I Should Have Flown.......

I have now officially moved back to Denmark, and as some of you know, my chosen method of traveling home was the bus. I was sick of flying and wanted to have some time to myself, to try and process all the things that have happened over the last few months, saying goodbye to Ireland and hello to Denmark. Also, it meant I could carry more stuff.

Turned out to be a bad idea though.

The journey had three legs: Dublin-London, London-Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Kolding. First leg went fine, except for the handle for pulling my suitcase breaking off going through customs in the port at Holyhead in Wales. That made it somewhat hard for me to carry all 4 bags comfortably, because none of them were light. Typical me.

Anyway, second leg was supposed to start at 10.30 on Thursday morning. For some unknown reason, the bus never arrived and they had to call in another driver to come and do the trip. We left London around 2pm and at that stage I was very worried about my connecting bus from Amsterdam, as they were only 1 1/2 hours apart, and we were now over 3 hours late. We could not save time by taking the Channel Tunnel instead of the Dover-Calais ferry, because the tunnel was fully booked out due to Easter. Anyway, they kept telling me not to worry, and that if the bus could not wait for me in Amsterdam, they would send it to Utrecht for me.

Just before Utrecht I asked our driver if I was getting off here or staying on until Amsterdam. He gave me the rather disappointing news, that my bus had already gone, it had left Amsterdam ON TIME. I should go to a hotel once we arrived in Amsterdam, and go to the office in the morning to see if they could put me on a train or something, because the next departure for Kolding was not until Tuesday. You can imagine my happiness....

So, at 3am we arrive in Amsterdam, and I could not see any hotels in the vicinity, so I camped out in front of the office, being far too exhausted to start trying to find accommodation at that hour. I kept up my spirits and my temperature as best I could until 7am when the office opened. Yer woman in the office was not very sympathetic, and told me I would have to go to the train station myself to try and get a ticket, no way could she go. After that I just sat down and had myself a good cry from pure misery and exhaustion.

In the timetable I found a departure for a direct bus to Copenhagen leaving at 3.45 that afternoon. Sounds good to me - no changing buses! It would get into Copenhagen 5.15am the next morning, but I did not care, at least I would then be in a place I knew, and my sister would be there too. Thankfully, they let me change my ticket for that departure, and I spend the remaining hours in the office, listening to Tori on my iPod and trying not to fall asleep. The journey went off without much drama - the drive through Holland was quite lovely. My sister met me in Copenhagen after I got off the bus, and you can imagine how relieved I was to see her!
Anyway, I am home now and have unpacked and slept and eaten, so I am back to my old giggly self. But I am never taking a bus across Europe again......

Great Sugarloaf, Wicklow Mountains

I honestly don't remember how long I've wanted to climb the Sugarloaf, but it could be as much as 8-9 years. Anyway, last Sunday I was able to tick that off my To Do list. Yay!

And a glorious Sunday it was too! We went there around 1, and had a bit of a time finding a way to get close to the mountain. I had found some tips on the web, which none of us could remember. All we knew was that there probably wasn't a car park. And there wasn't. There was just a looooong line of cars parked along the wee road running along the southern foot of the mountain.

Great Sugarloaf looks very tall and majestic when you come from the north, because there is a bit of a valley in front of it that you drive through. But once you drive around to the southern side, you're already going up a good bit, so the actual distance is not bad at all. There were a great many families with kids of all ages there, enjoying the day, and the views from the top, so that gives you a good idea about the ease of the climb. It's really only the last little bit before the top that requires a bit of effort.

It took us less than an hour to get up, which includes little breaks on the way to enjoy the view. We got quite warm as well, and were removing gloves and hats before long. It was a pretty hazy day, so some of the surrounding mountains were vanishing in the mists in a most lovely fashion. I love picking out landmarks, and so was very happy when I found Powerscourt House in nearby Enniskerry. Powerscourt House has the most amazing gardens which are laid out with a perfect view of Great Sugarloaf.

Of course, you could also see the neighbouring Little Sugarloaf, which stood between us and Bray Head, and beyond that the Irish Sea.

