I prepare to set foot on International soil for only the second time in my life; layover at Heathrow notwithstanding
The internet in my apartment has set a new record for low connectivity. Oh dial-up, even you are a fond and distant memory relative to the internet access now at my disposal. It hasn't bothered me too much, really. I have been reading and writing diligently, taking solitary walks, and over the weekend spent almost four hours trying to perfect coconut macaroon pancakes with Hailey. (We failed, but it's the effort, I believe, that counts.)
I will spend only seven of the next 21 days in Ireland, and then it will be November, and I will have just a month left to spend in this amazing place. Figure in just a few of the trips I'm still determined to plan - Italy, Scotland, Austria - and time, I expect, will insist on flying.
I've been feeding a pregnant cat in the parking garage. She won't let me pet her but she looks out for me in the early evenings and runs to me, staying just out of reach, as soon as I acknowledge her. I feel terrible and awkward when I run into her empty handed at other times during the day, but she is leaving a little bit of the food I give her every time, so I think she's getting enough to eat. Stray animals are almost indistinguishable from pets here. Somehow they all manage to stay at a healthy weight. I think the only reason she's looking a little ragged is because she's eating for several. My friends are threatening to capture the kittens and smuggle them into their apartments when they arrive. I am hoping we can at least handle them enough to make them tame and find them homes before we go.
The weather persists in producing a sunny day for every few cloudy ones. And really, considering where we are, any break in the rain should please us. I find myself responding strangely to consecutive overcast days; my mood plummets, my feet drag. I think it is the contrast to the consistent sun of home, a place where a rain cloud is welcomed like a hero. Of course, that doesn't necessarily hold true these days, changing weather patterns being what they are. Has Kansas drained out and dried up again yet? I keep forgetting to ask when I call.
I have strange dreams: in some I'm back in Kansas, in many I have unexpected visitors here in Cork but have lost my keys and cannot manage to let them into my apartment, and in one I was volunteering at an organic farm in Spain and living in a commune. (This exists! Hailey told me about it.) It seems that the International student advisor's prediction will come true; I will be homesick for most of my stay, only to go back to the United States and experience the entire process of loss and adjustment again. To make it easier, though, I will be celebrating Christmas with all my favorite people and - if I have anything to say about it - won't let my dog out of my sight for at least 72 hours. Unless he wants to be out of my sight. I understand if he and Amanda have forged an unbreakable bond during this period of separation.
Horseback riding lessons might be impossible. I'd hoped to take the bus to the ferry and the ferry to Hop Island to take dressage lessons at the facility there, but after speaking to the management learned they don't have availability for Monday or Tuesday lessons, and, at least for the next three weeks, those are the only days I won't be on a bus to or from the airport or in another country. Hopefully I can make this work in November, but with the aforementioned trip plans in the forge, I can't be certain. I am feeling horse withdrawal pangs, but I must also admit that freedom from the responsibility and worry is welcome. Anyone want a very good deal on 1.5 tobiano mares?
I learn my sister is beginning her own adventure, and I hope hers has all the fun and none of the anxiety of mine.
Currently welcoming suggestions for sights to be seen in/around: Brussels and/or Bruges, Belgium; Madrid, Spain; Frankfurt and/or Bonn, Germany.
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Hi/list from 1000 places to see before you die book/belgium...more countries to come. love, mom
Antwerp - the remains of the intellectual, commercial and artistic life of the Low Countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cathedral of Our Lady (has a carillon of 47 bells)houses four masterworks by Rubens (also visit the Rubens House Museum, a patrician mansion where the artist lived and worked from 1610 to 1640)
Bruges - see the quaint city famed for the flowering of Flemish painting in the 15th century by open-top boats that slip past gliding swans and through the meandering crossed by stone bridges. Boats operate Mar-Nov. Remarkable Memling Museum visit in the morning and have it to yourself. St John's Hospice (12th century. Market Square, concerts are regularly played on the centuries-old carillon. Churc of Our Lady houses Michelangelo's Madonna and Child.
Brussels - La Grand Place, the heart of town since the 13th century. Bird market every Sun. morning til 2 p.m. (?) Flower market daily except. Mon. Louis XIV of France bombarded the entire city center in the 17th century, destroying more than 5,000 wooden buildings. The ornate Baroque faces of the powerful guild houses and the Gothic Hotel de Ville that dates to 1402, the only building to have survived the 1695 destruction, are the highlights.
Leon de Bruxelles - the quintessential mussels and fries joint (a combination as beloved and ubiquitous as the American burger and fries). 18 Rue des Bouchers. Having secured its fame over 100 years as it slowly expanded into a row of eight old houses and looking every bit the tourist trap, this venerable, old-fashioned restaurant is a warren of rooms filled with mussels-devouring Bruxellois. The blue-shelled mussels are prepared fourteen different ways, althoug there are other regional specialties on the menu such as eel in green sauce (anguilles au vert) made with sorrel, chervil, and parsley.
Mary Chocolatier - maybe too expensive to eat, but you could look. If Mary's handmade chocolates are the finest in a country that claims to make the world's best, does that make Mary's the best anywhere? With its blue velvet decor and Louis XVI furniture, this elegant shop looks like a refined jewelry store, and with royall rich bonbons beginning at $35 per kg we're in the same financial ballpark. All those artistic chocolate gems are made on the premises, including the famous Belgian pralines, 70 different kinds filled with everything from caramel to delicate liqueurs. 73 Rue Royale, in front of the Congress Column.
Orval - Abbaye d'Orval - Of the six Trappist breweries in the world, five are in Belgium. 100 miles south of Brussels. there is an admission cost. Tel 32/61-467015. In the forested hills of the Ardennes region (where the Battle of the Bulge was waged) is the famed Abbaye d'Orval. Its ruins date to the arrival of the Cistercians in 1110; other buildings date to the 17th century. A community of monks carefully tend their beautiful grounds, medicinal herb garden, and dispensary, where the famous Orval beer is sold along with bread and cheese. Talk about a heavenly picnic. For the antithesis in accommodations, one of Belgium's top-ranked country restaurants and prettiest inns, the Auberge du Moulin Hideux, is just 16 miles away. Miles of beautiful walking trails through leafy hardwood forests promise the chance to work off the meals that attract long-time loyalists who travel from Brussels, Paris and beyond.
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