My first day on the ukulele

Birthday Comic #1

My brother promised me a win at trivia for my birthday, but then he failed to deliver. He asked me what else he might be able to get me and I asked him for a Web comic to post on my blog! And this is what I got!

It’s quite good. There is a kernel of genius there, but he could use an editor. Click on it to see full size!

Ireland Travelogue – Day Eight

September 19, 2009

“Accelerate to 88 kilometers per hour!”
                 -Andy

We woke up in the hostel in Cashel, which is a pretty small town, and checked out. We strolled down the street to the bake shop for pastries, and I had my usual orange juice; Andy had his usual coffee (nasty habit). The hostel lady told us to move the car by 9:30 so we went back to move it to the rock where we were headed. But someone had painted some sort of black stripe down the side of it! It was pretty stressful. We tried to wipe it off with one of Andy’s old socks but it didn’t really work.

There wasn’t anything to do about it so we just tried not to worry until the time came. The Rock of Cashel was nothing like the Stone of Turoe (which is what we were expecting.) It was actually a giant hill on which was built a settlement in the 400s. It was very interesting because there were three buildings right next to each other: a round tower, a chapel, and a Cathedral that was built in between the two. It was built close enough to the other buildings that the design had to be modified quite a bit: windows were moved and the long and short ends were switched from their usual design. We took a lot of pictures and took the tour, which I listened to intently but Andy mostly ignored.

The Rock of Cashel

There was also a small museum and an A/V presentation and we took our time and let it all sink in.

We decided at this point that we wanted to get the car handled and stay at a hotel near the airport in Dublin this night , so we had better be on our way. We headed in that direction but wanted to stop for at least one more thing and it’s lucky we did.

We drove along the sometimes-highway sometimes-motorway. It wasn’t very stressful since we had plenty of time and it was the nicest highway we had been on. The only interesting thing that happened during the drive was we were held up by the National Ploughing Championships in a little town called Abbeyleix. The traffic for the championships was kind of brutal, but we listened to Irish radio and stuck it out. We found the whole thing very cute.

The place we ended up stopping was called Kildare. On the map it was marked as “Kildare Round Tower.” We pulled up to the Tower and Cathedral but there was no one around. We walked around not knowing what to do. There was a car parked in the parking lot, though, and a woman got out and told us that the person who runs the tower was at lunch and would be along shortly. She also was working in the Cathedral that day as the curator has Saturdays off. When the man arrived, he opened the Cathedral and we went in.

It was a lot like the other Cathedrals we had seen except this one was dedicated to St. Brigid, who apparently founded the church, the town, and was ordained a bishop “accidentally” even though she was a woman. Her story was fun and inspiring. The lady at the church talked to us about Obama and what we had done in Ireland and our ancestry. She was very sweet.

We were excited to be able to go up in the round tower. We had seen 3 or 4 in our travels but hadn’t been allowed to go inside any of them. The guide told us that this was only one of two where it was allowed. We had to climb 7 14 foot ladders to get to the top, and it was a very tight space. The view was magnificent and I fully recommend doing it if you can handle the enclosed spaces on the way up. The guide sent us to a museum in town where we watched another A/V presentation, this one hosted by a ghost who knew St. Brigid. It was cute and quirky.

Climbing the Round Tower

At this point, we were pretty worn out. We headed back to Dan Dooley car rentals to turn in the car. The only thing was: the stripe. I was pretty worried about this. Andy was worried too that I would end up paying the €1000 deductible, which is a whole lot.

The woman at the counter wasn’t sure if I would have to. She did successfully identify the cause of the mark: black magic marker. Then she called over the person who gets the cars ready for rental to see if he could remove it. He said the only thing he knew to try would be petrol. He brought some over and started wiping and it was coming off! I was saved! The attendant said “Thomas, you are a great man.” And I said “Yes, Thomas, you are a great man indeed!” and he blushed and said he wasn’t. But he totally was.

After we turned in the car, we went to the airport to try to find a hotel to stay at. We picked up the red courtesy phones but we could only find one hotel with vacancies, and they were charging an arm and a leg! Apparently, the all-Ireland football finals were that weekend in Dublin, and everything was booked up. This is like their Superbowl and we had been hearing about it all week. We considered ourselves lucky to find a vacancy and paid the rate, taking the hotel shuttle.

We hung out in the hotel bar for a few hours and watched football and wondered if we might meet some people, but we didn’t. There was a wedding at the hotel and Andy kept ribbing me about bridesmaids while we drank our cider but none of them ever really emerged. We watched Casino Royale in our hotel room and went to sleep.

I won’t write about the last day, a travel day, except to say that we saw a motorcycle accident just outside our hotel as we were waiting for the shuttle. That was the only eventful thing that happened. Oh, and Andy calculated the number of pictures we had taken and the number taken on each particular day. The total came out to around 940, which you can divide by 8 to get the per-day total. Most of them were on his camera.

