New York to Ireland - June 23rd

Trip Of June 2009

New York to Ireland - June 23rd

We had booked a flight from NYC to Dublin for June 23^rd and decided to go to New York early to enjoy a few days in the big city before our flight plus to give us sufficient cushion to make our connection. The Greyhound bus seemed like a good idea only because the flights from Nashville were ridiculously expensive. We took the county van service to the station and were soon on our way. The trip was going well, with several short layovers to break up the monotony. Going well, that is, until Cleveland. In Cleveland the bus overbooked by an additional 50 people. Greyhound was not able to obtain another driver so we were stuck there for an additional 8 hours. We finally get to New York nine hours late quite tired. We visited our friend Al in Queens. We forewent the usual sightseeing and spent time dining on New York street fare and shopping for a pair of shoes for Joan to use on the trip. We did go to the Met to see the Francis Bacon exhibit. At first we thought him to be not to our liking but the more we viewed the more we liked his style. The day of our trip we shuttled over to JFK for our Delta flight. We arrive in plenty of time checking in electronically. They offer us a bump promising us an arrival in Dublin just 5 hours later, at 1:30 in the afternoon, plus an upgrade, plus flight credit on another flight, so we took it. Mistake. The upgrade to business class to Madrid certainly was fun, great dining and anything you wanted to drink but when we arrived we found out that our Iberian connection to Dublin wasn't confirmed. To avoid flying standby we opted for the certainty of a connection to Paris then Dublin arriving at 10pm. We filed a complaint with Delta but they are ignoring us. At 10pm in Dublin it is still very bright out. Just 3 days before was the summer solstice. In Dublin we are staying in a flat nearby to downtown, with a view across the river to the Guiness Brewery. We meet Karolina and Kamila two young women from Gdansk, Poland. They are very typical in Dublin. Polish is the third most spoken language in Ireland after English and Chinese, just before Gaelic, the native tongue. Ireland had a huge influx of EU and other immigrants due to it's phenomenal growth prior to the current Crisis. The Irish are suffering particularly hard due to it's high economic rise. It is falling farther and deeper than those who enjoyed more moderate success. The prices are very high in Ireland. This is due to a policy of the government to raise value added tax (VAT) with an aim to struggle harder through the crisis but to emerge healthier, more money in the countries financial institutions, during the recovery. Also, and I'm not sure how this is done but wages are dropped as well. Oddly this severity is begrudgingly accepted with an open mind by most of the Irish as maybe it might be the right thing to do in the long run, but there is usually a cuss word or two added just in case. The next day we view two museums and generally walk around Dublin visiting parks and different areas of town. Joan rediscovers that the Irish make the most excellent pastry. So while she enjoys a sampling of goodies I enjoy a pint or two along the way. The Guiness is not any better fresh than in a pub in Montreal. For the stouts I particularly enjoyed the Beamish, which is originated in Cork, but it doesn't have that long lasting creamy head like a Guiness. Harps was very good as well for a lager, but Tennent, an economy brand was very good in my opinion. In Ireland all the tap beer is served in a special glass made just for that particular brand, and had it's name on it. I thought the Harps glass to be the best. It was more of the same the next day in Dublin. In Ireland almost all the National Museums and Galleries are free, plus many of the private museums whose bequest indicate that they remain free. We discovered that the famous poet Yeats had an equally talented brother, Jack Yeats, whose paintings were wonderful. Joan just loved the illustrations of Harry Clark, an illustrator for Hans Christian Andersen. Also, don't miss the Chester Beatty library if you are ever in the neighborhood. They have the most amazing collection of illuminated old bibles, quarans and chinese scripts. The girls made us some apple potatoe pancakes which leave us thinking more of the polish food ahead when we get to Poland. The next day we leave early in the morning. The Irish bus system is 10 times better than in the USA but pales in comparison to the latin america countries. By the way, gas in Ireland was almost $7.00 a gallon. There is service to most medium size towns but usually 3 or 4 times a day is considered very good coverage. We had to make a difficult decision as to whether to rent a car or not. We finally decided not to. Mastercard has a plan where they pick up the collision waiver if you use their card but they have only three countries that are not included, Jamaica, Angola and Ireland. Plus I was nervous about driving on the left side, and for good cause. As