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Published: March 20th 2008
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Well, the day finally came for a large part of the reason why we came to Ireland....driving through the country side. And we were not disappointed. We may have spent all day making a 3 hour trip but we had some some fun stops along the way, and yes, the now-inevitable wrong turns and miles off path. But we had no schedule and the wrong turns led to amazing scenery and sharing death-defying narrow roads with nice big mac trucks barreling through like we were on an eight lane highway. Speaking of the driving, I have learned much in the short time driving here.....1) I can actually down a bottle of antacid in 3 seconds while keeping my eyes on the road and 2) luckily most gas stations
do carry antacid in easy-to-carry six packs.
Getting out of Dublin was actually easy so the only hard decision was whether or not to take the scenic route down to Waterford (our main stop on the way to Cork) or go the quick way. For those of you paying attention, we were here for the countryside and had no schedule. Good thing that! Heading along the coast (the scenic route for those
who did not guess correctly), we found that one of the first towns we would pass through had a historic gaol ("jail" in Gailec). And since we were not pressed for time, we put some coins in the parking meter and went in. It was pretty cool as the gaol had been restored to its original look and as such you could really get the feel for how depressing that place must have been as a jail. Yes, I know, being jailed to begin with is not a fun prospect, but this was bordering on sadistic. They jailed anyone that broke the law no matter how small the offense, or the offender for that matter. Criminals as young as eight years old were jailed just as the adults and treated the same way. Thank God things have changed cause wouldn't you know it, as we were leaving, we saw that we had a parking ticket as the meter had run out about 30 minutes ago. We were a bit worried until we realized, "What the heck could they do?" The car was rented and as much we are hoping to come back, I doubt we will be through that county
again. But I am keeping the parking ticket as a memento.
And, we're off to Waterford Crystal Factory. Even though Waterford Crystal is not something I really think about or need to live as it is with my better half, I must say it was an unbelievable place. The tour was incredible. We actually got to see some of the pieces being made and cut. Also on display were some of the trophies they make and some sample pieces that the artisans had created. One piece in particular was just jaw-dropping; a memorial to the firefighters who lost their life during 9/11. I took some pictures and will post them as soon as I get a chance. Next was the shop and what I was hoping would be a quick 15 minute look through and maybe pick up a trinket or two. Yeah, that worked for about 2 seconds until Marisa actually saw the shop and I saw some wine goblet sets. I think I may have to look into seeing how much I can get for my kidney or maybe even my lung to pay for everything we bought ( a person can live with only one lung,
right?).
From there we finished our drive on to Cork and the hotel. We made it okay and we only had to drive through the town twice before we got real lucky and found a sign for the hotel. We got in early, had dinner at the hotel, and then get ready for tomorrow.
Now, for as much as I mentioned how excited we were to see the countryside, you might have noticed, I had not mentioned it yet. Well, I wanted to save it for last. It was everything we expected and more. Everything from the livestock (the cows and the awesomely huge sheep) to the hills and mountains on the west side and the coast on the east side. It was green, beautiful and, well, breath-taking. We've still got a few castles to see and a Blarney Stone to kiss, which we plan to do in the next couple of days.
Okay, enough for now. See ya tomorrow!
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