Coffee and Guinness

There is an AWESOME pastry spot in Dublin called the Queen of Tarts.  Cool name, I thought the sign inside was pretty cool too.

Hanging out with Shane after gettin my ink done. Thank goodness for Guinness!

Dublin

Sightseeing in Dublin was a blast.  So much is in walking distance.  The old Dublin wall was cool, and the museums had a lot of educational pieces that got me more enthralled with the Emerald Isle.  Since I was staying right across the street from Trinity University, I did see the Book of Kells. No, no pictures were allowed.  It is as beautiful as the published pictures. The rest of the tour in the museum is really cool too.  It ends up in the old Trinity Library.

I also got to see the new Iron Man and Robin Hood movies while I was there.  Those were a real treat.  Something about the mundane.. going to a movie, making dinner.. they are all so nice to do while I am on R&R because it helps me detach from the world I just came from.

Go Leinster!

Apparently the Magner's Cup is a little controversial.  As with all things Irish there is always some angle on it that comes up hot.  After learning some of the history it seems like they - well I guess we.. being  of 1/2 Irish descent... love to get into a riot and burn things down. Actually that sounds pretty accurate except I never have any matches handy.

I was fortunate enough to be in Dublin during the semi-final fixtures or the Magner's Cup.  I was rooting for Leinster.  I started following the IRU (Irish Rugby Union) a little while I was getting ready to head on R&R and Leinster seemed like a solid team. I was right.  They won the match!

Of course I had to grab a scarf while I was there.  It was a great time, the only thing that might have been better is if I had one of my new Irish drinkin' buddies there.

Castles and Ink

So many cathedrals and castles. The city of Dublin has so much history it is amazing.  Every where you look there is an ancient wall or cobblestone.  I was savvy enough to stay near the Temple Bar area of town, so I could walk to a lot of the classic sights.

Of course I couldn't leave without a bit of Ireland and what better way than to indelibly mark it on my skin? 

The Dublin Castle was pretty cool even though I never made it inside.  By the time I managed to get over to that side of town it was closed the two days I tried.  However the bread pudding in the cafe.. Good Grief!  Soooo good.  The gardens out back were really cool too. I got a little dizzy trying to follow the maze pattern with my eyes.

Áth Cliath

Someone asked me about the blue jacket in all my pictures.. it was FREAKING COLD when I was there.  The worst was the day it felt like almost freezing rain.  I really didn't bring too may cold weather clothes because of the average mean temps are usually pretty mild in May.  Not this May.  I toughed the cold days out and had a blast nonetheless.   

Dublin, my home for the first week of R&R.  I had so many mini adventures here.  Starting with the Guinness Factory.  My buddy Timmy hooked me up with the Factory tour.  What a great way to start off after not being allowed to drink spirits of any sort for over six months. Needless to say I was a little toasty after two of them.  The fresh stuff tastes incredible. The tour was very well set up and informative.  I think the coolest for me was the 600 year lease for the building and grounds.

Boats, Trains and Aeroplanes...

After managing to get through customs pretty quickly and a painless Tube ride, I found myself at the train station.  EVERYONE who had been diverted to England was trying to get to Dublin.  The train was packed.  I sat net to a cute girl from Vancouver after wrangling my seat from someone who was in it and grumbling the whole time I made him get out of it.  I was thinking, "don't even start buddy.." I was getting tired now.  It is about 1930 on the 5th, my third day of travel and so far, I have had intermittent sleep the entire time with only one evening of it horizontal.  Boy does that make a difference.  The train was jam-packed. 
A serious fire hazard if you ever had one.  People and bags everywhere.  The train system was never engineered to handle this much luggage.  On to the ferry station.  Then of course yep.. at 2300 we started to take the BUS to the ferry from the terminal. The ferry was leaving at 0200 on the 6th to get into Dublin at 0600, whereupon I took the Taxi to my hotel. Whew! I crashed HARD!  I made it. Look out Ireland. 

Look out on the Emerald Isle!

 It really didn't sink in completely that I was getting a respite from the craziness of Iraq until I was on the flight the next evening.  It is difficult to get any sleep the whole time you are transient.  Folks come and go at all hours to catch their flights.  You can't turn all the lights out in the tent, and the loudspeakers announcing personnel who need to report to a certain manifest tent go off all day/night. They are pretty loud.  I went to get ticketed around 1300 on the 4th.  Then I had to report at 2000 to get the customs brief at 2100.  Then we get transport to the commercial airport.  The flight leaves for Germany at 0030 on the 5th.  So, another night with little sleep.  Needless to say I racked out hard for the first hour on the plane. Lufthansa, my favorite.  I got into Germany at about 0600 so I went to grab a bite as my next leg to Ireland wasn't until 1000. I grab a nice leisurely breakfast then go look for my flight to see what gate it is at. 
 I find it is not on the screen anywhere.  I feel really confused.  So I go to the courtesy desk and ask about the flight. Volcanic Ash has closed the Dublin airport. Aw, heck!!
"So what do I do now?", I ask.
The agent says, "well you can do a couple things.  We do have a flight leaving at 1600 today. You will have to be on standby for that if hte airport opens up.  There is also a 1500 flight to Heathrow, but if you do that all travel expenses from Heathrow to your destination are at your own expense."
  I think on it for about thirty seconds.... "Heathrow." Now I have to figure out how to get from Heathrow to Dublin... Train.  I look and I have 2 hours from landing in London to get to the train station - that includes customs.  My handy computer and the gracious WiFi in Frankfurt inform me there is a special for 30EU I can get a Train/Ferry combo. Done!

