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graculusThis year's summer holiday was a trip to Ireland, first to Dublin for WorldCon and then off to the west coast for a few days. To be honest, if it hadn't been for the convention I would have jumped the train to the coast after 2 days in Dublin, as I'd pretty much done all the tourist stuff last time I was there and it was just noisy, crowded and I didn't enjoy it all that much. Probably not helped by discovering that the hostel where I was staying was on a street where idiots people were making noise till 3 or 4am every night. The hostel itself was fine, as I was staying in a 4-bed single sex room, and definitely didn't want to spend the kind of money it costs to stay in Dublin in August. I had thought Helsinki was expensive!
Enjoyed the con a lot, which is good because it'll probably be the last WorldCon I make it to unless Glasgow wins the bid for 2024. Can't see me making the trip to the US any time soon and I'm definitely not off to NZ for next year's edition. Though it probably won't suffer from the horrendous queues that Dublin did. The other downside was that there was nowhere to sit and actually have a conversation, which is always a good part of any con.
Then I got the train to Sligo, as I figured it would be less busy than Galway, and it was great. A beautiful part of the country, some of it very reminiscent of the national park nearest to me - lots of sheep and heather and rolling limestone hills. I got to go kayaking, though only on Lough Gill as I didn't organise myself too well, and the highlight of the trip was definitely the neolithic stuff. There's a big concentration of megalithic stuff in that area, including a cairn on top of a hill that I didn't make it to which I could see from my hotel bedroom window.
I went to one particular place called Carrowkeel, which has a number of passage tombs dating back to about 3600BC and which were way less attractive to passing tourists because you have to hike for a mile or so to get to them. Next time I'd like to get a proper map of the area, as there were more neolithic elements around that area which I didn't get to see, but you can go inside the cairns which have been excavated. The best, you have to crawl into down a passage that's about 3' x 3', then it opens up into a central chamber where the roof is about 8' or so and you can stand, with other smaller chambers and shelves off it. There's another one like it, where you have to squirm in past a stone that almost blocks the entrance, again where you can stand up inside.
And then it was back home, as for some reason I decided it would be a good idea to get the train back to Dublin rather than flying back from the regional airport near where I was staying. Not sure what I was thinking when I organised all of that.
We're not officially back at work yet, though tomorrow is the date when we're officially supposed to be 'available' for any meetings etc. though ours all seem to be on Friday. This meant I couldn't avail myself of the bargain trip I was offered to go on the whale watching survey again, as it doesn't finish till Saturday, so I'm trying not to torture myself too much at the moment by reading the posts from that trip. Grrr.
I'm also trying to get ready for the new fencing season, which means regular practice and trying to get a routine of gym attendance as well. First competition of the season is in 2 weeks and so far the line-up in my weapon is all veterans (myself included) and the 2018 national senior champion. She was almost the 2019 national senior champion as well but lost in the final. You can probably imagine how much I am looking forward to possibly fighting her!
Enjoyed the con a lot, which is good because it'll probably be the last WorldCon I make it to unless Glasgow wins the bid for 2024. Can't see me making the trip to the US any time soon and I'm definitely not off to NZ for next year's edition. Though it probably won't suffer from the horrendous queues that Dublin did. The other downside was that there was nowhere to sit and actually have a conversation, which is always a good part of any con.
Then I got the train to Sligo, as I figured it would be less busy than Galway, and it was great. A beautiful part of the country, some of it very reminiscent of the national park nearest to me - lots of sheep and heather and rolling limestone hills. I got to go kayaking, though only on Lough Gill as I didn't organise myself too well, and the highlight of the trip was definitely the neolithic stuff. There's a big concentration of megalithic stuff in that area, including a cairn on top of a hill that I didn't make it to which I could see from my hotel bedroom window.
I went to one particular place called Carrowkeel, which has a number of passage tombs dating back to about 3600BC and which were way less attractive to passing tourists because you have to hike for a mile or so to get to them. Next time I'd like to get a proper map of the area, as there were more neolithic elements around that area which I didn't get to see, but you can go inside the cairns which have been excavated. The best, you have to crawl into down a passage that's about 3' x 3', then it opens up into a central chamber where the roof is about 8' or so and you can stand, with other smaller chambers and shelves off it. There's another one like it, where you have to squirm in past a stone that almost blocks the entrance, again where you can stand up inside.
And then it was back home, as for some reason I decided it would be a good idea to get the train back to Dublin rather than flying back from the regional airport near where I was staying. Not sure what I was thinking when I organised all of that.
We're not officially back at work yet, though tomorrow is the date when we're officially supposed to be 'available' for any meetings etc. though ours all seem to be on Friday. This meant I couldn't avail myself of the bargain trip I was offered to go on the whale watching survey again, as it doesn't finish till Saturday, so I'm trying not to torture myself too much at the moment by reading the posts from that trip. Grrr.
I'm also trying to get ready for the new fencing season, which means regular practice and trying to get a routine of gym attendance as well. First competition of the season is in 2 weeks and so far the line-up in my weapon is all veterans (myself included) and the 2018 national senior champion. She was almost the 2019 national senior champion as well but lost in the final. You can probably imagine how much I am looking forward to possibly fighting her!
