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Published: October 1st 2006
Top of the mountain
Enjoying the winds in Ireland!With time limits, what I write here will not nearly be enough, nor will it truly showcase what I did and enjoyed in Ireland. At the end of the day its a beautiful country, full of life and enjoyment, or specifically ''the craic''!
Well as I said in the last entry, I flew into Dublin on the day of the All Ireland Gaelic Football Final. It was a bustling day in the city with pubs jam packed and to green and gold colours of Kerry and green and red colours of Mayo circulating the town. I had a drink at one of the pubs trying to mix in with the locals to watch the game. After that a walk around the town at night was interesting and fun, especially in the Temple Bar area.
The next day I got up early to start my 10 day tour of Ireland with Paddywagon tours. We left Dublin, but instead of heading to the north first, we headed south instead and were joined with a 6 day Southern Ireland tour group as there had been a change due to numbers and organisational problems. However in the end I think this was probably
Guinness Powerhouse
Trying my first Guinness in Ireland (not my last) for the best!
We headed straight to the Guinness Powerhouse, for a tour and tasting of Guinness. It tastes so much different here than at home, where I am not a big fan, but here it is much better and I drank it quite regularly throughout the tour. From there we headed down towards county Cork, along the way we saw a few sites, including Cahir Castle, which is a fully preserved Norman Castle and had lunch in Kilkenny.
The first night was spent in Cork and after dumping our bags we headed out to a local pub, where I couldn't understand a word the locals were saying! Seriously, the talk so quickly and in their own dialect, its too hard! We went out and had a very good night and got to know each other well over a nice meal. At the meal we found out that the elderly couple we had on tour weren't actually married and that the lady had a husband back home! They were quite open about things, including much which we didn't wish to know!!!!!!! It was very weird then and its even more weird now, after spending 10 days with them.
We went out that night, listened to some live music and then to a club, where lots of weird dancing moves came out. Riverdancing to nightclub music is actually quite easy!
The next morning we were up early and drove out to Kinsale, a charming little fishing town, and got some good views of the cliffs around the area. We had a wander around for lunch before heading off to Blarney Castle and to kiss the Blarney Stone. I really liked this castle and kissing the Blarney Stone means I now have the 'gift of the gab' for the next 7 years. It was a great little place. From here we headed into county Kerry and after visiting the beach where Coldplay's ''Yellow'' video clip was filmed, we stayed in a town called Annascaul at the hostel called ''The Randy Leprechaun'', and without going into too much detail, the name of the place must have hit home with half the tour group! I found a seat at the corner of the bar and it was the greatest seat ever! Staying there for 3 hours, eating, drinking ''car bombs'' (Guinness with a shot of Whiskey and Baileys) and then more
shots! It was a very fun night and the group were really hitting it off!!
The next day we headed off to Dingle, another small fishing town and we enjoyed walking around on another wet Irish day, or as they like to call them 'soft days'! In all seriousness it was a bit of fun and a colourful town, as most Irish towns are. By now we were used to stopping into pubs, and there was one pub here where it was a pub, butchers, repair shop all in one. Apparantly this is the only one left in Ireland, but previously most businesses used to sell drinks with their business (be it butchers or undertakers etc) and proprietors realised that most of the money they were making was from the drinks, and that is why there are so many pubs in Ireland today.
Myself, Kev and Georgie went out into Killarney, while everyone else got some rest and stayed in. We had an entertaining night, just us 3, in a small Irish pub, listening to some quality Irish music. We got to know each other a lot better and actually walked out of a lock-in, which we didn't
Cliffs of Moher
Sitting on the edge realise until later.
The next day we got up early once more, and on a beautiful morning (no rain), we travelled on some jaunting carts as the horses lead us through the Killarney National Parklands. It was really picturesque and serene, and a fantastic start to the morning. From here a tour of the 'Ring of Kerry' which was incredibly scenic and also the reference point for a song that has now become a tour memory 'Burning Ring of Fire' In fact the likes of Johnny Cash, Elvis, John Denver all were sung full heartedly all tour! That night we stayed in Killarney once more and had a big night on the sauce. Meal, cocktail bar and finally dancing on stage with a local Irish band, meant a fantastically fun night was had by all!
Our next day involved a look at the Cliffs of Moher, which are amazing!!!! I love this sort of thing and taking some incredible photos. No guard-rails are there and you are literally able to sit on the edge of these 200 foot steep cliffs (which I did for a photo). When a rainbow came out over the cliffs it was incredible. We
alse drove through 'The Burren' which is a rocky outcrop by the coast, back in the day the used the rocks from this area to build walls around the west coast of Ireland. What were the walls for? No-one knows, it was basically just because of something to do and is quite weird. That evening we arrived into Galway and had a fun night in this city, where 65% of the population is less than 23, so I just scrapped in! This was also our last night with the 6 day group and was sad to see many of them go. I don't want to personalise but, Andrew and Elanor were great, the 2 young Melbournians, Sara and Georgie, the Canadians and Princess Fiona. Many fun times were had with these people.
