Dublin Galway Dingle

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I'm not traveling right now, but there is a great blog going that makes one "feel" Ireland. The food, the bus rides, the weather, the B&B's and the people. You can see it here. www.jeffeurotrip2009.blogspot.com complete with pictures. Enjoy



Thursday, May 28, 2009
Dingle 2

OK, a quick explanation on blogger: I fixed the settings so that when you click on the comments a small separate window should pop up displaying them. If you don't see them you may need to adjust your pop-up blocker. Also, anyone should now be able to view & make comments without having to join blogger. Comments can also be left anonymously should anyone feel the need to get in some good trolling... Nice blog, buddy. etc.
And clicking on the photos enlarges them.


I took it easy for the last day in Dingle. I slept in too late for the breakfast they cook here at the Murphy. When I finally got out of my room, the breakfast cook woman for the place saw me in the hallway and asked if I wanted something fried up, even though it was past breakfast hours. I had to tell her no thanks a few times, as she kept saying, in thick accent, "No, really love, t'would be no problem. I can cook somethin fer ya straight away. I'm already here, are ya sure now?" It still smelled of bacon and other goods but I wasn't hungry yet. They have a little dining room upstairs and a sitting room with a couple chairs and a TV that I didn't notice yesterday. I'd definitely stay here again.
Later I went to the tourist office and asked them where the hiking trails were. Ireland has these fully staffed tourist offices run by the Ireland Tourist Board everywhere that are great for maps & info. You can check out their website here. They told me without transportation the trails were hard to access. They suggested I take a two hour bus tour of the coastline but when I called the tour company the guy on the other end of the line, who sounded like he had just woken up, told me I was the first person to call and he needed at least 3 people to go to make it worth his while. So no luck there. Instead I spent the day in town, walked around the harbor, read a couple newspapers and ate.
--quick note on the newspapers: Ireland seems to have a thriving newspaper industry. Every market or supermarket will have a large rack area stocked with many different papers, local and national. Unlike our diminishing rags in the US, the papers here are huge and often have more content than advertising, as well as a wide range of topics, comments & voices. You always see someone carrying around or reading one. And they're usually sold out at the end of the day. Wish it was like this at home. They also have fairly good online versions. Irish Independent here Irish Times here
The weather looks bad in the photos, but it's mild here. There's not much wind and no rain. A light jacket was enough to keep warm.


a few highlights:
--seeing a fisherman that looked like the living embodiment of popeye's father, poopdeck pappy.
--being mistaken for a local at a retaurant when one of the servers spoke to me in gaelic.
--having a cod burger sandwich that was out of this world.
--talking to a young hippy backpacker couple from Austria with pots & pans & gear on their backs that looked like something out of mad max.







Irish Gaelic television program subtitled in English. "Maggie, are you alright?"



Posted by Jeff at 2:13 PM 1 comments
Dingle

So I made it to Dingle. The bus took over 6 hours and my neck is sore from looking out the window. The last part of the ride into Dingle was remarkable; the grey clouds were low and patchy and the sun would peek through at places and you'd see these sunbeams off in the distance set against the patchwork green hills with specks of white sheep grazing. And then the Dingle Bay with multicolored fishing boats.
So I got let off in Dingle and didn't realize how small a place it was. There were only a few other people on the bus and we got let off at a bus-stop on the side of the road in town. There is no proper bus station. I didn't have reservations anywhere because I figured there would be standard hotels that I could walk into a get a room no problem. But no, it's only B & B's, guest houses and a few hostels in this small fishing village. The first two places I inquired were full and I was starting to think I was stranded and would have tofind some nice cardboard to use as bedding. It was after 7pm, the tourist office was closed and there were no more buses running anywhere. But luckily the third place I tried had a room. It's above Murphy's Pub. You have to go inside to pay and get your key from the bartender, then walk upstairs to a nice small clean ensuite bedroom.
Then I went out and got some fish & chips made from fresh and local caught cod. Roamed around the small town for a bit and then got a good nights rest.
Tomorrow I'm catching a bus to Kerry Airport and a Ryanair plane to London. I found out the hard way that it truly does not pay to procrastinate when buying a local airline ticket. If you buy your tickets at least 4 days in advance they're really inexpensive. But if you buy them only a day or two in advance the price can go up several hundred percent. Ouch.
When I get to London I think I'm going to switch into more of a backpacker mode and stay at hostels to conserve money and meet some people. A lot of the youth hostels have a cut-off age of 35, so I might as well take advantage while I still can.


