Ireland. I miss you.

Ireland. Awesomeness to the max. And probably the coolest place that I have been thus far in my life.

For more photos check out my flickr photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23152572@N06

More to come! Stay tuned for our next adventure...

Guys & Dolls. A Feast. Euchre. Angelina Jolie.

Saturday, March 14 – Sunday, March 15, 2009.

Yes, those are Guinnesses in our hands. No, we did not go back to Ireland. It seems as though stout has stuck with us and may stay a little while. As for our travel bug, it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. This weekend it was NYC.

This weekend was a surprise for me. From the time we left DC, I had no clue what we were doing or where we were going. The fact that we ended up in New York City with Mike and Rebecca was awesome. We grabbed a New York slice before heading off to see Guys and Dolls. What a show! Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat. Best song/dance number, hands down. Very nice, Nicely.

After the show, we hung around and relaxed. I was deaf to the dinner plans, but they were set at Les Sans Culottes. DJ and I had discovered this place last time we were in NYC and have been preaching about it ever since. It's a price fix dream with an endless appetizer. Sausage tower, tiny pickles, pate. A basket of fresh fruits and veggies. Bread. The works. With so much food, who needs an entree? I wonder whose hand that is going for the tiny pickles...

I believe our hotel was around, Lexington and 51st. Just a few blocks away a movie was being shot, called Salt starring Angelina Jolie. No signs of Brad though. I took a few snapshots as we were walking by, but we were hurried along by security (as were some paparazzi). I think they were shooting a funeral scene. Lots of fake cops (maybe some real ones), a fake presidential motorcade (unless Obama is making his silver screen debut) outside a church. The whole thing was majorly cool. We also played some euchre in Starbucks for a couple hours on Sunday.

Our whirlwind weekend ended with a stop off at the Mishel estate for some home cooked corn beef and coleslaw ala Mrs. Mishel. Yum. Yum. Delicious.

Day Six. Rock of Cashel. Waterford. Our last full day...

Monday, 09 March 2009.

I woke up today a little sad, but still excited. Today was our last full day in Ireland. 

We got ready and had a little breakfast. DJ made yummy omelets and we all were on billy goat duty, trying to finish up the last bit of leftovers. And then we were off.

The first place we ventured to was the Rock of Cashel, about an hour and a half away from our home base. I knew we were going to a see a castle, but I also imagined a huge rock somewhere close by. As we read in our travel books and soon came to realize, the rock is really a boulder filled hill on which this castle sits upon and overlooks the tiny town of Cashel. Now this was my first time seeing an actual castle up close and personal. The structure itself had no roof, just stone walls. We weaved in and out of several rooms, tagging along with a tour group hoping to hear some interesting things about the place and it's history. There were old grave stones everywhere, frescos on some of the walls, tombs inside the castle (dating back to 1574), a chunk of wall on the ground and magnificent views of the town. One of the rooms inside housed the original St. Patrick's cross – very cool. This was a place of war and much death – it's amazing that it still stands today. It makes me think about what kind of structures will still be standing thousands of years from now...

I really love what they have done with the place. 

I think the shutters are new.

Since we weren't sure if we could wait until we go to Waterford for lunch, we thought we would see what Cashel had to offer food-wise. We were pleasantly surprised. Our travel book only had a few places to choose from and Henry's Fine Foods sounded the best. Great pick! We walked into a long narrow cafe full of homemade jams and sauces. Henry himself was behind the counter. We sat down and ordered up a few sandwiches. Sun dried tomato, Brie and Lettuce. Ham and Chicken, chilli sauce panini. Served up with some pasta salad, coleslaw and chips. Delicious. We chatted with Henry a little before we left. It turns out that he had visited DC and Bethesda once. He told us about how he went to the Dubliner near Union Station and ran into a guy that he hadn't seen in 15 years. Small world.

