Long Days in Cork

The return from Germany melted into working full-time at, yes, the warehouse. My current phase of manual labor in Blackpool ends with the month of June, but, as my boss has confirmed, there could always be a July or August "guest appearance." By July or August the money will seem quite attractive, I'm sure.

Offering our place to friends and family who want to visit Ireland has resulted in a flood of visitors––a cousin of mine comes in tomorrow, and a friend of Katherine's is showing up (with a friend) in the first week of July. The more the merrier, really, because visitors give us convenient excuses to visit some pubs and chippers, and to take road trips to the west of the country.

As for Irish current events––a topic I've neglected for some time––instead of focusing on the extremely repetitive glum economic news the country is in a highly positive mood thanks to some wonderful early summer weather. June has been just about perfect: clear sunny skies, highs in the 80s (or about 90 at the hottest), and long, long days. Seriously long days...I've never seen anything like it. But then again, I've never been this far north around the summer solstice. Consider last Saturday, when I was out until 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning. At 11:15 p.m. I glanced at my watch and noticed that it was still twilight some lingering sunlight still visible in the west. When I turned in for the "evening" at 4:30, the first rays of sunshine were visible in the east. Only about four hours of full darkness!

It is quite agreeable all around. Even if you work full-time, when you get home you still have four or five hours of time to soak up some rays. The only (slight) problem with the situation is you don't get as much sleep as usual. But that's where the Irish winter comes in handy, when you only have six or seven hours of daylight.

Anyway, the country is loving the weather. We've been told that June 2010 has had more sunshine than the entire summer of 2009. Just add this to the list of extreme weather we've encountered during our stay.

S is for Schnitzel

We returned safely from Germany on Wednesday, no ash cloud interference in sight. Our week away was very enjoyable––we spent most of it in southern Bavaria at the beginning of the Alps, which rise suddenly and impossibly out of gently rolling wheat fields and cow pastures. Those mountains are truly awesome, we had never seen anything like them.

If you’re Alp-bound, check out the Bavarian town of Füssen. It is a favorite vacation spot of Germans, and it’s easy to understand why. The outdoor activities are top-notch. But for foreigners it’s probably best known as the home of Schloss Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II’s “fairy tale” castle that supposedly inspired the Disney World castle. But something tells me that Ludwig’s is a little more impressive, if anything because it is perched up on an Alpine hill with stunning views of the countryside. That and it’s not made out of fiberglass. As long as you don’t mind being crammed into small rooms with eighty other sweaty tourists, Neuschwanstein’s worth a stop.

From the front steps of Neuschwanstein

We biked around the reservoir Forgenßee

From Füssen we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a great example of a German medieval walled town. It’s extremely touristy. Worth it, though, for the photos of traditional German architecture, giant snails, and a local pastry called a Schneeball.

Tilman Reimenschnieder altarpieces alone were worth the trip to Rothenburg

Germany has large snails

Love the architecture

Lastly we wound up in Frankfurt am Main, Germany’s financial capital. Frankfurt has a nice big-city buzz about it, and some great food too. German friends of ours took us out for some Frankfurt apfelwein (apple wine) and food––I got something called the Schlachtplatte. Literally translated as the “slaughter plate,” it was a mound of blood sausages, ham, and sauerkraut. It was magnificent, the best German food we had for the whole trip.

Frankfurt am Main

Two stereotypes were confirmed. Firstly, Germany is all about pork. You find every type of pork preparation imaginable. It’s actually tough to find beef or chicken on a menu. (If you’re a vegetarian, maybe go to Spain on a holiday instead.) Second, the beer was second-to-none. Sorry Ireland, you’re a close second. The sheer number of brews available in Germany is overwhelming, but I tried to make a small dent. Every kind I had was nearly flawless. Even types of beer I’m not too crazy about––weiss beers and pilsners, for example––I have to give two thumbs up. (If you don’t like beer, maybe go to Italy on a holiday instead.)

One more observation: my God, the Germans are into the World Cup. Maybe their enthusiasm was dampened by their recent loss to Serbia, but I doubt it. While in Rothenburg we watched Germany beat up Australia 4–0. Locals then proceeded to drive around the town in a circle, probably a hundred times until 11:30 at night, honking their horns, singing, and blowing into bugles. This was a preliminary match…I don’t know what they’ll do if Germany wins the cup.

***

Much to my horror June is already drawing to a close, as is our time in Ireland. I’m going to be upfront with my loyal readers: Katherine and I might not be staying in Ireland for the full twelve months of our visas. A combination of factors has us thinking about heading home in late September, but I won’t bore you with them. The easy explanation is that we’ll run out of money.

