The Emerald Isle

Ireland has long been on my bucket list, made even better by going with my two sisters, Valerie and Karen. Sister trip!

I was pretty amazed by how green it was in some locations, given that it was the end of October. I also underestimated how difficult the driving is. Not necessarily by the fact that they drive on the other side of the road, so everything is opposite. I think I adjusted to that fairly quickly, though in heavy city traffic, it was sometimes hard to tell exactly which lane to turn into. What I found intense were the insanely small roads on most of the island, like this one.

Yes, this is intended to be a two direction road. Not counting the bump out you see in this picture, many of the smaller roads were basically a one lane road. The problem is that they also don't have any shoulders at all except on the bigger "freeways." So it made driving a bit hairy, especially at night when you can't see the bump outs until you're right on them. I'm a notoriously fast driver, but not in Ireland! I annoyed a lot of Irish drivers, let's just say.

We flew in and out of Dublin. We didn't have a car while in Dublin at the beginning of the trip (I knew enough to know that would be crazy). We stayed in a hotel that happened to be pretty much right on the HOPO bus route (not by savvy planning, just dumb luck), so that's what we did our second day. The highlights for me were Trinity College/House of Kells, Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Temple Bar (which is both a specific bar, and also the name of the area - took us a bit to figure that out), and Kilmainham Gaol.

Karen and I had our Irish dinner - Irish stew for me, Bacon and Cabbage for her. I loved mine, a bite of hers was all I needed.

On our third day, I picked up the rental car, and after negotiating Dublin streets enough to get back to the hotel and pick up Val and Karen (the only thing worse than the driving is the parking! Luckily the hotel had a small private lot, but talk about tight!), we hit the road for the driving portion of our trip. We were headed to Kilkenny to spend the night, stopping at Glendalough on the way. Glendalough was a monastery founded by St. Kevin.

We unfortunately lingered too long at Glendalough, and consequently were trying to find our Airbnb in the dark. First, many places are known primarily by the house name - there's not a street address the way we use them. Second, the host made some assumptions about where we would be driving from and that we would automatically know where the "Kells roundabout" is located. But eventually we made it there.

The following day we made our way to the Rock of Cashel and to Blarney Castle.

No, we did not kiss the Blarney Stone. It is a climb up a very small, narrow set of stairs and then you have to lie on your back and contort yourself to be able to do so. And, as I understand it, what you supposedly get for kissing it is the "gift of gab" - pretty sure I don't need much help with that.

On Saturday, we drove around the Ring of Kerry...

...and the Dingle Peninsula the next day.

 

Both were beautiful drives. We then headed for the famous Cliffs of Moher, which was a highlight for me. To get there, you can either do a 2 hour detour through Limerick, or go on the Shannon Ferry. The ferry seemed like the thing to do.

We arrived at the Cliffs right around sunset, which though unplanned was awesome!

We then drove to Belclare, a bit north of Galway, where we stayed at this impressive estate. Not the whole thing, of course...just the "West Wing" (that may be as close as I get to the West Wing, ha ha).

The next day we drove to Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore Castle was built in the late 1800s by Mitchell Henry MP, a wealthy businessman, and liberal politician. Inspired by his love for his wife Margaret, and his hopes for his beloved Ireland, Henry created an estate boasting ‘all the innovations of the modern age’. An enlightened landlord and vocal advocate of the Irish people, Henry poured his life’s energy into creating an estate that would showcase what could be achieved in the remote wilds of Connemara. Today Kylemore Abbey is owned and run by the Benedictine community who have been in residence here since 1920.

A sample menu from when it was the Mitchell's castle:

We had planned to spend some time in the city of Galway, but honestly at that point we were pretty tired. 

The next day we headed back to Dublin to catch our flight home the following day. Never have I been so glad to turn in a rental car! 

Evolving Travel Persona

As I have mentioned before, in a prior life I was an Event Manager for an International department.  And yes, the job was as wonderful as it sounds - even if I had to work harder than most people can imagine.  Still, I did get to travel internationally quite extensively, and for that I will always be grateful.  As you may or may not be able to tell by my blog and my posts, travel is extremely important to me.  I have a MAJOR case of wanderlust - always have.  So it was pretty awesome to have a job that indulged that desire? need? (it's very hard to distinguish the difference for me).

It was also awesome to travel in a first class way most of the time.  Since the majority of the trips I planned were to reward the top performers in the company, we strove to provide them with the very best - from the five star hotels to unique experiences wherever we went.  And because we worked to ensure a premium experience, I always had the best local support possible in each country we visited.  The companies providing this support are called destination management companies, and their job is to line up all the details in visiting their location.

The reason I mention this is because - in spite of my considerable travel profile - I actually have relatively little experience in figuring out this kind of stuff myself.  Someone always met me at the airport, made arrangements for all tours and transportation, figured out the best things to see and do, always knew the best restaurants, etc, etc.  To be honest, the thought of going to another country and figuring out how to get transportation from the airport, what sites are the best to experience, and how to do that exactly, feels daunting to me, even with my prior experience.  Now I get how people can feel intimidated about international travel.  What I have learned, though, is that no matter how badly you stumble through it, the experience will be worth it.  It is guaranteed to do at least one of the following: open your mind to local customs and attitudes (good or bad), make you feel accomplished, make you laugh, and/or provide a story that may well end up being better in recollection than in actual experience.

Joining a group/escorted tour is actually a marvelous way to experience a new location because someone else has already figured out the details.  It is wonderful to have someone else deal with all that and just go along for the ride.  However, in my experience there are two major negatives to joining a group: 1) it is almost always more expensive than you could put together on your own; and 2) you lose almost all control over the schedule (most will give you free days, which is good but insufficient).  My specific gripe to the second point is the way shopping is put into most group tours.  I am NOT a shopper.  For the most part I don't find it enjoyable at all.

One method that really works for me is the HOHO (hop on, hop off) buses that most cities have. Because they plan routes that take you to most major attractions, it's a great way to get a narrated overview tour quite inexpensively...and most importantly for me, at my own speed and schedule. I like to ride the bus for the whole loop, and then go back to the locations of most interest to me.

In the end, I will make whatever adjustments I must to continue to attempt to see as much of this world as I can. I know that I can figure stuff out as I go, that there's nothing except your passport and payment method(s) that can't be replaced if needed (and even those can be replaced, though with much more discomfort), so I don't tend to worry too much about packing. I have taken too much far more often than not having something I needed.

I have many travel quotes that I love, but I'll leave off here with this one:

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." (Augustine of Hippo)