I am now in Ennis, a lovely little town in County Clare. We went out to dinner at Brogan's, which has won the James Joyce award for the most authentic food or something in Ireland. Tonight is the last night of a music festival in Ennis, and we got to hear the most wonderful traditional Irish music played at the bar.
Today has been a long day, but a good one nevertheless. When we woke up, we were still in Killarney, of course. We wanted to see Muckross house. This is a house in the Killarney national park that has been donated (along with the park). It was built in the Victorian era and has ornate Victorian furnishings. We took a taxi out to the park b/c there is no bus service, and it was five miles from our hostel, and we didn't have time to walk, though many people do rent bikes. The house was fabulously ornate, and the grounds were so beautiful. The gardens and grounds are covered in flowering trees and bushes, hedges, flowers, et cetera. There are wonderful rocky groves and ancient thick-trunked trees.
In addition to the house and grounds, there is a traditional working farm. You follow a country lane past many meadows and fields where sheep, cows, and horses graze. Along the way, you can stop at three different farms: small, medium, and large. The set-up is that you can see how people on farms worked and lived back in the days before electricity. The houses use peat or charcoal fires, and each is set up as if people still live there (maybe they do?). The first house also had a pig and its litter out back; the second house had soda bread samples; the third house (the big farm) diverged from tradition with a very modern football (soccer) field out front. We passed a goat along the country road, and several chickens (definitely "free range," though I still wouldn't eat them). The farm also had a working blacksmith who showed us how he created an iron piece for a gate or fence. There is a carpenter and a saddle maker, too, but they weren't there.
We basically spent all day at Muckross house and farms, then we headed to the bus station (via taxi) to take the 14 to Limerick, where we caught the 51 to Ennis. The countryside! It is so beautiful. If we had more time, I'd like to rent a car and drive the Ring of Kerry to see more of this wonderful scenery.
Now we are in Ennis, and we are at a very nice hostel named The Rowan Tree. It's a bit nicer than the ones we have been staying at,. I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow besides laundry. I am hoping to go to an island where monks lived in the 7th century.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Killarney
On Sunday, we caught the 10:30 bus to Killarney from Cork.
Killarney is a beautiful city in the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. The real attraction in Killarney is the national park, Ross Castle, and the lakes. It was raining on Sunday, so we dropped off our bags at the hostel and were planning on seeing a movie until we could check into our rooms. We had an hour and a half to kill before the movie started, and we took a carriage ride to Ross Castle.
The castle sits by the "Lake of Learning," so called because in the middle of the lake is an island where monks wrote important manuscripts (names of which are escaping my mind at the moment). Anyway, it is such glorious countryside--shimmering blue lake, and green everything else. The carriage driver was a funny little man who told us all about how awful the nuns were when he was in school (b/c I told him I was a teacher). He also tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me some phrases in Gaelic.
After the castle, we went to see The Princes of Persia. I know, I know, seeing an American movie while in Ireland seems like a waste of money, but it was wet, and we were tired, and our rooms weren't ready.
That concludes our first night in Killarney.
Killarney is a beautiful city in the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. The real attraction in Killarney is the national park, Ross Castle, and the lakes. It was raining on Sunday, so we dropped off our bags at the hostel and were planning on seeing a movie until we could check into our rooms. We had an hour and a half to kill before the movie started, and we took a carriage ride to Ross Castle.
The castle sits by the "Lake of Learning," so called because in the middle of the lake is an island where monks wrote important manuscripts (names of which are escaping my mind at the moment). Anyway, it is such glorious countryside--shimmering blue lake, and green everything else. The carriage driver was a funny little man who told us all about how awful the nuns were when he was in school (b/c I told him I was a teacher). He also tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me some phrases in Gaelic.
After the castle, we went to see The Princes of Persia. I know, I know, seeing an American movie while in Ireland seems like a waste of money, but it was wet, and we were tired, and our rooms weren't ready.
