in the backyard... and the front

So these little statues are awesome.  They kinda creep me out, but in a -I can't stop staring sort of way- like, nice, but wow, I don't know...

I have never walked up these steps, they look so old and rustic that there must be something exquisite up them, right?   I'm going to walk up them after coffee and biscuits.  ok, maybe I am...

This is in the front yard, entrance way style, you know.  This shot reminds me of chess pieces, maybe cause I've been playing lots of chess.  I'm getting very good at it actually...

the other window in my room

 an attempt at taking an artsy pic.  I think it looks lagit, what do you think?

pre-pre wedding bar time

Going out to the bars was nice.  We did a bit of sledging (Australian version of hazing) to each other and got quite wasted.  More than anything I just wanted to put up these photo's, I don't have much to write home about from this particular night.  We drank, we played pool, we conquered(the bar).   We each bought a round of Heineken for the lot of us.  Andy, Fred, Trent and I, that is.  I won every game of pool, including the double or nothing bet game.  Mostly by default(ie eight ball sunk pre), cause  I wasn't actually playing very well.  It was a good night though, Irish people at bars that you can't understand spitting all over thier beard while they talk.  Nice....

The Wedding!!!

This lady (above)is an awesomely crazy Irish lady. Brash, insane, bold, and did I mention totally insane.  But in a good way, of course.  Tending the bar here, which looked marvelous, was an experience to remember.  Pity I didn't get a picture of it... and the dance floor madness (left)was loads of fun.   Lot's of interesting characters, since it was an Irish lass marrying a Frenchman.  Loads of people only spoke french, and even more people spoke with such strong Irish accents that I couldn't understand them anyways.  A very enjoyable evening, even though I didn't do much dancing, or make any good connections with the ladies. For some reason I woke up very depressed the next day, and went down to the lake and wrote a new song for hours.  Not exactly sure why, maybe I'm lonely, homesick or something.  Sounds a bit clique, but traveling halfway around the world can't instantly change who I love, and who loves me back.  The next day shot of the tables (above) was taken late Sunday, after lots of Irish ballad songs, Guinness, champagne, and chili con carne.  I met a couple who will let me stay with them in Cork for a weekend.   And Andy, (Fred's mate from school) has invited me to stay with him in Dublin, whenever I get around to going there.  The people are amazing here, very honest, caring, and they don't beat around the bush, ya know.

The Gate Lodge Pre-Party

So Irish weddings are traditionally up to a week long, right?  And they know how to party, for sure.  Friday was spent setting up the marquee all day long, and drinking all night at the Gate Lodge(shown above).   It's the house at the entrance of the property, where the bride and groom were staying.  I met some very interesting people, and had a very interesting night, to say the least.

the lauder...

so back before they had refrigerators, they had lauders.  (I hope that is the correct spelling)  It's a room, sort of like a closet/pantry area which was engineered to be cooler than the rest of the house.  They still have a couple fridges, but a lot of the fresh stuff goes in here.  And sometimes it can get a little smelly with the french cheeses and all. 

some shots of the grounds

out in the field behind the property is some real breathtaking stuff.   It was nice to have a pint of Guinness, play guitar, and chill out my hangover with this as my view.

Did somebody say Castle?

or Georgian Townhouse? Well, the back of this place is hella old Son! Fred told me he had it appraised, and it would take about 2 million Euro to refurbish back to the good old days. They used to employ 60 workers and were a self sustained community. Now milk is cheaper at the store, and labor is too expensive and all that. Sad, I say, because it would be great to see this place thriving as it was 100 years ago.

so this is Lover's Walk....

This photo, (as most of my photo's do), does't give this place credit. It's absolutely breathtaking, and I am glad to be adding a little spark to it. I put wood chips along the path over the last three days. It will help to not let your feet 'be alls muddys and stuffs...' while you enjoy the "Lovers Walk". Hopefully with this kind of hard work I will be coming back to the states with a beard and a 6 pack, and not the beer kind.

What is a Whipper-Snipper?

So I didn't know how many different ways you can refer to a Weed Whacker. So the Irish call this contraption a Strimmer, which Fred says is a word, supposedly. And the Aussie's call it a Whipper-Snipper, cause it "Whips and it Snips!" Trent says. I think it's a hella funny word, whipper-snipper. I 'strimmed' around this old trailer in the photo.

So, the Boat Party...