You’ve seen some of them in these blog posts but you can see the best of our Ireland pictures (pared down to about 400ish) on Google Photo.

Here is a map of where we went on this our eighth day:

Ireland Travelogue – Day Seven

September 18, 2009

“Everyone says we should go to Galway.”
“I say you should learn to drive a manual.”
                 -Greg, Andy

Andy got up at 6, as promised. I slept in until 9:30. Andy claims he took pictures and saw the sunrise and that it was the best morning ever. He also paid 4 euro for two cups of coffee and found some sugar packets with quotations that he liked.

When I finally got my comparatively lazy butt up, I had another shower and spruced up for the first time in a couple days. We were feeling good which was important because we had a lot to do that day. Our plan was to hit as many historic sites as we could in county Galway before backtracking a bit to hit one place we had missed, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, which came highly recommended by a few people including the fellow who checked us out of our room.

We chanced upon our first stop accidentally, called Dunguaire Castle. It was closed, so we wandered around outside. It had a very impressively sized moat, but at low tide it seemed more like a bog. We didn’t stay too long as tour buses started to arrive.

We just happened upon this castle.

After a short drive was our first planned stop in Athenry. We stopped at the ruins of an Abbey outside of town and took some pictures. Then we walked down the street to get scones at a very nice bake shop, wandered the town gardens while eating them, then drove the two blocks over to the castle. The main attraction there was a 20 minute A/V presentation that was mainly good except for the two-to-three minute sections that were just slideshows of castles and abbeys in the area that all pretty much looked the same. Andy said “at least now we don’t have to visit all of them.”

Athenry gardens, where we snacked, with the castle in the background.

The next stop on our whirlwind tour of county Galway was the Turoe Stone. We drove about ten kilometers out of the way to see this, and it was a little disappointing. The actual stone was locked in a little house to protect it from the elements with a tiny window in the door to look through. The whole thing was surrounded by a closed “family fun park” which included an inflatable city. This led Andy to yell “inflatable city!” every time something underwhelming came up on the rest of the trip.

Thorr Ballylee, the next stop, was the castle that Yeats restored and lived in when he was writing. The place was closed for the season but there were some people there cleaning up who let us in for free to see it. It was a beautiful towerhouse located next to a babbling brook. This was the first time we were able to go out on the battlements, which was exciting. There were also Yeats quotations all about and I especially liked his dedication of the tower to his lady.

Highlights from Thorr Ballylee

After that excitement, we decided it was time to find something to snack on for lunch. We drove down to eat lunch in Gort just to be able to say we did something in Gort. Andy made his only foray into parallel parking here, which elicited a bit of a cracking sound from one of the hubcaps. It turned out to be okay, though. We had sandwiches in a bar that was almost entirely empty, which seems to have been a trend throughout the trip. The barmaid was flirting with the only two other customers there, and they were all young whippersnappers. We walked down to see the city centre of Gort, then wandered back to the car and set off for Bunratty.

We back-tracked a bit down to near Limerick to visit the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, which came highly recommended. Comparable to Colonial Williamsburg, in theme if not in scope, it features recreations and originals of all types of living spaces from around Ireland. I especially liked the home from the Burren area, made entirely from the flat limestone slabs of that region we had seen just the day before.

The Castle of Bunratty had spiral staircases on all four sides with interesting things to see on two floors of each. They also had a full sized banquet hall where they hold actual banquets in the evenings. We were able to go up to the very impressive and extensive ramparts on top of the castle. This and Barryscourt Castle were the two most impressive and exciting castles we visited.

At Bunratty they also had a very cool miniature work pony about the size of the dog that loved to lick Andy’s hand, and some very cool working dogs that were the size of large ponies. Their re-creation of an Irish town from the 19th century seemed spot-on. I especially liked that the pawn shop was recessed so you could go in without anyone noticing. The pottery shop was very nice and the shop owner very friendly. At this point, Andy had run out of Euros, but he let us buy some gifts with American dollars at a very good exchange rate. He was quite tickled by the $2 bills I used to pay.

They also had very neat examples of horizontal and vertical mills. The mills weren’t running at this point in the season, but the vertical one was attached to a wishing well. I threw in a 50 eurocent piece and wished for a sick friend of mine to get better, a 20 eurocent piece wishing for long happiness for Andy and his new girlfriend Claire and another 20 eurocent piece wishing to find a little love of my own. I guess the luck from this will have to do, since we didn’t try to get the gift of gab from the Blarney Stone.

Highlights from Bunratty

The one thing Andy says he regrets was not going to the banquet at Bunratty but it looked quite expensive, so we skipped out on it. Andy will have to catch it the next time! We headed down the road towards Dublin. At this point, Andy was very tired after having got up for the sunrise and needed some caffeine. After about an hour of looking, we found a fast food takeaway place to stop at in the town of Golden called Golden Kabob. Andy got fish and chips, a spicy wedges, and a can of Coke. I got a small margherita pizza and a “Club Orange,” a popular soft drink kind of like Orangina. We sat in a nearby park next to a brook and a castle ruin to eat and reflect on the day. It was very relaxing and the food was surprisingly good.

