Martzy has landed: The final chapter

I am back in the States. I have been here for almost a week now and it feels pretty wierd. I stayed at the Shannon Airport overnight the night before I left, flew to Boston and stayed at my friend Brenda's house until last weekend. Now I'm back at my Mom's for another week or so until I head on my way for more adventure wherever the universe takes me.

Those last 2 weeks at Chrysalis were the absolute best way to end my trip. It was such an amazing environment and they gave me so much freedom to be myself. My friend, Polly, and I were the only volunteers and they treated us beautifully. I got to help finish work on the Meditation Sanctuary in one of their gardens. As I was working on it, I asked if they would allow me to paint something in there. They said "No problem". So the picture above is what I painted on the meditation hut floor. It was my mark on Ireland and a good one at that.

I want to thank everyone for all your interest and comments over the last 7 months. It's been wonderful knowing that you've been on my journey with me. I'm going to keep my blog, but probably won't update it until my next big adventure. So I'll send out a mass e-mail when that happens. Thanks again for all your support. Love-R

Die Hard 4.0 YAHOO!!!!!

Polly and I went to see my Brucie baby Friday afternoon...I LOVED IT!!!! I won't get into my evaluation of all the Die Hard movies, but I was a little worried about this one because I didn't like the third one very much. And although this Die Hard was a little more over the top than usual, at least Bruce didn't slap any fake hair on his head...

I'll stop now. I was like a little kid going into the theater. Then, later that night, standing in the Harry Potter line for 2 and a half hours, Polly was the little kid. She got the 7th and final Harry Potter book. I, however, not that thrilled. It was fun though, seeing all the kids dressed up and waiting in line for A BOOK! Not a video game, not a movie, but an actual printed book. Amazing.

And although nothing that exciting has happened out here in Dublin Suburbia, I mowed the lawn yesterday. Yes, I know, who cares, Right? Well, after going to get the mower out of the shed, I came back in to tell Polly that we had a problem. The mower didn't have any wheels. She said "Oh yea, it's a hover one"...what? I know I've been out of touch with the world for awhile, but it hasn't been THAT long. Apparently the UK has used these for years. It's an electric mower that blows air out the bottom and hovers over the ground. It sounds like a leaf blower, but quieter. It was quite the experience. I wanted to call Dad immediately. Unfortunately, it didn't cut the grass very well, so it took me double the time, but oh well.

That's about it. I'm off to Chrysalis in about an hour and will be back in the Spiritual world. I'll talk to you on the flip side.
Love-Reebs

Goodbye Dzogchen Beara

I left Dzogchen Beara a little over a week ago with my friend Polly. We are house sitting for another DZB friend, David, outside of Dublin. It's been great having our own space again...and a Television. It's the first TV I've watched in 6 months and found that crap gets aired EVERYWHERE! Actually, it's mostly American shows. We watched "Dancing with the Stars", season 350, the other night...Yikes! I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see that DIE HARD 4 HAS BEEN MADE AND RELEASED!!!!!!!!!(If I could bold or enlarge the type anymore, I would, just to show how excited I am). What better welcome back to the 21st century, than by Bruce himself...heaven. So, I shall be dragging Polly to splurge on a matinee with me in the next few days. Then, as if television and a movie AND Bruce isn't enough for me, friday night, we're going to stand in line at the book store because Polly wants a copy of the new Harry Potter book. It's official, I am back. I feel like I am emerging from a cave like a blind cave fish or something.

And as exciting as all that may sound, it will come to a dramatic end on Sunday. Polly and I went for an interview today at a Holistic Retreat Center, to volunteer for my last 2 weeks in Ireland. It is an amazing place, but again, in the middle of nowhere. This time in County Wicklow, about an hour from Dublin. The name of it is Chrysalis and I can't think of a better way to end this trip. They don't have a phone or internet for me to use, so I'm not sure if I'll get back online before I leave for home. There is a local library with free internet access and I will have 2 days off, so we will see. But if not, I will update when I get back to the States to let you all know that I made it safe and sound. (That's IF anyone's still reading this blog).

The Pics are of the Dzogchen Beara entrance sign, Me and Blockhead, the resident Hostel Dog, Some friends sitting around playing a bit o' music, Polly, the Goof, with David behind her, me with my friend, Emma, and Vince behind us, and a Lotus flower from the Lotus pond at DZB.

I'll see you all soon. Love-Reebs

Dropped of the face of the Earth...again

So, the Summer retreat with Rinpoche came and went. The Center needed the computer cabin for transcribers, so we had no access to the internet for about 2 weeks. But I'm back in the little tin computer hut in the woods. WHOOHOO!

