The End of Our European Adventure: Part One

Once again, this absence is far to long, and completely unwarranted.  Sure, I’ve been busy since I got home.  But not too busy.  I partially blame myself, for not feeling motivated to finish my blog.  I partially toss the blame to Jon, saying that I’m not ready to finish it until I get my pictures from him, to which he replies “I have four months of pictures to go through, you’ll get them when I get to them.”  Does he really expect me to wait?  I guess so.

I think the real problem is that, finishing the blog means that my trip is officially over.  And as excited as I was to come home and see my friends and family, I’m not ready for it to be over.  I’m ready to go back.  We’ll come back to that in a few more posts.

So, my job right this moment is to tell you about my last few days in Ireland, and our trip home.

Dublin was wonderful, as always.  Jenna was very welcoming, and we had yet another fantastic weekend with her.  We did a lot of walking, a lot of sight seeing, and surprisingly a lot of learning.  The Sunday afternoon we were there, we spent in Dublin’s Archaeology Museum with her mentor for her internship, who happens to be an archaeologist!  Neat!  It was a surprisingly busy afternoon at the museum, but we managed to huddle close as she explained the significance of some of the artifacts in the museum.  Our group grew in numbers as we went along too; I guess they thought we were a free tour?  Also, I learned that not all archaeologists like ancient Egypt.  Apparently it scares her.  Who knew!

We ate some wonderful food (battered fried sausage and chips is a close rival to my favorite fish and chips!), we enjoyed a few drinks, and soaked in the sights.  For the most part the weather was beautiful, except Sunday afternoon.  Before we knew it, Monday night was upon us and it was time to start packing and thinking seriously about a good night’s sleep.  Funny how when sleep is important, you don’t go to bed until well past midnight.

Tuesday morning ran pretty smoothly.  I got up early, showered, and had all our bags fully packed before Jon got up.  Since he’s a serious pain in the morning, I figured that would be a better way to start.  I unfortunately had to leave my walking stick in Dublin so Jon could try and get his through security.  He was far more attached to his, since he made it, and I decided that the chances of two people using them as a crutch would look a little suspicious.

We left after an abundance of hugs before Jenna even left for work, and headed to the bus stop.  The very friendly bus driver made sure we got off at the right stop for our terminal, and we were on our way.

Of course, the first thing I notice as I’m dreading the 4 flights ahead of us, is that there’s a flight directly from Dublin to Orlando.  Seriously?  I don’t know if we even thought to check Orlando flights.  Regardless, I had a gut feeling those tickets probably cost a fortune, and didn’t mind that we weren’t going on that flight as soon as I noticed it was United.

As we go through the daily airport grind, Jon still with his walking stick in hand, it still hadn’t hit me that I was leaving this beautiful country.  It takes until I’m physically sitting in my seat (an exit row seat thanks to Jon’s wonderful timing!) that I start to feel sad for all those “I can’t wait to be home” wishes.  And by then, it was of course too late.

The flights really weren’t that bad.  I had never flown US Airways before, but I can tell you that if they’re an option in the future, I wouldn’t mind doing so again.  Obviously with exit row seats on our longest flight, it was considerably more comfortable than our flights into Europe, but even our domestic flights from Philadelphia to Chicago, Chicago to Charlotte, and Charlotte to Tampa had ample leg room for me, and even enough for Jon.  That’s quite a feat!  We only got food on our international flight (which was pretty good, I might add), but the usual beverage service on the rest.  We had some delays (which made our short layovers in each city a little stressful at times), but all and all, the experience wasn’t awful.  The only plane I slept on was the last one, but by then I had been up for nearly 24 hours anyway, so I guess that’s okay.  The in-flight entertainment on the long flight wasn’t bad; that surfer movie about Bethany Hamilton, and Marley and Me.  A great movie, though I wonder if I was the only one with tears in my eyes.  Jon had to stop watching it.  He won’t shy from saying that movies with dogs are the only type that “move” him.

Once we landed in Tampa, well past our planned midnight arrival, I went from complete exhaustion to that exhausted slap-happy phase.  Knowing that Cristina and Jon’s mom were waiting for us, every step of the de-boarding process seemed to take forever.  When we finally turned the corner in the terminal and saw them, I was so excited to be home.  It didn’t hurt that Cristina had made us signs to welcome us, saying “Welcome Home” in every language of every country we went too, plus Dutch!

