Ireland

The Dead Zoo

Here in Ireland, for the last 2 weeks we have had the most exquisite weather. It’s been sort of warm (warm for here being somewhere between 11 and 15 C) and rather sunny. I took a trip to Northern Ireland (more on that later) and on April 1 (April fools day) I went to brunch at the schoolhouse bar near the Grand Canal:

Schoolhouse bar

It wasn’t hot, but it was warm enough to sit outside in a nice new spring jacket that I got for my birthday

Untitled

and enjoy the atmosphere. From there, I walked down past Merrion Square Park (they have an amazing outdoor art gallery there on the weekends) enjoying the work of the individual artists and checking out the Georgian buildings.

Georgian Doors & buildings

From there, I noticed that the Irish Museum of Natural History was open, and because it was getting chilly / looked like rain decided that a free museum visit could be just the ticket. To say the least, it’s not at all what I was expecting – for the Natural History museums I’ve been in, they start with the natural world and include things like the flora/fauna fossils that developed into the dinosaurs and so on. This was just a bunch of creepy stuffed animals (spread over 4 floors), which over the years have earned this place the nickname of “the dead zoo”.

Some kid will have nightmares...

Some kid is going to have nightmares tonight…

After about 5 minutes in the place, I had the willies. As you enter, you’re towered over by the skeleton of an 8 foot Giant Irish deer, and all around the room are the heads of various animals staring down at the main gallery. It’s dark, dank, and dusty – and crowded with families who piled in to get out of the forboding weather. I thought that this may not turn out well, but decided to perservere. The main floor was all dead Irish animals – with a huge emphasis on fish, crustaceons, round and flat worms, corals, and various creepy crawlies. They had a huge display on bugs (including lice and ticks and how they live “with” humans), slugs, and bees. They had a few moths and butterflies (ok those were not so creepy even with the pins through their thoraxes) which are now extinct; and they also had a few starfish which were all in jars of formaldehyde alongside random shellaced fish that were slowly decomposing and had turned white / bug-eyed with age.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, I opened a set of double doors and followed a wide georgian style staircase up to the second floor, thinking that it had to get better. Ugh, no. Sadly, It just got more wickedly creepy. In here were the stuffed mammals (the other 3 floors were closed) from around the world stacked floor to ceiling – and the lighting was better because of the skylight above.

Kangaroo & wallabees

The thing is that once again the ancient cases were stuffed to capacity with 100 + year old specimins that were strangely preserved and again, off color because of dust and light. In some cases the animals were not labelled very well (if at all) – and I found the the style that someone used to preserve the animals quite creepy.

Some of the cute animals were made with angry / strange expressions where their “fangs” were out (seriously? wallabees and kangroos don’t have fangs!). Some you could tell that they were not kindly treated – (the rino missing the horn; the elephant with shreadded ears; the hippo missing teeth and looking like he was fresh off the autopsy table). Then there was the big animals – which in some cases still had the bullet holes in their heads or were lopsided because of the options used to put them back together.

Hippo missing teeth

Even some of the ones that were more “normal” – had strange expressions like – You’re going to put what where?!?!

You're going to stuff me with what?!?

This haunted my dreams on Sunday night...

I will say, however, that the worst was the one above. This one haunted my dreams on Sunday night…It’s like a little nightmare demon monkey of some sort. The taxidermy on most of these animals was such that even the cutest things were made to look like they were going to kill you in your sleep, suck your blood, or just were plotting the demise. I’m not planning on a return trip – and I wouldn’t take kids there – despite the fact that many parents did. Perhaps it’s because it’s cheaper than a trip to the Dublin Zoo? Either way, it was free- and they desperately need donations (no kidding people! They need some lighting and some labels!) so if you’re into this kind of thing, I suppose it’s not as bad as some would lead you to believe…

Share

Chinese New Year 2012, year of the DRAGON

IMGP3932-40

As a few of you know, I was born in the Year of the Dragon, and so was my mom. It’s supposed to be a lucky thing – the descendents of the Dragon bearing dragon children, as they were traditionally the leaders of society. Since this year is the year of the Dragon, of course, I had to go celebrate. Here in Dublin, back on January 22nd, there was a big party in the newly “umbrella” covered Meetinghouse square.

