Brian Fields

We were on our way to Shannon while it was still pitch dark outside. I don’t think we were that far from the airport, but getting there in the dark was sort of bother. After all, when we first arrived, the sun was already up and we were too focused on figuring out the roadways. We eventually made it to the car rental place to drop off the POS they stuck us with and took the shuttle to the airport. We got there, checked in and got our boarding passes and still had a few hours to spare before our flight, as we figured it would take us some time to get through security and customs and such. We grabbed a bite to eat in the cafeteria, which was actually pretty good, albeit pricey, but it was a good opportunity to unload some foreign money. After passing through the security checkpoint, we stopped in the duty free shop. They really didn’t have anything of interest other than the same tourist money-takers that we had seen all over the country… but they did have a damn good price on Jameson, so I bought the maximum 2 liters I was allowed to bring back for a whole 20 euro, which was (after the conversion) about 10-15 dollars cheaper than it would be over here. Truth be told, you CAN tell a difference in the stuff bought here and the stuff bought there, and the stuff I brought back is much better. Just wish I could have brought back a barrel of Guinness, because it’s so so good over there.

We realized a little bit later than we should have that the line for customs was growing FAST, so we hurried up and hopped in line. It took us about an hour to get through that line, and it seems like everyone in the line was getting on the same plane as us because we all lined up again outside of our gate. We had to wait another 20 minutes or so in that line, but once we were on the plane we really didn’t have to sit there for more than 15 minutes before they started wrapping things up to get moving. We were in the air actually a few minutes before our scheduled departure time and we were over the ocean with no land in sight in about 10 minutes. About 30 minutes in to the flight, they started the movie “Poseidon”… which wasn’t that good, but was amusing enough to take our minds off of the airplane’s tight environment. After a quick meal, I fell asleep for a little bit, and woke up just in time to watch their second movie, “Nacho Libre”. It wasn’t that good, but again, was entertaining enough. When it finished, it kind of sucked to think that we still had about 4 hours of a flight ahead of us… but we were definitely over a portion of Canada by that point, I believe. I slept off and on for the remainder of the flight. Upon arrival in Atlanta, we went through more customs, grabbed another bite to eat, and sat trying to occupy ourselves for our 3 hour layover. Joe finally got to talk to Kristen for a while and Mom and Dad checked in with the relatives that were awaiting word of our safe arrival. I spent the time wishing that airport wireless internet was free.

We boarded our plane for Cincinnati shortly after 4, and once again, we were in the air a few minutes before our scheduled time. Unlike the flight to Ireland from Atlanta, we didn’t have to wait 30 minutes in line for our turn to take off. There was a rough storm on the way to Cincinnati, so we actually had to fly up to Columbus then back down around the the back of the storm to Cincinnati, but by that point I had fallen asleep again. I definitely recommend a pair of noise-canceling headphones for a peaceful flight! Even if there was no music playing, I couldn’t even hear the sound of the engines!

We arrived in Cincy shortly before 6pm, I think. Mom and Dad dropped Joe and I off at our house and concluded the journey. It was all still pretty surreal at that point. It was the first time in my life that I had been out the country, and at one hand I STILL couldn’t believe it, while on the opposite hand it seemed like I had been over there forever. I can’t thank Mom and Dad enough for giving Joe and I the opportunity to go and everyone along the way who made the trip so fantastic.

When 5am rolled around, Joe woke up and I went off to find out more about the bus. I found which bus we would be getting on, but the driver wasn’t there, as expected. We knew it would leave shortly after 6, so we decided to head out the bus around 5:30. It seems like the second we got out to the bus, it started raining a little more than the sprinkles that had been coming down. At around 5:50, the bus driver opened the door to the bus. I guess he had been sleeping in the back for a little bit or something. Joe went on, paid the driver for his ticket, then I went on, handed the driver money… and he handed it back and said I was okay. I just figured maybe Joe had paid for my ticket or something… so I went and sat down and said “I didn’t know you were going to pay for my ticket.” and he said “I didn’t.” … So I guess I got to ride for free. Maybe the bus driver was scared of me, maybe he was jealous of my beard… or maybe he just knew how awesome I was. We rolled through Ireland quite smoothly for a bus. The ride for me was a matter of getting about 10 minutes of sleep and waking up when the bus was rocking from the roundabouts, taking note of where we were and going back to sleep if it wasn’t where we were supposed to stop. Eventually I knew we were getting close so I just stayed awake, and sure enough, within 15 minutes I saw the sign for Oranmore. The bus stopped just outside a small shopping center, (small by our standards, at least) and Joe and I stopped off inside and called the number we got from Mom before we left. I was really nervous because I had never heard Laim or Diedre’s voice and they had never heard mine… were we in the right place? I’d hoped we hadn’t gotten off too early or too late. I don’t think I could pull off another free bus ride if we were in the wrong place. We were kinda confused at first because we had a like… 13 digit phone number, and in the end we only had to dial the last 6 digits. That was sorta weird, but we got through, and Deirdre said she would pick us up in about 20 minutes.

