June 2008 in Ireland

Carrie K · Veteran Member

June 2008 in Ireland

Sidz · Guru

Thanks for sharing the story and pictures. Great images of Ireland. One question? Did you enjoy Heaton's in Dingle? Have often thought about staying there but have yet to choose that place. Sounds like it gets good reviews from most who go there.

Sidz

Carrie K · Veteran Member

Thanks, Sidz! Heatons - it was nice, comfy, quiet, nice view of the water. I'd say it might be my 2nd favorite place we stayed. It's funny though, when Susan Daly at Daly's House found out we were staying there, she said, "Oh, it's so nice! You'll think my B&B is nothing compared to Heaton's!" But Daly's was our absolute favorite place we stayed, and Heaton's just paled in comparison.

Okay, on to Galway!

Saturday, June 21st, we checked out of Trinity and cabbed it to the airport. The cab driver was awesome, I loved him. Only Irish person I got to talk to who called people "eejit" and talked about doing thinks for the craic of it. I would have loved to spend a day with him, he was such a nice guy.

Got to the airport, got our rental car (Hertz), and hit the road, my husband driving. He picked up the left side driving pretty quickly and still misses it now. We headed to Galway, taking a short break to go see Moydrum Castle.

Moydrum Castle is castle ruins on private property, known for being the backdrop of the cover photo on U2's The Unforgettable Fire. You aren't supposed to climb the fence around it, and U2 didn't even ask permission to use it, they just hopped the fence, took photos, and left. My friend's husband wanted to see it, so I did research to find directions. It's back some country roads, right in the middle of houses and trees and farmland, pretty funny. Driving to it, you'd have no idea what you were about to come across.

We got there and did not hop the fence like U2 did, choosing to respect the private property signs. It's really beautiful. There was no sign of a house or the landowner, but he apparently keeps his horses there! One of the horses came over to see us. He was gorgeous, and so friendly. I imagine he sees a fair share of U2 fans who make the pilgrimage to the castle. We hung around a little while, taking a lot more pictures and feeding the horse grass. Then we climbed back in the car and headed to Galway, stopping at a Supermac for lunch. Supermac is a fast food chain, kind of odd, not as good a hamburger as American chains, but they had curry fries (not as good as pub curry fries though). We were hungry and it fed us, but I don't think I would ever go back.

When we hit the outskirts of the city, we got stuck in traffic for over an hour. Turns out there was a Westlife concert that night in Galway. Along with that, we were surrounded by an awful smell. I think part of it was people killing their clutches in the stop-n-go traffic, but there was something else outside the car that was just terrible. I had started to come down with my cold that day, and the bad smell made me nauseous, and the traffic made me cranky - I was NOT in a good place. I started to think about how my friend said before we left for the trip that her parents LOVED Galway, and all I could think is WHY? It smells and the traffic sucks. (We didn't know the reason for the traffic yet.)

Anyways, we finally find the Jury's Inn, which I picked for lack of any real interest in doing much Galway research. (I have to admit, I think I started out the trip without much interest in Galway. Nothing I read about the city really interested me, and I only wanted to go there to see things outside of the city, such as Connnemara, which ended up not fitting into our schedule due to the way seeing my friend's family worked out. But everything that happened there fed my lack of interest and bad attitude.) The parking garage was tall and tight and and difficult to drive in.

We get into the hotel to check in, where we learn about the concert, and I'm told that because I made my reservations "so late" (I made them March 4th, which doesn't seem late to me for a June 21st check in) all they have are smoking rooms left. They claim they tried to contact me but couldn't reach me. I don't buy this. Of course, they wouldn't have been able to contact me in Ireland, I didn't give them a contact number. But I never received any emails, nor did I have any messages on my cell or home phone when I returned. By then, I was ready for a meltdown and headed to my smoky room to cry. My husband left me alone for a while to chill out, and when he returned, he had a candle for the room, a bottle of wine, and ice. Which helped. A little. He also came back with what appeared to be Ireland's version of Theraflu, only it didn't have much actual medication in it, so it didn't do much for me.

The one good thing about the hotel was the location. It was down by the water, overlooking the Spanish Arch and the park and water. (This turned out to be not so good later.)

