Category: Sites

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Addis’ hilltop churches

After visiting Harya’s dad, who works as a professor at the University, and swinging by the Red Terror Museum to learn more of Ethiopia’s past, we venture up into the hills just north of Addis.  Although we are not far from the city, the air is clearer and cooler, the trees are more numerous, and life seems calmer.  We visit St. Raguel’s Church, where we inspect some very old caves and enjoy explanations on some of the very intricate paintings within the church.  We then continue on to Entoto St. Mary, where we learn of the history of the church and of Ethiopia more generally.  In front of Entoto, we witness many of the sick who have come to try to heal the illnesses of themselves or their children.  Today is both relaxing and educational.

st-raguel-church-copy

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While in Scotland

We see snow at Loch Ness. It hails during our Glenfiddich tasting. There’s at least some rain everywhere else. But we also get our share of sunshine, and the fleeting ephemeral nature of it makes it that much more special. Here are the a list of the places in Scotland that we visited while constantly being teased by the clouds.

Lodgings:

Cherrytree Villa Guesthouse, East Mayfield 9, Edinburgh

Inch Hotel, Fort Augustus*

Highlander Inn, Craigellachie*

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Food:

The Holyrood 9A, 9A Holyrood Road, Edinburgh*

The Tea Rooms, Edinburgh Castle

The Elephant House, 21 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh

The Piemaker, 38 South Bridge, Edinburgh*

Clachaig Inn, Glencoe, Argyll**

Mitchells, St. Andrews, Fife

Artisan Roast, 57 Broughton Street, Edinburgh**

Ireland-Scotland-002-500pxDrinks:

Kilderkin, 65-67 Canongate, Edinburgh**

The Old Bell, 233-235 Causewayside, Edinburgh

Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, Banffshire*

Fiddichside Inn, Craigellachie, Banffshire**

Highlander Inn, Craigellachie**

The Macallan Distilleries, Craigellachie*

Tomintoul Distillery, Ballindalloch, Banffshire**

Conan Doyle, 71 York Place, Edinburgh

BrewDog, 143 Cowgate, Edinburgh*

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Activities:

Royal Mile, High Street, Edinburgh

Stirling Castle, Stirlingshire

Glenfinnan Viaduct, Glenfinnan, Highland

Loch Ness, Inverness-shire**

Urquhart Castle, Dumnadrochit, Inverness*

St. Andrews Cathedral

The Old Course, St. Andrews

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A wee bit of learnin’

Today, the tour of the Kilmainham Gaol, the former Dublin prison, enlightened us about the last couple centuries of Irish history. The prison, which was built at the end of the 18th century, housed many an Irishman, especially through the troublin’ times of the potato famine. Also, it wasn’t always a pretty site, as it became the site of many public hangings. Through hearing about the history of Kilmainham Gaol, we also learned of the Irish struggle for independence from the United Kingdom starting mostly in 1916 and the controversial treaty that was signed in 1922 that began a very messy Irish civil war. Ireland hasn’t exactly had an easy history, and the bumps and bruises worn by this prison can tell much of it.

dublin-jail

The other part of our educational day happens at the Guinness Storehouse. We learn of all the ingredients that go into this fine beer: barley, hops, water, and of course the propriety Guinness yeast. The barley is milled and then mixed with hot water and mashed. The grain is filtered out, the hops and barley is added, all of which is followed by the whole concoction being boiled. Arthur’s yeast is added to ferment, everything is allowed to mature for a while, and finally the beer is then packaged, shipped, and drunken. “Guinness is good for you.” ~Guinness’ slogan

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guinness-bar

 

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VW Caddy

In only a short time, we cover a fair territory in our rented VW Caddy, from Dublin to Cork to Galway and back. The roads are beautiful even if a bit narrow and with cars on the wrong side. We pass countrysides filled with farm animals, forests in the Ring of Kerry, and rocky rolling hills in the Barren. We sing along to the great tunes of our youth (the 90’s), laugh to comedy tracks, and otherwise just give each other a hard time. Susie announces each animal, Nick checks us in, Chris captures the moment on CMOS, Megan guides us, and Gabe and I alternate between driving and navigating. As far as teams go, this one ain’t bad.

ireland-map

VWCaddy2

 

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Cloudy with a chance of rain

As it turns out, the luck of the Irish doesn’t always extend to the realm of weather. Our first day in Dublin and Dalkey may have been more an anomaly; however, being day one, we didn’t fully understand the magically delicious weather we had. Day two starts still sunny, but by the end of the day when we arrive in Cork, our luck had run out. And by the end of day three, the heavens open up as we walk home the two blocks to our lovely B&B in Galway. Our faces are pelted with small water pellets and enough wind to make it look like we had a healthy sunburn.

driving-to-kerry

Nonetheless, rain cannot stop us. We will visit the sites, explore the town of Cork, tour the Kilkenny Castle, and drive around the Ring of Kerry all the while stopping in small towns along the way to find delectable bites of stew, fish ‘n chips, and pork served in every which way.

