Ireland Day 14, Galway to Dublin

Exhausted from the night before, and the pace of the entire trip, I slept for most of the drive from Galway back to Dublin.  I needed to get myself together before the Bruce Springsteen show.

Our hotel had some kind of an issue and ended up upgrading us to another much nicer hotel, which was even closer to the concert venue.

The Bruce show was amazing. Having never seen a concert outside of the states, it was an experience that I won’t soon forget. Bruce, as always, rocked like no man his age should… and the city of Dublin was very happy to have him.

We fished our final pints of Guinness at a random pub, Kennedy’s, across from our hotel. It felt like the shortest “long trip” of my life, and somehow I couldn’t believe that it had come to an end.

Cheers to Ireland, until we meet again!

Ireland Day 13, Ennis, across the Cliffs of Moher, to Galway

Still pretty exhausted from the night before, we headed out of Ennis early in hopes of getting to the cliffs early and have some time to spend in Galway.

The cliffs themselves are breathtaking, falling off to the ocean 700 feet below. We were a bit disappointed by the over crowding of tourists (busses and busses) and the limiting concrete paths and walls that were built along the cliffs – having already been to so many places where we were given the opportunity to just wander off and explore.

We did manage to arrive in Galway pretty early, so we wondered around the city center in the rain for a bit. We ate a quick lunch at “The King’s Head” – the historic pub is full of artifacts from 17th century and the building was a gift to the executioner who beheaded King Charles I of England.

After a much needed afternoon nap, we headed back to town for a night out. Along the way we met a local who took us around to the best spots and bought us far too many pints.

EPILOGUE – The Battle of Ennis

Around 1:45 in the morning, I was diligently working on my blog and uploading photos; Mike had been fast sleep for more than an hour. Out of the corner of my eyes, which I could hardly even hold open I was so exhausted, I saw a quick shadow – almost as if I was sitting in the sun and a bird or something flew briefly past. It was about a moment later when it occurred to me that the only source of light was our ceiling lamp, so whatever just caused that shadow had to be in the room. At first I thought, “oh gross, a moth or something must have flew into the open window.” But, when I looked up from the computer screen I was not prepared for what I was about to find… a bat, maybe 8 inches across, was frantically flying around the ceiling of the room and circling the lamp. I remember first thinking about the complete absurdity of the fact that a bat has somehow managed to not only fly in through an open window that was about 3 feet by 1 foot, but that now I had absolutely no idea what the hell to do. So, I calmly called over to Mike “Mike, wake up… hey Mike…I have some news” this at least got him to response “what?” to which I just simply said “yeah, there is a bat in our room.”

His response of priceless, he just simply pulled the covers quickly over his head. Meanwhile, I watched from the corner of the tiny room as the bat rapidly flew around, smacking endlessly into the walls. “Mike, I need help with this. I think he may be attracted to the heat of the light.” Suddenly the TV turns on, and I hear Mike from under the covers of his bed “Did that help?” “No, that didn’t help” Our next strategy was to try to coax the damn thing into the bathroom and lock him in for the night, with the window open, in hopes that he would be gone by morning. But, that strategy failed as well. Even with my added strategy of attempting to smack the bat with my pillow, we failed to get him into the other room. Mike, however, did get a great shot of me in action.

More than 30 minutes into the battle with the tiny winged beast, at this point hysterically laughing because there was nothing else to say, our final resort was to alert the owner of the B&B and ask for help. Into the room he went, with a towel and a shrug. After roughly 10 minutes of “whoosh” and “smack” he emerged from the room, and the bat had been defeated.

I really have no other words that can sum up the absurdity of this experience, but I can honestly say that I have a feeling I will be laughing about this event for the rest of my life.

Ireland Day 12, Dingle, across the River Shannon, to Ennis

Our morning in Dingle was actually the first morning we woke up to find it raining. In all honesty, it added to the charm of the city as we did some quick morning shopping around town in the rain. Along the main street, I found my “map of Ireland” (that I’ve been searching for in every town along the way) and we tried Murphy’s Ice Cream – which is supposedly world famous (it was pretty good, but I still prefer Murphy’s Irish Stout).

Having a new lack of trust in our GPS, we decided it would be a great day to just basically ignore the GPS and see what we found if we took as many back roads as we possibly could to find our way up north to County Clare and our final destination of Ennis.

Our first attempt was well, a failure. After turning off the main road and just heading off in the direction would hoped would take us off over the mountains, we spent 30 min on a road that only led to a dead end.

But, not discouraged, we still managed to find our way by other means back to the coast and made a quick stop on the beach in Inch (yeah, the town is called Inch).

From there we cut up across A few quick thoughts for anyone who ever plans to visit the town of Talbert: 1) it’s not really a town at all, it’s more like an intersection 2) don’t believe their lies – this includes signs that say “food served all day” 3) they take their lunch hours very seriously, and 3 in the afternoon is not lunchtime – therefore, none of the 5 places in town would serve us anything to eat.