we bussed around or obtained rides I was always confused as to which lane to turn from or onto. Often foreign visitors with a rental would remark about near disasters when first starting out. Who needs it. We allocated about $450, which would have been our rental and estimated gas, for transport. We spent about ¾ of that, some good trade offs some not so good. Oh well. We were on our way to Kenmare, in county Kerry. When we arrive we find where we are staying with some difficulty as it is outside of town. However, our host wasn't home. The door was unlocked so we went in after a while and chose the guest room. We stayed up until we could no longer stay up but finally went to sleep in a house whose occupant we hadn't yet met. That was different and a tad disquieting. At some time between 2 and 3am a head pops through the door, he was as surprised as we were for in the darkness he hadn't seen the note we left on the door. But all was cool and we put off most pleasantries til the morning. Dean was a horticulturalist, a herbalist and to explain his late appearance also a fiddler of traditional Irish music, though he is originally English. He had been to a trad festival in Bosna, a very small town between here and Limerick. He excused himself by saying that he might also be gone this evening for another session or two. He said it is also a very local festival not visited by tourists. We asked if we could tag along. So that evening we drove for almost 2 hours to Bosna. There are five pubs in Bosna and each pub had a 5pm and a 9pm session. They were free and you could roam about until you found the right combination of music, people, chairs and beer. They were also doing set dancing at the edge of town which is also square dancing. It broke up around 1am. That was special. For the remainder of our time in Kenmare we decided to do The Ring of Kerry but tourism was down and the buses couldn't get there numbers up to make a trip so we decided to do The Ring of Bearra, which the locals tell us is considered more beautiful in spots though it is less publicized than The Ring of Kerry. Also, it is about 2/3 the distance which bodes well for how we plan to do it. We take the only public transport which takes us about ¼ of the way and then hitchhike around the ring. It is a seldom used road and we talk a great deal and then say here comes a car. What are we doing? But shortly we get a ride from Jelska a Dutch woman on holiday to the tip of Bearra, I've got to look up the name of the town. The scenery is beautiful and Jelska is a character. After she leaves us, the traffic practically dries up. There is a town about 10 km away. We think we will hitch but continue to walk and getting a room after 6 miles is the option we hold out just in case. Two hours go by, we are still walking. Before one little town some guy takes us just a half a mile but changes our luck for 15 minutes after that a very elderly English gentleman who we believe needed someone to read the map and the road signs picks us up and puts me to work, which is great, as he spins yarns of the old days. Almost back to Kenmare I sense that we are coming in from the opposite side from where we left and luckily I noticed the small barely marked drive that is our local home. Ta daaaa. We get a tour of Deans gardens and green house. There is too little time in this nice location. The next day we leave for Limerick. The bus schedules are spotty and 5 or 6 hours between buses. We bus part of the way and hitch the other. We sense it is safe, but always we think this is the stupidest thing we've ever done but then along comes a great ride and we are enthused again. Now I should pause here to say, all through Ireland the scenery is beautiful, the flowers are outstanding. It is lush, green, very bucolic. Sheep abound in small numbers but often, along with stone houses and the occasional real thatch roof. And the people are remarkably friendly. So friendly it is almost hard to believe. People who give you directions with a bit of personal inquiry and where are you from and what would you be doing going that way and such as that. People who would often walk to the corner, out of their way, to better show you the turn. It was Dear and Darlin' and Love from the women. There are no short answers in Ireland. Joan said she saw herself coming and going and some of her aunts and uncles. She is half Irish. And the other generality is the weather, it is wet, it is damp, it is cool and sometimes cold. This being the end of June and early July. Annnnnnnd... they are having an exceptionally good summer. Rain, it comes up suddenly and often. Often it is just a shower but sometimes it rains torrents. Clean. The country is clean. There is evidence of a massive anti littering campaign. The populace is also very Green, enviromentally wise. They recycle, reuse, reduce. People carry their grocery bags back to the supermarket. Well, enough of the generalities. We arrive in Limerick and find where we are staying, a rented townhouse style apartment. It is occupied by an Irish girl and two