Jing South America --- Bolivia and Brazil

Jing South America -- Land of the Incas

Jing South America -- Costa Rica and Panama

Ireland map and itinerary (8-22 August 2019)

Clockwise around Ireland, Start/Finish Dublin.
Circled are overnight stays. (Click to enlarge)

Click to enlarge

Jing and I went over to Ireland to catch up with John who had just completed a two-month internship with RTE, the Irish equivalent of the BBC.  His project was research on Brexit (!) interesting as our family -- like many in the UK -- is split on the issue.  I was a squishy retainer and have become a clean Leaver, John a Remainer who nonetheless believes -- correctly -- that the referendum should be respected and ditto Jing... So we did have a few discussions about Brexit.  But mostly we were about Ireland the place, the people, the vistas, the weather, the foods, the Guinness.  And the Titanic, of course, which had her last berth before heading off into the Atlantic to become the world’s most troped metaphor. And in Belfast where she was built.

We met in Dublin and had a few lovely days there -- live music from every pub -- before heading off around the island clockwise.  

Initially I’d wanted to hire a barge or boat and cruise the canals and rivers.  Just as well they were all booked out. Because the weather meant that it would have been pretty dire. And we would not have seen nearly as much. It rained every day. And the Irish told us that was normal. Although John told us they’d had great weather for the month before we arrived.  So, as usual, it was “you should’ve been here last week!”.
Ireland is really small. Check out the scale on the map above. So a week or ten day is plenty. A lot of the back roads have high hedges, so you can’ t really see the country side a lot of the way. We thought they ought to cut them back, but it turns out that the reason is not that they’ve just let the grow -- they’re for the wind, the prevailing westerlies. So they’re a feature, not a bug.  That said, there are surely plenty of lovely vistas. The Slieve League was  bit of a find...

Ireland August 2019 (I)

Jing and John, Dublin

Cobh (pron “Cove”) looking to Titanic dock where it picked up
its last passengers before heading off to become a metaphor

Cute Cobh Cottages

Blarney Castle, where you kiss the Blarney Stone.  It’s just outside Cork
on the way to Dingle

Blarney Castle taken from the spot you kiss the stone.  There’s a queue
going up really tight medieval circular stone staircase 

Dingle. Paddy the captain cutting up our catch of mackarel
which we had cooked up for us shortly after at Denny’s pub.
Obviously I should have taken a photo of us actually fishing,,,,,
We all caught fish, two types, one mackerel and another I can’t remember.
The mackerel was clearly the better tasting, though both nice with crispy chips

Ireland August 2019 (II)

Cliffs of Moher on way to Galway

Ditto

Grave of W.B. Yeats, just north of Sligo

Slieve Leagues, Teelin Co. west of Sligo

Murals in Derry; “Londonderry" if you’re a Unionist.
This is a famous shot of a kid during Bloody Sunday
30 January 1972.  Our guide’s father was killed on the day.
 Reminded us of the protesters in Hong Kong

It's the area of murals. Part of the deal in ending the
Troubles  was that each side got to do murals and
the other side didn’t deface them.  So you get Republican
and Unionist murals check by jowl

Ireland August 2019 (III)

Giant's Causeway Northern Ireland

In the Derry museum of the Troubles

Angie and Dick Dowd, Larne N. Ireland. Parents of a mate of ours
here in Hong Kong.  Dick is American, who spends half his time in
Larne, Ireland, where he’s married to Angie, an English woman.  We
believe he’s CIA or ex-spook of some sort, maybe still practicising 

Dick Dowd told us about the term Hillbilly, which he reckoned came from the Irish who migrated to America.  It seems he’s right.  He said he’d call us the “Ballymena Hillbillies”...  Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:

Scholars argue that the term "hillbilly" originated from Scottish dialect. The term "hill-folk" referred to people who preferred isolation from the greater society, and "billy" meant "comrade" or "companion". It is suggested that "hill-folk" and "billie" were combined when the Cameronians fled to the hills of southern Scotland.^[5] There is also the belief that most of the settlers from Scotland and northern Ireland were followers of king William of Orange

Oranmore guest house, Ballymena, home of the Forsythes:
John Snr’s father and grandfather, and so... etc... for other family members....
(Rocky’s great great grandfather and great great great grandfather.
I have the documentation to post when I get around to it...

Ireland August 2019 (IV)

ADDED: We also found out why our Forsythe has an “e”.  When the Scottish Forsyth’s left Scotland to escape persecution and fighting there around the 17th century, they came to the northern part of Ireland, settled in “Plantations” settled by the Scots-Irish and our forebears added the “e” to differentiate themselves from their Scottish cousins. From Wikipedia:

The settlers from Ulster were mainly Protestants who migrated to Ireland, during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century, from Scotland and Northern England. Many further migrated to the American colonies beginning in the 1730s, and in America became known as the Scots-Irish. 

Ballymena Town Hall

Nicky the lady at Town Hall, Ballymena, who helped us finding the info
on the Forsythes

John pointing to Tullybane farm in Ballymena County, N. Ireland
Where, specifically, Andrew Forsythe, father of John Ackland Forsythe
was born to Thomas Forsythe and Bessie nee Stewart. This was a massive
map on a table, I’m sure you couldn’t find online.

And this is zoomed in. Tullybane is about 20 miles north of Ballymena, which
is quite a substantial town in N. Ireland. We didn’t go cause we were heading
South and it would have looked like anywhere else in
N. Ireland: green, cows, hedges, narrow roads

This is a photocopy in A3 size, of the Register of Ballymena County 1876.
It was amazing that Mutti was able to pin down Ballymena as Grandfather Forsythe’s
birthplace, from Pa’s birth certificate (I think!).
Note the very lovely calligraphy.  Common in those times, rare now.
The relevant entry is no. 113 for Andrew Forsythe. Click to enlarge

Courtyard just opposite Ballymena Town Hall

This weird thing Jing is sitting in is one of the props
from the Game of Thrones movie lot, which was in
the old Titanic dock of Ulster

As in Derry, so in Ulster.  Competing Murals

You can do a “Two Views” walking tour. Half of it is with a Unionist,
half with a Republican. Jing and John did that, while I did an open
top bus tour. The Republican they had, had been an IRA member
who spent time in jail for murder.  Now takes walking tours.

Unionists.  They’re all over in certain areas.  And “peace walls”. To keep
them apart, Catholics and Protestants, who would otherwise start
killing each other again

Jing, Jordan, et. al.

Jing's trip after Nice French language training. Shaded ovals above are the Jordan bit...
Itinerary:
Nice ➜ Istanbul ➜ Amman ➜ Jerash ➜ Mount Nebo ➜ Dead Sea ➜ Kerak ➜ Petra ➜ Aqaba desert ➜ Aqaba ➜ Ferry ➜ Sharm El Sheikh ➜ flight to Cairo.

Jing: "my Turkish beer"

Hijabi...hmmmm

The world's earliest known "parity peace treaty"
carved in stone 1269 BC. Details below

And the point of this is?...

One person matters, the other doesn't

Those damn Romans and their cultural hegemony...

Jing Aqaba desert

Ditto slightly different.....

Petra

Guess where?

From Mena Hotel, the place to stay when in Cairo

Base of the pyramid

Imagine this smooth sided, covered in marble and with
a pure gold top. (the pyramid, I mean; to be clear)