But I learned a couple of days ago that with the troubles in the economy a lot of people withdrew and the trip was cancelled. So now I'm "all dressed up with no place to go." Actually, I'm thinking of a couple of possibilities. One would be to go to Prince Edward Island to visit the cousins. Another would be to go to Ireland to see where the maternal ancestors came from. A third possibility would be to go to Germany to visit my friend "Stefan" and his family and see him perform the leading role in the local festival play. This year is the 25th anniversary of our original meeting (which I still need to blog about sometime). Of course, PEI is cheap enough to get to from here (and I'd be staying with the rellies), that I could probably do that even if I also hop across the pond.
Edited to add: And I remembered this morning that my kid brother has been after me to visit him and my sister-in-law in Japan. I haven't been there since New Year's 1986.
Well, whatever I do, there should be some language study in my future. Kid brother also wants me to learn some Japanese, sent me a CD a couple of years ago for Christmas. And if I decide to go to Ireland, I'll want to know at least some basic Irish. I tried studying it some years ago and found it really wild, although at least the spelling's pretty regular, once you get the hang of it. And if I go to Germany, I'd want to brush up my German so it was back to at least the level of a stupid three-year old.
8 comments:
Enjoy yourself where ever you go. If you go to Ireland, you should voyage across the Atlantic on the QM2 :p
Oh, and if you do go to Ireland make sure you go to Belfast where there is a new Titanic museum. :D
The ancestors Whose home I know about came from the northeastern part of Co. Monaghan (Donagh Parish). That's just over the border from Northern Ireland, so it should be feasible to get to Belfast. In fact, Monaghan is one of the three counties of the province of Ulster which are not in Northern Ireland.
So I can have that in mind.
Japan!
Without question!
I would go there in a heartbeat.
Well, I knew how it would be. When my brother called last night, as he does every week, I told him Italy was off, then I mentioned PEI and Ireland (and maybe Germany). It may have taken a moment, but the penny dropped and very soon he started talking about how Tokyo is pleasant in October: not too hot, not too cold, but just right.
I haven't decided for sure, but I really ought to do it sometime, so maybe this is the year — then combine Ireland and Germany next year. We'll see.
Yes I would choose Japan as well, only b/c I have been to all the other places...
But if your going in October you do NOT want to miss Oktoberfest...
I dont know if you drink, being catholic I assume you do, but O-fest was the best of times man...
I've never been to Oktoberfest. It would be good to get there if things work out. Maybe I could combine it with a visit to my friends — see the festival play that my best German friend is in and then head to Munich. I'm pretty sure Oktoberfest will open less than a week later.
Thanks for the reminder.
Italy would be fantastic if anything for all the art museums. Never been, but would LOVE to go.
I'd LOVE to go to Japan myself. Just love everything about it!
I went to Ireland about six years ago. Everybody spoke English so don't worry about learning Gaelic, you won't even need to use it.
Let us know where you go!
-Dean
Japan is really beautiful once you get outside Tokyo. Of course Tokyo has it beautiful spots as well, but mostly it's just a big city.
The idea of needing to learn Irish Gaelic is my little joke. But I do like to dabble in languages when I'm going to visit a place (and occasionally just as an exercise). I rarely get very far, but from what I have seen, Irish seems harder than Hungarian, Japanese or Hebrew, to say nothing of any other Indo-European language such as Lithuanian or Serbo-Croatian. Maybe if I had kept at it, it would have fallen into place.
I'll keep you posted.
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