Dingle seems like a great place. It would be easy to spend several weeks or more here. There are hundreds of miles of walking and hiking trails in the hills around here. There's fishing and horseback riding. And I guess they even have some surf spots as well. Surfing in Ireland, who knew?








Dingle berries.


This is some of the best milk I've ever had.
Posted by Jeff at 4:11 AM 4 comments
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Galway 2

Just a quick post, I've got to catch a bus shortly. I had a bus ticket to go back to Dublin then catch a flight or a ferry to London today, but then last night I saw the comment by Toni to check out Dingle, Ireland and I read a bit about it and it sounds amazing. So I got a refund on the Dublin ticket and purchased one to Dingle, which is south of Galway on the west coast.
OK, so a few random picks from yesterday. I had a full Irish breakfast to start the day. It's bacon, sausage, egg, tomato, toast, oat cakes (what are they called?), mushrooms & beans over hashbrowns. Then went on a tour to the cliffs of Moher on the recommendation from a Canadian girl working as a receptionist at the hotel I'm staying at. She said that if there is one thing to see while in Galway that would be it. It was hyper-touristy but had to be done. It was a 6 hour roundtrip bus tour around the Galway Bay and into the Burren which according to the internets is from the Irish bhoireann meaning stony place. Is that where the word 'barren' comes from? Anyway, it's land pocked and carved from old glacial activity. The tomb pictured is reputed to be at least 4000 years old. Then it was back to Galway to watch a concert at the docks.

Sorry I couldn't post more, but I've got to run. Hope everybody is doing well...









Posted by Jeff at 2:08 AM 1 comments
Monday, May 25, 2009
Galway, IE 1




















Hi everyone, short post here-- plans worked and I made it to Galway. The bus trip here was great: 3 1/2 hours of winding through the Irish countryside of green grass fields, sheep, lambs, cows, horses, hedges, stone walls, leprechauns, unicorns, lucky charms, and shooting stars. It looks exactly as you'd imagine it. Every dozen miles or so we'd stop at a small town to pick up or drop people off. Then to Galway, which is so picturesque its almost unbelievable. (Thanks Toni for the suggestion, if you happen to read this). And I lucked into a festival for a boat race called the Volvo Ocean Race so there's live music and food vendors everywhere. Got an OK rate on the hotel room because the races don't actually start until the weekend and then the prices nearly double. I'll probably be here a night or two. Post more tomorrow if I can, time to go listen to music.










Posted by Jeff at 10:59 AM 2 comments
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Dublin 3

stupid blogger. It deleted my original post when I tried to add something, but luckily I had a saved draft. Here it is again...





It was a clear sunny day today and warm. My camera died so I didn't take too many photos. Today was my last day in Dublin and if everything goes according to plan I should be on a bus tomorrow for a 3 1/2 hour ride to the west coast of Ireland and the town of Galway.

Highlights:
--finding out my watch has been set back an hour the whole time I've been here. So, the sun actually rises around 5am and sets close to 10pm.
--going to the National Museum of Ireland Archaeology and History (pic #2). Admission was free but it was underwhelming and photos weren't allowed, but the museum building itself was cool and some ofthe early Irish furniture displays were worth seeing.
--going to the train station (pic #5) because I was thinking about taking the train to Galway. The station was crowded with the weekend tourists going home. Found out the bus is much cheaper than the train, so the bus it is.
--I caught a Dart transit train (pic #4) several miles out into the suburbs and exurbs just to see how people were living. There are a lot of newer housing developments out there, with houses that all look similar. There are also a lot of condo/lofts projects in various states of completion (pic #3). So it was people living in condos & lofts, shopping at the mall, drinking coffee at Starbucks, and going to the cineplex to watch movies. Same ol' commercialized stuff but with a slightly different look to it than the states. Reminded me somewhat of Puerto Vallarta in an odd way; the aethestics of it.
--going to the park to read the Irish Times and watch all the people hanging out (pic #1).
--seeing Oscar Wilde's house which is now the American College Dublin on my way to the train station (pic #6)
--having short conversations with random people in random places.

