culturalnomads: 2006-12-31

The Railway Inn

This is the place in the movie "Michael Collins" where Michael Collins, played by Liam Neeson, rallies the common masses to rebellion against the British Crown for Ireland's independence.

It's great movie!

The Meeting of the Waters, Thomas Moore

This place is where Thomas Moore wrote the poem, "The Meeting of the Waters." It's a really cool place where two rivers converge. Since I'm can't write it as poetically as he did, here's the poem. It really does capture what the place was like.

By Thomas Moore:

THERE is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene	5
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
’Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no—it was something more exquisite still.

’Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,	10
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,	15
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.

Ethan's getting started early! He loves steamed milk!

My favorite coffee shop in Ireland so far!

Wicklow, Ireland

I loved the Irish breakfasts! Except for the white and black pudding

An Irish breakfast includes cereal, baked beans, bacon, sausage,baked tomato, eggs, toast, black and white pudding, and coffee or tea, and orange juice. Jonathan tried the pudding but I couldn't bring myself to try it.

White pudding consists of pork, meat, and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of a large sausage. Black pudding is all of that including the pigs blood. Ugh!