Ireland Tour Day 5

Tue 19th Oct


This morning we started out by visiting a Celtic crystal factory. The glass is handcut and the designs are Celtic designs with some having been taken from the Book of Kells.
Making crystal is quite an art. The patterns are hand done from memory and not from any kind of stencil or anything.

We watched a demonstration of a guy cutting different patterns into a glass bowl. It seemed to take him no time at all. The pattern at the bottom of the bowl was called the rose pattern. It just looked so simple when he was cutting the glass but it looks so good and precise with spacing etc.

The glass is quite thick to begin with. Then the pattern is cut twice into it. The glass is treated with acid and then polished to shine it up.

the Claddagh pattern

Next stop along the way was the marble factory. There are different types of marble mined in the area. We had a brief intro in which the guy mentioned that the marble dates to the pre-Cambrian period (which spans a long time but prob around 4000 million years ago. There are a lot of marble quarries around Galway and the Connemara region. Marble is basically limestone but the Irish green colour is due to the zinc impurities.

Next we headed out to the Killary Fjord where we did a Connemara cruise. There are 3 fjords in Ireland with the waterways carved into the steep hills by glaciers. The weather was beautiful and we were able to look at the mussel rafts in the water. We could also see sheep grazing on the hillsides. The farmers just let them loose and around this part of Ireland there arent even fences keeping sheep in certain paddocks.

Back to Galway for the afternoon to have some free time to walk around sightseeing or shopping for souvenirs.
There is a little fishing village outside of Galway called Claddagh which is where the ring comes from. The Claddagh symbol is two hands clasping a heart with a crown above. The heart represents 'love', the hands 'friendship' and the crown is for 'loyalty'.

Went out to hear some more Irish music at Galway. Only a few of us went as our hotel is slightly outside the city centre so it's not really that walkable.
We were trying more Irish beers... I had to have a laugh cos there's one called
'Galway hooker'. Our tour guide was talking about a hooker convention when we drove through one of the fishing village towns. We all thought it was terrible funny when he was talking about the annual hooker convention.
So I had to try the Galway hooker beer but i didnt really like it. Found an Irish cider i do like though called Bulmers.

on tap... i can say that i had a Galway hooker!

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Ireland Tour Day 4

Mon 18th Oct

Today we left Killarney for Galway.
First stop was the Foynes Flying Boat Museum along the river Shannon. Ok it might sound boring... at first i thought it would be cos i'm not really a plane enthusiast. One of ROI's airports is called Shannon and short flights out of the country leave from here (e.g. ROI to Spain or ROI to London). The old site of air traffic used to be Foynes but there was no runway but the boats would take off from the water - hence flying boats.

In the 1930's and early 1940's, transatlantic flights from the US to Europe landed at Foynes. There is a little museum of information about the planes and flights as well as a recreated model of a flying boat that you can walk around inside.

Foynes also claims to be the home of the original Irish coffee. They are very proud to claim having invented it here. So there was a coffee making demonstration before morning tea.

Next stop after Foynes was Bunratty Village which is on the outskirts of county Limerick. The witty poems called Limericks are said to originate in this county. People used to make them up as a form of entertainment as there was nothing else to do to keep themselves occupied on cold winter nights.

mmm fresh bread...

We only had an hour for lunch but Es and i decided to skip lunch in order to visit the Bunratty castle and Folk park with another young tour member. So the 3 of us did a whirlwind tour of the castle. I liked the Folk park section more and was a bit disappointed not to have had more time to fully explore it. It's very similar to the Welsh park i visited. The history is fascinating and again they have dismantled and reassembled actual dwellings. Had the nicest fresh bread baked on a peat fire... mmmm

Bunratty Castle. Our tour guide said "here in Ireland we catalogue our castles by calling them A,B,C etc... - Another Bloody Castle"

Bothan Scoir - one-room dwelling of a poor landless labourer (17th century)

I'm not sure where this photo was taken but it was somewhere along the way. This sculpture is a memorial for the people who died in the great famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. Ireland's population was around 8 million then and the people largely depended on the potato crop for food. They call it blight which is something like a virus that made all the potatoes rot decimated the crop and about a million people died of starvation (actual figures might be more) and a million people migrated out of the country.
The big tragedy of the situation is Ireland was governed by the UK who stood by and did nothing as people died. But even the Irish people did not help each other. The meat export market was still going strong as people chose to make money exporting rather than feeding their own countrymen. 
The sculpture depicts a skinny boy on the right standing at a door/wall begging to work for food. Whole families were evicted for failing to pay rent. They had no food or shelter. As the parents were dying of starvation they would drop their children off outside workhouses in the hope that the children would be taken in and put to work and more importantly be fed and live. It's hard to see but there is a lady's head poking out a window on the left is telling him there is no room for him. This was a true story and the real little boy died of starvation.

