It was Corey's first trip out of the United States and it would be a doozy of a time change. Ireland was 8 hours ahead of California and we'd be arriving at 7am Ireland time. I briefed Corey on how to best go about dealing with it and we wondered how well we'd do. I figured with enough coffee I could handle anything. We debated who would be the worst at it.
We had driven down to Corey's house to fly out of LAX. On the way home, I would fly back to Medford and she would fly back to LAX. Of course we hit LA traffic and were late. The lady at the counter let us know it too. She stamped "Late" on our baggage and said she'd do what she could to get it there. I never expect my luggage to make it where I'm going, so I didn't care... except that I hadn't packed my toothbrush in my carry-on like I had suggested to Corey. We rushed off to our gate and made it in plenty of time.
Our next travel snafu was that we were not seated together for the first leg of our flight. I'm not sure how this happened since we had booked the tickets together and chosen seats. In any case, we met back up again in Atlanta for lunch and had seats together for the flight to Dublin. We both tried to sleep on the plane, but even after passing around sleeping pills, we both hardly nodded off.
We arrived early to Dublin at about 6:30am. The plan was to drop off our luggage at the Hostel and then go sight-see. We weren't allowed to sleep during the day because we had to reset our internal clocks. We did fairly well until Corey crashed and begged me for a small nap. She laid in bed while I showered and checked out the hostel. I don't think she slept much. Then we got back up to see the town. I took over 500 pictures throughout the trip but will not post nearly that much.
This is Christ Church Cathedral, one of Ireland's most important churches. We toured the cathedral and came back later to see the college orchestra play.
On the left you can see Dublinia and on the right, across the footbridge is Christ Church Cathedral. Dublinia is a pretty cool viking exhibit that shows the early inhabitants of Dublin. Bet you didn't know Dublin was founded by Vikings. Corey and I tried on some traditional viking garb. Not really all that flattering.
This is a statue of Molly Malone. There's a famous song about her, she was a fishmonger who pushed her cart through streets wide and narrow shouting cockles and mussels, alive alive-oh!
Corey having a local brew.
Dublin and the River Liffey.
These are statues in honor of the potato famine. I was quite moved by them and took some really good pictures. This one just shows the group of them better than the others I took.
We also toured a replica of a famine ship.
Our tour guide schooled us on US History. It was embarrassing. He was really nice though.
Of course we had to tour the Guinness Storefront. It's quite impressive. A whole city block is covered (and owned by) the Guinness Brewery and Storefront.
After a really cool tour of all the behind the scenes stuff, Corey and I got a free (included in the price of admission) Guinness. It was Corey's first. We enjoyed them on top of the Sky Bar which gave us a 360 degree view of Dublin.
We toured Dublin Castle and the art museum they had there.
We shopped around in Temple Bar, one of the more hip and college student/touristy areas. We must've walked miles, especially after I got us completely turned around one night.
After Dublin we took a bus to Kilkenny which is a smaller town with some cute shops and cobblestone streets. We toured the Kilkenny Castle.
At St. Canice's Cathedral, we climbed the 7 story tower to look out over Kilkenny.
The steps were more like ladders.
Our only night in Kilkenny, we went to a wine bar called The Hole in the Wall. It was a tiny little cluttered wine bar that had a choice of a few wines. The owner was a big US History buff and talked to us about the conspiracy surrounding the Kennedy assassination. He had it down to a science. Then we discussed George Clooney and how his ancestors are from Ireland and they will be filming a documentary there about it. We went upstairs to see Karrie, a local singer. She's the aunt of Mick Flannery who's pretty popular in Ireland. Mick's mom sang back up vocals and even a song on her own. They both had gorgeous voices. Not a lot of people came, so it was an intimate atmosphere with the stone walls and fireplace and wooden shutters. The place was dimly lit with candles and I was buzzed off two glasses of wine. It was absolutely fabulous, my best night there! We each bought one of her cd's and then went off to a pub to listen to some locals play traditional music.
The next day we went off to Galway on the west coast. We stayed a couple nights in a bed and breakfast to get away from the hubbub of hostel life.
I've never been a big fan of bus tours as I've seen a lot of them and developed a stereotype of them while living in San Diego. We all know the image of a big bus pulling over, a group of people climbing out to snap photos and then everyone hopping right back on. It didn't appeal to me being as I'm more of a free roamer. But it was either that or rent a car and try to figure out how to drive on the other side of the road. I was having trouble just trying to cross the street. The tours ended up being amazing. We went with Galway Tour Company and our first tour was The Cliffs of Moher and The Burren.
We stopped and took pictures of this little castle and then went on to a small town across the bay to grab a Bailey's Coffee and use the WC.
We stopped at a ring fort and I made a wish on a fairy tree. The white papers and ribbons mean you're wishing for good to come to some one. A red one meant you were wishing for something bad to come to some one. Needless to say my ribbon was red. Just kidding. I skewered a white piece of paper on to a branch and made a wish.