Floating Lanterns against the Umbrella Roof

For some extra fun, I took my friend’s 7 year old daughter, because I thought it would make for a great day out – and a lovely bit of different cultural exposure for her. When we got there, the gates were closed initially, so we wandered around a little, taking some pictures in the temple bar district – including some of the foam flowers in the top of the trees.

Blue & Yellow Flowers

When the gates opened, the first thing which welcomed us was the booming of the drums, loud music, and fabulous red lantern decorations hanging from the roofs and the stage.

Floating Lanterns

Once the crowd was in place, the music was followed promptly by the dragon dance put on by a series of Kung fu and Tai Chi dojos. As the children moved to the front of the crowd to see better, they were mesmerized by the noise and the acrobatics that were shown by the dancers.

IMGP3901-10

IMGP3906-14

Next up was the Tiger dance – which involved 2 acrobats that kept dancing and then balancing atop each other’s shoulders. They had a beautiful costume in “Irish colors” which had the mouth opening and the eyes blinking – which really gave it a personality… especially as the lead dancer took the head and interacted right in the crowd to the faces of the kids – to many screams of delight.

IMGP3928-36

IMGP3922-30

After that, there were some chats and presentations, and C and I went over to make a dragon kite as a fun memory of the day.

Making a Dragon Kite

When that was complete, we popped out for some lunch, and then came back in time for the traditional fashion show put on by University students from China who were all dressed in traditional costumes – representing the Emperor and his court. As C put it – they looked like the characters from Mulan!

IMGP3948-53

IMGP3938-44

IMGP3940-46

IMGP3946-52

Finally, we bought a pink Lantern for C’s room, and I was invited up on the stage to represent the year of the dragon for 1976 – and received a fabulous 20 euro Gift certificate. When that was done, we then watched the last of the dragon dances of the day – this time, put on by local children – between the ages of 5 and 8. This was a hit with C – because she realized that this was totally something that she could do too.

IMGP3952-56

After a bit of ice cream and the bus home,all that C could talk about on the way was how cool it was to see everything and spend some time celebrating the Chinese New Year. I later heard from H & J, her parents, that she had taken to wearing a red silk robe around the house, pretending that she was Chinese, and talking all about the Dragon Dance and wanting to know more about Chinese Culture. In my view, it was a great day out – but also, mission accomplished to help make this little lady even more aware of the beauty of the world and the cultural differences. 🙂

Share

Kylemore Abbey Gardens

The remnants of the old Conservatory

Continuing my travels up the West coast of Ireland last summer, I drove from Salthill’s beautiful Galway Bay hotel, through Connemara and its detours, and then on to Kylemore Abbey. Yesterday, I mentioned about the gardens at Kylemore.

view from the High Gardens, Kylemore Abbey

There are several Gardens at Kylemore Abbey – there’s the lower gardens, which are filled with trees and walking paths around Lough Pollacappul. Then, there are the upper gardens. A short drive (or walk) by bus leads you up the hill to the top of the Mountain. When you first get out of the bus, the view (above) is breathtaking and natural. As you walk on the pathway, you begin to see the Walls of the garden – surrounded with these giant trees that were so big that I couldn’t get my arms around.

IMGP2452-1

The Tea garden cafe is to the right, and as you walk past it, you enter into the first of the walled gardens. Below you can see the interesting layout with the white Victorian greenhouses on the far end, a caretaker’s cottage, and lovely white benches throughout. The second picture is with your back to the caretaker’s cottage, looking toward the entrance.

High Gardens, Kylemore Abbey

IMGP2456-14

In addition to the caretaker’s cottage (below) which is heated by peat (peat pile 2nd picture) there’s also a second carpenter’s cottage and some ruins (very first picture at the top) of a heated conservatory that is in the process of being restored.

Caretaker's cottage

Peat pile for heating the cottage

Other than the main sculpted garden, there’s also a really nice vegetable garden / herbal remedy garden. This one’s more rustic and has a stream off to the edge.

Grounds of Kylemore Abbey

Lough Pollacappul, Connemara

The stream runs off into a grove of white beech trees.

Grounds of Kylemore Abbey

As I left the upper gardens, It started raining – just in time for me to head back to the Galway Bay hotel. Luckily, I was able to get out the map and avoid all of the fun detours that took me so far out of the way, and get on some main streets to get back to Galway for a massage and a good nights rest with the windows open to the fresh sea breeze.

The next day, I headed back, stopping in Athenry and Clonmacnoise. More from those later.

Share