Irish Road Trip

We had hired a car for a four day road trip and set off from Dublin on Sunday morning, not having a good picture of how long it would take to cover distances. In the event, we were given a car that had been seriously battered about and had very uncomfortable seats, which meant that driving was not especially efficient or comfortable.

We had set out to the south from Dublin, and reached the lovely town of Enniscorthy by the time we decided to stop. We found a B&B with a WW1 theme - rifles, recruitment posters and newspapers from the era - but the best feature was the view across the river and the two main bridges across the town.

Since it was Sunday, the town was basically closed. Dinner options consisted of a choice between fried chicken, pizza or hamburgers. I chose a hamburger from a place with people that were playing pinball and the sense that the past twenty five years still hadn't happened. It was like an Australian fast food place from the depths of childhood memories.

The interesting thing about Ireland for an Australian is the sense that Australia is more or less a continuation or Ireland in another country. The people are MUCH friendlier though, and the countryside is unique. Once you get out of Dublin, the country opens up and becomes wonderful.

But the culture seems about the same, the pubs identical, and the things which are different such as the eloquent and preppy Trinity culture are still vaguely familiar from popular imagination of how university is (if not in fact). Even a lot of the urban landscape seems constructed by the same companies and designers.

Irish breakfast the next morning introduced me to soda bread and white pudding - the first consistently delicious across Ireland, the second a mixture of lard and oatmeal and not a particular highlight. We visited Vinegar Hill, the headquarters of a failed southern rebellion, and then set out for Kilkenny, which had a nice castle and cathedral (we came to find that ALL towns in Ireland have a nice castle and cathedral, a fact seemingly not lost on some other towns, who began combining and multiplying their castles and cathedrals, presumably to distinguish themselves). Along the way we got lost and discovered that Irish road signs are generally good in the countryside, but somewhat inadequate in the cities, with the street signs placed against the far wall rather than on a pole, which means that they are hard to see and actually invisible at night.

Jan had given us a GPS device with a map and this proved helpful. Later it actually made all the difference in the world on our nightmare Dubin re-commute, which came later as part of our Journey From Hell.

After Kilkenny came Cork, and this city was really fun. I guess any town with a large student population just becomes fun, albeit in a drunken kind of way. We stayed this time at Garnish House, a B&B that is trying to rewrite the B&B experience (but not the prices). You get welcomed with afternoon tea and the full attention of the host who talks about what you should see, gets out maps, tells you about Cork, and helps you to plan your next day. Then you get a room that is as nice as a hotel room, if not better, and then the next morning you get Breakfast Extravaganza, starting with fruit, local cheese, ham, salami (all interesting and delicious), followed by porridge with Baileys, followed by an extensive list of choices from a hot menu and then, a final course of pancakes!! (Needless to say, Jannie and I only managed fruit and eggs, to the disappointment of the host, who was tried to persuade us by saying he could give us "just one small pancake", after everything else.)

And then it rained. In a big way.

We struggled on to Killarney, where we found another B&B and just went to ground, trying the local stouts and Irish Stew but otherwise not doing much. Jannie bought a scarf.

The highlight of the next morning was an abbey that (along with everything else in Ireland) had been sacked by Cromwellian forces and never rebuilt. It was GRAND to wander around the ancient ruins, which were still largely intact.

By lunchtime it was time to head back to Dublin, at which point began the Journey From the Depths of Hell (okay, slight exaggeration). The big problem with driving in thick heavy rain in Ireland is that you can’t see anything (including signs) and that tractors and farm trucks drive on the highways (oh, and there are no overtaking lanes. By none, that means zero. Oh, and there are no shoulders either, so trucks can't pull over). So it would be good for a little while, but then we would get stuck behind another truck or tractor, before overtaking it or having it turn away. Sometimes this would take a while. And then, almost immediately, you could get stuck again.

So not much fun, but still infinitely better than Dublin at rush hour, which is when we arrived. We got to the west side of Dublin at around 5 PM and had been told that we couldn't take the perimeter freeway to the north west airport side unless we had bought a sticker for the toll (this proved to be false as you can buy one afterwards). So bravely and foolishly, we plunged into the depths of Dublin only to find complete and utter gridlock. It took 3 hours to drive to Jan and Jaime's house, and it was only with the aid of GPS that we could navigate as the street signs were all rendered invisible by darkness and the light in the car wasn't working either to see a map. Dublin is not an easy city to drive in even without traffic, and since it is cut in half by rivers and canals, crossing at the bridges in rush hour takes great, deep patience. Other highlights included driving the wrong way down one way streets and missing critical turns that required doubling back though interminably long and crowded routes, all to the sound of Jannie's cries of "I can't see the maps!" and "This stupid GPS is losing itself and is a pile of @#@#!".

If that wasn't enough, there was a big hurling match on and of course we drove right next to that as well. There were more people than cars on the road, creating a new kind of gridlock.

We got to Jan and Jaime's house to drop off their maps and GPS and were in such a rush we didn't even leave a thank you note (BTW, thanks heaps!) as we had to get to the airport and return our car before getting charged a late fee. After driving all day our patience was shot and we didn't get to sleep before 11, which was bad news as we had to get up at 4:30 for our red eye flight to Germany. Once we had boarded this flight (and only just did we make it, we were rushing about like headless chooks through the many long lines and then the endless Dublin airport and basically got to the plane with no time to spare) we were told that the flight was delayed an hour due to wind in Germany.

We got to Germany only to find the thick rain had followed us there too so we didn't do much while waiting for our 5PM flight. This flight was largely uneventful except we were both tired and grumpy and I managed to spill someone's wine all over an elderly irritable German when I put my seat back. Then, when we landed for some reason we had to sit around on the tarmac for an hour waiting to get off. The lights were all off and all the announcements were in German only and so Jannie was on verge of nervous collapse by the time we finally got off, only to find more gridlock in the immigration lines. Finally, the next day, we arrived at our apartment only to find nobody there and so we had to wait around another hour for that.

So basically travel can be less than fun, and while each thing individually would have been fine, all this collectively over 48 hours, and throwing in only ten hours sleep, it can really suck.

But two good nights sleep later we are in good spirits again, with clean clothes, and enjoying NYC to the max...