The next morning is when we said goodbye, not only to these people but our driver/guide, Gabe (stop crying about him Trish), who took our good bus back. So we picked up an indifferent orange bus and new driver/guide, Steve (who Katie and Amanda had on their Paddywagon). We headed through the west, stopped and had a lunch at another castle. We heard of the famine times
in this area and how depressing it must have been, as Ireland lost almost half its population due to death or people immigrating to get away from the land. We then got to climb Croagh Patrick (well not quite, due to time constraints, but I got up a fair way). Then off to finish in a small village town called Westport. Steve and myself went for a jog through the town and just jogging through a golf course with a massive castle was absolutely awesome! The girls made us dinner that night, which was just about our best meal on tour! Thanks Rei, Anna, Kerryn and Trish!!!! The night finished watching John Wayne in 'The Quiet Man' which was filmed aroung the area.
The next day we hiked another mountain and got some tremendous views going up. But before long we were in the clouds literally and the wind was astronomical! (Check out my Titanic photo!) It was a great trip though and from there we headed to the seaweed baths, which we lapped up for about an hour of relaxation by one of Ireland's best beaches at Strandhill. Very cleansing! We then drove through Sligo, which is WB
All Ireland Final
At Croke Park trying to watch through the side Yeats country and their most famous son. Before we purchased a soccer ball in readiness for our Gaelic football match we were going to have. This game happened just as we reached Northern Ireland, but I will include talking about it in here rather than my Northern Ireland section.
I was champing at the bit to play, and my competitive instincts took over for parts of the game as I tried to just run around as best as I could and play as well as I could. But also had a laugh with it all and made sure others enjoyed it as well, it was a whole lot of fun. Made even more enjoyable our side won!
This is then when we went to Northern Ireland which I talk about in the next blog.
From Northern Ireland we left on our last day together as the ten day group. We stopped at various spots along the way. Our group was so much fun and there were some wonderful people in it. Without naming everyone, go team 6! (Reianna, Anna, Trish, Kerryn and the hairy guy, Kev), also young Caley, team Singapore and the wonderful Lori. All great
people.
Getting back to Dublin, myself, Reianna, Anna, Kerrin and Kev found a hostel to stay in and then we went back and caught up with most of the others for a meal and drinks. It was a good relaxing night, with some fantastic Irish music, that had us clapping and dancing along to. It was pretty funny when we were there and they started playing ''Your So Vain'' and everybody was pointing at me, as they thought I was vain, and then at the end the singer said it was dedicated to 'Kodak'. Now Kodak happens to be the nickname I picked up on tour as I kept taking people's cameras and took photos of myself! Have I ever done that before??
We headed back to the hostel full of life and enjoying the craic! The next day we were up and on a hop-on-hop-ff bus tour of Dublin. A full loop we did, before having lunch in the Temple Bar area and getting back on the bus to Phoenix Park, which is the biggest inner city park in the world (twice the size of Central Park and 6 times the size of Hyde Park). We had
Cliffs
The golf course beside these cliffs costs a fortune to play as its the Western most point of Ireland a rest before heading off to the Jamesons Distillery, where I was lucky enough to be chosen to get involved in the whiskey tasting. Much fun! After getting back to the hostel for dinner, I walked out into the lounge and bumped into a MUCC cricketer mate of mine, Brett Harrop. Amazingly spooky as I didn't know he was there and I just walked out of the kitchen at the right time, otherwise we wouldn't have seen each other. We headed out for a few drinks of Guinness and Brett quickly turned into Brad (running MUCC joke), we headed to Temple Bar and had a laugh with some locals and English. For some reason Brett (sorry Brad) started referencing ''The Office'' at every available chance and before long the people we were chatting with, were also doing it!!!! How good is that???? Well I loved it and Brad Harrop loved it!
The next day we said goodbye to more people from our tour group. Before myself and Kev went and did a tour of Croke Park Stadium (where International Rules is held and all major Irish sporting events) it holds 80,000 people and there are so many amateur sports
Cahir Castle
Well studied castle for many films played there. Its an impressive stadium and myself and Kev had fun smashing around the gaelic ball and having a crack at hurling!!!! We then headed back into town and team 6 were the last 6 standing from the group, so we had a drink before saying bon voyage to Anna (with a few tears). A nice Chinese meal before retiring to a much more comfy room, and away from shared dorms. It was a good end to my Ireland trip.
The next morning (today) I woke up and said bye to the rest of the group. Kev, a great partner in crime for singing songs with! Anna banana, made me laugh so much as did you Trish, great girls, who are also amazingly descriptive. Kerryn, so sweet and thankyou for sticking up for Melbourne with me! Rei, you are a great and wonderufl girl, thankyou for the 2 weeks. I had a great time with you all, and as I set sail (on the bus) I might have shed a tear as the bus pulled away (probably because I missed the AFL Grand Final, but perhaps also because I was saying goodbye to you all!).
My hours
spent at the airport to go to Edinburgh, were very depressing! I was missing everyone from tour and then found out about the incredible Grand Final result for the Eagles. At that point I just wanted to be at home! Although I am having a ball there are still times when I miss home and I think that was one of them, after saying goodbye to good people and missing another AFL Grand Final. Hopefully the Storm can win tomorrow.
Probably much more detail than most of you would like, but when I am finished I can print these out as my travel diaries.
At the end of the day it was the enjoyment of the songs on the bus (I love bus days), friends we made, Irish scenery and the great pub songs and dancing. Or at the end of the day ... the craic!!!!!!!!!!
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Lori from Canada
non-member comment
Thanks for mention in your Ireland blog!
I had a fantastic time during our Ireland tour -- so many fun and interesting people to spend time with and not enough time to do so. I hope the rest of your travels are just as happy.