Ireland, part 5

Monday, Sept. 29th. Before getting to Dublin, we stopped at Powerscourt, which is a huge estate with a mansion and lots and lots of gardens. It was very pretty, but the day will always be tainted because that’s where we lost our camera. We went into a shop, and my mom thinks she laid it down while she was looking at scarves, and left it there. We didn’t realize it until much later, after we’d returned the rental car and were checked into our hotel in Dublin. We tried calling Powerscourt the next day, but they hadn’t seen it, so we figure some jerk saw it lying there and took it rather than turning it in like a decent person. I still can’t believe anyone would be so mean – it wasn’t even a good camera! They probably just threw it away once they realized it was 6 years old and useless without the charger, which makes me really sad, because we didn’t care about the camera, but we lost all our pictures (which is why all the pictures came from Meghan - except the Dublin ones, which are from my first trip).

After being depressed in our room for a while, we met up with Aunt Lynne and Meghan and went to dinner and more pubs. We went to a place called Oliver St. John Gogarty’s in Temple Bar (the trendy, but also touristy, part of Dublin), which is supposed to be really well-known. I took a picture of it the last time I was in Dublin, so maybe I knew that? Or I just thought it was cute. Anyway, we heard some pretty good traditional music there, but the place was FULL of tourists. How are we supposed to make Irish friends when there aren’t any locals? It made me miss the Marine Bar…

When the music took a break, we skipped out and my mom and Aunt Lynne went home while Meg and I went across the street to the Auld Dubliner. They also had live music, which was mostly not Irish, but a much younger, more Irish crowd. Meghan made a friend – this kinda weird guy “liked her teeth” and bought us two rounds of drinks and would not leave us alone, no matter how hard we tried. We also met two guys from Belfast, but once they left, the weird guy came back. Finally, I said we had to go and, relieved, Meghan abandoned her new buddy.

Tuesday, Sept. 30th. Our last real day of vacation. It was raining in the morning, but it cleared up by the afternoon. I haven’t talked much about the weather because it’s boring, but we really lucked out for most of the trip. Everywhere we went, people were telling us about the six weeks of rain they’d had before we got there – the rainiest summer ever, apparently – but we had gorgeous sunny days every day until we got to Dublin. Anyway, despite the weather, we started out with sight-seeing, went to Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. They happened to be having some kind of student fair out in the quad, and Meghan and I got mistaken for students and were asked to join clubs. There always seems to be something going on there – the last time I was in Dublin, we walked right into Trinity’s graduation.

After the sight-seeing, we split up to do some shopping, and my mom and I walked all over, down Grafton Street, through St. Stephen’s Green, and only really found one good store for souvenirs. Finally, when we were so tired we could barely walk, we stopped at the Irish Celtic Craft Shop right by our hotel, which is where we bought most of our souvenirs. We had dinner at another Italian restaurant, and then went to a pub called the Brazen Head for music. That was well off the beaten path, and while there were some tourists there (when asked, a group from Massachusetts identified themselves, and a pack of Asians swooped in like a film crew with these humungous cameras), there were also plenty of locals, and a real community feel to the place. The band was quite good (one of the best around, as the groupie who befriended us claimed), and it was all traditional stuff.

Again, after the music, my mom and Aunt Lynne pooped out, so Meg and I were on our own. We didn’t want to go back to Temple Bar, because it’s too touristy, so we wandered until we found a place called Hogan’s. It was dark and not crowded, but there were mostly guys, so I thought our chances were good. Unfortunately, the place closed at 11:30 (as most pubs are supposed to on weeknights, but we didn’t realize some are stricter than others, and the other places we’d been in stayed open later), leaving us with no place to go. We wandered some more and found The Globe, which was very clubby with the loud music, but no one was dancing, so we sat at a table with our drinks. It was impossible to talk over the music, so no making friends, and we gave up after a little while to go home ad get some sleep.

