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Travelogue - Ireland
As promised, here's my travelogue for the Ireland trip. Late, as usual, but better than never.
Saturday/Sunday:
Originally I had planned to leave Saturday afternoon and spend the night in Dublin, but as I was attempting to book my hostel, someone else snagged the last bed. Literally as I was putting in the credit card info. Very annoying. So I planned to get there Sunday morning instead. Sadly, this meant catching the 10:42 PM train to Holyhead, getting there at 11:30, then waiting around in the ferry port until the 2:40 AM ferry. The wait wasn't too bad, as I had a book with me, but the time change made it longer than it would have been.
The ferry itself was cool! I didn't really look closely at the ferries themselves on the website, so I had really no idea what to expect. At home when I think of "ferry", I think river ferry. Small, not usually all that opulent unless you really pay, etc. Part of me honestly expected to be sitting out on the deck in a chair or something. I even brought a blanket just for that contingency. Silly me. The Ulysses was massive and comfortable and I snagged a sofa right away and slept happily all the way to Dublin. Almost everyone had a sofa to themselves, or at least a section of one, and was napping. It was nice and quiet and a very smooth ride. Lovely.
We got in to port at 6 AM and to Dublin by bus shortly after, which was slightly unfortunate b/c nothing at all is open at that time of the morning. I wandered around just getting my bearings for a while until a few shops opened, but it did sadden me that the only places to get breakfast and a coffee at 7 AM are McDonald's and Burger King. I tried a breakfast sandwich at BK, but yikres. Nasty. Couldn't finish it, so I just had hashbrowns and coffee. Walked around the city some more, glancing mournfully at the myriad coffee shops that wouldn't open until at least ten, and by 9:30 the bus tours were open so I hopped on one of those. It was a nice way to find out where everything was and the tour guide was very informative. Definitely very interesting to see all the signs in Irish for a change, instead of in Welsh.
By the time I'd made the rounds on the tour bus, it was time to meet![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daegaer so I stayed on the bus until it went by Trinity College again. She showed me around the college, which is lovely and beautiful and has this weighty aura of history about it. Must be a wonderful atmosphere in which to work. We grabbed a quick lunch and coffee at this great little crepe and pancake place nearby, The Lemon, then headed back to see the Book of Kells. I'm not sure I can say much more than "wow". It was just stunning and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to see it. Also cool was the massive library above it, with satisfyingly tall shelves and ladders and a domed ceiling, all of which make it the perfect picture of what a library should be. Gorgeous.
It's always nice having native tour guides to show you around, as you get to see things you'd have missed otherwise. Tucked away in a shopping centre was this amazingly cool mural of tilework:
The story behind it was all rooted in Irish mythology and I loved hearing about it. Unsurprisingly, Daegaer is just as good a storyteller in RL as online. But what really made me laugh was the disclaimer:
Hee!
The history museum proved not only a great museum but a beautiful example of architecture in its own right. There was much mocking by us of the Bronze Age fashion trends and all its excesses. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much gold in one place. But the highlight of the museum was the exhibit with all the "bog bodies", showcasing a number of Iron Age human bodies recovered from the peat bogs all throughout Ireland. They were amazingly well preserved, with hair and skin and even internal organs still intact. One had the most marvelously creepy hands with nails and skin that completely belied their age. Very, very cool. Am amazed at all the things that were pulled out of the bog.
Daegaer kindly dropped me off at the airport so I could pick up the rental car by 4 o'clock. Oh! Such joy to have a car again, even for a short time. I loved it and I can't believe I forgot to take a photo of it. It was an adorable little Nissan Micra automatic, nicely familiar as I own a Nissan myself. It felt a bit odd being behind the wheel again after a year, but it quickly felt like first nature again. It was probably best that my first time driving over here was after I'd been here a year and had gotten used to the way the roads are laid out. Driving around with Marie so much and being navigator on road trips must have done me a lot of good, b/c driving on the left didn't really feel that weird at all. It took a bit of adjustment to make sure I was centered in the lanes properly, but not too bad, and I really do like roundabouts. It makes it so easy when you miss a turn - you just keep going around until you get it. Much love.