From Talbert, we decided to grab the car ferry cross the River Shannon up to Clare County. We’ve really put our tiny little car through quite a lot – between the gravel trail over the mountains, to the very popular twisting and turning single lane forest roads for duel direction traffic, and now a choppy 30 min boat ride.

Once on the shore, we again decided to “find our own way” to Ennis from our ferry point in Killimer. Along the way we came across field after field of free running ponies, and one pack in particular which just as interested in seeing us and we were in seeing them.

Before long we were exhausted from a long day or travel, and were happy to be in the town of Ennis. We watched the big European championship football game, and called it a night.

Ireland Day 11, Killarney to Dingle

The city of Killarney is just outside of the Killarney National Park. The park is great for hiking, biking, and horseback riding through the huge forest which surrounds three lakes. From the top lookout point, Ladies View, you can see an unbelievable view of the entire valley and the lakes. Apparently, while traveling through Killarney in the 1800s, Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting were overcome by the view from this spot.

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We spent most of the morning on the hiking trails that run all around the Killarney National Park.

We also made a quick stop at Ross Castle in the middle of the park, which dates back to the 1500s.

Our next destination was the city of Dingle, which is known for being a rather quirky small town. Despite the effect of the influx of tourists on many of the town’s we’ve visited, Dingle has managed to maintain its own very genuine and unique culture. Within the few small streets that make up the downtown we found more art galleries, book stores, and record shops stores than most of the places we’ve visited combined. Unlike most of the towns where we had to search out a bar with traditional live music, in this town, it was nearly impossible to find a bar that didn’t have an evening band. We spent the evening listening to more renditions of “Whiskey in the Jar” and “The Galway Girl” at a great pub they ever so cleverly named “The Dingle Pub.”

Ireland Day 10, Kinsale, across “Sheep Mountain”, through the Ring of Kerry, to Killarney

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Kinsale is a very beautiful, and it reminded me of the affluent beaches cities back in the US. The hillsides surrounding the city are just miles and miles of rolling green farmland. Seeing as we had already seen Ireland by plane, train, bus, and automobile, this seemed like the perfect place to take to the water.

After our boat trip around the bay, we headed off in for the Ring of Kerry – a stretch of road that runs all along the coast of the southern peninsula of Kerry County. Enjoying the remarkable views, we were suddenly informed by our GPS that we had missed our turn and we should immediately turn around and make a left. Trusting that it knew better than us, we turned back around, made the left, and headed up what seemed to be a very random and thin little road.

The thin road soon turned into an extremely winding and even thinner road – which seemed to be heading straight up into the surrounding mountains. 

It was about a third of the way up that the asphalt turned to gravel and the mountainside filled with sheep and goats.

The higher up we drove, the more clear it became that nobody else drives on this road – except maybe the local shepherd.

The view from the top of the mountain, amid the freezing cold rain and wind, was a stunning landscape. It wasn’t really what we had in mind when we set out for our drive along the coast, but it was truly an “only in Ireland” life experience. I’m fairly confident that the GPS was having a bit of a laugh at it set us up and over what we could only deem “sheep mountain.”

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After our unexpected mountain pass, we rejoined the sunny drive along the north coast of the Ring of Kerry.

Our final destination for the night was in Killarney. We found another great local pub with traditional entertainment including bagpipe, fiddle, flute, and banjo – unfortunately, I missed half the show to make a call back to the office and explain something about Facebook – but all the same, it was great day of traveling.

Ireland Day 9, Cork, through Blarney and Cobh, to Kinsale

Unfortunately, since it was a Sunday morning in Cork city, most of the town was closed when we walked through. The only places we really found people out and about were in the huge churches.

Taking advantage of a lighter morning than usual, we headed off early to a rather famous place just down the road, Blarney Castle, home of the world famous Blarney Stone.

The castle itself is actually really impressive, and more than the usual tours you have pretty free reign to explore everything from the cave below the castle to all of the remaining rooms within the castle. Up a very small and winding staircase, on the roof of the castle, is a very nice man with the lovely job of spending the day holding guests as they balance upside down and kiss the Blarney stone. If you’ve never been, I don’t have a picture of myself in action, but see the image of Mike below to see exactly what I’m talking about.

All around the castle is the Rock Close, home of the local folklore’s witch, whom some believe was the first to tell of the stones powers. It’s also home to some amazingly caves, interesting trees, and other plants.

