Romey's Ramblings

Ireland Day 10 – Ring of Kerry (Sorta)

June 13, 2011August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

Today we fell into the Ring of Kerry, which is basically a tourist driving trail along County Kerry, which is in the southwest part of Ireland. We actually didn’t drive the entire Ring, as to do so would have taken upwards of 5-6 hours. However, we started on the ring, which took us through Killarney National Park.

Our day started by driving through Adare, which was a pretty sleepy little town on our way to the Ring. We walked around and explored the town, and stumbled on The Old Creamery Company building, which has been turned into a store which is like weird love-child of Fort Collins’ Perennial Gardner with a random toystore and a Christmas store. It made for some interesting pictures, and we walked away with a box of fudge.

Bethany modeling a hat in the Creamery Company

This store had everything, including some evil-looking nome dolls

In the middle of Adare was a really pretty Town Park, which had some lovely views of greenery, including a nice arch that made for some great pictures.

After Adare we headed up into the Ring, heading into Killarney National Park. To be honest, if you live in Colorado, this isn’t anything you haven’t seen before. The sights, while pretty, did seem pretty similar to other mountain and valley ranges that you’ve seen. Nonetheless, the pictures were nice.

We stopped and ate lunch at a viewing point called Ladies View.

We went onto the first stop in the Ring, a town called Kenmare. Again, it is a smaller typical Irish town, but did make for some nice shopping and sightseeing. At that point we had learned that the next stretch of the Ring, while only 15 kilometers long, would take about 90 minutes to drive. We figured that would be a nice opportunity to turn around and see the Torc Waterfall.

Arriving at the falls, we really thought that we had been had by our Colorado expectations, seeing a small dropping in the creek that appeared to be the falls.

However, we walked a little further up and saw the real falls, which made the short diversion worth it.

After a day full of driving we made a guilty pleasure and stopped at what’s become our favorite restaurant: Teach Ai Bhrain, which we were told translated is “House of O’Brian”. We stopped there for the first time a few nights ago, and the food was so amazing that we’ve looked for any excuse to go back. The food was fantastic, but eating out for dinner every night is taking its toll, I’m ready for the gym when we head back.

Tonight is our last night at the East Clare Golf Village. We will be staying at a hotel closer to the airport in Shannon tomorrow night, as we leave on Wednesday morning. Right now the plan for Tuesday is to explore Limerick a little more and perhaps some of the surrounding area, but mainly to prepare for the trip home. I’ll try to make a post tomorrow night if time allows, but it may be short.

Ireland Day 9 – Rock of Cashel

June 13, 2011August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

I know what you’re thinking when I said we were going to the Rock of Cashel, why would we drive 90 minutes to go see a huge rock? The name is deceiving, as the “Rock” is actually the name of the grounds that these castle/cathedral/fort was built upon. The views were magnificent, and the pictures I got hardly do it any justice..

Driving into the Cashel, you can see the fixtures on the Rock towering over the town. It became apparent why they chose this site all those centuries ago.

At the Rock you had the opportunity to walk around as you wished, but there were also some guided tours available. We managed to jump into one that just started, and it turned out to be the most rewarding experience. Had we not done the tour, I think that we would have taken pictures for 15 minutes and left, but with the context that the tour guides provided, it made everything so fascinating.

First off, the structure that’s there today is actually not the original structure. Originally there were castles there that were constructed out of wood and occupied by kings of Munster. Later on to improve their standing with the Church, the Rock was given to the Archbishop which then built a Cathedral on the grounds – in the 12th & 13th centuries! I thought it was funny because the satirical cynical side of me would say, “I guess these 900 year old structures will have to do.”

One of the names for the Rock of Cashel is “St. Patrick’s Rock”. It gained this name by being the site that St. Patrick journeyed to baptize King Munster. We were told by the guide that during his baptism St. Patrick accidentally drove his staff through the bottom of King Munster’s foot, but Munster thought it was simply part of the baptism and kept his composure.