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ring-of-kerry-peeps

ring-of-kerry

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Santiago’s Farewell

We finish our last game of cards at the top of Cerro San Cristobal before commencing our last drive through Santiago back to Hotel Galerias and then onwards to the airport.  What we hadn’t accounted for was Friday afternoon rush hour traffic.

After only one wrong turn, we find ourselves about two blocks away from the hotel at a complete stand still.  Intersections are clogged, I literally put the car into Park and I exit the car to try to investigate the problem.  Two of the group leave the car and head towards the hotel by foot to collect our luggage, and before anything has changed other than a decrease in patience and an increase in car horns, they are returning with a hotel dolly full of our bags.  Putting luggage in the trunk is a not a trivial activity, and thus we begin the dance that is arranging our bags in a very particular way.  We put in about three bags and then suddenly traffic starts to move.  I jump back into the driver’s seat, the rest of our luggage is carted to the side of the road, and through the car window, we discuss a new rendezvous point slightly up ahead.  We change this meeting point once or twice and eventually just pull up in front of the hotel to complete this luggage-filling process.

The car is now filled, but our adventure to the airport is only half-complete.  It is still rush hour and the low setting sun in our eyes only adds to the adrenalized moment.  I receive honks of discontent for video-game like maneuvers such as making right turns from non-right lanes, cutting the same car off more than once, changing lanes with such frequency that it almost seems unproductive, and squeezing through spaces that makes our luggage-packed trunk seem spacious.  All that said, this video game ends at the airport’s rental car lot with full health bars and the car hasn’t even suffered a scratch in the process.  We have barely enough time to blow a sigh of relief when the parking lot attendant points out some small scratches near the trunk of the car.  Being able to talk my way out of these small nicks in Spanish gave me confidence that my language skills had advanced at least some over the last two weeks here in Chile.

We all make our flights on time and brace ourselves for the 80-degree (Fahrenheit) temperature swing we are about to experience upon touching ground in Boston.

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Valpo

We all pile back into the car, make a pit stop by Pablo Neruda’s cliff-top, ocean-view house, and continue onwards to Valparaiso.  This colorful port city, which is oftentimes called Valpo brings out the photographer in two of us as we pass through its winding, hilly streets.  We get to skip climbing up one hill by braving the Ascensor Concepcion, a short century-old funicular in an historic part of the city.  We then weave our ways through countless cute shops and mini cafes stopping all the while to capture each scene via CMOS sensor.  As the day is a bit overcast, our cameras are not overwhelmed with brightness, with shadows, or with intensity of any sort; however, the flatness of light gives some of the otherwise hidden parts of these colorful streets a little more attention than they would otherwise have received.  We end our visit in Valpo at a cafe complete with live music from a local Chilean.

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Santiago by night

As our trip comes to a close, we appreciate some of Santiago’s nightlife by exploring Barrio Bellavista, a neighborhood chock full of restaurants, bars, cafes and clubs.  On consecutive nights, we find dinner at a local spot and then venture out to find some dancing.  Bar Constitucion, a club with very eclectic music from electroclash to house to hip hop to rock ‘n roll and more, provides us with an interesting cross-section of locals and foreigners who have all found themselves in Santiago.  At Bar Constitucion, we chat up some locals and thus get chance to practice our Spanish, and we also dance among our selves on the smoke-filled dance floor.

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Colchagua Valley Wine Tasting

We find a piece of home, and more specifically of Trader Joe’s, when we visit Viña Concha y Toro, the famous wine producer of Casillero del Diablo.  After a couple tastes at this winery just southeast of Santiago, we continue southward to the Colchagua Valley where we enjoy wines, lunch, vineyard-filled hills, and walks among the grapes.   In the center of the valley is Santa Cruz, a cute town filled with boutique hotels, small houses with flowered window sills, and restaurants, cafes a plenty.