mmaloney
Unregistered User
(7/8/05 7:43 pm)

Ireland Travel Journal / Trip Report (Part Three)

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Ireland Travel Journal / Trip Report (Part Three)

Day Eleven: 23 June 2005

Corofin to Ballynahinch

Another sunny, beautiful day in Ireland. We left the Clifden House shortly after breakfast. The food was very good with fresh ingredients from the house’s garden and family farm. While our hosts were a bit different, we loved them. Unfortunately they put the house on sale shortly before we arrived, so they’ll be retiring soon. I’d love to visit again but I’m afraid without our hosts it wouldn’t be the same. Our drive to Ballynahinch was long but we made a couple of stops along the way. The Awlee Cave in the burren was a fun tour. At about 35min its short and sweet. The cave runs deep and its nice to actually have it lit “it’s a showcave” so you can see inside the cave. We had lunch at Waterworks Craft shop/restaurant. Simple, fresh food. Just what we needed. Arrived at Ballynahinch castle around 5:30pm. This is a perfect place of rest before our final night of madness. (We will be driving back to Dublin to see U2 our last night in Ireland). This place is un-fricken-believable. We booked a room with a river view and I highly recommend spending the extra cash for the view. The rooms are HUGE, and the view is stunning. We could just stay at the hotel and walk around the grounds and be satisfied. For dinner we ate at the hotel “fishermans” pub which offered, you guessed it, seafood. A little on the pricey side for pub grub, but this was some fresh grub so I didn’t complain. The hotel offers walking tours of just the grounds ranging from 0.5 miles to 30 miles. We took the 1/2 mile walk and called it a night.

Day Twelve: 24 June 2005

Breakfast at Ballynahinch is excellent. Not as good as the Greenmount House in Dingle, but very good. We had Place fresh fish and eggs. We drove to Kylemore Abbey, which looked just like all the wonderful pictures you always see. What a beautiful place! We paid admission to see the chapel and garden, but looking back I don’t think its worth it. The garden is probably interesting to those that are into gardens. I’m obviously not, and they force you to take buses to the garden which gets backed up. We ended up spending almost half the day at Kylemore which was more than we needed. The inside of the Abbey is nice, but nothing exceptional. The free view was all we needed. We stopped in Clifden for some lunch and some petting time with the Connemara ponies. Then we drove through Connemara back to the castle hotel where this time we ate in the dining room. The main dining room has wonderful views of the river. It’s a set price menu but you have choices on what to eat. It was absolutely wonderful. I think I had better food in Kenmare & Dingle, but the ambience was great. Another lovely hike throughout the hotel grounds and call it a night. Tomorrow is our long, long day.

Day Thirteen: 25 June 2005

Back to Dublin

This day came up for discussion at least twice a day, every day throughout our entire trip. We had purchased tickets to see U2 at Croke Park in Dublin. We didn’t plan this, but thanks to Michele on the site she warned us to book our hotel early because U2 was in town. I owe Michele and this forum BIG TIME. We ended up getting a room near the airport (The Crowne Plaza Hotel). It was the least interesting place we stayed, and by far the most expensive. We got in at a steal for $400 a night. And that was a steal. The Morrisson, where we stayed when we first arrived in Dublin cost us 140 Euro a night. To stay the weekend of U2 it was 950 Euro a night. Out of control. From the moment we arrived in Dublin the talk of U2 was everywhere. It was on the news every night. Bono was on the cover of the Aer Lingus magazine, The Dubliner, and the front page of the paper just about every day we were there. It seemed like all of Ireland, or actually, all of Europe, was going to be there and I was a nervous wreck. I bought pitch standing (general admission floor) tickets on Ebay months before the trip. On the news they said people were spending up to 2,000.00 a ticket, and that counterfeiting was a huge problem. I had to get from Ballynahinch to Dublin, drop off the rental car, get to the hotel, and eventually get into the city by 6pm or so. What was traffic going to be like? Did we have counterfeit tickets? How will we get into the city? How hard will it be getting a cab? I really wasn’t sure if we’d make it, but my plan was to get up as early as we could just to get into the city. I originally thought of getting up at like 7am, but breakfast didn’t start till 8am, and I just couldn’t pass up on my last (sniff sniff) Irish breakfast. So we got up at 8am, checked out, ate a great breakfast and hit the road. So far so good. I’d finally gotten the hang of this driving thing; and other than a couple of sheep in the road, one or two road construction stops, tractor drivers that were straight out of David Lynch’s “The Straight Story,” and the occasional tourist that actually drove slower than me, we got into the city by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We actually saw more people leaving Dublin that morning (probably from the night U2 played before) than people arriving. The Crowne Plaza was decent and did its job well; clean, comfortable rooms with shuttles to and from the airport. When we returned the rental car we noticed a posting saying which buses to take to get closest to Croke Park. I wish we knew about the buses beforehand! This was perfect (and only 2Euro!). Remember I’m from Los Angeles so public transportation is not my specialty. Anyway, the bus got us only a few short blocks from Croke Parke. They blocked off the roads getting near the Parke so you had to show your ticket just to get near the area. Once in the blocked off area they allowed “off license” liquor stores to sell alcohol and food on the street, so basically it was one huge bloc party. Knowing it was going to be a long night, we drank red bull and vodkas and chatted with fellow U2 fans. Supposedly U2 had not played a full concert in Dublin since 1987! No wonder the Irish people were so excited about this concert. We met some great people from all over the country, Belfast, Dubliners, Galway, Cork, Limerick. It was a wonderful time. We ended up teaming up with a couple of other couples and went to the show. The sound was okay, and the band’s setlist was great, but that really wasn’t what it was about. Seeing 100,000 people cheering and having the time of their lives under a beautiful sky while U2 played was what it was about. For DeAnna and I, the band were second to the wonderful Irish people we met both that night and throughout our trip. It was a glorious finale to our trip, one I will never forget.

I’ll be posting photos in the next couple of weeks. I still shoot film so I have the scan my favorites. Thanks for reading… Hope everyone has as wonderful a trip as we did.

yesiree100
Registered User
Posts: 49
(7/9/05 7:49 am)

Brilliant!

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Absolutely brilliant! Thank you for all the details; it really puts me there.

I loved your description of Clifden House (and host). I had visions of when Vincent Price would appear on Scooby Doo

I think your description of driving captured the experience so many of us had (or will have) the first time driving on the left.

Thank you for taking the time to give us the report.

Michele Erdvig
Administrator
Posts: 3248
(7/9/05 11:56 pm)
 
Re: Ireland Travel Journal / Trip Report (Part Three)

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Michael,

A big THANK YOU for such a fantastic trip report. It is a wonderful resource for everyone here who is now planning their trip. One question: When are you going back?

Michele

P.S. Can't wait for the photos.

Melissa2Ireland
Registered User
Posts: 4
(7/30/05 2:37 am)

Re: Ireland Travel Journal / Trip Report (Part Three)

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mmaloney, wow, hubby and I have admired U2 for years, I wish we could have attended "one huge bloc party" in Dublin and enjoyed U2 with the wonderful Irish people!

Many thanks, our trip will be better because you took the time to share. I had to laugh when you said your wife was getting frustrated because you couldn't concentrate on a word she was saying...I can relate to that, from the wife's perspective! But now I see hubby's perspective, after reading about the driving from your perspective, I will have major empathy when my hubby is driving on the right (I mean left) side of the road in Ireland!!!

I have to know one thing. When your wife got into that Norman stone grave at the Black Abbey...well, she doesn't make a habit of that sort of thing, does she? (Just kidding! I give you both 2 thumbs up!!)

mmaloney
Unregistered User
(8/5/05 5:22 pm)

norman graves...

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Naw, my wife and I gave up the "goth" thing a few years ago ...

I'm really glad you enjoyed my trip report. You've now inspired me to get my photos on-line !! I have another brief break from work so hopefully I'll get them scanned. Still shooting film...gotta get with the times !

Michael Maloney