Okay! Finally at a Wi-Fi hotspot in, where else, the Shannon airport as we are waiting to board our flight out to Boston, and then on to L.A. Let me go backwards a bit to catch y'all up. Last night we stayed at Bunratty Grove, which was nice and probably the only place I wasn't freezing cold cause the weather was fairly mild. This morning was spent putting our luggage back together after all the drama of the car... Yesterday (Cindy's Birthday!) we woke in Killarney where we stayed at Kathleen's Country Inn. Breakfast was great. Kathleen is extremely high-energy and was very concerned about our itinerary and definitely seemed to think we had it all wrong. But we didn't care. She told us the Gap of Dunloe would take a whole day -- but it took about 2 hours. We caught a little horse and buggy ride with a guide who was great and took us through the Gap, which is a beautiful area of Killarney National Park where supposedly the Leprechauns and Fairies live! The weather was good, for once, so it was not so bad riding in the little cart. Then we drove all through the park and the Ring of Kerry and saw the beautiful southern countryside. We ended up in Bunratty where we went to the Medieval Banquet for Cindy's birthday dinner!! Everyone at our table was from Florida, go figure. The girl sitting next to me went to the same college as Cindy. Guess only Americans do cheesy touristy things like that.
The day before that, we left Garnish House in Cork for Killarney -- lots of shopping! All right gotta board the plane... See you all in the US!
Monday, October 17, 2005
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Day 7
I've kind of lost track of the days; forgive me -- But we went to Cork yesterday and stayed at Garnish House which was really nice - they greeted us with tea, hot chocolate, and a pile of scones and croissants right when we arrived - then we found out our rooms had been upgraded cause that was the space they had so we had two spacious suites for the four of us. So that was cool. Cork was nice - shopping wasn't quite as great as I had thought it would be -- lots of generic stuff -- not a lot specific to Ireland -- but today after our awesome breakfast at Garnish house we headed to Killarney where the shopping is much better. OH but between here and there we went to blarney castle where Cindy, Kimsey and I all kissed the Blarney Stone - Marianne wimped out -- but we all did climb to the top and walked all around Blarney Castle - it was really fun and the weather is mild today if a bit overcast. I definitely like the south of Ireland better than the north! Anyway Killarney is fun - I'm at an internet cafe now. Wish I could upload more photos but I might have to just do it all when I get back - I've not had an easy time connecting with my laptop and have had to rely on public computers. Anyway all is well, having fun - maybe will write more if I can actually get online later...
Friday, October 14, 2005
Day 6
At an internet cafe so I have to be quick -- but we walked all around Dublin yesterday, it was fantastic -- went to a couple of churches and to Dublinia, a viking museum - we went to Dublin Castle as well -- then drank hot chocolate at a chocolate cafe -- then we drove onward to Wexford where we had dinner at a local pub which felt very very local and quaint and not at all touristy -- had a great dinner - then back to Killiane Castle which was great except that the heat shut off in the middle of the night which was freezing!! Now we're in Cork and about to go shopping so I can't stay here forever but that's the quick update!!
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Day 5
Three days up all at once, can you believe it? I'm in Dublin now and the room actually has a phone through which I've hijacked some sort of internet connection. I fear I will end up being charged for this but my internet adventures have been so insane here that I don't care -- at Ashford Castle they had some terrible Web TV thing that didn't really work so Cindy unplugged the internet jack from the tv and plugged it into my computer... then in Belfast I was actually emailing from some sort of internet phone booth -- and in Dromore I had to ask the host of our b&b to use her personal computer. At any rate, it took me a while to get the entries up. I'd put up more pictures but I might be being charged per minute here and I don't want to try to upload them all on dialup... sorry!
Anyway! We left Sylvan Hill House this morning -- the hosts were wonderful though I think they thought we were freaks. Within about five minutes of arrival (with all our luggage drama) Marianne started asking them about the sheep colors which turned out to relate to their mating. So we walk in with enough luggage for a two-month stay for one night and start talking about sheep mating. Excellent. Anyway from there we attempted to drvive to Newgrange tomb -- but when we got to the site they said you have to come in through the visitor's center, wait for a shuttle which will take you back here -- and the visitor's center is 20 minutes away and the shuttles leave every half-hour. That sounded completely illogical like many other things in Ireland, and a pain in the ass so we skipped Newgrange, though Marianne did jump out and try to take a picture of Knowles Tomb and got yelled at to leave and go with the tour group. Sigh.
