Irene's Weblog

Saturday 6 June 2009

Well, it’s early morning and we are just starting to get ready for our day.  Yesterday, we drove from County Clare into Dublin and that was a nightmare.  We were fine until we reached Dublin.  Because of road construction, everything in Dublin is a giant mess.  We managed to get through that okay, but the airport is also stupidly set up.  First, we couldn’t find a gas station to fill the tank.  As you know, if you don’t return the tank full, you get charged outrageous amounts to refill it.  We discovered after we returned the car that there was a gas station a few minutes away, however, we would have only discovered it if we were leaving the airport and we were arriving.  Stupid setup for an airport.

Also, there are three different places to go for your car rental.  They are all labeled he exact same way, making it difficult to figure out which spot you need to be at.  We ended up going to all three.  Of course, we asked where we should go and were directed to the wrong place.  We were happy to get rid of the car though as it is a giant pain to drive in Dublin.  Before we returned the car, we went to our hotel to drop our crap off.  We did this so that we did have to carry everything on the bus back to the hotel from the airport, especially since we would need to take two different buses.

What we discovered was that the roads are not all labeled.  Many of the larger roads do not have signposts, so you have to guess where you were.  It was during this frustrating time that we understood why the hotel gave directions such as, “you’ll pass a large church with a green roof” and, “turn left at the Beechcomber Pub.”  If you didn’t have landmarks where you need to turn, you’d easily get lost.

After we returned the car, we headed into the city centre.  We got off on O’Connell Street, which is the major street in Dublin.  We really wanted some fish and chips, but could not find any shops that were either open or selling fish and chips.  After walking around for an hour and seeing that it was nearly 7 o’clock, we decided we had to eat something.  We had eaten nearly 12 hours before and we were starving for just about anything.  Sadly, the only thing that was open was McDonald’s.  With great regret we ate their food.  We are determined to find proper food today though.  I didn’t come half way around the world to eat shit fast food every day.

I’ll write some more later today as it’s now 7:22am and we need to get outside and be tourists.

Sunday 7 June 2009

Today was a nice day out, even though it was partly cloudy.  We spent the day walking from site to site instead of taking the bus because the weather was much nicer than yesterday.

Our first stop was the corner of Grafton and Harry Streets to take a picture of the statue of Phil Lynott for my friend Greg.  He’s a huge Thin Lizzy fan.  Next, we went to see the Book of Kells.  What a gigantic ripoff!  Normally, I’m all for seeing old texts and manuscripts, but, for €9 ($12.62), it was totally not worth it.  I really felt ripped off and found it hard to enjoy any part of it.

We then went to St. Stephen’s Green and wandered around a bit before heading over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Johnathan Swift is buried there.  Paul kept commenting that there were holy relics just lying about that people could touch.  Apparently, you not supposed to touch the holy relics.  Shhh, don’t tell anyone that I did, or didn’t.  You weren’t there.  You can’t prove anything!

After St. Patrick’s, we walked uphill a few blocks to ChristChurch Cathedral.  It was okay for a church.  Strongbow is supposedly buried here too.  Sorry, churches just aren’t all that interesting to me.

On our way to Dublin Castle, which is another few, short blocks away, we got hungry so we stopped for some fish and chips.  Lunch itself was good, but the service was crap.  Yes, I’m used to the service in America and I know what to expect when traveling, after all, I’ve done enough of it, but this service was extra crap.

I prefer not to have to seat myself.  I can get past that, but, when you have to beg for everything, it really gets old quite quickly.  We waited 15 minutes for the waitress to just bring the menus.  Another ten to bring us our drinks.  20 minutes after that, we had to beg her to come back to take our order.  I was also tired and crabby, so that made me cranky too.

So, Dublin Castle was decent enough once we got there.  Again, I learned some cool things, which is never a bad thing.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t go and tour the Bank of Ireland.  Another missed opportunity for Ireland to make some money off the tourists and embrace their history.  The bank used to be the headquarters for the government.  So, we walked back to the bus stop and headed back to the hotel.  Fortunately, the best part of the day was about to begin.

Paul and I had dinner with his friend from school, Anthony, and Anthony’s wife, Adrianna, and their two boys, Alex and Justin.  Paul hadn’t seen Anthony in 14 years, so it was a really nice time.  We ate at the hotel’s restaurant, which is super expensive, but tasty.  After spending several hours with them, I was quite happy that I didn’t have to travel back to the hotel.  We just had to go up one floor and down a hallway.  I just wish we had more time to visit with them.  A few hours is, simply, not enough.

Monday 8 June 2009

Today was a light day for us in Dublin.  We went to the Jameson Distillery, which was okay, but far overpriced.  After that, we walked over to Dublin City Hall.  Paul and I enjoyed the little history museum in the basement.  At €4 ($5.61), it’s quite the bargain.  It’s probably the best deal in Dublin.  There’s a lot of reading though, so some people might think it really sucks.