Soon thereafter, we got to Liam and Dierdre’s house. Deidre had to go to a meeting in Gallaway for a little bit, so we just chilled out at their place for a little while. We both got showers since we hadn’t done so since we left Dublin for Scotland, and we warmed up by the fire they had burning. We loved the smell. They actually burn small “bricks” of the compacted materials in their bogs. Since the bogs contain no oxygen, whatever falls in and sinks doesn’t really decompose. The smell that these burning bricks of bog give off is a real earthly sort of incense. Joe and I actually ended up ordering some when we got back to the States. Around 5:30 or so, Liam got home and he started to prepare dinner while Mom, Dad, and myself talked with him about all sorts of things. Shortly after that, Eoghan (pronounced like “Owen”) came home. He stays at school during the week, but comes home most weekends because his girlfriend lives in town still. I started dozing off a bit because I was up so late, but at some point Deidre got home, and Phillip arrived with his girlfriend Mary Rose. We weren’t going to get to meet their other two children, Niamh (who lives in Dublin) and Dairmaid (Who lives in Boston).
In a very short time we were sitting down for dinner, which was very, very, good. The conversation was very lively, entertaining, and made me feel all around very welcome. Eoghan left shortly after dinner, which I can’t say I blame him for, because we had really never met him and he didn’t know us, and he was probably itching to see his girlfriend. After dinner, we took some pictures to mark the occasion, and then Phillip took us out to one of the local pubs. Mary Rose dropped us off, and we stayed for about 3 hours and had what else, but about 5 pints of Guinness. We stopped off at a “Supermac’s” (the Irish equivlent of McDonald’s, even though McDonald’s is over there) and had a quick bite before calling a hackney, which is a sort of non-official taxi service. He dropped us off at the McGregor’s place and we chatted for a brief moment with Phillip, and then Phillip left to go back to his house.

I woke up just a few minutes before Dad came in to wake me up. We had a simple but delicious breakfast of Scones (which is similar to a buttermilk biscuit). Deirdre told me that the best way to “enjoy a proper scone” was with butter, Jam AND fresh cream… I was hesitant thinking it would be too much, but it was absolutely delicious, and I can imagine myself keeping some handy now and then, although I have yet to do so. She suggested we visit the “Aran Islands” (or at least the largest of the islands) for our final day. So we hung around until about 10am, and then left for Gallaway to catch a bus and Ferry out to the island. The bus ride to the ferry was long. I was expecting a 20 minute drive at worst, but it ended up being almost 45 minutes. I’m kinda glad we took the bus, because the roads sucked, and I could imagine us getting lost or run off the road quite easily. The ferry ride was also pretty boring. It took about 40 minutes, too. I used some of that time to download the pictures from my camera to my laptop and clear off space for the hundred or so pictures I took at the Islands and to keep my mind off the possibility of getting seasick.

The Largest Island was incredible to see. The entire island is covered in rocks, and in order to build, farm, and do the things they need to do, the people living on the island used all the rocks to build walls. The guide we had on the island said that there are about 7000 miles of walls built, and I have every reason to believe him. The feel of the island is quite primitive. There isn’t much besides, roads, small houses mostly between 30 and 50 years old, and like I said, lots of rock walls, sectioning off the island in about 1000 square foot sections, some smaller, some bigger. We stopped to get something to drink after getting off of the ferry, and picked up a tour guide as soon as we walked out. About a dozen of the locals have vans parked outside of the ferry dock waiting to take people on tours of the island. It’s so peaceful and beautiful on the island that it made it a great place to spend the day. Unfortunately, we had a scheduled ferry ride off the island, so around 5 o’clock we made our way back to the docks to depart. The bus ride back took even longer, partially because the driver was about 45 minutes late, and partially because the idiot kept stopping along the way to talk to people and make unscheduled stops.

The final stop for the bus was right next to the garage where the car was parked in Gallaway, so we hopped off and went on our way closer to Shannon, which would be our last stop on the trip. The drive from Gallway to Shannon wasn’t so fun. It took quite a bit longer than we expected, and unfortunately we ended up bickering a lot. We were told to give a bar called “Dirty Nellie’s” a try, but by the time we got there nobody wanted anymore than a quick drink because we were all sort of pissed at each other. I have to admit, I’m finishing up typing this nearly 4 months after the trip because I put it off for so long, but I can’t even remember if there WAS a reason we were all crabby. We left Dirty Nellie’s, and once again, since there are no real names to the streets in Ireland, it took us another hour or so to find the Bed and Breakfast we had reserved for the night. I think we got there around 11pm, we got some showers and cleaned ourselves up so we didn’t look like hell when we got home, and spent an hour or two packing all of our goodies in our suitcases and such, since we really couldn’t take them on the plane in the gift bags. I was out like a light as soon as I climbed in to bed, and in only a few hours I was woken up to get ready to leave.

