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Travel & Leisure
1. GREEN ELEPHANT HOSTEL & SPA: MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS
Winner of Hostelworld’s ‘Best New Hostel’ award last year, this is more than just a hostel; it’s a state of being — from the healthy juice at check-in and their vegan-friendly restaurant Serendipity to the interior Urban Forest and meditation room, you’ll be hard-pressed not to feel extremely chilled here. Dorm beds start at €30 a night and private rooms from €50.
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2. WELLNESS HOSTEL 4000: SAASFEE, SWITZERLAND
Wellness Hostel 4000 was the rst of its kind in the world when it opened in 2014. is Hostelling International hostel in the glacier village of SaasFee shows swathes of ingenuity by combining low prices with luxurious modern wellness and tness facilities. e sleek contemporary architecture matched with magni cent views of the mountains is beaten only by the 20,450 square-foot spa, featuring a Finnish sauna, bio-soft sauna, herbal steam bath, whirlpool, footbath, navel stone, hydromassage showers, and freezing fog. You’ll be fully catered to here with a fresh and regional menu at Bistro 4000, or lighter bites served in the hostel’s lavish lounge.
3. WELLNESS HOSTEL 3000: LAAX, SWITZERLAND
Another incredible o ering from Hostelling International, Wellness Hostel 3000 opened its doors in December 2020, ready to wow guests with views of majestic mountain peaks, with many rooms boasting a panorama of the 9,840 foot-high Alps. e spa area invites you to pamper yourself in the sauna, re bath, herbal steam bath, adventure showers, sound room, and Kneipp pool. Skateboarders and snowboarders will be impressed by the largest halfpipe in the world found in the local ski area. Expect to pay 55 Swiss Francs ( €60) a night for a dorm bed.
4. WOODAH BOUTIQUE HOSTEL: COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
is gorgeous boutique hostel is a prime destination for lovers of Danish design, rejuvenating yoga, and healthy food, with hygge vibes on tap. Winning Kayak’s Hostel of the Year in 2020, the Woodah Boutique Hostel aims to become the Soho House of the hostel world, and they’re not far o . From decadent soft furnishings and dedicated, personalised service, you’ll soon see that their little hidden gem goes way beyond the idea of a traditional hostel. At €40 euros a night for a dorm bed, you’ll be loathed to stay anywhere else in town after.
5. SPA HOSTEL KUNNONPAIKKA: KUOPIO, FINLAND
Nowhere does wellness quite like Finland, a country with saunas in its DNA and an overarching love of nature. A great example of these values can be found at the Spa Hostel Kunnonpaikka in rural Kuopio, built on the banks of Siilinsalmi Lake, where a stay in one of the bright but cozy dorms gives you access to a gym, hot tubs, seven indoor pools, and a range of saunas. You can also rent bikes, canoes, and snowshoes to enjoy the terrain, whether it’s snowcovered or sun-drenched. Prices start at around €100 for the whole four-bed dorm room.
6. CAVELAND KARTERADOS: SANTORINI, GREECE
A boutique hostel with a wellness ethos, Caveland Karterados is a complex of cave houses and terraces where you can join the owners for yoga classes, healthy food, and relaxation by their gorgeous pool, which is one of the biggest on the island. e surrounding fragrant gardens have amazing views and scents with lemon, pomegranate, orange, pear, vanilla, and pistachio trees growing, while the homespun interiors are furnished with refurbished antique and local furniture, perfecting the boho shabby chic vibe. Caveland o ers dorm beds, single beds, and private double rooms and is a ve-minute drive from Fira
7 European hostels that feel like a luxury hotel
The Wake Up Wellness Hostel is a chic yet friendly property, just minutes from Brno’s central station and the charming old town. There’s one mode operandi here; to soothe guests with a disarmingly serene stay in one of the thoughtfully designed, elegant dorm rooms with the comRest beds and tastiest breakfast around. The adjoining spa offers authentic Thai massages that use aromatherapy oils to relax your mind, body, and soul. Your only complaint will be you couldn’t stay longer.
Jabbed, boosted: so how safe is it to travel now?
MILLIONS of people globally are now vaccinated, boosted and newly recovered from Covid-19 infections caused by the omicron variant. ey have what some outside the medical community have labeled ‘super immunity’. And many are ready to see the world again.
However, medical experts disagree about the level and length of protection jabs and booster or having had the bug confers.
Risks of severe illness for vaccinated and recovered people are “low and ... unlikely to get lower,” said Dale Fisher, group chief of medicine at Singapore’s National University Health System.
For these people, travel risks are now more about inconvenience than health, he said. Immunised travellers can still get sick during their trips, he said, or have their trips canceled upon testing positive for a pre- ight test.
Fisher said travelling isn’t the Covid risk that it once was, because of how prevalent the Omicron variant is today, he said.
“ ere’s nothing magical about travel; you’re not more likely to get [Covid] because you travel unless you’re going from a very low endemic area to a very high endemic area,” he said. But “there’s not many low endemic areas left in the world.”
Some argue that vaccinations plus recovery provide more protection, Fisher said. However, he added, “you’re very well protected after two doses” of a vaccine, too.