That concludes our first night in Killarney.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Blarney and Eurovision
Cork's hostel had a quirky little shower. You stand in a tiny stall, press a button, and hope for the best. The first batch of water that comes out is cold. So, it's best to wait until the second batch of water before getting inside the stall. The water comes out in 30 second segments, and so you have to press, rinse, lather, press, rinse, lather, et cetera.
Another thing that gets a complaint: bus schedules. Actually, it's not bus schedules that annoy me, but my inability to understand them. For example, we thought that the bus to Killarney was the 252 leaving at 9am this morning. So, we rushed on over to the bus station before we even ate breakfast. Then, we found out that we were actually supposed to take the #40 to Tralee, leaving at 10:30. Argh. I learned my lesson and when I got to Killarney's bus station, I asked the guy at the information booth for specifics about when/where to get on the bus to Ennis tomorrow. He gave me a printed schedule and highlighted the times, so hopefully we'll get it right.
But before we get to Killarney, I must talk about the Blarney Stone!
Cork is a great city. We had about 45 minutes to wander around before catching the bus to Blarney, and we stumbled upon a parade for girls' football (soccer) leagues. It was great! Also, there is a super fabulous market called "Olde English Market"--it's an indoor market with any kind of food you could want, fresh fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses, et cetera. I've posted photos in FB.
We caught the bus to Blarney next. The castle is on the most beautiful and fragrant grounds--flowers, trees, meadows, streams, et cetera. The castle is a tall, stone, crumbling structure. You have to hike up tiny winding stone steps (100 steps), clutching a rope. It's a tight fit. At the top of the castle is a view of surrounding countryside. It is a long way down! Just three flights, but it feels further when you are on top of a crumbly structure, protected only by iron rails. I stood in line to kiss the Blarney Stone. Here's what you have to do: you sit down on a mat, with your back to the wall, and there is a gap in between where you sit and the wall, making it kind of scary. You have to kind of do a backbend to kiss the wall (fish pose for yoga folks). A nice man holds you while you are doing this, so you don't fall through the gap. (There are iron rails between the wall and the stone walk-way, so if you fell, you'd just get a concussion, not a broken neck.)
After kissing the stone, we went down a different set of stone steps, these with a rail. Along the way, you could poke your head in different rooms--gloomy stone chambers. The second storey floor is no longer there, but it used to be the dining room; the bottom floor is the family room, with big fire places on either end. My favorite was a tiny chamber with a hole in the floor over the castle entrance, called the "murder room," where people could toss boiling water on the heads of enemies as they entered the castle.
The castle gardens were called the "poison gardens," and have all sorts of plants with dangerous qualities, plants like hellebore and poison ivy.
Blarney House was next on our trek. It is a private residence. They only show the house 40 days out of the year, and income from Blarney Castle/House tours helps maintain the upkeep. The guide was very knowledgeable. He took us through the bottom floor's library, sitting room, and dining room. My favorite parts: in the library were copies of first editions, including Jane Eyre! In the sitting room was a view of the lawn and a pasture, where two beautiful horses were grazing. The guide also pointed out cool stuff, like the difference between Victorian-era Waterford Crystal chandeliers and modern ones (the old ones have a higher lead content and better capture the light). There was a table in the hallway with a mirror on the bottom half that women used to use to check their hems before leaving. Et cetera. Upstairs, there were several bedrooms on display. Overall, the house has some really lovely things in it, but it doesn't feel too much like a museum because it is a private residence, and the family always lives there. They even had a television, though it was hidden behind an ornately painted screen.
When we left, the guide told John and I that if we liked gardens, we should check out the home's private garden--the gate was unlocked. It, too, was beautiful.
There are several hiking trails on the grounds, but we decided to go back to the town to eat lunch and catch the bus back to Cork, which is what we did. We ate at a pub (toasted cheese and chips for me).