This is a replica of St. Patrick’s Rock that sits at the original site. The actual St. Patrick’s rock was moved in doors for preservation, as it was constructed by sandstone.

One of the fascinating stories of the Rock was told in the Hall of Vicars, where laymen where appointed by the Archbishop to direct the chants at the Cathedral. They also were provided housing and the Archbishop took care of their living expenses. The picture below is the Seal of the Vicars, which was given to each one of the member. The Vicars could use their seal to place on the bottom of receipts when they bought things from town, then at the end of the year a bill was sent to the Archbishop – basically a 15th century corporate credit card! Apparently the Vicars started to create seals for their family members who then racked up the bill, which brought this perk to an end. As a church choir member, I could appreciate the church putting up living quarters and paying for expenses of their musicians. Too bad the Vicars ruined it for the rest of us.

The interior of the Cathedral, while in ruin, remained impressive. It was amazing to see just how how big it was back then, and all the assorted rooms and corners that were part of the Cathedral. Inside the Cathedral was a series of tunnels that allowed the clergy to move about the upper part of the Cathedral.

The Cathedral was decadent with various carvings that have held up quite well over the centuries.

One of my favorite parts was the Cormac’s Chapel, which second to the tower, is the oldest structure on the Rock. Inside you would see that the ceilings and walls were once painted with murals, which were later covered up by plaster when the Protestants took over the Rock in the later centuries. However you can see the plaster now pulling back and revealing parts of the murals. The chapel itself is currently surrounded by scaffolding, which is being used to preserve the chapel. The chapel was made of sandstone, and apparently the years of the elements have damaged the structure. In order to preserve it, the scaffolding is being used to support a structure that is helping dry out the chapel for the next three years, at which point they will put on a protective exterior shell to prevent the chapel from being further damaged by rain.

Outside of the Cathedral the views were as breathtaking as they were indoors. You could see why the Rock was constructed where it was, as it gave the dwellers an arching view over the lands. We were told by the guide that you can see five counties from the Rock.

One of my favorite pictures was of the Scully Cross, which is actually now that spire in the background of this picture. It used to be a giant famous cross, but during a storm in 1976 it was struck by lightning and the top part of the cross was destroyed.

In the end the Rock was definitely worth the drive up, and is probably on my Mt. Rushmore of favorite sights we’ve seen in Ireland.

We made the walk back down into Cashel and had some lunch at a nearby pub. The town of Cashel itself is pretty similar to the other towns that we’ve seen in Ireland. Because it was Sunday, many of the shops were closed, so we didn’t get the chance to explore the town as much as we would have liked.

We then drove home and relaxed a bit before heading out to Peppers, a pub in Feakle (and yes, we’ve been making bad pun jokes all along), for dinner. There was music playing there, which made it an enjoyable backdrop to eat some fish and drink some Guinness.

Ireland Day 8 – OMG, we Kilkenny’d!

June 11, 2011August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

Note: If you’re wondering why the posts jump from Day 6 to 8, it’s because on the 7th day we rested. Frankly there wasn’t much to write about in what we did that day, but I did use the day of downtime to write my Things That Surprised an Ignorant American post.

After a day of recharging our batteries we set out to east over to Kilkenny, Ireland.

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In case you’re wondering Kilkenny is pronounced just like that famous South Park phrase, “Oh my God, they killed Kenny” – and we were told that specific reference when we were at a pub in Limerick – so don’t shoot the culturally insensitive messenger. While this city celebrated it’s 400 birthday 2 years ago, it actually has been in existence since the early sixth century, and definitely has the history to show for it. We ended up visiting the two big attractions: St. Canice’s Cathedral and Kilkenny Castle.

We set out looking for St. Canice’s, which turned out to be a scavenger hunt. Apparently St. Canice’s was originally built by the Catholics, but after the English Reformation it became part of the Church of Ireland, so the Catholics built another Cathedral: Saint Mary’s, which is only 154 years old. We originally thought that was St. Canice’s, but got steered in the right direction. Nonetheless, St. Mary’s was a very nice church in itself.

We then set out into town and stumbled into the Black Abby, which is a residence of the Dominican Friars that was established in 1220’s. It was also beautiful, but not what we were looking for.

Finally after walking another two blocks, we found it!

The inside of the Cathedral was very interesting. There were tombs actually inside of the Cathedral, as well as stained glass and high-arching ceilings.

The gem of this church is that it actually has a 100 foot high round tower that was built in the 9th century. Apparently it’s only one of two towers of this type in Ireland that you can climb. There were 6 zig-zagging wooden ladders that have replaced the circular steps on the perimeter. It was definitely a tight climb, especially when you reached the last level. The last level uses the last few steps to break through the floor of the top of the tower. It’s pretty narrow climbing in and out of it, and you need to coordinate with people who are coming up and down as to who is doing what.

Once at the top there were some very nice views of the entire town.

After climbing back down and a quick stop for lunch we went to the other attraction, the Kilkenny Castle. The views of the outside of the castle were really cool, but unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside of the castle. When you first walked in, there were some transparent walk-ways that showed you the original castle floor when it was built. However, it seems that the rest of the inside of the castle has been modified quite a bit over the centuries, to the point where it seemed like a fancy 19th century home. It was still impressive, but hard to get a grasp of what was authentic at which point in time. This does make a statement about how the Irish continue to make use of their historical buildings, instead of tearing them downs for new ones as what happens many times in the US.

Kilkenny itself was a really pretty little town. We really saw only the city center, but it was full of shops and pubs along the main roads. The center of town has a quasi-mall shopping center in the middle of it. There is a brewery there called Smithwick’s, which was actually Ireland’s oldest operating brewery (having opened in 1710). It actually is owned by Guinness now. The tour there was actually booked up, and while they didn’t have a tasting room, we were happy to sample some of their beer in a nearby pub. The beer was good, but I think I’ve grown pretty attached to Guinness Draught right now.

On the way home we stopped for dinner in Quin and ate at the Abby Tavern. We filled up on a really excellent three-course dinner, the fanciest and probably one of the best dinners we’ve had in our time here. Across from the tavern were some really pretty ruins of the Quin Abbey. I don’t think they allow tours in there any more, but we did get a chance to walk up and check out the exterior before dinner.

Another fantastic day in Ireland is in the books. We’re now down to three full days left. Next up is the Rock of Cashel!

Things that surprised an ignorant American

June 10, 2011August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

After spending nearly a week out of the United States, on my first ever extended trip outside of the country, I wanted to share some random thoughts on things that have surprised me about Ireland, being in Europe, and basically being outside of the comforts of home. To my better-traveled friends, some of these may be amusing, some may be self-evident, but perhaps a few these thoughts may be enlightening. These may be things that are true with all of Europe or may simply be localized to Ireland or the UK. I’d definitely love some comments to help me confirm and clarify some of these things.

Given how narrow these roads are, and how there doesn’t seem to be a method to dictate who has the right of way on these one lane roads, it’s a wonder that there are now more accidents here. On the contrary, in all of our driving we have yet to see cars on the side of the road from accidents or breakdowns.
Just because the architecture and infrastructure is old in Ireland, don’t mistake that for being dirty or run down – it’s quite the opposite. Many of these hole-in-the-wall local pubs are quite clean and well-kept
In Ireland “Bacon” is what Americans refer to as “Ham”
The water here is relatively decent. It’s nowhere near Colorado-level taste, but I would say it’s on par with Texas water
Most power outlets have their own switches on them, very convenient if you’re too lazy to unplug your device.
The bathrooms in our cottage and hotels have the light-switches on in the outside. I’m not sure if the designers of these houses have ever had kids or mean siblings.
The term for “bathroom” here is “Toilets” more direct, but perhaps a more graphic image, especially when you’re in a restaurant?
For men: The public urinals don’t flush. Many of them are tied to the same flushing system that seemingly goes off on its own schedule. Thus the men’s rooms typically smell worse
Many of the sinks here have different faucets for hot and cold water, I’m not quite sure how to create warm water unless you create a basin of warm water, or run both faucets at the same time and alternate your hands between them.
Nearly all public toilets/bathrooms don’t have paper towels, but rather have air dryers that only work for a few seconds at a time.
Police here are called “Garda”.
When we eat out and have finished our meal, every single time we’ve had to ask the waiter to bring our check. We thought this may be simply that things move slowly and didn’t want to be rude, but there have been instances where nearly 20 minutes have passed between when we finished our meal and when we saw our waiter again.

I’ll add more to this list as I notice more things, but I wanted to shoot a few of these surprises out there. What aspects of international travel has surprised you?

Ireland Day 6 – (Attempting) Dublin In A Day

June 9, 2011August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

After a full night’s rest and a hearty breakfast, we set out to take in as much as we could of Dublin before 4pm (when we tried to beat traffic out). We did this by going on one of those hop-on/hop-off tour busses that narrates each of the sights, then when you see something you’d like you can jump off and catch another bus later. We did a lap around Dublin and got the lay of the land and determined what we’d like to see. We had already seen some of the big things in the previous day: O’Connell Street (and the Spire of Dublin), The Guinness Brewery, and Temple Bar. There were a few things we wanted to see that would be too big to tackle, and I really wanted to do the Jameson Distillery (but didn’t want to drink Whiskey at 10:30am) so we picked our battles: Trinity College and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

We started off at Trinity College, Dublin’s only university, which was founded in 1592. We mainly walked around the inner part of the campus and admired some of the architecture. There were definitely some newer buildings there, making it difficult to determine what has been there for what period of time. We actually didn’t get a chance to go into the Library as there was a charge for it. Bethany’s parents took the gamble and paid off, as they were in line when they were about to close and got in for free. We still got some nice pictures outside the buildings.

Outside the College- west Entrance from the street

After our visiting the College we embarked on a personal mission of mine since before we set foot in Dublin – finding Cuban cigars! Since Ireland does not have the same trade embargo, the cigars are readily available here, so I was eager to see if they are worth the hype. We found a cigar shop along Grafton Street, a cobblestone shopping center. We then met up for lunch at Temple Bar, and then set out to go see St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

I have to be honest: we were a bit let down by the Cathedral. While the architecture was beautiful, I was expecting the inside to be a little more tranquil – similar to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Unfortunately, the Cathedral was more of a museum, that housed various memories and statues and busts of prominent figures in the Cathedral’s history. While this was very interesting, I was disappointed it wasn’t a more prayerful experience. We still got some great pictures of inside the Cathedral.

Running out of time, we hiked quickly across town back to our hotel to depart before rush hour. It still took quite a while to get out of Dublin, but we luckily had a pleasant drive after leaving the city.

Overall I liked Dublin, but it definitely has the characteristics shared by most big cities: congestion, traffic, noise – a far cry from the countryside that we’ve been experiencing throughout the week. If we were to do this trip over again, I would likely had added another day in Dublin. There were a few things (like the Kilmainham Gaol Prison) that would have been fascinating to see, and I think we would have enjoyed another nights in the lively pubs. Yesterday we ran into some Americans from Virginia that had stayed in the country side for five days and were now going to do Dublin for 5 days – I don’t think I could have imagined being in the city for that long. Nonetheless, our time in Dublin gave me a deep appreciation for the peace and quiet we’ve seen along the countryside.

We made it back to East Clare where we enjoyed our Cubans. The cigars are definitely worth the hype. They were much smoother than the Dominican ones I’ve tried on previous vacations, and didn’t have the nasty aftertaste. Also they made canned Guinness taste better.

One thing I haven’t talked about is just how long the days in Ireland are. Given Ireland’s northern position on the globe, it gets light here early in the morning, but it doesn’t get dark until after 10pm. Here is the sky outside our cottage at 10:15pm:

After going full-steam for nearly a week, Friday is going to be a day of rest in East Clare. I have some random thoughts to post tomorrow, and should hopefully have some pictures to share, but I’m definitely looking forward to a day of relaxation.