Journal - Vacation Trip II

I had but a few hours of solitude in Belfast before departing on the second half of my lengthy "spring break"/"easter vacation" adventures, just enough time, in fact, to wash clothes and repack. If you want a brief synopsis of events over the two week trip with my parents, I'll let you know that there were fewer muddy hikes, more fried "Irish breakfasts," and fewer amounts of German a capella music, but similar amounts of sights and beautiful photo opportunities. We spent probably half of the nights in bed-and-breakfasts and the other half in hostels. If you are interested in knowing what we saw or did along the way, either read on, or imagine everything you would want to see if you were to drive completely around the coast of Ireland from Dublin clockwise to Belfast and divide that by two (or multiply by one half). But to save you the mental challenge and to eliminate any possible calculation errors, I suggest that you read on. Plus, it's illustrated!

Day 1: Actually Day 0.5
For me, I didn't actually depart on my journey until after noon, so it counts as half a day for me. But because my parents arrived that morning, and because talking about "Day 4.5" would be confusing, this will count as Day 1. It also evens out in the end, because the last day was less than full. After arriving in Dublin, we had a main course of dinner with a side of music, and then caught some sleep as all parties were quite exhausted.

Day 2: Views and Booze
After stuffing ourselves at the bed-and-breakfast (when its all-you-can-eat, why do you need lunch?) we headed out to explore Dublin. After a brief stop at Trinity College, where my mom spent a year abroad, we caught a double-deck bus out to Kilmainham Gaol. The 200+ year-old jail is most famous for holding political prisoners and executing leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, which is credited for changing public sentiment leading eventually to the war of independence from Britain. Less famously, it has been used in many movies, including The Italian Job, Michael Collins, and Boondock Saints. After the excellent tour, we slowly meandered back to the city center, stopping at the modern art museum, enjoying a pint and the view from the top of the Guinness factory, and noticing a plaque recognizing the first performance of Handel's Messiah. On our way back to the B&B we also noted the location of the opening scenes from the movie Once. No buskers were there, unfortunately.

Day 3: Passage Tomb Raider
After an aborted attempt to find the old dormitory, our trio picked up the rental car and headed in the opposite direction, north from Dublin, in order to explore Bru na Boinne, the site of several large megalithic passage tombs. These tombs may look like wee hills or large mounds at first glance, but they hide a cross-shaped passage system inside. One even had a stone so large inside that it would not have fit in through the passage; a great way to prevent someone from stealing it! The most famous tomb at Bru na Boinne is Newgrange, which is notably lined up with solar patterns such that only on the winter solstice does the sun penetrate through a narrow opening to the very center (oops, centre) of the tomb. Why don't architects and engineers build solar-oriented structures like this today? Oh wait, they do. Oh, and I almost forgot the second cool thing about the tomb inside: it had a corbeled roof. In spite the lack of all of our fancy technology, these prehistoric people were good engineers!

Day 4: Along the Braveheart Drive
With our internal compasses reoriented towards the sun, we turned south and begun our circumnavigation of Ireland. We found ourselves on the "Braveheart Drive" through the Wicklow Mountains on our way to Glendalough, a picturesque monastic site complete with a round tower and desolate but beautiful lakes framed in a colorful valley. We walked around enjoying the scenery, trying to stay out of the intermittent rain, and musing that a monk's life was not for us. As we left Glendalough and headed west for Kilkenny, we once again found ourselves on the Braveheart Drive. Kilkenny was a charming and bustling town, and we found some pub music after dinner, but were slightly disappointed. I came to Ireland to hear Irish music, not Cat Stevens!

Day 5: Cill Chainnigh - Corcaigh - Glenn Garbh
One advantage of Ireland is that it is such a small island; one can drive across the width of it easily in one day and still have some time to sightsee and get a bite to eat. In this spirit, we headed west once more from Kilkenny with the intention of reaching the Atlantic Ocean by dusk. A few hours brought us to the surprisingly large and bustling Cork, and a significant length of time found us a parking space and the English Market: a wonderful delight for the senses, filled with all kinds of seafood, bread, cheese, and more. Needless to say, we acquired enough food for the next few days' lunches. Then it was onward west, with a brief stop at the beautiful lake and waterfalls of Gougane Barra Forest Park (also home to the 2003 winner of Ireland's Top Toilet Award), before reaching our desired destination, Glengariff, on Bantry Bay.

Day 6: The Rain In Ireland Falls Mainly On Us
Another advantage of Ireland is that the landscape has varying shades of green throughout the whole year; this is the unfortunate result of the large amounts of rain that fall upon the island, as we experienced. This day we explored the Beara Peninsula, one of many long lengths of land that extend from the southwestern corner of Ireland. Highlights of the rainy Beara were fishing boats, dramatic rock formations, and Healy Pass. We also stopped to check out the cable car linking the end of the peninsula to an island, but learned our lesson after mother nature drenched us completely before we could run back to the car. A few hours (and still with wet pants) we stopped in Killarney to tour the beautifully-set Ross Castle. We emerged in good spirits, especially because the rain had stopped! It thankfully held off as we paused at a beautiful beach and continued to the town of Dingle on the Dingle Peninsula. While checking out the town, we stopped into a music shoppe on a whim and followed the owner into a nearby pub, where we were finally entertained by some of the desired toe-tapping "trad" music.

