GLENDALOUGH, IRELAND
KILKENNY, IRELAND
CORK, IRELAND
Ahhh,
yes!! English once again! How I’ve missed my native tongue. After a fresh, green Irish stamp on my
passport, I left Dublin airport and headed into the city. I set up shop in my hostel and started my
search for potential ride shares throughout Ireland. Everyone told me that the Irish countryside
is best explored by car so I wanted to make friends in my hostel in hopes of
having a road trip in a few days!
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| So Irish! Even the lamp posts have shamrocks |
It turns out my hostel mates
weren’t really looking for friends though!
Everyone stuck to their own groups (or their computers) so there really
wasn’t much conversation going on. I
found the same to be true on my 3 hour Dublin walking tour. During the introductions, there were 5 girls
from America also on the tour so I thought for sure I would have some friends
by the end of it! And being the one that
always starts conversation, I decided to sit back and let them come to me. Never happened! In 3 hours’ time, I was shocked that none of
these girls asked where I was from in America.
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| Trinity College |
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| Grafton Street |
The tour itself was
fantastic!! Our guide, Mik, was
hysterical when reenacting Irish history.
Aside from all the beer-loving Irish jokes, he really knew his facts and
gave tourists a great introduction to a new city. There was so much energy to this little city
and it certainly catered to tourism with its plethora of lime green
double-decker buses barreling around each corner. I was able to research my family name origin
in the infamous Old Library in Trinity College (founded in 1592, holy moly),
shop the bustling area of Grafton Street, view the sumptuous collection of
ancient religion doctrine in the underrated Chester Beatty library, and still
have time to drink some beer in Temple Bar! I visited the Guinness Brewery, which had a
theme-park atmosphere complete with interactive displays and activities,
including learning how to pour your own Guinness! Check mine out:
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| The perfect Irish Guinness pour |
The brewery tour concluded on the
top floor where you could enjoy a nice Guinness as well as a 360 panoramic view
of Dublin. I ended up meeting a very
cool Kiwi named MATT who now worked in finance in London. His brother was visiting from New Zealand and
they were in town for the weekend so I joined them for a night out in Temple
Bar. The sound of live music was busting
through the bars and out onto the streets by the time we arrived! Some was of Irish decent, most was modern
American rock. The three of us met a
group of British blokes and had a fun night getting to know each other over
some Strasbourg’s. We had drunk enough
Guinness (aka coffee-flavored beer) at the factory.
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| Temple Bar |
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| Temple Bar |
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| Temple Bat |
The next day I saw St. Patrick’s
Cathedral and Christ Church before crossing the river toward O’Connell Street
to see the Spire. I took a detour to
find the Leprechaun Museum but it was closed.
I can’t believe they were able to round up all of Ireland’s leprechauns
and put them in one museum!! While
shopping for souvenirs I finally heard my favorite Irish tune- Molly
Malone! I had asked Mik for the story
behind Molly but he couldn’t say for sure.
Her statue on Suffolk Street certainly emphasized her large chest and
some say the song has innuendos to suggest she was a part-time woman of the
night. But many others say she was a
fictitious female fishmonger. Regardless
of her legend, I have liked the song since I learned it in 3rd grade
music class. Crying cockles and mussels,
Alive, Alive-O!
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| Spire in Dublin |
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
That evening I had planned to meet
the British blokes again. Since no one
has phones, it’s kind of exciting to make plans and see if the person sticks to
them. Nowadays people either confirm or
change plans about 15 times so meeting up with other backpackers is kind of
like showing up for a first date. Turns
out, I got STOOD UP! The guys never
showed so I wandered into a couple bars and listened to music. A couple guys gave me some room at the bar to
place my order and soon enough we were friends.
They were both from Long Island!
We had an AWESOME night in Temple Bar and I couldn’t be more thankful
for them letting me tag along. Very cool
guys! Spoiler alert- they will
definitely be featured as friends on ‘Friend or Foe Friday’.
The next morning was pretty
embarrassing but is worth telling. I had
rented an automatic car from Enterprise because we all know what happened in
Iceland when I was asked to drive a manual.
I took the hour-long bus ride out there, 15 min shuttle ride to the
dealer, 25 minute paperwork where they charged me an Irish arm and leg for
insurance, and I finally got the car.
Gosh darn manual! Even after
telling them I absolutely didn’t book that car no matter what their records
claimed, they said they had no other cars.
I said, No. Then they said it
would cost double. I said no. Then they said it would be 20 euros extra per
day. Again, I said no. I told them that they really didn’t want me
driving a manual, shifting with my left hand, maneuvering narrow Irish roads
(on the wrong side) while navigating by myself.
I think he finally got the message when I asked him if the pedals went
from left-to-right clutch, brake, gas even when it was on the other side of the
car. Haha. I told him he would need a new clutch or a
new car by the time I was done. Then he
said I would have to pay for a new clutch if anything happened. I flipped out telling him that they had just
charged me for FULL coverage insurance and doubled the price of the rental-
what did the full coverage actually cover?
What if the water pump goes? What
if the steering wheel falls off?? Do I have to pay for that too?
