Italy

As much as I love the ease of instagram, it looks like unless I make it public (which to me looks like the equivalent of making a fb profile public) everyone would need an account to view it. So I'll be posting pictures here I suppose.  I don't really like blogging on mobile though, so there will probably be minimal writing and mostly photos. Anyways, let's see if I actually keep this up, heh...

chocolate chip cookie post deferred until I can find my camera....

I'm back!!

My brother asked me why I hadn't updated my blog in forever.  That's when I remembered I had this blog.  So here I am!

I kind of want to revamp the whole thing and make it specific to one theme, like those awesome bloggers who have four million followers, but I'm really bad at being consistent.  Thus, this blog will continue to have many different kinds of posts.  We'll see where it goes...

Also, now that I've finally graduated, my life has become slightly more interesting and less busy, which means more and better posts.  Ok, maybe not.  But I do want to post more regularly from now on, say, perhaps, every week or so.

First off, I plan to try out new recipes and such, and I guess post some oldies, too.  Since I'm too lazy to get up at the moment, I'll start off with my marginally famous chocolate chip cookies in the next post.

Later today, I'm going to pick an apple recipe and go for it, seeing as it's September and all -- it's about time to get into that fall mood, don't you think? (Though I'm pretty sure all that September and autumn have in common in the South are the words "autumnal equinox" on the calendar.)

Anyway...

I look forward to posting again!  Comments and suggestions appreciated :)

A Day in England

I had this post as a draft all this time!!  Anyway, I went to England at the beginning of May.  We took the bus to the train station, hopped on a train to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and made a day of it.....

Ireland, Day 6: Galway and Goodbye

After a short city tour in the morning, we said good bye to Galway...

... and to Ireland...

Ireland, Day 5: A Trip to Connemara

After some tea and scones in this little pub in Leenaun (in which the movie "The Field" was filmed... but I haven't seen that, so, uh... yeah.)

we went to see these:

Croagh Patrick was the pilgrimage to the top of this mountain, from which St Patrick allegedly called the people to worship.  I think he also banished the snakes from Ireland there, too.

It was a long way up (4 hr hike), so we only went part of the way up.

 then we saw the National Famine Memorial... (I couldn't back up far enough to get the whole thing because of a wall... :/)

and finally Murrisk Abbey:

We stopped for lunch in Louisburgh.  Since food took forever, we only spent about 10 minutes basking in the sun on this beach:

Then it was on the road again, and more lovely countryside...

We stopped along the way a few times in Doolough Valley, where many famine victims died on the road in an attempt to get aid.

Despite the tragedy, the valley itself was beautiful:

On the way back to Galway, we stopped here for a bit:

It looks really old, but I think it was built sometime in the late 1800's.  Originally a family home, it later became an abbey.... and then later it became a school.  Now I think it's just a tourist attraction.  Which makes sense in light of the fact that it has 33 bedrooms and, uh... 4 bathrooms.

Moving on...

Our final stop was in Recess, where we got to see this monument:

If you can't read that, it says "This is Connemara (Conn Son of the Sea), built in 1999 by Joyce's Craft Shop for no apparent reason."

Behind it there was a plaque...

("On this site in 1897 nothing happened.")

Hehe...

Ireland, Day 4: Ennis to Galway

On Wednesday we headed to the famous Cliffs of Moher.  First, however, we passed through some very picturesque areas

and a castle with a very interesting story, about a woman named Maire Rua ('red-haired Mary', I think) who supposedly went through 25 husbands, all of which she murdered in various ways in this castle. *insert creepy music*  It explains why the locals are suspicious of red-haired girls....

Then through a place called the Burren, which has a 'lunar landscape', which was pretty cool.  Oh yeah, and a really really old stone portal tomb called Poulnabrone.

We made a quick stop to see a fairy circle:

Then to the cliffs!

Finally, before heading to Galway, we stopped at some cliffs along the Black Head Drive