We were also going to visit the Chester Beatty Library, but they wouldn’t let us keep our bags with us and the lockers that were available didn’t look trustworthy.  Instead, we went and had a nice lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, then went for a walk to the War Remembrance Memorial.

Paul and I made it an early evening today as we’re a bit tired and just want to relax a little for once on the trip.

Sunday 31 May 2009

Today we went on a really long hike.  We were in the forest hiking, somewhere near Knockbeha Mountain.  We hiked all the way to Lough Graney.  Our elevation change was from 280 meters to 50 meters, going up and down until we reached the lake.  That’s roughly a 600+ feet change in elevation and the entire hike was 14 miles roundtrip.  Paul and I are completely wiped out, but it was a lot of fun and we got to eat lunch by the lake.

Monday 1 June 2009
Pete and Polly took us to The Burren today.  It’s a good thing that they did because I think I would have gotten lost on all the back roads it required to get there.  Several of the roads were narrow enough that two cars could barely pass each other.  Once, Pete had to stop to allow two bicyclists to pass.  One of them yelled, “Praise the saints,” and, if you saw him, he looked like he had a few pints before trying to cycle home.  So, it was probably best to let them pass.

The Burren gets its name from bhoireann, which means stony place.  And it is, indeed, a stony place.  The stone in the area is a porous, carboniferous limestone.  Because of the type of rock here, during the last ice age, the ice sheets carved a unique landscape that is fissured and bare.  Rain also doesn’t fall off the limestone as it usually would.  Instead, it seeps through the rock and forms large underground caverns and streams below the surface.

Across from The Burren is the city of Galway.  The Bay of Galway separates the two and swimmers, fishermen, and boats share the waterway.  The water here is very clear and, even though it was cold, there were many people swimming today.

After a short hike, we returned home, where the most interesting part of the day occurred.  Polly made stir fry and put in a few too many chili peppers.  She was standing over them at the stove, coughing vigorously, and told us we should probably leave the kitchen.  Paul and I didn’t think it was a big deal.  About a minute later, the vapors from the peppers reached us.  I didn’t stay long before I had to leave.  Paul lasted about another minute and he had to flee as well.  We ate dinner in the living room while watching Panorama.  We all ended up coughing through much of dinner.  Chili peppers are good, but their vapors can certainly made you ill.

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Today we took a drive out to the west coast of Ireland.  We stopped at Spanish Point and Cream Point, then we drove up to the Cliffs of Moher and back down again.  After that, we took a drive to Tipperary, just to say we’d been there.  There really isn’t much there, so we just drove around and then came back home for the night.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

We spent the day today on the Aran Islands.  In particular, we stayed on Inis Oirr.  We hiked up to the ruins of O’Brien’s Castle.  Then we spent some time lounging at the castle and admiring the scenery.

While at the castle, we came across a daft American woman who was dressed in nice shoes you’d wear to work, had a big, white purse, and carried a large, black umbrella.  She mentioned to the others in her group that she should have worn her comfortable shoes.  I really hate coming across American idiots on vacation.  They give us nice Americans a bad name.

After the castle, we attempted to walk all the way around the island.  I was quite worried that we had walked too far to the other side of the island and we weren’t going to make it back.  Fortunately, we made it back to the pier on time.  Unfortunately, the boat was late.  So, we sat and baked in the sun until the boat arrived, 35 minutes later.

Once our boat finally arrived, it took us along the Cliffs of Moher.  They are about 50m high and are nice to look at, but Paul kept saying the cliffs at Cornwall are much better.  So, I guess I’m going to have to go to Cornwall one day and see for myself.

I’m glad that we took the boat tour of the cliffs because if you actually go to the tourist spot for the cliffs, you end up walking about three miles along the top of the cliffs.  If I pay to see cliffs, I expect to see cliffs.  I would be highly pissed if all I got was a trail to walk on and a sunburn.

On the boat, I also got a windburn to go with my sunburn.  I’m now in considerable pain this evening and am applying generous latherings of aloe vera to my arms.  The burns are so intense that part of my eyebrows have even turned blonde!

We aren’t going to be doing much tomorrow.  I am going to stay mostly around the house, gathering our stuff together so we can leave for Dublin the day after tomorrow.  I am also going to try to catch up all the photos I’ve taken so far.  That way, I won’t have such a daunting task when I get  back home.

Paul is going riding with Pete and Polly on their 4x4s.  Hopefully, he doesn’t kill himself in the process.

Even though I’m sunburned, which I completely hate, it’s been a nice time in County Clare.  After all, our original intention here was to spend time with Pete and Polly, and we did.

Photos can be found here.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

So, here I was, worried that we would be late  the airport, but Stanna got us here an hour earlier.  Of course, check-in had its problems.  The ticket lady got mad because we couldn’t check-in properly.  This is because US Airways booked us on a United flight for the first part of the trip.  It’s not my fault I don’t have a return ticket on your stupid airline.

In our boarding area, there was also a chick talking who wouldn’t shut up.  She was bust talking, but saying nothing.  Fortunately, she isn’t on our flight because she had a flight to San Fransisco.

