AM I READY FOR THIS?

AGING IS WONDERFUL

I read this in an e-newsletter about aging and understand most of it.  Carl Jung's Seven Tasks of Aging are:

    Facing the reality of aging and dying
    Life review
    Defining life realistically
    Letting go of the ego
    Finding new rooting in the Self
    Determining the meaning of one’s life
    Rebirth – dying with life (don’t know what this means)
 
Anatole Broyard wrote in The New York Times in 1990:

    "If we face the reality, at 63 or 70, 75, 80, or 90, that we will indeed, sooner or later, die, then the only big question is how are we going to live the years we have left, however many or few they may be?
   “What adventures can we now set out on to make sure we'll be alive when we die?”

Who and where is Anatole?  I need to give him a big hug.

 Becoming 75 on June 1 seems like a big deal to me.   Roland, my church friend who will be 95 in June, laughs.  But this is how it seems to me:  It is such a privilege to be this old and to be in good health when some folks have already died or are in failing health.  I want to celebrate!  Have lots of adventures, learn as many new things as my damaged brain can handle.

So where should I go for my big day? 

Travel Section at Oconee Library Book Sale

A year ago I saved an article in The Guardian titled “10 of the Best European Islands You Probably Never Heard Of.”  I retrieved it out of my email file in November.   Hmmm.    The one in Ireland sounded promising:

“This is an island of ancient language and mythology where the white beaches stretch out into the Atlantic. The smallest island in the Aran archipelago, Inis Oírr (pronounced Inisheer) only got permanent electricity in 1997. The Inis Oírr trail threads through fields carpeted with wildflowers; gentian, cranesbill and ladies mantle dust your ankles as you pace around the island under the shadow of O’Brien’s ruined 14th-century castle. Recuperate at Ostan Inis Oírr with a pint of Guinness and live music, which gets visitors up for a dance.

“South Aran House, with doubles from £60 B&B, is a guesthouse with free Wi-Fi, four en suite rooms and underfloor heating. The attached cooking school suggests that guests are in for a treat at breakfast.

“Ferry from Ros a’Mhil costs £19, adult return, with Aran Island Ferries.”

Where are the Aran Islands?

Wildflower hikes.  Good food.  Live music.  Ferry.  The web site of the B&B looks enticing.   Sample breakfast menu: 

1 The Full Irish - Sausage, Black and White pudding, Rashers, Fried Egg and Tomato.
2 Scrambled Free Range Eggs with Fresh Coriander on Buttered Toast.
3 French Toast with Crispy Bacon and Maple syrup.
4 Pan Fried Apple Fritters, Aran Potato Cakes, Oven Roasted Herbed Tomatoes, Red Pepper and Onion Compote with Savoury Omelette
5 Rashers of Free Range Bacon on Soda Bread Foccacia with Cream Cheese and Aran Apple Chutney.
6 Organic Oat flakes soaked in Apple Juice with Grated Apple and Strawberry Yoghurt.
7 Kippers gently Poached and served on Toasted Rustic Bread
8 Fresh Mackerel Fillets with Homemade Brown Soda Bread and Lemon Mustard


Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.  OK, that settles it!  I write them immediately to see if they have a room for about a week including my birthday (June 1).  They do.  I book it.  Impetuous?  Maybe, but it feels right.  

And then there’s the restaurant for dinners:

“SOUTH ARAN RESTAURANT provides menus based mainly on local produce.  Delicious Seafood Chowder, Soups and locally caught Wild Fish, produce from the Island.  We think that it is important that the food we eat does not have to travel too far, especially food that can be produced locally.”  From their website.

I find four wonderful youtubes about the island through the seasons.  This one is about summer, when tourists come to language school or just to hang out.  Inisheer in the Summer.  English is not the primary language on the island as you can hear in the movie.  

And the music (with dancing, I hope)!  As a Ukrainian, why do I like Celtic music so much?  Maybe it is our common Viking genes.

COMPLICATED TRIP

Turns out this trip will be complicated — very!  First I’ll fly to Dublin (via Heathrow).  I’ll have to take a bus to Galway because the bus to Ros a’Mhil (also called Rosaveal) comes only from Galway.  I guess I’ll stay in Galway a couple of days to get over the long plane ride, use an ATM, get phone service, and scout around.   I book a Galway hotel in an area not far from the bus station.   OK, from Galway to Rosaveal, then the ferry.  

ANY BOGS?

There are no woods or even hills on Inisheer.  It is all limestone.  In Georgia wildflowers and ferns can be different where there is limestone.   For instance, maidenhair ferns and gay wings grow only on the part of Georgia's Panther Creek Trail which has some limestone under it.  Checking out the island's wildflowers will be so much fun.

I investigate whether Inisheer has any bogs.  Nope, nothing but rock apparently.   None on the other two Aran Islands, I learn.    I have enjoyed bogs/swamps and photographed them in Georgia and in Maine and nearby Canada (Campobello Island).

Photos from Doerun Pitcher Plant Bog in Georgia:  

I got ankle deep in this.

Photos from Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia:

Sundews

Photos from Maine and Campobello Island:

They have only one species of pitcher plant.