After lunch we went to the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs rise to about 700ft above the Atlantic sea and are along the coast of county Clare. (We are covering quite a bit of ground to go from Kerry county to Limerick to Clare to Galway today!).
The weather decided to take a turn for the worse and it got very windy and a little drizzly when we got there... but the view was still very spectacular.

the pictures dont really do this justice. the sheer size of the cliff faces was breathtaking...

O'Brien's tower. Built in 1835 as a lookout over the cliffs of Moher

Settled for the night in Galway. But Es and i were too tired to go out so just enjoyed a night in. The good thing about staying in the same place for a couple of nights is that tomorrow night we can go out...

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Ireland Tour Day 3

Sun 17th Oct

Off to the Dingle Peninsula today...

Our tour guide is a funny older man i would guess to be in his late 50's... it must be cost cuts but he is doing really well driving the bus as well as giving us commentary on what we are seeing. But he said he has been doing it for ages. He has a rule for the tour... some penalties if you are late... if you are 2 mins late then you will be singing a song... 3 mins you will dance... and 5 mins late then you will be singing and dancing... in the spot where the bus was...
Anyway he kept us entertained with his great jokes all along the way.

First stop was another retail stop. Prices were reasonable at this place and they were good with providing us with tax rebate forms. VAT is like GST in Aust but it's 21%! - foreigners can claim it back upon leaving the country. The highlight of the stop was Irish coffee!!
You generally drink coffee in the mornings right? So trust the Irish to start drinking early by putting whisky in their coffee... but i must admit... it was yummm and i'm not a big coffee drinker!

i just liked the ripple of the sea with the wind...

We drove south along the west coast of Ireland. Stopped for a few photo opportunities as there is some beachside along the coast. Stopped at Dingle harbour for morning tea... the town is plastered with dolphins because in 1984 a dolphin appeared in the harbour. It would welcome the fishing boats into port by escorting them in and would also give divers gifts of fish... They named him 'Fungie'.

typical Irish countryside - lots of sheep!!

The fog over the countryside this morning actually reminded me of scenes in the movie "Far and Away" with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. How funny that later when i read the tour outline i found that some of the movie was shot here in the Dingle Peninsula. There's also another movie that was shot here called "Ryan's Daughter" but i've never seen it cos i think it might be an older movie.

primitave hut in south Kerry..  the Blasket people might have lived in similar huts

The Dingle Peninsula is in a county called Kerry which is the most south-western county in ROI. There are little islands off the coast of Ireland closest to the town of Dunquin and these are called the Blasket Islands. We went to visit the Blasket centre to learn about the history of the islands.

Basically the inhabitants of the islands lived in primitave huts on the islands and led quiet lives fishing and farming. The population of the biggest island which is the Great Blasket Island never rose above about 150 and the islands havent been inhabited since 1953. The islands are quite isolated due to weather and tidal conditions but it was a nice,clear day so we could actually see the Great Blasket Island.

They speak only Irish on the islands. There is great pride in the literary works of 3 of the island's authors. In a collection of short stories, they tell the tales of the life of the people living on the islands. These books have been translated into a few languages and are important to the Irish speaking people as they show some of the culture and values of Ireland.

Back to the hotel around 4pm for some free time. Killarney is a big tourist town so the shops are open till around 6pm. Es and i took a walk around town poking our heads into some souvenir shops.

more beer at O'Donoghues... and the Irish love their Guinness

After dinner we were pretty knackered but still wanted to experience some Irish nightlife... so we ended up just hanging out at the bar attached to the hotel called O'Donoghues. About half of our tour group thought similarly so we actually had quite a big group.

We also bumped into the other Irish Spirit tour bus there. Basically the tour i'm on is called the Irish Spirit tour as it is meant to go to the places that show the history and more traditional side of Ireland. So we visit a celtic crystal factory as opposed to the Waterford crystal factory. There just so happens to be another tour bus shadowing us on the same tour. There are 47 of them in a very full bus whereas we are only 24 which i think is nice. Plenty of spare seats to stretch out on.
So there were some interesting characters from the other bus. They were all quite nice but one guy was particularly loud and i'll always remember him as "O'neill" because he was commenting on Es's shirt which had the logo of the surfie brand O'Neill on it....
The funny part of the night was our older grandma 'R'... she was requesting some songs from the musicians and talking quite animatedly to them for a while... but in our eyes she was chatting up some young blokes yet again and we had to tease her about it for the rest of the trip...

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Ireland tour Day 2

Sat 16th Oct

Today we left Dublin early in the morning. One thing i dont like about being on tour is the early starts. You put your luggage outside the door at 6:45am before you go to breakfast. The porters take it down and load it onto the bus before you leave.

Drove through the Irish countryside... the first thing I noticed is lots and lots of sheep... one might think you were in New Zealand...

So we drove through Tipperary (and i do know some of the song...) to the Rock of Cashel. The Rock is basically a big mound of rock... kinda like Ayers rock but smaller. It is said that here the King of Munster (the king of that region) in the 5th century was converted to Christianity by St. Patrick. It is the site of subsequent crownings. The most significant was Brian Boru (crowned in 977) who battled and drove the Vikings out of Ireland or the anglo-norsk people to the outskirts of Dublin.

On the site there were ruins of a 12th century chapel, a 13th century cathedral and a 15th century castle. Poked around the ruins a bit and were told a bit about the history of each.

It's funny to learn about religious relics... I'm not superstitious enough to believe in these things. The site is host to the cross of St. Patrick which is an old sandstone weatherworn cross. It has now been taken down and put under the shelter in the old castle... But it is said to have mystical properties. For example... the person who wraps their arms around it and can make their fingers meet will be blessed with never having dental problems. And the young woman who hops around is 9 times will be blessed with marriage... So I had to take a silly photo with me pretending to hop but there is no way i would want to waste my energy...

Then we drove to county Cork. The Republic of Ireland (ROI) has 26 counties and Northern Ireland has 6 but they belong to the UK. Cork is the southernmost county of the ROI. We stopped at the Blarney Woollen Mills for lunch and it was also a shopping stop. At first we thought that there would be wool demonstrations - knitting or weaving etc... but it's basically the southern Irish equivalent of a department store. A good place for souveniors but we were to find out that it was also a pricey tourist trap.

What wasnt in the tour was the Blarney Castle. The tour guide actually sounded quite negative in his description. There were a lot of people on our tour who were older and might not have been able to walk or make the climb up the narrow stairs in the castle. But Es and I arent in wheelchairs yet and so we decided to go kiss the Blarney stone... cos it's apparently what tourists do...

There are several legends concerning the Blarney stone. There is one in which a guy named MacCarthy rescues a young maiden who turns out to be a goddess. She grants him one wish. He has a speech impediment so he asks her to help him. She tells him to kiss a stone... he does and is granted a gift of eloquence. Later the bluestone he kissed is incorporated into the battlements of a castle. Legend says that kissing the stone endows you with the gift of the gab or the ability to create a load of blarney...  blarney = being able to deceive without offending.

Anyway, it's not easy to kiss the stone... it's actually on the outside of the ramparts of the castle. So you climb to the top of the ruined castle looking at all the signs telling you what each space would have been when the castle was intact. Then at the top there is a guy sitting by some rails. You sit on the mat infront of the stone and then grab some metal rails. The guy then lowers you under the castle wall where you see nothing but stone... and kiss it... lol. Most unhygenic but i guess a tourist gotta do what a tourist has gotta do...

They even have a photographer taking shots of you kissing the stone... which they try to sell to you for 10euro for one or 18euro for the 2 shots they take. I could imagine in the days of film cameras they might be wasting a lot of film and have to recover costs but it's digital... methinks it's highway robbery for tourists.

imagine paying 10euro for this headless shot... apparently the true Blarney stone is a long way under the castle and actually more on the outside

Rejoined the rest of the group... and i didnt buy any of the shirts saying stuff like 'I kissed the best' or something crazy like that... We drove to Killarney for the night.

@ the Danny Mann

Our tour guide recommended some local pubs that we could go to hear some Irish music... and do as the Irish do... drink beer...
Ended up going to Sheehans which was packed with young people... bumped into another couple from our tour group there... was pretty happening but quite hot and crowded...
So walked around and went to the other place that was recommended called Danny Mann... there was an Irish folk band playing as well. I think there were more tour groups there as it is also a hotel. There were heaps of old people listening to music with arms folded across their chest. They wouldnt even clap or get into it at all... boo!!

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Dublin and Ireland Tour Day 1

Thut 15th Oct

The tour doesnt officially start till 2pm so Es and i had time to kill this morning.
So got a bus day pass again and explored Dublin a bit. Wanted to see some of the church/cathedral area.

Firstly we visited Trinity College. The library holds the Book of Kells which is a major tourist attraction... The Book of Kells originally comes from the Abbey of Kells (just north of Dublin). It's a collection of parchments with the Latin four New Testament gospels that are elaborately illustrated.
The Trinity College tour and Book of Kells admission price was a bit hefty and we werent that interested so didnt end up viewing it.

Es was actually quite fascinated by the solar powered garbage compactors they have at Trinity College. You put your rubbish in and the lights go on and you know it's working somehow... she got so excited putting rubbish in the bin...

Next we jumped onto any bus and ended up arouond St. Patrick's cathedral. It was built in 1191 and is the cathedral of the Church of Ireland (Anglican). St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland as it is said he came across to pagan Ireland and tirelessly worked to bring Christendom to the people. Again the admission was really expensive and we were a little short of time so didnt go inside.

The funniest thing to note about Ireland is that the religion is actually beer. Next to the big Guinness storage tanks is a church... and this is the sign outside St. Patrick's cathedral. I thought it was hilarious!!

St.Patrick's Cathedral is proudly brought to you by... Baileys - fine Irish cream!!

Started to head back but stopped on the way to see Dublina and Christchurch cathedral. Dublina is an exhibition about the history of Ireland. From it's founding by the vikings and the viking age, through the medieval ages and the driving out of the vikings and then touching on Ireland's religious history and then present day Ireland.

Dublina was actually really interesting. So Ireland was invaded by Scandanavian vikings around 820-830 and they settled there.  The exhibition focused on what life was like, what their settlements looked like and their expertise at trade.

I got all excited looking at old artefacts... they wrote in runes.
When i was in yr 5, we read 'The Hobbit' at school... Helgy and I loved it so much that we learnt how to write in runes. We ended up passing notes in class written in runes because if the teacher found them then she probably wouldnt be able to read them easily. All my old diaries were written in runes... dont ask me why... i might have been a paranoid little girl thinking that then nobody could read them... or it might have been cos it was fun!

So the Vikings that came by boat to Ireland were all men who eventually married and had families with Irish natives. A new hiberno-norse (mixed) people were born. But the Vikings were still at war with the Irish so in the end they were defeated and driven out in the early 1000's. The end of Viking ireland marked the beginning of medieval ireland. Catholicism flourished and England had ruling power over Ireland. But under Henry VIII, all the religious relics in the churches were destroyed. Henry VIII made himself head of the Church of England instead of the Pope. The exhibition ended with southern Ireland becoming independant and then being included in the EU.

Adjoining Dublina is Christchurch Cathedral. It had a lot of religious relics that were destroyed by the orders of Henry VIII. The thing i found cool was that 'The Tudors' the BBC series was filmed at Christchurch Cathedral. I think it's season 2 with Peter O'Toole.

Made it back to the hotel to meet up with the tour group for the introduction. We took a bit of a tour around Dublin. The funny thing was... I had read the itinery and Es assumed we were going to City Hall by the description given of our first day... We ended up back at Dublina. But we had a personal guide and so it ended up being better. The admissions guy laughed when we told him we had no idea we would be visiting and kindly refunded the entry fee we had paid that morning.

After a brief tour of Dublin that mostly consisted of driving around the streets and a guide pointing out various things, we had welcome drinks back at the hotel to meet everybody. With the exception of a boy who is 12 and is here with his grandma, Es and I are the youngest in the group. We have heaps of American retirees on tour with us... a couple of 70-80 yr old ladies...

Ended up going out to dinner with a mother and daughter from Washington and Long Island and a couple of older sisters from Boston. The oldest sister is an absolute hoot!
Because Es and I had gone to Temple Bar the night before we knew a little about what we could do. So we ended up picking a place to meet and going for Irish Tapas. Was a great dinner... the best dishes were Gaelic pheasant and steak and guinness pie.

beer on tap at your table...

It just seems to be Irish tradition to drink a lot of beer or alcohol in general. This pub we were at had beer on tap at the tables. You put a bar tab on and then just pour your own beer... Anyway our oldest granny is hilarous cos we were leaving and turned around to find her gone... we found her chatting up some young blokes and looking at the beer taps on the table... i think she really wanted a beer...

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Cardiff to Dublin (via Holyhead)

Thur 14th Oct

I had to be up at 4:30am to catch an early train from Cardiff to Holyhead where I would catch a ferry at 12pm to Dublin. So what to do for 7 hrs on the train... update my blog...

I wanted to sleep for the beginning of the train trip but was too scared of missing the stop that I needed to get off to change trains. The timing of the trains meant I was suck in Shrewsbury station for a half hour waiting for the next connection. The station was absolutely deserted and I felt like I was out in whoop whoop. Got on my connecting train bound for Holyhead ok. It ended up getting full at Chester, Wales.

This couple from Dublin sat across from me and just wouldnt stop talking to me, or rather at me. Dont get me wrong cos they were really nice but my patience wore thin at the end and the group across from me were clearly annoyed.

Passed quite a few of the seaside towns in north Wales. There were lots of demountables which I'm told are holiday bungalows and are actually quite pricey to own and even rent. There's nothing around there though. Even beaches are pretty crappy. I cant understand it but from what the Irish lady was saying, I'm guessing that owning one or holidaying in north Wales is somewhat of a status symbol.

Pass the town that has the longest name in Wales:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.
Crazy!! I was asking how you would pronounce that and the Irish couple didnt know. A guy sitting nearby managed to say it. All the Welsh names seem to have lots of "LL's" in them. And I dont get it but the 'LL' sounds like a 'gacking' sound - it's like "che" or "hle". (Sounds like you're trying to bring up phlegm!!)

try to pronounce this...

Got to Holyhead about 11:30am. It was 2 hrs by ferry to Dublin so got in around 2pm. Dumped stuff at the hotel. Hehe managed to give Es a huge scare. She'd already arrived and checked in. I got my keycard and was searching for the room. Found it and I'm about to insert my keycard when the door opened. I was thinking 'good timing but she was about to go out so I gave her a huge scare by being right there in the doorway when she opened the door.

So what to do in Dublin? Museums, Trinity college, Dublin castle...

Nope... first stop... Guinness Brewery!! It's a self conducted tour on how they make beer... I took a subject called Biotech for my Med sci degree at uni so we got to go on cool excursions to Tooheys and Arnotts... so the beer making process isnt unfamiliar to me... The fun bit was doing a short tutorial on how to pour the perfect beer and then getting a certificate for it!

The bar at the top of the building has 360 degrees of glass walls so you can look out around Dublin as you drink the free pint of beer they give you. Only thing is it's an industrial area so the view is pretty crap. I guess the view in the distance is ok.

Had dinner around the Temple Bar district. It's definitely bustling and there's lots of pubs with live music. Noticed heaps and heaps of Chinese takeaway places along the main street...
I must admit though... call it intuition... but i dont feel safe walking around Dublin streets especially when they are a bit dark. Es and i got all day bus passes so didnt have to walk that far.

Absolutely knackered after a long day... zzzzz
Tomorrow arvo (15th Oct) the guided tour of Southern Ireland starts...

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Cardiff Part 2 - St Fagan's Welsh National Museum

I was meant to fit Cardiff Castle & Welsh National Museum at St Fagan in today but only ended up doing the museum. It's funny that the museum isnt really on any of the tourist pamphlets they give you... but i was talking to a local at the jazz bar last night and he suggested it and said i would love it.

The Welsh national museum is basically a colletion of dwellings from around Wales
- so it's like a life museum. The only 2 structures on the site that were originally there are St. Fagan's castle and a little farm. The rest of the dwellings have come from around Wales. They were donated to the museum.
Most of the the dwellings actual houses people would have lived in not just recreations. They were disassembled and transported then reassembled/restored to be viable structures. You just walk around and can view demonstrations as well. The day I went there was a sadler demonstrating the making of leather goods and a weaver at an old style wool mill. The old grainery still makes wheat from grain that the cafe onsite uses to bake bread. The grinding machine is powered by a waterwheel on the outside of the building... no electricity but authentic/old fashioned waterwheel!

Celtic village - recreated from archeological finds (2000 yrs old)

Nantwallter Cottage (farmer cottage) - mid southwest Wales 1770's

Garreg Fawr Farmhouse - north west Wales 1544

I talked to some people about Cardiff Castle. They all agreed that it's not worth the price of admission (10.50pound) so I decided to give it a miss and do some retail therapy instead. (Although it was more of window shopping - i didnt buy anything cos I dont want to carry it.)

2 weeks in the UK and I'm not totally fond of the food here. For example, the locals rave about the fish & chips but i find it oily and dont really like it battered and deep fried. I'm finding everything quite oily & deep fried here cos i'm eating out all the time. This morning at breakfast, they had deep fried bread!! I had to ask for just plain toast.
So I was craving something a little healthier. I dont eat that much rice at home but I find myself climbing walls because i'm craving rice. So I found a sushi place about 1 1/2km from my hotel but the walk was worth it. And it's all you can eat!
The sushi train prices range between 1.70-3.70pound/plate... so i got my moneys worth by having 14 plates. But I guess the portions were very small. One plate had 2-3 small rolls or 1-2 nigiri.