Youghal

We decided, even after our success, to take the bus to Youghal because we had to be there by 2 PM and didn't want to risk it. We were going to be couch surfing with Victor and his roommate Yoel in Youghal. Yoel is pronounced like you would say Yole and Youghal is pronounced like you'd say Y'all. This strange mix of things became a highlight of our trip....Yoel from Youghal. Neither was a native or Ireland though. Victor was from Spain and Yoel was from Honduras. Youghal is a small town with little going on, but in Irish history it is a very important site. It is on the coast and used to be one of the most important ports of Ireland because of its access to the Blackwater River (yes, it is black). But the bay collected a large amount of sediments quickly and bigger boats had a harder time gaining access and boat size increased. Eventually the railroad was built and it lacked to add a line to Youghal...and as it would be Youghal reduced in power and in size. Now it is a pretty small town of not more than 7 thousand. It is hold the famous clock tower under which Oliver Cromwell vowed never to return to Ireland and starting the religious wars and the induction of ethnic cleansing upon the Irish.

We met Victor by the clock tower and he took us to his home to get things situated and to get familiar with the surroundings and each other. We chose to visit Youghal and stay with Victor after he posted a response to something I posted on the Ireland group on a couch surfing forum. I was asking about interesting small towns and places little people see. He told us about Youghal and I read about him and the place and asked if he had a bed for a few nights. He is a balloon artist and childrens entertainer and he told us we'd be staying in the balloon studio....there was no way I was going to pass this up.

We told him we were starving and needed to go to the store and he took us to the nearest Tesco (a cheap, but stocked grocery store). By car he showed us some of the main things and the history behind them. We easily got put on other tangents because there was so much information that we were all spreading. Then we went home, cooked and ate. Yoel came home just as we finished eating and we got to meet him. He was a strange person, but harmless. He had too big of a head and facial features for his neck. He had arms like an orangutan and talked with his hands. He had a daughter and ex-wife in Tukwila and had traveled most of the world. For whatever reason he decided to stay in Ireland and saw Victors post in the paper and now he is in Youghal.

Victor showed us an Irish sitcom called Father Ted. It is about three catholic priests all of which are over exaggerated stereotypes of Irish people and have been exiled on an island near the mainland of Ireland, but nearly remote. It was pretty funny and a good way to become familiar with the country.

Then around 8 or so we went out to have a pint or two in a pub called the Nook. We had local beers and Irish hot whiskeys. We talked about traveling, Ireland, Croatia, politics, love, history, the typical B.S. one talks of. Then we returned home for a few glasses of wine and pistachio nuts. At last when the night was called we went to sleep.

The next day we woke up kind of late but managed to squeeze a few hours of sightseeing with Victor before he had to go to work. He took us across the bay to another beach, but the weather was too bad to really enjoy it, then to a Protestant church that was almost in ruins. It is important to note that during the time of Cromwell he made it illegal for people to build Catholic churches out of stone(because England was in charge of Ireland and the Brits were Protestant). All catholic churches had to be built of wood and out of town so all are destroyed by now. And because so little protestants lived in Ireland all the churches built of stone were not maintained and I imagine some were ruined in revolts against the Brits. The Republic of Ireland remains mostly Catholic and has strong religious holds because of their centuries oppression by the British.

Then Victor left us for our own and we went to a Catholic church (all the catholic churches of stone were mostly built in the mid to late 1800's and later). Most of the roofs are still made of wood though so with some they look older because the roof is missing.

All over Ireland you have stone things in ruins...and whether they are important things or not is unbeknownst to me, I find them beautiful all the same.

We had some tea, visited the town museum, and walked around Youghal before returning home in the evening. We cooked again and had a nice relaxing night in...we were feeling a little worse than the day before and thought it a good idea to get as much rest as we could. We were thinking we'd have to hitch or get a bus to Kilkenny (our next destination) but Yoel (an amateur painter) was going to put some of his work on display at the Kilkenny arts festival and was leaving the same day as Ivana and I and offered to give us a ride, so when we woke in the morning we rode with him, enjoying the Celtic radio station and the wonderful Irish countryside.

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Part of trip: Europe Trip 2

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