Alex and a sleepy looking Niall were there to great us. We changed some money over from Euros to Pounds Sterling and then got a bus into Edinburgh. Man, it was so nice to have that whole thing coordinated and go so easy for once on the trip! On the bus into the city, we got to know Niall and Alex as they pointed out some of the things about the city and talked about what we might want to do that night. We hopped off of one bus (because it was strictly an airport bus) and grabbed a bus over to Alex’s place. Edinburgh is an amazing city. At the center of the city for everyone to see if the castle. This castle blows all the castles we’ve seen away. Thank goodness it wound up in a lot of pictures, because trying to describe it just wouldn’t do it justice. Basically, it’s perched above a tall hill with very steep walls. The hill was started as a pile of volcanic rock, later shaped by weather and then fortified by humans. While you can tell that some of it is very recent, a lot of the buildings fit right in with the castle. They lead up the street going to the one entrance to the castle, and wind up and down all the hills around it. Edinburgh, in a nutshell, is old looking buildings on loads of hills, topped off with lots of wind and flash weather situations. Alex said that if it’s not windy, it’s rainy, and not many days go by where it isn’t overcast at some point. It could be bright and sunny one hour, then heavy snow the next. We relaxed for a little bit at his place, then we went out to hit the pubs.

The pub scene in Edinburgh was exactly what I was hoping for the whole trip. I can only wish that I had a similar experience in Dublin. We stopped off for a pint at one pub, then went along to the next where we had a couple more then stayed for a late dinner. Ian came to join us and enjoyed a fine piece of cake in lieu of alcohol. After we ate and gave ourselves some time to shoot the bull, we walked for a little bit, caught a bus and stopped off to get a couple of drinks for back at Alex’s place. I played Guitar Hero for the first time, pretty much sucked at it. (not bad for a beginner, I guess… after all, Ian DID jump me up to the medium, then hard difficulties after one at the previous levels.) I think I’m addicted to it already. It’s in the plans as being one of the first purchases to make when I get back to the States. Time flew by and by 1pm we were all ready to hit the hay. Ian and Niall parted company, and Alex was kind enough to put Joe and I up in his living room for the night, which I can’t thank him enough for, as it saved us a bundle on a hotel. I do seriously hope I get the chance to return the favor.

Joe and I were surprised by the fact that we didn’t wake up until after 11am. I’m usually lucky to sleep 8 hours, but I guess all the days where we wanted to be up early to see the sites caught up to us and we had a great night of sleep. Once again, Alex was really cool and he made a quick breakfast for us and we were out and about by noon. We met up with Niall at a place called Prince’s Square… I believe? and the first place we went to was a store where dropped off our luggage and they would would hold it so we wouldn’t have to go all the way back to Alex’s to retrieve it before catching the bus to the airport. After that, we started climbing the hills up to the castle and walking up a street filled with lots of Scottish-focused goods. Everything from jewelery to liquors, from swords to kilts.

We made it to the castle gates and contemplated taking a tour, but we decided against it because it was a bit pricey. Instead, we found a cool tourist spot just before the castle that had a great view of the city. They had a sort of camera at the top that allowed for a 360 view of the city compliments of some lenses and a mirror. However, it wasn’t good enough of an image to photograph. Luckily, we got plenty of great photographs from the balconies before viewing the camera “show”. After the “show”, we left the 5th floor and we stopped off at the floors in between where they had a small museum of optical illusions and such. It was pretty sweet. It was almost like an exhibit you’d find in a Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum. We probably spent a good hour or so in there which is quite an achievement, considering how small the place actually was.

Upon leaving, we thought it would be a good idea to grab some lunch. We stopped off at a small cafe/deli type place for what we thought was going to be a small meal, but it was actually very filling. The food was very good, too. First time I’ve ever had bread with sun-dried tomatoes in it and it was fantastic, especially with some ham and brown mustard on it. Also the first time I’ve had a rocket and Parmesan salad, and there’s a good chance I’ll be whipping one up when I get back to the states.