After lunch, we jumped back into the car and headed to Waterford to check out their famous crystal factory. However to misfortune of all involved, we we got there we found that the crystal makers were on strike. Some evil corporation had bought out the factory and wants to send it over to China, where the crystal products can be made quickly and cheaply. As we walked into the lobby of the factor, we were greeted by some very kind employees. They explained the situation and told us that there were no tours going on right now. Although, they did have a DVD that we watched, walking us through the birth of a beautiful Waterford crystal. The short film was quite interesting and made me wish even more that we could have taken a tour. We chatted some with the workers and waited around to see if they would open up the gift shop. After a while, we decided to just head out and make our way back to Adare. 

The whole thing was really sad. Waterford is an industrial town, whose pride is their crystals. And now that is being taken away, not to mention jobs. It didn't matter that it was raining, Waterford already had a gloominess about it.

By the time we got back to Adare, it was time to start thinking about dinner. Being a Monday, several of the restaurants in town were closed. So our last meal in Ireland was at The Blue Door, right outside the manor grounds where we were staying. It was a tiny place with a thatched roof, an old house I would imagine. There were maybe 10, 12 tables in the whole place. We were the only ones in there, as I think most people in Ireland dine later in the evening. We ordered up some scallops, lamb, steak and salmon. A bottle of wine and some steamed veggies accompanied our meal.

After dinner we ran over to the little grocery store that we had been to earlier on our trip. Pallab and Jenn were looking for some stinky Irish cheese to take back with them and we also were trying to get rid of our last few Euro coins. And what better way to spend your last 70 Euro cents: Candy. The chocolate bars were gone before we left the store.

We went home and relaxed for a little while. We wanted to check out the Manor hotel bar – it was supposedly in a dungon of some sort. However, like the Waterford Factory, it was closed. Bummer. No one was feeling motivated, probably due to the lack of energy from our action packed week. But I felt like we needed to go out. It was our last night in Ireland and who knows when we would be back. 

Our legs led us to Aunty Lena's, the pub in Adare that had the horse racing hoopla that we had walked in to a few nights ago. The pub wasn't as packed as it had been before, but there were a few jolly souls sitting around, having a pint or two. We sat down at a table and ordered our stouts. We did a little reflecting on our trip and before we knew it, our glasses were empty andt there were two Irish ladies that had come over to chat us up. I have a feeling they knew we weren't locals. They were with a group of friends, celebrating one of their (Trish's) birthdays. We had noticed them earlier, laughing and carrying on. This woman Trish, she was hilarious — asking us all about our trip, telling us stories, naming all of her 15 siblings. She had us rolling. We ended up talking their whole group – a really friendly crew. They even bought us a half pint of whatever we wanted, even though we kindly tried to refuse about 12 times. I think this was one of the highlights of the trip. True hospitality. Open arms friendliness. A perfect end to our last day.

Final Thought: The true greatness of an Irish pub has nothing to do with the empty kegs on the outside but the fun-loving people on the inside.

Day Five. Cork. Cobh. Kinsale.

Tuesday, 7 March 2009.

Our fifth day turned out to be cold and rainy, but nonetheless, we had three fun places to explore.

First on the list was Cork. We arrived, parked and set out to find a place to escape the rain. Cork was like a Dublin mini me. A river ran through the main drag. There weren't too many shops or restaurants open, nor were there many people walking around. I am assuming the lack of hustle and bustle was probably because it was Sunday. Since Cork wasn't really happening, we decided to head to the coast to check out Cobh.

On our drive there, we say a 800 year old castle for sale. I imagine the utility bills wouldn't be too bad.

When we arrived in Cobh (pronounced Cove), we parked at the top of a steep hill containing one layer of the town, including a beautiful church. We descended down several flights of stairs that led us to the part of the town that was right up against the coast. Like, Dingle, this town was extremely colorful, there were quite a few shops, cafes and pubs. And like much of Ireland, it has history spilling out everywhere. The Titanic made it's final stop here. It was the last glimpse of Ireland for the many that left the country escaping the potato famine. And it was the place were the victims and survivors of the Lusitania came after the it sunk off the coast of Kinsale, not too far away.

