Saturday, June 24, 2017

Mike's Harp Adventures 2017 Begins

Click Photos to Enlarge

After a two-year siesta, Mike’s Harp Adventures is back, as the third overseas trip begins.  All packed up and ready for a month of traveling and music.


I started this blog in 2011 to chronicle the journey as part of the Scottish Harp Society of America Travel Scholarship to Scotland. It picked up again in 2015 with the North Carolina Regional Artist Grant to Ireland. All of the pictures, stories, and videos from those adventures are still here in previous posts (in reverse chronological order). As the 2017 journey begins, my lovely wife Jo Ellen and I are off to Iceland, Cornwall and Oxford England, and the west coast of Ireland for the Willie Clancy Festival and some time in Dingle and the Ring of Kerry.  I plan to do lots of jamming, making and posting videos in beautiful and historic locations, connecting with old friends and mentors, making new friends, and collecting lots of tunes. I hope you enjoy the ride…I know that we will!

Ziggy thinks this is about him.

This is the first time I’ve ever flown with a harp. In the past we’ve only flown round trip; Glasgow in 2011 and Dublin in 2015. Both times I rented or borrowed instruments. We are taking a total of 6 different planes on this trip, and trying to fly with the Fisher (my main axe) checked in baggage so many times seems a bit risky and definitely scary. So this time my rig is a 33 string electric grandsicle, which is smaller and not nearly as expensive. I have a small incognito bose speaker that I can use in sessions, and might see if I can pick up a battery-powered amp along the way to do a little busking. I also have a whistle, a low whistle, and my Uilleann pipes, so I’ve got everything I need to make some eardrums bleed!

 
My neighbor Mark helped me build the shell for a flight case out of wood scraps that he had laying around. I padded it, put a cardboard shell around it, and we added hinge and buckle hardware, and lots and lots of duct tape. I got a couple sets of wheels and industrial strength Velcro to attach them. I can peel the wheels off the bottom and toss them right inside the case. With the harp and wheels it weighs in at 49 pounds, one pound under the limit. 


 
Marley wanted in on the action too.




If anyone told me the seat in front of me would be showing monkeys racing on dogs…wait…what? Its gonna be a long flight.

 
We landed in Keflavik Iceland around midnight.  It was still light out. The harp flight case was wet, filthy, had holes in the outer padded cardboard layer (good thing we made it out of plywood), it was open, 2 hinges were torn off, and the wheels were missing. But the harp was okay. 


As I was grumbling about having no wheels, Jo Ellen suggested I look around for them and sure enough they were sitting in the corner of the baggage area. I slapped them on and we were off. The shuttle took us to a nearby B&B. The guy at the hotel was wonderful. He said I could store it in their workroom for the duration of our visit, and use their tools to repair it.

We didn’t get the room for ambiance, just a place to crash for a few hours before getting the car in the morning and setting out to see Reykjavik, geysers, waterfalls, volcanoes, and other Icelandic stuff. We didn’t have to worry about getting everything in before dark. It doesn’t get dark here in the summer. This was what it looked like out our window at 3:00 in the morning.

The first day was cool and rainy most of the time-but that wouldn’t stop us from seeing the sights. This place really is like another planet. Here are some pictures from our first day:
Click Photos to Enlarge
 Gulfoss
 Haunting history on this path.


 Need a lot of these in Iceland-everything is really expensive. Soup and coffee for two costs 40 bucks!

I'll just leave this right here. 
Steaming geyser
Harpa Theater Reykjavik



More of a commitment to get here, but Gulfoss Falls is definitely even cooler and more magnificent than Niagara. I thought about going over in a barrel, but it would have been too easy.

We woke up in a town called Selfoss, on Iceland’s National Day. There were flags and parades. I needed some hardware to repair my harp flight case, but the stores were closed due to the holiday.  Good thing I brought some duct tape. Anything can be fixed with duct tape, right?



A little clip from the parade

We decided to head to the south coast to see the village of Vik with its black sand beaches and amazing volcanic formations, stopping at a waterfall to make a harp video along the way.

Here's the Video!

Vik Pics:

Glacier





Since we needed to go to the airport at 5:00 am to catch an early flight to London, we had made plans to stay the same B&B where we started. We didn’t get back until midnight. I had left my flight case in the workroom at the hotel. Good thing, it would not have fit in the car, so I returned the car and took the shuttle back to the hotel. The nice man working at the hotel let me use his tool kit and screws to patch up the flight case. I gave him my CD and he seemed really happy. 

By the time I finished repairing the case and getting all packed up for the next flight I had totally pulled an all-nighter. But since it never gets dark this time of year it didn’t seem so bad, although I would definitely pay for it later through utter exhaustion.  Lots of lovely blonde haired Icelandic folks helped us get things squared away with check in & getting the big ‘ole ugly harp flight case safely where it needed to be.

Iceland is a place like no other I’ve ever seen. Two days is too short of a visit.  If you are ever doing a trans-continental flight that routes thru Iceland and can manage a layover, by all means go for it.

Next up: England. See you soon!


Monday, July 27, 2015

Homeward Bound

After 5 weeks in this magical land it is time to head home. One last ferry ride from Wales back to Dublin, up to Sligo to return the harp, and a quick dash across Northern Ireland to see the Giants Causeway and visit Ballymena to search for one of Jo Ellen's relatives. I sure wish we could stay longer, but we definitely made the most of this trip. Here is a wee harp video from the Island of Inisheer with pictures from Bushmills in the north and from the west coast.
This is the spire in downtown Dublin, making it impossible to get lost. It is HUGE.
Here are some pictures from the Giants Causeway, on the tip of Northern Ireland. Of all the places we hiked around, I think we saved the best for last. Nature's playground for sure! (Click to enlarge)










Before we left for Ballymena Jo found a poem that was in an old family bible about Dunluce Castle. She said "hey, that's only a mile from here!" We cruised over to check it out. Wow...just...wow...




Jo Ellen was searching to find out about her grandmother's grandpa James Finley who was from county Antrim. According to the bible notes he was from Frocess. Frocess doesn't really exist anymore as a town, but the lady at the library research desk was very helpful with maps and records, and the proprietor of the B&B where we stayed directed us to the Old Frocess Road. As we were speculating about how grandpa Finley probably cruised on this road and lived along it, we came to this.

 And this had to be his house.
Our work here was done.
Goodbye Ireland. We WILL meet again.
 
This is the 10th post of the Journey.  For previous posts scroll down or see "blog archive" at the top of this page.