From there, we headed downhill and visited the Scottish Parliament. We actually got to sit in the viewing balcony as debates were taking place. Of the 80 or so seats, it seemed like only 20 were filled. They were discussing the health care of the elderly, so I can only imagine why people didn’t find that exciting enough to show up for it. They were very proper about the people observing, too. You were allowed to have a closed drink, but you weren’t allowed to drink it while someone was talking. You also weren’t supposed to get up and walk out while someone was talking. That was pretty cool to experience. Despite that fact that it seems very boring from the outside and really doesn’t concern me, I think I could have sat there for hours listening to the debates go on. But considering we had a deadline for the day, that would have been a pretty big waste to spend our last hours in Edinburgh doing that. So we trudged onward and uphill again. This time the hill we climbed was long and steep. Just when I thought my legs were going to break down and collapse under me, we reached the summit. Again, another spectacular view of Edinburgh, and plenty of photos to go with it. On one side, you had what looked like an old museum with some serious overgrowth around it and doors shut tight. On the other side you had a sort of monument with an ancient Roman look to it. I don’t know if it was, indeed, very old, or a re-creation of the Roman design. I don’t remember what the name of this place was, but it seemed like it wasn’t in use anymore, and was mostly just for people to do exactly what we did.

The walk down seemed much shorter… and likely was, as when we came down we were back on one of the hills en route to the castle, I think. We thought it would be a great idea to stop for a pint and give our legs a rest. We actually stopped at a bar called “the Black Bull”, where the opening scene from “Trainspotting” was filmed. We spent about half an hour in that bar and then moved along on to prince street and into the gardens where I got some more great photos. Spent a few minutes down there, and continued on for a final pub crawl. At our third pub, which was the same as the first pub we went to the night before, we grabbed a meal and thought it would be best to pick up our luggage and head towards the airport. We got to the airport with at least an hour to spare, stopped off at the bar and we all enjoyed a glass of scotch. On the big list of things to do that I’ve been checking items off from all week, I can also check “have scotch in Scotland.” We took a picture of us all, finished up our drinks, then parted ways. Alex and Niall showed us a great time and were very hospitable, and again, I can only hope that we get a chance to return the favor.

Joe and I made our way to our gate and 10 minutes before the plane was supposed to start boarding, it hadn’t shown up yet. There was no announcement of a delay or anything, and then an airport security guard came in to the lobby and said “Don’t Panic, but I need everyone to get up and move to the next lobby over”. Naturally, people don’t panic, but they do get a little frightened. After waiting with passengers from the only other flight left for the night, an announcement came on asking all the passengers of that flight to move to a different lobby. So again, naturally, our only instinct is to get more frightened. They kept us in the dark about what was going on, and it didn’t help for us to know that our plane hadn’t shown up yet. Bundled with the guards walking around chattering on their radios, and then two armed guards moving through the airport in full tactical gear and submachine guns, you don’t get a very good impression. An announcement came on that the other flight won’t be leaving, and that people can wait for their baggage to be unloaded or have it sent to their address. I GUESS this was good news, because it meant that our flight should be in the clear. However, it was 20 minutes past the time we were supposed to leave the airport and we still hadn’t seen our plane! They moved us back in to our original lobby and everything thing seemed to be in order now, and FINALLY, 35 minutes past our departure time, the plane shows up, has a speedy unloading and 10 minutes later, all the passengers are on board.

We were supposed to arrive at about 10 til midnight, but ended up getting off the plane around 10 till 1am. We had our baggage by 1 or so, and then it was time for us to figure out what the hell we were going to do. Our original plan was for us to grab a room at a local hotel and leave by bus in the morning, but the problem with that was the same with the cause of all the traffic we had before leaving Dublin. The Ryder Cup Golf Tournament was still going on, and there wasn’t a single room for miles available. A bus wouldn’t leave until 6am, and because of our excessively delayed flight, we couldn’t get the last one out of town, So we thought maybe we could rent a car and just catch some sleep in it before leaving, but the last rental car booth open closed up right in our face. Can’t blame them for wanting to get home, but talk about crappy. So our final option had been chosen for us. We now had to spend the next 4 or 5 hours in the airport until the bus terminals open up for passengers. I was tired, but I’d prefer to stay up and sleep to avoid the paranoia of someone lifting my laptop from right next to me, so Joe caught some Z’s and I just hung out trying to keep myself occupied. It’s one of those things that I never thought I would do, but at the same time it’s really cool to have the story to tell. Part of me just wished that there was a store or something open so I could grab a snack… soda… anything.

We could have done better on the getting up early thing. We weren’t on the road until a few minutes after 9. We made it to Dublin shortly after noon and our first stop was the Guinness Storehouse. It was pretty cool to see the process. They didn’t take you through the actual factory, which was a little bit of a bummer, but they did a good job of showing it in a recreated sort of manner. To set records straight, with the tour admission, you get about a pint and quarter of Guinness. You get a free pint at the end, and then in the middle of the tour, you get about a quarter pint when you are learning about Guinness taste-testing. Rather than expecting you to remember how to sample a Guinness, they just give you some right there to learn how. I guess if you were desperate, you could just keep grabbing the samples they put out and tossing them back, but I figure the guy pouring them might notice sooner or later. The lounge known as the “Gravity Bar” which is the last stop on the tour… where you get your free pint… offers a beautiful view on Dublin. We were fortunate enough to have it stop raining while we were up there and see a rainbow form over the city!

