Doolin, Ennis, Ennyston, Bunratty, Lisdonvarna, Limerick, Blarney

A Trip to the Irish Coast

Our trip around South-Western Ireland by Car.

We arrived in Dublin early afternoon on the 2nd of January. For some reason most places were still closed, but we were able to make our way by bus back to the airport to pick up the rental car, essentially retracing our first steps in Ireland. After bringing all of our luggage out to the remote Hertz rental location, we find out that they are not willing to rent us a car, as we're under the 25 year old age limit, and although the website lead us to believe that we could pay an extra fee, that was only if you were 24...



Their suggestion was to try Enterprise, which was located back in the airport terminal, and after a while we were able to secure a car reservation with Enterprise. But we had to wait till 4, and I was the only one who could drive manual. It was winter time so by the time they drove us out to the car at 4:15, the sun was looking to set and we still had to drive clear across the country. This was also my first time driving on the "wrong side of the road." And my first time driving stick, left handed. And it was dark. And raining. And at best you could say we didn't know exactly where we were going.






Forutnately the Irish highway system is very straight forward, with M_ being highways, N_ being primary roads, and N_ _ _ being secondary roads, we were able to find our way without too much trouble. Navigation for most of the driving trip was actually quite easy and it's a real credit to the organization of the Irish road systems. We arrived at our cottage late at night, with difficulty only because it was a remote unlit area, and cold and exhausted, passed out for the night.

The Cliffs of Moher, Dysert O'Dey, and Ennyston

Morning from our cottage gave us our first real sense of just how rural the area around us was. On the left is a picture of the view from the bedroom on the second floor of the cottage we were staying in (Ballyvara Cottage). We were surrounded by a hay/livestock farm, and even though it was the first week of January, it was bright, bright green. I woke up to the sound of a farm tractor driving nearby, most likely attending to the barn that was right next to where we were staying. In the distance from the window we could just barely see the sea, our destination for the day.



We set off into town looking for some breakfast, and not finding anything open, decided to start our day's tour of the cliffs and sea-side. It was a day that was to be filled with lots of classic Irish parking (anywhere you please), and in tuen with most of our trip: more exploratory than planned. The first picture, on the left here, was from the black head point, just north of Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher. We were the only people to be on the side of the road at the time, but soon there were other cars and even a bus. We turned around once we had taken a few pictures (shown here) and then drove back into town. My companion saw cows. She went crazy...



As for the cliffs themselves, they were... ok. It was the middle of the day, and since most of the cliffs were to the south of the main tourist area, they were directly in-line with the sun and difficult to photograph. They're quite impressive, but it was also cold and extremely windy that day, so we did not get a chance to wander far. There is one castle-tower that we could see on the cliffs, to warn the locals of sea-borne raiders. They were very much a tourist trap though, which you're warned about in about every guide book and even some of the tourist route maps, but if you're in that area it's hard to avoid at least stopping by. You can park at the bottom of a very long hill if you want to avoid the 12E parking lot fee, but it will take about an hour each way to do the walk.

The next stop after that was the Abbey and Castle of Dysert O'Dea, which is supposidly a rich archeological site dating to the 15th century, though the Castle is still erect, as is the Cross of St. Tola's high cross (both pictured left). The battle of Dysert O'Dea (1318 AD) drove the Anglo-Normans out of that region of Ireland for over 200 years. The castle itself was closed down for the winter (what you get for going in the off season I guess) but the grounds of the monastary next door were open, and according to our guide book they were more interesting than the castle anyhow.

Probably the coolest thing about the graveyard around the monastary turned chapel was the gravestones that were as old as the battle that had taken place there. We found a range of dates from 1360 to 1970. They also had an interesting set of graveyard flowers, which they kept in glass globes filled with water, a cool way of making sure the flowers don't wilt too quickly. After Dysert O'Dea we went to Enniston, but admittedly it was only so interesting there. We bought groceries and then headed back to the cottage.

The cottage was very cold that night (it would snow, a rare event for Ireland) and the only adequate heat source... It was also a fairly empty house, and we ended up scaring eachother with the stereotypical "Did you hear that?" Got a little creepy in the big empty cottage in the middle of nowhere.

Bunratty Castle, Limerick, Adare, Blarney, and home...

The next day we decided to venture a little further. It was also the first time we bought gas out there, which for our relativly compact car, cost nearly 50 Euros to top off (about $78!). Our first stop for the day was Bunratty castle, an archetecurally resorted castle meant to appear as it did in the 15th century. It was also surrounded by a village modeled as contemperary to the castle. The keep itself was quite impressive, it would have been quite a formidable place to attack, and even seemed quite comfortable for the time. The only thing that was really difficult about visiting the castle was the very, very narrow and short stairways.