Wednesday, Oct. 1st. We had a pretty early flight, so we took a cab to the airport right after breakfast. The flight home was longer – 7 hours – but Dad came to pick us up at JFK, which was terribly sweet of him. No one lost any luggage, all our hotels were nice, we didn’t wreck the rental car or burn down Mary’s house, and all of us came home alive, so all in all, I’d say it was a fairly successful trip, though probably not our best. My mom and I said if we were doing it again, we’d probably skip Dingle to spend more time at Mary’s house, and we’d have gone to the pubs in that area more. That was really where we felt like locals – where we were experiencing the real Ireland, not the touristy stuff.

So, that’s the trip! Tomorrow I'll talk about all the TV I've missed. :)

Ireland, part 4

Saturday, Sept. 27th. My mom and I went to the Waterford crystal factory, but Aunt Lynne and Meghan weren’t interested, so they stayed home. The factory was pretty cool – it’s almost like an art gallery, with all the incredible pieces they have on display. And it was neat seeing how they actually make the crystal.

On the way to Waterford, we stopped for gas, and couldn’t get the gas cap off. We’d only stopped for gas once before (the car was diesel, and fantastic on gas mileage), and the station attendant had done it for us. This time, an elderly gentleman who was pumping his gas next to us came over to help us, and he got the cap off, but Mom had broken it in her struggle. Then, another guy came over and offered to pump our gas for us if we’d let him sit in the car. Apparently, the Jag made quite an impression, lol. My mom was like, “You can sit there as long as you want if you can get that gas cap back on.” I said we should’ve told him he could drive us around in it if he wanted to – we could’ve had our own chauffeur!

After Waterford, we came back and took a drive around the ring, checking out the cliffs and everything. The views are absolutely gorgeous. Also, that’s when we saw the cows crossing the road! We were so excited! A real cow crossing! My mom stopped the car, and she and I were leaning out the window taking pictures of them as they crossed the road. We’re so easily amused.

Anyway, we went to Mass on Saturday night at a church near Mooney’s, and the service turned out to be all in Gaelic, so we didn’t understand a word of it, which was fun. After that, we went to the Seanachai (pronounced shanakey) for dinner, which was another place Mary had recommended. Hilariously, we spotted at least six people from Shane’s birthday, and when we asked the waitress if they had music tonight, she said, “Usually we do, but tonight it’s a DJ because we have a 21st birthday party.” LOL!

Not wanting to be known as the Americans who traveled from pub to pub crashing birthday parties, we went back to the Marine Bar for music, and cute guitar guy was there again. So I dragged Meghan over to talk to him, and I asked if he was playing again tonight, which he was. His name was Owen (and he turned out to be the owner’s son), and he introduced us to his friends, Liam and Grace. We talked to them while the music was going on, and Grace seemed to take quite a liking to us. She bought us a round of shots (which were bright green), and then Owen bought a second round (of something bright yellow) when he was done playing. At the end of the night, Liam’s mother came to pick them up, and Grace offered us a ride home with them. Holy crap! I thought it was scary going down those little roads before, try doing it at 80 mph in the pitch dark! At least Mae Rose knew where she was going and how to drive on the left, which was a step above the rest of us. Definitely the best night of the trip.

Sunday, Sept. 28th. Sadly, we left Mary’s house for the last time, driving up to Kilkenney, where we stayed in another B&B on the way to Dublin. Kilkenney was another cute town (as all of them are) with another castle and more churches. We split up for a bit, since Meg wanted to see the churches and my mom and I wanted to shop, but we ended up running into each other anyway. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner (Aunt Lynne wanted pizza, lol), and then stopped at a cute café for desserts, but we were too tired to hit the pubs after two late nights in a row and lots of walking.