Anyway -- we then went to the Hill of Tara which was FREEZING cold but pretty. Lots of sheep you could walk right up to which meant an obstacle course of sheep dung; I felt very far away from LA, I'll tell you that. Anyway from there we headed to Dublin where we arrived at Grafton Guest House which is fantastic so far! And it's in a great location, we're right in the middle of everything - Temple Bar, St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, Trinity College. We walked all around and did some shopping. We went to dinner at a cafe and then to see Bloody Sunday Inquiry at the Abbey Theater as part of the Dublin Theater Festival. As a woman with a B.A. in Theater I have to say what a waste of a stage. If you want to know why, I can tell you in person - too much to try to describe here, but while informative, its dramatic value was definitely questionable. Anyway we're back in the room now, getting ready for bed -- it's weird to think it's only 3:30 PM in LA.
Tomorrow we're seeing the Book of Kells (are you excited, Asa?) and Trinity College and more of Dublin. Not exactly sure when the next upload will be cause I don't want to spend ALL my time hunting down internet connections! So hope these few entries will be entertaining enough for a day or two... Thanks for all your comments, btw, I love them! Miss you all...
Anyway! We left Sylvan Hill House this morning -- the hosts were wonderful though I think they thought we were freaks. Within about five minutes of arrival (with all our luggage drama) Marianne started asking them about the sheep colors which turned out to relate to their mating. So we walk in with enough luggage for a two-month stay for one night and start talking about sheep mating. Excellent. Anyway from there we attempted to drvive to Newgrange tomb -- but when we got to the site they said you have to come in through the visitor's center, wait for a shuttle which will take you back here -- and the visitor's center is 20 minutes away and the shuttles leave every half-hour. That sounded completely illogical like many other things in Ireland, and a pain in the ass so we skipped Newgrange, though Marianne did jump out and try to take a picture of Knowles Tomb and got yelled at to leave and go with the tour group. Sigh.
Anyway -- we then went to the Hill of Tara which was FREEZING cold but pretty. Lots of sheep you could walk right up to which meant an obstacle course of sheep dung; I felt very far away from LA, I'll tell you that. Anyway from there we headed to Dublin where we arrived at Grafton Guest House which is fantastic so far! And it's in a great location, we're right in the middle of everything - Temple Bar, St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, Trinity College. We walked all around and did some shopping. We went to dinner at a cafe and then to see Bloody Sunday Inquiry at the Abbey Theater as part of the Dublin Theater Festival. As a woman with a B.A. in Theater I have to say what a waste of a stage. If you want to know why, I can tell you in person - too much to try to describe here, but while informative, its dramatic value was definitely questionable. Anyway we're back in the room now, getting ready for bed -- it's weird to think it's only 3:30 PM in LA.
Tomorrow we're seeing the Book of Kells (are you excited, Asa?) and Trinity College and more of Dublin. Not exactly sure when the next upload will be cause I don't want to spend ALL my time hunting down internet connections! So hope these few entries will be entertaining enough for a day or two... Thanks for all your comments, btw, I love them! Miss you all...
Day 4
Well, I never had time to upload Day 3 today because I've been pretty much without internet access -- I was able to log onto my email briefly in a booth like a phone booth in the middle of Belfast but with everyone waiting for me, I couldn't really write much. Anyway I'll upload both of these tomorrow I think so by the time you read this, you should see both. Anyway -- our stay in Derry was interesting -- there is a palpable sadness to the town that's evident in everything from the streets and the graffiti to the B&B we stayed at itself. It was fine -- but nothing like Devondell house and nothing like the people in the south of Ireland. Anyway we had breakfast there and then walked around the town -- not much to see there, actually - there were the Quay shops which looked from the outside like it could be a real shopping center but on the inside it kind of reminded me of that place in Hicksville where the Lord & Taylor clearance center is (LIers, you know what I'm talking about...) Anyway, after leaving Derry we headed to the Giant's Causeway which was cool, we took a bunch of pictures there which I hope to be able to post soon. There was a tea room there where I finally got to eat a real British scone (remember, Northern Ireland is part of the UK -- so it was a genuine British scone and it was awesome!) Then we drove to Carrickfergus -- the namesake of a Joan Baez song -- and one of the many places I've insisted Cindy drag me to on our trips so that I can hear the song in the place. I figured I was not likely to be back in Ireland any time soon -- so I better go to Carrickfergus when I can! There wasn't much to see there but I was glad that we went. Anyway... after that we headed to Belfast -- which was not at all what I expected. The central shopping area could have been anyplace in the US -- The Body Shop, Starbucks, et al were present. So, not too exciting for someone who lives on 3rd street. Also it started raining again so it wasn't as much fun walking around. OH, and here's something interesting. We had a tough time finding a place to eat dinner because all the pubs had "stopped serving food" at 5:00! We finally found a pub that was open, ate dinner, and by the time we left (around 6:30) the entire town had basically shut down, everything was fully closed, and not a car was left in the parking structure we had parked in earlier. No idea why that is, we might ask our hosts tomorrow. Cindy did more amazing driving work, I don't know how she's doing it, I definitely would have killed all of us if it had been me behind the wheel! Anyway, we managed to find Sylvan Hill House around 7:30 which is so lovely and homey and welcoming -- but I swear, 7:30 feels like midnight. My sense of time is all off and on top of the time change, the days are so short here that the sun doesn't rise till after like 7:30 and it's set by 7 -- so much darkness, it's driving me crazy. And it's not even 9 and Cindy is already sleeping!
