Back in Ireland! Sept 14-19, 2009

Monday, 9/15

It feels great to be back in Ireland! I love it here! I arrived in style at the Four Seasons Hotel (thankyouverymuch). After a little nap and a freshening up, I got my map and hit the pavement. The hotel, while it is nice, is not close to ANYTHING so I had quite a hike to get to the touristy area (St. Stephens Green, Trinity College, etc.) I'm kind of glad in a weird way that my hotel is far out becuase I was able to walk through the 'everyday' Dublin- bike messengers, business people talking on cell phones, Moms (or nannies) walking their kids home from school, etc. The neighborhood I'm staying in is called Ballsbridge and is very nice- I saw some real estate postings for a 2 bedroom flat selling for 250,000EU. Yikes!

Saw the famous 'Dublin doors'. Alot of the residences are plain-front brick townhomes and Dubliners have gotten a reputation for the variety of colors they paint their doors. I'm not sure if there is a historic significance to that or not, maybe I'll find out sometime! *Edit* I asked a cabbie and he said 'well, luv, it's really just to individualize, isn't it?' LOL!

Walked up to St. Stephen's Green- a large park in the middle of the city. Sat on a bench and ate my grilled cheese/tomato (yes, tomato- I figured I eat tomatos while I'm in Ireland) sandwich then walked around and window shopped. Almost cried in relief when I saw a Starbucks (how sad is that)but my carmel macchiato hit the spot on such a cold day!!

Tuesday, 9/15

Met Ambassador Dan 'Steelers Owner' Rooney today- very nice man- seems like he definitely knows what he wants! I mentioned on the way out that I was from Pittsburgh and his eyes lit up. But then he asked if I'd been to the new Heinz field and I said 'no' and then I think I really lost him when I didn't know that the G20 was going to be held there next week!!!! (do your research, Erin!!!) But he was very nice. After work, I walked up to Grafton Street, which is a pedestrian thoroughfare of shops, bars, etc. Dublin's big on shopping. I really can't tell who is from here and who is a tourist but it felt nice to actually be someplace that I didn't stick out like a sore thumb! Definitely seems like there aren't alot of Americans, though. Watched street performers, took photos and got a pint of Carlsberg (can't do Guiness!!) and a fish and chips.

Wednesday, 9/16

After work, I had a nice walk around the city with my co-worker and his wife. We went up O'Connel street and then back down to the Temple Bar area. Saw the castle and the River Liffey. Dinner was a 'steak burger', which you would think is a hamburger, right? No...just a ball of ground steak in gravy with fries. Hmm....these Irish are not known for their food!

Lots of people walking around- all the students must come out right after school and not go home until 7 or 8 because that's all you see! Saw the aftermath of an unfortunate bus/tram accident- didn't look like everyone walked away unscathed on that one! Scary to see. Love the architecture and they do alot with flower baskets in the Grafton Street/ Temple Bar area!

Interesting note: my co-worker's great-great-grandfather was a missionary to New Zealand and helped settle the country! (Think of the U.S's George Washington-type..) The things you learn about your co-workers on these trips!

Thursday, 9/17

Done work today at noon and hit the streets. (well, I cheated a little and did a hop-on/hop-off bus ride around the city!) Saw the gate to the Ambassador's residence on the tour and the guide talked about the new US Ambassador- I had to pinch myself to realize that I had just been talking to the guy that morning!!! Weird....

Friday, 9/18

Took a day off and booked a coach tour out to the country with 30 of my favorite octagenarians! Really, everyone was very nice. The tour went out to the village of Trim, where there is a castle ruin that Stacey and I had seen on one of our previous trips but didn't get to go in. Our tour guide was a local guy who said that as a kid, he used to play in the ruins- climb up the outside wall and run around what was left of the insde! Oh man, how fun!!!!!We also visited the pre-Christian site of the Hill of Tara (didn't get much out of that except for good exercise dodging sheep poop and some good photos of the countryside!!) and then made our way over to the coast to a fishing village called Howth. I decided that if I ever get reincarnated, I'd want to come back as a country dog in Ireland- I mean- how much better can life get??? Running around in the fields all day, no leashes, no hot weather, a nice fire at night (because, of course my owner would be like that....) I wish I'd gotten to go to more in the country, but I'll save the Northern Ireland and Scotland trip for another go!! To see all of my photos, you can visit my kodak gallery page:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=16294gsw.35i0cvv8&x=0&y=-bl6ryr&localeid=en_US

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

My trip to Jeddah was mid-August. I was going to support another Interior Designer, so my workload was light, but I definitely helped out alot when it came to working the furniture inventory! We were given our Abayas by our expeditor as soon as we got to the airport and we had to change into them right away in the bathroom! Hot as heck! The airport was pretty intimidating, but I was surprised at the lack of security- I expected to see men with guns all over, but I didn't see any at all. The capital of 'the Kingdom' is Riyad. Jeddah is on the coast, and tends to be cooler and less strict in dress codes.

Once outside the downtown area, we were told that we could take our head scarves off, but most of the time we kept them on. We made a mistake and sat in the 'men's area' of the hotel cafe one morning, but the waiter politely told us to move to another area and it really wasn't a big deal. Most of the men we saw in the hotel were business men and the formal dress for them seems to be the robe with the red/white checkered head scarf. Younger men wore a mix of stuff- we saw a group of young guys hanging out by a car and 2 were wearing tank tops and shorts while the other was fully robed. We were told it was a personal preference for them, not so much religion-based. Most of the women didn't cover their entire faces, but when we visited the local mall, we saw alot of women with the whole look- covered face, gloves, etc. It was kind of spooky. I just got the feeling that they looked down on us 'hussies' because we weren't covered. But someone else pointed out that they may be jealous of our freedoms, so who knows! Young girls (pre-puberty)didn't have to wear the abayas.

I didn't get many photos of stuff because really there wasn't alot of time. The Saudis look down on photographs of people, so I wanted to make sure I didn't offend anyone. So all of my photos are taken from a fast-moving armoured car!! One of the things I wish I had gotten pictures of are all of the modern sculptures around the road. Very interesting! The area where we stayed was a newly built suburb, so there was good infrastructure (as in wide, paved highways, etc.) They love their indoor malls over there! I guess it makes sense because of the heat.

One interesting thing I learned was that, although men could have more than one wife, the rule is that you have to be able to treat them all equally. So we saw many 'compounds' with several identical houses (or mansions, really!)- each wife got their own house. The opression of women is a very real thing, at least to this westerner's eyes! One woman we talked to (at the Embassy) said that alot of men don't treat their wives equally and many get excited by their 'new' wife and kids and toss their older ones out with the bathwater. If a wife is beaten and runs to the police, she is held there until her husband can come pick her up again. If she leaves her husband, he keeps the children- they can't leave the country. The only way she can leave with her kids is if she somehow can talk her husband into a trip outside the country and then escape from there.

We asked if the womens' dress was by choice, by religion or by husband and were told that its a combination of all 3. The fully covered (face, gloves, etc) would be classified as 'fundamentalists'.

All in all, not a place I really have to go to again.......hopefully! But I did get to keep my abaya, so maybe next Halloween.........