Visit

On Thursday I will be going to Bucharest. I will be meeting a very important person for the first time. I am really looking forward to it. Talk later.

Last day

Thursday the 19th of June was the last day of the trip. Gabi and Cosmin had packed their luggage the previous night and since we had a few hours until the flight, we decided to visit the city centre for some final shopping and maybe see Trinity College. Time again proved to be our enemy and after a small foray into the shops of Grafton street we went back to the car and set out for the airport. We made good time on the road and arrived at the airport a little over two hours before the flight was due to take off. After being effectively robbed by Aer Lingus in excess baggage charges we headed for the departure area. Here I bade farewell to my friends. It was hard to believe we had spent two weeks together, time had moved so fast and there was so much more we had wanted to see. I watched Gabi and Cosmin go towards the security check and turned away to go back to the car.As I walked I thought about the last fortnight, the good and not so good. The best part for me was seeing Gabi again and meeting Cosmin, the worst part was not getting to see my nephew on his birthday. The best places were Dunquin and Doolin, the worst was Newgrange. I will miss the breakfasts, miss getting Cosmin’s fried tomato slices and giving Gabi my bacon(rasher). I will miss the company of friends.

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Almost last day

Wednesday started off a beautiful sunny morning. We had decided to go to see Ireland’s Eye, a small island near Dublin bay. As I drove through Phoenix Park I spotted my sister and niece escorting a group of school children to the zoo. She got quite a surprise when she saw us! When we arrived at Howth harbour I tried to contact the ferry company. I got no reply. As we waited at the harbour I found out from some people there that the ferry only operated at weekends, so no Ireland’s Eye for us. We walked around a part of Howth head until some rain started , at which stage we went back to the car. Newgrange was our next stop. Despite heavy rain, closed roads and poor signage, we eventually arrived there. We could not enter though as tickets were only issued at a different place and a bus took people from there to the Newgrange site. By this time we were just fed up and went back to Dublin. I never drove through as heavy rain as that which feel on the road back to Dublin. We went to the city centre and Cosmin and Gabi went hunting …………………books! It was almost like looking at kids in a sweet shop, lol. We had dinner in a nice “Irish” restaurant in the Temple Bar area. On the way back to the car park I got soaked and , though I did not realise it at the time, I picked up a cold infection. I dropped the book addicts back at the hotel and went home to do some laundry

Eye on the sky

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams.

These are the words of a poem called “He wishes for the cloths of heaven” by an Irish poet W B Yeats. They are written high on the walls of the main room in the Historic Science Centre at Birr castle. I had to study that poem in school. It was only later in life I understood what it means.
The centre and the demense are fascinating places, at least for me. It was the site of the world’s largest telescope in the mid 1800’s. As I looked at the huge structure that supported the telescope and at the technology that was used, I could not help but think of what was happening at that time. Inside the walls of this grand estate no money was spared in developing the latest technology in photography, optics and precision engineering in order to build this instrument while outside the walls a million people died from starvation and millions more were forced to leave their native land to survive.
Here is a link to the Birr castle website http://www.birrcastle.com/#

We moved on to Roscea and then set out for Dublin. My friends taking the opportunity to get some sleep on the way. On arrival in Dublin more shopping was done before dinner at The Vineyard in Blanchardstown. I dropped off my friends at the Castleknock hotel and drove back to my house

Goodbye to the west

Today we headed inland. I was sorry to say goodbye to the west coast. I had hoped to see more of it but time again prevented me from getting beyond Galway. We crossed the Shannon at Shannonbridge and arrived in Clonmacnoise. If I thought the tourists yesterday were bad they were nothing to what I saw today. A "lady" had decided to walk her two dogs through the Conmacnoise site. As all dogs do they defecated and urinated, only this time it was on the graves of saints and schoolars. I later wrote to the office of Public works about it. It was simply not right and we should respect such sites not just for the money they bring in but more what they really are- monuments to the faith and civilization of our ancestors. Here again I saw the differences in people as an Italian man chided his son for not having respect when the kid jumped over a grave.
We later discovered a back way into the site as we looked for a way into Mongan bog.
The bog was more interesting than I expected. It consisted of two parts. One part is preserved the other is being harvested. I spoke with one of the train drivers whose train takes away the peat after it is cut and dried . The peat is used as garden compost or a a fuel for heating houses or powering electricity stations. It will very soon be a thing of the past as more bogs are being preserved and so peat ot turf as we call it will be left in the bogs, and rightly so. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Birr and spent the night in the Ring farmhouse just outside the town.

Galway

The next day we went into Galway city. We strolled around the city centre and went out to the Spanish arch. One amazing thing we witnessed was a street artist creating art with cans of spray paint and pages from magazines. At first it did not look like he was going to produce anything interesting, he almost looked unsure of what he was doing. In the end however he produced a fantastic painting. He was clearly highly talented and I hope he gets well rewarded for his work. We only stayed a short time in the city before moving on in search of good places to find waders. My guests suggested we go back early to the B&B as they felt I needed a more relaxing day to recover from the previous exertions. However for me it would have been "un pacat de moarte". It was a beautiful day, we were in a beautiful place and it would be simply wrong to spend our time indoors. So we went for a Burren "encore" We went to the dolmen at Poulnabron. One problem with tourists is that a small number do not respect the places they visit. A group had decided to ignore the signs asking people not to climb on the dolmen. When an American tourist pointed this out to them, they got off but not until they let themselves down even more by swearing at him.
We had dinner at Logues Lodge restaurant in Ballyvaughan. It is a nice place to eat and typical of an Irish pub/restaurant. The drive back to Galway was really pretty, the low setting sun highlighting the landscape that stretched before us. In the evening I managed to see a recording of the Kilkenny/Offaly hurling match. It was an easy victory for Kilkenny but still it was good to see.