Enjoying my Club Orange next to a bridge that I imagine is hundreds of years old.

We decided that we wanted to see the “Rock of Cashel” the next day, so we drove the last five kilometers of the day. We parked in a car park and started looking for a hotel. The first one we tried (which was inside an old towerhouse) had no vacancies, but the clerk pointed us to a hostel. It was very nice and quaint. I went to the ATM to get cash and Andy moved the car out front and we settled in. We had a four-bed room to ourselves.

Before bed, we talked and agreed that even though it was super-fun, we were both about ready to head home.

Here is a map of where we went on this our seventh day:

Ireland Travelogue – Day Six

September 17, 2009

“It’s difficult to adequately moderate your temperature in this country.”
-Greg

We got up quickly and quietly to avoid our still-sleeping roommates and checked out without a shower or partaking of the free breakfast, since we couldn’t find it. We walked back to the car and got out of the garage before 9:15, when it would have started to cost more money. We had endured the evening commute traffic the day before, so now we got a taste of the morning commute. I navigated okay, mostly due to good planning and good signage, and we got out of Cork without incident.

We were running low on petrol so we decided to stop just north of Mallow to top up. We had no idea whether the car took unleaded or diesel, but the gas cap told us. Then we had no idea how many litres the tank held, so we went inside to ask. The attendant told us we could fill up BEFORE we paid. We were so used to Maryland where no one trusts you to do this, and it was refreshing. We got gas and everything worked out. We realized the price was not as low as it seemed because a) it’s Euros, b) it’s liters which are less than half a gallon. I believe the listed price was €1.14. We also both used the ATM here to top off our wallets as well.

After about a two and a half hour drive (Andy smoked in the car after Charleville and Limerick using stressed city driving as an excuse) we came to the Cliffs of Moher. This was pretty much the only thing we had planned to see other than Dublin when we arrived in country. Parking was €8, but seeing the cliffs was free. It was very impressive and very beautiful. I paid €2 to go up in a small tower at the edge of the cliffs. It would have been worth it except there was a cloud of gnats everywhere at the top of the tower, so many that you couldn’t really see. I advised Andy not to partake.

The Romanian casino dealer Andy had talked to the night before told him the best parts of the Cliffs are past the sign marked “Private Property” and “Extreme Danger.” When we got to that point, there were a lot of people just going through but many were turning around. Andy was determined to do the hour-each-way walk but I was not sure and said I would stay behind. You walk right along the cliff edge with no guardrail or anything past the sign. So, Andy started off. I took pictures of people for them and watched the goings-on while staying behind. Then one group came. They looked like Americans: a man, his parents, and his wife or girlfriend. She just started up the quasilegal path without a second word while they stayed behind and fretted and called out for her to come back. She did and they teased her about falling to her death and they left.

I pondered on it for a while and figured that I would rather be like her than like them, and I might only ever come to this place once in my life, so I decided to do the walk. I set off about ten minutes after Andy had. We each had to walk our own path, I guess. It was about an hour and neither one of us made it to the actual end. I met up with Andy as he was returning. It was a good hike but very hot and tiring: tiring enough that we could definitely feel it the next day.

The obligatory tourist image of the Cliffs

When we got back to the public area of the cliffs, we stopped to look out over them on a concrete platform and heard a thunderous noise. It was something like: BOOM… BOOOM…. SPLASH. After looking around and hearing a few people talk about it, we learned that some of the cliffs had fell into the sea right below where we were standing. It was pretty exciting.

Highlights from the Cliffs of Moher

We checked out the gift shops and left. We had determined that the next stop was going to be a cave. The question was: which one? There were two choices that we could determine: Doolin Cave and Ailwee Cave. I was determined to do the second because it was on my map and the brochure had a picture of a bear on it. But Andy decided on Doolin Cave and had his heart set on it. That’s where we ended up and he made the right choice in the end, I think.

Doolin Cave was gorgeous. It has the largest stalactite in the world along with everything else you might want in a cave: underground rivers, stalactites and stalagmites, reflections, darkness, and little unexplored cave offshoots filled with the unknown. The tour guide had been a caver since the early 60’s and had a wonderful sense of humor. When someone asked him if the big stalactite was going to fall down, he said “I hope not, the bank manager would be very upset.” He had a lot of knowledge about the caves and the various scientific studies being performed on them.

Closeup of the most massive stalactite in the world.

After Doolin, we continued along the coast road. We didn’t know but we had entered The Burren, a protected area of limestone steps and sheets that is quite otherworldly. This goes from the ocean all the way up to the mountains. We stopped off at the side of the road to explore and enjoy the landscape. Andy said this was the best part to drive because it was fast, easy, and beautiful.

