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Published: November 20th 2007
Monday 25th June My Birthday! Woohoo! It was cool having my birthday in a foreign land, even though it sucked a bit not having my family around. Breakfast was at the B&B (I was a bit sick of the full Irish by this point) after which we toddled down to town for a walking guided tour of Kinsale. We learnt a great deal about this history rich town including that there are 2 old fortifications that guard the entrance to Kinsale harbour. An underwater chain used to be strung between the two forts across the harbour mouth during times of war to stop enemy ships by ripping the bottom out of them. Also a high stone wall, which can still be seen in some parts, was built in the 1600s to surround the town to keep the taxes within the walls and within the King's pockets. The money was supplied to build the wall by the King but funnily enough it took rather a long time to build by the locals. Another interesting thing we discovered was the reason for the irregularly shaped streets in town. Originally the first street lined the waters edge and curved around. All the other
streets were built off this one, including streets that were laid on top of reclaimed land in front of the main street. Crazy, but I guess they didn't have cars to think of back then.
After the tour, we drove to Blarney, home of the Blarney Castle, home of the Blarney Stone. After going through the entrance, I'd not noticed Em had taken off up ahead and had furiously set up a makeshift picnic/birthday party next to the tranquil Blarney River complete with presents, a cake and lolly bags. Now I know what she'd been doing back in Kinsale while we were on tour! Very tricksy! You have to watch that one. 😊 After a cake pig out and a coin wish from the Blarney River bridge we found ourselves afoot of the castle. It was a ruined castle so no fancy decorations inside but it wasn't so ruined that you couldn't walk inside or up it. And we needed to walk up it to get to the Stone. For some reason I had always pictured the Blarney Stone as being this huge boulder standing up in a park somewhere, but it was actually just a square stone block
that had been set into the top of the castle tower in 1446. To kiss it, and hopefully attain the magical "gift of the gab" powers it dispensed, required quite a bit of dexterity and nerve. One by one, Cam, Em and I had to lay down on our back, get a hand from the rock keeper to safely shuffle forwards, do a bendback so we were down next to the rock, grab hold of the bars and pucker up (oh, and hope the thousand people that had already kissed that day didn't have cooties). Luckily I went before Cam. 😊
After the tongues had been slipped we continued on to some of the beautiful gardens that surround the castle. Apparently druid's used to live here in caves and....do druidy type things. It almost looked like a big movie set being very ye olde with big boulders, moss covered trees, caves and other plants. Twas a good place to chill out for a while. Once we'd had enough blarney for the day, we Pugged it back to Cork for a look around. We decided on a bus tour, but while we waited, checked out some markets nearby. As usual,
mostly full of nic nacs, animal parts that probably shouldn't be ingested and other foodstuffs. Cork was a relatively big city (3rd biggest after Dublin and Belfast), with the River Lee running through the middle of it and the second biggest natural harbour in the world (guess no. 1). There were quite a few cathedrals, old pubs, shops and the like but the most impressive building in town was the old Mental Hospital which is Ireland's longest building and now home to the stiff upper lipped. We had a quick birthday toast using Kylee's special ingredients which hate to say, tasted like poo. Must have been the flat Coke or the Tia Maria substitute. 😉
Back to Kinsale, and on the recommendations of the B&B host, we scrubbed up and went down to Jim Edwards, a half budget/half swanky restaurant. After waiting for table for an hour or so in the little Irish battler section someone must have taken pity on us and we got to dine, finely, in the swanky section. And rightly so I should say! After having eaten half my arm off the roast beef tasted delovely.
Tuesday 26th June We packed up,
moseyed off in the Pug and were going to look around Kinsale a bit more, but the craptastic parking situation throughout town meant it was neigh on impossible to stop anywhere. We drove up to Georgefort Hill instead for a few pics, a last glance, a reminisce of times gone by with a tear in the eye, then I carved up a mean doughy tailing out onto the road in a cloud of thick smoke. OK, maybe not. Today we were heading for Waterford, home of the famous crystal of the same name. It was about this time that I started to realise...I was feeling a bit dodgy. Was it the Cryptospiridian we were warned about in Galway? Was it the extra kipper I had for breaky?
Not sure, anyways, we arrived in Waterford, found the crystal factory and started the tour, watching some glass blowers heat, blow and spin the lumps of molten glass into what would become a bowl, vase or some other creation. We learned that the guys work in teams of four and they are paid by pieces. So if a mistake is made by one guy, the item is scrapped and no one gets
paid for their time. Fortunately for them, not many mistakes are made. The crystal cutters skillfully make the grooves and patterns in the glass and it takes 10 years for them to become qualified. Over this time they have to learn all the patterns from the more experienced cutters as nothing is written down. We got to see a replica of the huge Times Square NYE ball which is made by Waterford, as well as hold up a replica of The Ashes trophy (I don't think we were allowed but we live on the edge) and various other famous sporting cups. After finishing the tour I couldn't leave the gift shop without grabbing something for Mums birthday, I thought the £60,000 chandelier would look a tad out of place so I settled on a nice 10" vase with "I love you Mum" engraved in Celtic.