Our walk around the tiny town quickly turned into a hunt for food. We ended up having lunch in a nice little restaurant by the water. Fantastic seafood chowder. I could have licked the bowl. Decent steak sandwich. The chips got the thumbs up. Cool artwork on the walls and sleek decor.

After lunch, we walked around some more finding that most all of the shops were closed. We made our way back up the hill/mountain to our car with a view of the ocean to our left and sound of church bells in our ears.

Back in the car again – next stop: Kinsale. On our way there, we stopped off to take in some amazing views of the country side and a few photos.

Kinsale, like Cobh, was cute and coastal. The town hugged a harbor full of boats. The streets were so narrow, I couldn't believe a car could actually fit. Colorful cafes. Little shops. We spotted a bunch of kids hanging out on some benches...I guess there isn't much for teenagers to do in these towns.

We walked around for a while, checking out a couple shops here and there. After a while, we started to think about dinner, as we didn't want to get back to our home base too late. Many of the restaurants had an early bird menu which was nice. We stopped in front of a restaurant, took a look at the menu and tried to come to a group decision. While we were standing there, the was a man hanging out nearby, smoking a cigarette. He started chatting us up and we asked him if he had any recommendations for dinner around Kinsale. He pointed to the restaurant that we had been eyeing, saying that it had fantastic food. Yes, that's right, it was his establishment. So of course, we ate there. (Smile). The food was pretty good, the service, excellent. We had fresh fish, seafood pasta, and a chicken sandwich with homemade BBQ sauce, Irish bacon and chips. We shared some French wine and Pallab and Jenn sampled the cheesecake for dessert. Before long we were stuffed and started to get tired, so started our trek back home.

Fun times yet again. I still couldn't believe we only had one more full day in this lovely country.

Day Four. Dublin. It should be renamed Guinness City.

Saturday, 7 March 2009.

Today we got up super early, and by super early I mean 6:30 am. We drove to the train/bus station and jumped on a bus bound for Dublin. Three and a half hours later, we were in the middle of the bustling city. We made our way down a few streets and ran into a farmers market, where we browsed, sampled a piece of cheese or two and moved on to find a place for lunch. The place we found was great. No, it was cool. It was Gruel (Great + Cool=Gruel, ie Tina Fay). We were just in time for their Saturday brunch. The food was fantastic. We sampled the french toast with thick slices of bacon, the corn beef hash and a egg tortilla filled with spinach, chorizo and goat cheese with a side of potatoes.

After brunch, we started walking toward the Guinness Storehouse. As we walked, we took everything in. The streets were busy with people and vendors. Lots of bridges and apartments among office buildings and industrial towers. Guinness was tattooed to buildings everywhere. The tour through the seven story building was all self-guided and somewhat interesting. However, it was pretty crowded, so we picked and chose what to check out. When we got to the top floor (a circular glass room), we joined the masquerade of pseudo Guinness lovers and enjoyed our free pint. The best part of the tour besides the free pint was the breathtaking views of the city. We sat by the window overlooking the rooftops for a few minutes and sipped our beers before taking off.

Our tour of Dublin continued with walking, walking and more walking. No better way to explore a city. We went by the jail, but unfortunately all of the tours were booked up for the day, so we moved on to Phoenix Park. The park in my mind is a lot like Central Park in New York. Full of open fields, walking paths, places to play sports and it even has a zoo. We stopped to watch a few up and coming Irish football stars play some pick-up as well as a few families kicking the ball around together. And the walking continued.

The next place we wanted to find was called Cobblestone. Known for having live music every day of the week, we thought we would pop in and see if we were in luck. We were indeed. There was 4 or 5 people sitting on couches and chairs in the front of the bar (the same set up as the one we saw in Galway), playing some lively Irish tunes to a pretty packed pub. We only stayed a few minutes, as no one wanted a drink and we were starting to get hungry for dinner.

