It’s been a few days since I’ve seen a computer that was hooked up to the web. Multiday summaries tend to get a little messy, but, here goes.
Monday, June 19 — last full day in Dublin, and last day with my old university roommate as well. Bouyed by the success of the previous day’s jaunt out of Dublin, we thought we’d try again. Back to the commuter train, this time heading south to a little place called Bray. There really wasn’t much happening there, but, it was on the open sea, there were Irish mountains all around, and we were full of energy. We spent the next two hours or so walking along a stunning seaside trail that took us to Greystones, the next stop on the commuter rail line. The walk was great — beautiful vistas, rugged shoreline, seals, dolphins (or small whales), birds, flowers … all from a smooth, easy to walk trail that has surely been walked for hundreds of years. Finished up at a warm pub at the end of my first glass of Guinness in Ireland, as well as my first stew. Both were worth the wait. Back to Dublin for a few more pubs (looked for the obvious ones … Murphy’s, O’Brien’s, etc.) and then eventually found our way to the Irish Whiskey. Good times, and a long day, followed by a short sleep.
Tuesday, June 20 — travel day, this time taking a cramped bus for a 5-hour journey from Dublin to Cork, Ireland’s second biggest city. The trip was uneventful, though it gave us our first insight into the narrow roadways here. More on that later. Made it into Cork rather tuckered out … just enough energy to find our hostel, find a grocery, make some dinner, and hit another pub to watch the World Cup. Met a couple from Milwaukee (seems to be an ongoing Wisconsin connection on this trip) and a Irish tour bus driver who had all sorts of tips for us. Talked for at least 30 minutes, telling us the places to go, when not to go, pubs to stop at where we’d get a discount by mentioning his name, which ones to tell we were scouting for a Japanese tour, etc. Helpful guy — gave us his name and number, and insisted that we’d call him if we ran into any trouble. Friendly Irish.
Wednesday, June 21 – family day. One of the reasons for going to Cork was that we have family in the area. My Mom’s Dad was born in County Cork, and many of Mom’s first cousins still live and breathe Cork air. Not knowing any of them, we were a little reluctant to call, but we did, and are certainly glad that we did. After a short and comfortable train ride to Mallow just north of Cork, we were greeted by Nora May and Jimmy, some of the kindest and friendliest folk I’ve ever met. To make a very long story short, they fed us, took us to meet other relatives, drove down some amazingly narrow roads with great skill, fed us again, asked us questions, told us about our family and Ireland, and gave us a place to stay. Friendly Irish.
Thursday, June 22 – Some more good authentic Irish food for breakfast started the day of well. We were dropped off at the train station in Cork, needing to dash into our hostel (paid for the previous night but didn’t stay … didn’t check out in time either) and grab our stuff. Over to the Avis car rental location to pick up our car. Wise guys that we are, we thought that it would be some good fun to rent a car instead of dealing with trains and buses. Time will tell if that was a good decision or not — at this point, I’m not so sure. My first turn into a left lane went smoothly … my second went well too, though unfortunately it was a one-way street going the other way. Oops. No useful maps for Cork, at least not in our possession, and we were off. Destination was Kenmare, a small town on the southwest coast … it seems that driving east doesn’t really help. Oops again. Managed to get turned around and through the city without too many problems. Before long I was motoring down a nice, wide 4-lane highway. Easy. A few miles later I was on a nice, wide 2-lane highway. Still easy. As the miles went by, the road got more and more narrow. A few ugly blind turns with big trucks in my lane, but, we made it to Kenmare in one piece, and there isn’t any damage worth mentioning (to Avis). Beautiful little town on a lake here — didn’t do as much scenic driving along the coast as I had hoped, but, since I couldn’t enjoy the scenery anyway, I thought that a more direct route would be best. A few more days of driving ahead — we’ve changed plans a bit to simplify the driving — hopefully that helps.
For what it’s worth, there is a massive Harley Davidson rally here this weekend — good thing we left Wisconsin! Dozens and dozens of bikes parked here in this town of a few hundred people. We’ll see how friendly the Irish are after dealing with them!