Ireland, Part I

I can't believe that it's already been a month since Andy and I were driving to the airport to embark on our Ireland trip. Neither of us knew what to expect; it was the first time both of us would travel outside North America. I had read the books and browsed the websites and sent the emails and made the lists, and now it was finally here. 

On an early Saturday morning, we made the 4-hour drive to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. We got lost on the way there and were running extremely late. Since we parked off-site, we then had to wait for a very pokey shuttle driver to take us to our terminal. At this point, we were both silently freaking out. I've never missed a flight in my life and wasn't sure what would happen. Thankfully, we raced to the ticket counter and got our bags checked just before the deadline. Phew!

After switching planes in Boston, we settled in for our 7-hour flight to Dublin. I wasn't able to sleep at all. But we arrived in Ireland at 5am, determined to stay awake the entire day. It was dark and raining as we hopped in our rental car, armed with an atlas and a general idea of where we were heading. 

The next hour was not pretty.

As Andy tried his best to adjust to driving on the opposite side of the road, sitting on the opposite side of the car, and shifting with his left hand, I tried to make sense of the road signs. As in, we didn't see one for where we needed to go. As in, the multiple roundabouts left us disoriented as to which direction we were heading. As in, we drove around a square-mile section for over an hour, trying to figure out where the heck we were. And I'm quite good with directions. Yes, it was stressful. Finally, I found a sign for a town we weren't even going to, but at least it was on the map. Eventually, we hooked back up with the road we originally needed. I learned very quickly how to read Ireland's very few road signs. 

Things started to get better as we drove into the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. It was still raining, but the landscape was still incredibly beautiful. Green, green everywhere. It was then that I finally realized that we were in Ireland. 

(If you want to view any of the pictures larger, just click on them.)

We made it to our first stop of the day, Glendalough. This valley is home to a 6th-century monastic settlement. The gloomy weather gave everything a bit of a mystical feeling. Thanks to our waterproof shoes, we were able to hike for a while and stave off the jet-lag. 

After grabbing our first Irish Fry breakfast and learning how to use a pay phone, we got back on the road. We still had a long drive ahead of us before getting to our B&B, but it was good to get some more practice driving/navigating. 

Finally, we made it to our first night's accommodations in Kinsale, on the south coast. We had enough energy to grab some fish and chips, then crashed at about 8:30 that night. At that point we had been up for over 30 hours!

The next morning, we experienced the interesting cooking of our B&B proprietor. Andy had salmon and eggs which he could barely stomach, and I had pancakes and ice cream. Yes, he served ice cream for breakfast. Not that I'm complaining. After that, we took a nice long walk around the harbor to Charles Fort, which gave great insight to the military ingenuity of the British and Irish in the 1600s. 

We then drove a half-hour to Cork, Ireland's third-largest city. We grabbed a picnic lunch at a market and roamed around the city. The night before, County Cork's football team had won the Irish National Football Championship, so the city was gearing up for a parade and major partying. We would have loved to stay, but with still-lingering jet-lag, we opted to head back to Kinsale for dinner and sleep. We needed to wake up early for our trip to County Kerry the next day.

City Cork

Wow, this has been a long post. I know I only covered two days, but I will stop here for now. I promise my next posts won't be quite as long. There's still lots more awesomeness to come...stay tuned!