At this point it was already 4pm or so, seeing as most places closed at 5, we didn’t have many options on what we could do besides go and find a hotel. The problem lies in the fact that the Irish don’t label their roads very well, so except for major highways, we have no damn clue where we are going. It’s sort of the highlight of the trip where we spend 30 minutes figuring out where we are going to go, 30 minutes bitching about the fact that we don’t know where the hell to go, and then just settling for being pissed off that we wasted so much time getting there and crap.

We stopped at one hotel, but Joe wasn’t happy with the price, so we kept on moving, and as it stands, I’m typing this portion up a shitty Travel Lodge where nothing works right, and everything is about a cheap-assed as you can get. Personally, I’m really bummed because I wanted to stay inside the city when we got to Dublin so I could actually go out one night rather than spending a night in the hotel wishing I wasn’t spending my time in Ireland at a hotel. Whatever. Tomorrow Joe and I go to Scotland, so I’m sure I’ll get a night out there. It seems like everyone is just more excited to go to sleep than enjoy actually DOING something than go to castles.

I really just hoped that things would go smoothly tomorrow, and that good times would be had in Scotland.

We woke up around 8am, showered, and were on our way stuck in traffic by 8:30am. We made our way to Trinity College by 10am, which is about what we expected, and took an extra 15 minutes to find a place to park. Let me just say that car parks in the US (at least in Cincy) have it easy. This car park was so confusing and awkward, that we actually got lost on our way out by following the signs that said “exit”. Anyhow, when we got up the library housing the Book of Kels in Trinity College, we were greeted by a Guarda (police officer) who told us that we would have to come back around 11. The exhibit was supposed to open at 9:30, but he told us that some kings and queens were visiting and that it was not going to be open to the public until they were gone. He suggested a place to grab some coffee or something, so we went and browsed through a few of the shops and then had a cup of hot chocolate, which put us right up to 11 o’clock. The book itself was pretty cool, but because of the delay to get in, there was such a mass of people wanting to see it all at once. You could barely read the signs in the exhibit on the way to the Book of Kels. For those wondering, (and as I found out) the Book of Kels is basically one of the earliest copies of the Gospel, finely decorated for its time. It was written in, if I remember correctly, 600AD. The book itself, like most documents of its age, is behind a few inches of glass that have so many people crowded around it that it’s hard to get a good look.

After viewing the book, you are led to the “Long Room”… named this because it’s the longest room in Ireland (we saw the second longest at Kilkenny Castle earlier in the week). The Long Room is an old library, housing many old, first copy, and hand written books. Just walking into the room smells like old books… if you’ve ever been in a place where you may know that smell from, this is one of the defining places of that smell. It was wondrous. You couldn’t touch any of the books, as the shelves were roped off, but we were told that the students have access to the books under careful supervision. However, it’s not too often that a student has a legitimate reason to read them, partially because most of the information in them is now readily available on the internet, and because the majority of the books are written in latin, which most people don’t speak anymore, let alone read. It was yet another place where I wished I could take pictures just to show people how beautiful it is, but I guess people will have to settle for the descriptions and make some internet searching.

It was cool to see, but I don’t know if it was worth the price tag of roughly $15 for that short show. I’ll chalk it up on the list of things that it’s worth seeing once in your life, but never necessary to see again.

We left Trinity College, got lost in the car park, then got stuck in traffic to get out of the city, and got a little lost but consistently made our way towards the airport. To our surprise, once we got to the outer edge of the city, there was no traffic in our direction! Whoo! For once!! The Dublin airport was pretty much a parking mess, which was no surprise considering the rest of the city’s knack for being that way. It didn’t help one bit that the Ryder Cup, a huge golf tournament, was taking place that week. We got in, grabbed a bite to eat and then got our boarding passes. Joe and I parted ways with mom and dad, and then made our way to our gate. We only had to wait about 30 or 40 minutes before we were called to board.

We were flying Ryanair, which is the Irish equivalent of ValueJet or so. So on other airlines, you have the tunnel way out to the plane directly from the waiting lobby. Ryanair does things old school style. You walk out to the plane and up a stairway at either the front or the rear. Sounds strange, but it was actually kind of cool. Their flight attendants are also old-fashioned (… and mostly cute.) they wore classic skirts with matching blazers, came to certain points of the aisle way during the in-flight safety instructions and did the classic pointing out the exits and such… that again, was actually kinda cool. On the two Delta flights I’ve had so far, they just show everything on monitors that are easy to ignore.