Highlights from The Burren

We had considered going to Galway but city life is not for Mr. Poob. So we stayed on the scenic coast road a bit longer looking for a place to stay the night. First, we found a place to eat called Vasco. It reminded us very much of California cuisine. Some British guy who looked like the villain from Underworld, we’ll call him Nigel, forced his wife to eat a whole piece of chocolate cake.I liked it because they had a non-alcoholic drinks section and promised the food was local and healthy. I had a mixed berry smoothie, tomato and seafood chowder, and a mini-cheese platter. Andy had potato and Italian basil soup and the small meat platter. The platters came with grapes and horseradish which were both yummy.

Also, this town had a graveyard where we looked for ancestors but all the graves older than 1930 had been eroded and couldn’t be read. We eventually stopped trying to do this for this reason and because it feels kind of weird to be a tourist in a graveyard.

The town also had one last interesting feature: haybales that smelled like olives. They smelled really good.

After doing a B&B and a hostel the previous two nights, neither of which provided a successful showering experience for us, we decided to stay in a hotel. The waitress said there was a new one in the next town over so we set out.

She had said that it was across from the pier so when we came to one, we pulled over. All we saw was a bar with lots of old women singing “Boots are Made for Walking,” so Andy went in and asked where the hotel was. They told us it was next door. When we went next door and walked in the open entryway, it seemed wrong. An old man across the street questioned what we were doing and told us where to go. I think we the place we had walked into was his house.

The hotel was great except it had no wifi. I showered that night and the next morning. It was glorious. Andy asked me for some godforsaken reason to set my phone alarm for 6AM, so I did. And laid down my head.

Here is a map of where we went on this our sixth day:

Ireland Travelogue – Day Five

September 16, 2009

“Cliffs and castles, my friend, it’s all about cliffs and castles.”
-Andy

I had set my phone to alarm at 8:15 for our complimentary breakfast at 9. I got up when it went off and got in the shower. I couldn’t figure out how to work it, at least, how to get hot water to come out. It turned itself off eventually, which I figured meant my shower time was over. I told Andy not to even try when he got up at 8:30 and we packed up. Then I realized I couldn’t find my passport, which I had been keeping in my pocket.

I was very stressed out. The last time I knew I had it for sure was the rental car desk. Andy and I talked over our options before and during breakfast. It could be in Wicklow, Pirate’s Cove, The Gallyvoe Beach, or the Gallyvoe Hotel. We figured we could try calling these places and then the American Embassy if that didn’t work.

I was too stressed out to eat much of my full Irish breakfast, which involved a lot of meat anyway. I nibbled at the egg and bread and waffle-looking potato patty. So we got through it and talked to the hostess. She told us a few things about Cobh, which we were about to visit and gave us a B&B brochure. When I told her about my passport, she offered to call the hotel. She did and they had it! We were saved. We drove down to the hotel (for the third time) and retrieved it from their reception. With a great sense of relief on my part, we were off to Cork and Cobh (pronounced Cove)!

But first, we stopped in Ballycotton, a town on the far southern coast with a cliff walk. This was a beautiful stroll along the cliffs and our first in Ireland. I wanted to hurry and get to the city but Andy admonished me that it was all about the cliffs and castles. So, we did the cliff walk and it was excellent. We parked next to the local pitch-and-putt and started out.

We were pretty high up, but at one point there were stairs down to the sea that Andy took, but I stayed at the top. We took pictures of each other in our respective positions. We saw a bunker maybe three quarters of a mile further down the cliff and decided to end our walk there. It was pretty cool and had lots of interesting graffiti in it. On our way back to the car, we passed a lot of morning joggers. Andy asked me if I lived here if I would do the walk every day. Like a true party pooper, I told him I probably only would if the other end of the walk was where I worked. It really was beautiful, though.

Highlights from our first cliff walk.

We took the coastal road back to the main highway that goes to Cork and Cobh. I was getting agitated because we hadn’t paid our toll from Dublin the day before and we had to do it by 8pm. So, we decided to stop in a town called Midleton. We went to the supermarket, since that’s foten where you can do it, but the clerk had no idea what we were talking about. A very nice local customer pointed us to where we could do in town at a convenience store type place. Paid up!

We then headed out of town the wrong way, drove for 10 minutes, turned around and came back so that we could leave the right way. We were on our way to Cobh, which is an island with only bridge to get on and off of it. We followed the signs to the small harbor town and drove through FOTA, a wildlife preserve along the way. We came into town in kind of an unexpected place and parked on the promenade, which is a waterfront area on the other side of the harbor from the city centre. We walked through the harbor past the giant cruise ship boat ties to the tourist areas. This was apparently the point from which most of the Irish left during the famine to come to the US via Ellis Island.

Gothic Cathedral in Cobh

We walked up a steep hill to the Cobh Cathedral, a giant gothic thing. We walked in and all around it and then came back down the hill. On the way down we saw some “toughs” who I thought were looking for trouble but Andy said they were just kids. We stopped for some paninis. Folks, in Ireland apparently they call barbecue sauce “cajun sauce.” I ordered cajun sauce on my panini and it was a mistake. They did give us a nice salad, though, and some potato chips.