Once I'd decompressed, we all decided to head out to walk around. We got one or two restaurants down from the hotel before the skies opened up and it began to POUR. It was really bucketing, so we ran back to the hotel. We were SOAKED by the time we got back. So we changed into dry clothes and headed to the hotel bar to eat some bar munchies and have drinks. Once it seemed to stop raining a bit, we tried to walk around some more. It was still raining but not as hard. We passed by a Murphy's Pub and since you can't pass a bar with your name on it, we headed in for some drinks. (My maiden name is Murphy.) We were all damp from walking around though, and just decided to head back to the hotel pretty quickly. The guys picked up some drinks in a store, and we hung out in our room, watching football and playing cards.

We later learned the the rain that night was record breaking. The street across from Jury's flooded at one point and we saw a truck come by to suck water away.

Eventually, we tried to go to bed. Notice I say tried. This is when our hotel location and room view went sour. The hotel seemed to be at a corner of a lot of foot traffic, and all night, there were tons of people congregating outside, having loud drunken conversations. (We were on the 5th floor, you'd think it wouldn't get a lot of street noise.) Our room was really warm and we needed the windows open to be comfortable at all, thus we couldn't do much about the noise, and I didn't get much sleep. Not good when you are sick.

Sunday, June 22nd: Anyways, so the next day we get up and head out of Galway to meet my girlfriend's dad's cousins for lunch. We ate at a cute little restaurant - Ellie McGuires. The cousins are an older couple, kids are all our age. They had met my friend's parents but never my friend. We sat and talked for a while, and then she took us for a tour. She took us to a graveyard where several of my friend's relatives are buried. It's a graveyard with old graves but still has family plots so some of the graves are new. I think it was near Claremorris but I'm really not sure.

Then we headed to my friend's grandmother's childhood home. It's a tiny house where her grandmother grew up, one of 8 kids in a 2 bedroom home smaller than anything any of us own, located in Kiltimagh.

The house is still owned by the family. No one lives there full time, but they all go there for various things. Much of the house has not been updated since they probably first installed electricity, phone lines, etc. We prowled around a bit, met the cows in the back yard, and the cousin fixed us tea. (We'd also all had tea at the restaurant, so this was our 2nd tea of the day.) She also had yummy cookies to go with the tea and we all sat around and chatted.

Then we left there and headed back to her own house, where she insisted we stayed for more tea. One of her sons got up (he'd been out late the night before I guess) and had tea with all of us, along with some yummy pie.

When we left them, we headed back to Galway and all crashed for a while. (At this point, two of us I had colds.) Then we headed out to walk around and find some dinner. We finally just picked a pub and went in, since everything was starting to just sound the same. I was craving pasta, so I ordered a chicken and pasta dish that listed scallions as one of the ingredients on the menu. I don't like scallions (I hate all onions) but figured they'd be easy to pick out. Well, the menu failed to mention that scallions were just 1 of the different onions in the dish. It was honestly like a plate of onions with pasta, chicken and cream sauce added in. There were thin stringy onions and big think pieces of onions. I sat there for a long time picking things out and ate some, but lost my appetite before eating much of it. Up until this point, all the food we'd had was DELICIOUS, but this just was disappointing, especially since the menu did list all the other ingredients of the dish, just not the non-scallion onions. I was tired and probably should havbe complained, but I hate to do that. So we headed to the hotel, taking a walk down by the water first, which was nice.

(Side note - I was surprised by the amount of onions I came across in Irish food. I thought we'd see lots of potatoes, but I saw many more onions than I did potatoes, which was odd. Onion-haters - be aware of what you order!)

I hoped that it being Sunday night, there would be less noise, but nope. Lots of drunken young men decided to hang out in the park next to the Spanish Arch and yell at people passing all night. So, another night in Galway and no sleep.

Monday, June 23rd: The next morning, we got up and walked around, grabbing some pastries for breakfast. The streets were full of cars and trucks making deliveries and taking away the empty kegs from the weekend. We did a lot of shopping. Galway is where the claddaugh ring originally comes from, so I bought my mom a necklace, and ended up picking out a new wedding band for myself. We had nice weather that day, and I could see the possible appeal of Galway. But I was definitely ready to head out.

If I were to ever return to the area, I'd honestly probably stay outside of Galway. Some place quieter. The city population seems to be really young, a college town. And the noise level and types of noise went along with that. I don't consider myself old or a sensitive sleeper at all, but this was like being in a hotel in the middle of a frat house row in a college town or something. I've been considering writing a letter to Jury's to complain about the stay, even if I don't get anything out of it, but I don't know if too much time has passed to even have them care.

Besides the shopping, there wasn't much else to do in the city, but there's a lot outside of the city. My friends had wanted to stay in the city so we could easily walk, but if I ever go back, I'll definitely be outside in one of Michele's recommended B&Bs.