hungarians. The hungarians are on holiday. We visit Bunratty Castle which is an old castle, aren't they all. Interesting. Limerick, everyone warns us, is the home of several gangs who are sometimes dangerous. It is the hometown of Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes. We are discouraged to go to see his home because it is still in a bad part of town. While there we do the usual visits to old churches. We go to stores and eat at Donkey Fords, a famous old fashion Fish and Chips store. To Galway we go next but we take a bus to the Cliffs of Moher first. These are beautiful, very scenic high cliffs north of Limerick and west of Galway. We spend a little time there going from one overlook to another. We walk along the coast road, knowing that the tiny town of Dundee had an active hostel just in case. It is just gorgeous. We were out on this breezy coast road with wild flowers everywhere, protective but non aggressive sheep dogs come out to check us out. Huge tour buses blow by us, a real downside. Later someone told us they are a big problem because they clog the roads and only create economic benefit in the bigger city where they originate. A young Californian stops and gives us a ride halfway to Galway passing through The Burren, a big national park of exposed bare rock where the ground should be. We stop at a market to pick up some things for a quick lunch. We ready ourselves for another long leg when the first car by picks us up and takes us to our next lodging. It turned out he and his son had been at that trad festival in Bosna, so that is what we talked about mostly. In Galway we stay at a large townhouse but it is shared (most places we ran into were shared) and we are staying mostly in the bedroom when we are at home. We had use of the kitchen. Our host was a young personable Czech who worked at a nearby Marriot. We took a tour of the Connemara and the Cong. We usually don't take organized tours but it was easy to figure this was an area we would not see well any other way. Our host decided to join us. It was gorgeous. We couldn't have seen this section any better if we had our own rental car. The bus driver/guide was very good except for his sappy overdone jokes. There is always a price to pay. That night we go to downtown Galway in the hopes to find some trad music but find mostly RockNRoll and a very party town. Shop Street as it is called has a feel like Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It's been a long day, I have a pint, we go home. Westport, county Mayo is next. It is close by and we arrive early to see most of the downtown, a very neat and tidy well done market area with several main streets all busy. Our cottage is 10km out of town down several country lanes. We walk out of town and hail a ride. The driver, so curious as to why he doesn't know exactly where we are going, decides to take us all the way there. The cottage is charming, supposedly haunted, relaxing, with a beautiful front garden kept in an orderly overgrown way. This couple is English, new age, with a varied and interesting past, living between here and Spain in the winter. From here we take a trip to the Cong from the otherside, to a town that is the location of the well known movie, The Field, Richard Harris, Tom Beringer. Beautiful again and again. The next day it is pouring buckets mostly. We stay home, read, talk with our hosts, surf the net. I chance a run to town. I was forced at one point quite against my will to seek shelter from the rain in a pub and drink a couple of pints of Guiness. We have two more nights in Dublin before our flight to England and bus there right through the middle of Ireland, probably the plainest scenery in the country but still decent. In Dublin we arrive at 3:30pm. We will stay with a young Italian professional doing an internship in Ireland. Before checking in with him, trying to salvage some part of this day, we stop in at Trinity College and talk our way into the conservation work area of the library to meet our first Dublin host, Karolina. She works in conservation in the library and we got our own private tour of the Book of Kells and some very old books they were working on like from the 1500's. It was real cool and special. We are now in an apartment 5 minutes from The Spire in a so so part of town. The apartment is modern though and our hosts are the most curious of all asking dozens of questions. Ireland and most of Europe likes Obama, they have high hopes for him. The next day our last full day in Ireland we see a couple more museums. One contained the Francis Bacon studio and some of his works, so it was a nice tie in with what we saw in New York City before we left. More pastry, more beer, talking together at how pleasantly surprised we both were with Ireland and how we would love to come back again and spend more time. We cooked a big meal with our hosts and stayed up late drinking Tennent beer. The next day we leave on Aer Lingus for London, Gatwick airport.

PS. If anyone knows how to get Delta to make good on their mess up please let me know.