Our evening in Cork consisted of a late dinner, then hanging out at a bar where everyone was watching something called Eurovision. First, the dinner: We ate at Quay's Co-op, which is now my favorite restaurant in Ireland. All veggie food! And it's over a whole foods grocery store. I had paella, potatoes, and a green salad. Second, Eurovision: I have never heard of this, but it seems like a big deal. The bar was packed for the event, which was shown on a big-screen television. Eurovision is a singing competition for singers all across Europe. Votes are done by country, but people in Ireland, for example, can't vote for the Irish singer. Ireland has done really well in the contest in the past, but they only made second-to-last place this year. Germany won. It was a great show! One act, from Belarus, sprouted butterfly wings at one point, and another act, from Spain, had quirky back up dancers that acted like clowns.
So, that concluded our day in Cork!
Another thing that gets a complaint: bus schedules. Actually, it's not bus schedules that annoy me, but my inability to understand them. For example, we thought that the bus to Killarney was the 252 leaving at 9am this morning. So, we rushed on over to the bus station before we even ate breakfast. Then, we found out that we were actually supposed to take the #40 to Tralee, leaving at 10:30. Argh. I learned my lesson and when I got to Killarney's bus station, I asked the guy at the information booth for specifics about when/where to get on the bus to Ennis tomorrow. He gave me a printed schedule and highlighted the times, so hopefully we'll get it right.
But before we get to Killarney, I must talk about the Blarney Stone!
Cork is a great city. We had about 45 minutes to wander around before catching the bus to Blarney, and we stumbled upon a parade for girls' football (soccer) leagues. It was great! Also, there is a super fabulous market called "Olde English Market"--it's an indoor market with any kind of food you could want, fresh fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses, et cetera. I've posted photos in FB.
We caught the bus to Blarney next. The castle is on the most beautiful and fragrant grounds--flowers, trees, meadows, streams, et cetera. The castle is a tall, stone, crumbling structure. You have to hike up tiny winding stone steps (100 steps), clutching a rope. It's a tight fit. At the top of the castle is a view of surrounding countryside. It is a long way down! Just three flights, but it feels further when you are on top of a crumbly structure, protected only by iron rails. I stood in line to kiss the Blarney Stone. Here's what you have to do: you sit down on a mat, with your back to the wall, and there is a gap in between where you sit and the wall, making it kind of scary. You have to kind of do a backbend to kiss the wall (fish pose for yoga folks). A nice man holds you while you are doing this, so you don't fall through the gap. (There are iron rails between the wall and the stone walk-way, so if you fell, you'd just get a concussion, not a broken neck.)
After kissing the stone, we went down a different set of stone steps, these with a rail. Along the way, you could poke your head in different rooms--gloomy stone chambers. The second storey floor is no longer there, but it used to be the dining room; the bottom floor is the family room, with big fire places on either end. My favorite was a tiny chamber with a hole in the floor over the castle entrance, called the "murder room," where people could toss boiling water on the heads of enemies as they entered the castle.
The castle gardens were called the "poison gardens," and have all sorts of plants with dangerous qualities, plants like hellebore and poison ivy.
Blarney House was next on our trek. It is a private residence. They only show the house 40 days out of the year, and income from Blarney Castle/House tours helps maintain the upkeep. The guide was very knowledgeable. He took us through the bottom floor's library, sitting room, and dining room. My favorite parts: in the library were copies of first editions, including Jane Eyre! In the sitting room was a view of the lawn and a pasture, where two beautiful horses were grazing. The guide also pointed out cool stuff, like the difference between Victorian-era Waterford Crystal chandeliers and modern ones (the old ones have a higher lead content and better capture the light). There was a table in the hallway with a mirror on the bottom half that women used to use to check their hems before leaving. Et cetera. Upstairs, there were several bedrooms on display. Overall, the house has some really lovely things in it, but it doesn't feel too much like a museum because it is a private residence, and the family always lives there. They even had a television, though it was hidden behind an ornately painted screen.
When we left, the guide told John and I that if we liked gardens, we should check out the home's private garden--the gate was unlocked. It, too, was beautiful.