Not what I expected, since I was not on a boat. Actually had a big pirate ship as one of the stages, and there was a Pirate theme. Even being misinformed, it was still fun. They have lots of these festivals in Ireland, I have come to find out. The cool thing was all the bands. Some really nice sounds coming from this island. I was intrigued to find out Heineken is just as popular as Guinness, and both are not as popular as Hard Ciders. Which I think taste like juice, but back to the point... (If you notice the pic with Guinness in it), at the bar they had rows of Vinyl with American country singers, (which as it turns out are really big here in Ireland) like Johnny Cash and whatnot, and the pic I have is of 'Truck Driver Favorites'. "Classic". I say. A hole in one of a night, although I woke up a bit knackered off like 3 hours sleep. Next Day, not as fun...

The view when I wake up…

The view, well, it is nice... Especially of the lake. It doesn't seem to be very photogenic for me though.

So that's a GAS Station?

Without even realizing it, I've always thought I knew what the word Emo meant. But after trying to explain to Irish people what the word means, I realize I have no idea. Not sure of the conversion of gallon to litre, but this is expensive, I guess.

First night at the pub

So the first night at the local pub was very relaxed. I started the night off heading to a volunteers meeting for the Flatlake’s festival around 8pm. I found out later it was in Scottshouse, which is the other small village near the estate, aside from Clones, (pronounced Klo-Nez). The meeting was simple and chill. They mostly just talked about which areas they needed more help in, and what is needed to make it better than last year. Fred Madden begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, (the estate owner’s son, soon to be the owner) has decided I will be his personal assistant chef at the festival. It is quite a sweet job, much nicer than trash pickup, or help with parking. So after the meeting, Trent (a nice http://www.workaway.info/ fellow from Australia) and I went to a local pub, where we had a couple pints of Guinness. Amidst the nice elderly men with very Irish hats and thick accents, there was a dog inside that I swear looked exactly like lassie. Also a few Secondary school kids there had never seen any American money, so I gave them a quarter to keep, and showed them a hundred dollar bill.
I was surprised to see pool is very different here. They have the 8 ball the same, but all the others are split red/yellow instead of solid/stripe. I guess no numbers or other unique character’s makes the balls cheaper to replace, Trent says. So when you make in a red, that’s your suite’, and you shoot for red. They call a scratch ‘a foul’, and when you ‘foul’, the other person gets 2 shots next turn. The only other change is the balls are smaller, and the holes are pretty narrow and harder to make it in. Fred’s brother-in law Kevin was there, and he’s hella funny. He was a director in L.A. for 3 years, and has worked on a few movies. He told me he met Quentin Tarentino once, and that he wouldn’t shut up about movies. I guess it’s like all he talks about. Then he says that Laura(his wife) ended up telling him off, something like “shut up about the movies already, we get it!” or something. I thought that was hilarious, since I’ve loved all Tarintino’s movies. I never thought about how boring he could be in real life to talk to. All in all a great night, with a late-night dinner, coffee and a pint, then off to bed by 12pm.

The Local Market

I only got a couple pictures of this place. But the vibe was amazing. It’s not as simple as just taking Wednesday Night Market in Santa Rosa and transporting it to Ireland. It’s way more intimate and small time. You have everyone making and selling their own jams, breads, cheeses, ice cream, sausages, and a whole lot more. It all being locally grown (and/or made), and sold for a really good cause. It was hosted at a children school and donations were made to help buy books and such things for the school. There was also a celebrity chef doing a presentation inside, to which Lucy (Fred’s Mom) has known for ages. He had a picture taken with her and gave her his latest book for free. Everyone was very nice and friendly, giving out samples of jam, cheese, wine, muffins, ice cream, bread, and fudge. My host family(then present - Trent, Lucy, Laura, and 2 of her kids, ages 8 and 7, whose names I cannot remember yet) brought all organic things from their property, as such sausage from their pigs, fresh rhubarb, fresh herbs, lettuce, and spinach bundles, homemade vanilla walnut fudge and cupcakes. They sold out of everything except the herbs, partly because they brought so many, and ended up giving some away for free. I was able to taste local Ireland firsthand and mingle with the people making it. I had a grin from ear to ear for a pretty solid 3 hours. What a great adventure for my first day!