We walked back to the car and decided to drive out a different way than we came in, thinking we might see something neat or maybe stop at the graveyard. We got a little lost and ended up driving all over on the very hilly and very narrow streets of the town. We even drove right past the Cathedral again. We made it out the other entrance to town and looped back around the other side of the island to the same one bridge we came in on. We stopped just before the bridge to check out a castle that was for sale on the side of the road. After making an appraisal, we drove back across the bridge through FOTA and were out of there.

CASTLE FOR SALE

Next stop was a castle that had been restored to as it was in the 1600s. This one was run by the Irish government and we were not charged a fee. This might be because it’s free or it might be because we were entering the tour late. We learned all about Lord Barry and Lady Roche and their marriage. The castle was restored to as it was during the time that they lived there. I would definitely recommend this site immensely. Out tour guide was very good and took our picture eating at the Lord’s table.

Highlights from the Castle

So, cliffs and castles accomplished, we decided to head into the city of Cork. The rush hour commute seemed to be happening again, it was about 4:20. We crossed a couple bridges and parked in the first car park we came to. It was the the city hall lot and they used the same ticketing and payment system as they do in my hometown of Silver Spring. We wandered around lost for about 20 minutes until we got our bearings, and headed to the city centre.

Andy got very serious about driving in Cork

We walked down the main row with all the shops and restaurants looking for hostels, but could not find any. So Andy decided to take charge. We went into the Old Oak bar, which he had heard of by reputation, and ordered drinks. The bartender gave us the scoop on the local hostels and recommended one called Brú, which also had a bar in it, and he even drew us a map.

So, with one pint in each of us, we wandered over there and booked two beds in a four bed room. We went up and barrelled into the room not really knowing the hostel etiquette. Well, we didn’t barrel in because we couldn’t figure out the key quickly, and a woman opened the door for us. She was in there with another fellow. We checked out the room quickly and left in what I realized later was probably kind of a rude way.

We walked back to the main drag and had dinner at a little second story restaurant called Adam + Eve. I had a very good braised salmon and Andy had lamb. I was very happy with the meal. We walked back to the car and found out it would cost less if we paid now, so we did. It was €13. It would have been only €5 if we had parked after 5 but c’est la vie. I got some of my stuff from the car but Andy opted out. We walked back across the two rivers to the hostel.

We sat in the back of the bar for most of the evening; Andy drank a bit and I wrote in this chronicle. We saw our roommates in the bar but didn’t try to talk to them. Andy took a 20 minute break from the bar to lose €10 in the casino across the street. It was probably worth it, though, since he got some good information about the Cliffs of Moher from the Romanian dealer. We went upstairs, settled in, and the only time we talked to our roommates was when they told Andy where the bathroom light switch was. We slept well in the bunk beds. I had the top bunk just as I did when we were young.

Here is a map of where we went on this our fifth day:

Ireland Travelogue – Day Four

September 15, 2009

“A manual in traffic is incorrect.”
-Andy

Andy got up at 9:15, myself at 10 for a planned checkout of 10:30. Everything went as planned and we walked down O’Connell street with our luggage to catch the air coach back to the airport. We figured out the city bus was a little bit cheaper so we took it instead. We rode out on the top of the double-decker and saw the highways and suburbs of Dublin. Andy prepared for his upcoming task by paying special attention to the traffic idiosyncrasies, including the flashing yellow that occurs after red and before green.

Andy had had the hotel breakfast of bacon and beans so I had a bagel at an airport cafe while he was retrieving his long-awaited funds from a bank at the airport. We then waited on line for Dan Dooley, the Irish car rental company our Dad had recommended. It was by far the longest line for “care hire” with 4 people waiting in it. Andy raised his eyebrows at the €1000 deductible on the insurance since he was going to be driving a left-hand-side manual for the first time. But we hired it and took the shuttle out to where the cars were. Andy drove around the parking lot a bit and only stalled out once before we were off.  I was a bit rusty, it had been about never since I last drove left sided manual.

Instead of going straight to Cork along the highway, we decided to take the coastal road. We drove south to Wicklow, the county that is said to give Ireland its reputation as the Emerald Isle. We stopped in the town of Wicklow and parked at the pay-and-display without paying or displaying, ha ha, chumps, as we didn’t realize what was going on. We walked along the wharf in the coastal town to the Black Castle, a ruin on a piece of land jutting out into the ocean. We walked all around it and took lots of pictures.

Both of us enjoying the view from the ruins of the Black Castle

When we got back to the car, we realized we were supposed to pay so I put in €1. Since we had time, we went and had coffee and scones at the local cafe. Andy called his scone a “biscuit” and the lady corrected him. Maybe I just wanted a biscuit ok? The hot chocolate I had was very good. We paid and left.