The Retreat was unlike anything I've ever experinced. I got caught up in the organization of allocating 150 one hour jobs to 150 people, with another volunteer named Polly. It was quite a monster of a job and Polly and I wanted to basically throw ourselves off the cliffs by the time the retreat started. On top of that, we had our own daily jobs to do. During the Retreat I ran breakfast, which was estimated to be for 50-60 people at 7:30am. My manager put me on breakfast because she thought I liked to get up early...we're obviously really close. It wasn't until 3 or 4 days in, when I made a random comment of needing someone to basically flip my mattress in the morning to get me out of bed, that she revealed her reasoning behind that decision. I have no idea what EVER gave her the impression I was a morning person.

Anyway, moving on...I got to go to quite a few teachings, but the Rinpoche actually made it a point to humiliate people publically (how Buddhist of him) and extend the teachings as long as he wanted to. And as much as I LOVE public humiliation, I would rather it be self inflicted and NOT in front of over 200 people on a mindful Buddhist retreat. So, sorry, no humiliating stories.

A few days before the Retreat started, when Polly and I were holding each other back from hurling our bodies into the Sea, we decided to go on an adventure. We left one morning and decided to go hitching and see how far we could get. The first few people that picked us up weren't that amusing, except, if you remember way back to the man who asked me if I could recommend a good cheese in the supermarket, and found it hysterical...well, his nephew was one of our first lifts. It's so small town here. Then, outside of Bantry, we got a lift from a man in his sixties, on his way to Skibbereen. Yes, Mom and Aunt Nancy, I made it to good ole Skibs. It was an adorable place, much bigger than Castletownebere, but for some reason I thought it was on the sea. We went to an Art show that really had a vague resemblance to Art and had a pint in one of the local pubs. But, the interesting part is that, on our way back to Castletowne, we got a lift from the same bloke, Chris, that brought us to Skibs. And for the next 4 HOURS he became our tour guide. He drove us all over Mizen head and Sheep's head peninsula's and basically abducted us (sarcasm). We kept saying that we really wanted to get back, but he was so bored and starving for company that he just kept driving. We started to doubt that we'd ever get back. But alas, he finally let us go and we got one last lift from the most interesting people I've ever met in my life...Gypsies. Or as they're called over here, Travelers. They smoked with the windows closed, spoke loudly and with the strongest accents ever and told stories of their 17 brothers and sisters. They asked us a million questions about the "settled world" and asked me if NY and America were two different places. They even offered us some swigs out of their communal bottle of Coke. It was amazing. They drove us all the way back to Castletownebere, where we decided to have a pint to go over the days events. I think we may hitch again somewhere tomorrow. It's fun.

On to more important info. I just realized that it's been so long since I've put a blog up, that I haven't told you when I'm coming back. My flight lands on August 7. I'm comin' home. Get ready America, you are about to be reMartzified!

I'm actually leaving DZB on Monday and going to Dublin to housesit for a friend, with Polly. That's for 2 weeks and then we're going to look for another Volunteer opportunity for my last 2 weeks here. We're looking at some conservation work in Killarney National Park, but who knows where we'll end up. I swear I could circle the Globe just by meeting and talking to people at DZB, but I am afraid I have run out o' money. Next time.

I miss and Love you-Reebs

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MARTZY INDEED?

Well, Here I am! I'm sorry, I fell off the map there for a little while. A lot has been going on. I absolutely loved Italy. The pictures I've posted are mostly of Italy, but the last one is in Ireland. Yes, I'm back in Ireland. My friend, Fulcrum, and I traveled around Italy for a few weeks together and then headed back to Ireland. It turned out that Dzogchen Beara didn't need any more Volunteers so Fulcrum and I had to come up with alternative plans. He ended up going back to Philadelphia, which is where he's from, and I went on to a Zen Buddhist Organic Farm. And that's when I fell off the map.

To make a long story short, I stayed at the farm for 2 weeks and a friend from Dzogchen Bear (DZB) came to pick me up. I am now back at DZB for probably another month, but I will have a return date to the States shortly. The Rinpoche is coming here to do an 8 day retreat next week and I want to get in on some of his teachings. It's the biggest event of the year here and I am so glad to be a part of it. I will let you all know when I have a definate date. I miss and love you.

The top picture is of me and Fulcrum in Florence. The next one is sunset in Florence. Then me with the Leaning tower of pisa and then in Keal Kill Ireland with my friend Megan who drove me down from Dublin. Love-Me

Still in Italy

WOW! I can't possibly fill you in on all I've been up to since my last blog, but I'll try.