After we finished shopping. we hit the road and made a short drive to Doolin, near the Cliffs of Moher, which was my #1 must see. Which will come in the next post!

Thank you for following along! Galway set of photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28334284@N05/sets/72157606546885828/

Jury's review: As I stated before, it was pretty disappointing. The front desk service was poor and pretty rude, we were given smoking rooms despite the request for non-smoking rooms and offered no apology or compensation. The parking garage is TIGHT but it was parking. The location is great if you want to be near pubs, restaurants, and shopping. I didn't seen anything else close-by. The view is great, but had serious disadvantages at night. The rooms were warm, even with a fan. The bed was okay. Bathrooms were okay - not bad but not as clean as every other bathroom we stayed in. We did not eat in the restaurant, but their bar is decent, good food. But I will never spend money in a Jury's again. I'll sleep in the park where I can at least go kick the drunken fools myself.

Hertz rental review: We went with Hertz because their price was actually one of the lowest we found, gave us a good sized car, and the gentlemen drivers were prone to go with a company they were familiar with. (Since they were driving, I let them have the opinions.) I believe we had an Opel Zafira - manual. I know everyone says to get the smallest car possible, but I had a feeling we'd need luggage room. The Zafira had 3 rows of seats, but we folded the back row down and had plenty of luggage room (which we did fill up by the end of the trip between lazy packing and purchases. It seems like it would be a minvan, but it's still smaller than a minivan, definitely smaller than my station wagon. The guys had no problems with it on any of the smaller roads. We never needed any Hertz assistance, so I can't vouch for it, but the price was as promised, the car worked, so we were happy. I'd rent from them again.

-- Edited by Carrie K at 23:37, 2008-08-05

-- Edited by Carrie K at 23:42, 2008-08-05

Carrie K · Veteran Member

By the way, I hope no one reads my report and views it as a reason to not go to Galway or thinks I am trying to stop someone from wanting to go. I think a lot of my negative experience boils down to bad timing of a cold and a bad hotel. I do hope my report prevents anyone from staying at Jury's Inn! :) I loved the rest of Ireland so I promise nothing else will be so negative.

Sidz · Guru

Have also stayed at Daly's, her place is certainly fine and she makes it real nice because of her personality. Also key to be so close down the hill to Gus O'Conner's Pub. biggrin

I'm not a great fan of Galway for one reason -- there is no place to park. It has made me wacked out a couple of different times, so I try to avoid it unless I'm taking a bus there. There are some wonderful things to see there, but having a car as part of the experience is not easilly done.

-- Edited by Sidz at 12:02, 2008-08-06

Michele Erdvig · Host

Carrie,

Thanks for posting your trip report. It is never too late! We always enjoy hearing how other people's trips went. Each trip is unique. Sorry to hear you got sick while there. I have had the same experience on several occasions and it does color your memories.

Galway used to be my favorite city in Ireland many decades ago when it was small. Now it is too big and busy, with (as Sidz said) difficult parking. I prefer to be a bit out of town in Salthill where it is quieter. Guess I am a country gal at heart.

Nice photo of you having a pint of cider!

Michele

Carrie K · Veteran Member

Thank you, Michele and Sidz! I would like to go back to the area one day again, but definitely will stay in the Salthill area since you like it so much, Michele.

Okay, on to my Doolin report!

So, on Monday, June 23rd, we left Galway and headed to Doolin. We went on several twisty roads on the way there, and my husband LOVED driving them. He truly loved driving in Ireland.

The B&B I picked for Doolin was Daly's House. Once I had narrowed down to a few based on reviews, I picked that one because they had a picture of George the dog on their website. I mentioned that in my emails to Susan, who runs it, and she said, "Well, you'll love our George!" So I was excited to meet him. So cute! And such a sweet dog! I was a big fan of George. Susan was out when we arrived, so her husband showed us to our rooms. (He was very nice.) Daly's has 2 buildings. One is the main house, where some rooms and the dining room is located. (I imagine the Daly family lives there, too.) The other building is next door, with its own parking lot. It has a sitting room and several (maybe 6?) rooms, all on one floor. Our room faced the front of the building, and the only thing across the road was a field with some cows with cute shaggy hair-dos. Very relaxing and enjoyable. The rooms themselves were relaxing and homey, with a decent sized bathroom. (My friends had a bathroom that was HUGE in their room down the hall.)