We took a small detour to check out an old abbey that's been turned into a cemetery.
There were castles, abbeys, churches and stone walls scattered all over the green countryside. It was amazing, and our guide was both humorous and informative.
The Cliffs of Moher rise almost 800 ft above the Atlantic Ocean. It gets so windy there that it almost knocked my legs out from under me. By the way, it pretty much rained the entire time we were in Ireland, and umbrellas were about useless because of the wind turning them inside out. It was best to just ignore it or slip into a pub if it got bad, drink a Guinness and go on our merry way.
This castle may look familiar. They filmed the Princess Bride here and apparently a few episodes of Harry Potter. The Cliffs also had a really cool museum and 3D virtual flight over the cliffs.
The next day we booked a tour with the same company to see the Connemara area and the Cong where The Quiet Man was filmed. We had a different guide but he was just as funny and knowledgeable. I saw three black sheep that day...in case any of you were wondering if they really existed. I was.
The Connemara area is beautiful country. We stopped for awhile at the Kylemore Abbey to tour the abbey, the gardens, chapel, mausoleum and eat lunch.
By the way, this here is turf or peat. Not like astro-turf or peat moss (which reminds me, I have to tell you about solicitors). If any of you would like to buy me a birthday present, Christmas present, Valentine's Day present, St. Patrick's Day present or whenever present...I would like some peat. This stuff is near and dear to my heart. And it turns out you can get it shipped here. When I get back from North Carolina, I think I'm going to order some.
Ireland is covered in Peat Bogs. These bogs are swamp-like decomposed stuff that settles down and compacts. I think it runs along the lines of fossil fuel or something. People take shovels and dig down into the bogs and pull this stuff out. They lay it out to dry and rotate it every once in awhile until it hardens. Then they burn it in their fire places. It puts out a wonderfully cozy smell. Even better than wood. It's amazing. The new love of my life.
You can see some along the road here. Looks and feels like mud. Burns for hours I'm told. Smells wonderful. Emits an Irish warmth. Good stuff.We drove around the country side stopping to take pictures and listening to the tour guide fill us with stories, history and lore of Ireland. Here is another fairy tree.
Feeding an apple to Joey the Connemara pony.
The Quiet Man House.
Drunken debauchery in Galway.
Galway.
I got a kick out of this port-a-potty. It's got a joystick. Hahaha! Ok, it's not a joystick. This thing flushes. It's pretty cool.
Ok, so solicitors. Everywhere you go in the US, you see signs that say "No Solicitors". We all know what those are right? People who go around trying to sell things or advertise or whatever. Annoying people. Anyway, everywhere we went in Dublin we kept seeing signs for solicitors. Corey and I wondered about this for several days. Then one day I was thinking about it (as it had been bugging me) and wondered if maybe a solicitor was a lawyer. That day we came across one of the offices and it listed what services they offer such as divorces and accidents, etc. So it turns out in Ireland, solictors are lawyers. I commented to Corey that solicitors from Ireland who come to the US must be deeply confused by all the "No solicitors" signs.
After a few nights in Galway, it was time to head back to Dublin for our flight home. We did some last minute shopping and flew out the next day. During our stay in Ireland we ate a ton of potatoes, drank a bunch of Guinness and had way too much coffee. I put on a few pounds.
Flying out of Dublin, they sent us through US Customs before getting on the flight which is unusual to me. Usually my first stop in the US is where I go through customs. But this seems like a much better idea. We had gotten there in plenty of time and I thought I had briefed Corey pretty well on how to go through customs. Since we are not in the same household, we have to go through seperately. They put us in two different lines and I went through with ease. The officer in Corey's line disappeared and I was trying to get her attention to signal her into another line. I don't think she was aware that it was ok for her to go into another one. An agent came up to me and told me I had to wait further away. So I waited. And waited. Then I saw an officer escorting Corey to another location. I thought, You've got to be kidding me. Corey is the least threatening person I know.
I noticed that there was yet another security screening for me to go through so I figured I would get through there and wait on the other side. After about 20 minutes I got worried. What if Corey wasn't out there by the time the flight left? Her family would kill me if I left Ireland without her. I couldn't call her as phones were not allowed in the screening area.
Finally after over half an hour, she came out.
"Carrie, they put me in a dark room and made me tell all my deepest darkest secrets!" Geez, and it took that long?
Apparently US Customs does not appreciate rawhide bones as a Christmas gift for the doggies. Corey also took out her phone to turn it off and got yelled at. She misunderstood what the lady was asking and got yelled at. They went through her entire suitcase and did a crappy job putting things back so her Guinness glasses broke on the trip home. I was just glad she was released. It wasn't quite as scary as if she had been detained by Irish authorities, but still.
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