Old Things and New Experiences

Yesterday I didn't post. Instead, we got back to our bed and breakfast at about 6:30, and I crawled into bed and was asleep by 8:00. I guess I was tired.

As far as what we did, though, was see a lot of old things. We saw some old abbeys in ruins...

...just after we had seen this magnificent place, the partially-restored Portuma Castle.

I kept thinking of Pride and Prejudice while we were there. Can you even imagine the kind of lifestyle of the family who lived and entertained here?

And if you have a hard time wrapping your head around that, get a load of this. Our next stop was the gardens of Birr Castle. Just the gardens, because the castle is still a private residence. That is, THIS place:

Today we went on to our next residence: Ashford Castle. We're staying here for just a night. And here it is:

That white flag out front very modestly says "first in the world." It has been nice, that's for sure--our bags magically appeared in our room and a woman knocked on our door asking if she'd like her to turn down our beds (I was so curious about what this would entail that I wanted to say yes, but they were currently covered with bags and such, so I said no).

If nothing else, I have sure never stayed at a hotel with one of these before:

We spent a good part of the day doing some of the activities offered here at Ashford. First up was an hour of falconry. Our instructor was incredibly knowledgeable about the birds. We actually worked with hawks rather than falcons--she explained they are social rather than solitary animals like the falcons, which take months to trust you.

I was fascinated by the things our instructor told us about the hawks.

• They are trained with food. With everything she talked about, it looks like the hawk's whole motivation is maximum food for minimum expenditure of energy. They save energy in crazy ways--they don't fly or move unless they see prey, for example, and they even stand on one foot to save energy when standing.
• The hawks are hierarchical. Older hawks and female hawks are higher on the hierarchy. We took out two hawks--one for me and one for Natalie. She had us send the older one out first on the first flight because of this hierarchy.
• The hawks like to be at the physical high point of an area. In the wild, the alpha female would be at the top and force all the others to be below her. For us, we were instructed to keep our arms bent at the elbow, elbow to our side, hand in a fist, thumb up, and that the hawk would claim our thumbs because it was the high point. 
• The hawks have an excellent sense of sight. They can actually "zoom in" and can point their eyes in different directions. They also see on the ultraviolet spectrum--so can see oils on animals and trails of urine. 
• The hawks are weighed every morning, and the handlers try to keep them at their optimal flying weight. If they weigh too much, they aren't motivated to fly for a food reward, so they don't take off from your hand. If they weigh too little, they'll take off from your hand and come strait back for the food reward. About 1/4 oz. makes the difference.
• The birds weigh 1-2 pounds. The females are bigger. 
• Handlers only reward the hawks from their gloved hands. This way, they only respond to the gloves. 
• To signal them to fly, you hold your arm strait out to your side and open your fingers. You might have to swing them a bit, "like a tennis racket," said our instructor.
• To get them to come back, you put a bit of raw meat in your gloved hand and stand with your arm strait out, hand in a fist, your back (and back of your hand) to the bird. They fly in and get the food!
• The birds don't want to escape to the wild because the food is easy and consistent in captivity. 
• The handlers never reward them for going from the ground to their hand--they want them to fly, not just hang out and not expend energy on the ground. 

It was such a fascinating experience. I've definitely never done anything like it before! I was fascinated by everything about the experience. The birds' motivation, though, made me start to think about students. So much comes down to consistency and reinforcement!

Here the hawk's coming in for a landing. I have to add that I am wearing two shirts, a sweater, a sweatshirt, and a down vest under that jacket. It's been cold!

After this, we went off to the equestrian centre. First time riding an English saddle! It was definitely different. We got some formal instruction before heading out with the guide, though--it made me want to learn more!

On The Road

Today, we mostly drove. Here is a photo to represent all that driving.

Never fear, I did not take said photo. Natalie did. While I was driving. This one happened to be taken while we were listening to an episode of The Moth podcast, which I highly recommend, by the way.

Between all this driving, we did stop and several attractions. Unfortunately, most of said attractions turned out to be closed. This resulted in a dramatic revision of our plans--we are now a full day ahead of schedule (excitingly enough), including staying at the bed and breakfast in Galway we weren't supposed to get to until tomorrow night.