Wild berries grow in this bog.

 I find out on-line, moving circuitously through Irish nature links, that there is a Bog Festival in mainland Ireland.  Bog Festival??!!  Just exactly what I like:  walks and music.  The Bog Festival is in Conamara, not that far (on the map) from the Aran Islands.  This is so exciting I overlook the complication of getting there.

Conamara has a very different terrain from Inisheer.   In addition to bogs it has mountains.  The bogs may not be like the ones I’ve seen before.  They are peat bogs.  I look forward to learning about them and seeing their wildflowers.   Because of staying on Inisheer till June 3, I will miss the first part of the festival.  But there will be plenty left to enjoy June 3-6.

It takes me a couple of weeks to find a place to stay in Conamara.  I’ll stay at Rosleague Manor, in a small town called Letterfrack.

I can splurge on my birthday week

How do I get there?  How will I get to the festival?

Letter from the Ferry people:

“Hi Rosemary,

 Thank you for your email.   The only buses which leave Ros a’ Mhíl are heading back into Galway city. Therefore, you would need to return to Galway city before you make your way to Letterfrack.

Kindest Regards,  Úna”

AND:

March 1 from Rosleague Manor           Confirmation Evenings of June 3-6

Dear Mrs Woodel,

Thank you for the inquiry, I am happy to confirm that we have availability on those dates.  The rate for 3 nights B&B in a Garden/Forest View room would be €330 inclusive of taxes etc, the same deal in a Sea View room would be €360.

Letterfrack, where most of the Festival activities take place, is only 1 km away.   So if it was mostly to relax here while taking in some events in Letterfrack, the lack of a car would not be a huge issue.

As regards getting here, if you took the ferry back to Galway city, there is a 'citylink' bus service that departs from Galway bus station and passes our front gate.

I hope the above is some help and of interest.    Kind Regards, Mark

APRIL AND EARLY MAY

Yikes!  Now I am overcome with fear.  I did start on this adventure to prove that I could not only travel by myself but make all the arrangements.  But now all these details of places to stay plus ferry and bus schedules hither and thither freezes my brain.  Even when I print the bus schedules my fear won’t allow me to read what I am seeing and to make sense of it.  I need help!  And get it from dear friends.

My friend, Kathy, responds.  She looks, reads, and understands.  We get two of the bus connections straightened out and booked.

Spread Sheets Don't Scare Kathy

 Gerry, my soon-to-be son-in-law (who is an ace at travel arrangements) studies my itinerary (which is now two pages long) to be sure I am not arriving somewhere half an hour after I should get there.  He makes a suggestion about which bus to take from Letterfrack and which bus from Galway to Dublin.  I love the internet!  And Gerry.

Then I pray.  I chair an Al-Anon meeting on Fear and get some good reminders about the Third Step.   I try not to worry.  Sue read this marvelous poem by Mary Oliver last month at a Nature Ramble.  I re-read it. 

I Worried

I worried a lot.
Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well, hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up.  And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

It will be a bit rainy in “my” part of Ireland.  But not a lot or for long and I am now ready for it.  Look at the pretty purple things I got as birthday presents from thoughtful Hoi Pang and Gerry.  A waterproof raincoat (with zip-in lining for cool nights) and a waterproof backpack.  They paid close attention to the blog describing the rainy day in the Smokies when nothing I had was waterproof.

   I bought the blue-patterned skirt at a Salvation Army store in Reykjavik.  I’m packing it and some dancing shoes just in case some handsome old Irish geezer asks me to dance.

This morning I listen to the Budget-Minded Traveler podcast.  There’s a consoling discussion about how actually leaving home is scary, trying to cover all the bases at home before leaving on the trip.    I am lucky because Toni will be holding down the fort, taking care of the house, cat, birds, plants, and deer.  PLUS she framed the two photographs I am submitting Saturday for the OCAF Members’ Show, which gives me more time to make lists and pack.

Toni says she actually likes doing this.

 
 The podcast describes safety issues as a woman traveling alone and how to prepare for them.  And suggests bringing some Euros into the country.  When I check my box of leftover currency from past trips, I have pounds from England, coins and bills from Canada, odd coins from Iceland and who-knows-where but only a two-Euro coin. 
  
First American Bank tells me they do not have currency from other countries but recommends Georgia Financial on Baxter Street.  I exchange about $200 for 165 Euros.  I can use an ATM in Galway for more.  There are no ATMs on Inisheer.

As the fellow at Georgia Financial counts out my Euros, I ask whether he is much of a traveler.  “Nope.  I want my own bed and my own bathroom.  My wife traveled to northern Italy recently and said the toilet was a hole in the ground.  That’s not for me.”  (I think of toilets I have known in Ukraine and Uganda.)

And then there is the Egyptian airline which just went down.  Gives one pause.  Let me now declare:  I have had a full and wonderful life so I am prepared to say goodbye.

I intend to spend part of my birth-day on a rock, looking out at the ocean, thinking deep thoughts, full of gratitude.

 Please write to me in the comment section below or send me emails as I post entries from Ireland.  Remember, I am traveling alone so I will be very grateful to stay connected to my friends and family.