After going through baggage claim, we were on our way to the beloved Taco Bus.  We took the time to enjoy our meal there, and went home.  We didn’t hesitate to put on our suits and jump in the pool.  We lasted a while too, considering the pool closes at 11, but we were eventually kicked out.  We proceeded to do a little unpacking, to share little souvenirs, and some much needed laundry.  Some very much needed laundry.  Jon went to sleep at around 3, to catch a little nap before having to take his mom back to the airport.  She made an unfortunate scheduling mistake when planning a business trip, but at least we got to see her briefly.  I fought to stay awake until the two of them left, and then left Cristina to enjoy the quiet living room and get some sleep.  I practically melted into my bed.  I had forgotten how comfortable it was.  I don’t even think I noticed when Jon joined me again after his trip to the airport.

And for now, I’ll leave you with this picture Jon’s mom managed to catch before leaving the airport. 

Ní fheicfidh mé dearmad …

In the wake of Lucky’s unwarranted death, I wasn’t feeling terribly inspired.  The following days I did my best to keep working, trying my damnedest not to think about him.  It’s amazing how easily you attach yourself to something after you name it.  I was looking forward to getting pictures of Lucky as he grew up!

Anyway, because of that, not a lot has happened here that’s completely out of the ordinary.  Just loads of gardening, land reclaiming, pond building and hoovering between the two of us.

As each day ticks by, I get more and more excited.  I post a countdown on Jenna’s Facebook wall, currently 4 days until I’m back in Dublin with her, and a countdown on my former and best roommate Cristina’s Facebook wall, currently a week.  I get anxious and nervous, trying to figure out how I’m going to spend literally every moment of my time with either of them.  Jenna and I have our entire weekend planned, and I’m really looking forward to it.  I hope the weather decides to be on our side.  Cristina is picking us up from the airport with Jon’s mom, and like good citizens of Tampa our first stop will be Taco Bus.  Goodness I can’t wait for some fish tacos.

In addition to excitement, with every day that passes I feel exponentially more grateful for this experience.  Jenna’s roommates in Dublin have only been out of the states for 4 weeks now, and they’re already dying to get home.  I don’t get it.  It took me five and a half months to start feeling seriously homesick, and I think after that length of time I’m entitled to it.  Though I haven’t seen everything that each city we trekked through had to offer, we did see a lot.  We got to meet and get to know some really wonderful people, people I actually miss and hope to stay in contact with.  I experienced a boat load of new things, a new way of life.  I’ve learned a lot about gardening, organic culture, animal husbandry.  I’ve learned to take a closer look at where my food is coming from, and really appreciate the hard work and dedication behind locally grown foods.

For someone who knows she’s going to own a restaurant one day (a bit of an odd choice for someone majoring in Sociology, but I just know it’ll happen), these were good lessons to learn.  I got a little dirty sometimes, I got a little frustrated sometimes, too.  But I’ll never forget what it’s like to just pick a raspberry off the bush, not have to wash it, and enjoy it right there in the sun.  I’ll never forget what it’s like to watch sweet corn practically grow right before your eyes.  I’ll never forget what a strawberry looks like when its between a flower and a berry.  I’ll never forget what it’s like to watch a chick hatch out of an egg, or what it’s like to help one hatch.  There are a lot of things from this trip that I will never forget.

I’ll also never forget the importance of a comfortable bed, and good pillows. :)

Is é seo a rachaidh mé le haghaidh ainmniú dó.

The beautiful weather we had at the end of last week and over the weekend has left us.  Though sometimes we are blessed with the beautiful Irish sunlight, we’ve had quite a bit of rain lately.  Which of course makes it difficult for some people to work, like Jon, since most of his jobs are outside.  Technically, I should be inside working right now, I have loads of cleaning to do, but my iPod died and that told me it was time for a break.  Hopefully it charges quickly, otherwise I’ll make the mistake of picking up The Time Traveler’s Wife, and then it’ll be 9 PM and the sun will just be starting to fall.  (Yes, the sun stays up really late here, and is up super early too!)

