY too hot. I thought it was way too hot too but only admitted that it was a tad warm. We arrived in Belfast and as soon as we were out of the bus terminal the Europa hotel was on our left, the Opera House a little further and the Crown Saloon right in front of our eyes!

Well, there's a bit of a backstory to those places...(Luke typing) The big Opera House down the way was a posh old establishment, and the Crown Saloon was put up across the street and decorated in such a manner to attract the patrons of the Opera House after shows. It looks extremely decorated, and apparently there used to be buttons in the booths to ring for service. We're going there tonight. The Europa hotel, across the street, is the most bombed hotel in Europe. Its quite nice looking, however. Its odd, really, the street that these were on really reminded me in some funny way of First Avenue by Midtown Plaza in Saskatoon.... Very strange.

Well anyway..if you are still awake after that we came to our hostel. Leslie, Anita, Luke and I are sharing a room and Jose and Gustavo have their own. Jose and Gustavo are very funny guys from Spain and are obssessed with Napoleon Dynamite and Ligers. Anita, our roomate, is completely in love with Gustavo but we don't think Gustavo is really into it. She had her head cranked back so far on the bus today that it looked almost painful but we are sure she didn't feel a thing, hanging on to his every word. I, on the other hand, was telling Luke to stop whining...oh what 6 months can do. In Belfast, Luke and I walked down to the water side and we saw the most amazing statue..which I will try and find out more about.

So, blah blah blah,(Luke again), we split up after checking in to the hostel (where we met a guy from lethbridge) and wandered around Belfast. We wanted to catch a tour of the famous murals relating to the Troubles, but were a bit too late, so maybe tomorrow. Nicole and I made it to a Chinese restaraunt for some chow (no racial pun intended) and, after a little tiff ("you're so irritating, blah blah blah"), managed to pull things back together and enjoy the rest of the evening. We met Anita and Leslie at an Indian restaurant. I decided I have to get into Indian food, it's just so rich and creamy!!!

That's fo sho (no pun intended as well). All is well now and we are back on the fun train!

Anyway, Belfast is a beautiful town, oddly surrounded by high brown hills like southern Alberta near the rockies. I can't say how different the atmosphere is than I expected.

It's really fresh and young here. Luke and I were remarking how many teenagers there are EVERYWHERE!! All dressed as rockers and punks. We felt a little old and we are so young.

Well, that's all folks. All is well in Belfast, and we're going to see the Giants' Causeway and the Bushmills' Distillery tommorrow morning (up at 7:00!!! Have to get to the bar soon if we want to make it!).

Hope all is well there too!

Luke and Nicole