Next, it was off to Cohb, which is a port city just further down the waterway from Cork.  Much of the heritage of Cobh is tragic, as it served as the last port of call for both the ill fated Titanic and Lusitania. Today, it’s still very much an active port for major ocean cruise liners. As we waited for almost an hour to get down to the port from the main road, we could only wonder why everyone in the town seemed to be heading down to the dock on Sunday afternoon. When we finally decided to park and walk the rest of the way down, we found the entire town had come out to see a massive Royal Cruise in the dock. This was by far the largest cruse ship I’ve ever seen – seemed a bit ironic. The port also served as the main port of departure for the majority of the emigrants who left for the United States to escape the Great Famine.

Continuing the theme of our day, our last destination was the harbor town of Kinsale – which I think I read somewhere is the home to the worlds first Yacht Club. Either way, it’s suppose to be the home of the best food in Ireland as well – but just our luck, we arrived in town so late, most everywhere was done serving for the night. We found a small Thai restaurant that was still serving past 10PM. They really tried to make this place feel authentic.  But, despite having a much different atmosphere than our usual destination, it was pretty damn good. Before heading back, we grabbed a pint and witnessed a bar fight – and just like that, we knew we were indeed still in Ireland.

Back at the bed and breakfast, we took advantage of a beautiful night to relax over some Irish tobacco and whiskey. It was hard to not take notice of just how refreshingly silent a night can be when you’re far enough outside of the traffic and clutter of the city.

Ireland Day 8, Kilkenny, through Cashel, to Cork City

Our morning started with a visit to the Kilkenny Castle, a newly restored site that had served as a stronghold and home to Killarney aristocrats since the times of Queen Elizabeth I.  Much of the 18^th century interior décor, including the wallpapers, furniture, carpets, and paintings were restored or recreated to show the castle as it once was.

Off to our second castle of the day, Cashel Rock’s huge stone walls are all that remain of the great castle that once stood there.  During the times of strife in early Ireland, it was given to the church and served as an impressive sanctuary – serving as a symbol of the strength of religion at the time.

All that remains is the decaying skeleton of the enormous structure, which is surrounded by the graves of the citizens of the city of Cashel dating back hundreds of years – many of the head stones are so old their markings have completely weathered away.

Cork City, our final destination for the night, was a lively spot for a Saturday night. After searching for a pub in our travel book, which we were later informing had shut down sometime in the last 1-6 years (depending on who we asked), we found a rock/metal/goth pub with live rock music upstairs and blasting Metallica and metal-heads on the first floor. It was a little bit different, but when the band started playing Johnny Cash, we knew we had to stay.

(Please take note of the most hardcore accordion player ever)

Ireland Day 7, Wexford, through Waterford, to Kilkenny

Wexford consists of two major streets, two beautiful churches, and a small harbor. It didn’t take much time to walk through the entire city and head off toward Waterford.

Waterford, home of the world famous Waterford Crystal Factory, is a pretty small town as well. After a very good lunch at a tiny pub with low ceilings and dark wood décor, we went around to see a little bit about the town’s history which includes the landing of the Vikings and a good amount of bloodshed over the years.

Next, we arrived in Kilkenny just in time for dinner – I had the best lamb I’ve ever tasted – and we strolled through town looking for a good pub with music. Oddly enough, almost every pub in town was a disco at night, playing top forties or dance music. The last bar we passed before laving downtown sounded a little bit better, and inside we found a local band that played some good rock and classic rocking including covers of U2 and Pink Floyd. When that bar closed we headed off out of town toward our bed and breakfast.  Along the way we found another pub with no live music, but a great old bar tender who had no bottom teeth, but plenty of wisdom. Mike and I ended the night debating American politics in this random hotel bar and through the streets as we found our way back.

Ireland Day 6, Dublin to Wexford

Before leaving Dublin and heading south into the country side, we made a few last stops. First, having stumbled across it the night before, we headed back for a tour of the Old Jameson Distillery. This being my second distillery tour in 3 days, I am now very well versed on the production of Irish Whiskey, and what sets it apart from other Whiskeys around the world. Bushmills is the original Irish whiskey, and its distillery has a much better tour, but in terms of taste Jameson had as edge, with a much smoother and richer flavor. Our last stop in Dublin was the Dublin Writers Museum.  Housed in a large 18th century mansion once owned by a son of the Jameson family, it has an impressive collection of the works of Shaw, Yeats, Beckett, Swift, Wilde, Joyce, and more. The audio tour is very informative, and well worth the 45min to walk through.

From there it was off to pick up an item that would drastically alter the course of the trip thus far, a rental car. The upside, after lugging all of our belonging down the streets, in and out of busses, trains, and taxi’s we could finally get a little bit of a break. The downside, not only do you drive on the other side of the road, but the steering wheel is on the other side of the car, you pass on the right, you merge on the left, and we were setting off into a countryside we knew nothing about – we sprung for the GPS device and it’s proven a wise investment. 

The first stop on our road trip was Wexford, a great little town on the harbor about 150km south of Dublin city. Our first experience there with a bed and breakfast was very nice.