The weather was perfect for most of the drive, though it did start to rain just a bit once I got deep into Mayo. The roads were fine, though I was surprised at how many people overtook me on them, and in the rain no less. Not very safe at all, especially at night, but I digress. It took me a bit over 5 hours to drive from Dublin to Cloghmore on Achill Island. The only hitch in the trip was when I wanted to stop and call Ciar in Newport to let her know I was getting close - my phone died. I had no signal in Ireland (A lot of the UK ones aren't in Ireland, and I seem to be the only person in the UK who's on the Fresh network anyway. Seriously. No one's ever heard of it.) and I forgot to turn it off, so all the searching drained the battery. I stopped at a pub to plug in the phone and get her number off of it so I could use the payphone, but the number I had stored in the phone had the country code on it, and I didn't realize that when you removed the country code you had to put that first zero back. So when I tried to call, it wasn't working. Eventually I just kept going and we actually met on the road in Cloghmore where she had decided to wait for me. I really felt bad for worrying her (and Grainne, who she called once it got past 10 and I still wasn't there, and they both fretted like Irish mother hens), but there wasn't much I could do about it. Sorry, Ciar!
Unfortunately, this was where the trip went slightly downhill for a brief time. When I got in, Ciar was keen to take me out to the pub, b/c it was bank holiday weekend and a bunch of her old friends were back in town. It wasn't yet 11, and it sounded like we'd be going for a few drinks then home to bed, so I thought sure, why not. Unfortunately, the short trip to the pub in Cloghmore turned into another trip down to a nearby town to go to another pub. 10 Euros for the return bus ticket to get there, which I thought was a bit excessive. However, I went along with it...
I really wish I hadn't. It wasn't the pub they wanted to go to so much as the night club tucked away behind it, and by that point I was stuck and couldn't exactly say no, I don't want to go in. Short another 8 Euros, the one drink I'd had meant I was finally feeling the effects of the long drive and the lack of sleep thanks to the late night ferry trip. I hate clubs at the best of times, but that night it just seemed like torture. On top of being miserable, I felt bad for being a bad guest, b/c all I really did was stand around and look overwhelmed and sleepy. I've never seen the point of clubs. I don't dance and I don't care to drink all that much, it's too loud and had too many flashing lights, and I don't see why people want to pay so much to get into a place where you can't have a decent conversation b/c of all the loudness. But according to Ciar, small town Irish kids are "hardcore" about their drinking and nightlife, and they loved the place.
We didn't get the bus home until after 3 AM, and it was one of those small buses that's more like a coach, with far too many people squeezed into it than was safe. Crowded and noisy and stinking of beer, and by that time Ciar was paying more attention to a guy friend than to me, so I ended up sitting with some guy I'd barely met. It was not a pleasant night out, to say the least. That's one evening and 18 Euros I wouldn't mind having back. We didn't get in bed until 4, and of course after so long being awake and on the move, I crashed hard. We both slept into the afternoon the next day, and even though it was raining out and there would've been nothing in particular to do, I still felt sad for missing half the day. However, from then on it perked up again.
Monday:
This day made up for the previous evening. After a quick fry-up, we headed out in Ciar's car to drive around Achill Island. This was an outing much more to my tastes. The scenery was, quite simply, breathtaking. I'd expected the traditional green expanses, but at this time of year everything is a lovely shade of orange-gold with only sections of green. The wind and rain made it difficult for me to take good pictures, but I got a few. Unfortunately, some of them aren't the best quality; I'm not sure what happened with my camera, but I don't think it could take the weather. There are two of me, but Ciar wasn't the best photographer and both shots are excessively blurry. Oh well.
All the rest of the pics are here. Even the blurry ones, sorry.
The rain cleared up just before sunset, so we took a walk before it got too dark. The wind was still going strong, and it was so nice being out in such a clean, fresh environment. It was remote and desolate and very beautiful out there, with hardly another soul in sight. Long stretches of bog, rocky coastlines, and what I'm told is the most western point of Ireland, with nothing in between it and the North American coast but the Atlantic. I loved it and am very envious of Ciar for getting to spend all her summers as a child in such a lovely place. I wouldn't have known about it had she not invited me, so I feel very lucky for getting to see Achill Island.
Her mother made us another great meal then we went out for a second walk in the night air. Very invigorating, I must say. There was a half moon out, so we could see a little bit, though Ciar tells me in the winter it can get absolutely pitch black b/c there are no street lights or anything like that around. Ciar had work the next day so we went to bed early, but I had a bit of trouble sleeping after the lie-in we'd had. The trip wasn't very good for my sleep schedule, that's for sure.