I do have some bad news, and some good news, to relay though.  First with the good (albeit slightly frustrating): I found my camera charger!! I was looking for my contacts, since one of the boxes had disappeared, and despite the fact that Jon and I each searched that backpack thoroughly and separately, I found it tucked in a little pocket in a bigger pocket I had searched dozens of times before.  I guess its better than finding it after I get home, or worse, after I’ve searched eBay for a replacement and hit “Confirm Order”.  Alas, I’ll just have my own pictures from Ireland, and only have to steal Germany and a little bit of the Czech Republic from Jon!

Now for the bad news.  Lucky died.  I don’t know how, and for all I can tell, the drake we thought was the root of the problem wasn’t anywhere near him, because he was happily on the outside of the vegetable patch, and Lucky and his two moms were on the inside.  Yesterday our host stopped by to bring us some essentials (you know, butter, bread, meat, etc.) and it slipped her mind that we needed milk.  No problem, The Meetings, a pub down the road, started selling milk in their Off-License (it’s what the Irish refer to as their liquor store).  Jon and I had planned on having dinner there at some point during our stay, so we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone and spend part of our evening there, returning with milk.  Before we left, I checked to see where Lucky and his moms were, and they were happily in the house, keeping warm from the fierce wind outside.  Hindsight being what it is, I wish I had just decided to close them in there for the evening, but I felt it was too early, and that they could enjoy a swim in the stream before we put them to bed.  Bad move.

When we got back, exhausted and legs burning (the whole walk there is steep and downhill, so naturally the walk back takes a lot longer), we decided that before we got comfortable we would try to put the ducks away, since they’re the most difficult to handle at night.  We went up to the house as four ducks were walking in (the two moms, one very cross duck because she’s lost her eggs, and another) and noticed that Lucky was no where to be found.  Since the drake we thought was the problem was outside the garden, I thought “Well maybe he’s just stuck somewhere” even though deep down I knew his moms wouldn’t have just left him behind.  We turned around to try and find him, and didn’t go very far before we found him just like the others, dead with no signs of struggle, right outside of the poly tunnel.

I had to fight back tears as I handed him to Jon so he could dispose of him, while I walked up to the house to call out host with the news.  She felt terrible.  We talked on the phone for a little bit, wondering if the duck that’s been cross for days now about her eggs could be jealous or something, and she was actually the one doing it.  I guess we’ll never know, since we weren’t here.  Either way, I didn’t spend my evening waiting for friends to hop on Facebook and chat the evening away.  I had a short conversation to Jenna recalling what happened, and spent the rest of the evening reading.  I didn’t sleep well.  I don’t know exactly if it was Lucky that had me up, but it has definitely made productivity for today very difficult.

I guess that’s what I get for naming him.

Just a 11 níos lá garraíodóireachta

I don’t really know if there is such a thing as “gardener’s block”… but if there is, I certainly have it.  We’re now in the house sitting phase of our stay in Ireland, and despite the loads of work that I can do to help this family out, I just have no desire to do it.  I know what you’re thinking… “That’s because they’re not there and you don’t have to work constantly to make sure you meet their needs,” but that’s not it at all.  I really like this family, I have no problem doing the work.  But we’re in the home stretch.  We only have 11 more days here at this host, and then its back to Dublin for a Harry Potter filled weekend with Jenna, and then home.

Home sweet home.  I haven’t yearned for home this badly the entire trip.  It’s just so close.  It’s not even really like I’m going “home” per-say either.  I’m not going back to Brevard for the month between getting home and moving into my new apartment; I have too much to sort out on campus, with French credits and finding a new work-study job, to bother with that.  That doesn’t mean I won’t visit, but I’m not going back for any extended time.  Not to mention, until my car makes its way back to Tampa anyway, I have no way of getting there anyway.

I guess I just miss my own space.  My own schedule.  My own, very comfortable, bed.  I miss my friends, even though only one of them will be in Tampa when I get there.  I miss my sister, I miss my parents.  I just miss home.  I’m so excited about going home I just can’t manage to get anything done.

Thankfully, I have this severe aversion to disappointing people, so I know it’ll get done.  But that doesn’t really make it easier.

11 more days of gardening.  14 more days in Ireland.  15 more days until I can sleep in my own bed.

An ciorcal de shaol na

The Barnyard has certainly been full of truly unique experiences since we arrived.