There are several hiking trails on the grounds, but we decided to go back to the town to eat lunch and catch the bus back to Cork, which is what we did. We ate at a pub (toasted cheese and chips for me).
Our evening in Cork consisted of a late dinner, then hanging out at a bar where everyone was watching something called Eurovision. First, the dinner: We ate at Quay's Co-op, which is now my favorite restaurant in Ireland. All veggie food! And it's over a whole foods grocery store. I had paella, potatoes, and a green salad. Second, Eurovision: I have never heard of this, but it seems like a big deal. The bar was packed for the event, which was shown on a big-screen television. Eurovision is a singing competition for singers all across Europe. Votes are done by country, but people in Ireland, for example, can't vote for the Irish singer. Ireland has done really well in the contest in the past, but they only made second-to-last place this year. Germany won. It was a great show! One act, from Belarus, sprouted butterfly wings at one point, and another act, from Spain, had quirky back up dancers that acted like clowns.
So, that concluded our day in Cork!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Kilkenny Castle, Rothe House, and Cork
You can meet cool people in hostels. For example, at Kilkenny's hostel, we met a nice middle-aged British couple while eating breakfast in the hostel's dining room. John and I had to stop by a grocery store to purchase breakfast to eat in our hostel, b/c none of the shops opened until 9 (and we were hungry at 8). We bought bread, fruit, and instant coffee, and were munching away in the hostel's dining room, when the British couple came in. They were on their holiday, having taken a ferry from England to Kerry County, where they spent about a week in a cottage on a lake. They were finishing up their trip, and they had lots of advice. They did suggest hiring a car rather than a bus when traveling both in Ireland and in England, as the car allows you to get off the beaten path. They also recommended booking your hostels via phone rather than Internet b/c of the service charges involved with Internet-booking. They used to do working holidays in England, which is where you pay a minimal price for room/board, and you do work like ditch-digging or gardening for a week, then you have a week's holiday. They said it was a great way to see the country and to meet people. I asked them where we should go if we visited England, and they pretty much named everywhere! They are from Devon and said it is really beautiful. They also recommended Northumberland, North Wales, Norfolk, and Scotland. So, I guess I just need to see all of the British Isles!
We said goodbye to the couple and headed next to Kilkenny Castle. The castle is really beautiful, large, and well-kept, with hand-painted wallpaper and impressive furnishings. The place has been carefully reconstructed based on old photographs taken of the rooms in the late 1800s. Overall, it is a good place to visit, but I'm not sure what else to say about it. The library contained, among other things, Shakespeare, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and gardening books.
More interesting, I think, was the Rothe House. This is a museum of a Tudor-era home. It was all wooden floors, beamed ceilings, fireplaces with iron pots, and wooden chests, chairs, and floors. The best part was the garden. It has been reconstructed, based on archeological evidence, just like the original garden. It actually consists of two walled gardens, the first containing vegetables and herbs, the second containing fruit trees and bushes and flowers. It smelled really good. Their honeysuckle is pink and fragrant! I'm going to post photos in Facebook.
A real Irish breakfast came next. It was our lunch. We stopped at a coffee shop and had the following:
Two eggs
1 potato cake
1 vegetarian sausage
Cooked tomatoes
Cooked mushrooms
Baked beans
Brown bread and butter
Tea
I can now say I have had a traditional Irish breakfast.
Kilkenny also has a craft center where artisans work and teach (and sell). I bought a beautiful blue stoneware bowl. Sliversmiths, potters, painters, and fabric-workers all create the most beautiful things here. I highly recommend the place.
The last thing we attempted to see in Kilkenny before catching the bus to Cork was the tower at St. Canice's Cathedral. It was, unhappily, closed. So was the cathedral (for lunch). Thus, we spent our last half hour in the hostel, relaxing. Then, caught the bus to Cork.
Next post: More on Cork and the Blarney Stone.