Anyway we're heading on to Dublin tomorrow and seeing a play and all sorts of stuff -- hoping I get to upload this from here in the morning!
Anyway we're heading on to Dublin tomorrow and seeing a play and all sorts of stuff -- hoping I get to upload this from here in the morning!
Day 3
Okay we'll see when I get to upload this... We've arrived in Londonderry, or as those in Southern Ireland refer to it, "Derry." It's definitely interesting to see the sharp, marked difference between Northern and Southern Ireland. Although there's no border that we could see driving in (we had no idea exactly when we even entered Northern Ireland) -- everything feels more British here -- the phone #s use the British country code, the money is the British pound, and the accents are very different. In Southern Ireland the accents are very easy to understand, closer to American - The further North you go it's harder and harder to understand what people say. Anyway, today was a big driving day -- we had breakfast at Ashford Castle, which was very nice -- but still, between you and me and everyone reading this blog, I preferred our 80E a night B&B breakfast the night before, and pretty much everything else about it... Rained ALL day today, we drove from Cong all the way up to Londonderry, stopping at Kylemore Abbey and Croag Patrick -- both were fun but hard to see or do much in the rain. The car is squished... we've got everything in it but that's only with stuff piled up to our eyeballs -- we're quite a sight driving down the road.
We stopped for ice cream at a gas station -- they have soft serve -- the woman said it was "plain ice cream" -- and she wasn't kidding -- it was actually not vanilla, just sweet cream. The texture was great though. Yummy, yummy. Anyway we drove through the country, saw lots of sheep, which appear to have green and pink paint on them. We have yet to figure out why.
Anyway Derry is much more of a city than anything we've experienced -- ate at a restaurant that was sort of like an Ireland version of TGI Friday's. But it was good. Tomorrow we'll walk around here and we'll see Belfast and stuff so I'm sure I'll have more to tell... bye for now!
We stopped for ice cream at a gas station -- they have soft serve -- the woman said it was "plain ice cream" -- and she wasn't kidding -- it was actually not vanilla, just sweet cream. The texture was great though. Yummy, yummy. Anyway we drove through the country, saw lots of sheep, which appear to have green and pink paint on them. We have yet to figure out why.
Anyway Derry is much more of a city than anything we've experienced -- ate at a restaurant that was sort of like an Ireland version of TGI Friday's. But it was good. Tomorrow we'll walk around here and we'll see Belfast and stuff so I'm sure I'll have more to tell... bye for now!
Quick Update
Okay I have to be fast -- I'm at an internet cafe in the mall in Dublin! It's so nice here and the weather is finally good - I have entries from the past 2 days in which we were in Northern Ireland but I haven't been anyplace where I can upload them -- might be able to tonight! Anyway we are getting ready to go to dinner and to go to the theater to see a play. We're having a great time, glad to be out of the car and walking around for a while. We went to St. Stephen's Green and Grafton street already and this afternoon went to the hill of Tara -- there are many more stories but I'll have to tell them later... Just wanted everyone to know we're alive!! More later...
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Day 2
There are four types of weather in Ireland. Windy, Cold, Rainy and All of The Above. But I am bundling, layering and surviving...
Today was our first real shopping day! We bought the famous Aran sweaters at a little shop in Galway, and I bought a coat at the department store -- which I was VERY excited about -- until we got to Ashford Castle (never to return to Galway) and discovered it still had security tags on it! Fortunately Dunne's is a chain so we'll try to figure out how to come across another one... Anyway we made our way to Ashford Castle, where we are now. This is our big splurge expensive hotel and we had really high expectations, plus Joan Baez has stayed here, so I was excited. It's nice, but I don't think worth what we paid for it as compared to other, not even as expensive hotels.
Anyway, we went to dinner at a random restaurant we found which was nice and had delicious desserts. So far I'm managing to do well on the big breakfast/big dinner meal plan -- not my usual little snacks all day eating -- but I'm managing. Then it was back to the castle to deal with the luggage drama. I don't really want to relive that but all I'll say is Marianne and Kimsey's luggage was finally delivered... and we have had to do some major shuffling and shifting to get all this crap in the car... Everything in Ireland is too small -- it's all like, miniature, tiny-sized -- and that's ME saying that, I don't know how larger people function here -- the cars are small, the elevators are small, the roads are small -- everything Ann told us about driving in Ireland is true, and then some. This is INSANE. Seriously. But we're having fun and tomorrow's a big driving day, up to Northern Ireland so I should have lots to tell... all for now.