Doolin to Oranmore

I have to say the B&B in Doolin was the best of the trip. Our host was the most genuinely friendly and helpfull that we met. The previous lodgers had declined the Irish breakfast but not us :). I think we should have started an Irish Breakfast fan club,lol. The B&B is called Bay View on the Cliffs of Moher road. The host is Mrs Bridie Browne and her number is 353657074325. There is no website address . It is the only placed I stayed, apart from Coan of course, that I would want to stay again. It is open from May 1 to September 30.

It is a good thing the B&B was so good because this day was the longest and most tiring of the trip.

We started with a boat trip out to Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands. It was a beautiful day and the island was equally beautiful. We had less than 3 hours there, hardly enough to explore it. As we waited for the boat to bring us back to the mainland, some local teenagers gave a display of Irish dancing. Also an auction was held, in Irish. The auction was to sell bags of turf to help finance a traditional dancing group. We went on the optional trip by boat to the base of the Cliffs of Moher. It was interesting to see the cliffs from beneath but the boat ride was too rough and on balance not worth it.

The Burren is an unique habitat and the more Cosmin saw of it, the more he wanted to see,lol. We stopped for dinner in Gort.It was almost 11pm when we finally got to Oranmore and our lodgings for the night. I was exhausted .

Tralee to Doolin

After a good Irish breakfast we set out for the ferry crossing at Tarbert. A route I took last August but I still managed to make a wrong turning,lol. We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher and spent some time walking along the Cliff top. I suppose I should be more impressed by such a spectacular place but I found the large number of tourists and the commercialisation just too much. I wanted to walk along the cliff top path just to get away from all the bustle. Thousands of sea birds flew back and forth from the cliffs as they searched for food to bring back to their nests on the rocks. Doolin is famous for it's tradional music and the pubs in the village have regular music sessions. Our accomodation for the night was a mile or two outside the village, which was the only fault I found with it. In the evening I walked out from the B&B to the roadside. It was a beautiful evening. The sun was setting behind a small cloud, a few rays finding holes through the nebula giving a red glow to the horizon. There was hardly a breeze. In the distance I could hear the faint sound of a dog barking mingled with the equally faint sound of traditional music. This was the Ireland I wanted to see. Not the Ireland of Dublin with it's mile after mile of car crowded roads, it's ceaseless din of noise, everyone in a rush and going nowhere. I woke early the next morning to catch the sunrise. The window of my bedroom got both the setting and rising sun, at least in June :)

Blaskets

Camera shy bird!

Today we set out for Dingle. We had booked a trip to the Blasket Islands. Dingle has become more famous in recent years as the home of a dolphin. The locals call him Fungi. He is one of a number of solitary dolphins around the coasts of Europe and other parts of the world. No one really knows why these normally very social creatures should abandon their kind and live so close to people. Not all of them are safe to come in contact with but Fungi has so far been nothing but playful with people. Sure enough as the boat made it way out through Dingle bay, Fungi gave chase. First along beside the boat , then behind it. Cosmin had moved around the boat to get better photos of the many sea birds who passed back and forth. Gaby and I stayed at the back. I guess Fungi spotted us because he kept to our side of the boat, lol. He left us after a few minutes and I later saw him putting on a show for one of the many boats that go out to the middle of the bay just to see him. He has done more for tourism in Kerry and Ireland than most of the overpaid tourism executives. As we approached An Balscaod Mor(Great Blasket Island) we could see the ruins of the old village and a couple of new houses. The boat moved along in front of An Traigh Bhan (the white beach) and as it did we could make out the fins of basking sharks. We drifted over closer and we could see the large brown shapes of these creatures as they moved slowly in the water. A small group of seals popped their heads over the water to have a look at the humans in the boat and we also saw a young seal in a cave, lying on a rock, it's white fur making it stand out against the dark backround of the cave. We passed An Ceann dubh(The black headland) at the other end of An Blascaod Mor and on to Inis na Bro (Island of the Quernstone) where we saw the spectacular Cathederal Rocks, a series of narrow jagged high rocks . We were at the most westerly point of the most westerly island of the the most westerly country of western Europe. As the locals say" the next parish is America". On the journey back to Dingle Cosmin continued his seemingly eternal quest for photos of seabirds. On arrival we began the coastal drive to Dunquin. This has some very spectacular coastal views and I could have spent days in this area. However our destination tonight was Tralee. We stayed in Brook Manor Lodge. On her last visit in August ,Gaby described her room here as "the princess room" so I made sure she had the same room this time also, and this time she had a prince.

Killarney Day 2

The next day we took a shortened version of the Ring of Kerry route. After Kenmare we turned at Sneem to take the mountain road to the Gap of Dunloe. On the way we passed close to Lough Brin. Unfortunately we did not have time to see it, so I can not confirm if the monster exists or not. Here is a link if you want to know more about the creature http://www.mysteryanimalsofireland.com/LKerry.htm
In spite of it's hundreds of thousands of yearly visitors the Gap of Dunloe still retains its rugged beauty. Even the town of Killarney has managed to avoid too much of the "plastic Paddy" disease. One unforseen incident did occur during our stay here. On our visit to the Torc waterfall a real leprechaun was seen. However I believe most people thought he was just some guy dressed up in a leprechaun suit. That is the great thing about such myths,even if he had a pot of gold coins and started counting them, everyone would still think it was someone playing a joke,lol. We spent the night in Killarney again.