#31 & #32 - Join the Fringe Element in Edinbugh, Scotland

I can check a visit to Edinburgh, Scotland off of my Bucket list of 1,000 things, but I need to do again, and perhaps consider a repeat trip to be one of the 1,000 things to do before I die.

Edinburgh calls itself the Festival City.  What has typically been the month of August with a combination of theater, art, comedy, and music including the famous Fringe Festival has now stretched itself from April to December and even into January of the next year.

Currently there are 12 festivals listed as part of the festival events in Edinburgh with the great majority of events still happening in August.

My August experience brought me to mimes, jugglers, street thespians, bagpipe and drum corps, a klezmer band, and more fun than P.T. Barnum and Walt Disney could dream up.  Of course most of the street performance is used as a way to sell tickets to events happening in the over 300 venues across the city, and yet by themselves these street performances are completely entertaining.

When you go make sure to find one of the hotels in Edinburgh city centre so you can simply step outside and walk into the frivolity.

Now my repeat appearance will hopefully be as a performer, and that is why the Edinburgh Festivals is on my list for a second time.  I've checked it off once as part of the great audience, and plan to check it off a second time as a performer.  There truly is no place like it in the world for festival fun.  It's on my Bucket list of 1,000 things to do before I die.  Add it to yours - perhaps to join me?

Update on #26 - Kayaking the Bay of Fundy

I have decided that during the week of July 18th I am going to drive the short 7 to 8 hours up to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, and I am going to check off #26 in my bucket list of 1,000 things to do before I die.

My business partner Gareth Gwyn Jones should be meeting me up there for the fun, and my son Elijah will probably be coming along as well.  For you silly people who always worry about my safety (considering that this is the world's largest tidal range - about 50"), Gareth is a trained kayak instructor, I have spent more time in the water in competition, and sport than most people spend watching TV (well, maybe that's not true, because some people watch more TV than log in work or sleep hours), and Elijah is a strong enough swimmer/surfer to help out as well.

All that said - I am gonna be a Fundy for in the third week of July!  Woo-hoo.  Watch out Fred Phelps!  Watch out Ken Silva!  Okay, maybe that's not the kind of Fundy I mean, but hey I will be a kayaking Fundy for a few days in the Bay of Fundy.

#30 - Never be at a loss for words: Kiss the Blarney Stone

That's the tradition:  Kiss the Blarney Stone and you will never be at a loss or words.  My prolific blogging history may reveal the fact that kissing the Blarney Stone could potentially cause me more harm than good, but it still makes the bucket list of 1,000 things I want to  do before I die.

The Blarney Stone, also known as the Stone of Eloquence bestows a golden tongue to those who perform the task of lying down bending backwards and kissing the stone from an upside down position.  Presidents and famous people from all walks of life have kissed the stone, and over 300,000 people still come to kiss it each year.

It has been said that the stone came from sources as varied as Moses, King David of Israel, and St. Columba, but the most commonly accepted version says that Robert the Bruce gave a portion of the stone to Cormac McCarthy, King of Munster as gratitude for Irish support at the battle of Bannockburn.

The history of Blarney includes the fact that in the 1600's the McCarthy's who owned the castle created a bardic school at Blarney Castle which brought scholars from around Ireland.  During the time of Elizabeth I, the McCarthy's were required to surrender the castle, but the ruler of the castle Dermot McCarthy had such eloquent and repeated excuses for not surrendering the castle that Elizabeth remarked, "Odds bodikins, more Blarney talk!"  From this point forward the word Blarney has been a part of the English language.

To find your way to to the Blarney Stone be sure to check out car rental Dublin.

#29 - Walk on the Moon! (in Ireland)

If the lunar landscapes are interesting and appealing to you, if like me, you would like to walk a wild, barren and somewhat dangerous land, you might not have to spend a million dollars to be one of the first civilian tourists to the moon.

The moon is really only as far as Ireland.  The Burren is an area of County Clare with a landscape which has been described as lunar.  The barren limestone plateau is a patchwork of cracks and fissures, which make it a unique walking adventure.  Care needs to be exercised to avoid falling and getting hurt, but the walk is not steep as the limestone plateau is made of rolling limestone rock hills and patches of grasses.

Strangely, arctic, mediterranean and alpine plants grow together in this one region, and the alpine flower: the Spring Gentian is used as a symbol for the Burren.  This area also has over 70 ancient tombs, and account for over half of those in County Clare.

This is on my bucket list of 1,000 things to do before I die, but I am sure I will need to fill my rental car tank before making my way to the Burren.  Be sure to check out car hire Cork Airport for your rental car.

#28 - Fenway, one the last of the great old ball parks

My first visit to Fenway Park was during a playoff game with the New York Yankees in the storied 2004 run to their World Series win.  Of course, I went to the third game.  This was the game where the Red Sox got clobbered 18-9 by the Yankees, and went down 3 games to none.  The next four games led to their improbable breaking of the Curse of the Bambino, and their first World Series in 86 years.

I stood by the famed Pesky Pole that night.  Somewhere I still have the picture of it.  It was a good night to see Fenway.  We had the seats, which are no seats: a standing only area underneath the stands on the first level.  Yet I ended up somewhere near first base on the second row by the 6 inning, because everyone starting leaving the slaughter.

A game at Fenway is a must see for people visiting Boston.  Even if you do not like baseball, it carries a sense of history like few places on earth.  Entering the ballpark and looking onto the field for the first time, you can imagine Ted Williams or Babe Ruth stepping to the plate.  The Green Monster, the highest outfield wall remaining in a major league park stands glaring at you from left field.  The place looks, feels, and smells of the gods of the diamond and takes you back 50 - 75 - almost a 100 years to the times romanced by young men for almost a century now.