So, we were supposed to leave at 1015am, no 1138am, no noon, no 2pm, no 1pm, no 2pm because “we don’t want to leave anyone behind, so we’ll leave around 1 or 105 or 110 once we get a new plane and the crew does their safety checks.”  How about you make an airport wide announcement telling people to get back because we want to leave at 1pm?  Or is that too hard for you to do?  This is United Airlines.  We don’t care that all the other planes have taken off only 10-15 minutes late, we’re going to screw you as much as we can.

We finally start boarding around 1255pm and take off just before 130pm.  So, let’s see if we’ve got everything on board.

1. people who decide they want their seats changed now, holding up the line to board despite already visiting the counter 9 times during the delay?  CHECK
2. Screaming kids? DOUBLE CHECK
3. man in the seat in front of you who yanks on his seat and moves around so much you can’t do anything but try not to get hit?  CHECK

Well, there we have it.  We’re all ready to go.  The only thing left for United to do is to somehow screw up the landing and kill us.  If they don’t do that, we should make our connecting flight.  So much for our five hour layover in Philly.  We’ll be lucky to get two now.

So, from Philly to Dublin, I got to enjoy my flight even more.  Someone had gas, really bad gas.  Paul and I wanted to vomit.  You couldn’t get away from it.  The young lady behind me made a habit of kicking the back of my seat, something only a five year old should do.  The guy next to Paul snored the entire way.  Yes, he snored so loud that I found it difficult to sleep at all.  Add to that, the flight was full and I was forced to put my carry on bag under the seat in front of me, essentially cramping my legs into one position for six hours.

The best part was that I had the window seat so, when I told Paul I had to pee, he said, “But that guy is still sleeping.”  Yeah, that’s the price you pay for getting an aisle seat, buddy.  Wake up or I’ll pee on you.  Cattle-class is just so much fun.  But the views outside are great!

Once we got to the airport, Pete picked us up in his Ford Thunder pickup.  It’s quite nice.  Then we drove for three hours to their house in County Clare.  I felt bad that he came so far to get us.  Polly make us lunch and dinner, which were both excellent.  After that, we went on a quick, two mile hike down to Lough Derg, a large lake near Pete and Polly’s house, then we watched a little Doctor Who and went off to bed.  Tomorrow, we’ll be picking up the rental car.  Hopefully, I won’t kill anyone and I’ll be okay driving on the wrong side of the road.  We shall see.

Friday 29 May 2009
Today we went to Shannon Airport to pick up the rental car.  We got a Volkswagon Polo, which is a small car by American standards, but I like small cars.  I was a bit nervous to drive in Ireland, given that they drive on the wrong side of the road.  However, I had no problems driving anywhere today.  We then drove to Limerick to see King John’s Castle.  It’s not a bad little castle.  It pales in comparison to something like Warwick Castle, but it was still pretty cool.  After spending time in the castle, we walked around Limerick, at our packed lunch and headed home.  On the way back we stopped at a small beach that is part of the gigantic Lough Derg.  The lake is considerable in size, stretching nearly twenty miles.

Although we thought we would get lost going back to Pete and Polly’s house, we found it with no trouble at all.  Tomorrow, we are heading out to the Dingle Peninsula.  It’s about a three hour drive, so it will, most likely, be all we tomorrow.

Saturday 30 May 2009

Today we traveled out to the Dingle Peninsula.  The best part of the day was traveling up to Connor Pass.  It’s not quite nerve-wrecking, but it does take quite a bit of skill to travel the road.  Irish roads are extremely narrow to begin with and Connor Pass is even narrower.  We stopped part way up the pass and took some pictures.  I climbed part way up a cliff, while Paul climbed all the way up and found a lake at the top.  After we finished taking our pictures, we drove to the part of the pass that had a single lane road.  It just isn’t possible for two cars to drive on the road at once.  You either get lucky, or you shove your car as far as you can against the mountain and hope the car passing you doesn’t hit you.  We got lucky and didn’t encounter a car until right at the end of the narrowest bit, so the other car waited for us to go and then they went the other way into the pass.

The town of Dingle is quite small and is a typical Irish fishing town.  There isn’t really much there, but we did buy a couple of postcards and then returned to the Folley’s house.  Polly is making dinner right now and I am absolutely stuffed.  You know I’m going to eat dinner and be polite anyway.  Hopefully, I’ll eat something light tomorrow and do some extra hiking to kill all the calories I’ve eaten today.

EDIT:  Dinner was good, as usual, but I certainly am not eating much tomorrow.

If you want to see our photos click here.

So, this morning, I am perusing my email and Hendrik sends me an email informing me that he has seen some photos of me with Leylah in Ireland.  This is his email.

I was shocked when leyla mailed us some photos

at 1 or 2 of them I saw actually a faint smile on your face, and not the
usual – ‘If you make a photo I’ll beat the living daylights out of you’ look  - lol!

*hugs*
hendrik