Here’s a photo of a mystery city. Do you know where it is and which languages are spoken there?
Category: Travel
Where in the world?
Where in the world?
Where in the world?
I’m back
I returned from Cuba late last night after a long, long journey. Fortunately my luggage didn’t get lost on the way back to London, as it did on the way to Havana. The airline (Iberia) somehow managed to forget to load several baggage containers onto the plane, so when we arrived in Havana, our bags were still in Madrid. Some members of the group got their bags the next day, but I had to wait four days for mine, and one of group didn’t get her bag until we went back to Havana airport to return home.
A view of Havana from Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro
The group consisted of 15 Brits, two people from Ireland and one from Australia, and ranged in age from 30something to 70something. We had a Spanish-speaking tour leader from England, and various local guides. We all got on well and had a great time. Only a few of the group spoke Spanish, but this wasn’t too much of a problem as our local guides and most of the other people we met spoke English, at least to some extent.
The group (plus two random kids)
We travelled all around the island from Havana to Santiago de Cuba, via the Bay of Pigs, Trinidad and Camaguey, and then back via Santa Clara, Soroa and Viñales. Everywhere we went, we were told a lot about the Cuban revolution. We also visited La Comandancia de la Plata in the Sierra Maestra mountains near Santo Domingo where Fidel, Ché and others took refuge after the unsuccessful uprising of 1956; Ché’s memorial in Santa Clara, and the Museum of the Revolution, including the original Granma yacht, in Havana. There were only a few mentions of Cuba’s pre-revolutionary history.
Trinidad
For me, the highlights of the trip were Trinidad, walking in the Sierra Escambray and Sierra Maestra mountains, and a very memorable evening of music and dancing in Viñales, which ended with six of us squeezing into a Lada and being driven at high speed back to our hotel. That was one occasion when my Spanish came in very handy – there were no taxis but we eventually managed to find someone with a car willing to take us all to the hotel. The negotiations were conducted mainly in Spanish.
Sierra Maestra
As well as practising my Spanish, I also had opportunities to use my German, Irish and Mandarin. I tried to teach some of the other members of the group a bit of Spanish and some juggling as well.
Cuba
Tomorrow I’m off to Cuba for a two-week holiday, so there probably won’t be any more posts on this blog until I get back next year. I’m going on a tour with a small group and will be travelling all over the island and visiting such places as Havana, Trinidad, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba, where I’ll be on Christmas Day.
¡Hasta luego!
Ar ais arís anois (back again now)
Tháinig mé ar ais chuig Brighton areir i ndhiaidh turas fada go maith – d’fhág mé Gleann Cholm Cille ag a haon déag ar maidin agus chuaigh mé ar a bus go Baile Dún na nGall, cá bhualadh mé le ceann de na scoláire a bhí ar an cúrsa in Oideas Gael, agus rinne mé comhrá léi as Gaeilge agus Béarla ar an bus go Baile Átha Cliatha.
I got back to Brighton last night after quite a long journey – I left Glencolmcille at eleven in the morning and went by bus to Donegal City, where I bumped into one of the other students who was on the course at Oideas Gael and I chatted to her in Irish and English on the bus to Dublin.
Nuair a tháinig mé chuig Gleann Cholm Cille Dé Sathairn seo caite, d’inis daoine liom go raibh féile ann an deireadh seachtaine sin, agus an tráthóna sin chuaigh mé chuig seisiún ar fheabhas in ostán Gleann Cholm Cille le ceoltóirí as Gleann, Oileán Mhanann agus Oileán Leodhais. Bhí cailín ann ag canadh as Manainnis, agus amhránaí eile ag canadh as Gaeilge na hAlban freisin. An lá dar gcionn, bhí cór as Leodhais agus cór áitiúl ag canadh Salm as Gaeilge na hÉireann agus Gaeilge na hAlban in Oideas Gael. Bhí fuaim an cór as Leodhais an chumhachtach agus corraitheach.
When I arrived in Glencolmcille last Saturday, I was told that there was a festival that weekend, and that evening I went to an excellent session at the Hotel Glencolmcille with musicians from the Glen, the Isle of Man and Lewis. There were a lass there who sang in Manx and other people singing in Scottish Gaelic. The next day, a local group and a group from Lewis sang some psalms in Irish and Scottish Gaelic at Oideas Gael.
The group from Lewis sang in very unusual way – they took it in turns to lead the singing, and the others improvised each line. It’s a unique style of singing and the sound they made was very powerful, moving and almost unearthly. There were only ten or them in the group, so the sound of a whole church full of people singing in this way must be incredible.
Bhain mé an sult as an fuílleach an seachtain. Níl ach seachtdeig daoine bhí ann ag foghlaim Gaeilge, triúr i rang a haon, beirt i rang a dó agus dháréag i rang a trí. Bhí go leor daoine ann i mbliana a bhí ann anuraidh, agus bhí sé deas iad a fheiceáil. Ar dtús, bhí ár múinteoir, Gráinne as Béal Feirste, giota beag moillitheach, ach i ndhiaidh tamallín bhí sí ag teacht i gcleachtadh ar chúrsai.
