Sunshine

I think it was crucial that we arrived here in the summer. It has been mercifully sunny, enough so to keep these two Californians happy. It also allows good feelings about this place to form before the going gets tough. We met with an architect last night. One who remembered our land and my grandfather so he was happy to see us and help us. He gave us great news.

We were quite worried coming over here about the building permit issues we would need to do work. I had heard horror stories about permits taking upwards of 7 years. Obviously, too long for our project. I was afraid we might be dead in the water from the get go. However, since we have decided to renovate (pretty entirely) the existing stone farmhouse we won't need building permission to redo the roof, the interior, we can put up a back porch and a 12m tall windmill in addition to redoing electrical and water systems without the building council. This equals money. Amazing news. We went to the pubs to celebrate.

I know its a bit early, but the pub scene....everything was closed by midnight. Brian and I walked Main Street and had it been more busy we might have gotten our asses kicked because we were loudly complaining about how early everything had closed. Granted it was a Wednesday night I thought for sure at least 1am guys right? This is Ireland after all, they're known for drinking. But apparently here, Guinness is an old persons drink because you have about 2 feel very full and go home to bed. Good to know. And its suprisingly refreshing that there are a large amount of young adults. It is not the gentrified old rural town I thought it would be. It is thriving with two larger towns not far away Letterkenny, and Derry. With the peace between Northern Ireland and the Republic it has eased the strain between the border (we are quite close) and so people move more freely and without trouble. This leads to greater amounts of young people staying in Buncrana.

Brian and I are excited that the local community college teaches Gaelic classes in the evening and the local cinema has bingo on Wednesdays and Sundays from 7pm-9pm. We'll definitely be there. Yup. Let's see we had tea with our neighbors (can't remember if I mentioned that previously) and it was grand. Absolutely delicious bread and butter jam, cookies etc. and the tea was pretty darn good as well. The land has a great view of the surrounding mountains. We are literally nestled between three or four mountain ranges. and we have a tiny glimpse of the Lough (pronounced lock). The waterfront in the town is all public park which is amazing and I am extremely grateful for that. There is path along the water that goes for miles (I have yet to explore it running) So basically, I'm awaiting Crosby's arrival. Let's go man. The farmhouse is quite large as you may or may not be able to tell from the photos. But there are two large main rooms with fireplaces and two auxiliary rooms on either side. There is also a covered shed type area. It is quaint and awesome. We are learning all about gardens as we have been and will start composting right away. Future plans include an orchard, herb garden, veggie garden, and perhaps a small plot of sweet corn. Who knows, the sky's the limit.

We have yet to meet or socialize with many of the young people here but I assume this weekend will give us a good chance. We are on our own come Saturday, so far my father has provided us with a hotel room and free pints of Guinness. The dollar really is crap against the Euro (and only getting worse) which really puts us in a bind. Bud Heavy here is 3.70 Euro for a pint. I don't know the rest. But the bartenders are really friendly and love to chat us up. The other thing working in our favor is that it is not customary to tip. Whew!

Alright. I have to pee and Brian left to go grab a bite at the local coffeeshop. My dad has taken of to Ballyliffin to golf for the day and we still need to grab bikes. We are meeting with the architect next week (he was on holiday and still met with us last night) where we'll go out to the land and get a good look at it. We also are having it appraised by a solicitor or whatnot. In 1997 it was worth 35,000 pounds so it's probably worth a pretty penny now. But alas, we aren't going to sell that shit! It's ours! My dad and I now have half ownership. Which is good definitely. Anyway, I'll post some pictures for now and check in later. I found out my cellphone works and I can text for free to the States. So for those of you who wish to call me I can text you and have you call from a landline. Otherwise its like 15 euro for like 5 minutes, so no. But I can call internationally. so yeah. and its an 8 hour difference from the West Coast mind you. Alright you jokers. I'm checkin' out.