Posted by Jeff at 4:59 PM 4 comments
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Dublin 2

All right, hi everybody. Well, today was the second day in Dublin and I tried to pack in as much activity as I could. I found out that the sun rises sometime around 4am and doesn't set until around 9pm, so thanks to Ireland's northenly clime there's plerty of sunlight in the summertime to do stuff. I woke up a little after sunrise (pic #2 is what it looks like out my window), but then fell back asleep until noon-- sleeping off the last of the jetlag. Pic #1 is what the hotel looks like from the front.
The first thing I did was go out and search for food. And in answer to your question Julie, there's pretty much all kinds of food to be found in Dublin. I even found a Mexican restaurant. But, yeah, there are scores of different restaurants and they have mostly all the same fast-food places; McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, etc. In pic #3 you can see that Subway has added a few items to their menu to satisfy local tastes. Pretty nasty.
As far as Irish food goes, I haven't had a chance to sample it. It seems to be mostly served in pubs or regular restaurants. Pic # 6 shows a few Irish food offerings though: stews, meat pies and such. I've mostly been eating a lot of middle eastern food because it's delicious, fast, and relatively cheap. There's a lot of middle eastern immigrants living & working here. A typical meal is around 6 or 7 Euros (about $10.00).
And regarding the smell of the city, I would say it doesn't smell like much of anything, which is a good thing. It almost smells clean. Maybe it's because there's often a slight breeze and it keeps the air fresh.
I'll let you look at the pictures and I'll write a little more at the bottom...




























I went to Dublin Castle (pics #8-12), but all the tours of the inside were sold out so I could only take pictures of the outside and the enterance inside. Check out the castle's funky men's restroom (pic #10).
Next, I visited St. Patrick's Cathedral (pics #13-17) which was built in 1192 AD. There was an organ player playing and the music reverberated through the entire place. Twas quite magical.
Later in the evening, I walked around Temple Bar again, which is party central. A lot of tourists visit from the UK and England in particular, many of them having "stag and hen" parties (bachelor and bachelorette parties). The pubs were overflowing, street musicians were playing, and people were sitting and standing around people watching. Another good day.
Posted by Jeff at 3:33 PM 4 comments
Friday, May 22, 2009
Dublin 1

Hello everybody. Here's some random pics I snapped on the first day in dublin with a short explanation at the bottom.





























All right, just a quick post to start off...I made it to Dublin at 8:45 am this morning after two flights and 16 hours of total travel time. I got about 3 hours sleep today after arriving at the hotel and that seemed to help with the jetlag, so I should be able to get to sleep and wake up on dublin time tomorrow just fine. I got to the airport this morning and was suprised at how lax their immgration security is. You basically just fill out a little card with your personal info then show that along with your passport to a guy in a booth and you're on your way to bagagge claim. After you get your checked bags, you're basically on an honor system to turn yourself in if you have something illegal. I quickly determined I didn't have anything illegal so I excused myself and went to find a taxi to the hotel. It was a very nice change of pace from the military-occupation type experience we have at the Mexican and Canadian borders.
I got to the hotel and had 2 hours before check-in and went and walked around and snapped the few pics above. Then I took the 3 hour nap and went back out walking around.
Some highlights:
--walking along the Liffey and seeing the row houses reflected off its murkiness (pic #8)
--seeing how crowded and loud the pubs can get (see pic#1 where the pint drinkers just stand in the street shooting the breeze)
--reheaded girls everywhere.
--the cab driver from the airport complaining about the weather.
--the store owners who didn't understand me when I asked for aspirin and where I could find a restroom.
--the intelligent beggar (see pic #12)
--catching a free concert in the Temple Bar area where they were serving pints and Irish food (pics #3,4, 5)
So, it was a good trip over and a good first day.I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'll try to get some more pics up when I can.

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