People shouldn’t let their guards down just yet, said Dr Patrice Harris, former president of the American Medical Association.
“We are seeing hospitalisations reduced, but listen, we are still seeing 2,400 deaths per day in this country,” she said during an interview with CNBC Travel last week. “We are not at the end of this pandemic yet.” at doesn’t mean she discourages travel — Harris said she’s planning two trips to Europe this year. But she does recommend that people rely on “tried-and-true evidence-based practices,” such as vaccines, testing, masks, ventilation and social distancing.
Dr Harris said people who are immunocompromised, or around others who are, should exercise more caution. Even though she’s vaccinated and boosted, she’s still careful for the sake of her 87-year-old father, she said.
People who are generally healthy, have had three doses of a vaccine and recovered from omicron should feel secure to travel, said Stefanos Kales, a professor at Harvard Medical School.
“Unless you really have some serious condition or some serious concern, and you want to travel, absolutely you should travel,” he said. “You should feel quite comfortable because what else, you know, is going to protect you better?”
“Let’s face it ... it just really looks like [Covid] is not going to go away ever completely,” he said. “We have other coronaviruses, some of them are cold viruses and ... as bothersome as colds are we haven’t found the magic bullet for those or a vaccine. But in general, we live our lives despite them.”
Prof. Kales believes it is time to “move on” from the pandemic.
“I think it’s time to ... treat this as if we would have treated the u or a cold,” he said.
Professor Cyrille Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory at Israel’s BarIlan University, said it’s too early to say that vaccinated and recovered people are fully protected.
Like Prof. Harris, he’s concerned about the threat of new variants. He said until the situation stabilises, “I do believe that we still need to feel humble and cautious.”
Travellers could be infected with a new variant — one that hasn’t been detected yet. “ at’s how it started for a lot of people back in 2020,” he said.
People with so-called ‘super immunity’ may experience less severe disease, he said. “But it is so dependent on the type of variant” that may emerge.
THIS WEEK, in our look at the recently published book of poetry and prose by e Kilkenny Involvement Centre and e Recovery College, we feature work from Pat Shortall, Dave ompson and Derek Walsh.
Much More Than Words
If ever a book deserved the award for ‘ e Perfect Title’ surely that accolade must go to a new compilation of poetry Much More an Words. Indeed its very title describes comprehensively the diversity of the treasures to be discovered within its covers. is volume of carefully crafted poems, interspersed with prose and enhanced with well-chosen images, is the second collection produced by e Involvement Centre Kilkenny and the rst in a joint venture with e Recovery College. e Kilkenny Observer Newspaper is delighted to promote the work of e Involvement Centre and e Recovery College, and so, will publish a selection of their work over the coming months. ‘Much More Than Words’ can
be purchased at the following Kilkenny outlets: Bargain Books, The Butterslip Khans Bookshop, James’ Street & The Book Centre, High Street. Price: €10
Pat Shortall To Each his Own
I saw your photograph in the Irish Times. e stu you wrote to win that award was way beyond me. I thought it unusual though, that you’ve taken to wearing a cap. I don’t wear my cap like that – back to front. Listen son, the only time you would wear a cap in that fashion Is, if you were hand-milking one of our cows. Your head would be rigid against her large monochrome belly your body in tune with her every vibrating tremor and pulsate. Aye, your cap back-to-front, would then be intelligent. Her soiled tail would swish against your cheek As you squeeze in their turn, the extended teats of her udder’s nectar. Aware and anxious you would be, as at any moment she would likely raise a hind leg. She not being a placid madam, she could, unannounced, kick out at your sterile pail. Perhaps, cause you to tumble from the woodworm infested, three-legged stool. ere you’d be, prostrate in the cow-house gutter As the remaining impatient incarcerated Friesians wonder, what’s keeping you? And you grovelling with embarrassment realising the wastage of the jewelled unpasteurised creaminess, as it streams through yesterday’s barley-straw bedding. Picking up the empty receptacle, you would be sorely tempted to give her a kick of your own, And immediately, at least ve teeth-clenching profanities ll your mind, you loudly, use them all. She would turn her unru ed head towards you as if to respond. Totally oblivious to her wrong doing, she would continue to chew her bubble-gum cud not yet completely satis ed. ’Tis not writing rhymes that would occupy the brain beneath that incorrectly donned cap, You would not be in any state to pose for snap-shots either. But I suppose, you, mixing in fancy social circles would be more familiar with the procedure on how to wear your cap. Mr. Poet.
Pat Shortall
Dave ompson Emergence
I emerge from a dream into uncertain darkness, a blue light: my charger a red light: alarm-clock. I cling to co ee, and begin to gently narrate each step, to show myself that life’s blank paper isn’t wrapped around a void, there is movement, and matter, the matter of things. ere is also the Great Tensing of the body, to place it in the past or present it to the future. I unload the plates from the dishwasher and proceed to place them on poles and spin them; as many as I can before slamming the door. e day is still defrosting, cracking an eye. I notice, deep in the muted distance, two lights (blue and red), that dance along in silence for another man’s emergency.