First, we’ll start with the chicks.  When we arrived, they had two new chicks all wet and freshly hatched in the incubator in their living room.  The next day, 11 more chicks were found all warm and fluffy, eagerly waiting to get out of their little plastic tunnel.  Fortunately for four of them, they got a mom, with a batch of chicks that had just hatched under a hen just that same day.  The others were put in a tall hen house with a heat light, and a large caged area for them to run around in the grass in.  It’s been interesting watching them grow up; their wings start to come in at about a week old, and they really get uglier and uglier with time.  I still think they’re absolutely adorable, but not the cute and fluffy puff balls they were when they were only a day old.

They also have about 6 geese.  I believe they’re only about 12 weeks old, but they’re HUGE!  They’re so sweet too, they’ll eat right out of your hand.  I know what you’re thinking… “but aren’t geese mean!?”… well, these geese are young, and haven’t started hissing at everything that moves yet.  Jon’s been working on fixing their little pond; its been a lot of work, but you can already tell that they love it.

Now for the ducks.  When we arrived, they had two white ducks that they had for their meet, and they have about 7-9 ducks (two of them males) that they have for eggs.  Two of the ducks were sitting on eggs in the duck house when we arrived.  One of them decided to lay on eggs in the garden, but frequently left the nest for periods too long for the eggs to survive, so she’s been a hassle.  We only just today finally put her in her own separate house with 8 new fresh eggs; here’s hoping she takes to them and sits there until they hatch.  We won’t be here to see that happen, but I have a good feeling about them.

The two ducks that they had for meat are no longer with us.  I never thought I would come to a point in my life where I would even eat duck (for those of you who don’t know, ducks are my absolute favorite animal, followed very closely by giraffes and penguins), but considering how often it was served to us in France, I’ve come to like it quite a bit.  I still feel a bit upset everytime I eat it though.  However, with these ducks, I got to see the wonderful life they were allowed to live.  Though I didn’t watch the actual killing of the ducks, and only shed a tear or two rather than balling my eyes out, I was able to help with the plucking of the ducks.  Its an interesting and frustrating process, depending on how grown in their pin feathers are.  I didn’t help butcher the ducks either, but I did watch.  I made a delicious sauce to cook them in, and we put them on the grill.  It was by far the best duck I have ever had in my entire life.  I feel like the extra love and care these little guys had while they were alive really made the difference; whether it was all in my head or not.

Now for the two ducks laying on eggs when we arrived.  Well, they hatched.  They were absolutely adorable.  I did manage to save one little duckling that had been kicked out of the nest.  He was in his egg, half hatched, and I thought for certain he just didn’t make it.  As I was talking with our host trying to figure out what may have happened, we saw his mouth open and realized that he was still with us!  We tried to give it back to the two moms, but either they didn’t want me anywhere near them or they didn’t want the duckling, because both tried to bite me.  So we put him in the chick house with the heat lamp and separated him off to keep him safe.  Then all we could do is cross our fingers; we weren’t sure if he was going to make it for the first day.  After that though, he perked up just fine, and we’ve named him Lucky, a name all the more fitting after you read the next bit.

If you didn’t notice the past tense in the previous paragraph, let me elaborate for you.  Two nights ago, we put the ducks to bed and their were 8 happy, healthy little ducklings.  The next morning when we let them out, there were only two ducklings.  6 of them somehow died the night before.  We scratched our heads and tried to figure out what might have happened.  In an effort to empty the house of both unhatched eggs and newly lost ducklings, we finally let the two moms and remaining ducklings out, after being told that it was time to do so.  We let them out on to the pond, attended to the remains in the house, and went out to watch them swim around with their moms.  We left for maybe five minutes, came back to take pictures, and the two happy healthy ducklings we saw swimming just minutes earlier were floating in the pond.  They were now dead too.  After some thinking and watching the other ducks, we decided that the main male duck (the second is pair off with another duck, and is very tame) probably killed the ducklings, because it was very apparent that he wanted to mate with the “now available” moms, and they wouldn’t so long as they had ducklings around.  Its a sad state of affairs… our first full day on our own (with one other helper, but still), and all the ducklings managed to die.  We felt like awesome house sitters, that’s for certain.