Tuesday:
The next morning Ciar headed off for work and I drove back to Dublin; it was nice to see the countryside in the daylight this time, and it was a very pleasant drive back. I took my time to look around but still got back in plenty of time to turn in the car. It was sad to leave the car, I must admit. I miss having that freedom again.
Got the bus back to the city and spent the rest of the day wandering around again. Lots of interesting shops, though I didn't buy anything for myself. As per usual, the only things I liked were far too expensive. I particularly enjoyed the Temple Bar area of Dublin, and I stopped there for dinner. I ate at a lovely pub, The Auld Dubliner, where I got the "traditional Dublin Coddle" and a pint of Bulmer's. Very nice, though the cider was damn expensive. The highlight, though, was the live Irish music they had downstairs. Good food, great music, terrific atmosphere - very glad I went. Afterwards, I had some chocolate ice cream from the Häagen-Dazs stand, mmm.
My camera takes really crappy night pictures, so I'm sorry to say most of them didn't turn out.
The last bit of my trip was self-induced lunacy. Instead of getting the bus to the ferry port as I should've done, as anyone with any bit of sense would've done, I decided to walk there. It didn't look that far on the map, and to be fair it didn't take all that long to get to the port itself, but once you get there you have to traverse this insane maze of dark paths to get to the check-in building. It took me ages, much longer than I expected, and though I'd left two hours early so I could get there in time to check in plenty of time in advance, I barely made the ferry. When I finally got to the right building they were on last call, and I had to run the last length of it. I was the last one aboard and if I'd been even a minute later they said I wouldn't have gotten on. This would've meant staying overnight to wait for the morning ferry, so, yes, lesson learned. Next time we'll take the bus.
The ferry home was the same ship as before, and after so much walking I was all tired out, so I snagged another portion of sofa and napped on the way home. Got to Holyhead by about 12:30 AM, then took the train home to Bangor. We were delayed, so I got in just before three. Very long day, but worth it. Despite a few ups and downs, I had a brilliant time and would go again in a heartbeat. Lovely, lovely country.
Saturday/Sunday:
Originally I had planned to leave Saturday afternoon and spend the night in Dublin, but as I was attempting to book my hostel, someone else snagged the last bed. Literally as I was putting in the credit card info. Very annoying. So I planned to get there Sunday morning instead. Sadly, this meant catching the 10:42 PM train to Holyhead, getting there at 11:30, then waiting around in the ferry port until the 2:40 AM ferry. The wait wasn't too bad, as I had a book with me, but the time change made it longer than it would have been.
The ferry itself was cool! I didn't really look closely at the ferries themselves on the website, so I had really no idea what to expect. At home when I think of "ferry", I think river ferry. Small, not usually all that opulent unless you really pay, etc. Part of me honestly expected to be sitting out on the deck in a chair or something. I even brought a blanket just for that contingency. Silly me. The Ulysses was massive and comfortable and I snagged a sofa right away and slept happily all the way to Dublin. Almost everyone had a sofa to themselves, or at least a section of one, and was napping. It was nice and quiet and a very smooth ride. Lovely.
We got in to port at 6 AM and to Dublin by bus shortly after, which was slightly unfortunate b/c nothing at all is open at that time of the morning. I wandered around just getting my bearings for a while until a few shops opened, but it did sadden me that the only places to get breakfast and a coffee at 7 AM are McDonald's and Burger King. I tried a breakfast sandwich at BK, but yikres. Nasty. Couldn't finish it, so I just had hashbrowns and coffee. Walked around the city some more, glancing mournfully at the myriad coffee shops that wouldn't open until at least ten, and by 9:30 the bus tours were open so I hopped on one of those. It was a nice way to find out where everything was and the tour guide was very informative. Definitely very interesting to see all the signs in Irish for a change, instead of in Welsh.
By the time I'd made the rounds on the tour bus, it was time to meet
daegaer so I stayed on the bus until it went by Trinity College again. She showed me around the college, which is lovely and beautiful and has this weighty aura of history about it. Must be a wonderful atmosphere in which to work. We grabbed a quick lunch and coffee at this great little crepe and pancake place nearby, The Lemon, then headed back to see the Book of Kells. I'm not sure I can say much more than "wow". It was just stunning and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to see it. Also cool was the massive library above it, with satisfyingly tall shelves and ladders and a domed ceiling, all of which make it the perfect picture of what a library should be. Gorgeous.It's always nice having native tour guides to show you around, as you get to see things you'd have missed otherwise. Tucked away in a shopping centre was this amazingly cool mural of tilework:
The story behind it was all rooted in Irish mythology and I loved hearing about it. Unsurprisingly, Daegaer is just as good a storyteller in RL as online. But what really made me laugh was the disclaimer:
Hee!