Dave ompson
Derek Walsh Clout or cudgeon
To be sure the way it went, e ultimate password is single digit one Put always cast tow and faulted foster star No light of John- but indeed mid lesson and froth And the guardian take a light side of the froth And take no heed of the booming trade ose with money cannot hold onto it e esteem for the thick And plenty to the eyes red felt Up here is no need to order e order is in the digestion and the Cavalry is in the Clouds person.
Derek Walsh
A moment of Reflection. Having placed the Pyx underneath the altar, Bishop Denis Nulty engages in a moment of prayer. Mr Bergin, (principal), and students from CBS primary school attended the presentation of relics at St Marys Cathedral.
Restoration and relics at St Mary’s Cathedral
OVER the decades St Mary’s Cathedral has seen several signi cant changes.
In the 1890s Bishop Brownrigg oversaw the rst change since the opening of the Cathedral in 1857: the addition of new seating, the positioning of the High Altar in the Apse, the building of the Chapter House and the new sacristy, brought a new life to St Mary’s.
In the early 1930s Bishop Collier was responsible for restoring the fabric of the building which had su ered signi cantly from the weather. He also blessed a new cathedral organ in 1939. Bishop Birch also left an impact on the building when he reordered the sanctuary in keeping with the liturgical changes of the Vatican Council.
In 2010 Bishop Freeman began the present work beginning with restoring the mosaics, the stations of the Cross and developing the Blessed Sacrament Chapel beneath the cathedral.
Bishop Farrell progressed this phase of work before his translation to Dublin. Bishop Farrell engaged the services of a liturgical architect from Dublin. Mr Paul O’Daly, to work with local architect, Mr Brian Dunlop and over the past two months the work has been undertaken.
On Tuesday 15th February Bishop Nulty, the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Ossory, presided over the Deposition of Relics in the Sanctuary. e relics of the saints have traditionally been placed in the altar. In 1857 Bishop Walsh placed the relics of SS Cosmos and Damien in the High Altar. In 2021 Bishop Nulty placed the relics of St Oliver Plunkett, Blessed Edmund Rice, Venerable Nano Nagle in a chamber beneath where the new altar will sit. e relics were placed in a silver pyx which was presented to Bishop Nulty by Sr Ena Kennedy of the Convent of Mercy, Callan. e pyx was used by her uncle, Fr Laurence Murphy, late PP of Urlingford, who was ordained in St Mary’s Cathedral in June 1933. A medal of Catherine McAuley, founder of the Mercy Sisters, was placed in the pyx.
Michael and Agneza Morkzycka presented the relics of St Oliver Plunkett to Bishop Nulty. St Oliver Plunkett was ordained in Rome in 1654 and returned to Ireland as Archbishop of Armagh in 1669. He was martyred at Tyburn on 1 July 1681.
Dervla O’Shea with students from The Presentation Secondary school who attended the Deposition of relics at St Mary’s Cathedral Fr Richard Scriven presents the photo of Ragheed Ganni to Bishop Nulty
Teacher Olivia Collins with students from Presentation Primary school with Bishop Nulty at St Mary’s Cathedral
Donald Mc Donald places the Altar stone.
Restoration and relics at St Mary’s Cathedral
Sr Nuala O’Horan of the Presentation Sisters brought forward a relic of Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Sisters. Nagle sent two sisters to Kilkenny in 1800 and they set up a school for poor of the city.
Brother Christy Carroll from the Christian Brothers in Callan brought a relic of Blessed Edmund Rice. Rice, a native of Callan, founded his teaching order in Waterford and opened a school in Kilkenny in 1860 and later in Callan in 1868. Fr Richard Scriven presented Bishop Nulty with the memorial card of Father Ragheed Ganni, a martyr of the Iraq Church, martyred in June 2001 – Ragheed was a regular visitor to Kilkenny from the Irish College in Rome and visited the cathedral many times.
Alan O’Beirne presented Bishop Nulty with a St Bridgids Cross. e cross was made by Sean O’ hUiginn from e Rower with rushes from the bank of the river Nore. Bridgid was a native of Kildare from Bishops Nulty’s diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
After the relics were formerly presented Bishop Nulty assembled them in the Pyx and then placed them in the oor of the sanctuary. Mr Joe Maher, formerly Clerk of Works of the Diocese, presented Bishop Nulty with an Altar Stone made of Kilkenny marble. Donal McDonald, stonemason, placed the stone in the oor of the sanctuary. Donal has worked in the cathedral over many years and is presently restoring the black and white tiles of the centre aisle.
Students from Presentation Secondary School, CBS Secondary School, Presentation Primary School, Scoil Iognaid de Rís Primary School were joined by students from St Kieran’s College on the day. Bishop Nulty in particular welcomed the students from the Presentation and Rice Schools on the day that relics of the founders of their schools were being placed in the sanctuary. e work continues now and a new altar will be installed in the Cathedral. e work of renowed stonemason, omas Glendon, the altar is made from Combe Bruin limestone. A new ambo and baptismal font will also be installed in the sanctuary. e work is scheduled to be concluded in March
Bishop Nulty accepts the altar stone from Joe Maher