I felt the tears building so I
started to leave and told him, ‘Well I guess I’ll just do my best with your
car.’ He rushed out and said that he was
concerned for the car at that point. Haha.
I was not laughing at the time though.
Tears just started flowing non-stop.
Absolute waterworks coming down my face as I apologized repeatedly for
crying. Haha. He kept saying, ‘No, no, don’t be upset. You’re on holiday!’ He gave me the automatic for free and told me
to have a great trip. I can’t imagine
that poor guy going home and telling his wife about the freak show American he
met at work that day. Hahaha.
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| Malahide |
I quickly learned how to maneuver
around those tricky Irish roundabouts and found my way to the castle at
Malahide and to the port city of Howth. I
gave two French guys a ride down from the overlook and then headed for
Waterford. I got lost pretty easily and
ended up in the beautifully tranquil monastic site of Glendalough. The valleys were so majestic that I ditched
my plans for Waterford and decided to stay for the night. I went for an easy hike along the lakes but
miscounted the distance so it ended up being very long and I didn’t get home
until it was dark. My hostel didn’t have
internet so I headed to the only light in town, which was the main hotel. There was a family in the lobby and the kids
were singing Irish folk songs for their grandparents’ entertainment…and mine as
well. They even threw in some songs from
Bruce Springstein’s ‘Live in Dublin’ tour.
Very cute.
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| Beaches in Ireland? Yup, near Malahide |
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| Glendalough |
When I was leaving, there was an
old man standing in the doorway and, when I asked him if I could get by, he
struck up conversation. We did the usual
introductions and I found him asking questions and sort of answering them for
me. “You hated your job? Yeah I can tell you hated your job” and
“You’re happy now. Yes, I can tell
you’re much happier now.” I didn’t
really give off either vibe but he had already decided my answers for me. In regards to what my plans are when I return
home from my trip, I had said that I had some big decisions to make. He told me not to worry about it because God
had already decided for me. God has a
plan for each of us and there’s no use in worrying and trying to plan our lives-
‘What man proposes, God disposes.’ I
told him I was going to keep thinking about it just in case the big guy got
busy.
He was obviously very religious so
I asked if he had had any revelations and sure enough he had. He had visited a priest of some sort that had
placed his hand upon his forehead and it caused him to collapse. He vividly remembered seeing himself floating
above his body and he came back as a natural healer. When he even rubs elbows with strangers in
the street they stop and tell him they felt something from him. I respectfully listened to his story but started
to think it was time for me to go. When
I said goodbye, he lightly grabbed my wrist and said, ‘You’re going to have
three children and one miscarriage.
You’ll be married but not the way you expect.’ As this information sunk in, his palm made
its way toward my forehead and I got completely weirded out. I wasn’t afraid of him hurting me but I was
afraid of the spirituality he was trying to bestow upon me. I certainly didn’t want to collapse on the
dark, isolated street with no one around me but this old healer of a man. I sharply pulled away and started to tear up
and he said, ‘Oh you’re crying. You’re
crying’ as if they were joyous I’ve-been-touched-by-an-angel tears! But they weren’t. I told him I didn’t appreciate him telling me
about my future. He had no right to tell
me things that I didn’t ask for. He
apologized and when we amicably went to shake hands goodbye he wouldn’t let
go! He kept telling me, ‘I’m not
God. I’m not God’ to which I responded,
‘Then you shouldn’t play one.’ When I got
to my car only 20 feet away, I turned back and he was gone.
This guy really threw me for a
loop! Was he completely full of crap or
not? Should I believe or not? A lot of people skeptically viewed Jesus the
same way I looked at this guy. Should I
be religious or not? What the heck is
going to happen to us all when we DIE?!
Oh my god, panic attack. The only
thing worse than trying to answer these questions is trying to answer them
alone while getting lost among the sheep of Ireland. There were more hopeless tears throughout the
next day in Ireland. I hate that guy for
talking to me.
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| Castle in Kilkenny |
I yearned for some comfort food so
I stuffed my face at good old McDonald’s in Kilkenny before visiting its
impressive medieval castle set above the River Nore. Can you believe people really lived in
castles? It blows my mind to really
imagine all this history playing out in real life. I made it to Cork by late afternoon to find
that many things were closed since it was Sunday, including the famous Blarney
stone just outside of town. Pious
Ireland gets me again! I stumbled upon a
great outdoor music festival going on so I enjoyed that for a couple
hours. Between numbers, they expressed
sympathy for poor New York City who was enduring Hurricane Irene at that
time. (Yes, I’m exposing my tardiness
with this blog entry). I had heard SO
much on the news and radio about this hurricane and couldn’t believe it was
actually mentioned at the festival. I
wasn’t worried for NY one bit! First,
all hurricanes turn into rain by the time they hit the city and second, New
Yorkers endure far worse on a daily basis to be bothered by some rain. It was North Carolina that was
suffering! And later, it would be
Vermont! And after that, it would be Mr.
Hanson’s boat and dock up in Maine! It
was the first time I understood just how much the world cared about New York
City. Everyone constantly had their eye
on the big apple. Maybe I had
misunderstood the true honor in living there for 5.5 years.
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| Castle in Kilkenny |
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