Ireland, part 3

Thursday, Sept. 25th. Our first big sight-seeing day. We went to the Rock of Cashel (a big castle ruin on a hill), a nearby abbey that was also in ruins, and Cahir (pronounced care), another town with a castle ruin. I think this was probably my favorite day. I love the ruins, so much better than the restored castles with the furniture and everything. It became something of a running joke during the trip – “Oh, this place has furniture. Sorry, Laura.” I just love running around on the parapets and climbing the towers and stuff. Way more fun than touring a stuffy mansion where you can’t touch anything because it’s way old.

Friday, Sept. 26th. Today we went to Kinsale, which is a pretty ritzy town, at least compared to all the other places we visited. It’s a town almost entirely of B&Bs, so our hopes of shopping were somewhat dampened. But they also have a lot of restaurants (and it’s known as the gourmet capital of Ireland or something), so we did have an excellent lunch at a place called Fishy Fishy. To get to and from Kinsale, we had to take a ferry from the town of Cobh (pronounced cove), which was an adventure in and of itself. We’d taken a ferry to get to Dingle, too, and it’s kinda fun. They’re the kind where you just drive your car on, and it’s like a floating parking lot, not fancy at all. The operator guy comes around to collect the fare, which was hilarious, because Aunt Lynne still didn’t know what all the buttons did in the car and she put the window up in the guy’s face. Then he joked about us not wanting to pay him.

Friday night was our first adventure at the Marine Bar, one of the two pubs recommended to us by Mary (the other is Mooney’s, which we never made it to). We called to make sure they were having music, and they told us yes, at 9:30. My mom, Meghan, and I show up a little before then (Aunt Lynne stayed home), and the place looks mostly empty, except for a few old guys at the bar. So we’re thinking, uh-oh, this is gonna be just like Dingle, but then we go further in and see that there’s a whole back room, and it’s full of teenage boys (the drinking age there is 18, and I’m sure some of those guys were juuuust making it). We take seats near where the sound equipment is set up, figuring we’ll have good seats for the music, and as the night goes on, more and more young guys show up. By the time the music started (at about 10:30, remember what I said about punctuality?), the place was packed. And it turns out it’s Shane’s 21st birthday party, and every single person in the bar knows everyone else but us (even the old guys! There were a few other older people, who we think were Shane’s family).

So, we’re listening to the music (which was excellent, but mostly not traditional songs) and giggling at the drunken boys (and Meghan and I were picking out the cute ones we liked), and then the musicians announce they’re taking a break. We’re all set to leave, but then these three girls (who we later found out worked at the bar) start passing around platters of tea sandwiches and baskets of chicken fingers and sausages. We’re all like, “Free food? Do they do this every Friday night in Ireland?” but it was for Shane’s birthday, of course, and even though nobody knew who we were, they offered us food, so of course we stayed. We listened to more music, and then when we finally got up to go, my mother went up to an older man, who we think was a relative of Shane’s. She wanted to say thank you for the free food, but she wasn’t sure who to talk to, and as she’s talking to this guy, he stops and says, “You’re American! I knew there was something wrong there!” I don’t think he understood what we were saying (he had hearing aids in both ears) but he told us we should’ve joined in and talked to people, instead of sitting by ourselves, and then gave us hugs when we left.

Ireland, part 2

Tuesday, Sept. 23rd. We had another long drive today, from Dingle all the way across the south to Mary’s house in An Rinn. My mom took a turn at driving, and she turned out to be very good at it. She really liked driving the Jag. (Dad is so jealous, btw.) Anyway, we broke up the trip with a stop in Killarney, which isn’t really much to see, but all the tourists go there because it’s one of the famous town names. We took a tour of Muckross House, which was the first of many really old places we visited. They also had pretty gardens, which we also saw many of.

We got lost due to some detour – Ireland is FULL of detours, btw – every other road is under construction, and unlike here, where you can just go around the block or so to avoid it, you have to go miles out of your way. And of course, the roads are poorly marked, so if you get lost, you could be going in the wrong direction for hours and never know it – and even if you DO know you’re wrong, you have to go for miles before you can find a place to turn around. But finally, we found Mary’s house, after stopping for directions at a gas station and procuring frozen pizza for dinner (which my mother proclaimed to be the best frozen pizza she’d ever eaten – I think she was really, really hungry).

The house is absolutely beautiful, as is the land surrounding it. It’s right on a cliff overlooking the sea, and plunked down in the middle of fields and cow pastures. We actually had cows for next-door neighbors. They’d moo at us and Meg and I would moo back. And OMG, at night! It was sooo dark, and you could see a million stars. Not even in the remotest place I’ve ever been in the US have I seen this many stars.

Wednesday, Sept. 24th. Kind of a resting day. Meghan and I slept late while my mom and Aunt Lynne went for a walk around our “neighborhood.” (We really did have neighbors on one side, but everything was so spread out that it was a hike to the nearest store and pub.) Late in the afternoon, we took a trip to Dungarvan, which is the closest real town to where we stayed. They have castle ruins, of course (you’d think it was a requirement in Ireland that each town be ridiculously adorable and have some sort of interesting ruin), and were again on a harbor where we saw a little seal or sea lion hanging out.

I'm back!

Yes, dear old Ireland has sent me home. They told me my money wasn't worth anything anymore, so they had no more use for me. :-P

I'll be writing up a fairly detailed account of my trip, a travel journal of sorts, since I want to have it all written down for myself. But of course, I didn't actually write anything while I was on the trip, so it'll all be from memory after the fact. If you're not interested in all that, just know that I had a wonderful time, and I'm wishing I could go back.

Anyway, Sunday, Sept. 21st. Travel day, so... boring. We got a van shuttle to JFK airport (about a 2 hour drive) for an overnight flight to Shannon. It was only 5 1/2 hours, and we arrived at 5:45 am, Irish time.

Monday, Sept. 22nd. We were all pretty tired, having slept very little on the plane, and what with it being the ass-crack of dawn (not even - it was still dark when we left the airport). We rented a car, and that's where the fun started. See, we'd reserved a Toyota or a Mazda, one of those little midget cars Europeans drive, but when we got there and my mom and Aunt Lynne looked at it, there was no friggin' way all four of our suitcases could fit in that car without someone being strapped to the roof. So we ended up with a Jaguar instead. A Jaguar. The damn car was smarter than we were. It knew when the windshield was wet, and the wipers would come on automatically! (Which, of course, freaked the hell out of Aunt Lynne, who couldn't figure out what she'd done to turn them on, or how on earth to turn them off again.) We had GPS, which it took us about 4 days to figure out (or, rather, it took until someone let me take a look at it for us to figure it out, lol).

So, we set off in our snazzy rental car for the Cliffs of Moher, which as you can see, are pretty awesome. (All pictures are courtesy of Meghan, btw, for reasons that will become clear later on.) After that, we made the looong drive to Dingle, where we would spend our first night. I slept for a good portion of the drive, which I'm told was probably for the best, considering my mom and Meghan were scared shitless of Aunt Lynne's driving. (They drive on the left over there, remember, and their roads are like donkey paths. Seriously. You're lucky if you can get two cars to pass each other without one going into the bushes. They've never heard of a shoulder, the roads wind around like they used a slinky for a model, plus while the cars are small, you're still dodging huge trucks and farm equipment as they come whipping around the curves. It's quite disconcerting.)

Anyway, we arrived in Dingle without incident (and the car mainly intact), and checked into our B&B. Dingle is a cute little town, but a bit sleepy in September. It seems more like a summer place, since it's got a harbor and lots of docks for boats and stuff. They also have a resident dolphin, Funghi, and there are boating excursions you can take to see him.

We tried to go out to the pubs that night to hear some traditional Irish music, but that was a little bit of a bust. We tried three different places that advertised music, but they were either not traditional music, or late getting started (the Irish are apparently not so big on punctuality), and we were too tired to stay out late.

I'll try to keep these posts manageable, so I'll stop there. More to come!