I was lucky to be on the last leg of the flight to the staging base in Kuwait where I waited for my commercial flight.  By the time I got assigned a transient tent with some other guys it was around 1700.  The facilities there were decent, internet cafe and gym so I was all set for waiting to get a flight hopefully the next day. It was refreshing to wear 'real' clothes again.

The whole R&R (Rest and Recuperation) Leave trip to Ireland was an adventure in itself.  First off I still had to worry about the rumblings of Eyjafjallajokul (the volcano in Iceland that has messed up so much air travel for the last month).

I left my FOB by a cushy Air force ride.  Well let me back it up a little, for fixed wing flights they want you at the terminal (tent) two hours in advance. That is when I consider the travel really beginning.  This is on the 3rd of May close to noon.

CHUs and Aeroplanes

Home sweet home. Trailer living for a year.  Containerized Housing Units or CHUs (pron: chews) are a big step up from living in a 12-man tent on a cot the last tour.  I still miss my own bed though.  The only saving grace is that I do get my own as a commander so I can get some rest when I don't have a Red Cross Message, IDF alert, or some other solider issue cropping up in the night.


No, I didn't crash it. This is on one of the bases where my guys fuel aircraft.

Tito!

After traveling for days across the Atlantic we arrived in Kuwait.  From there we ended up getting split in many pieces to go to our various locations we were going to be operating out of in Iraq.  The flight I was on with about 1/2 my company had a surprise passenger on board.  The fighter, Tito Ortiz was on a USO tour of Iraq and we ended up on the C-130 he was flying on.

FOB (Forward Operating Base) DELTA was a decent place to be at.  The climate was better than most places in Iraq and the only really nasty part was when the black cloud from the Chinese oil wells drifted overhead choked you out and dropped oily soot out of the sky.

The "T" wall. Around living and working areas we have concrete barrier walls made of segmented concrete slabs.  These serve as protection from IDF or indirect fire attacks.  They are very effective and a pretty cool engineering feat to have as modular building blocks to make instant barrier walls around an area.





Another interesting architectural piece common to a lot of camps, and FOBs are destination signposts.  It reminds folks of home, and gives you a reference when you are in the numbness of deployment and forget about home.

The last few days

Before we left CONUS (the Continental United States) we received some good training at Fort Sill, OK.  It took us a little while to get through some equipment challenges to find some fuel trucks that worked so we could train but we were successful. 

At Fort Sill my camera, the good 'ol Sony T-7 decided to start acting up. I got a few last decent pictures out of it during the convoy operations.  My guys were great when it came to evacuating casualties. I definitely don't have to worry if I go down I know I can trust them to take care of me.

 The last few days we spent packing up our equipment. 

I was also fortunate to have one last get-together with my friends at the house. It turned out to be a great night to spend on the back deck under the full moon.

Everbody's Here

Before leaving for the deployment I had the great opportunity to see Brad Paisley at the Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix.  We had box seats and they were worth it.  The visuals on some of the concert sets were amazing.

Plus having a few lovely ladies on your arm doesn't hurt either :) It was definitely a great way to spend the last weekend in AZ.

pups

After a certain point of straightening the house up to get ready to leave the pups started getting really pissed at me, and depressed.  They knew something was up when I showed up with a years worth of dog food.

Going home is always the worst part.  Although amongst our single serving friends we chatted up the flight attendant on our leg from LAX.  He was very fond of Australia so it was good sharing and comparing stories.

The last four days were awesome.  We definitely made a splash in the SYD nightlife. Eric got a tour of the Opera House, We checked out the Botanical Gardens, tried to wake up the 'flying foxes' and caught as many rugby matches on the telly as we could before leaving.  If you haven't been, SYD is one of the FRIENDLIEST of all the cities I visited in the world so far. I think it is extremely easy to navigate as well.  And the coffee.. ah, for an Aussie Americano right now... 

We also spent some time at Bondi Beach.  If I knew then how much fun surfing was I would be in a wetsuit in this picture. It reminded me a lot of Santa Monica.  Cheers to Warren for taking us! 

On to Camberra

After a week on Magnetic Island it was time to see some more of AU.  Off to the capitol, Canberra and to meet up with my buddy Warren.  He got us into the Parliament with his secret scooby badge. Really we just walked in but it sounded good.  The view was amazing.  It was cool seeing the meeting halls where both parties sit.  Then we headed off to a TV tower that has a fantastic view of the city.  It was cold though.  Canberra has the feel of a sleepy college town.  Then it was off to Sydney and our last few days to bring down the house before we had to fly home.

Fort Hike.  One day Eric and I checked out the old defenses for Brisbane on the island.  It was pretty cool and being the largest Koala preserve in AU we figured this was our opportunity to see some.  We sure did.  They were all sleeping though as it was pretty warm that day.  The views were beautiful from the top of the island.  At one point we heard a loud "Boom!" and were freaking out because we weren't sure what it was.  Then we remembered what our boat captain said when we were snorkeling.  No we hadn't been transported back in time on a Dharma Island, it was the AU Air Force practicing bombing runs on Rattlesnake Island nearby.

The one thing that did make us nervous was learning of one of the island residents: The Death Adder.  Lovely name for a snake, and apparently accurate.  That kept us aware of the trail as we were hiking.