After departing Bunratty, we got back on the N-18 and drove down to Limerick (yes, like the poem, but not where the poem is from). Like many settlements of this area, it origionally dated from Viking times (800s) but was famous for the Norman buildings (such as King John's castle pictured left). We did not have much time to spend here as the night came early there, and my companion wanted to make sure we visited Adare "The cutest town in all Ireland." Analagous to a chick flick, Adare had little other than a few pretty features (some houses with thatched roofs) and not too much historical development behind it (mostly notable for the name, which means something like "river crossing").

Our final day, we left the cottage with a heavy heart (someday to return!) and after packing up the car (quite earlier this morning) we started our trip back to Dublin. But we kinda took the long way...

Our first stop was the infamous Blarney Castle, home of the even more infamous Blarney Stone. Why the stone is so famous (it is on an objective level, a big ass rock at the top of a really cool castle), I will never know, but all the same I think I enjoyed touring Blarney Castle the best. It was one of the most expensive entrence fees we payed (about 6 Euros each I think) but as it was the off season it was easy enough to get to the top of the castle, kiss the stone without too much worry about germs, and get a move on. Actually, for that matter there was no line to get up there and the guy assisting people at the rock said that we were some of the first to visit there that day. The infamous Rock is pictured on the left.

The rest of the castle was very scenic, there was a nice view from the top of the keep and for those mideval warfare buffs, there were lots of castle nooks and crannies to keep things interesting. Murder holes, deadfalls, places they threw boulders, everything was there. There's even a deadfall where the floor falls out when a level is pulled, and the unfortunate victim falls into a pit that has no way out.



Our last stop on our way home was the Rock of Cashel. Cashel was a beautiful town, but the Rock of Cashel was simply impressive. Shown here on the right, the Rock of Cashel was a castle turned cathedral that was a military fortress of the chruch for hundreds of years. The Rock of Cashel was probably the most impressive stone structure that we saw on our entire trip, and it was set upon a huge rock hill. Honestly it was a better stop than Blarney, Bunratty or pretty much any of the other stops that we did out in the countryside.



Overall, I have to admit that for a tourist who usually only gets to stop at the major cities, I really enjoyed the self-guided tour of the countryside. It would be significantly harder to do this kind of trip if we didn't know the local language, but once we had the car and a map, the flexibility and frankly, the ease of the trip was amazing. It helps of course that in relative terms of distance, Ireland is really not spread that far apart, even in the more rural parts.

Belfast

Murals, the Troubles, and one of My Favorite European Cities

Home of the all-too-well-known murals, and the "troubles." I really wanted to go here because of my study of conflict (I wrote a term paper on the IRA weapons decommissioning in 2005. I think it is also because of "the troubles" that most people I asked about the trip had never been there. It was only recently that things have calmed down there, but I'm happy to say that even during our short time to the city, the political solution was still actively being worked on.


Our host at the bed and breakfast we stayed at (Vivian Martin at the Greenmount bed and breakfast). It's at the start of Andersontown road (part of "Andy Town"), right at the end of Falls road (probably the most active site of the troubles, where the British picket lines were, the Catholic side of town). Aside from the fact that she gave us great recommendations on where to go and who to go with, she is actually from the area, and her conversations about the area as she was growing up there was some of the best part of staying at their establishment. I won't go into too much detail here (just have to go and ask her yourself!) but needless to say, for someone who has only read about the conflict in newspapers and history books, it was very enlightening. Also, I asked her about how the conflict was resolved, and she said that eventually the women got tired. That's right, mothers and girlfriends said they'd had enough and the peace process rolled right in. Our first night we got there too late to really do anything other than grab some dinner, which we got right up the road at Temple restaurant. I was exposed to Irish chicken tempura, which is to say breaded chicken, but the Irish twist was amazing.

Our first day in the city we decided to take the black taxis (like a route taxi) in to the city center. Most things were going to be closed the next day so we wanted to hit up as many sights as we could. The picture on the right is part of the Belfast city hall, with their sky wheel in the back ground. We had passed by on our taxi ride from the train station to the hotel the night before, and we thought it would be a good start since we lucked out with relatively good weather.





Sadly as we approached the center of the city it started raining, but we were already in the city for the day so we decided to head on up. It was a little expensive for a gondola Ferris wheel ride (12E), but the view of the city was reward enough for our money.
It was warm inside, and although I was doing alright, my travel companion was a little chilly. After the Ferris wheel we continued around the center part of the town, visiting a few churches, including St. Mary's chapel with a grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. I think religious buildings are my favorite places to visit when I travel, I'm not really sure why.