I am currently limping along at the warehouse, that place won’t let me go. (One of my bosses joked that he originally came to the company sixteen years ago as a deliveryman trying to drop off a box. At least I think it’s a joke.) Nonetheless they won’t have any work for me after June, and the job market in Cork is, well, unchanged.

Right now our preliminary plan for the rest of our time is to enjoy summer in Ireland the best we can. We are seriously considering doing a month or five-week stint at an intensive language school on the Continent at the end of the summer. When are we ever again going to be living in Europe, sans career and other responsibilities? Might as well try to pick up a language, or at least jumpstart the learning process. If we commit to this then we commit to our finances being taxed beyond repair––thus the early return to the ol’ USA.

Note: I have no idea why this post is having formatting problems. I don't know enough about HTML to fix them. Sorry!

June Already?

May came and went nearly unnoticed in Cork. Between our interesting trip to Italy and France and the visit of Katherine's brothers there was little time to sit out in the sunshine and smell the roses. It will be more of the same in the coming weeks, of course. We head to Germany on Tuesday: we're flying into Munich and start a week of exploring around Bavaria. And there is still a slate of friends and relatives planning to visit this month and next.

Cork is fully awake for summer. Today I saw two parades, of sorts. The first was a rather large march in protest of Israel's actions this past week. In case you didn't watch the news, Israeli commandos stormed an aid ship bound for Gaza, killing nine crew members and humanitarian workers in the process. Today we learn from the news that another ship––this one Irish-owned––has been seized by Israel while on the same course.

As with any other situation involving Israel, folks are riled up about the seizure of the aid ships. So what I saw today was a rather large (by Cork standards) demonstration against Israel's aggressive actions. The second "parade" I witnessed was a raucous procession by the Cork LGBT community (Google it if you don't know what I mean). There was a massive flotilla of dancing people surrounded by rainbow balloons while the Pussycat Dolls was blasted for the whole city to hear. Again a reminder of how much Ireland has changed.

The derelict building next to ours has started to literally crumble into the street below, a spectacle that offered some entertainment last night. The fire brigade noisily arrived to assess the situation. To examine the building closely, they of course had to use a cherry-picker.


But the biggest hazard turned out to be not the unstable building, but advertising banners:


But they're professionals. They managed to get past this hiccup and focus on the task at hand:


The whole fiasco went well into the night––I think it was around midnight before the hubbub died down.

Firemen working away into the evening.

The solution? They ended up gating off the sidewalk and street around the crumbling building. We'll see what happens next...

***

I just finished my first week back at the warehouse, and it's like I never left. They want me back when we return from Germany too, so I don't know where exactly this is heading. On-and-off work throughout the summer? Who knows?

On the economic front, more of the same. I have been fascinated by the slow collapse of the European economy for the past couple of months, and it seems like talk about a break-up of the euro is more common by the day. While no country that I know of has officially endorsed a revision of the common currency, it might be a matter of time. Markets plunged again yesterday as Hungary has admitted it has a Greek-style debt problem. Things will get really interesting if Spain or Italy eventually require bailouts, a situation that would compel the stronger economies (France and Germany) to abandon the currency.

But for the time being the union is holding together. We're going to take advantage by spending some euros in Germany. I'll report upon our return, of course.

A Triumphant Return

At last entry Katherine's brothers were visiting from the States, and playing hosts kept us busy for much of the last week. They departed over the weekend and it's back to the work week...a work week that holds some surprises? Read on.

But first, I would like to report that we finally made a visit to the fabled Fota Wildlife Park, a Cork institution. It's about a hundred acres of exotic animals, some of which you can get very up close and personal with.

These guanacos were hanging out on the footpath. Kevin (in the yellow hat) got too close and one of them tried to stomp on his foot.

Brother Matt with some ring-tailed lemurs.

Fota is good craic, and the park's attractions are very informative. And I got to see an ostrich chase off––at a full run––not one, but two giraffes simultaneously. That alone was worth the money.

***

Throughout last week I kept my eye on help-wanted ads. And as I last reported, things are slow. Being unemployed has its benefits, of course: while Katherine was at work (before her brothers came) I was cranking out a good amount of writing. Currently I'm working on an article-length piece––it needs a lot of work before I think about submitting it to someone, but I like how it has taken shape thus far.

This week was meant to be the same way––that is, until I got a phone call on Friday. It was from my former boss at the warehouse in Blackpool. They need me back for another temporary stint! This one for two or three weeks! Call me the Brett Favre of warehousing. So instead of lounging around and working on my article this week, I have fallen back into the familiar routine of walking three miles to Blackpool in the morning and three miles back in the evening. Fun stuff.