Day 7: "Dingle"ing
We headed out to explore the Dingle Peninsula with high hopes for a nice day and were rewarded with a half-day's good weather. While investigating a passage in an old stone fort, I had a surprising close encounter of the sheep kind. Continuing along the wonderful one lane road we achieved great views of rocks, beaches, and islands. Dingle was the filming location for the movie Ryan's Daughter, and we could locate several scenes. We also stopped for a few hours at the Blasket Centre, which chronicled the former inhabitation of remote islands offshore that produced a remarkable number of Gaelic writers. That afternoon, we drove on north, crossed the River Shannon on a ferry, and spent the night in a hostel in wee Doolin, listening to one man's entertaining and illuminating stories about living with the Troubles in Belfast.

Day 8: Cliffs, Chips, and Connemara
Our first stop of the day was at the over-priced and over-protected Cliffs of Moher, which were impressive nevertheless. On our way to famous fish-and-chips in Galway, we passed through the impressively-unique rocky landscape of the Burren. North of Galway we entered my favorite landscape so far: Connemara. I admit it helped that the sun shone warmly for most of our journey along the rocky and sandy coast. We found a French-student-filled hostel to spend the night, on the banks of Ireland's only (disputed) fjord: Killary Harbor.

Day 9: Country Life
On this day we took a well-needed break from scenery to investigate many aspects of living in the Irish countryside. After an unsuccessful hike at Connemara (we made it to the top but couldn't see anything from within the clouds), we turned our sights inland. As we drove north from Killary Harbor through a desolate landscape, Dad narrated our journey with a story about 400 people dying as they walked on an icy day in an unsuccessful attempt to get food from a wealthy landowner during the famine. Later in the day, we stopped at the Irish Museum of Country Life, filled with wonderful exhibits about rural living, and an very interesting exhibition of artistic and functional student-designed chairs and benches. We ended the day in Carrick-on-Shannon, and enjoyed an amazingly delicious meal of Indian food, one of the best I've had. I almost felt guilty stuffing myself after hearing the story of the famine-walkers, but only almost.

Day 10: A Harper and A Hostel
To compensate for my lack of empathy the previous day, in the morning we visited a famine museum in nearby Strokestown. As we headed north towards Sligo, I was able to convince my fellow travelers to take a slight detour and stop at the grave of the most famous of the Irish harpers, Turlough O'Carolan. Many of his compositions are still played and reinterpreted, including my favorite, Si Bheag Si Mhor. According to popular legend, Carolan was playing for a wealthy patron who thought his playing was sub-par and so convinced him to compose this tune (about fairies battling), thus sparking his influential career. Continuing north, we stopped to check out some more passage tombs, dolmens, and a two-headed Janus stone before ending in my favorite town of Donegal and the same hostel I had visited days before. Another great experience ensued, starting with a coal fire and comfy chairs, continuing with a lengthy discussion about biking and environmentally-friendly cars, and ending with a good time at a lively and local pub with our friends from the hostel. Donegal enchants every time!

Day 11: There Will Be Rain
Unlike my last visit to Donegal, we took only one day to see everything. But like my previous visit, it rained. A lot. At least we could see half of the cliffs at Slieve League this time. And luckily, the tide was further out when we came to the sand dunes at Maghera, giving me the exciting opportunity to explore larger and deeper caves. We made it to sunnier Derry that afternoon, and spent some time in their history museum before taking a walk around the city walls, which provided great views of the Bogside, a neighborhood where the Troubles started back in 1969. That night we stayed in a small funky hostel, ate a delicious minted-lamb burger, and watched the very confusing film, There Will Be Blood.

Day 12: The Causeway Coast
Up until Derry I had been very restrained in my picture taking, and was set to easily make my goal of fewer than 100 pictures per day. But the darn good scenery of the Causeway Coast completely smashed my best attempts to stay within this limit. Our first stop was the ancient Dunluce Castle, built so close to the cliff edge that the kitchen collapsed into the sea one stormy night in the 17th century. Next we hit up the excellent Giants Causeway, a collection of impressive columnar basalt formations, with an evident etymological basis. We took a temporary diversion to tour the Bushmills Distillery, much better than the Guinness tour because one actually got to see them producing the spirit. Our final stop along the Causeway Coast was to cross the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, a mental and physical challenge, especially when the wind blew hard and one wanted to take a picture while on it. This still left enough time to leisurely drive to Belfast, eat my fill of seafood for dinner, and enjoy the craic at a pub in the city centre.

Day 13: Relaxing in Belfast
Our final day (and a half) was spent in Belfast engaged in a few pleasant activities: eating "Ulster fry" breakfasts, touring the city, eating delicious seafood dinners for which I could not otherwise enjoy were not the 'rents paying for it, and relaxing the tired legs, bodies, and minds with numerous cups of tea and episodes of Columbo. I showed them all of my favorite hang-out spots (trad pubs, the Lagan River, Botanic Gardens, Queen's music building). We also took a black-taxi tour of the Falls and Shankill areas of west Belfast, a must-do for any visitors. In 90 minutes we covered what I had walked over the course of two different days, stopping at murals, taking pictures at the "peace wall," and getting a quick but superficial summary of the Troubles in Belfast. The next morning, Monday, we went our separate ways (they back to Dublin, and I back to class), after a long but memorable trip around Ireland. I'm sure none of us were looking forward to having responsibilities again, work on their part, and writing two essays for me.

Returning to "normal" life after three weeks of traveling was a challenging task, especially in terms of evaluating those journeys and experiences. The two weeks that now separate me from those 23 days is a good amount of time for reflection. It's not long enough to forget the less-positive aspects of the trips, but it is enough time for my numerous photographs (really, there's a lot!) to paint a good picture of the beautiful and enjoyable times we had. I'm sure that with more time I will remember these trips around Ireland with an even greater fondness than I have now. I hope these journal entries expressed some of that sentiment.