Tanja’s Lounge

Hier schonmal ein kleiner Vorgeschmack…
Just as a little appetizer…

Ja, mich gibt es noch und ich habe auch das Bloggen nicht eingestellt. Als erstes kleines Lebenszeichen heute nur der Hinweis, dass der erste Teil unseres Hörspiels seit ein paar Wochen fertig ist und online gehört werden darf - und zwar hier. Andrea und ich sind wirklich mächtig stolz, was die Sprecher und vor allem der liebe Sluff aus unserem Skript gezaubert haben!!!

Die vergangenen beide Wochen haben Thorsten und ich in der Toskana verbracht, ganz ruhig, mitten in den Weinbergen. Es war traumhaft schön und sehr erholsam. Das hat nach dem doch recht fordernden letzten Monaten richtig gut getan. Fotos und ein ausführlicherer Bericht folgen in den kommenden Tagen.

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I’m still out here and I’m still blogging. Today I will only put in a short note, that part one out of two of our audio play has been finished a few weeks ago. You can now listen to it right here. Andrea and I are very proud of what the speakers and Sluff (the sound master) actually made of our script. It’s awesome!

The past two weeks Thorsten and I spent in Tuscany (Italy). We rented a small appartment which was part of a vineyard and spent most of the time relaxing and reading at the swimming pool. After all the things that happened since the beginning of the year that was just what we needed. I will put a longer report and some pictures online within the next few days.

Und schon wieder ist ein Wochenende vorbei. Am Freitag abend haben wir auf Hochtouren am Hochzeitsgeschenk für ein befreundetes Paar gewerkelt. Am Samstagvormittag ging’s dann los nach Velen (Kreis Borken). Im dortigen Sportschloss fand die Hochzeit statt. Eine sehr schöne Location und vor allem sehr begabte Köche am Werk. Sehr praktisch war auch, dass standesamtliche und kirchliche Trauung sowie die eigentliche Feier am selben Ort stattfanden. Sonntagvormittag hat Thorsten dann noch Bogenschießen ausprobiert (war ja schließlich ein Sporthotel…). Der Trainer war ganz begeistert und meinte, er müsse unbedingt in einen Verein gehen, weil er ein Naturtalent sei. Nachmittags hatten wir dann noch hier zuhause unseren Tanzkurs. Und trotz der langen Sommerpause hat alles noch ganz gut geklappt.

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I can’t believe another weekend is already over. Friday night we were busy finishing the wedding present for friends, who married this weekend. Saturday morning we drove down to the hotel (”Sportschloss Velen”) where the wedding was taking place. The hotel was very nice and has very gifted chefs! I loved the food! The nice thing about this hotel was that they had a room, where the registrar’s part of the wedding could take place. Then they also had a chapel on their grounds where the religious part of the wedding was held. And then we sat in the hotel’s garden for the party afterwards. On Sunday Thorsten took a course in archery, because it was a sport’s hotel. The trainer declared him a natural at it and tried to convince him to train in a club on a regular basis here at home. In the afternoon we had the first dancing lesson after the summer break. Surprisingly enough we could still dance most of the figures. I expected we would have forgotten almost everything.

Gestern haben wir uns Ice Age 3 angesehen. Und obwohl ich ja Zeichentrickfilme (nennt man das heute überhaupt noch so?) meistens nicht so spannend finde, war ich total begeistert. Die Geschichte und die Dialoge sind witzig gemacht, so dass wir viel zu lachen hatten. Zusätzlich verschönert hat den Abend ein ausgiebiges Schlemmermahl bei Tucans. Wir haben beide das so genannte Rodizio gegessen. Los ging’s mit Salat vom Vorspeisenbuffet. Danach kamen im 15-Minuten-Takt Kellner mit einem Spieß mit gegrilltem Fleisch vorbei, von dem Sie uns jedesmal ein oder zwei dünne Scheiben abschnitten. Insgesamt gab’s acht verschiedene Fleischsorten: Pute im Speckmantel, Würstchen, Kassler, Lamm, Hammelkeule, Rinderfilet, Entrecote und Hühnerkeulen. Zusätzlich kamen zwischendrin Kellnerinnen mit verschiedenen Beilagen (Tortillas, Paprika, Lauch, Champignons, Kartoffeln, Pommes, Bohnen, Zwiebeln) rum. Zum Schluß gibt’s eine Scheibe am Spieß gegrillte Annanas. Danach hätten wir uns dann noch am Dessertbuffet bedienen können, aber das hat leider nicht mehr gepasst. Das Essen war echt ein Erlebnis! Man sollte auf jeden Fall genügend Zeit mitbringen, um das Ganze richtig genießen zu können. Wir waren insgesamt ca. 2,5 Stunden dort, andere Gäste noch länger. Gekostet hat das Ganze letztendlich nicht viel mehr, als ein Besuch im Steakhaus.