We said goodbye to the couple and headed next to Kilkenny Castle. The castle is really beautiful, large, and well-kept, with hand-painted wallpaper and impressive furnishings. The place has been carefully reconstructed based on old photographs taken of the rooms in the late 1800s. Overall, it is a good place to visit, but I'm not sure what else to say about it. The library contained, among other things, Shakespeare, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and gardening books.
More interesting, I think, was the Rothe House. This is a museum of a Tudor-era home. It was all wooden floors, beamed ceilings, fireplaces with iron pots, and wooden chests, chairs, and floors. The best part was the garden. It has been reconstructed, based on archeological evidence, just like the original garden. It actually consists of two walled gardens, the first containing vegetables and herbs, the second containing fruit trees and bushes and flowers. It smelled really good. Their honeysuckle is pink and fragrant! I'm going to post photos in Facebook.
A real Irish breakfast came next. It was our lunch. We stopped at a coffee shop and had the following:
Two eggs
1 potato cake
1 vegetarian sausage
Cooked tomatoes
Cooked mushrooms
Baked beans
Brown bread and butter
Tea
I can now say I have had a traditional Irish breakfast.
Kilkenny also has a craft center where artisans work and teach (and sell). I bought a beautiful blue stoneware bowl. Sliversmiths, potters, painters, and fabric-workers all create the most beautiful things here. I highly recommend the place.
The last thing we attempted to see in Kilkenny before catching the bus to Cork was the tower at St. Canice's Cathedral. It was, unhappily, closed. So was the cathedral (for lunch). Thus, we spent our last half hour in the hostel, relaxing. Then, caught the bus to Cork.
Next post: More on Cork and the Blarney Stone.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Dublin/Kilkenny
I'm trying to post pictures, but the Internet isn't working for me. Hopefully I'll get some posted, soon.
So, did I mention the bog bodies at the Archeology Museum? There are bodies that were tossed into the bogs hundreds (thousands?) of years ago. The bogs preserved them, and they are on display so that tourists can appreciate the well-preserved grimaces, fingernails, and clothing still attached to the shrunken limbs. Yikes! Also, did I mention the mini-replica, in the archeology museum, of the Viking village that used to be in Dublin? That was neat, too. It was all huts close together. One hut was created so you could see inside. It looked basically like a big ark, with benches all down each side for sleeping, a fire pit in the middle, and at each end little areas for livestock.
This morning, we breakfasted in the hostel, packed our bags, and headed to the Dublin Writer's Museum. The only problem was that it was closed. It was nine o'clock, and the museum opens at 10:00. Luckily, the museum is at the end of O'Connell Street, which is one of the main roads, and it is lined with city shops, so we found a bookstore and went in for coffee. I think the store was called Earnie's, and the coffee shop inside was called Barnies. It reminded me of Barnes and Noble.
I was determined to buy a watch so I would quit bugging John, asking him every five minutes what time it was. We stopped in a souvenir shop. The only watches they had were pewter pocket watches and Guinness wrist watches. The wrist watches were double the price of the pewter ones, so I bought a pocket watch with the claudach (spelling?) symbol on it.
Finally, it was time for the museum to open. It is the best museum ever. It has a facsimile of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels. It has first editions of famous books. Writers' portraits, typewriters, writing desks, fountain pens, notes, letters, et cetera. There was a library housing 16th century tomes. There were old, yellowing newspaper clippings of reviews for some of the writers' works. There were writers' busts all over. Yeats, Joyce, Swift, Shaw, and Edgeworth (the woman who wrote gothic novels). Ah, it was a nice place. Too bad we had so little time--not enough to really linger over all that there was to see.
We had to catch the 11:30 bus to Kilkenny, so we left the museum, scurried down O'Connell Street, over the River Liffey, and onto Aston Quay, where the hostel was located. Grabbed our suitcases, then scurried to the central bus station. The bus ride took 2.5 hours.
Now I'm in the Kilkenny hostel, which isn't as nice as Abigail's in Dublin. However, it's only 20 euro per person per night. Poor John is not used to dormitory-type living. We have a private room, but we have to share a bathroom with the other people staying on our floor. Still, it's clean, and we have cute bunk beds. The house is Georgian, originally belonging to a middle class family.