After we checked in, we headed to take the Cliffs of Moher ferry. I'd heard that it was worth it to see the cliffs both from above and below. So glad I listened! The boat trip was about an hour or so, and took us down along part of the cliffs and back. At one point, they turned the boat motor off and played a recording that talked about the cliffs, but I couldn't hear it very well outside of the boat. I didn't find the parts that I heard necessary if you've done any reading and research about the cliffs ahead of time, but it sounded very interesting and informative if you didn't know much. We went by the tower where all the puffins hang out, which was very cool. So many puffins! I took a couple hundred pictures on the boat ride, which was me being a bit overzealous, but I was glad I had the space on my camera. It's amazing that in all those pictures, not a one did the cliffs justice. But I still love looking at my pictures.

Then we headed to the tops of the cliffs. I was really glad I got to get both views. Standing at the top was breath taking with how high and gorgeous they are. By the time we arrived, things were starting to close so I didn't get to see any of the shops or exhibits inside, so I don't know if I missed out on anything.

After we saw the Cliffs, we went back to Daly's to relax a bit, and Susan came down to say hi. We all sat in her sitting room chatting for a while. She was just the sweetest, funniest lady! So full of stories, and after every one, she'd say, "And that's a true story!" She was what I dreamed a B&B owner would be like - warm and personable without being overbearing or pushy.

After that, we went out to dinner at Cullinan's. It was good, but not any of our favorite meal of the trip.

We then went to Gus O'Connors to listen to music, which was good. We couldn't sit in the room they were playing in as it was full, but it was nice to listen and talk at the same time. Eventually we headed home and went to bed.

The breakfast in the B&B the next morning was DELICIOUS. We loved it, our favorite. Susan was just delightful, and we said good-bye to her and George, stopped in the music shop down the street from O'Connors and hit the road for Dingle!

Thank you for reading! Doolin photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28334284@N05/sets/72157606551256501/

-- Edited by Carrie K at 14:55, 2008-08-24

-- Edited by Carrie K at 15:51, 2008-08-24

Carrie K · Veteran Member

I'm on a roll and thought I'd post my Dingle part today, too!

Tuesday, June 24th, we left Doolin for Dingle (my favorite place). It was a long drive, but enjoyable. We took a car ferry, which was cold but fun. We also drove through some more mountainy areas, which was when I saw the Ireland I dreamed of, with the green fields that look like quilt blocks. At one point, driving through one of the towns, we drove by a foal just running free through the streets, no site of anyone with it, and no one in the town seemed to think it was unusual. I'm nuts about animals, so this was pretty cool. (It didn't seem to be in any danger or anything to worry about.)

We arrived in Dingle and drove to our place - Heaton's Guesthouse, which overlooks the water. It's not in the center of town, but I'm sure we could have walked in if we weren't feeling a little lazy during this part of the trip. Heaton's is very nice, which a sitting room/lobby area with a guest laptop. There's a bookshelf of books by the stairs, which I ended up leaving some books to lighten my load a bit. The rooms were nice and comfy and bright, and the bathrooms were clean and inviting. We were very happy with Heaton's.

My friends wanted naps, so they crashed and my husband and I drove into town to check it out. We ended up at the Marina Inn, where we had steamed mussels, chips, and drinks. The mussels were to die for! Probably my favorite thing I ate the whole trip. We were such happy pigs, we actually had 2 orders of them!

Then we walked around, where a car towing a trailer of sheep drove by, with the sheep baa-ing, which I loved!

Then we headed back, got our friends, and went back into the main area of town. We ate dinner and had drinks at Murphy's Pub, and then went back to our B&B to crash for the evening.

Wednesday, we had breakfast at Heaton's, which was delicious, and then shopped a bit downtown before heading out to drive the Slea Head Loop. I had purchased the Rick Steve's book specifically to use as a guide for the drive. I'd read more than once that it was the one useful part. I'm glad I did, because not everything we saw was marked enough that we would have stopped without the book mentioning it. But I would be interested to find another guide to use whenever we go back as a comparison.

I fell in love with the scenery on the loop. I want to know if the people who live along there get used to how gorgeous it is, or if they still come outside every day and appreciate the view. We stopped a lot along the drive, sometimes at just random places to enjoy the view, sometimes to see some animals, and sometimes at specific things. We visited some beehive huts, which were interesting. We visited the Great Blasket Center, which is a museum about the Blasket Islands, which are off the coast of Dingle. People used to live there, although it was more of a rough life, but 50 years or so, the government made them all leave and move onto the mainland. We all left the museum wondering why exactly they were made to leave. We watched the film about it, but unless the reason was just that the living there was a bit more basic than elsewhere, we still weren't exactly sure why they couldn't stay there if they wanted to. You can take a boat to visit the islands themselves, but my friends didn't want to.