Even though we were already taking the scenic route, we decided to take the even more scenic route and take the coast road. You couldn’t see anything from the road so we thought we had made the wrong choice until we got to Pirate’s Cove. There was a B&B there and a beautiful view of a long beach and cool windmills far out into the ocean. So the coastal road was worth it after all.

The View from Pirate's Cove

The drive south took a lot longer than we thought it was going to. There were a lot of small towns to drive through (and a few big ones) and the road was not really a highway. One time we were driving through heavy afternoon commuting traffic in Waterford and Andy flooded the engine by revving it too much in first gear. We also made a few wrong turns due to the incompetence of the navigator (me). Andy says “there are no wrong turns, only adventures.” I love that kid.

We ended up nearing Cork and decided to exit early and look for a B&B. We drove down a small road to a town called Gallyvoe where they had a nice hotel and a beach. The beach was chilly but beautiful. We drove back up into the country hills to search for a B&B. We stopped at the first one we found, which was pretty fancy and nice. It was called the Moloney farmhouse. It was down a very long and narrow road and the only room that was vacant had only one bed, but we signed up for it anyway as it was getting dark. We went to have dinner at the Gallyvoe Hotel, got lost, and drove 7 kilometers in the wrong direction. We eventually found it, sat down and ate. Andy had the Duck Confit and I had the Fettuccine and Clams. We retired back to the B&B and looked through their pamphlets in the sitting room to see what to do the next day.

I was offered tea by the proprietor which I turned down because I don’t like tea, being dense and not realizing it was really just an invitation to chat, which I did want to do. Lesson learned, I guess. Andy had a chat with the proprietor’s husband who had a very thick accent.  I think he was drunk….

We retired. The bed was very very soft and I had lots of weird dreams. I hope Andy, who was sharing it with me, didn’t mind.  I got kicked… alot.

Here is a map of where we went on this our fourth day:

Ireland Travelogue – Day Three

September 14, 2009

“They build walls everywhere to keep the vikings out.”
-Andy

We slept in until about 10:15, then skipped breakfast and went straight to the Old Jameson Distillery. Andy thought he had lost his credit card that morning and was stressing out quite a bit, I wasn’t stressing… there was no money on it anyways, but it was in my wallet.

We left for the distillery and walked along the tram tracks. We just missed the first tour, so we browsed the shop, looked over the touch screen exhibits, and sat in the cafe-like area. Greg wouldn’t let me go to the all Jameson bar while we waited… party pooper. We waited about 30 minutes for the tour to start. The tour guide had a very cool German-Irish accent. We watched a video and then they asked for volunteers to be official whiskey-tasters. Diana had warned us about this the night before, so Andy was in the front and volunteered very quickly. The tour was very nice even though the distillery was no longer located here and had been moved to southern Ireland. We learned all about casks and malt and triple-distilling. They enjoyed talking up their product. At the end, Andy got to try an American, Scotch, and Irish whiskey to say which one was the best.  Shots of whiskey for breakfast aren’t as delicious as they sound. We also got a complimentary whiskey. I chose to drink mine with cranberry and Andy elected for Ginger Ale (after his three shots). Apparently, in Spain they drink theirs with Coca-Cola but in New York they drink it with Coke. Make of that what you will.

Breakfast of Champions!

After our whiskey for breakfast (Andy said mine was more acceptable for breakfast because it “had fruit”) we decided it would probably be a good idea to eat something. We went to a place called the Voodoo Club Cafe. I had a “deuces” which apparently means “tuna melt” and Andy had the Voodoo chicken sandwich. It was an Internet cafe, so we checked our Internets.

Then we walked what seemed like (to me, at least) forever along the river until we got to Phoenix Park. It was a pretty extensive place and there were a lot of young people on their way to the Coldplay concert (that Danny said he was going to.) We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to meet our plans for the day and make it to both the gaol and the Zoo, but we went into the Zoo anyway. I have been to a lot of nice Zoos and going to them always reminds me of my ex-wife, so this one didn’t impress me too much. Andy has only really been to the National Zoo in DC, so it was good for him. He used it to practice his photography skills. He got some nice shots. The last part was under construction, so we headed out.  The elephants were freakin’ sweet!  Two of them kept ganging up on a smaller one until they finally pushed him into the wading pond.  It was beautiful weather for Ireland but still not quite swimming weather which I assume is why the elephant bolted out as fast as he could.  Also I found out it is very difficult to take pictures of playful seals while they swim… so many deleted photos of blurry water that day!

Some of Andy's best shots from the Zoo.

Even though we weren’t sure we could make the gaol in time, we stopped at the Wellington Memorial. There was a cute dog there with a soccer ball and lots of people playing. The monument was large and impressive, but not as big an obelisk as the Washington Monument if I can judge these things correctly.  Always talkin’ smack about the monuments.  It was an awesome obelisk because it had big slanty stairs you could climb and sit on around it.

Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park

After a nice ten minute break, we started another looong walk wussy to the Kilmainham Gaol. We actually walked about three blocks past it and had to backtrack. We made it there 5 minutes before the last (6 o’clock) tour.  Just as I has planned.

