Where are the guys with guns I was promised??? Aka Northern Ireland is almost exactly the same as the Republic but with stupider money. Pt 1

*Note- Picture is of Ulster Fry referenced at the bottom

So we got up pretty early, like 7 ish. I know this isn’t that early but when you’re trying to sleep in a hostel it is really really early. First thing on the list was showering and it was only a little sketchy as they had separate men’s and women’s bathrooms. A lite breakfast of toast and jam, instant coffee, cereal was provided. You had to wash your own dishes, and most people even did.

It was still around 9 when we got back to the car park, somehow it was like 32 euro and we died inside a little. With car back in our possession we went back to the hostel collected our bags and got back on the road. It was only 136 km (85 miles) to Belfast from Dublin. We assumed it would take a lot longer being that we would probably have to let men with guns cavity search us, but it was a risk we were prepared to take.

The road to Belfast were good quality, almost like a highway here. It did end up taking us like 3 hours to get there, however this way more due to people not knowing how to merge then anything else. In fact, we didn’t realize we were in Northern Ireland until we saw that the gas prices had changed to pounds sterling rather then euros. /s.t.a.t.

Anyway so we get to Belfast and its kinda run down, bleak, like a town you see in all the movies about people who rise above their situations and make good. The original plan was to take a “black taxi” and listen to the cabbie talk while he gave us the tour. After 20 minutes of being lost as anything we decided to pull over get some lunch and ask for directions at the same time.

After a bit of walking we see a deli but they don’t take credit cards, so they direct us to the nearest ATM. Its in a grocery about 3 blocks down so we do our business and come back. Its so cheap we splurge and each get something. Tracy got Chicken Tikka Masala sandwich, I got garlic turkey and mike got a ham and turkey panini. Now garlic “whatever” does not, in most instances, mean covered with garlic or garlic flavored as you might think. What it does mean is a weird dressing similar to Mayo that is decidedly reminiscent of garlic.

This was the first time we were introduced to the concept of a Fry. There are two types of Frys to be found in Ireland: the traditional Fry and the Ulster Fry. The Ulster type is mostly found in Northern Ireland and surrounding areas. It includes 2 strips of bacon, eggs done sunny side up, 2 sausage links, a triangle shaped piece of soda bread cut in half (like a bun), mushrooms, a wedge of tomato, potato bread, and sometimes a single pancake thrown in for good measure. All of this is fried on a grill and put on a plate. As soon as I saw it I knew it would have to be mine, but being stuffed after only half my sandwich it was going to have to wait for another time.

Why the face?!? aka Dublin, no one likes you pt 2

After lunch is a little blurry (I waited to long to try to recall the hijinxs). I know we went back to the parking garage, then back to the hostel to put our bags in our rooms. We wandered a bit more but Ireland as a whole packs everything but the pubs up after 5. Thus we ended up at a bar, it was nice enough until a guy pushed open the door and let his 3 children run in… the best thing was he didn’t even come in. They each had cups and ran around shouting trick or treat. While they were all in costume, it a bar several nights before Halloween actual so no one had candy. A couple people gave them money before the bar tender wrangled them out back to their father.

Since we had a late lunch we stopped at McDonald’s for an evening kid’s meal. The best thing about Irish McD's is that they look at you like you're a crazy person when you order your burger with katchup and mustard only. The lady that took our order actually had to go back and tell the cook that it wasn't a joke she needed that burger. Eventually we were victorious! Then and after that we went to a grocery and picked up batteries, beverages, and a knife. The knife was only because they didn't sell scissors there are far as we could tell.

We grabbed regular cider, fruit flavored cider, and some Guiness for Mike. Then we headed back to the hostel for a planning session. The room was 4 bunk beds so we could’ve had roommates, but one of the reasons we took the trip when we did is its off season in earnest. Its just as well we were alone in that room. I'd always wondered what the ball looked like in the Guiness cans but I'd always been concerned about messing up a knife. Here I was with a 3 euro knife! Turns out its a plastic ball about the size of a ball used for jacks and it looks like frosted glass.

A guy on our floor who did have a roommate almost killed him. About 4 in the am we were wakened by shouts and clomping of feets. Apparently these two guys were each traveling alone, but ended up being assigned to the same room. Guy A just wanted to sleep and Guy B just wanted to talk to Guy A about how cool Ireland was. I really am surprised there wasn’t more violence, but Guy B was fast and good at running in circles just our of reach.