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Yesterday night we saw Ice Age 3 at the movie theater. Even though I’m not that into animated films I liked this movie tremendously! The plot and the dialoges were very funny so we got to laugh a lot. Before going to see the film we went to a Brazilian restaurant called Tucans. We both had the so called Rodizio. We started with a salad from the appetizers buffet. Then the waiters came round with a different kind of meat roasted on a spit about every 15 minutes. Each time they cut of one or two thin slices directly onto your plate. There were seven different kinds of meats, if I counted that right. In between they had waitresses coming up to the tables with different side oders like Tortillas, peppers, mushrooms, potatos, onions, french fries, beans etc. At the end you are served a slice of roasted pineapple (also grilled on a spit). After that you are free to serve yourself from the desserts buffet. However, we were so full we didn’t get around to trying that out. If you ever happen to be in Duesseldorf in the media harbour you should try this. It was great experience and didn’t cost more than eating at a steak house. You need plenty of time though. We spent about 2.5 hours there and some of the other guests stayed even longer.

Gestern abend waren wir beim Schandmaul-Konzert (deutscher Folkrock mit mittelalterlichen Instrumenten) im Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. Das Konzert war gut, auch wenn es leider wegen diverser technischer Pannen mit starker Verspätung anfing. Die zweite Hälfte habe ich deshalb nur noch in einer Art stehenden Dämmerschlafs erlebt. Ich wurde erst wieder richtig wach, als gegen Ende “Walpurgisnacht” gespielt wurde, ein Lied, bei dem traditionell sehr enthusiastisch getanzt und herumgehüpft wird. Da der Boden in der Gießhalle relativ stark schwingt, vibrierte der Boden durch die Bewegungen der rund 1.000 Besucher so starkt, dass sicher der ein oder andere seekrank geworden ist. Ein Ausflug in den Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord lohnt sich übrigens auch ohne den Besuch einer Veranstaltung unbedingt! Das Zusammenspiel zwischen Natur und Industrieruinen (Hochöfen, Schornsteine etc.) schafft eine ganz besondere Atmosphäre. Für alle, die noch nicht da waren, hier ein Appetithäppchen:

Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord from IngoF on Vimeo.

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Yesterday night we went to the concert of a group called Schandmaul, which plays German folk rock on medieval instruments. If you are asking yourself what that would sound like here’s an example:

The concert took place in the so called Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord in Duisburg in the Ruhr Valley. I liked the concert, but it started very delayed due to several technical problems, so I was already half asleep during the second part of the concert. Towards the end of the gig Schandmaul played the song “Walpurgisnacht” and all of the 1,000 people audience jumped and danced to the music, and the floor started vibrating so much I bet some people got sea sick! That’s when I was finally fully awake again, which came in handy as I was the designated driver. If you ever visit the Ruhr Valley you have to visit the park! The combination of nature and the old industrial sites (several furnaces, funnels etc.) is really quite something! To give you a first impression of my favourite park in this area of Germany, I’m including another podcast in this post:

Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord from IngoF on Vimeo.

Finally, I am done. The past few days were so busy I just never found the time to translate this huge chunk of text. So here it is: my travel report about two weeks in Dingle in the South West of Ireland. Dingle is a village with around 1.500 locals, a very pretty harbour and 52 pubs (so it never gets boring).

Our accomodation

We rented one of the Dingle Marina Cottages. They are situated very conveniently as it only takes about five to ten minutes to walk into the city center. We were also very happy with the cottage itself – apart from the fact that the equipment of the kitchen with dishes and cutlery was somewhat lacking (5 tea spoons, 6 knives, 1 eggcup in a cottage designed for five people). However, the technical equiment was great (oven, microwave, dishwacher, washing machine, toaster). Another positive thing about these cottages is, that if the weather turns nasty you can always spend the day in the wellness area of the Dingle Skellig Hotel (at additional cost), which is associated to the cottages in some way. What I found remarkable is that we only paid half(!) of the price we would have, if we had booked directly with the owner, by booking the cottage over a catalogue (DERTOUR) at the travel agent.

The journey to Dingle
This time we decided we wanted to keep the travel distance between the airport and our accomodations as short as possible. Last time we flew into Dublin and then drove all the way over to the other coast to Bel Harbour near Ballyvaughan in a hire car. Especially on our way back to the airport this journey had been very stressful (in Ireland you drive on the left side of the road and many of the streets are very narrow). So this time we took a direct flight into Kerry Airport. From there it is only about an hour’s drive (60 Kilometer) to Dingle.

If you hire a car in Ireland I suggest getting a so called “Super CDI” insurance with it. This totally cuts the excess (of normally around 1300,- Euro). Because of the narrow streets and the hedges, which grow directly to both sides of the streets in many places you can save yourself a lot of hassle for the sometimes inevitable scratches on the co-driver’s side of the car, when you need to let a car coming from the opposite direction pass, for example.

Sights on Dingle Peninsula
If the wether is clear I strongly suggest a tour around the Western coast of the Peninsula – the so called Slea Head Drive. We did this by car but you can also walk along the Dingle Way. Slea Head itself offers you an impressiv view. I really liked Dunbeg Stonefort and the Gallarus Oratory as well. These structures were build solely by putting stone on stone (no mortar etc. used), which I find really impressive. We also visited the Celtic & Prehistoric Museum. The exhibits were not that interesting, however, the museum’s gift shop is really worth a visit! I loved looking at all those really bizarre things they offer. For example, you can buy little broken(!) porcellain dolls from Thuringia (East Germany) from eighteenhundred-such-and-such, which some German fellow dug out. A doll without a head or the head without the doll will only cost you seven bucks.

Other great viewpoints are at the Connor Pass and at the national street between Tralee and Dingle right in front of Camp. That viewpoint was actually my favourite and we stopped there every time we passed by. You should also go to Inch beach. You also get great food at Sammy’s Restaurant there. However, better not go there when the weather is really great. For some reason it is allowed to go all the way down to the sea in your car. So when it is really warm and sunny this beach looks more like a huge car park instead of a beach.

Another great trip is the Blasket Island Eco Tour, a tour by boat around the Blasket Islands. The boats leave at Dingle Marina several times a day and there are also tours that start at Dunquin. Our tour took about three hours and cost 40,- Euro per Person. It was well worth the money, the whole tour was a great spectacle of nature form the first to the last minute. Until 1954 there were actually people living on the Blasket Islands. Today only every once in a while some people stay on the islands for a while. Our tour guide stayed there with his wife and his two kids about 20 years ago for a year. During this time there was only one other man staying there. For me it’s totally unthinkable to live so secluded.

In the National Geographic guide book one of us had bought a walk around the peninsula north of Castlegregory with view at the Margharee Islands is stronly suggested. We found it hard to find the described walking path an when we finally managed to find it, it turned out that there was knee high grass and nettles growing all over it. At that point we spontanously abandoned our plans in spite of the raving descriptions in the guide book. For my German readers I suggest the Ireland guide book from the “Iwanowski’s” series at this point, however as it is all in German it won’t be of any use to you.

Culinary Highlights
In one of our guide books it says something along the lines of: “Irish cooking for hundreds of years had only the aim too feed hungry/starving people. You still taste that in the Irish cuisine of today.” This is simply and utterly not true. We had loads of very yummie food while we were in Kerry. We especially enjoyed the food and the evening entertainment (starts at around 9:30 pm) in Murphy’s Pub. Seriously: I still dream of that freshly baked Brown Bread I had as a side order to my mussles in white whine sauce every single night. One day soon I will have to try to bake it myself to finally stopp these cravings.

You also just have to visit Murphy’s ice cream parlour. The scoop is relatively expensive at 3,50 Euro (three scoops were only 6,50 Euro…!), but it’s absolutely worth it. Many of the ingredients are organic products which really suits me - as I am a big afficionado of organic food stuff - and the tasts they offer are as unusual as yummie! I absolutely loved the “Chocolate Sundae”, a delicious combination of vanilla and chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce, cream and chocolate chips on top. At our last visit we bought the “Book of Sweet Things” by the two founders of Murphy’s, which contains a whole lot of recipes. As soon as I find the time I will try out whether I will be able to create ice cream which tastes just as great in our tiny little Tchibo ice cream maker. I will keep you posted how our ice cream turns out!

Musical Highlights
By coincidence we were in Dingle at the same time when only one hour away in Milltown the Bodhran World Championships were held. I’m including a video clip of Joseph McNulty from the finale 2008, who was also one of the finalists this time. Just so you can see, what a Bodhran looks like and get an impression of what the championships are all about.

We visited the event on two days and it really was an experience, let me tell you! On the “Family Day” the whole town and a lot of tourists thrown in for good measure were on their feet from dawn till dusk celebrating in the streets. At the Gig Rig (the main stage) young and old were dancing Irish dances. (Looked kind of like Square Dance to me :-/ Sorry, I just can’t think of a better way to explain this which probably only proves I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about when it comes to dancing.) During the finale I was truly amazed just how good everyone was. Especially the winner of the solo category – which I think might have been Joseph McNulty, but I’m not sure about that – did almost acrobatic things with the little wooden stick. For his age, the performance was absolutely breathtaking. This guy will seriously go ways, be sure of that!

During our first visit to Milltown we also went to a concert by Michael O’Brien and the Celtic Crossroads. This was one of the highlights of this vacation for me. They definitely made the town hall rock! Probably because we were some of the younger audience and(!) very enthusiastic we were filmed by the camera guy of TG4, a gaelic language TV station. I wished I could watch their report on the WBC in their internet live stream, however so far I couldn’t find out on which day this will be broadcasted. It’s supposed to go out on a Thursday night at 7:30 pm, but they didn’t know which Thursday yet…

Another great musical event are the “Folk Concerts”, which Eoin Duignan organizes during the summer months at St. James Church in Dingle. We went to three of these concerts and liked every single one of it. There are always different musicians performing. I especially liked Tony Small.

Ring of Kerry
We made two trips apart from the round tour on the Ring of Kerry itself, which was a very wise decision in regard to the time the round tour itself takes. We did a jaunting car ride from Kate Kearney’s Cottage to the Gap of Dunloe and the visit to the Killarney National Park seperately. I liked the National Park so much that I would like to go back one day and spend three or for days exploring the park in detail. This time we only had time for the 40 minute jaunting car ride and a short visit to Mucross Abbey. I actually liked the Torc Waterfalls best. In a way for me they were even more impressive than the Niagra Falls.

The trip to the Gap of Dunloe is really worthwhile, too. You should in any case book a jaunting car ride to the fourth lake (or walk there?!), because only there you have a good view at the Gap itself. However, never make the mistake we did, and eat at the ”Coffee Pot” afterwards just because there is no table at Kate Kearney’s Cottage to be had at that moment. The drinking glasses were almost blind, the food barely eadible and the little packs of ketchup and mayonais had “use best before”-dates in February and March.

During our round trip on the Ring of Kerry we made a first stop at Glenbeigh beach and walked along the sea for a while. Then we went on to Cahersiveen, where I mainly remember the nice church. After that we went to see a stone fort and the ruin of a castle. The next stop was Valentia Island. Again I wished I had had a lot more time. My personal highlight was the view point at the top of Geokaun Mountain. We went up the really(!) steep street at 15 miles/hour in first gear (as suggested by the signs) and were never really sure whether our Opel Astra (having no four wheel drive) would actually make it to the top. But it did. And WOW, was the view gorgeous!

Afterwards the car looked like we had gone all the way through the Gobi Desert with it, but what the heck! The Tetrapod Trackway on the other hand I found rather disappointing. It’s supposed to be the 385 million year old footsteps of amphibia. But a few little wholes in the stones right at the sea is all there really is to see. But maybe I’m just not romantic enough to appreciate a sight like that?! Our last stop was the view point at the Coomakista Pass. Afterwards we went to the Scariff Inn for dinner. There I had the best Irish Stew I ever had in my life!

Over all these two weeks was one of the best vacations I ever had. I would love to go to Kerry for another vacation in the future. Then I would like to stay in Kenmare, Killorglin or Killarney to stay in a more centrally situated place so it makes going on day trips easier. And that time I will definitively visit the Skellig Islands and not retur without the picture of a puffin (cute bird which lives there).