The tour guide at the gaol I quite fancied. She liked to tell incredibly sad stories about the gaol’s history tinged with nationalist fervor. Things like: people being executed after only being able to spend 10 minutes with their new wives and such. I like women who are sad and political. Anyway, the gaol was very exciting and impressive and played an important role in the Irish Independence movements of the early 20th century.

I couldn’t stand any more walking so we took the double-decker Dublin Bus back down Thomas Street to the Temple Bar. We hadn’t explored that area too much, so we decided to eat there and looked for a restaurant. We decided to try something foreign since we had been partaking of mostly Irish fare. We stopped into a Tandoori restaurant where we got the “early bird” special at 6:30PM (again, when do these people eat?) We were the first ones there.

We turned in early as we knew the next day would be a driving day. We stayed up until 9:15 watching TV shows about Irish history on what seemed like their version of PBS.

Here is a map of where we went on this our third day:

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Ireland Travelogue – Day Two

September 13, 2009

“This entire country was designed for people 20 centimeters shorter than me.”
-Greg

This day was a lot of walking. We woke up at 9ish and we bought the full breakfast in the hotel for €10. Andy had pudding that tasted like meat.  I highly recommend the full Irish breakfast.  Nothing like bacon, blood pudding, eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, sausage, juice, and coffee to get your day of marathon walking going. I ate mostly yogurt and eggs, not sure what state my stomach would be in.

We went to Trinity College first, and walked around it several city blocks looking for the entrance. Andy wanted to go in the entrance to the Dental School but I thought better of it, so we continued going around. You wouldn’t even let us go in the second entrance that would have taken us to the Book…eventually. The whole place had very high walls around it preventing you from seeing anything at all, really. It also had a train track running through it which reminded me of my alma mater, Grinnell College.

When we finally found the entrance and went in, we saw the Book of Kells and its respective museum (the only place in Dublin that didn’t accept the Dublin Pass). The exhibit was very nice and informative, and the book itself was beautiful, but we couldn’t read it since it was in Latin (duh!) We walked out to the college grounds and listened in to a tour guide who was explaining about “Gielguds,” fluent speakers of the Irish language. According to him, they were an “insufferable people.” They are insufferable people… bah. All the buildings around us were hundreds of years old. They were the notably oldest parts of the college, and the guide said they were mainly used for dormitories and administrative offices.

Class was indeed in session.

After leaving the college, we took a walk down Grafton Street, a walking avenue with shops where they have some street performances. There were some very excellent human statues, including one really amazing one who I believe was supposed to look like Winston Churchill.

At the end of Grafton Street is St. Stephen’s Green, a very nice park near the city center. It was a beautiful day: 75 degrees, no clouds in the sky, a nice breeze. We relaxed on the green a bit and did some people watching. I had worn shorts that day and I was very comfortable, which was lucky since apparently shorts are not something one often wears in this country.  This was the best part of Dublin.  The rest was a city… and cities suck.

Two views of Andy relaxing on St. Stephen's Green

Next we went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was a lot like Christ Church but less old and with a lot of information about Jonathan Swift, who was a dean of the church and who was buried there. It also had a very nice green outside of it with posted rules that there was no ball-playing allowed, but of course tons of kids were kicking a soccer ball around, and who would be able to resist it on such a nice day?

We walked a block north to Dublin Castle, (it wasnt a castle) which was also a palace and an administration center for the Irish government. We waited in the waiting area for the guided tour. A saucy gentleman gave us the tour through palace rooms, courtyards, and an archaeological site with excavations of the base of one of the now-defunct towers.  It was very disappointing, no guards, cannons, or parapets.  It could barely be defined as a castle.  I felt like I couldve laid siege to it.

I don't know if these guards for Dublin Castle were quite up to the task.

We returned to Grafton St. via our favorite Thomas St. and ate at Captain America’s Restaurant and Bar. Andy had a gravy burger and I had a veggie enchilada with chips. I left a tip even though we didn’t think we were supposed to.  Look at that sign.  How could we not eat there.  It was like Shennanigans with all the goofy crap it had on the walls.  Plus with Captain Americas as the theme it felt like we were eating in the U.S. embassy.

We wanted to see what they think American food is like. They got close, but not exactly right.

After Captain America’s, we went back to St. Stephen’s and checked out the South side (this is how beautiful the day was, relaxing on the green was the perfect pastime.) There was some kind of Hare Krishna festival going on with a guy playing the ukulele and a dancing puppet. We stayed a while and watched people play “football.” A group of kids with balloon swords came out of nowhere and milled around a bit before seeing another similar group of kids across the green. They started running towards each other and one enterprising child yelled “Dirty Celts!” at the other group. It was an epic battle, like something out of Braveheart. After the battle subsided, we sunbathed a bit more.