We did manage to see one site, however: The Cliffs of Moher. Or, as I can hear my friend Caroline saying, "The Cliffs of Insanity!!!"

Finally, I would like to share this photo of a beautiful parking job from yesterday that I forgot to share in the last post.

Haters gonna hate, potatoes gonna potate

It was our first full day in Ireland, which we spent driving from site to site in our little black rental car:

We started out in the morning by going to get some lunch supplies at the grocery store, where I found this:

I am butter.

Our first site in Ireland was the Rock of Cashel, an old fortified church on a big hill. A rocky hill. Hence the name.

After that, we drove on to Cahir Castle, which is actually pronounced "care." Here is a picture of a medieval toilet from said castle. I am not guessing. The placards actually said that.

We did some more lovely driving to get to this pile of rocks. It is actually an ancient tomb. The placard here had an odd anecdote about a woman who lived under the shelter of these rocks in the 1800's.

Then we drove on to Limerick, checked into our bed and breakfast (much nicer than the hostel from last night, which never did warm up), and headed off to a guidebook-endorsed pub for dinner.

Almost everywhere we have parked has felt slightly illegal--in a church yard last night, in front of someone's house for the Rock of Cashel, and this parking job. I am actually rather proud of myself for parking like a European.

Maybe you can't tell. I'm parked on the curb.




We got to the pub and kind of wandered and found the restaurant part. No one was really paying attention to us, so we finally kind of asked if we could just sit down. We were told yes. This strangeness continued. Someone came to take our order, and it came after awhile. After that, we watched as the two waiters bustled around all the other tables--asking how things were, asking if the people at them would like a drink or a dessert, getting and taking the check from one table, etc., etc. Through all of this, they never even looked at us, let alone come over to talk to us. We were a pretty solitary island in the middle of all the hustling and bustling. I finished and no one cleared my plate. Natalie finished. And we sat there. And sat. And sat. After a bit, I finally asked if we could have the checks.




As we were walking back to the possibly illegally parked car, Natalie and I talked about this. I thought maybe it was because we were Americans, but Natalie pointed out there were two other tables of Americans that got great service. We thought some more, not coming to any conclusions..."Unless," Natalie said, "they thought we were a couple."


Oh the discrimination.

Ireland: Day 1 (or is it 2?)

I'm in the sitting room of an old Irish house-turned-hostel. It's finally warm in here, with the little stove going. I think I have been cold since I landed in Europe earlier today. The movie I am Legend is going. I hate that movie. This is the only place where I can get wireless, though, and it is warm. So I'll write quickly and head off to bed.

My friend Natalie and I are in Cashel, Ireland, staying in site of The Rock of Cashel, which we were supposed to visit this afternoon. Our day started at about 9:00 Sunday morning when her parents drove the two of us to the airport.

We flew to Dulles, which went fine, but then found our flight to London was delayed about an hour. The flight was long, but good...then we got to London (where, I swear, our passports were checked at least five times). There we found out we could make our connecting flight to Shannon, Ireland, but our bags would not. So we got on the next flight there--six hours later. It made for a long travel day.

This is me after a two-hour flight, a layover, a 8-hour flight, and four hours of layover. I stole a blanket from the British Airways flight, and boy was I glad I did when I had something to wrap myself up in in the cold Ireland-bound section of Heathrow.

Once we finally got to Shannon and through another round with the passports, we got our rented car! This all made me feel very grown up, and then it made me sad to find out it wouldn't be the 200-ish Euros we thought we booked, but rather towards 700-ish Euros. Plus E100 deposit for the gas. Sad.

I kept trying to psych myself up for driving on the left--visualized it and such. Even so, we put our bags in the trunk and I opened up the driver's side door and my first thought (honestly) was, "Where's the steering wheel??"

Later today, I saw a really nice car take a fast corner and I said to Natalie, "Woah, that driver was like, 12!" And she looked at me and said, "He wasn't driving."

Anyway, we got here, and we're ready for adventures!