Advertisement
Published: August 19th 2011
WATERFORD TO DUBLIN
Today we travelled up from Waterford to Dublin – Ireland biggest city. It was mainly a travel day – even more so because our visit to Dublin Castle had its time changed to 4.30pm – making it very tight as we leave at 6.30pm from the hotel for Dinner and Irish Cabaret. We decided to give the castle a miss (we’ve seen a few already!) and have a quiet afternoon to catch up on some rest.
ON THE ROAD
As we travelled across country we saw a number of war memorials in town centres – these were memorials to IRA ‘soldiers’ who had lost their lives in the struggle against the protestants – many had the names of the fallen listed. It’s hard to believe as you pass through one idyllic village after another that such a beautiful country has had to endure so much trouble.
There were also concrete slabs on the side of the road which marked the exact place where ambushes took place. You could imagine British army vehicles travelling slowly and carefully down the roads with the IRA laying in wait. Again its hard to reconcile that with the beautiful scenery
Kilkenny
Flying their colours before the big Hurling final - Kilkenny are firm favouritesand normalness of the places we were travelling through.
There was another uniquely Irish thing we came across (and this is a true story) as we travelled on some new motorways today. Now because they are fairly long and straight the Irish transport people have placed roadside sculptures/artwork etc – this has been done to distract drivers and relieve the boredom by giving them something to look at. It’s no surprise our bus driver George, who drives all over Europe is adamant the Irish are by far the worst drivers on the continent!
KILKENNY
On the way to Dublin we stopped at Kilkenny for a lunch break, Kilkenny boast Ireland’s top hurling team (they are a bit like the Crusaders back home – always the team to beat)! The big final is on next week and the town is awash with yellow and black. It’s great to see the counties flying their colours all over the place; it also gives you a good idea when you are entering a new county when you travel. The green and yellow of Kerry gave way to the red of Cork, then the blue of Waterford before the yellow and black of
Fish Pedicure
Now thats something different! Kilkenny - which reminded us of home the mighty Wellington Phoenix, looking forward to the new season.
While we were in the town centre we came across something pretty weird – Fish Pedicures! You put your foot in a fish tank full of small fish (hopefully no Piranha!) and they nibble all the nasty little bits and pieces you have accumulated off your feet leaving them spotlessly clean! Didn’t have time to try one but if we come across something similar in UK will give it a go.
DUBLIN
When we checked into our hotel in Dublin the Connacht rugby team (Irish club side) where doing the same. I recognised Henry Fa’afili former Warrior and Kiwi League rep (not sure if there are any other Kiwis in the team).
After a relaxing day we headed out to Dinner and an Irish Cabaret – it was a night of comedy, dance, song and music – and it was a great night. The comedian Noel V Ginty was hilarious and had us in stitches. There was an enthusiastic dance troupe of six who performed a variety of traditional Irish Dances plus a Tenor (who was very good) and a Soprano (who
Irish Cabaret
What a fantastic night was Ok). The Tenor was the splitting image of one of my cousins – Murray Hill (see pic at very bottom-might be after ads at base). There was much hilarity and plenty of fun was had by all.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 33; dbt: 0.03s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