The rest of the week was very enjoyable. There was only seventeen of us studying Irish, three in level one, two in level two and twelve, including myself, in level three. Quite a few were there last year and it was nice to see them again. Our teacher, Gráinne from Belfast, was a bit hesitant at first, but soon got into the swing of things.
This year I stayed in a house in Cashel, over the road from one of the pubs and close to the shops. Two other students were staying there – a retired teacher from Austria and a lad from Roscommon who plays a mean flute. Our host fed us well and made us feel very welcome.
Most nights, after the activities at Oideas Gael, most of us ended up in Biddys, one of the local pubs. There were some good sessions, though not every night. We also watched quite a few football matches.
I learnt a lot during me stay in Gleann Cholm Cille and am now able to understand more Irish, and to speak it with more confidence and fluency. I’ll definitely be going back to Oideas Gael in the not too distant future.
Galway (again)
This morning I returned to Galway after three enjoyable and relaxing days on Inis Mór. While I was there I didn’t have internet access, so it’s taken me a while to delete all the spam – both emails and comments – that’ve been flooding in. Of the 220 messages in my email inbox, only about 30 or so are genuine messages – this is a fairly typical ratio.
On previous holidays I’ve avoided computers altogether – I normally spend all day in front of one, so it’s nice to have a complete break from them. The disadvantage of doing this is that there are usually thousands of messages to sift through when I return home.
Anyway, back to my Inis Mór adventures. On the bus to the ferry, I got chatting with a bloke from Spain and a girl from Canada. They were sitting next to me and were babbling away in Spanish. I eavesdropped on their conversation, was able to understand most of it, and jumped in at a suitable moment. My Spanish grammar and vocabulary still need a lot of work, but I can at least conserve in the language, which is encouraging. Sometimes when I’m studying a language, I wonder if I’ll ever get to the stage when I can converse freely and fluently in it. When I have opportunities to use what I’ve learnt, I’m often pleasantly surprised by how much I can say and understand. For me, this makes all the effort worthwhile.
The ferry ride over to Inis Mór was uneventful – apart from a all too brief sighting of dolphins on the starboard bow, and a cameo appearance by a seal in the harbour at Rossaveal when we were just about to set sail. Quite a few jellyfish were also visible in the amazingly clear waters.
On arrival in Kilronan (Cill Rónáin), the principal settlement on Inis Mór, I wandered off in search of my B&B. After going in completely the wrong direction, several times, I eventually found it. It was quite a way from Kilronan up a substantial hill, but well worth the effort – the views along the way and from the B&B were spectacular, and the B&B itself wasn’t bad either.
I spent my time on Inis Mór exploring the island on a hired bike. I visited most of the sights, inculding the most impressive Dun Aonghasa, an ancient cliff-top fortress. My favorite place was the beach at Portmurvey – white sand, clear blue/green sea and hardly any people. Actually, one afternoon a large party of school kids showed up on the beach. I overheard their teachers saying that they were there to learn Irish. Some of them were talking amongst themselves in Irish quite naturally, others, the majority in fact, had to be reminded regularly to speak Irish rather than English.
One afternoon while sitting on a wall eating a banana outside the supermarket, I got talking to a couple of itinerant accordinists, one from Cork and one from Mayo. They were on the island in the hope of playing in one or more of the local pubs. Later that day I saw them playing outside a pub with some other guys and went to listen. At some point I mentioned that I play the tin whistle, and they insisted that I give them a few tunes. This I did, and they seemed fairly impressed.
Few of the people I met on Inis Mór were Irish speakers so I didn’t get to practise my Irish as much as I’d hoped. Never mind, I’m off to Glencolmcille tomorrow for a week of Irish language studies, and I know there’ll be plenty of people there to speak Irish with.
Time for lunch now.
Gaillimh (Galway)
I’ve just arrived in Galway and will be saying here one night before sailing off to Inishmor (Inis mór) tomorrow. I’ll probably spend this afternoon just relaxing and doing a bit of juggling in Eyre Square.
The weather has been glorious so far – warm or hot and sunny every day. Quite a contrast to this time last year, when it was cool and damp most of the time. But then I was in Glencolmcille for the whole of the holiday.
Lachain bui (Yellow ducks)
Plastic yellow ducks have colonised the River Liffey and people have been spotted risking life and limb to retrive a few of them. Well I did see one lad jumb into to river to colllect a few of the ducks, and others have been climbing down the ladders attached to the side of the river.
I had a look round Trinity College today and saw the Books of Kells – most impressive – there were also a number of other beautiful illuminated manuscripts on display, including the Book of Darrow and an Armenian bible. Then I had a stroll through the Long Room, a library that houses some of the oldest and most valuable books in the college. One interesting fact about the Long Room, which looks like something from the world of Harry Potter, is that the books are arranged according to size, with the largest books on the bottom shelves, and smaller books on the upper shelves. So to find a book, you have to know how big it is.
In the afternoon, I had a look round the Charles Beatty library, an amazing collection of books, manuscripts, paintings, prints, and many other things. I would thoroughly recommend it to any linguaphiles, graphophiles and indeed bibliophiles. There were even some explanations of the exhibits in Irish.
I’m off to Galway / Gaillimh tomorrow.