Much more than I expected

I can’t even begin to soak in how amazing this place is. I have to list my first five reasons why I absolutely adore this place
1. The people actually talk to each other. You know in America, the commercial where the guy picks up a toy for a lady, whose baby drops it on a busy street in New York. And so she decides to open the door for someone, and the cycle continues onward, like a good karmic energy sort of thing. Well, they have SOOO MUCH of that here. I am genuinely blown away by how calm and sweet these people are.
2. They have an absolutely breathtaking property. It’s like 600 acres with 3 lakes, big organic gardens, an Herb garden (pronounced as is ‘Herb’-ert), pig farms with piglets, a big herd of sheep, a castle with like 25+ rooms that are really easy to get lost in. The list just keeps going on. Let’s just say lots of space to go running. (Sarah, remember what I was talking about with the running thing? Oh Yeah, it’s on!)
3. The sun stays out until about 11pm in the summer, cowabunga! Like what? It’s pizza time!
4. I have the chance to get my hands dirty outside, in really cool ways… redoing paths, gardening, chopping wood, trimming hedges, fishing, running, weddings, festivals, and general fun
5. It looks exactly like, ok, even better than the photos on www.hiltonpark.ie

the late night Ipod knomes...

One of my easiest experiences of the trip was meeting up with Victoria Larken, an old high school friend. Chasing after the Blue Line train turned into a bus ride and a long walk. I was glad I know someone in this city though. We went to a local bar, and she introduced me to her awesome African (like, he's from Africa, and not just black) boyfriend, Ken. After drinking and shooting pool at the local bar, it was back to her place with some friends, then they gave me a ride back to my hotel. Unfortunately, I lost my Ipod. If there is a god, my Ipod will be returned to me by some cosmic power...

95 floors above where humans usually live...

After a recommendation, I was like, Sweet! A bar 95 floors up, that sounds awesome... Well, it was scary as shit, but at first it wasn't scary at all.

It's a seat yourself sortof deal, before 4pm. And so I walked around the perimeter of all glass windows browsing for a seat. I find one, and deciding to take a photo, lean over the edge. I zoom in to see a building, but become dizzy. My depth perception wasn't used to looking at the world from a Spider Man like height. So I decided I needed a good stiff drink to get me settled.

The bartender was chill, but having worked there for 14 years, didn't have the same reality as me. He assured me of the 3 inch thick windows, and how they collapse inward and not outward, so I couldn't fall out (wack excuse). Basically, he wasn't afraid of being blown over by a swift breeze like I was. So after pouring me a glass of '12 years aged Glenlivet on the rocks' for $13+tax(actually $17 w a small tip and 11.9 percent sales tax) he told me that I should go stand on the edge for a minute, because it gets better if you look out for a while. I muster up the courage after 'Popeye's spinach' filled gulps of booze, and sit beside the window. It actually was amazing. I would love to take a girl there at some point of my life. The view at night I hear is breathtaking, although I had plans later, and had to be at Damen Blue Line at 5:45. More on that later. (bottom right photo is from the 94th floor, which is of the restaurant that looked way too expensive to even touch with a golden spoon, so I left.)

Alright, I totally did not expect to be here...

All these photos are within the first hours of my Chicago adventure downtown. Very close to, or part of the park, they all represent a unique character of Chicago, and I'm fortunate it's not the gang violence... because I heard it's horrible.
But really though, it is... they are thinking of calling in the national guard to help out.

The train was very rustic looking, like life had been brought back to the 70's, where Warriors banded together to form gangs that dressed really funny and made silly puns...

Millennium Park, what a place to start...

So Millennium Park eh... there is this big metal ball and it's way awesome... from underneath (below) it's like some 'Predator' 3D glasses or something. And the building next to it "to the right" is called the Vagina Building, no joke. Some female architect was tired of all the buildings looking so falic that she made one look like a vag, or so she claims...
I think it looks like a building...

I always have fun at the holy cow bar

I had a blast partying in Frisco last night. If you ever get a chance to party with Jessica Knight-Graham for her annual B-Day party in the city, never turn it down. I mean, renting out a strip of hotel room, drinking jungle juice, dressing in a theme(this year Safari) and going out to the bars with like 40 people all dressed up is phenomenal. Where I end up last night, that was a great finale, a great bon voyage to Cali for a while. I will miss u Gina Marie, but then again, I always do.

ok, that's a pizza

Well, $32.00 dollars later I have a chicago stuffed pizza delivered to my hotel door. And, it's awesome! If only I wasn't so tired, I would be going out to mingle more tonight... maybe tomm

the unexpected addition...

the ash is falling, and I am not flying. I have made it to Chicago, and am staying in a hotel here for two days. My flight will leave Tuesday (fingers crossed). Just got my WiFi hooked up, so at least I have that. Putting some pics up of the hotel, it's pretty sweet. MiniFridge, Microwave, nice TV, Free shuttle to the airport. And a train will take me downtown from there for $2.50 each way or $12 for 48 hours. And they both run 24 hours a day. So I guess I'm traveling in Chicago for two days with no phone, no friends(yet) and no game plan. Wish me luck!