After talking with our host, we decided that after finding a way to keep the two moms separated from the others at night, we would try to reintroduce Lucky to the moms and see if they take to him.  They definitely did, and now I’ve been keeping an eye on them like a hawk ever since.  I made the mistake of getting attached to my little Lucky, and now I just have to hope he makes it okay.  So far, everything seems to be fine.  I’d definitely cry if something happened to him though.  That’s certain.

I know I said no pictures until I get home, but I can’t post about such adorable things without sharing.

Holding Lucky for one of the last times! I didn’t want to put him with the mommy ducks because then I’d never be able to again!

But look how happy he looks with his two moms!  He’s so cute on the water!

And of course, I can’t help but post this picture, too.  While Jon was cleaning out the duck house today to build something to keep them separated, he found loads of baby mice!  They’re so cute!  We took them out of the house though, and released them into the field.  This one was my favorite because he was so tiny!

I mean, look how disproportionate his head and feet are to his body!  His eyes and ears are still closed too!  Too cute.

Oh right, Happy Birthday America! 235 years old! Enjoy the celebrations everybody, they definitely don’t do any here!

Vous allez faire quoi pendant vos vacances?

Alright, enough about my Italian adventures.  I hope you enjoyed something a little out of our normal routine!

Since we got back from Torino, we got straight to seriously working on booking all of our farms for the second half of our trip.  We had been trying for weeks to just focus on Spain, but that was proving to be extremely difficult to plan.  While planning our first destination is obviously important, I felt it was equally as important to start looking in the other countries before they all book up too.  So I took over the emailing and started with the smallest countries with the fewest farms.  We had to change our plans slightly; originally we planned to see Switzerland, but after emailing all 3 possible farms, we decided to start looking at other countries too.  For the Switzerland slot I also emailed farms in Belgium (all 4 of them) and then several in Germany.  I also emailed all the possible farms in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands (3 and 5 respectively), and simply crossed my fingers that one of them would respond positively.  I had the support of my two friends at home, Jenna and Cristina, along the way, each of them insisting I keep my chin up, thoughts positive, and emails will come.  Believing them, I asked for good vibes, and went to bed feeling optimistic, several emails later.

The next morning we woke up to no replies, but given that we leave for class a little before nine o’clock, I decided this shouldn’t worry me.  When we got home from class though at one, we had 3 emails in our inbox.  One positive, two negative.  I was excited, we had officially booked our dates for the Netherlands!  Thankfully, this farm is only an hour away from Amsterdam, and the family has lived in the city for the majority of their lives.  Nothing like insider information on what to do and see!  That night, along side my homework, I continued to send emails to farms in Germany, and then started looking into Italy and Ireland.  After a long chat with my mom about my planning for the summer, planning for the fall semester, and getting updated on things at home, I went to bed feeling the same as I did the night before; optimistic.

The following morning went exactly the same as the previous.  Nothing when our alarm went off, but we had a positive reply from Germany (a farm between Berlin and Hamburg) waiting in our inbox when we got out of class!  Two farms officially confirmed, we were a third there.  Given that we hadn’t heard anything from the Czech Republic, and how badly Jon wanted to return, I insisted he call the farm there that looked the most promising, one just a little over an hour outside of Prague.  After buying the minimum amount of Skype credits allowed, and waiting 15 minutes for them to apply to his account, he nervously called the farm, fingers crossed that they spoke English well.  It was a quick conversation, but all positive.  She would send us an email confirming the dates, and we were booked.  All in a span of less than three full days, we had half of our farms booked.  Now thats what I call progress.

The next day we were able to confirm a farm just outside of Madrid in Spain, and today we finally confirmed a farm in the heart of Tuscany, Italy.  I am ecstatic that this has finally come together.  At this point, all the gaps are filled.  We still have Ireland to plan, but thats our last destination, and therefore doesn’t worry me as much.  Since we don’t have a ticket home to Florida yet, should Ireland prove to be impossible to book, we just go home early; not preferred of course, but definitely better than having a two week gap to try and fill on a limited budget.

Needless to say, I’m relieved.  At least I can stop stressing for now; you know, until I have to magically come up with all the money for this, despite the fact that the exchange rate from the USD to EUR has NOT been moving in our favor?

Okay, I’ll take the good as it comes, and worry about the rest when I need to.

Until next time, passer un bon week-end!