PS -- Photos are up! Click on the photos link to start looking at them -- don't have time to label them all yet, I'll do that when I get back -- but at least there's some fun stuff to look at!
Today was our first real shopping day! We bought the famous Aran sweaters at a little shop in Galway, and I bought a coat at the department store -- which I was VERY excited about -- until we got to Ashford Castle (never to return to Galway) and discovered it still had security tags on it! Fortunately Dunne's is a chain so we'll try to figure out how to come across another one... Anyway we made our way to Ashford Castle, where we are now. This is our big splurge expensive hotel and we had really high expectations, plus Joan Baez has stayed here, so I was excited. It's nice, but I don't think worth what we paid for it as compared to other, not even as expensive hotels.
Anyway, we went to dinner at a random restaurant we found which was nice and had delicious desserts. So far I'm managing to do well on the big breakfast/big dinner meal plan -- not my usual little snacks all day eating -- but I'm managing. Then it was back to the castle to deal with the luggage drama. I don't really want to relive that but all I'll say is Marianne and Kimsey's luggage was finally delivered... and we have had to do some major shuffling and shifting to get all this crap in the car... Everything in Ireland is too small -- it's all like, miniature, tiny-sized -- and that's ME saying that, I don't know how larger people function here -- the cars are small, the elevators are small, the roads are small -- everything Ann told us about driving in Ireland is true, and then some. This is INSANE. Seriously. But we're having fun and tomorrow's a big driving day, up to Northern Ireland so I should have lots to tell... all for now.
PS -- Photos are up! Click on the photos link to start looking at them -- don't have time to label them all yet, I'll do that when I get back -- but at least there's some fun stuff to look at!
Day 1
All right - well we're in an internet cafe so I better write fast! Yesterday was near disaster - we made all our flights just find but Marianne and Kimsey's flight to Boston was delayed and they JUST missed the flight to Shannon -- well, fortunately they were able to get on another flight an hour or so later so they caught up with us there -- but of course, their luggage didn't make it. It's supposed to be delivered to us at Ashford Castle tonight. On top of that, we barely had room for OUR luggage in the small car we have so we had to empty our bags and leave a couple to be stored at the airport till we got back there. Sigh. Oh well. Anyway -- we finally made it out of the airport after dealing with all that drama -- and we went for breakfast -- we were all exhausted from lack of sleep and time change and all that but we found a place to eat in Ennis which was good. From there we went to the Cliffs of Moher (yay Em!) which was EXTREMELY windy -- thought I was going to die -- sooo grateful that Katie insisted I take her raincoat because it blocked the wind and it rains on and off here with no real warning!
Anyway beautiful stuff there -- then we drove around forever looking for Burren national park only to realize we were basically IN it the whole time. Took lots of pictures, saw lots of stuff, went to the Caves at Ailwee which were neat, also dark and wet. But fun. Driving has been an adventure, Cindy is amazing, I don't know how she's doing it. I'm totally confused by the roads.
Last night we got to Devondell House - Cindy passed out from exhaustion and Marianne, Kimsey and I went to dinner, had some good Italian food -- the radio had some weird stuff, Dolly Parton singing an old Diana Ross song -- it felt a little dream-like cause we were all so tired. But Devondell House was fantastic, and Berna, the host, was lovely and wonderful and helped us out immensely.
Went to an amazing Cathedral this morning for Catholic mass. Oh, yeah, Berna was impressed with what a devout Catholic I am. Ha. Sha, should I convert??
Okay well we've got shopping to do so I think I better run - those are just the highlights -- tonight we'll be at Ashford Castle -- amazing!!
talk to you then!
Anyway beautiful stuff there -- then we drove around forever looking for Burren national park only to realize we were basically IN it the whole time. Took lots of pictures, saw lots of stuff, went to the Caves at Ailwee which were neat, also dark and wet. But fun. Driving has been an adventure, Cindy is amazing, I don't know how she's doing it. I'm totally confused by the roads.
Last night we got to Devondell House - Cindy passed out from exhaustion and Marianne, Kimsey and I went to dinner, had some good Italian food -- the radio had some weird stuff, Dolly Parton singing an old Diana Ross song -- it felt a little dream-like cause we were all so tired. But Devondell House was fantastic, and Berna, the host, was lovely and wonderful and helped us out immensely.
Went to an amazing Cathedral this morning for Catholic mass. Oh, yeah, Berna was impressed with what a devout Catholic I am. Ha. Sha, should I convert??
Okay well we've got shopping to do so I think I better run - those are just the highlights -- tonight we'll be at Ashford Castle -- amazing!!
talk to you then!
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