Trip to the Emerald Isle

I know that the last week or so has been filled with a deep sense of longing. But rest assured, I am now back from the wilderness in Ireland and with many a tale to tell. So far I've been trying to 'catch up' with all the trip's we've been on (Paris is officially next), but screw that. Ireland was awsome and I want to blog it while it's still fresh.

Day 1: Dublin to Waterford - Map

We flew into Dublin on Ryanair for 9:00, picked up a car (Toyota Corolla) from Budget and got the hell out of there! We were headed for a small seaside town called Tramore which would be our home base for exploring Waterford. When we hit Carlow (I annoyed Jane for a good hour before this with a series of poor renditions of 'Follow me up to carlow'), we were a bit dissapointed at how similar the place looked to the standard issue english town. Turns out that was because, by Irish standards, Carlow is a hole. We found this out when we got to the much more pleasant - and much more Irish - town of Kilkenny. We stopped long enough to get a tour of Kilkenny castle and be inundated with black and yellow flags which were everywhere. Question: Why the black and yellow flags? Answer: It was the Hurling finals. Never heard of Hurling? Neither had we. But the Irish are heavy into it. Heavy. It's kindof a mix between lacross and field hockey. We left Kilkennt and made our first B and B in Tramore by around 6:30. Tramore touristy place and, since the season was over, pretty much dead. But we found a good pub and I had my first (and only) half-pint of genuine Irish Guiness.



Day 2: Waterford to Cork - Map

We spent the day in Waterford. Being much too cheap to park in a pay-and-display lot, we parked in a DIY superstore a short distance out of town. The coolest thing we did there was a walking tour. It's a prety small place, so you can cover the major sights in an hour. Waterford is very proud of the fact that it is the oldest city in Ireland having been founded by some rebel vikings in about 600 A.D. It was also the most important city for a short time. Dublin overtook it when those pesky Normans showed up. We also saw the Waterford treasures museum and the Waterford crystal factory. The museum had a whole exhibit dedicated to Newfoundland, since it is the primary port from which seasonal fishers left Ireland for the Canadian east coast. The crystal factory was a bit of a letdown - more of a sales pitch than a tour, really. At the end of the day, we headed for the seaside town of Kinsale, which is very close to Cork.


Day 3: Cork to Killarney - Map (sorry the route finder isn't working with Killarney)

Cork is Ireland's second biggest city built on selling... well... butter. We got there and thought we would get to know the city by just 'walking around'. After an hour or so of 'walking around' and getting a bit frustrated, we got on the 'hop on/off' bus tour. Which turned out not to be such a bad idea. Still, though, Cork wasn't really all that interesting - basically a market town with no starbucks. The 'highlights' of the tour were: The butter museum, a womens jail, a (small) university that specialized in hurling, a couple of churches and a statue of the guy who led the temperance movement (which was... lets say... something of a failure in Ireland). Outside Cork is the famous Blarney castle. There's a stone (a.k.a tourist trap) that you can kiss to make you a silver tongued devil. Fortunately, I need no help with my tongue. Anyhoo, it's a nice castle and there are towers and caves and stuff.


Days 4 and 5: Killarney

As we bid a (not so) fond adieu to Cork, and proceeded to Killarney, the landscape started to get more mountainous and, well, prettier. Our B and B was a farmhouse nestled between some mountains and next to Lough Leane (Killarney lake). Given the scenery, we were glad to be spending two days there. Killarney has alot in common with Banff. It's about the same size and it's composed mostly of tourists. On our first night there we went to a Killarney pub after dinner and got our first taste of authentic irish folk tunes. The next day, we spent the morning in Killarney seeing what there was to see there (basically a really nice cathdral and a castle) and then headed for the ring of Kerry (Map). We drove around clockwise to Cahersiveen (which is at the westernmost tip) and went on a hike. The first part of the drive was very scenic with fun, twisty (i.e. scary for Jane) roads. The hike was meant to be an easy one, about 8 km round trip, mostly coastal, with a bit of a climb near the end. It was a really pretty hike, until the fog settled in. Then you couldn't really see anything. But it was still pretty. About 1/3rd of the way through a dog appeared and started 'leading' us around the trail. He stayed with us till we got back to the car, and then basically dissapeared. He definitely knew the way and may have prevented a wrong turn or two. Spooky. After recovering for a few minutes, we headed out and completed the ring (the north half of which is much less scenic, but still nice in places).