We strolled along the river and ended back up in the area called Temple Bar, where the farmers market had been earlier. The first place we tried, we couldn't find anyone to seat us or a seat for that matter, so we moved right along. I guess restaurants work differently over here. There doesn't seem to be a hostess. You just look for a table, sit down and wait for a server to come by. We settled on a place called The Porterhouse Brewery. It was three stories with live music and packed with people. It wasn't authentic Irish food, but it was still good. We got a couple burgers, chips and a beef and Guinness stew. Ice cream for dessert of course. Before we got our food, we chatted with the man standing next to us about the rugby game on the TV. He tried to explain some of the rules and why the players do certain things. I still don't get it.

When we finished dinner, it was about time for us to head back to the bus depot to catch the last bus out of the city. Three and a half hours later, we were home. And exhausted.

Again, I think we can all agree that we wish we could have had more time to explore the city.

Day Three. Old Stuff. Cliffs. Rocks. Galway.

Friday, 6 March 2009.

Our late start this morning, possibly due to oversleepage (sorry, Pallab and Jenn!), was countered by some delicious homemade chocolate chip pancakes (so thoughtful, Pallab and Jenn!). After gathering ourselves, we packed into the car and made our way to the Cliffs of Moher, The Burren and the city of Galway. The drive took us about 2 hours.

The first stop was The Burren. Windy roads to the extreme. This area of Ireland was once a seabed when the country was by the equator before the whole continental drift thing happened. In a game of rock, paper, scissors here, rock would always win. White, grayish rocks of all shapes and sizes, flat and round, covered the countryside, the mountains, and the fields where the cows and sheep grazed. We pulled off to see the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, something that has been around since the beginning of the Bronze age and is probably the oldest man-made thing we will ever see in our lives. The tomb's surroundings were mostly flat rocks and grass – it almost seemed like we were on another planet.

After weaving through the roads of The Burren, we made our way to the Cliffs of Moher. Spectacular sites. The sound of the ocean. 700 foot drop offs. And a view of the Atlantic that disappears off into the mist (it was mostly overcast and somewhat rainy today). I was quite thankful for the walls that had been installed for our viewing protection. Fantastic photo opps here.

The next and final stop of the day was Galway. We arrived around 5:30pm and hungry. As we have done with every town and city, we parked and walked. Galway was different than the others we had seen. It had a lot more pedestrian-only streets lined with shops, restaurants and pubs; it seemed to be a college town. People just off work spilled out of the pubs and others wandered around doing the same thing we were, perusing the restaurants and menus. We settled on McDonagh's. It was an interesting place. The restaurant was split in two – half was takeaway and the other was more of a sit down situation. We decided to sit down and enjoy our meal, as the restaurant menu seemed more extensive than the takeaway. Our meals consisted of baked cod with broccoli and a curry sauce, chips (of course), fish stew, fried cod, mussels and crab meat wrapped in smoked salmon. Everything was mmmm good. The fist bite of the baked cod took me back to my Mom's chicken divan. Delicious. The chips with vinegar were ok...I still think we should have snuck some old bay into our checked luggage...

After dinner we headed over to a pub to find some live traditional Irish music. What fun! Three guys sitting on couches in the front of the pub just playing. A few people close by were bouncing around to the beat. The rest of the pub was packed with people drinking and carrying on. As we stood around and enjoyed the music, a guy next to us struck up a conversation with us. He was from Australia. He said at firsthe had me pegged for a French woman and DJ, an Irish man with his reddish beard and disheveled hair. Since I couldn't pull off the French accent, I told him we were from DC. We chatted a bit more before we left.

Before we got back to the car, we stopped into another pub just to check it out. As we entered, a famous Irish song came on (I am assuming it is famous) and everyone started singing. It was awesome. I wish I had known the words, so that I could have joined in.

Galway. Awesome. And this is going to be a theme for this vacation – wish we could have stayed a little longer...

Day Two. Dingle. Maybe the Dingle ate your baby.