We then visited the Gallus oratory, which is supposed to be one of the oldest standing Christian churches in Ireland. It is worth stopping to see. We were able to find the rumored free parking with no problem, thanks to a post I saw on Trip Advisor where a local had taken pictures to help. I did experience some frustration when I tried to get out of the church while bunches and bunches of French tourists kept piling in. Just when I thought they were all through, someone would jump in front of me to hurry their friends inside. Soon, I was packed in there with at least 25 people, and my mind blanked on my high school French. I didn't want to be rude, so it took a bit to work my way out! When I got out, my friend informed me that she had seen one of the French gentlemen drop his pants and pee on the wall around the church, which left us all a bit shocked. Maybe it's his own way of marking where he's been? Who knows!

We then visited the Reask monastery site, which are the remains of a 6th century monastery. It's just the stone outlines of what once were walls, about 2 feet high. It was very quiet and peaceful there, it seemed to either not be as known, or just not be a tour bus stop. But I was glad we stopped.

After that, we drove on to the Kilmalkedar Church, which was another place I was glad we stopped. It contains an interesting mix of old and new gravestones, and the church itself is very cool to prowl around in. There's also an ogham stone - a tall stone with a hole through it. I had read that people believe that if you come here with someone that you are making a promise to or with, and each of you sticks your thumbs through while you promise, it's a solemn promise because you are standing on the graves of ancestors. People often renew their vows with it. So my husband and I stuck our thumbs through and did an unofficial vow renewal.

We then headed back into Dingle and wandered around a bit more. I visited the library (as a librarian, it's always exciting to see the local library), my husband bought a new wedding band. Then we took naps.

That evening, we went back to the Marina Inn for dinner. One of the big soccer games was on that night, so one of my friends went back to crash, and the 3 of us stayed and drank and played cards, watching the game. It involved the German team, and there was a group of Germans in the bar, so that made the game a lot of fun, especially when the German team won! After the game, a group played music and they were AWESOME. The singer was Pauline Scanlon, and we ended up buying 2 of her cds. She's young and really talented. Sings some traditional Irish music, along with other stuff - really good.

The next morning, we had breakfast at Heaton's, checked out (sadly) and headed to Killarney!

My Flickr set from Dingle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28334284@N05/sets/72157606552509537/

Maggie117 · Guru

Carrie, Your post was fun to read. As Michele said, I'm also sorry to hear you and your traveling friends got ill. I'll be heading to Ireland with my parents this fall (Sept. 29 - Oct. 16). (My dear husband is staying home with our two labs. One is epileptic and needs constant care.)

I'm so excited for my trip and reading about yours and others is so much fun. Thanks for posting!

Maggie

Michele Erdvig · Host

Carrie,

Very informative. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the boat ride to see the cliffs. It puts a different perspective on things. Was the sea very rough? Sounds like a very fun time.

Michele

Sidz · Guru

Carrie:

Was wondering how much it was to take the Cliffs of Moher ferry? I have seen the cliffs, but never in that manner.

Thanks.

Sidz

Carrie K · Veteran Member

While it sucked to get sick (for lack of better words), we pretty much managed to power through after the first few days, once we found a decent pharmacy. (I think that added to my dislike of Galway - the pharmacist we found there didn't really help at all, but the one we found in Dingle was WONDERFUL.) I did end up seeing a doctor (which will come in the Killarney report) but the beginnings of the colds were the worst.

BTW, Maggie, I'm sorry to hear about your labs. I'm a fellow dog lover, and know how hard it can be when the pups are ill, whether it's a short term or long term affliction. While it must be not your perfect wish to travel without your husband, it's great that he can take care of the dogs and not leave them to someone who might not have their best interests in mind.

Michele, the sea wasn't rough at all. I didn't see anyone on the boat feeling any sea sickness. It was a VERY nice day, which might have had some affect on it.

Sidz, I believe we paid 20 euros a person for the boat at http://www.cliffs-of-moher-cruises.com/cliffsofmoher.html but if we had gotten it together enough to book ahead of time, it's half that price on-line. So we suffered for being lazy and wishy-washy.

Michele Erdvig · Host

Carrie,

Thanks for the additional info about the cruise. The only problem with booking ahead is you don't know what the weather will be. I would only want to take a boat cruise on a nice day.

Michele