Tag Archives: Ireland

May 22 2011
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Travel

Ireland – Day 4 – May 7

Waterford

The thing I remember most about Waterford is the good waffles we had. I’m fairly simple that way. Of course Aarti informed me that Waterford Glass is very famous and there was a pretty massive shop devoted to it. I just thought it would be an interesting old city to visit. Reginald’s Tower is apparently the longest occupied building in Ireland. Also, there is apparently a tall ships race there and we know that because we saw a series of massive cloth billboards hanging down from a few waterfront buildings while we were checking out the tower; also the bandstand along the shore was shaped like a ship.

Avoca

Very quaint little village that we stumbled into by accident. The town was little more than the main street, but it had a very picturesque parish church and is also on the tourist map for its weaving.

Wicklow

I’m apparently not very good. We thought by going through Wicklow, we were taking the coastal route, but there was no water to be seen from where we were at. It was actually a pretty cool little town, but like usual were trying to make up time so we could back to Dublin and return the car.

Dublin

I hate toll roads sometimes. I probably had to go on and off the N50 four times. After getting into Dublin and getting off where I thought we needed to be for our hotel, we found ourselves lost again. After asking for directions, we headed back, but then I took the wrong direction and we had to back track. Both of us were pretty exhausted but we managed to find our hotel and spend Saturday night out in Dublin.

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May 22 2011
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Ireland – Day 3 – May 6

Killarney

Very cool national park.

We stopped at Ross Castle, and Aarti and I were attacked by a really happy dog. There were ducks around the creek, and the dog was having a great time scattering them. We spent a couple hours and did a walk around Muckross Lake, which had some pretty spectacular views. It would have been nice if we could have done the ring of Kerry, but there was no time. Its pretty famous, but apparently it would have taken us about five hours to do.

Blarney

Blarney castle was really cool. Aarti and I kissed the Blarney Stone, which is supposed to give you the gift of the gab. I don’t really feel any more well spoken, but maybe it takes a while to work. There’s also some pretty cool caves around the castle that used to have some secret passageways.

Cork

Cork is the food capital of Ireland, so we spent a night out wandering the city streets. After some food, we went out for some traditional Irish music and a couple beers. Good times.

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May 19 2011
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Ireland – Day 2 – May 5th

Day 2 was all about a proper visit of Galway

Galway

After a quick drive around Kennedy square, we parked for a bit of a walk around. Just around the corner from where we parked, there was a really cool rock music mural – split into three sections: it had Elvis reaching for god (like the scene from the sistine chapel), the other had rockstar heaven with the likes of Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, etc, and the final had famous rock stars still alive like Bono.

We walked through the old part of the town, and there are a few streets that have loads of pubs.  Galway is supposed to be big for music, but there wasn’t as much of that early in the morning besides a couple of buskers. Also, we were there a bit early for a visit to the pub.

We did see the Galway cathedral, St Nicholas Church, Lynch Castle, the Spanish  Arches, and a few of the canals.

Lisdoonvarna

According to our book, this  is a matchmaking hub for a few weeks in the summer. The place was  a bit quiet, but we stopped for lunch and I had my first Guinness in Ireland.

Burren National Park

Very cool, very big park. The hills were a kind of purple and looked amazing. We were probably driving through this park for at least an hour. It would have been nice to walk some of the trails, but there was no time.

Cliffs of Mohor

Amazing views. Lots of bugs and some funny safety signs.

This was pretty awesome.

Adare

Near Limerick, this is a pretty little village so we stopped for a little walk around the park and up the main street.

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May 19 2011
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Ireland – Day 1 – May 4th

After flying in early Wednesday morning on Ryan Air, Aarti and I had only the most general of itineraries. Luckily, she bought a travel book two days before and we were able to educate ourselves while on the plane. Despite growing up mostly in the US, she was born in Belfast and had been to Northern Ireland a few times so we were content to explore the Republic of Ireland and skip the north.

Good thing too because our initial itinerary was far too ambitious for the amount of time we had to spend in Ireland. Even driving, it felt like we were always trying to catch up.

Sword

We just drove through here very slowly, no stopping so soon after leaving the airport. There was a very strange looking castle on the end of the high street – it had only been partially rebuilt, so it was also part ruin.

Tron

This castle and village was our first real stop. According to our trusty guidebook, this castle was used for the filming of Braveheart so it has a celebrity connection.

The sun was out and we managed a quick walk over to the other side of the river to check out the nearby tower and manor house– not part of the castle. While walking around the castle, the importance of the river came into sharp focus. Land has since been reclaimed making the river side more accessible but at the time of its construction, it would have been a powerful fortress.

Also, I was misbehaving a little so was put in the pillory for a while.

Hill of Tara

This is apparently the ancient seat of power in Ireland. Ditches all around mark the place of ancient wooden fortresses and outbuildings. Apparently, there is even a spiritual connection to the place because of its early connection to celtic and druid ritual.

The ancient history was interesting, but I was much more impressed by the view of the surrounding valley. The visitor centre was closed when we arrived, so it was basically just us and a handful of others standing atop a windy hill. However, it started to bustle as we were leaving as people were coming to the teahouse in droves.

Kells

Should have skipped it. There was almost nothing to see here and no one really around. This is the original location for the famous Book of Kells, which is now under a locked display case in Trinity College.

Galway

Very short time here – mostly a drive through because it was already starting to get very late.

Spiddal

We camped in Spiddal for the night. Very nice beach.

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