With the Waterford visit off the list we steered the Pug towards Kilkenny. It was really just for a quick stop to say we've had a Kilkenny in a Kilkenny pub but it did take a while to get through all the traffic. I know I'll never complain about Aussie roads again, thats for
sure. We found a cool looking pub right on the River Nore called "Matt the Miller" where we toasted our Kilkenny's with a "You bastards!". On the road again we were now looking for a place to settle in for the night, with Nat suggesting somewhere in the Wicklow mountains, which is an hour or so southwest off Dublin. After driving randomly around for an hour or so without any luck we were starting to wonder if we'd get a pillow at all tonight, and with the head I had on me, it was the only thing I wanted at this stage. Once again Em came through with the goods though. After we spotted a resort that we thought was way out of our league, Em was bang on up for haggling for a deal that would make Campbell's proud world over. Not being phased with the initial €275/night ask for a three bedroom self contained apartment, Em eventually wore them down to just €160/night. This was what we'd been paying for an average B&B room, let alone a spacious 2 story apartment in a 4 star lakeside resort catering for just about every sporting activity one could imagine.
As this was such a good deal we organised to stay here an extra night, which I was more than happy with considering I was feeling like I'd been stomped on by Fat Cat. Em and I hung out at the resort indulging in the spa, steamroom and sauna, had cappa's on the decking and went for leisurely strolls around the pristine tree lined lake.
Thursday 28th June As hard as it was to leave our beautiful resort, Dublin was awaiting. Hitting the city limits we could tell it was a lot bigger and more industrialised than Ireland seen thus far. First stop was the infamous Killmainham Gaol. I managed to down a tasty piece of plain bread and a glass of water for my breakfast while we waited for the tour, I really felt like I was being authentic to the experience 😞 We got a bit of a history lesson on the Irish vs English tensions and push for independence which put so many people behind these walls. Up to 5 men, women or children were packed into each dark, damp cell and some were executed as well since it was built in 1796. Some
of the stories of hardship were quite harrowing and had Em in tears. The gaol was also the set for films such as The Italian Job, In The Name Of The Father and Michael Collins.
Time now to find our hotel for the night in the heart of Dublin. The traffic was appalling and a few wrong turns meant it took over an hour to find the dodgy back entrance to the Abbey Hotel. To sum up the Abbey in one word, crap. It was hard to believe this dingy, smelly dive with a bedroom view of a brick wall cost the same as the resort we'd just left. Meh, I was feeling too cute to care too much, seemed like I was only getting worse. I managed to scrape myself out of bed (drug-assisted) and we walked across town through Temple Bar and up to the Guinness Storehouse (not the actual brewery, that's next door). Walking into the 7 storey, shaped like a pint glass building we were faced with the mother of all Guinness souvenir shops. I grabbed a pair of Guinness slippers, coincidently, also shaped like pints of Guinness. Each level had different things on offer,
the 1st floor showed the raw ingredients water, barley, hops and yeast, the 2nd floor demonstrated the art of barrel making, others had a load of Guinness advertising material that had been used throughout the years and a few other displays. All in all, it was a bit disappointing for what was the most popular tourist destination in Ireland. The displays were quite sparse throughout the massive building and unless you were freakishly into the history of Guinness there wasn't a lot to maintain ones interest. So, we tally ho-ed up to the top (head on the pint) level, home of the Gravity Bar and surely one of the best 360 degree views of Dublin. Here we sampled our free pint (of what else!) and chilled out admiring the city.
Testiment to how crook I was I couldn't even finish the pint. I know, sad... We spotted a quirky reptile shop on the way home so checked out some snakes, turtles and other creepy crawlies before going back through the Temple Bar area again. With the cobblestone roads and busker's playing and many pubs and restaurants, it had a nice feel to it and it would've be good to
spend a night crawling from one establishment to another...if I could drink... 😞
Friday 29th June After breaky (dry toast and water, yum yum!) Em and I walked around the streets of Dublin for a while. The high street reminds us a bit of Hay St in Perth but with a few taller buildings. We also found a huge spire on O'Connell St that seemed to reach into the heavens. Completed in 2003, it was actually the tallest sculpture in the world at 120m and was named the Spire Of Dublin (or 'the stiffy by the Liffey' to locals). After being late for everywhere, we decided to be early for once and got moving to the ferry terminal just out of town. Turns out this was one instance where we should have been late as the ferry was delayed and we ended up waiting for 2 hours at the fun-packed (not) terminal. The journey back over the Irish Sea to Holyhead took about 2 hours and we got going as soon as we hit land. Despite my stomach trying to tie itself in a granny knot I guided the Pug through Wales, past Birmingham and into London
Outside The Temple Bar
In the Temple Bar area of Dublin.in about 5 hours. We got home at about 10pm pretty exhausted and glad to be home but satisfied that we'd conquered the beautiful Green Isle of Ireland.
Saturday 30th June Still feeling like turd. At least we have Sky TV at home now. Woo**cough**hoo.
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Cambo
non-member comment
Nice one!
Hey! Nice work mate, feel like i am back there again. Enjoy your trip to the Dam, wish I could be there :(