The flight was quick. It seems like it took us about 10-15 minutes once we left the ground to get up to cruising altitude, and then we spent 15 minutes in the air before they gave the announcement that we were going to start our approach descent, which took another 10-15 minutes. The flight was fast and easy. I think waiting for the baggage claim took just as long as the flight did… haha. Conveniently, thanks to the whole European Union thing, we didn’t have to go through customs when coming from another EU country, so we bypassed all the lines and went right out once we got a hold of our baggage. … Even if we weren’t supposed to do that, no one stopped us, so whatever. haha.

Saturday we all woke up around 10am… even Mom and Dad… reigning king and queen of being up too damn early! We had a bite to eat then headed off towards Waterford in the Southwest of Ireland. One of the big things my mom wanted to do was to go see the Waterford Crystal factory. Supposedly regarded to be the best and clearest Crystal in the world. A lot of championship trophies are made by them, as well as the famous Times Square New Years Ball. This, among their wide array of vases, glasses, sculptures and other similar items. I have to admit, I wasn’t too excited to see this, but I figured it would be interesting nonetheless. Indeed it was. The first part of it was interesting to see and compare to the process of making iron. The crystal is kept in a furnace just slightly cooler (and cooler is probably not the word to use) than we pour iron at), and although I’ve seen iron flow like water, it was weird to see the molten crystal be played with like silly putty, then quickly cooled and hardened to be completely shiney. The glass then moved on into the various cutting areas where people with a decade of training cut the various patterns into the glass. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty cool to see, but in the end where they corral everyone into the store, I guess you have to be a female to appreciate this stuff. My brother and I were just kinda like “What the crap? Do… do we buy something… or uh… what?”… and my dad just sorta held things for my mom.

Afterwords, we stopped at a McDonald’s again and I hopped on the internet while everyone else decided where to go. The consensus was to go to Kilkenny Castle. It took a little while to get there, and once getting to Kilkenny, we didn’t have a damn clue where to go. At one point we were going down a narrow stretch of an alleyway wide enough for about a car and a half. We stopped to ask for directions twice and finally found our way. Kilkenny Castle was much, much different from Blarney Castle. Not only in the sheer size of it, but in the fact that it had been repaired, restored, and renovated through the years. This was definitely a castle in the sense of what the average American thinks of it as. Large rooms, well decorated with art and designed for royalty to be served in. One castle wall had been destroyed over the years and it had been opened up to a large, sweeping field that it seemed a lot of people were just spending the day in. Some playing games, some just socializing, and some just walking by enjoying the day, I suppose. They didn’t allow pictures inside and the only way to go through was in a guided tour, which was definitely interesting and informative, but I did manage to get some lovely pictures outside. By the time we got through the tour and on our way, it was going on 7pm… I think? It was hard to tell because the sky was a bit overcast. I remember they closed the castle up to visitors at 7, and it was looking pretty desolate on our way out.

We drove back as a little bit of rain started to hit and stopped in a town called Cashir to look for a place to eat around 8PM. We found a little restaurant that had a wide array of foods, from pizza, to pasta, from burgers to chicken… most importantly… it was open! One of the cool things about Ireland is that just about any place you can get food, you can get a beer. There was even beer at the cafeteria in Waterford Crystal! They totally pimp the Guinness, as one might expect. Just about every gift shop in any town has Guinness branded gifts. After our meal, we drove back to Aherlow house (where we were staying) and rested a little bit before walking up to their bar and having a few drinks. We talked to an older Irish couple of a little bit about some ideas on what to do tomorrow, and they suggested seeing the Castles in Cahir and Cashir. We drove by both of them yesterday, one on the way to Waterford, and one in the town we stopped at for a bite to eat on our way home, and figured that would be a cool idea. At the bar, I think Joe and I gave dad a good buzz. Cool! Even my mom had a little bit to drink. By 11pm or so, we were all bushed… perhaps too exhausted to drink more, and we walked back to the room. We watched a little TV and then I headed upstairs and started typing up a little bit of this before going to bed.

So yeah.

Sunday morning came and the Fields family all went to church in Tipperary. The church itself was actually similar looking to St. Cecelia, the church Joe and I have been going to in Cincinnati. Just not as colorful. The service itself was the same old service, just with thick Irish accents. It didn’t take all too long and we were back at Ahlerow House to grab a bite to eat before heading off to Cahir Castle.

Cahir Castle was more like Blarney castle, but a bit more kept up and less of a tourist hotspot… more of what someone thinks of when they hear “castle” too, although still primitive. We were free to roam this castle, which was fun. But there was a brief portion that was guided that just pointed out some of the history and features of the castle. I managed to get some good pictures of the town of Cahir from the tower, but I was hoping the skies were a bit more clear. I was actually afraid it was going to be a total mess once the tour started… the castle is mostly uncovered and it started sprinkling as we got started. It seems within minutes though, it stopped and the grey in the sky turned to white.