End Day 2

Why the face?!? aka Dublin, no one likes you pt 1 by Lillian Craft

**Editors note: the empty squares are where the pics should be, but they are in order at the top of the page**

Did I mention in the previous post that the in flight movies were Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That, followed by Ghost of Girlfriends Past. Now I will say that I actually wanted to see the later but I was so sleep deprived at that point I kept fading in and out and eventually gave up… Sad. Anyway after all the fun the day before we hoped off the plane at around 6 am Dublin Time and were greeted by signs in English and Celtic, nice!

Faster then expected we found the Hertz counter and got our rental without incident. Just to put it out there no one walked us out to the car for an inspection, this will be important later in the story. Then we piled into the tiniest 4 door car ever and headed to our trip proper. Tracy was brave so we let her drive, shortly thereafter we found out how sorely we would be tested. Roundabouts were everywhere! Maybe you think Boston is where they were brought to power? You are wrong!!! I think the Irish worship them, no one would confirm or deny this though.

At one point without too much warning or explanation the road split up and down. We chose down and were railroaded into the longest tunnel ever… at least that’s how it seemed. No signs to speak up except for speed suggestions and arrows, no distance markers or hint on what was going to happen next. At the end of it we go shot out to a toll booth and were told we needed to pay them 12 euro… that’s like 18 bucks people! Only much later did we find out the tunnel was to keep truck congestion down during the morning commute so if you take it in the morning and are not a truck you get to pay the avoiding roundabout fee. Come to think about it, knowing what I know now it was prolly worth every penny to avoid what I am sure was a number of repetitive marry-go-rounds that first day.

I also want to mention that we got lost and ask directions from the second toll booth, she said we had to turn around and go right back through the other side of the booth… this nice lady didn’t in fact charge us. Once we were pointed the right way it wasn’t too much longer before we spotted our hostel. Now let it also be said that we were using the 2007 edition of all the guide books, so some things had changed. The reason we had picked this shady hostel, located in the back alley as it was, was that the book said they had parking… this was a lie. According to the nice guy at the desk they had recently lost the parking, but there was a cheap place just down the way that shouldn’t be any more then 20 euro for 24 hours. /sigh, times are tough (will be s.t.a.t. from here on out)

In the mean time we had to get the bags out and get checked in and we certainly couldn’t do that in the alley way. Thankfully there was a pay and display behind the hostel. If you are unfamiliar with the term you pay at an automated kiosk and it prints you out a label saying what time you are paid up to on it. We paid like nearly 3 euro for 20 minutes, seriously Dublin is all about punishing you for having a car. So we checked in but the room was not ready. Our bags ended up being stored in a tiny room that smelled of mold and had like 10 other peoples bags in it. It did have a lock on it and you had to get the key from the door guy, one cant be picky for 14 euro per person a night ( p/p/n).

For our next adventure we took the car to the car park, it was so simple! Then we walked to the place where our pre-bought bus tour would commence. The busses came every 15 minutes and it just pulled away as we got there, so we looked for breakfast. Keep in mind all this has happened before like 9:30 am. There was a little coffee shop right by the bus stop and they had a breakfast deal where you got a roll with sausage bacon relish or brown sauce and pudding (black or white) plus a coffee for 5 euro. That’s not half bad actually.

Mike got the white, I got mixed, Tracy stuck to her coffee. The black turned out to be blood pudding… it doesn’t taste like I thought. At this late date I couldn’t describe it accurately enough so I will just say I liked the white better. It’s a grainy situation being that oats and barley are the main fillers. I got mine with relish as I didn’t know what brown sauce was but I knew I didn’t trust it. After that the bus was ready and waiting for us. It was a lovely double-decker number with a half top. The day was only a little cold and while there was no rain to speak of currently the plush seats were damp enough we sat inside the first go-round. The beauty of this tour was that it was an on/off so we started by seeing the whole thing then going around again hoping off where we wanted. Our guide that time was Bryan and he was so concerned for our money’s safety that all three of us immediately loved him. The shopping here or there would be great but only two streets over bargains were to be had!