Okay, but Kilkenny is not very easy to navigate. At least, it wasn't when we got off the bus on St. Patrick's Street and tried to locate our hostel. Keep in mind that we'd run a marathon to catch the bus this morning and then had nothing to eat. It's a wonder we were still standing, much less functioning at full intellectual capacity. I think we went up and down one street two or three times before we stopped at the tourist's office to ask for directions. Then, the tourist guy gave us kind of faulty directions, so we took even longer, but we finally made it.
Now that we've rested, eaten supper (at a cute little Italian restaurant), and had a Smithwick at Kyteler's Inn, the town is looking much nicer. In fact, I think it's great. It's soooo old. Kyteler's Inn dates back to the 1200's! It was owned by a woman who was accused of being a witch, but really people were just jealous of her because she was a "merry widow"--married four times. She escaped to England, but the Kyteler Inn is still here. Inside there are witches hanging from the ceiling and old iron pots and iron chandeliers. I tried a Smithwick (beer) because it is produced at the St. Francis Abbey Brewery here. It was good. We also visited the Black Abbey, so called maybe because the monks used to wear black capes OR because the black plague visited the monks in the 1600s, killing off 8. It's an ancient stone church with beautiful stained glass windows and statues of saints throughout. I lit a candle at a Mary statue. Outside there are several wild cats that a woman was very concerned about feeding. They must live in the church yard.
There are other things here to see--we are going to try tackling Kilkenny Castle tomorrow morning before heading to Cork. We walked the grounds this evening, but the inside was closed by the time we got there. However, the grounds are huge and beautiful and opened as a park even after the castle closes.
Tomorrow: Kilkenny Castle, Cork, and the Blarney Stone.
So, did I mention the bog bodies at the Archeology Museum? There are bodies that were tossed into the bogs hundreds (thousands?) of years ago. The bogs preserved them, and they are on display so that tourists can appreciate the well-preserved grimaces, fingernails, and clothing still attached to the shrunken limbs. Yikes! Also, did I mention the mini-replica, in the archeology museum, of the Viking village that used to be in Dublin? That was neat, too. It was all huts close together. One hut was created so you could see inside. It looked basically like a big ark, with benches all down each side for sleeping, a fire pit in the middle, and at each end little areas for livestock.
This morning, we breakfasted in the hostel, packed our bags, and headed to the Dublin Writer's Museum. The only problem was that it was closed. It was nine o'clock, and the museum opens at 10:00. Luckily, the museum is at the end of O'Connell Street, which is one of the main roads, and it is lined with city shops, so we found a bookstore and went in for coffee. I think the store was called Earnie's, and the coffee shop inside was called Barnies. It reminded me of Barnes and Noble.
I was determined to buy a watch so I would quit bugging John, asking him every five minutes what time it was. We stopped in a souvenir shop. The only watches they had were pewter pocket watches and Guinness wrist watches. The wrist watches were double the price of the pewter ones, so I bought a pocket watch with the claudach (spelling?) symbol on it.
Finally, it was time for the museum to open. It is the best museum ever. It has a facsimile of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels. It has first editions of famous books. Writers' portraits, typewriters, writing desks, fountain pens, notes, letters, et cetera. There was a library housing 16th century tomes. There were old, yellowing newspaper clippings of reviews for some of the writers' works. There were writers' busts all over. Yeats, Joyce, Swift, Shaw, and Edgeworth (the woman who wrote gothic novels). Ah, it was a nice place. Too bad we had so little time--not enough to really linger over all that there was to see.
We had to catch the 11:30 bus to Kilkenny, so we left the museum, scurried down O'Connell Street, over the River Liffey, and onto Aston Quay, where the hostel was located. Grabbed our suitcases, then scurried to the central bus station. The bus ride took 2.5 hours.