The history museum proved not only a great museum but a beautiful example of architecture in its own right. There was much mocking by us of the Bronze Age fashion trends and all its excesses. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much gold in one place. But the highlight of the museum was the exhibit with all the "bog bodies", showcasing a number of Iron Age human bodies recovered from the peat bogs all throughout Ireland. They were amazingly well preserved, with hair and skin and even internal organs still intact. One had the most marvelously creepy hands with nails and skin that completely belied their age. Very, very cool. Am amazed at all the things that were pulled out of the bog.
Daegaer kindly dropped me off at the airport so I could pick up the rental car by 4 o'clock. Oh! Such joy to have a car again, even for a short time. I loved it and I can't believe I forgot to take a photo of it. It was an adorable little Nissan Micra automatic, nicely familiar as I own a Nissan myself. It felt a bit odd being behind the wheel again after a year, but it quickly felt like first nature again. It was probably best that my first time driving over here was after I'd been here a year and had gotten used to the way the roads are laid out. Driving around with Marie so much and being navigator on road trips must have done me a lot of good, b/c driving on the left didn't really feel that weird at all. It took a bit of adjustment to make sure I was centered in the lanes properly, but not too bad, and I really do like roundabouts. It makes it so easy when you miss a turn - you just keep going around until you get it. Much love.
The weather was perfect for most of the drive, though it did start to rain just a bit once I got deep into Mayo. The roads were fine, though I was surprised at how many people overtook me on them, and in the rain no less. Not very safe at all, especially at night, but I digress. It took me a bit over 5 hours to drive from Dublin to Cloghmore on Achill Island. The only hitch in the trip was when I wanted to stop and call Ciar in Newport to let her know I was getting close - my phone died. I had no signal in Ireland (A lot of the UK ones aren't in Ireland, and I seem to be the only person in the UK who's on the Fresh network anyway. Seriously. No one's ever heard of it.) and I forgot to turn it off, so all the searching drained the battery. I stopped at a pub to plug in the phone and get her number off of it so I could use the payphone, but the number I had stored in the phone had the country code on it, and I didn't realize that when you removed the country code you had to put that first zero back. So when I tried to call, it wasn't working. Eventually I just kept going and we actually met on the road in Cloghmore where she had decided to wait for me. I really felt bad for worrying her (and Grainne, who she called once it got past 10 and I still wasn't there, and they both fretted like Irish mother hens), but there wasn't much I could do about it. Sorry, Ciar!
Unfortunately, this was where the trip went slightly downhill for a brief time. When I got in, Ciar was keen to take me out to the pub, b/c it was bank holiday weekend and a bunch of her old friends were back in town. It wasn't yet 11, and it sounded like we'd be going for a few drinks then home to bed, so I thought sure, why not. Unfortunately, the short trip to the pub in Cloghmore turned into another trip down to a nearby town to go to another pub. 10 Euros for the return bus ticket to get there, which I thought was a bit excessive. However, I went along with it...
I really wish I hadn't. It wasn't the pub they wanted to go to so much as the night club tucked away behind it, and by that point I was stuck and couldn't exactly say no, I don't want to go in. Short another 8 Euros, the one drink I'd had meant I was finally feeling the effects of the long drive and the lack of sleep thanks to the late night ferry trip. I hate clubs at the best of times, but that night it just seemed like torture. On top of being miserable, I felt bad for being a bad guest, b/c all I really did was stand around and look overwhelmed and sleepy. I've never seen the point of clubs. I don't dance and I don't care to drink all that much, it's too loud and had too many flashing lights, and I don't see why people want to pay so much to get into a place where you can't have a decent conversation b/c of all the loudness. But according to Ciar, small town Irish kids are "hardcore" about their drinking and nightlife, and they loved the place.
We didn't get the bus home until after 3 AM, and it was one of those small buses that's more like a coach, with far too many people squeezed into it than was safe. Crowded and noisy and stinking of beer, and by that time Ciar was paying more attention to a guy friend than to me, so I ended up sitting with some guy I'd barely met. It was not a pleasant night out, to say the least. That's one evening and 18 Euros I wouldn't mind having back. We didn't get in bed until 4, and of course after so long being awake and on the move, I crashed hard. We both slept into the afternoon the next day, and even though it was raining out and there would've been nothing in particular to do, I still felt sad for missing half the day. However, from then on it perked up again.
