Ireland
This being my first weekend at home in the 4 weeks since I got back from my vacation to Ireland with my brother I can finally get my vacation dumped to the web just in case anyone actually wants to read about it. :)
My brother finally got around to graduating college so we went on the trip that we had planned to commemorate that event. We flew out of LAX on April 8th in the afternoon and arrived in Dublin, via London Heathrow in the afternoon of April 9th. We had made tentative plans for the trip but we really didn't have any specific schedule. We had destinations, and we had plans for lodging for most of the trip, but that was it. Everything turned out great and we didn't really get stressed about getting to this or that tourist destination. We were free to wander around and change our mind at will. The original plan was to be in Dublin, and then go to Killarney and then Cork, and then Glasgow, and then London. In fact, we ended up going from Dublin to Killarney, and then Glasgow and Edinburgh and then home.
The first day in Dublin we found our way to our Hostel from the airport on the bus and had quite a bit of daylight to burn yet. We wanted to avoid jet lag so even though we were tired we were determined to keep ourselves up until at least 9pm. We wandered around the city a while, found a pub outside of the tourist area where all the locals were watching horse racing and there was not a tourist to be seen. We found our way to Dublin castle, and saw some other historic buildings. In our wanderings we went past the Olympia Theatre and as I glanced at the events I saw that Bare Naked Ladies was playing. I checked the date and time and realized that it was in an hour and a half. I went into the ticket office and came out with two tickets. We killed some time in a local cafe which served some very good coffee and then watched the show. As they told us during the concert we managed to watch the bands entire Ireland tour!
The concert was fantastic and we stayed until the second encore by which time we were both quite tired and ready to try and get some shuteye. The hostel that we were at wasn't terrible but sharing a room with 12-14 other people is not conducive to a good nights rest.
Mountain, The next two days in Dublin were well spent, we visited the Guinness brewery, the Temple Bar, the Irish Famine Memorial(eerie), and though enjoyable enough we were ready to get the heck out of the city by the time we caught our train to Killarney. Killarney was definitely a tourist town, but it was small and near a national forest. There was plenty of hiking and sight seeing to do there and after 3 days we decided to cancel our trip to Cork and spend the rest of our time in Ireland there.
We walked and biked our way around the Lakes of Killarney, visiting Torc Falls, Torc Mountain, Mangerton Mountain (Where I got sunburned. Who knew that Devil's Punchbowl would have no tree cover?), Ross Castle, the meeting of the waters, and many other parts of the countryside. On Sunday we went to a small local church which met in the Community Center. We had spaghetti with the pastor and his wife, and went to the farm of one of the members on Wednesday for a Bible study. We had tea by the peat fire while we studied. It was a farm that had been in the family for 300 years.
After Killarny we flew Ryan air to Scotland and after getting fleeced by a cabbie found our way to my friend Janet's place where we stayed for a few nights. We actually spent most of our time in other cities. We went to Stirling to see the Wallace Monument, and Edinburgh for some swing dancing. (I knew Janet from swing dancing in SLO before she went of to Glasgow for veterinary school) We then spent two nights in Edinburgh before heading back to Dublin for our flight home. Edinburgh was a city of great history and we enjoyed our time there but we didn't do all we could as we were running out of steam and getting ready to go home. My favorite part of our Edinburgh visit was a tour of Mary Kings close. A narrow street that was partially covered over by the foundation of a government building in 1753. It has well preserved 15th century architecture, the history of which is well known from public records. The tour guide was dressed in period garb and thoroughly enjoyed trying to disgust, shock, and amuse everyone with stories of everyday life in the 1600s.
Our flight back on April 26th was enjoyable, movies on demand were watched, cribbage was played and we arrived back in the states hardly the worse for wear.
So that is the short version of the trip. It was definitely a memorable vacation for my Brother and me. Many lessons learned about international travel were learned that, Lord willing, we will put to good use someday.
I will try and post again soon with pictures of the event.
My brother finally got around to graduating college so we went on the trip that we had planned to commemorate that event. We flew out of LAX on April 8th in the afternoon and arrived in Dublin, via London Heathrow in the afternoon of April 9th. We had made tentative plans for the trip but we really didn't have any specific schedule. We had destinations, and we had plans for lodging for most of the trip, but that was it. Everything turned out great and we didn't really get stressed about getting to this or that tourist destination. We were free to wander around and change our mind at will. The original plan was to be in Dublin, and then go to Killarney and then Cork, and then Glasgow, and then London. In fact, we ended up going from Dublin to Killarney, and then Glasgow and Edinburgh and then home.
The first day in Dublin we found our way to our Hostel from the airport on the bus and had quite a bit of daylight to burn yet. We wanted to avoid jet lag so even though we were tired we were determined to keep ourselves up until at least 9pm. We wandered around the city a while, found a pub outside of the tourist area where all the locals were watching horse racing and there was not a tourist to be seen. We found our way to Dublin castle, and saw some other historic buildings. In our wanderings we went past the Olympia Theatre and as I glanced at the events I saw that Bare Naked Ladies was playing. I checked the date and time and realized that it was in an hour and a half. I went into the ticket office and came out with two tickets. We killed some time in a local cafe which served some very good coffee and then watched the show. As they told us during the concert we managed to watch the bands entire Ireland tour!
The concert was fantastic and we stayed until the second encore by which time we were both quite tired and ready to try and get some shuteye. The hostel that we were at wasn't terrible but sharing a room with 12-14 other people is not conducive to a good nights rest.
Mountain, The next two days in Dublin were well spent, we visited the Guinness brewery, the Temple Bar, the Irish Famine Memorial(eerie), and though enjoyable enough we were ready to get the heck out of the city by the time we caught our train to Killarney. Killarney was definitely a tourist town, but it was small and near a national forest. There was plenty of hiking and sight seeing to do there and after 3 days we decided to cancel our trip to Cork and spend the rest of our time in Ireland there.
We walked and biked our way around the Lakes of Killarney, visiting Torc Falls, Torc Mountain, Mangerton Mountain (Where I got sunburned. Who knew that Devil's Punchbowl would have no tree cover?), Ross Castle, the meeting of the waters, and many other parts of the countryside. On Sunday we went to a small local church which met in the Community Center. We had spaghetti with the pastor and his wife, and went to the farm of one of the members on Wednesday for a Bible study. We had tea by the peat fire while we studied. It was a farm that had been in the family for 300 years.
After Killarny we flew Ryan air to Scotland and after getting fleeced by a cabbie found our way to my friend Janet's place where we stayed for a few nights. We actually spent most of our time in other cities. We went to Stirling to see the Wallace Monument, and Edinburgh for some swing dancing. (I knew Janet from swing dancing in SLO before she went of to Glasgow for veterinary school) We then spent two nights in Edinburgh before heading back to Dublin for our flight home. Edinburgh was a city of great history and we enjoyed our time there but we didn't do all we could as we were running out of steam and getting ready to go home. My favorite part of our Edinburgh visit was a tour of Mary Kings close. A narrow street that was partially covered over by the foundation of a government building in 1753. It has well preserved 15th century architecture, the history of which is well known from public records. The tour guide was dressed in period garb and thoroughly enjoyed trying to disgust, shock, and amuse everyone with stories of everyday life in the 1600s.
Our flight back on April 26th was enjoyable, movies on demand were watched, cribbage was played and we arrived back in the states hardly the worse for wear.
So that is the short version of the trip. It was definitely a memorable vacation for my Brother and me. Many lessons learned about international travel were learned that, Lord willing, we will put to good use someday.
I will try and post again soon with pictures of the event.
posted by Jason Naylor at 7:03 PM
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