Semester Break Trip (Part 1 of 3)

I recognize that my most recent break in blogging is probably the longest yet. I meant to post a couple weeks ago to forewarn about my impending absence, but my last day in Bologna contained a little too much finals-taking, packing, dining, and wining to put together a worthy post. Therefore, I was left to abscond without notice.

Anyway, I just returned from a 10-day jaunt through western Ireland and Austria. A little too much time was spent in airports in London (Stansted, where it would cost $50 to go into London city and back) and Bratislava. There truly is a cost to Ryanair's low cost fares. Regardless of the travel inconveniences, the trip turned out well. I thought I would split my trip into three postings--Ireland, Salzburg, and Vienna. So, today I present you with Ireland:

I conveniently traced out the route of the trip, as well as adding Doolin to the map, in order to aid in the telling of my tale.

My second trip to Ireland (the first was in Sept. 2001) featured a few days in the western part of the country and then a day in Dublin. The main method of transportation for this part of the trip was a rental car. Of course, Ireland being a country with a British heritage, they drive on the "other" side of the road. This was not a problem for me, as I have logged thousands of miles driving on the left side in Australia and South Africa. Different in this case, however, was the extent to which the rental car company went to warn you about which side of the road to drive on. I, for one, was deeply offended at the suggestion I would travel to Ireland, rent a car, and not know which side of the road to drive on:

The other interesting thing about driving in Ireland was the extreme narrowness of the roads. At times you literally only had a foot on each side of you. You were left to choose between coming close to hitting a car in the other lane or hitting the stone wall on the other side. This was not the best part of the trip. Nor was I a very good passenger....

Anyways, one of the highlights was a stop in Doolin, Ireland. This is a tiny, 3-pub town that even lacks an ATM. This is the town:

Here is Mark standing in front of the town's sweater shop, which was closed:

Even given its small size, Doolin is known to be a center for great Irish music. While February is definitely not tourist season for this part of Ireland, some great music was still able to be heard in O'Connors Pub (the red building on the left). It was really great--just three guys, one playing the guitar, one playing the accordion, and one playing a really neat instrument that appeared to by a cross between a flute and a clarinet. I was quite taken by this instrument:

Anyway one funny thing about this evening of music was that Doolin being such a small town (note the fact the town wasn't even listed on the above map) and it being the off-season, we thought we would be the only Americans. Oh boy was this a wrong assumption. First, in the pub where we had dinner, we encountered a newly married, older couple where the first words we heard out of the bride's mouth were "what do you mean they don't have Corona?". Then in the pub with the music, I encountered two gentlemen at the bar who were from Rochester, NY and then two full tables of American college students. The rest of the Ireland trip was virtually American-free, but in this small town, on that night, it was like visiting an ex-pat community.

After Doolin, we traveled to Galway via some beautiful countryside and through The Burren, which is a large area of land known for its concentration of limestone. We even considered stopping at Ireland's premier show cave (yes, this is actually what they called it), but Mark wasn't too excited and my cave experiences have all been dimmed since visiting the glow worm cave in Waitomo, New Zealand. I mean if a cave doens't have glow worms, how exciting can it really be? Here is a picture of me in The Burren (please pretend my eyes aren't closed):
Then after Galway it was off to Dublin, via a couple small towns in between. Dublin was an interesting experience for me. For one, the last time I was there, I bought a great little necklace from a small jewelry store and was looking forward to going back. However, in the interim, the store closed and was replaced by a lingerie store. I was very disappointed.....

Anyway, overall the trip to Ireland was great. Good Guinness, good music, good non-pasta food. Oh and in Dublin, I had VB, a wonderful Australian beer. The restaurant also advertised having Toohey's Extra Dry (which some of you out there can guess my reaction to when I saw it on the menu), but they were out of it. I was bummed, but the VB helped....

Overall, I very much enjoyed my time Ireland. The people are nice, the food good, and the atmosphere festive. I just don't understand why th eIrish don't believe in street names or numbers. Invariably, whenever we were told to take a right, we actually had to take a left. It was crazy. But that just adds to the excitement, right?