Now I'm in the Kilkenny hostel, which isn't as nice as Abigail's in Dublin. However, it's only 20 euro per person per night. Poor John is not used to dormitory-type living. We have a private room, but we have to share a bathroom with the other people staying on our floor. Still, it's clean, and we have cute bunk beds. The house is Georgian, originally belonging to a middle class family.
Okay, but Kilkenny is not very easy to navigate. At least, it wasn't when we got off the bus on St. Patrick's Street and tried to locate our hostel. Keep in mind that we'd run a marathon to catch the bus this morning and then had nothing to eat. It's a wonder we were still standing, much less functioning at full intellectual capacity. I think we went up and down one street two or three times before we stopped at the tourist's office to ask for directions. Then, the tourist guy gave us kind of faulty directions, so we took even longer, but we finally made it.
Now that we've rested, eaten supper (at a cute little Italian restaurant), and had a Smithwick at Kyteler's Inn, the town is looking much nicer. In fact, I think it's great. It's soooo old. Kyteler's Inn dates back to the 1200's! It was owned by a woman who was accused of being a witch, but really people were just jealous of her because she was a "merry widow"--married four times. She escaped to England, but the Kyteler Inn is still here. Inside there are witches hanging from the ceiling and old iron pots and iron chandeliers. I tried a Smithwick (beer) because it is produced at the St. Francis Abbey Brewery here. It was good. We also visited the Black Abbey, so called maybe because the monks used to wear black capes OR because the black plague visited the monks in the 1600s, killing off 8. It's an ancient stone church with beautiful stained glass windows and statues of saints throughout. I lit a candle at a Mary statue. Outside there are several wild cats that a woman was very concerned about feeding. They must live in the church yard.
There are other things here to see--we are going to try tackling Kilkenny Castle tomorrow morning before heading to Cork. We walked the grounds this evening, but the inside was closed by the time we got there. However, the grounds are huge and beautiful and opened as a park even after the castle closes.
Tomorrow: Kilkenny Castle, Cork, and the Blarney Stone.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Starting with the zoo.
We went to a bunch of places today. We walked across Dublin to Phoenix Park where the Dublin Zoo is housed. It's a nice zoo, and I think it's one of the oldest in Europe. We spent about two hours there, then we went to a tea room on the outskirts of the zoo for lunch--I had a grilled cheese sandwich and tea; John had a feta panini and tea. Then, we headed back to town, where we went to the Museum of Modern Art, which was okay. The building it's in is really beautiful, but the east wing was closed. There was one exhibit that was cool. It was a room where the floor was covered with gravel like you'd find at a beach. There were two mats on the floor where you could sit and put on head phones and listen to the sound of the ocean. Very relaxing.
Next, we took the bus to St. Stephen's Green (park) from Heuston Station. The park is near Trinity College, and it's got a lot of statues and memorials in it. There is a famous famines memorial and the bust of James Joyce. John thought there was also a statue of Oscar Wilde in the park, but we couldn't find it. There were so many people walking, jogging, and relaxing on the grass. It was the perfect city park.
From the park, we wandered over to the Natural History Museum, which is in an old building in the Victorian style. It was full to the brim with stuffed animals. Not my cup of tea, but the building was really beautiful. But the next museum we went to was great--the National Museum: Archeology. It houses all sorts of ancient artifacts from Ireland's past, like viking and celtic artifacts in addition to clothes/jewelry/religious items from medieval Ireland.
We were pretty exhausted by the time we finished this museum, so we stopped at a tea shop, and I had a scone and coffee and John had a crepe and coffee. This food and drink gave us energy to trek back to the hostel, where we are now. On the way, we passed (on accident) the birthplace of Oscar Wilde. It's marked by a plaque, so if you aren't careful, you could miss it. It's simply a building in a row of buildings near Trinity College.
We did not make it to either the Guinness Storehouse nor the Old Jameson Distillery today! Or the Dublin Writer's Museum. So many places to go, not enough time to get there!