Day 6: Killarney to Limerick - Map

This day we were more than a little rushed. Thats because we started off by doing a hike in the "Gap of Dunloe". If you are not moved by the natural beauty that is the Gap of Dunloe then you are dead inside. Dead I say! This was about 10 km of walking, which we did as quickly as possible (which appreciating the scenery). We then kicked off to the dingle peninsula, eventually making it all the way to Dingle, which is a fishing village that tourists go to mostly to swim with Dolphins. We didn't do that. Instead we walked around a bit and then fulfilled a lifelong dream: We ate a deep-fried Mars bar. After that it was to our B and B in Bunratty (near Limerick) as quick as we could go (which wasn't all that quick - remember, we're driving a Corolla).


Day 7: Limerick to Gallway - Map

We expected Limerick to be pretty much like Cork and besides, we didn't have the time, so we skipped it. All I saw of limerick were some dirty old warehouses at the north end. We stayed in Bunratty, which is a little 'town' close toLimerick. I say 'town' because it's actually a group of buildings centered on a castle that are designed by some corperation to be a tourist attraction. The castle has been restored and there's a 'folk village' with a whole bunch of 19th century recreated houses behind it. I normally don't like these sort of things, but at least they had managed to retain a small amount of class and authenticity here. It was ok. But then I had jut left the ring of Kerry and was now unimpressed with the works of man. Then we hit a small town called Corofin to see if we could find out anything about Jane's family history. We visited a little museum that was in a church. We did learn a bit. Then we had to get on to Galway because we the car needed to be back in Dublin by noon the next day. Galway (what we saw of it) was very nice. We stayed in a touristy B and B are sortof outside the city. But here's the rub: They were Jahova's witnesses! Very clever! Why knock on people's doors when you can bring them to you? Fortunately we managed to avoid being preached to for the most part. The big thing we did in Galway was to go to a traditional irish music crossroads. What these guys do is hold auditions around Ireland for the best young musians in the country (you can tell by their resumes) and throw 7 of them (each capable of playing at least three instruments) on stage. They were fantastic. Imagine your favorite part of 'Home for a Rest' only longer and better. Plus one of the girls was a damn fine Irish singer. One of the guys was some kind of folk violin prodigy having been taught by his neighbour in Australia from when he was 3. Anyhoo, I'll rip a song and pas it along to whomever wants it...


Days 8 and 9: Dublin - Map

The resident population of Dublin is 1.2 million. I'm thinking there had to be at least 400K of tourists on top of that. And we're not talking about the high season either. We stayed in a B and B that was in a city-village called Raheny which doesn't appear on the map, but it's basically on the Howth Road immediately north of St. Anne's Park. We used the bus to get there, buying a 'rambler pass' which gave us unlimited bus for three days. The B and B had a nice view of a tidal beach (though not from our room). When arrived (end of day 7) we just took a walk along the beach where we could watch the ferries come in. Next day we spent in town. There's really only a days worth of stuff to see, but it's a full day. First thing we did was a walking tour/lecture that was led by a Ph.D. history student from the main (historically protestant) university in Dublin, Trinity College. She knew her stuff. Next we went to the National museum, which was free and had a really great collection of Celtic artifacts. It also featured a 'bog men' exhibit with four very well preserved specimens on display. I was on our way to the museum that we made our most important discovery, which is pictured on the right. Yes, Dublin has a Tim Hortons (no coffe, mind, just donuts). By the time we left the museum, we barely had time to peek inside the national art gallery (also free, but quite a small collection of Irish art, mostly english and italian). Other sites of interest included Christ's church cathedral (one of two protestant cathedrals in the city), St. Patrick's Cathedral (the other one, and the pretier of the two in my opinion) and a statue of Oscar Wilde. We missed (without much regret) the Guinness and Jameson Whisky factories. We returned to the B and B tired, but feeling that we had done Dublin justice. The next day we visited Howth island (Map, not really an island, pictured from our B and B on the left), which is sortof the Mount Royal of Dublin. Dublin has the highest priced housing market I've ever seen. We saw listings for relatively small (2300 sq. ft.) townhouses going for 1.5M euro! So I can imagine what a house on the cliffs of Howth island would cost. Anyhow, it was our last scenic experience and we made it last. We walked all the way around the island and then along the water back to our B and B. That would be somewhere around 15k. Then we headed for the airport, feeling tired and satisfied with our ireland experience.