Ireland - Introduction

One of the main things we love about living in Europe is the traveling we are able to do. Of course, the pandemic put a significant damper on our travel schedule. In the 17 months between February 2020 (when we were in Portugal, and Covid was just some illness most people knew little about), and July 2021, we had only taken a brief, 5-day trip to Paris (July 2020), and a week hiking in the Pyrenees (October 2020). Now that we are vaccinated, we felt it was time to get back on the road.

We chose Ireland mainly because it would not be too hot in August, especially compared to possible destinations in southern Europe, and because we did not expect it to be too crowded since the country only opened for visitors on July 19th, giving foreign travelers little time to plan trips there. We were right on both counts. The weather was cool and rainy (as you will see from our pictures), and although the Irish were traveling in fairly large numbers, there were not many foreign travelers. Generally we felt that most sites we visited were not overrun. 

Traveling during Covid was a bit of a different experience. We had extra forms to complete before entering Ireland and returning to Spain; nearly every site required you to book a time to visit, although many of the government-run sites in Ireland waived their fees as an incentive to get people to travel; and, in order to eat inside a restaurant, you had to provide proof of vaccination. Almost every restaurant we went to over the 17-day trip adhered to this requirement, and at least checked our vaccination certificates, with the majority scanning them to confirm they were valid. Inside masking requirements were almost universally followed, and we generally felt pretty "safe," although on occasion it seemed like there were just too many people in an enclosed space.

So, what did we do in Ireland? Well, of course, we ate a lot of good food, drank a lot of good wine (no wine is made in Ireland, but they have a decent wine culture with most restaurants offering wines from Europe, South America, New Zealand and even South Africa) and, of course, drank a good amount of local beer, especially Guinness.

(No, I did not go bald in the last year, that is Shana's brother Adam, who met us for a few days in Dublin as a detour from his own visit to Iceland. Adam has traveled more during Covid than anyone else we know. I don't even want to think about how many Covid tests he has taken.)

After spending five nights in Dublin, seeing the sites, including St. Patrick's Cathedral and the famous Temple Bar, and especially enjoying ethnic food that we cannot find in San Sebastian, we set out driving around the south and west of the country for 12 days. This meant that I got to drive on the "wrong" (left) side of the road for the first time. And, while I did not actually find this too difficult, driving in Ireland is complicated by the fact that many Irish roads are very narrow, and the speed limit on these narrow roads is often a surprising 80 kph (48 mph). So, although I was driving below the speed limit, many of the Irish were not, which led to many moments where cars would come around a blind corner in the middle of the road before moving over (to the left, remember) forcing us to scrape our car along the foliage that lines practically every road in the country. Overall, a fairly stressful part of the trip.

All that said, we had a wonderful time visiting Ireland, as we will show more completely over a number of upcoming posts. And, we will say that the Irish reputation for friendliness is 100% deserved. They are all genuinely nice, helpful and friendly, and add to the enjoyment of a visit to their country.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Jazzaldia 2021

 

If it’s July in San Sebastian, then it’s time for Jazzaldia, the annual jazz festival. Despite the rampant spread of the delta variant, the show did go on with similar COVID safety protocols to last year's event. We saw two great shows, both in outdoor settings.

The first concert was a solo piano recital by Marcin Masecki, a Polish pianist, who performed ragtime music. Jeff chose this concert, and it was a real winner. Unlike last year’s soloist, Masecki spoke to the audience (in Spanish) before each piece, providing a bit of information and history about the artist. Most fascinating was how he got into performing ragtime in the first place:  he was inspired by the ragtime music he heard at Disneyland as a child. Ragtime became his passion and he started focusing on it more and more, including composing original pieces. It was easy to know that the music brings him great joy because we could watch his feet energetically dance under the piano while he played – we had a great view from our first-row seats in the cloister of the San Telmo Museum (a former monastery).

The second concert was Noa & Gil Dor, an Israeli duo, who performed with Inaki Salvador, a local pianist. There was an opening performance by Naissam Jalal & Rhythms of Resistance. Jalal is a Syrian flutist who lives in Paris. Her performance was enjoyable but not as dynamic as the main act.

Noa has a captivating voice and knows how to connect with her audience. She spoke almost exclusively in Spanish, while singing in English, Hebrew, Spanish, and even Basque. The selections played from her 2019 album “Letters to Bach” were marvelous – it is worth checking out her unique tribute to J.S. Bach. But the most special moment was when she sang as her final encore “Txoria Txori,” a Basque song that is considered a piece of resistance against the Franco regime’s prohibition of the Basque language, and a current symbolic yearning for independence. It is based on a poem about a how a caged bird loses its essence and can no longer be considered a bird. Listening to the audience sing along was incredibly moving. She truly held the crowd in the palm of her hand.

We are already looking forward to next year’s festival. Hopefully COVID security measures will be a thing of the past by then.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff