Posts: 20
(3/21/04 9:39 am)

Another trip report....

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Ok, beware first of all. I made this journal on my palm pilot while experiencing it. There are some grammatical errors and some harsh language (as my mom says, but I am still a bit young... hopefully I will grow out of it) but I am posting it as is. I regularly keep a journal online and Ive posted it there. But I will just cut and paste it here. Enjoy. Again, sorry if I offend ANYONE with my sometimes harsh language.

THURSDAY, MARCH 11th
today we arrived......IN DUBLIN!!! not shannon. the wind gusts were up to 40mph so we couldnt land. we were supposed to arrive @620am. now we are sitting here in dublin waiting on our plane to arrive and it's 935am. will hopefully still have a car rental reserved. write more later, plane has arrived.

12:30pm:
We still had car rental, a 2004 Peugeot 307 4door hatch.

I got my butt chewed by an elderly, irate irishman cuz we were on this narrow road made for one car and he came around this corner fast, and I freaked out and follwed my instincts and went RIGHT instead of left as they do here. OOPS.

We drove all the way up to Gort before finally decided we had enough time to venture out to the Cliffs of Moher. OH MY GOD!!! I dont think I have ever experienced winds that cold and chaffing. Just imagine 40mph winds when it is only 40 degrees outside, right next to the ocean. I now have perma chapped lips!!! We finally arrived in Galway and we drove round & round trying to find our little B&B... we just kept turning back and forth thinking we had passed it.... when it was just another 2 miles up the road. It is confusing as hell cuz the Irish don't use street signs. "just up the street, take a left after the third roundabout, then a right and its up on the left" is their directions.

Achill Lodge is a wonderful b&b in Upper Salthill. Gorgeous rooms, tasty breakfast (still have not tried blood pudding), clean and wonderful host/s. We stayed there for two nights (march 11th&12th). On the 12th, when my mom had dialysis, i proceeded to get myself lost for an hour only to stumble upon the Spanish Arch, an ENORMOUS outside shopping center full of pubs and litte gift shops, very quaint. We ate chinese for dinner, and the irish should just stick to their potatoes. HAHA!!

SATURDAY ,MARCH 13th:
We ate our wonderful breakfast at Achill Lodge then set out on our way for Sligo. But we stopped @ the Galway airport cuz our rental car started making a funny noise... the very nice elderly man there came outside, drove it around and told us that it wasnt anything we needed to worry about. then he validated our parking ticket and sent us on our way. We got to Sligo and were not very impressed, it was busy and crowded so we decided to continue North onto Donegal. We first stopped in Ballyshannon to eat at this pub named, Finn MacCool’s , where I had my first Irish stew (lamb, potato & carrots) and my first pint of "Irish beer" .. Harp. Now we are sitting here @ Milton House in Donegal and we are not impressed ... they have SEVERAL children and they have been playing loudly for the past hour and @ this b&b they dont give you a key to the front door.... so we sorta feel trapped. i guess we are gonna go try to smoke outside..... write more later.

SUNDAY, MARCH 14:
Breakfast was really good, even though the beds and shower sucked ass!!! We met a very nice couple from New Zealand along with their 1year old son, Liam. They were staying in Ireland for 2 weeks, and already spent 2 days in Singapore. They said they travel alot, but I bet it's rough with a one year old. Anyway, ventured more north to the Glens of Antrim (glenariff forest park)..which were beautiful by the way. Arrived in Belfast.

FRUSTRATED!!!!!!! Could not remember last time I felt this mind boggled. I had NO idea this city was so ****in' huge. It pisses me off that each street changes it's name every 2nd block down. Lisburn Rd. is Dublin St. which is also some other name...all within 1 friggin mile. Anyway between trying to get my bearings and trying to find our way out of being lost... we stumbled upon our B&B, Keef Halla. I love it. Except for the crazy kids above us. 2 huge queen size beds, telephone (this was the first one that has had one).... and a huge bathroom w/ bathtub and a shower. Fancy schmancy. We asked the owners of the b&b if they knew any good place to eat and the recommended a pub named, McGeown's in Glenavy (the next town over) it was so good but it was expensive.... £30. Which converts to $55......going to go to sleep now. write more tomorrow.

MONDAY, March 15th:
the b&b is sooooo nice. the breakfasts are the best we have had yet. the hosts are the friendliest. Today we drove around the city of Belfast FOREVER. Around and around...for like 2 or more hours. The people are a bit rude, but I'm used to rude people in Texas. Dropped mom off @ dialysis around 12noon, and then went back into the centre to park. Walked around the Donegall Sq. shopping center, found a little phone kiosk and emailed Jason from their internet there.... I miss him terribly. I went back inside the "in shops" and found a tattoo place and asked them if they could do any work on me.... well they were really rude,and I could here them laughing about me or something, then told me they couldnt do it. I just walked out....and thought 'how rude'. Found a music store, HVM, and bought a Stiff Little Fingers cd. Then went into the post office store and spent £8.40 on stamps. Went back to the car and printed out some more photos for my postcards and mailed like 12 of them. Picked up mom, drove around for close to an hour trying to find the damn Hard Rock Cafe in Belfast. Finally found it (we had drivin by it like 2 times, as it was in a shopping center) the food was average at best. Got lost again trying to get back to b&b, due to the 3 names every street has. sleepy time.

TUESDAY, March 16th:
Again, wonderful breakfast. Still no black or white pudding. Got on our merry way for a 6 hour drive from Belfast to Limerick. The weather here is much like Florida minus the humidity. It rains almost everyday for like 20 minutes at a time, then the sky will get very blue and clear… then about an hour or so later it’s cloudy and dark again. But this little island called Ireland is only as big as West Virginia. I am used to long treks across Texas. We decided that the best way to go would be to avoid Dublin at all costs. So we took the very scenic route…. Belfast to Dundalk, then to Mullingar, to Tullamore through Birr and Nenagh then finally Limerick. Such beautiful scenery, I couldn’t ask for anything more. We found our B&B easily along the N18 in Bunratty off the Low Road near Bunratty Castle, Ashgrove House. The hosts, Frank and Sheila were the nicest people we had come across. Frank opened the door and before I could get a word out, he asked us “how do I look?”. He had a knee pad on one leg and his pants tucked into his socks. I told him he looked beautiful and he invited us in to sit by the peat fire. Sheila came in and asked us if we would like a coffee with Bailey’s. I nodded. It was so good. We sat in the living area with another mother/daughter team from Nova Scotia. We all talked for close to 2 hours until my mom’s hunger overpowered her and we had to get something to eat. We asked what was good, and Frank said that the “Creamery” up the road was decently priced, so that’s where we went. It was ‘ok’ … prices were good (and we were very happy to be back in the € instead of the £) but the food was moderate. We had just sat down, when 2 older women decided to just seat themselves at our table. They were from Nebraska. Don’t remember their names, but they were a hoot. I had another try at the “Irish Stew”, but this place did not make a very good go at it. Anyway, I had 2 pints and then we left…. Sleepy now. Goodnight.




WEDNESDAY, March 17th:
Today is St. Patrick’s day…. In IRELAND. Yay. But, as we found out later on… this is a bank holiday. Meaning that EVERYTHING is closed. All except the souvenir shop across the way from where we are staying. We ventured out around 930am, and stopped off at the Blarney Wollen Mills shoppes in Bunratty. Spent entirely too long there. And entirely too much money. It was around 945/10am and there were maybe 10 people in the huge store when all of a sudden I saw this huge bus pull up in the parking lot and like 100 teenagers got off. Oh boy. Come to find out, they were the rudest French kids. Mostly girls. Beautiful, but rude. We went upstairs to enjoy some coffee and a few smokes. Then decided around noon that we should take a trip into Limerick to see what it was all about. We had planned on seeing King John’s Castle and the Hunt museum… but when we got into the city, the parade had just ended. We were never aware of the time the parade was to start, I had 3pm stuck in my brain for some reason. We missed it.  Oh well, we saw all the people with their kilts and Irish flags and the kids with their faces painted. It was cool. Well, we couldn’t find any parking because a lot of the streets were closed off to cars. And my mom decided that walking around the city would be too much for her. UGH. We discussed many times how for a person who cant walk fast and cant walk long distances… she was in the wrong country. Anyway, so then we proceeded to drive around (that where we spent most of our time) the city looking for a tattoo shop and an internet café. We couldn’t find either, so we just decided to try to find the hospital that my mom had dialysis at. We *finally* found it. Then of course my mother was hungry. The breakfasts in Ireland just keep me full for hours and hours, and I usually don’t get hungry until around 3 or 4pm. Anyway, across the street from the hospital was Scrummie’s Bistro, so that’s where we went. I wasn’t hungry yet so I just had a coffee and a cheesecake (so, I was a tad bit hungry.. haha). Asked them for a phone book to look up tattoo places and internet café listings. Wrote down addresses and numbers then drove off in search. Needless to say…. EVERYTHING was closed. There were tons of people walking around, but it was just for all the pubs. Nothing else was open. Drove back to the hospital and dropped mom off then headed back to B&B. I walked into the living area and there were new people there. Had an Irish coffee with Jameson Whiskey in it…. Boy was it potent. Talked to this older couple from Florida for close to 2 hours then they headed off to the Bunratty Castle banquet. Now Im off to pick mom up from dialysis. It’s 9pm.

THURSDAY, March 18th:
Im on the plane flying back home. BOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had such a wonderful time. Mom spent over €100 at the airport on crap. We got to the airport around 1030am, our flight didn’t start boarding until 1230. So we sat around in the upstairs cafeteria and had coffee and such. Now I’m sitting on the plane waiting for this 7 hour plane ride to end. We still have 5 more to go…. Lunch is here. Lunch was really good, plane food is getting better. The movie is about to begin… “Somethings gotta give” with Jack Nicholson.

UGH!!!! Boston airport sucks major ass. Mom spent some more money on the plane and bought an Aer Lingus bag. Our plane landed and we were told that we had to pick up our baggage and re-check it through customs. We waited for our bags for almost 45 minutes. Finally we got everything situated and it was around 415, our flight to DFW was to leave at 515. We got some coffee and got to our gate… to see that our flight had been delayed until 535pm. We finally took off at 6:15. Arrived in Dallas after 9pm and got to our gate almost like 20 minutes later. Now Im home, and off to bed. Been up since 1am Dallas time and it is now almost 1am again. 24 hours of traveling. Gotta love it.

So, Im planning another trip already. Just got to find the money.


Also, I have posted the pictures that I took from the trip on my picture page. all are welcome.
public.fotki.com/txdevil/ireland/emerald_isle_2004/

Edited by: TxDevil at: 3/21/04 9:45 am


Scorpio044
Unregistered User
(3/21/04 8:09 pm)

Our first hour driving in Ireland

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I have to add further comment on Shawn getting chewed out by the elderly Irishman...Right after Shawn pulled over to the "right" side of the road, this 70ish man pulled his van over and immediately got out and came over to the driver's side. He was quite irate and was yelling at Shawn. Being there not quite an hour, I was not accustomed to the thick Irish brogue. I could barley understand what he was saying...I just know he was quite upset. Shawn kept apologizing as we sat there. He kept saying he wanted to call the police. My daughter kept saying to him, we didn't need to call the police as no accident had happened and that she was truly very sorry. He went back towards his van and Shawn & I looked at one another and decided to drive off. No harm was done, other than probably scaring this man out of his mind, as this was a small country road which is wide enough for 1 1/2 cars. We kept looking behind us as we drove off, thinking he might follow us. But he didn't. What an experience!

twanda49
Unregistered User
(3/23/04 11:47 pm)

Fun report!

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Thanks so much for the great report! And the pictures are wonderful. I can't believe that you got this posted so quickly! It sounds like you had a wonderful time.
Marsha

Michele Erdvig
ezOP
Posts: 2351
(3/24/04 2:47 am)

Welcome Home

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Hi Shawn,

Thanks so much for your trip report and the photos. I'm very glad to hear that you and your mother had a great time in Ireland. She looked very happy in the photo. You looked like you were blowing away at the cliffs. And how many people can say that they have actually been in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day? Now for the big question: Did you get a tatoo in Ireland?

Michele

Irene Lee
Registered User
Posts: 17
(3/24/04 11:28 pm)

That's the place we stayed at in Galway!

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Picture # 28 The Bridge Mills

To the left is a building with red windows. That's where we spend 1 week in Galway when we visited 3 years ago. The place is a self catering. 2 story apartments with 2 bedrooms and a big living room and kitchen and a lovely alcove overlooking the river.

I couldn't remember the name but this is the place. What great memories this picture just brought back.

Irene

TxDevil
Posts: 28
(3/25/04 7:29 pm)

booo :(

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Unfortunately no... I did not get the tattoo. I already have a Claddagh on my left wrist that Ive had for five years, but it's needs to be finished with celtic knotting around it. That's what I planned to do. The guy, Ronin, in Galway (within the Spanish Arch) was VERY nice and drew me up a drawing so I can get it done somewhere. I won't. I will get it next year when I go back Also, the people in Belfast that I asked about the tattoos were very rude. I don't know if it had to do with 1) I was trying to finish a tattoo I already had 2) was an American 3) was an American getting an claddagh or 4) I told him that a guy in Galway drew up the design. Anyway, they laughed in my face and I left very upset.

But there is ALWAYS next time. I just think getting a tattoo (if you are into that sort of thing) is the ULTIMATE souvenir.

-Shawn

eyps
Registered User
Posts: 19
(3/26/04 2:22 pm)

Irene - Found your Self-Cartering

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Irene -

I believe that you stayed at the Granary. We tried to stay there over Christmas but they wouldn't rent for less then a week....

Shawn -

My husband had a cross done by Ronin a few years ago. He's very talented, wait until next year.

-eyps

mBARNES
Unregistered User
(3/26/04 4:13 pm)
 
Tatoo

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I have been to see the response reguarding getting a tatoo. I have thought of it for some time. If I were to do it it would be in Ireland. So whos Ronin? and where would you suggest?

TxDevil
Posts: 30
(3/26/04 7:27 pm)

tattoo

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It was in the shopping area of the Spanish Arch (I believe). Right by the river. The shop was Planet X tattoo I think. On Lower Dominick ST. Near Quay street I think.

I was just walking around that area and popped into a coffee shop and asked the girl if there was a tattoo shop nearby, and she directed me and I found it. I couldn't do it then because I had to pick mom up from Dialysis, but we came back and Ronin had already booked up

But I plan on getting it done next year

-Shawn

Irene Lee
Unregistered User
(3/26/04 9:44 pm)

Irene - Found your Self-Cartering

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That's it! The Granary. The place was converted from an old granary. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an apartment in Galway. We rented for 7 nights. What a wonderful place to stay.

Thanks for reminding me of the name.