We enjoyed some time in the castle after the tour, then watched a short video on it, and after popping in a couple of shops, we left to go to Cashel. Cashel is HUGE. It’s pretty much a giant hill, with a wall at top, and an array of cathedrals and a couple other buildings on top. We explored pretty much the whole area, but then took the guided tour to learn more about it. We found out that it wasn’t actually a castle, but it was guarded by a wall to protect the higher ups of the church and the relics inside.

At this point I was a bit pooped of the castle thing, so I just wanted to go back and chill a little bit before dinner. We had reservations for the restaurant at Aherlow House. It was set up as a fancy dining sort of deal, but quite frankly, the Fields family isn’t that keen on proper etiquette and stuff, so we just went with the flow. For reference, if you ever see “black and white pudding” on a menu, it’s a sausage like meat. The black portion seems like the white… just burnt… or something. I was later informed that it is pretty much sausage, mostly byproducts of meat. The black pudding is black because it’s soaked in blood, which is where the irony-metallic taste I got come in. I couldn’t decide whether it was good or bad. It seems like in every Irish restaurant we go to, their menu is pretty much “choose a meat and we’ll take care of the rest”. Americans are spoiled with their menus. We have 4 page menus divided into what type of meal you want, and then about 4 or 5 different ways of doing it. In Ireland you order steak. In America, you can choose the size of the steak, what you want it cooked with, what you want on the side… no dice in Ireland. That, or I’m going to all the wrong places.

After dinner, nobody really wanted to do anything, so we just went back and watched “Mystic River” on TV and chilled for a bit. I think we were all in bed by about 11pm. We planned on getting Dublin tomorrow as soon as we could so we could do two things instead of just one (before everything starts closing down), so we thought it would be good to get to bed early and get up early.

I’M IN IRELAND!!!!

Yeah, that’s right. I’m not in the United States and you probably are. It’s awesome. It’s my first time out of the country. It’s mostly surreal. Like, I know I’m not in the USA, but I have to stop and think about that every so often. I guess the kicker is that is doesn’t seem TOO different from home. I mean, it’s a totally different lifestyle, but driving down most roads, you feel like you are driving through the backroads of Kentucky or something.

It’s mostly farmland, and you pass through a city every so often that isn’t but about a quarter mile strech of connected buildings, and then it’s right back to farmlands. It’s weird because their houses are about 20 feet at best from the roadways, and in America, any house right along a major roadway would be set back at least a hundred feet or something. Their roadways are very narrow, but so are the cars. The only SUVs on the road are ambulances. Their drivers are much better, too. They are so much more courteous and attentive to their driving. You can go to nearly any town and be told that there are only a few dozen traffic incidents with fatalities in the past few years or so. It shows, too. I don’t think I’ve seen a single car with any more than an occasional door ding or something. I haven’t seen one traffic accident, whereas on your normal American vacation, you’d hit at least one traffic jam on the part of a wreck just driving there. Instead of traffic lights, they have a lot of roundabouts. They are confusing the first couple of times, but really, once you get used to them, they seem so much more convienient than your average traffic light. For one, you don’t have to sit there staring off into the distance for 30 seconds if there is no oncoming traffic, and two, the people already in the roundabout have the right of way, so you never have to worry about that… which also eliminates people being asses and running redlights and such.

So I guess my goal here is to tell a bit about trip so far so that by the time I get home or to a place where I can type it all up at once, I haven’t forgotten the details. Then when I find internet access I can just post big chunks of it until I’m home and can post the final piece. Let’s start from the beginning. We got the airport super early, and security was about what I would have imagined. I guess because we were there at 11am in the middle of the week, the lines didn’t take so long. We were through in about 30 minutes, so we had to wait about 2 hours before we even thought about our flight being boarded. There was a Max & Erma’s in the airport so we grabbed lunch there then looked in some of the shops before going to our gate. The flight was fine. I guess I don’t have much to compare it to. For the first experience that I can remember, it wasn’t bad. I guess now I really see what people mean when they say that flights are cramped, though. I thought I’d have enough room to screw around on my latop, but I didn’t even have enough room to open the lid all the way! The I dozed off for about 10 minutes of the flight from Cincinnati (CVG) to Atlanta (ATL). Once we got to Atlanta, we had to move what seems like from one end of the airport to the other, and we really only had to wait about half an hour before they boarded our flight… but that also accounts for the fact that we had to taxi to an open gate, turn back and find a new one… twice, while coming in from CVG. I’m pretty sure we left the gate well before the time we were supposed to leave. I guess everyone was onboard and accounted for. It took us about 30 minutes to an hour of waiting on the runway before our flight could leave though, but I expected that after it took a while once we landed at Atlanta to get a gate to stop at.

