As soon as we arrived at the Aer Lingus gate, that lovely lilting language strikes your ears. How much further away can the actual isle be? Answer: Don't even go there. I learned my first 'new' word listening to a conversation between an agent and a passenger. The agent accused someone of fairy-talin'. As we later found out, it was the agent who was fairy-talin' us, big time! She told us the rumors of a plane change in Dublin were not true. But change planes we did! The nice thing about using this new word is you are calling the person an outright liar... lying though they are. This is already a stock phrase for me.
There is a lot of fairy-talin' with this flight, starting with the itenery. It is a long, tiring trip to Shannon and anyone who claims otherwise is fairy-talin'. And it is made more so by their hawking dutyfree wares in the middle of the night. There was so much racket that the sleeping pill I took to get some rest was overwhelmed by it all. Just face the fact that you are not going to sleep.
Other phrases:
"May I take an imprint?" (of your credit card}
Do you need an advice slip? {ATM machine)
Don't sleep with anyone crazier than you are. (bar sign)
Road Signs
Soft Margin
Hard Shoulder Ends
Tog Bog E (stop)
Mall Go Taisteal (Please Slow Down)
Loose Chippings (gravel)
We did manage a bar lunch in Bunratty. Admiral Penn
was forced to surrender Bunratty Castle to Cromwell's forces
while his son William was an infant. While many apparently
love the castle and grounds, I think Penn's Woods, aka
Pennsylvania, is a much more beautiful place.
This was mostly a day to adapt to driving on the left. "Look right and turn left" and "the driver is on the centerline" is the advice from the presentation at noon on Friday. It is good advice. The real trouble is walking across the road. It is very hard to look right BEFORE stepping on the roadway. Driving is sufficiently frightening to keep me on my toes. But when walking, my brain turns off!
We left Shannon Airport just in time Saturday morning. We woke up to police everywhere and security fences sprawling everywhere. There was a protest coming. They were upset that the US was using Shannon as a stopover ferrying troops to and from Iraq! I'll bet that doesn't make the evening news back home. As a matter of course, theystop all cars on the entry road here. We sailed through because we had a rental car drom the airport.
First stop today was in the town of Carrofin, a lovely little town on the edge of The Burrin. We had tea at The Angler's Inn where they assumed we were lost. We did miss more than one turn getting there. The roads here vary in width inversely proportional to the distance from town. On the very narrowest part, all I met were VW vans. There are no other kind in this part of Ireland! The Fergus river nearby is a great fishing stream and there were many fishing flies on the walls, but the only pattern I recognized was the Royal Coachman. But this is different part of the world.
Some miles out of town we turned right at Leamaneh castle, which appears to be under reconstruction. It looks English. We then drove through the center of The Burren, an extremely rocky barrens. Cromwell's men complained that "neither water water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury". Cromwell hated Catholics and it is little wonder that the Irish returned that hate in full measure.
There are a wealth of ancient sites in this region, including the Earth Ring, an ancient stone ring that I glimpsed from the road. The problem is there is no place to stop and photograph. So we pressed on to Ballyvaughn and had lunch O'Brians Pub. I actually saw a brief moment of sunlight there. But the gloom descended again as we headed along the coast road to Doolin. The Burren extends to the Atlantic coast and I managed to stop occasionally for some pictures.
After finding our B&B, we drove to the Cliffs of Moher, The are quite dramatic, but the day was drawing to a close and it was getting dark and cold. And U had words to write and yoga to do. It was dark before 5. Dinner was at McGann's Bar, Irish Stew and a hamburger plate. 13 Euros a piece including a pint of hard cider. Walking back about 7 we actually saw some stars shining... there is some hope for some sunshine yet!
Sign in McGann's Bar:
Everyone Brings Happiness To This Place: - Some by Leaving - Some by Coming In!
Doolin is famous for its Celtic music. The three bars here have live music 7 days a week. How is that possible for such a small village so far away? One small clue was the comment our B&B host made as I was listening to his Adrian O'Conner CD: "That fellow is and Englishman who came here for a visit 20 years ago and never left." Music starts at {:30, which is a real stretch for this time-displaced body.
Buildings here are built with cinder blocks. There is very little wood in this country. The gray concrete and the gray skies are too much for many people. So the apply a layer of stucco on the outside and paint it some bright color. Yelloes and oranges predominate, but there are reds and greens and blues as well. It is what you would expect in a tropical country, not one so far north. Add in the ubiquitous palm trees and Ireland is a land of great surprises.
Sunday brought sunshine! The thought of driving on dry roads is a great one! We left County Clare at noon when we took the Shannon River ferry south to the 'kingdom' of County Kerry. That name is a reference to the traditional independence of this part of Ireland. The only real trouble encountered was a cleverly designed trap in Listoral on N69. If you follow the signs, you end up going in circles. The only way out going south is to go straight through the town and miles away a sign will tell you that you have made the right choice. Aye!
We drove to Dingle to follow the ring of Dingle. Interestingly they stop using English on most signs. We stayed in Dingle Sunday night. Distances are different here. We left at 10 in the morning, dtove about 180 kilometers by 4:30. It was getting dark by then and I had all the driving I wanted! As the old saying goes- 100 years is a long time in the US and 100 miles is a long way in Europe.