Monday:
This day made up for the previous evening. After a quick fry-up, we headed out in Ciar's car to drive around Achill Island. This was an outing much more to my tastes. The scenery was, quite simply, breathtaking. I'd expected the traditional green expanses, but at this time of year everything is a lovely shade of orange-gold with only sections of green. The wind and rain made it difficult for me to take good pictures, but I got a few. Unfortunately, some of them aren't the best quality; I'm not sure what happened with my camera, but I don't think it could take the weather. There are two of me, but Ciar wasn't the best photographer and both shots are excessively blurry. Oh well.
All the rest of the pics are here. Even the blurry ones, sorry.
The rain cleared up just before sunset, so we took a walk before it got too dark. The wind was still going strong, and it was so nice being out in such a clean, fresh environment. It was remote and desolate and very beautiful out there, with hardly another soul in sight. Long stretches of bog, rocky coastlines, and what I'm told is the most western point of Ireland, with nothing in between it and the North American coast but the Atlantic. I loved it and am very envious of Ciar for getting to spend all her summers as a child in such a lovely place. I wouldn't have known about it had she not invited me, so I feel very lucky for getting to see Achill Island.
Her mother made us another great meal then we went out for a second walk in the night air. Very invigorating, I must say. There was a half moon out, so we could see a little bit, though Ciar tells me in the winter it can get absolutely pitch black b/c there are no street lights or anything like that around. Ciar had work the next day so we went to bed early, but I had a bit of trouble sleeping after the lie-in we'd had. The trip wasn't very good for my sleep schedule, that's for sure.
Tuesday:
The next morning Ciar headed off for work and I drove back to Dublin; it was nice to see the countryside in the daylight this time, and it was a very pleasant drive back. I took my time to look around but still got back in plenty of time to turn in the car. It was sad to leave the car, I must admit. I miss having that freedom again.
Got the bus back to the city and spent the rest of the day wandering around again. Lots of interesting shops, though I didn't buy anything for myself. As per usual, the only things I liked were far too expensive. I particularly enjoyed the Temple Bar area of Dublin, and I stopped there for dinner. I ate at a lovely pub, The Auld Dubliner, where I got the "traditional Dublin Coddle" and a pint of Bulmer's. Very nice, though the cider was damn expensive. The highlight, though, was the live Irish music they had downstairs. Good food, great music, terrific atmosphere - very glad I went. Afterwards, I had some chocolate ice cream from the Häagen-Dazs stand, mmm.
My camera takes really crappy night pictures, so I'm sorry to say most of them didn't turn out.
The last bit of my trip was self-induced lunacy. Instead of getting the bus to the ferry port as I should've done, as anyone with any bit of sense would've done, I decided to walk there. It didn't look that far on the map, and to be fair it didn't take all that long to get to the port itself, but once you get there you have to traverse this insane maze of dark paths to get to the check-in building. It took me ages, much longer than I expected, and though I'd left two hours early so I could get there in time to check in plenty of time in advance, I barely made the ferry. When I finally got to the right building they were on last call, and I had to run the last length of it. I was the last one aboard and if I'd been even a minute later they said I wouldn't have gotten on. This would've meant staying overnight to wait for the morning ferry, so, yes, lesson learned. Next time we'll take the bus.
The ferry home was the same ship as before, and after so much walking I was all tired out, so I snagged another portion of sofa and napped on the way home. Got to Holyhead by about 12:30 AM, then took the train home to Bangor. We were delayed, so I got in just before three. Very long day, but worth it. Despite a few ups and downs, I had a brilliant time and would go again in a heartbeat. Lovely, lovely country.
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I'm so glad you went!
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I'm actually looking at a few flights for next week. I haven't booked yet, but I'm really just about out of money, so I can't afford to stay and pay rent any longer. Now a job, still no news yet. Applying, but haven't heard back.
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*gets excited and bounces around* Let me know, let me know!! I wanna see you on the day you get back!! I'll treat you to dinner - and I wanna introduce you to everyone at the store. ^^
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I've never been to a nightclub when it wasn't closed to become a concert venue. I think one day I'd like to go to one, just to see what it's all about, but then I'd probably leave after 15 minutes. Not really a partier, either, as my ideas of "parties" usually involve a couch, food, and DVD's.
Even though the weather was kind of meh, it made the photos such interesting colors! Whee!