Tomorrow, we're taking a bus to Kilkenny, which I hear has a super fabulous castle. It also has a pub that used to be the house of a witch who escaped persecution.
Next, we took the bus to St. Stephen's Green (park) from Heuston Station. The park is near Trinity College, and it's got a lot of statues and memorials in it. There is a famous famines memorial and the bust of James Joyce. John thought there was also a statue of Oscar Wilde in the park, but we couldn't find it. There were so many people walking, jogging, and relaxing on the grass. It was the perfect city park.
From the park, we wandered over to the Natural History Museum, which is in an old building in the Victorian style. It was full to the brim with stuffed animals. Not my cup of tea, but the building was really beautiful. But the next museum we went to was great--the National Museum: Archeology. It houses all sorts of ancient artifacts from Ireland's past, like viking and celtic artifacts in addition to clothes/jewelry/religious items from medieval Ireland.
We were pretty exhausted by the time we finished this museum, so we stopped at a tea shop, and I had a scone and coffee and John had a crepe and coffee. This food and drink gave us energy to trek back to the hostel, where we are now. On the way, we passed (on accident) the birthplace of Oscar Wilde. It's marked by a plaque, so if you aren't careful, you could miss it. It's simply a building in a row of buildings near Trinity College.
We did not make it to either the Guinness Storehouse nor the Old Jameson Distillery today! Or the Dublin Writer's Museum. So many places to go, not enough time to get there!
Tomorrow, we're taking a bus to Kilkenny, which I hear has a super fabulous castle. It also has a pub that used to be the house of a witch who escaped persecution.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Later that same day...
Our first day is coming to a close. John and I took a "hop-on, hop-off" bus tour of Dublin today. This is a really cool way to get to know where all the major sites are--the bus driver explains the different items of interest, including history or other interesting facts, and you can get off the bus at any of those sites, then get back on the bus later to continue your tour. Your ticket lasts for 24 hours. I was SO sleepy that I nearly fell asleep on the bus, and when we got back to the hostel, I took a nap. Even though I was sleepy, the tour was good. We went by St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church's Cathedral, Dublin Castle, the Archeology Museum, the Guiness Storehouse, and et cetera.
This evening, for supper, we went to a place called The Shack that advertised authentic Irish food. Since I'm a vegetarian, I got veggie stir fry (not exactly authentic Irish food), but I also got my first Guinness of the trip. It was really good. John had mussels and a Guinness. The Shack was right across the street from The Temple Bar which has live music every single day. This is all in the Temple Bar district, a place with a lot of eclectic shops and pubs. Our hostel is in the Temple Bar district right across the street from the River Liffey and the Halfpenny Bridge, which is bridge that used to have a halfpenny toll (you probably could have guessed that one!).
Tomorrow we're doing real site-seeing: The Writer's Museum, the Archeology Museum, and the zoo among other things.
This evening, for supper, we went to a place called The Shack that advertised authentic Irish food. Since I'm a vegetarian, I got veggie stir fry (not exactly authentic Irish food), but I also got my first Guinness of the trip. It was really good. John had mussels and a Guinness. The Shack was right across the street from The Temple Bar which has live music every single day. This is all in the Temple Bar district, a place with a lot of eclectic shops and pubs. Our hostel is in the Temple Bar district right across the street from the River Liffey and the Halfpenny Bridge, which is bridge that used to have a halfpenny toll (you probably could have guessed that one!).
Tomorrow we're doing real site-seeing: The Writer's Museum, the Archeology Museum, and the zoo among other things.
We are here!
We got here around 7am Dublin time. No sleep last night on the plane. We took the bus to the bus station, bought "Open Road" passes, and walked to our Hostel ("Abigail's). It is pretty nice. They serve free breakfast, and the rooms have their own bathrooms. Or, at least we hear (about the latter). We can't actually check in until 2:00. John and I ate our free breakfast (toast, juice, cereal, coffee), and are waiting for a free tour that a couple of people here told us about.
Friday, May 21, 2010
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