The flight from the States over was alright. It felt a lot longer than the 7 hours or so it took. Quite possibly because again, it was very tight, and we left when it was light outside, and flew through the night and landed when it was light out… because of the time change it just seemed longer, I suppose. Oh, and the lady in front of me was a bitch. I managed to sleep what I think was an hour or so on this flight, although I wasn’t paying attention to a clock at all.

We arrived in Shannon, and stopped outside the airport at a McDonald’s to figure out where we wanted to go first and to get a quick snack and something to drink. It seems, so far, that McDonald’s is the only place in Ireland with free wireless internet. My observations have taught me that Ireland is somewhat behind the times when it comes to electrical innovation, but I guess you can chalk that up to it being very rural. In America, you can go to any minor city and find at least one place that has free wireless, and I imagine that in a few years, it will practically be a standard. I’m not really bummed out that I can’t get on the internet or something, I just wish that during downtime, or something I could pop on and say “hey” to people or read the news. We were all sort of jammed into a small European Chevy something-or-other… it was strikingly similar to a Ford Focus. Dad was sort of pissed because he had reserved a minvan and didn’t get it. I can see why, because getting our luggage in was a chore, and usually entailed some of it being on our laps.

So, from McDonald’s, we decided it would be best to tackle going to Blarney Castle. We couldn’t think of anything else in that area that we wanted to do, so being only a few miles away we thought we should go there and then call that part of the Island complete. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, and was actually quite fairweathered. (When we first got off the plane, it was pretty cold.) It took probably an hour or two to get from Shannon airport to Blarney. Even though it wasn’t me doing it, driving was an experience in itself, for the afformentioned reasons and many more. We made it to Blarney, paid the entrance fee to see the castle, and walked a beautiful trail to get to it. I snapped plenty of pictures even before we started ascending the castle. There were enough people in line to kiss the blarney stone that it took about an hour to get up the line to the top. The trip up was incredible. The castle, while many of the original portions don’t exist anymore, was an engineering marvel. Everything from a spirial staircase made entirely out of stone to the rain gutters up top that even had a spout to move the falling rainwash away from the castle to prevent erosion. Blarney castle in itself was actually quite small, and didn’t seem like it had the care given to it that other castles got. It mostly seemed like a tourist spot rather than a history lesson. Once you get up top, you are only a few minutes from kissing the Blarney Stone. Kissing it is kinda crazy. Most people know that you have to kiss is upside down, but most people DON’T know that you have to kiss it upside down because it’s akward location only allows for that. You actually have to hang over the edge of the castle where, thankfully, a couple of bars have been places to keep you from falling, bend backwards while laying on your back about a foot down, and learn towards it to kiss it. If they hadn’t also installed handrails to hold on to to help you bend backwards, then I think I would end up wedged in the safety bars. The actual term for this type of hole in a castle floor is called a “murder hole”. They are usually positioned directly above the front gate so that when intruders would come to break in, the residents of the castle could dump a number of things on them, usually hot oil, burning animal fat, or just plain ole’ rocks.

After descending the castle, we walked through the trails in blarney for a bit before we made our way to the exit. It was beautiful enough that I could have walked there all day, but we just didn’t have that kind of time. We were going to make our next stop at Cork to just meander around, but once we got there, we realized we didn’t know where anything was, so we kinda just kept going. In America, cities are planned in the way that you can say “go to this area for shopping and food” or such… but in Ireland, it seems like everything is just kinda wherever they can put it. Best I can tell, their streets really don’t have names, at least not well planned ones. All the places tourists go are marked at occasional intersections simply telling you in what direction to head. I guess it’s no wonder that you can really only find city maps for Dublin. So, after our short drive through Cork, we decided to go check into our lodging and figure out what we could do from there. We got about halfway through, got stuck in a traffic jam in one town, made the decision to go around and find another way after waiting 30 minutes, and once we got out we realized there was a traffic jam because that was the only bridge across a river in at least a dozen miles in either direction. So we turned around again, and started the line to make it across this bridge again… and an hour and half later, we got though it. The second we got on the other side of the river, traffic was clear as day, and there was a line of cars stuck in the opposite direction. From the jam, it took us about 45 more minutes to get to our lodging, in a place called the Glen of Aherlow, just outside the town on Tipperary. This put us at about 4:30 local time.

I fell asleep after watching TV for a little bit. Mom and Dad snuck out at some point and made their way to a grocery store to get some food for breakfast and some snacks… for snacking. Mom woke me up around 7:30 to go out to grab some dinner, but it took us until about 8:30 to find a place that served food that late. Most of the pubs will stop serving food around 3pm. Doesn’t work out too well for tourists, but whatever. I guess the average Irish family just expects a home cooked meal every night. We managed to find a small pub that was still serving food, and enjoyed a couple of beers and some hurling (field hockey) during our meal. Once again, we went back to our lodging and crashed.