The line of cars we left behind us on the road looked like a row of pearls, with the sun gleaming off them, quite pretty I must say. On our way down we took a bit of a ramble around the knee of Great Sugarloaf, which extends to the west, and were back down after roughly 2 hours. Not bad at all! And our timing was good as well - as we were coming down the mountain, the 'after dinner' crowd were ascending in droves...

Now That's What I Call An Ice Rink - Eindhoven Ijssportcentrum

Speed skating is HUGE in the Netherlands, so I'm guessing this is not actually an unusual size rink, but I've sure never seen a 400m ice track before, much less skated on one. But now, I have :) I was there over the weekend, in case you're wondering....

And it was glorious! Very unlike any of the stamp-sized (in comparison) 3-month ice rinks that can be found around Dublin City, where they simply let people onto the ice until noone can actually move forward very much. There's a reason why I have not been skating on any of the Dublin rinks for the last few years. There's no room to actually skate and you constantly run the risk of being dragged down by some fledgling skater losing their balance. People, good thing that you're coming out to skate, but if you don't know what you're doing, stay near the barrier, please!

So, back to the Eindhoven Ijssportcentrum. There was a timer, counting seconds 1- 60 the whole time, so that you could time your rounds, which I did - 1 minute 25 seconds, at an okay pace. I would have loved to try sprinting the whole way, but I couldn't because:

a) too many people
b) dull blades
c) not enough stamina

The rink used to be completely open to the elements, but now it's semi-covered, as you can see in the picture.

Weather Gods Fighting?

Walking home yesterday, listening to Cara Dillon, it started to snow. Lovely big flakes coming down from the dark sky. Then I heard some rumbling noise, and realised it was thunder. Utterly surreal! There was no lightning and the snow had stopped by the time I got home, but this has to be the freakiest 10 minutes of weather I have yet to experience in Ireland.....

Mezzotono - Christmas Carols in Dublin

Over the last 3 months I have been part of a wee choir (very informal) rehearsing Christmas Carols in 4 voices, to sing them in Dublin city centre among other places. We're called Mezzotono, which means 'half note' in Italian (most of the members are from Italy, and Italian is the language of music anyway).

Last year we rehearsed for this purpose as well, but never got to sing in town, because we left it too late, and people were then going home for Christmas etc. There's only a handful of us, so we don't have a lot of volume to draw on, but it's easier to organise and do impromptu things than with a truckload of people.

So, this year we began in September, with a plan. We had the same songs we did last year, plus some new ones, in exciting arrangements that came up during the course of autumn. Our repertoire is as follows, all arranged for soprano, alto, tenor and bass. (Just in case you're curious - I sing the soprano bits).

Adeste Fideles (sung in Latin, also widely known in English as Come All Ye Faithful)
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Joy To The World
Deck The Halls
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Silent Night (a verse sung in each of the languages German, Irish and English)
The First Noel
Jingle Bells
Winter Wonderland
O Tannenbaum (sung in German)
On Christmas Night
God Rest You Merry Gentlemen

I will never forget the first moment we all sang together last year, after everyone learning their various voices for Adeste Fideles. The harmonies and beauty of the thing were so amazing - I had completely forgotten the power of singing together in a group like that! How soothing it is to create something together like that - perfect antidote to stress! Now, I don't think Adeste Fideles is the most beautiful arrangement in our canon (it is pretty darn good, although On Christmas Night is better), but there's something special about it to me anyway, because it was the first one we sang.

Unfortunately, not all the singers made it out to sing in town, due to various reasons (weather being one of them), but 5 of us did go. We have now learned important lessons about wind, and about how noisy Grafton Street is, and how busy. How cold it can get when you're just standing still, and the importance of shelter. Lots of people noticed us, but only a few stopped to listen. One time a couple of people actually came over to join in, which was fun, and they sang along with us for a couple of tunes (melody voice only, mind you. Hehe). At least this year we did get to do what we set out to do and sing in town. :)

This is us, after a wonderful afternoon spent singing around Temple Bar and Grafton Street: