Ireland

I’m back from the Emerald Isle… and I’m not sure what to make of it. I’m guessing that this trip was something that will be remembered more fondly the more time passes. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time. It’s just that I had higher expectations for Ireland and it didn’t exactly deliver. The country side was awesome but the towns and cities were dirty and the people were dodgy unless you engaged them directly; then they were really friendly. It was kind of weird.

I arrived with Kathi’s sister at Dublin International and my first hint of the backwardness of the country was the fact that we deplaned directly onto the airport tarmac. I can’t pinpoint exactly why this little point stuck in my craw but I guess it has to do with the fact that I associate that kind of thing with backwater regional airports, not – you know – a country’s largest airport.
Kathi’s sister’s friend, Rocky, met us at the airport. We climbed into a taxi and got ripped completely off by the cabbie. This didn’t help my first impression of the country. Nevertheless, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed for the pub. This DID help my impression of the country. Rocky and I had a great time because there was beer involved. I had to drink a pint of Guinness because I was in Ireland. Rocky and I did shots and had more beers before calling it a night. Kathi’s sister just kind of sat there so she was probably happy when last call came and we were forced out.

The next day we met with Rocky again and Bea was with us this time. She had rented a car so we could drive to the west coast of the country. We then spent a good hour on the M-50 motorway that circles Dublin because no one could find the exit that we needed to take. This would become a theme while driving around Ireland. Roads are poorly marked when they’re marked at all. It’s quite frustrating. We finally made it out of Dublin and drove across the whole country in two or three hours’ time. I also found out this interesting tidbit: Ireland has ten times as many sheep as it has people. If they get to be a country, then I’m claiming my back yard in the States as an independent nation., like Peter Griffin did in Family Guy.

Anyway, we drove to the west coast near the town of Kilkee and stopped there at some cliffs on the coast. We drove on to Loop head, got out and took some photos. I slipped and my knee fell in the mud, effectively ruining one of the two pairs of pants I brought with me. Someday I’ll learn to pack more pants. Or not.

After nightfall, we headed back up the coast to Lahinch, secured some lodgings and then headed out for a pub again. The next morning we climbed back into the car and headed for the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs are the highest in Ireland and they are the place where the Cliffs of Insanity scenes from “The Princess Bride” were filmed.

We left the Cliffs and drove back to the Dublin metro area where we (surprise!) headed to another pub – this time it was the Harp Lounge in Swords. I taught Bea and Rocky the wonderful game of Spinners in Lahinch and they were eager to play again but Kathi’s sister vetoed that for a tamer version of Mexicali. Unfortunately we were forced out of the bars early because it was a Sunday and the bars close early in Ireland on Sundays.

The next morning we were able to sleep in late since there wasn’t any travel on the agenda so we did exactly that and caught a late bus into the city (our hotel was actually in Swords, just north of Dublin). We did a bus tour of the city which is a shit way to see a city but our time was limited. I ended up deciding that the tour was crap though, so we climbed out early and explored what we could on foot. The cool stuff isn’t that spread out but the sun sets around 4:00 p.m. and all light is gone by 5ish so we had to boogie in order for it to make any sense to take pictures.

After exploring the city, we met with Rocky and Bea again and headed off to the Temple Bar district for eats and drinks. I had an awesome sirloin steak at a place called the Porterhouse and then it was back to Swords for more drinking. We went back to the Harp Lounge and played Spinners again. Unfortunately, Kathi’s sister had too much too fast (she wasn’t even playing!!) so we had to call a cab back to the hotel so she could chunder up her fish and chips, and that’s pretty much how I spent my last night in Ireland. Bad times. Decent trip all in all though.