Thursday, 5 March 2009.

We woke up at 7:45 am (that's right, I said AM) and left around 9:30 or so and headed for Dingle. It took us about two hours. The drive was pretty diverse. We were on a highway as well as small one-way windy roads bending around the mountain. We stopped for both pedestrians and sheep. Our sites along the way included blankets of green, waterfalls, sheep, snow capped mountains, the Atlantic ocean and did I mention sheep?

When we arrived in Dingle, we parked and started exploring.

Dingle is a cute coastal town full of colorful shops and restaurants like Adare, but the one major difference...fresh fish. We had lunch at a place called John Benny's, which came recommended to us by our travel book. We were the only people in there except for a regular at the bar. Being in a coastal town, we knew the seafood was a must. Our meals included mussels, an open face smoked salmon sandwich and the seafood chowder. And no Irish meal can be complete without a Guinness. Ice cold and frothy.

After lunch, we walked around some more, popped in and out of a few shops before continuing our tour of the peninsula by car.

Our car took us up and around the coast. Stellar views. A bit of history. Tiny villages. Loads of sheep. Scenic stop offs. The Atlantic ocean like we had never seen it before — a beautiful blue/green. The whole drive took us a couple hours and it circled us back around into the town of Dingle.

We parked again and decided to do some more walking around before we headed back to our villa. We grabbed some fresh fish (Pollack) from a fish stand to make for dinner. The Apple Tree was dessert stop number one for us. We had read they served up deep fried candy bars. How could you not try that? Deep-fried Mars bar with a couple dollops of whipped cream. It was scrumptious times three. Dessert course number two was had at Murphy's, the local ice cream shop. When we walked in, we were greeted by two extremely kind women. I say extremely kind because they handed us an endless amount of samples of all the different flavors. We finally settled on a choice and sat down to enjoy. DJ was in mint chocolate chip ice cream heaven.

After dinner, we went into Adare and found a warm seat at Bill Chawke's, had a pint and watched darts on the TV (which seemed to be like their WWF wrestling over here). There was supposed to be live music, but it was pretty dead. We moved on to Aunty Lena's. Much more lively place. We initially thought there was a pub quiz going on, but apparently it was race night. This consisted of gambling on old, taped horse races (the horses were on the wrong side of the track going the wrong direction, not that we have much experience with horse racing). I guess this is how Adarians gets their kicks on a Thursday night.

Today's added bonus – we saw a rainbow on the way home. Sadly, no little men or gold. I guess rainbows suffer from recessions as well.

Day One. Limerick. Adare. Shannon.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009. 

Left DC around 7:45 pm and arrived in Ireland around 11:00 am. Tired does not begin to explain it. But who cares about sleep – we are now in the land of shramrocks and stout.

When we arrived, we picked up our rental car. DJ knew what side to get into to drive, so that was encouraging. Our mantra at traffic circles was, look right, drive left. The road to Limerick was full of green, trees, a few castles and a bit of snow. Apparently the half inch that was mostly melted was the first snow they had gotten in years.

When we arrived in Limerick, we parked and started our own walking tour. Old buildings. Lots of store fronts. A really old church sandwiched in between chain stores. Pallab said that it reminded him of London a bit. I especially liked the pedestrian-only cobblestone streets. You don't have to worry about cars, but watch out for the snow balls. We almost got decked by one. Before we headed to Adare to check into our villa, we grabbed lunch at this small pub/cafe. We sampled the fish and chips, beef and Guinness stew and a Limerick ham and "red cheddar" aka swiss, panini. Yum.

After our 3 hour nap, we drove over to the VIP gate that led us into Adare. The town was cute and quaint. Thatched roofs. Row after row of brightly coloured shops and pubs. Loud oranges and pastel pinks. We walked around for a while and grabbed some ingredients for dinner from the local super market before heading back. We left the town with our first research task, ala Jenn. Is the greatness of an Irish pub measured by the number of empty kegs that lie outside? To be determined.