We thought about going to a hotel for Irish dancing far to the south where our Dublin Passes would get us a CD and a glass of champagne for free, but instead we decided to head back to our hotel where there was also Irish dancing.  I still miss the CD that got away…

On the way back to the hotel, we saw a very cool street band playing. Andy wanted to buy their CD but he had absolutely no money.  Rub it in why dont you…

I like the hat the drummer is wearing.

We went to listen to the Irish music and watch the Irish dancing in the basement of our hotel. We met some people there: Danny, a Quebecois, and Diana, an Aussie. They were staying in a hostel in Dublin and had come to see the dancing too. Diana was doing a round-the-world trip and Danny had been in Ireland for a month and a half traveling around. Apparently he had no money and all he had left was a plane ticket home and a Coldplay concert ticket the next day, which I thought was hardcore. Andy got Diana to take our picture and then asked her to e-mail it to me (he knows all the tricks, although it didn’t seem to’ve worked.) We also met Anne and Katy, Americans going for study abroad in Cork for a semester. We went upstairs to the pub after the dancing ended and ended up hanging out with Danny and Diana ’til about 2 in the morning. Andy was very sloshed. Well, you know, when in Rome… We got fried food at a restaurant called Eddie Rocket’s and then went to sleep.

Here is a map of where we went on this our second day:

Ireland Travelogue – Day One

September 11/12, 2009

“The key is not to sleep.”
-Greg

Jetlagged.

I did not sleep on the overnight flight due to my theory that staying up is the best way to beat this. It’s pretty rough. It’s about 3PM here on the first day when I’m writing this which is the same as skipping a night of sleep until 10am the next morning. I can tell Andy is feeling it too. We are chilling in the room right now hopefully not falling asleep…

Haven’t yet.

Today we arrived in Dublin.

The flight was somewhat unremarkable. Whatever, I watched Wall-E… it was awesome. I guess the main thing to be remarked on was that we were flying on September 11, which made a few people we told about it nervous. It was fine, though. We flew on Aer Lingus, the Irish airline. The plane was mostly empty and there was no one seated in the exit rows so we were asked if we wanted to move there. We did. We were seated directly across from one of the flight attendants and facing each other, which was a little bit awkward, but she was friendly. The in-flight entertainment was quite good and I ended up watching the first 5 episodes of Mad Men, along with a couple movies. It was a redeye flight and the “night” only lasted about 4 and a half hours.

After landing early in the morning, we stopped in the airport at the tourist information station, where there was something of a line. Andy smoked, of course, while I waited in it, and when we got up to the counter we decided to purchase what are called the “Dublin Pass.” These were cards that you paid up front for and allowed you to get into most Dublin attractions for free. We also got a city map with all the tourist attractions listed on it.

We walked from the airport bus stop to the hotel and checked in, then set out pretty much immediately across the river and east about ten blocks.

Arriving at our Hotel in Dublin

We stopped along the way a couple times to take pictures of Dublin in general. One of the first places we stopped was a restaurant called “gruel.” Andy had to have his picture taken in front of it:

Who could pass up a picture with the such well advertised gruel?

Andy thought this restaurant was cool, but I didn't notice him volunteering to eat there.

We also stopped at Christ Church Cathedral and the Guinness Storehouse, both very impressive. The Cathedral was almost 1000 years old and filled with all sort of ornate decoration.

We have about 15 pictures of Cathedrals, here's the best picture, at Christ Church.

It also had crypts underneath it that you could walk through. I had never been in a crypt before. There were cool exhibits of all sorts including “The Cat and the Rat,” two mummified animals that had gotten stuck in the organ pipes and were mentioned in “Finnegan’s Wake” by James Joyce, and jewels donated to Ireland by William of Orange.

Mummified Animals!

The Brewery and Storehouse had a very entertaining, thorough, and modern explanation of how Guinness is made, and they were in the process of celebrating their 250th anniversary. I tasted the featured beverage in the tasting center, but passed on the free pint at the Gravity Bar, which is the highest point you can go to in Dublin. I did not insult the locals by refusing their delicious gifts. The views from there were spectacular.

The View from the Guinness Storehouse Gravity Bar

Both places accepted our Dublin Pass, which seemed fortuitous.  Well, they were in the Dublin Pass brochure… so I think they had to.

The city kind of reminded me of Baltimore. I think that’s a compliment.  …really?

We stopped at a pub called “The Cink” on the way back for food. It was deserted at noontime. When do people here eat lunch? We stayed a while and watched soccer and talked and tried not to fall asleep. When we wandered back to the hotel, I tried to get my phone to work, but it didn’t. I did get the adapter to work so I knew I could charge it if I ever did get it to work.

We went to sleep at 3:15 (Andy) and 4:15 (Greg) and got up at 9:30 and 10:30 PM respectively to go have drinks at the hotel pub. They played 80’s music and it was pretty busy as it was Saturday night.  It was awesome!  I’ve never seen so many people jam out to the song “shout” since Animal House. We stayed up ’til 1:30 planning and chatting and then went back up to our room on the third floor for bed.

Here is a map of where we went on this our first day: