Ireland Intermezzo #2: Driving in Ireland

Our happy little Fiat Punto.

Today's guest post is written (and partially illustrated!) by the official "make-sure-we-don't-die" expert extraordinaire: Jason.  Enjoy!

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I loved driving in Ireland – sure, we had to repair a punctured tyre and bent rim, but isn’t that all part of the adventure?  And how else would I have met that nice mechanic in Galway?  As the old saying goes, “You can’t know a city until you’ve fixed 2 tyres in it.”  (Okay… I might have made that up.)

Ireland Day 7, Part 2: Inisheer

Inisheer's idyllic pastures and happy cows

As Inisheer came into sight, we spotted on its leftmost tip a lighthouse and, even more excitingly, a hulking rusted wreck of a ship.  There was plenty of opportunity to get out the zoom lens for shots of both the lighthouse and shipwreck, but we quickly decided it was a goal to get out there in person for more pictures.

A few remaining clouds scuttled across the sky as we disembarked, but they were white and soft – promising clearer skies than the storminess of before.  No sooner had we gotten our bearings on the quay than we found ourselves propositioned from all sides by dozens of men of varying ages, arrayed all along the pier in sun- and wind-bleached clothes.  

Quick update: Posting schedule

For those of you who might be checking in daily (mostly family members, I think) - don't worry, updates haven't stopped!

I fell farther behind on writing than I meant to, so we're now actually back in the States as I document  our adventures. Day 7 parts 2 and 3 are in the works, and there will also be a guest post (can you guess by whom?) about driving in Ireland coming up shortly.

Now that we're back home and back to work, updates may be slightly less frequent.  However, I'm committed to covering all sixteen days, as well as editing and posting the high quality DSLR images when they become available, talking a little more about our itinerary and where we stayed, and probably a few more surprises here and there.

Stay tuned and thanks for your patience!

Ireland Day 7, Part 1: Doolin to Inisheer via ferry

Not gonna lie, even Seattleites don't call this "clear weather".

We have new neighbors, and they moo.  

Considering that I’m a city girl at heart, I surprisingly have a sense that I could get used to this.  The greenness of the hills out the window is simply amazing.  There’s also something pretty funny about having a conversation be punctuated from time to time by a lowing moooo in the background.  Who knows, it might get old after a while, and I might also feel differently if we were downwind.  As it is, I can’t smell the cows, just see and hear them.  All the romanticized benefits without any of the olfactory downsides!

First breakfast at the restaurant downstairs was lovely: muesli (cue immense excitement), homemade brown bread with golden Irish butter (yes, the butter is better here), creamed oatmeal with honey, and melt-in-your-mouth locally smoked salmon with a fluffy mound of scrambled eggs.

Ireland Day 6, Part 2: Coastal drive to Doolin town

After winding our way through the Burren, it was time to start thinking about getting to Doolin.  We drove north from Poulnabrone Dolmen up to Ballyvaughan, which is almost due west of Kinvarra (the town just 30 minutes south of Galway which we'd driven through initially).  So, after 5+ hours of travel we'd essentially come as far north again as we'd gone south.  The reason?  A scenic drive, of course!

From Ballyvaughan we followed the coastline west and then southward, taking in beautiful seaside views.  As official "make sure we don't die" driver extraordinaire, Jason had to be careful not to goggle too much.  These roads were very serpentine.

Intermezzo #1: Irish food

Ice cream from Murphy's in Dingle.  Foreground: Honeycomb caramel and Guinness. Background: brown bread and chunky peanut butter.

I think it’s time to come up for air on the (somewhat) daily postings, because there are some topics I’d love to talk about outside of the daily travel blogging.

First and foremost: don’t let anyone try to tell you that good Irish food doesn’t exist, that it’s simply a spinoff of English food, or, worse yet, that it’s all deep fried.  This couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

Ireland Day 6, Part 1: Galway to Doolin via the Burren

Phew – the car is fine.  Jason got it repaired this morning – it took no more than 30 minutes and only cost 30 Euro.  The rim was bent, not cracked as I’d originally worried, so it just needed to be hammered back into place.  There was a puncture in the back left tire, so the mechanic patched that up, too.  (Bless his heart, he answered my panicked call to his all-hours number at close to midnight the previous night, which, while posted on his website, he apparently doesn’t get many calls at – it sounded like it was his home phone.)  Now that we're paying more attention, there are a lot of signs for "tyre repair" and safety checks alongside the roads here.  Looks like issues with potholes and bushes are pretty common.

We had another amazing breakfast at the B&B and consulted with our hosts on the best path to take.  They gave us some great tips for restaurants and sights to see along the way, and we were off.

Ireland Day 5, Part 2: Connemara scenic drive, continued!

One of many beautiful views in the Connemara Inagh Valley

(For those who missed it, check out the first part of our Connemara drive here.)

Inside the car, there were flies everywhere – attempts to keep them out had failed spectacularly, so our descent from the Sky Road back to Clifden required methodical extermination using maps, guidebooks, and whatever else was handy.  

By the time we reached Clifden, the car's interior was finally livable.  We backtracked a bit so we’d be able to drive through the Inagh Valley on the way up to Kylemore.  The Inagh Valley is considered to be one of the most scenic parts of what's an already incredibly beautiful region.

We certainly were not disappointed, surrounded yet again by mountains rising up into mist and calm lake waters right alongside the road.  

Ireland Day 5, Part 1: Connemara scenic drive

A funny craft shop wall mural, found early on the Connemara drive

Connemara is completely unlike anything we’ve seen so far in our trip.  The road from Dublin to Galway, while it was lovely and green, was still just a highway.  For our detour to Clonmacnoise we ventured off the beaten path and got our first taste of the more rural R- roads.  Our drive through Connemara, however, was truly spectacular.

I'd been pretty well convinced that Connemara was something we had to see.  However, given that Jason had been doing a lot of driving, we decided to ask one of our B&B hosts what he thought.  His response sealed the deal: "It's unmissable," he said.  "I recommend it to anyone who spends time in Galway."  Our hosts' advice had been invaluable so far, so this was all the encouragement we needed.

Ireland Day 4, Part 2: Galway city

Back at the B&B, we switched into better walking shoes, grabbed a cup of tea, and set out again in the opposite direction to what’s known as the Salthill Promenade (or “Prom”, for short).  About a 10 minute walk away, this path goes all along the water as far as the eye can see before the road wraps around and out of sight.  Even in the face of the blustery wind and dark clouds building in defiance of the earlier sunbreaks, plenty of people were out walking, jogging, and even biking.

Salthill Promenade, before the dark clouds began rolling in

What at first appeared to be a long pier intersecting with the Prom was actually a small road to Mutton Island: an area mysteriously blockaded off from outsiders at about the halfway point, with the rest of it stretching off into the distance beyond the padlocked gate and ending at the island.

Ireland Day 4, Part 1: Galway city

This morning began with our first ever Irish breakfast, made fresh by our hosts at the B&B: a sunny side up egg, two slices of bacon, balsamic tomatoes, and a really fantastic sausage, all on a plate artfully dotted with homemade basil oil. 

An amazing breakfast at the B&B

Ireland Day 3, Part 2: Arrival in Galway

We eventually arrived at the B&B intact. Once we got past an extended parking debacle which I won’t detail here (like my inability to dial Irish phone numbers on the first day, entirely a matter of user error), we were off to hit the town.  Well, sort of.

We decided to keep it simple and visit the Crane Pub just around the corner, hearing from our hosts that the trad (short for traditional) music there is exceptional.   After all, we’d been in Ireland for about a day and a half at this point, and still hadn't visited an Irish pub or had Guinness.  This was a problem which required immediate rectification.

Ireland Day 3, Part 1: Dublin to Galway via Clonmacnoise

Up early at 7 am to pack the bags up and shuttle to the airport to pick up the rental car.  Sleeping went fairly well, except when I woke up at 2 am feeling extremely hungry (that’s 6 pm Seattle time; I guess my body was expecting dinner.)  Breakfast was yogurt we picked up at Tesco the day before, and granola we snagged in Chicago (before realizing the need for a mad rush to the international terminal).

After Jason did a few loops around the parking lot to get a feel for the car (Fiat Punto!), we hit the road, heading out along the M6 toward Galway.  I think Irish roads are somewhat given a bad rap, so I’d like to clear the air just a bit.  The highways (prefixed with “M” or “N”) are a completely reasonable width.  

M- and N- routes in Ireland -- not unlike any other highway.

Ireland Day 2, Part 2: Dublin city

Ends up hotel rooms don’t provide enough mental stimulation to stay awake, so bus into Dublin city it was.  In light of which, by the way, I would fully support a move by Seattle to exclusively double-decker transit.  No more need for awkward seats in the articulating middle, and twice the height of course means twice the excitement when you go hurtling around corners at breakneck speeds.

Having traveled before, Jason found Dublin similar to other western European cities, at least to his recollection (which may be vague, as it's been many years).  For me, it was new but not entirely unfamiliar – bustling street corners, pedestrian-only lanes (which were lovely, given that street crossings have proven to be frustrating and often require very bold jaywalking), and shiny-lacquered shops snugged up against each other with no space in between.  Some sidewalks were wider than the streets (which I know may not be saying much, given the reputation these streets have for being rather narrow - but they were rather wide sidewalks nonetheless), while others are so narrow that two people can hardly walk side by side.

Ireland Days 1 + 2: Seattle to Dublin

Jason and I decided that we’d like to try keeping a travel blog for our trip.  Whether or not I’ll be able to stick to it is up for debate – it’ll depend on time and energy – but I’m definitely going to try.  I’ve been informed by a few people now that a travel blog without pictures isn’t much worth reading, but I’m kind of a stickler about photos: if we’re talking ones from the DSLR, I want to have a chance to post-process.  That just isn’t going to happen while we’re traveling – it takes way too much time, and the netbook can’t handle Photoshop.

Compromise: I’m taking pictures (albeit probably crappy ones) with the old cellphone that we brought along for emergency calls, with the promise to upload high quality images once they’re all edited after the trip.  If I’d had the foresight to do so, I would’ve brought my Lumia 900, which at least has a wide angle lens and takes quite good pictures, but at the time we were worried about losing it (or having it be stolen) and weren’t thinking about picture quality (or blogging, for that matter).

So, onto the actual travelling! The last couple days are already fading into a blur.  We flew out of Seattle at 11:00 am on Thursday and arrived in Dublin at 8 am on Friday – technically midnight in Seattle time.  When we landed in Dublin I had to wrap my head around the concept that while Friday had already begun for us a while ago, it had just barely started for everyone back home.  At that point Jason was pretty exhausted, though I was riding high on a second (or perhaps third) wind.