So, this curiosity into our family's past and a general longing to visit the land of leprechauns led us to go to Ireland. After my usual heart-attack of a ride to the airport (this time, I didn't know the RER wasn't running north to the airport, so I had to get on another line to the North and get on a shuttle to the airport, which added over half an hour to my journey), it was then smooth sailing to Ireland. I arrived at the airport, picked up my bag, and checked my phone which revealed a text from my mother saying her flight was delayed. I started to head out when I heard something about the Atlanta flight over the intercom, and as it turned out, her luggage carousel was right by mine. I then waited for her just beyond the customs desks and we hugged and I gave her the pain au chocolat I had brought with me from France.
We had a bit of a headache just trying to find the car rental desk, then after a lot of confusion over whether or not we had already paid for the rental, we decided to go with Hertz instead. They gave us a red (read pink) automatic car, with its hubcaps held on by zip-ties and its bumps and bruises showing its age. With the suitcases in the folded-down back seats, we began our journey to Cork driving on the wrong side of the road.
We stopped along the way at a gas station with a restaurant where we got our first taste of Irish food (I had turkey with ham and stuffing, not to mention the mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, french fries, and what seemed to be a cauliflower/carrot mash). We then continued on to Cork, where we found our hotel atop a hill, and we were in for the night.
After breakfast the next morning, I perused the brochures at the hotel and we decided to go to the Green Barn. This turned out to be a garden center à la garden section at Wal-Mart, so we continued on pretty quickly. It turned out there were garden centers everywhere, and they all had cafés or restaurants as well, so I guess people must make their plant purchases into a true outing into the world. Along the way, we noticed we were driving in the direction of Waterford, and mom said we should visit the crystal factory there. I was ignorant to the fact that Waterford crystal was famous, but I learned my lesson. We got back onto the road and headed to Waterford. Mom was starting to feel the jet lag catch up with her, so I followed a long narrow road in the direction of a waterfall, and we parked nearby. I wandered the area and hoped I wouldn't be attacked by the sheep while mom snoozed in the car.
Once I woke her up, we winded our way through the narrow roads back to the more manageable highway and on to Waterford. Inside, we took a tour of the facility with several other Americans and were able to see the process that all of the crystal pieces go through before they are up for sale at quite nearly unrealistic prices.
We had lupper at a place called the Munster Bar, where mom ended up with a pint of water in her lap (I'll be nice and not post pictures of that!). The waitress felt awful about spilling it, and we moved outside so that maybe the sun would help the water dry faster. When we were done eating and her legs were a bit drier we started to walk in the direction of the castle, but didn't make it very far. We then tried to drive the car in the direction of the castle, but honestly we never found it. After giving up, we drove back to Cork.
Another thing I had probably heard of but never registered was the Blarney Stone. The castle which houses the stone was within driving distance of Cork, so that's where we went the next day. This castle was more like a fortress and less like a mystical castle, and a lot of it was in ruins. To start out going up in the castle, we took stairs that had been fabricated within the past 50 years and we could see where the ceilings would have once been. There were fireplaces in the middle of the walls, but they would have been on a level back in the day. It was overcast when we arrived on the castle grounds, and somewhere in our climbing it started pouring. We took refuge in the corner of a kitchen that was still partially covered, and waited the rain out. A while later we climbed the last of the steps and went to the stone where a man lays you onto your back and has you kiss the stone upside down. He and another man cracked inappropriate jokes to try to ease the fear of leaning backwards and upside down to kiss a stone that is at least 50 feet off the ground.
After that near-death experience, we walked the grounds and garden a little bit over to another manor there, but it was closed that day, and actually looked like it might be inhabited. There were also cows watching kids swing, and parents rushing over to take pictures of the moo-action. We had also gone into the Blarney Woolen Mills store prior to visiting the castle, and it was truly full of woolen products (I bought some yarn to make myself an Irish afghan someday). We then head back to Cork to explore the downtown area. We wandered around St. Patrick Street, did a bit of window shopping and searching for my future Claddagh ring, to no avail. We took a coffee break, the skies opened up and rained for a minute then by the time we went out again it was bright and clear to continue our shopping.
I'll end this post with a little about the perils of driving on the left side of the road (which will also fit in nicely since the next day was our last in Cork).
Getting into a car and managing to drive on the left isn't that difficult, really. Yes, some of the instincts are still there, especially on narrow roads, to pull to the right if there is a car coming head on, but in general it is simple to remember. This is not the case, however, when ALL of the roads are narrow, windy, lined with centuries (maybe millennia) old stone walls, and with speed limits around 120 km/hr (75 mi/hr). This photo was actually taken at a slightly wider part of the road where there was a pull off for us, but in a way it still doesn't really show how narrow the roads could be... We were stopped on the edge of a cliff, there's a car going by between the yellow line, and the white line marks the lane for oncoming traffic... if only there had been a tour bus going by, too, to show the narrowness of the roads.
So, yes, it's all fine and dandy when driving on the toll roads that are nice and wide, but other than that, the roads seemed pretty awful. There were lots of potholes, our car was marked up pretty bad by the time we got it back to the rental agency just from brushing the growth on the stone walls along the road, and the people who drive the roads regularly like to tailgate since they are comfortable with driving that fast down a road in terrible shape. The Irish must also be great at conversions, because everything was marked in kilometers, but everyone referred to distance in miles, and our first car was in km while the second was in miles. On top of all of this, not many roads were marked, so we had to stop several times for directions. So, when directions said drive "22.6 km then turn left onto unmarked road," it was sort of difficult to keep track of where we were going and how we got there. The people who helped us find our way would just smile and say that it's more about the journey than the destination, or that we would be happy no matter where we ended up. Nice positive view on life, right?
The Ring of Kerry was one place that several people told me I had to go. It's basically a road that goes in a circle for approximately 180 km, but it was also 100 km to get to it from Cork. It was closer to Cork than any other place we had planned to stay, so I convinced mom that we should do it. Other than the driving, it truly was beautiful. The road wound down around the western and northern coast of Ireland, and back up through a forest preserve overlooking a lake. It was a bit cloudy that day, but it was still very impressive. Mom would see ruins and wonder what they were, and we even pulled off a few times to get a closer look. It was neat to see all of this stuff, but if you ever decide to go around the Ring of Kerry, a tour might be worth the dinero. I know we saw a lot, but we didn't really know what any of it was, and with the added stress of driving, it didn't make for a very relaxing jaunt around the countryside.
We stopped near the end of the circle at a place overlooking a place called Ladies View, which looked down onto a valley split by a river. Coffee was had, and leprechauns were spotted.
We then made our way back to Cork on the nicer roads, and since we were having problems with our red car, we went to the airport to attempt to trade it in for something else - the red one had been backfiring, it pulled hard to the left, the mileage on it was way above what it probably should have been, it was in general pretty beat up, and having the hubcaps attached with zip ties was just not a very safe-feeling way to drive. So, the people at the rental agency were very nice, and let us trade it in for the same make of vehicle in silver. It was actually a new car, and had never been rented before, and it felt soooo much better driving it.
We had dinner at a pub near the airport, and so ended our time in Cork. Stay tuned for the journey to Limerick!
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