my west ireland trip to visit jules
i suppose i should post these pictures now. i've forgotten about them in the recent upheaval. some are really nice, and despite what happens, i thought they should be shared. there are quite a few, i apologize for the length of the post, but there are so many good ones.
jules was working in the west of ireland near galway. we'd made plans for me to come visit for a week at the end of march. she was dear enough to come pick me up crazy early in the morning at the airport, then take me back to her hotel and go to work. as is usual, whenever i see her coming down the escalator (or in this case, my entrance), i get so excited. it's like... my breath gets stuck every time. we were both tired, i grabbed a quick breakfast and we headed off to the hotel. she dropped me off, and i napped while she went to work (sorry). when she got back, she cleaned up, prolly had dinner, and went to the hotel bar. she was working with a buddy of mine i'd worked with in wales, TheLewis, so we got caught up for a bit. i drank over-exuberantly, on purpose, over a stupid little thing that i should've ignored. i'm trying to grow, so that night wasn't the best. i forget what day i got there, so i'm not sure exactly WHEN what happened, but we ate at differening places around the town, i saw some local sites walking around (even got an invitation for a PERSONAL tour of the local castle since it was opening until after when i was set to go back to the U.S.). jules got a 2 day weekend so we decided to take a road trip. i told her i'd like to go to donegal, as i've met a few guys on the crew who are from there and it's in a few songs. can't be too bad, but apparently, all ireland goes on road trips on the weekend. she couldn't get a place there so she settled for sligo. she drove up (because i can't drive a standard and gave up on trying in front of the hotel... it was for safety's sake, really), and it was a really pretty drive, both ways. i was the picture taker. there were tons of stone walls and grazing sheep. sadly, i couldn't get a REALLY clear picture of either. like each stone wall had to have millions of stones, and we saw hundreds of stone walls just on this little trip.
we stayed in sligo at a REALLY strange clarion hotel that was converted from an old castle. form the front door to our bedroom, we had to go through TEN doors!!! when you enter the room, you are in the living room and you can see the kitchen but that is it besides a door to your right. you open this door into a little almost closet that has two more doors in it, one to the bathroom, one to the bedroom. it was CRAZY!!! and we couldn't get the doors to stay open with jams or anything. lots of door opening was to be had. we went out for dinner and a few drinks. it was nice. the next day we took a leisurely drive back, going through westport where i got a lovely pic of jules. i forget where the cliff pics are for. i think they were from somewhere between sligo and westport, as we drove along the coast for a bit. really beautiful country up there. if i had the money, i'd move to ireland or scotland in a heartbeat. just such an amazing, beautiful, historical place. we made it back to portumna, spent some time, and i had to go back home. that's about the end of that story. jules can remind me of any other poignant things i might've glanced over, and i can add them. she's in qatar right now, so she might not read this as often as usual. now the pix (all are clickable to get the bigger versions).
need petrol? they have gas pumps right on the street!
portumna castle, sadly i had to turn down the personal tour
here is a friary down the road from the hotel
a friary window, WOW!
this is a 360° panoramic from inside the friary
outside of the friary and cemetary
they spray-paint their free-range sheep here to know whose are whose
this little sheeplet didn't know what to do... we honked it out of the way
jules sitting along the river that runs through downtown westport
jules and myself at a highway outlook for viewing the amazing cliffs
jules making me and a cliff look damn good (check it out in the background)
me and jules with another cool cliff in the background
so that was my trip. despite a rocky start, it was pretty nice. it was great to see jules again, to meet old friends again (TheLewis), and make new ones (i met TheH here and worked with him on my next job several weeks later).
jules was working in the west of ireland near galway. we'd made plans for me to come visit for a week at the end of march. she was dear enough to come pick me up crazy early in the morning at the airport, then take me back to her hotel and go to work. as is usual, whenever i see her coming down the escalator (or in this case, my entrance), i get so excited. it's like... my breath gets stuck every time. we were both tired, i grabbed a quick breakfast and we headed off to the hotel. she dropped me off, and i napped while she went to work (sorry). when she got back, she cleaned up, prolly had dinner, and went to the hotel bar. she was working with a buddy of mine i'd worked with in wales, TheLewis, so we got caught up for a bit. i drank over-exuberantly, on purpose, over a stupid little thing that i should've ignored. i'm trying to grow, so that night wasn't the best. i forget what day i got there, so i'm not sure exactly WHEN what happened, but we ate at differening places around the town, i saw some local sites walking around (even got an invitation for a PERSONAL tour of the local castle since it was opening until after when i was set to go back to the U.S.). jules got a 2 day weekend so we decided to take a road trip. i told her i'd like to go to donegal, as i've met a few guys on the crew who are from there and it's in a few songs. can't be too bad, but apparently, all ireland goes on road trips on the weekend. she couldn't get a place there so she settled for sligo. she drove up (because i can't drive a standard and gave up on trying in front of the hotel... it was for safety's sake, really), and it was a really pretty drive, both ways. i was the picture taker. there were tons of stone walls and grazing sheep. sadly, i couldn't get a REALLY clear picture of either. like each stone wall had to have millions of stones, and we saw hundreds of stone walls just on this little trip.
we stayed in sligo at a REALLY strange clarion hotel that was converted from an old castle. form the front door to our bedroom, we had to go through TEN doors!!! when you enter the room, you are in the living room and you can see the kitchen but that is it besides a door to your right. you open this door into a little almost closet that has two more doors in it, one to the bathroom, one to the bedroom. it was CRAZY!!! and we couldn't get the doors to stay open with jams or anything. lots of door opening was to be had. we went out for dinner and a few drinks. it was nice. the next day we took a leisurely drive back, going through westport where i got a lovely pic of jules. i forget where the cliff pics are for. i think they were from somewhere between sligo and westport, as we drove along the coast for a bit. really beautiful country up there. if i had the money, i'd move to ireland or scotland in a heartbeat. just such an amazing, beautiful, historical place. we made it back to portumna, spent some time, and i had to go back home. that's about the end of that story. jules can remind me of any other poignant things i might've glanced over, and i can add them. she's in qatar right now, so she might not read this as often as usual. now the pix (all are clickable to get the bigger versions).
so that was my trip. despite a rocky start, it was pretty nice. it was great to see jules again, to meet old friends again (TheLewis), and make new ones (i met TheH here and worked with him on my next job several weeks later).
Labels: embed, holiday, international, jules, travel
posted by slyght at 5/28/2007 09:45:00 PM
1 Comments:
Beautiful pictures. And the "sheeplet" is adorable. I now have to wonder - did the friary have a roof at one time? You guys look so perty!!
XXXOOO
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