Are you planning your holidays to Boston?  Fenway Park should find its way into the plans.  It will certainly find its way into your heart.

It was once on my bucket list of 1,000 things to do before I die, but I checked it off in 2004.  I could have gone again tonight if I had been available - tickets were offered, but oh well - I saw them loose in the most famous series they ever played.

#27 - Reading Thoreau at Walden Pond

Today I traveled to Walden Pond in Concord, MA just outside Boston.  $5 parking is the only cost, and this historic location where Henry David Thoreau spent two years living simply in a tiny one room house he built with his own hands a mile from the nearest neighbor in 1845-1847 has become revered as the home of the conservation movement.

It was on my bucket list of a thousand things to do before I die to read his book Walden on location.  Okay - I did not read the whole book today, but as you will see in the video below, I brought it with me to read a little while I was there.

Currently, the water level is especially high in this "kettle pond" which has no stream flowing in our out.  It is fed by the rain, and run-off from surrounding hills.  Because of the high water table the pond path is closed around most of the perimeter, but a walk around the pond is a gorgeous short - and not too strenuous hike.

Swimming, fishing, and hiking are all available at Walden Pond, and best of all there is a wonderful history, which can not do anything but inspire you.

I think it should be on your list of a thousand things to do before you die.  It was on mine, but I checked it off today.  So, if you are looking for a Boston city break, I am not sure you've really had the full break without visiting the beautiful home of Thoreau's simple living.

#26 - Kayaking the Bay of Fundy

The largest tidal range in the world is boasted by Canada's Bay of Fundy, and it is on my bucket list of places to go.  In sections of the bay the tidal range is as large as 53 feet!  So you can imagine there are things to see in this wild land, which you not find anywhere else in the world.

Chignecto Park is a great place to take this adventure.  Paddle out to the famous Three Sisters rock formation during high tide, and go back to walk among these sea stacks during low tide.  Nature is at it's wildest and most beautiful in the Bay of Fundy, but of course that's the way it often is - dangerous wildness and awe inspiring beauty are wrapped together in a paradoxical package.

I'm planning on kayaking the Bay of Fundy.  It is not enough to see the tide, I want to get right down into it, and feel it beneath me.

Do you want to add this to one of the thousand things to do before you decide to permanently visit heaven?  Hopefully we'll meet in a sea cave, or among the stacks of Three Sisters. 

Catch cheap flights to Canada, and make your way to the rugged south eastern coast.  Join me in Canada - get Fundy with me.

Surfing Dingle: walk on water with Brendan the Navigator #25

Walking the Dingle Way and placing my foot among the ancient ruins where people still believed in miracles and called heaven down with the force of their faith is one thing, but I want to walk on water.

In the same place from which Brendan the Navigator hails, and hosts the mountain which bears his name there is also some of Ireland's best surfing.  Brendan supposedly was born near Tralee near at entrance to the Dingle Peninsula, and established monastic communities around Mount Brandon.  Later Brendan would set out on a journey by sea to find the "Blessed Land," or some Edenic variation thereof. 

Today there are people who believe that Brendan may have preceded Columbus by 1,000 years to find the Americas.  Reaching the Americas in a skin boat in the 6th century would have been a miracle indeed.  But I'll settle for walking on water on the shores of the Dingle Peninsula.

With locations like Brandon Bay and a place called "Inch" (how surfer-like is that name?) the Dingle has become a surfer's destination.

Pick up your at car hire Cork Airport, and head to the shores of the Dingle Peninsula.  It's on my bucket list as one of the thousand things I want to do before I die.  Perhaps we can walk on water together.

#24 - Walk the Dingle Way

A walk through the heart of Irish speaking Ireland, surrounded by ancient Celtic history with beehive huts (clochain), castles, sea cliffs, beaches, Ogham stones, and ancient church ruins: now doesn't that sound like the walker's dream?

The south western tip of Ireland is made up of a number of bays and peninsulas the northern most of which is the Dingle Peninsula.  Starting at the city of Tralee, and typically walking 117 miles in a clockward direction around the Dingle peninsula to return to Tralee some days later, one is carried back into early Christian times in Ireland, and even earlier.  The path hugs the rugged coast, and traverses other memorable walks such as the Saint's Way, which is a memorial to Brendan the Navigator as it crosses the highest mountain on the peninsula named after him.

For a list of of activities on the Dingle Peninsula check here, and for your car hire needs go to car hire Ireland.

After having read The Voyage of Brendan a few years back this is on my bucket list of places to go and things to do.  How about you?

#23 - Ice Tubes: Surfing in Canada

Canada.  Surf.

Yes, the two words do belong together - at least for some people.  The last couple years I have not been out surfing, but I plan to change that.  Canada is one of the those places I would like to visit for a surf trip - in the Fall or maybe even the Winter.

Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but first you must realize that the waves on the eastern shores of North America are at their best in the Fall and Winter, and during the occasional late Summer hurricane which travels into the North Atlantic.  That leaves late Summer through Winter for the best surf.  Considering this I have wanted for quite some time to do a Winter surf trip taking me north from Massachusetts into New Hampshire, Maine, and then yes, into Canada.  Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland - maybe Labrador these are the places I want to go.  Maybe some surfing during the the northern lights?  Now that would be crazy!  :-)

Just remember, a good winter suit, and a thermos with warm water to start.  A nearby pub with a fire would be a great addition as well.

So, consider some surf fun in Canada.  Canada is making the pages of surf mags these days, and you can find cheap flights to Montreal.

It's on my list of a thousand things to do before I die.  Wanna join me?