We stayed in the very center of Dingle Sunday night. The B&B was very nice, but it wins the prize for the least amount of reading light. The lamp on Patricia's side of the bed had a 24 watt bulb in it. I think that should be illegal. I learned that water is not metered in Ireland and there is no charge at all for private homes. "They wouldn't dare chage for it on this island!" was our host's comment The biggest problem was finding a place to eat Sunday evening. Nearly everything was either closed or not serving food. We finally found a bar serving food on the waterfront.
Monday morning we it was clear enough to drive out via Connair Pass. At the top it is carely one lane wide and I would not want to meet any vehicle there in fog. We drove on to Killarney, which was more than enough city for me. After lunch, parking ticket and a visit to Blarney Wollen mills, we finally located a B&B with the proper affiliation(Town and Country) with a vacancy about 4 km from town. That done, we drove toward the Beara penensula theough Kilarney National Park. Little of Ireland is national land, but this exception is wonderful. There are real trees with moss on them as thick as Oregan. All the trees were cut by the English to process ores during their distructive stay here. Before that thick oak forests covered the lower reaches of all the mountains. And now there are none. The good news is that the Republic of Ireland has moved beyond the hatred of the English and have established vibrant, foreward-looking society. That is not so with northern Ireland, which seems locked into the hatreds from the past.
We managed to drive as far as Kenmare, which is abeautiful town just before you reach Beara. We spent an hour browsing there and turned back north to return to our B&B. At this point I had my second American moment of the day and all my carefully lefthanded driving habits deserted me! I felt right handed again and it was a very disconcerted feeling. I did drive to the B&B and later through the dark and rain to dinner in Murphy's Pub in Kilarney without any further American incidents. Tomorrow we will take a bus trip around the ring of Kilarney, which is neither a ring, nor does it circle Kilarney. But that is a story for tomorrow!
I paid the damned parking fine at city hall. I know from Uncle Terry's experience that they will find you and you will have to pay. 19.05 Euros for lacking a sticker display. Killarney is not my favorite place. The next time I visit will be much too soon. Our experience with the tour bus was little better. We were told to go take a long walk because it was not leaving til nearly 11. Fortunately we did not take that advice. All those who did take the walk had to sit on the wrong or left side of the bus. You must always drive the rings anti-clockwise because you get the mountain side of the road, not the cliff side! That also makes the right side the preferable side of the bus.
The Puck Fair is held every August in the Killerglin. King Puck is represented by a wild male goat, It is also a huge livestock sale, mainly for horses. It last for 3 days: Gathering, Fair, and Scattering. Rumor has it that if you are still sober on Scattering day, they are put in jail. The tour guide said that he had no way to verify the sober part!
The northern half of the Ring of Kerry is g gentle drive. Once you cross to the southern half, things are dramatically more interesting. The best part is the western third of that southern part. There was more fairyfalin' by the Sceptre presenter on the difficulty of this drive: "you don't drive the ring, you survive it". There are no death defying cliffs. It is true that you can't see over the hedges at the side of the road from a car. But the only real problem is the 100 mile length of the ring of Kerry. Our driver was neither informative nor entertaining, making the ride even longer. It is no wonder the two women he guided yesterday anked for a different guide today, he is too dour. And if you do take the tour bus, don't sit in back as I was thrown in the air a number of times by the bouncing bus.
One photo stop was beautiful, with shafts of light dancing across the bay. If some of those photos work, the bus trip will have been worth it. No matter how you travel the Ring of Kerry, you will be tired at the end of the day. As we drove back into Killarney, we saw a number of wild deer grazing in Killarney National Park.
Wednesday was a travel day back to Bunratty. We stopped in the town of Adare, which was mentioned by Sceptre. Nice, but a bit overrated. I did notice that the purchase slip from the food store tells you how much of your purchase came from Irish products. Interesting concept. It was also shopping day with the Blarney Woolen Mills getting all of our business. There was little room in our bags for the accumulated purchases. After we located a B&B, we visited Sixmilebridge. It is mot gussied up for tourists, but there is a nice view from the bar parking lot at the northern edge of the village centre.
We generally ate in pubs for both lunch and dinner. Lunch would be a cream based soup with whole grain soda bread. The cost would be between 3 and 4 Euros. Dinners varied more, with my favorite being Irish stew or bacon and cabbage. The later was nothing like I imagined. It was mashed potatoes, carrots, rudebega (called turnips here, greens (with some cabbage in there) and thick slices of salty ham. The cost would be from 8 to 14 Euros. Water is never served, but is available for the asking. It took me several days to drink enough liquids.
I generally used a digital camera on this trip. It is seemly impossible to not blow out some highlight even when the sky is overcast. I learned that when you view the image histogram, the blown out highlights flash on and off. Thank you very much, Canon! And thank you very much, Ireland. The weather was surprisingly mild for December and there were sunny spells on most days. And last night a beautiful full moon shown in the evening. It was lovely!
The biggest don't with Aer Linges and Sceptre is to fly from Chicago. They don't tell you that the plane stops in Dublin first and sometimes you have to change planes. The Sceptre itenary is a real sham. Flying back you are on the damned airplane for 10 hours. They do bot let you off as the US immigration forks come on board to interview you. And this after you have to go thhrough US immagration before getting to your gate at Shannon airport. Who are these people and why am I bothered by them on other country's soil. I am against it.