After we had made it around the first time it was pushing 11:45, but there was so much to see in our first day. The next time around we got off at Merrion Square park where the Oscar Wilde statue is also just down the street is recent addition of memorial of pyramid doom. Its actually meant to honor the Defense Forces. We hopped back on the bus and got off a few stops later for Queen of Tarts…oh yeah and Dublin castle. Q of T is a bakery that is so tiny we grabbed and got as there was hardly room to stand and order much less enjoy our treats. Mike got the most delicious raspberry cheesecake thing (that’s them in the far right corner) and Tracy got a tasty blueberry scone. We didn’t actually go into it as it was many euro, but we went into the all engrossing revenue museum and took a moment to enjoy the beauty of the gardens as well. Then back on the bus we went getting off at Dvblinia/ Christ Church. They also wanted many euro for their history and we did have so many things to see. We decided we would chat about our options over lunch. We before hand had decided that we would try getting 2 meals and splitting it between the three of us. This was the 2^nd best decision we made on the trip, first being the car.

To offset our great 2 meal plan we got the same dish, which was sad… it was fish and chips and it was so bland we didn’t try them again the whole trip. The chips were good, but the mashed peas on the side was, off putting, to say the least. This was also where I tried brown sauce to help perk up the fishes.

End part 1

The trip that almost wasn’t by Lillian Craft

So originally we were supposed to be on the plane at like 6 on the morning of Oct 27^th. That put us needing to be at the airport at 4 as international flights like the 2 hours of pain as opposed to the traditional 1 hour. However with the power of three behind us we got an email from (insert travel website’s name here) telling us it had been moved to 2:30 pm with the same connecting flight. That’s awesome because it made us not have to deal with any layover.

Day of the trip with Bald Mike at the wheel of the Jeep and Captain America in charge of the Impala we met at Mumtaz, which is tasty Indian buffet. After stuffing ourselves silly we wished Chris a good day and loaded in the van. Turns out our calculations were a little off so it was like 12:45 as we hopped into line for the ticket counter. By the time we got up to the counter it was like 5 ‘till.

It was then that we were informed that the flight had been at 1:15. Had been? Well being late as we were it was unpossible to make boarding passes…according to the jaded lady helping the really young obviously new and still eager to fix problems guy we lucked out and got. Just as she said this out popped 3 crisp passes with our same flight. Hahahahah… However, it was too late to check bags… and we had to run. The only real reason this was a problem was that I, fearing for all my chubby to make it back to the states with me, had packed like 16 cans of slim fast so I had to empty all that out and gave it to the nice man as a parting gift.

Then run we did… right to the security desk, where we were questioned as my passport still said Hagmann. I showed my drivers license and he let me pass grudgingly. Next stop X-rays and metal detectors, in a mad moment I ran through with my shoes on and didn’t even get a second look. Victory is mine! Well was mine for a moment as Mike’s snack filled backpack popped one of the zippers and snacks flew everywhere. I slid across the slick floor on my knees like a volleyball champ and started to retrieve the snakys. We reassembled the pack then Mike and I ran like crazy people. Tracy remained calm repacking her laptop and other odds and ends with care.

When we got there they were just calling me and Mike's names. So right to the front of the line we went and into the hallway thing. Little more then a minute later Tracy’s name was called and she was right there too…so maybe I hadn’t needed to run but then again nothing makes me feel alive like almost missing my plane. They even had people in the hall to put the bags with the rest of the cargos. Even better the flight was kinda empty and we got to stretch out a little.

Here ends day 1

the light of if I'm up at 2am so are you and other odds and ends

pictures from first day and dublin

Aillwee Cave used to be a hibernating place for bears... 10,000 years ago. There were bones and bear nests (like the one above) still in there.
down, down, down an Aillwee waterfall
There was a birds of prey show, too -- I gots me one.
So did Mike.
And Lil. They got mice for letting us touch them, but I prefer to think they liked us.

Tracy at Errilly Friary
Mike and Lillian at Errilly
The front gate of Errilly
Errilly against the sky (it was POURING six minutes before this picture was taken)

Ross Errilly Friary arches
Errilly entry room
Ross Errilly Friary
Glebe Stone Circle

Ennis, County Clare

Ironically, I'm too tired to do much with the excellent wifi we've got at this hostel, but I can throw you some more pictures from today (and from Halloween last night, which was very quiet).

This one's for Little Britain fans.

Tracy's first Irish Guinness (it was delicious, thank you)
A very flattering sign at the pub
Mike and Lillian at Bella Vista Bistro
There is a SERIOUS dearth of useful road signs in Ireland, so we had to take a picture of one that actually pointed to its destination.

Okay, there're several separate posts full of pictures. Hopefully we'll have real wi-fi at the hostel in a few hours. Love!

Glenveagh Castle garden walk
Tracy by the Glenveagh boathouse and lough-side swimming pool
Mike and Lil in a romantical Glenveagh gazebo
Glenveagh Castle
on the road to Glenveagh Castle