In the afternoon we met up with Martin for a "black taxi tour." He too had lived in the area all his life, and after a side-trip to see the site of the construction of the Titanic (yes, built in Ireland, though I resisted asking him if that's why it sunk), gave us a great tour of the murals and the "peace walls" that surround the various neighborhoods in Catholic/Protestant Belfast. He was hard to understand at times because of his thick accent and the occasional stammer, but he brought a force of knowledge and history into the tour that really made it extraordinary for us. In particular, I liked the historical articles that he brought with him, laminated newspapers from the day they were first printed, showing the significance of the events he talked about on the tour. There is too much to really go over here, and again, you'll have to see it for yourself. One of the more significant things Martin showed us though was the presence of the "peace walls," which he said had actually been built to be even higher in the past two years or so. Just when I thought things were winding down there, I find that the gates between these walls (between the Catholic and Protestant/Loyalist neighborhoods) were often closed at night, and people's movement between them were restricted. He made a strong point that it was not all protestants or all catholics who participated in the troubles, only a few of them. We learned that the Orange Men were still very much active, and preaching a hatred of the Irish Catholic way of life that was reminiscent of KKK members in the old South. Martin suggested that the only way to heal things for the future was going to involve making sure the school children were given equal opportunity to grow up alongside each other in similar environments, and that the protests, which he saw as hateful, had to be curtailed if there was ever going to be a chance for peace.




When he dropped us off, he suggested going to Kelly's for a good pint. Kelly's, located right across from St. Mary's church, is the oldest pub in Belfast, continuously operating since 1720, making it 36 years older than Guinness (what did they drink before Guinness?). It was very much a Catholic bar. After the murals tour we were both very much on the look out for the Protestant/Catholic distinction (though I'll admit is was usually VERY hard to tell the difference). It was a nice atmosphere, although a little dark, it had good character. The men in the bar kept offering my companion and I some hard liquor sweets, we had to turn them down. This was also where we had our first Guinness in Ireland, and it was every bit as awesome as I'd heard. They're not kidding when they say that Guinness is better in Ireland. My companion was excited to take some indoor long-exposure shots (a bit of a theme for the rest of the trip) and we got some great pictures in there. Couldn't tempt her to have some of the pub's stew, and we moved on before too late to look for dinner, before the New Year's Eve crowd moved in. Ocean Colour Scene was playing in a massive concert for New Years Eve, but we were incredibly jet lagged, and didn't have tickets, so we decided to head back to the B&B to have a nice quiet new years eve.



The next day, EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED. We thought that, since most things were close for New Years Eve, they would be open on New Years Day, but nothing nothing was open. We made an attempt at the start of the day to go into the city center and get a bus to go to Giant's Causeway, only to find that we'd made too late a start for the local buses, and most of the usual tour groups/buses that go had already left. This was also the case with most of the other Northern Ireland tourist attractions, and even the city tourism office. So we decided to take a day on food and explore the southern part of the city.



We started out walking down to the arboretum on the southern side of town, down through some of the prettier photographic trails and parks. We passed by the famous Crown Liquor Saloon, noticeable for it's "authentic victorian" decor, though we didn't stop inside (prohibatively expensive, even more so because of the British Pound). The day was already sort of late (we had slept in, no alarms were set the whole trip except for the one to catch the plane home) and we found a nice park nearby to walk through, just a relaxing afternoon. Got a chance to take a few scenic pictures, and a chance to see the "real" side of the city, including their version of China Town. We caught a matinee movie, and tried out some of the local fare: Bishop's Fish and Chips.


That night we walked up to the very northern side of the city, and saw the Front Page (bar), St. Patrick's cathedral, and St. Anne's Cathedral (pictured here). It was a nice night for walking around, and it was with a heavy heart that we made our way back to the hotel (catching the last black taxi for the day) and packed our things for Dublin and the driving trip to Doolin that would come thereafter.


All in all, Belfast was one of my favorite European cities, and probably one of the top cities I've visited anywhere in the world, with a rich history, friendly people, and a very comfortable tourism experience.

Arrival in Ireland

We have arrived in our hostel in Belfast after a long day of travel (all nighter) with American Airlines... really not the greatest airline, can't say that we really liked the four total hours of delays due to engineering... On our first commuter trip to Philadelphia, there's never been a plane fuller of angry people. A man sitting in the row next to us claimed to have been traveling since 5:00 am (it was 6:00 pm then), because he'd been canceled, delayed, or rerouted since then. A relatively simple trip that was far too stressful. Going to fly someone else next time.

Dublin was pleasant, but unfortunately we did not get enough time to check out much of the sights. We went to Trinity College:

But sadly we missed out on the book of Kells. It was a Sunday, and sadly tourism around the world just isn't open every day. We're kind of spoiled with museums here... anyhow, as we couldn't see the book (and this means I'll have to go back) we decided to walk around the town. Below is some kinda Christmas tree with a six pointed star on top... and on the right is the town hall:

and then we went to a few churches, the best of which I thought was the Christchurch Cathedral (below, outside and inside).

From here we boarded a train to Belfast, crossing the border and preparing for New Years!