I spent 5 days in Rome and absolutely loved it. It was weird though being the single person traveler in one of the romantic places on earth. I was about to start charging for taking pictures for couples in love. Actually, I started volunteering when I'd see two lovebirds trying to hold the camera out in front of them with some massive ancient monument behind them. After awhile, I started even taking pictures of them with my own camera.

I stayed in a campgrounds outside the city, that was just the most beautiful place. The accomodations were lacking a little, but hey, what can you do? My favorite thing in Rome was BY FAR the Sistine Chapel. Actually, the entire Vatican was so much more than I ever could have imagined. An Artists' dream. I am now a huge fan of Renaissance Art. I would go back there a million times over.

After Rome, I made my way to Florence, in the Tuscany region, where I stayed at another campgrounds. This one was in an ancient olive grove on a hill above the city. A friend of mine from Ireland met me there and we stayed in Florence for 9 days. We went to churches and museums galore. Each one outdoing the last with sculpture, architecture and artwork. I think I just walked around with my jaw on the ground. Seeing the statue of "David" and the Academia museum was a truly moving experience. My Art History classes came flooding back into my head. Pictures definately don't do any justice.

We took a day trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower, which is definately LEANING! That was an absurd experiece walking up to a building that is slowly falling over. That city was wonderful. It was smaller and less touristy and we got to play frisbee for a few hours on the green next to the leaning tower and the bapistry that was there. That was surreal.

Yesterday, we decided to leave Florence and maybe explore some of the coast. So without any real plans we got on a train and headed West. At one of the train stations along the way, we met a group of Canadians who were headed in the same direction, so we traveled along with them to the coast. Afetr talking and walking around with them in this beautiful little village, all five of us ended up renting an apartment for a night. The area is called Cinque Terre which means Five Towns and it's a National Park around these Five seaside villages. We are going to hike the next few days between the five towns and explore the region. It's amazing!

After that, I'm not sure. I had decided not to get a job in Italy because I wanted to go back to Ireland, back to the Retreat Center. But unfortunately, the Retreat Center is full right now and they don't need me. So, I'm roaming aimlessly for the moment. I will kepp you all updated.
I miss and love all of you- Ciao!Me

CIAO Greece!

This computer is in Italian and I just shut it down by accident after writing a long post of my adventures...fun.

The top pic is my postcard shot of a beautiful little church on a hillside by Brian Gillian's. the second one is me with Brian and Gillian, the day I was leaving for Usha's for 2 weeks. The next one is me lounging at the beach...rough, and then me with Usha, Suzanna and Roli. Suzanna and Roli are artists who live at Usha's house while she travels. And the last one is me (very tiny in the bottom right corner) at the Acropolis! That, my friends, was amazing!

I have changed my mind about my original opinion of Athens. The part I stayed in before, was obviously a bad one. This time, it was a completely different experience. Still a little dirty, but I loved it.

Leaving Greece however was truly a Martzy experience. After getting on the wrong train to the Airport, waiting a half hour for the next train to come and wanting nothing more than to check my backpack, to get RID OF IT! I scan the electronic departure board to check my flight, and there is only one flight with the word "cancelled" next to it. Can you guess which one? Well, let me tell you...MINE! Of course the Alitalia counter was on the opposite end of the terminal and the woman there was not very nice. Apparently the flight was cancelled due to a strike and there were no other flights out that day...YAHOO! But she put me on a flight to Austria where then I could pick up a flight to Rome. Air Austrian, everyone, is quite possibly the PERFECT airlines. The Vienna airport, for that matter, is pretty great too. After a few hours there (my favorite thing in the world to sit in an airport), I got a plane to Rome. I won't get into the nitty gritty details, but let me just say that I don't think that EVER in my life have I JUST missed so many buses and trains and walked so far for absolutely nothing as I did yesterday. I didn't get to the hostel until almost 1am...Yikes.

Today, I'm in Rome! What a beautiful city. The modern hustle and bustle around an enormous ancient city is quite the sight. Of course, it's been pouring down rain since I got here, but I think that just adds to the romance. I will be here until Monday and then hopefully I am off to Tuscany. I can't think that far in advance because my brain is mildly fried today.

Just a few little things before I leave you. In Athens, I saw a car with Massachussetts plates-WHAT? On the plane they played episodes of "Home Improvement" and "King of Queens" in German, and Mickey Mouse is spelled Miky. Also, I don't like Ouzo. And one more little ditty (this is for adults only). Usha was complaining because the Greeks don't know how to make French fries. She said they are always too soft like a ...and she couldn't think of anything. So I taught her the expression "Limp Dick". It was fun going through the description both verbal AND with hand signals...just doing my part (Sorry Mom). I'd be a great English teacher.

I love and miss all of you. Ciao.