travel « Bakker Bugle Blog

5 October 2007

Hop across the Irish Sea

Filed under: ireland,travel — Will @ 21:53

Hello, silly residents of North America, with your huge continental countries.

Anita and I will take an 80 minute flight to London early Saturday morning for a little trip abroad. We’re meeting Chris and Katie at Hyde Park tomorrow morning, to take in the best of British theatre and some respectable Premier League football (Portsmouth at Fulham), and to do anything else we care to do in the centre of the civilised world.

Advertisement: A side trip to London is a perfect complement to a stay at the B.B. B&B. Add a few days to your itinerary and experience the vibrant city of London! You may opt for a guided tour, or spend a few days on your own. Either way, the travel expenses are minimal, and the memories last a lifetime!

You can expect a full report when we return, because this is one of those rare occasions when we travel without either of our laptops. In the meantime, you might notice that there are many new photos on our flickr site. I haven’t finished the text for the Belfast series, but there are other new sets for you to enjoy.

Have a good weekend!

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17 September 2007

Now I do hate the British

Filed under: expat,travel — Will @ 13:02

Many times, the cheapest airfare back to Dublin includes a connection through Heathrow. My experiences with Heathrow have not been positive. Last week, however, I had an extraordinary exchange with the UK’s immigration service.
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11 September 2007

Irish America, #1 of a continuing series

Filed under: expat,ireland,travel — Will @ 18:43

In my sister Theodora‘s neighborhood in Manhattan, there’s a pub that displays two Irish flags beneath the US flag: The Kinsale Tavern.

Flags at Kinsale Tavern NYC
On the left is the official national flag of the Republic of Ireland. On the right is an unofficial flag of Ireland, representing the four provinces of the island. According to an unsourced website:

The Four Provinces flag has two main uses. Firstly, it is an economical way of flying the flags of all the provinces – one saves the cost of three flags and three flag poles! Secondly, it is sometimes flown when a politically neutral flag representing all of Ireland is required. For example, Irish hockey teams, which draw players from both the Republic and Northern Ireland, use the Four Provinces flag as their emblem in international competitions.

That last explanation rings true to me. As I’ve seen on numerous posters, placemats, and menus:

A Publican must be a democrat, autocrat, acrobat and doormat. He must be able to entertain prime ministers, pick-pockets, pirates, philanthropists and police whilst sitting on the political fence. (from the web)

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Travel in America

Filed under: expat,travel — Will @ 17:00

First, fair play to Dave for the Dubs spy-photo. I wonder what story brought that jersey to Lake County. Also, thanks to Sharon for the suggestion. The staff are already hard at work on the first word of the week.

My travels took me to O’Hare airport in Chicago, suburban central New Jersey, and Manhattan. My flight to New Jersey took me through O’Hare. I had a window seat facing north, and the sky was clear. So I felt a little twinge when the plane was low enough for me to see the baseball fields, wide-open parks and roads, and distinctive spaces of my most recent home. My first bit of home-sickness — just a few miles from home!

Walking around New Jersey and New York City brought my attention to some features of Dublin life that I’d failed to notice. I kept starting sentences with the phrase, “In Dublin…” and I got self-conscious about that. (I heard an echo in my head: “One time, in band camp…”)

I can’t get those new observations organized right now, but I’ll work on it soon!

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3 September 2007

Re-decorating the Blog

Filed under: culture,dublin,travel — Will @ 18:44

No Labor Day holiday here! While Americans are BBQ-ing and watching baseball and all that American stuff, I’m going to play with the blog’s code. So, to distract you from the experimentation over here, I invite you to look at the new photos posted on flickr. The first two days of our holidays with Cindy generated a lot of photos of Dublin and its environs.

I’m sure you’ll find them useful for planning your own holidays. Here, the volume of tourism dropped noticeably last week. Anita and I speculate about how the city will change. After all, we moved here at the start of tourist season! Our prognostications focus on the incoming students for the several universities. Will they replace the tourists in the city centre, who tend to be backpack-wearing youngsters anyway? Or will this place show an entirely different face?

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25 August 2007

Do You Hate the British Too?

Filed under: culture,ireland,travel — Anita @ 12:55

I’ve had the following conversation on three separate occasions with three different Irish co-workers:

Man: Hiya, Anita. What did you do on your holiday?

Me: We spent the weekend in Dublin, and spent some time at museums and especially at Kilmainham jail. We heard a lot about the Easter Rising in 1916. During the week, we traveled to the West, around Galway and Connemara.

Man: And you liked it?

Me: We did, it was beautiful. But we joke that it could have been depressing because it was like a “Famine Tour.” We saw famine monuments, and we even finished the trip with a visit to the Famine Museum in Strokestown.

Man: So now you hate the British too!

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22 August 2007

First Visitor, Departed

Filed under: entertainment,ireland,travel — Will @ 19:57

Good-bye, Cindy — We’ll miss you!

The B.B. B&B said, “Farewell,” to its first customer today. Despite the threat of a pilots’ strike, Cindy was able to fly to Chicago today. With her help, the staff are now even better able to serve future customers of our B&B.

Although the staff haven’t finished putting together the book for this visit, we like to keep our friends informed. So, for an overview of her visit, and tantalizing information about the staff’s retreat, follow the link…

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15 August 2007

Hiatus: BB Staff Retreat

Filed under: administrative,award,travel — Will @ 7:09

The Bakker Bugle staff will attend an offsite for the next few days. On this retreat, the staff will work on ways of re-focusing on our core values. The staff will also develop plans for innovative content to satisfy our clients’ expectations of excellence.

Although we value openness, the Bakker Bugle cannot divulge the location of the retreat for liability reasons. In addition, the Commenter of the Week award will be announced one day later than usual. Rather than compromising our unstinting standards of effectiveness, we will give the award on Sunday.

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14 August 2007

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Filed under: dublin,ireland,travel — Will @ 20:41

Cindy’s been here for six days, and we’ve seen a tremendous number of new things. Thursday and Friday, Cindy and I biked all over Dublin. Each time, I planned to visit place that was familiar to me. Each time, Cindy asked that we explore more — mostly because she knew that we needed to take advantage of the sunny weather. And so, I went lots of new places, too.

We were especially surprised by our adventure along the Great South Wall. We could see that there was a trail leading toward the Poolbeg power station, whose two smokestacks are the tallest Dublin landmarks. The trail was part of the Irishtown Nature Park and went much further out into the Bay than we expected. But the real surprise was the road that led even further. We’d found the Great South Wall, and it looked inviting.

It was bumpy. Very bumpy. The informational sign said that it was built without mortar, and my bouncing bike seat — not to mention bruised buttocks — confirmed that fact. But the view was spectacular, and although the wall was man-made, we felt like we were venturing into little-known territory. Cindy seemed exhilarated, and I hope it helped her feel like she has a special link to Dublin.

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