Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Driving the Emerald Isle: Ireland in 5 Nights

After Iceland, we visited Ireland for a few days with a stopover in Oslo. At the airport, Emily and I met a super friendly Irishman on the bus to the plane. He explained all sorts of things we needed to do and try with the utmost exuberance. We thought he was an anomaly, but, as it turns out, Irish people are incredibly happy and friendly.
Our first day we explored Kilkenny. I saw a castle on the map and decided that was how we needed to start the adventure. So, we headed into town to explore the castle and walk around the city. The castle is huge and has been restored, housing paintings of those who lived there before, beautiful tapestries and costly furniture. The curators were excited to tell us about the rooms, furniture, and the city. On recommendation from our B&B and a guy at the castle, we went to Kyteler's Inn for dinner, drinks and live music. Lovely! There was folk lore and poetry thrown in. It was rather touristy, but super fun with awesome food.
Emily had a birthday the second day in Ireland. So we set out to spoil her rotten. After an enormous Irish breakfast at the B&B, we headed to Blarney to kiss the stone and see the castle. It was an overcast day. We waited in line at the castle for about an hour to kiss the Barney Stone. Mike refused to do it. Basically you lay on your back and upside down kiss a greasy rock. There are rumors that the locals pee on it, but the guard told me it's a wives tale. The rock didn't have the faintest hints of urine smell, and I don't know how anyone could get into the castle to do so. There are fences, locks, and cameras everywhere. It is a castle after all. Emily and I washed our mouths with sanitizer after anyway because that's a lot of mouths.
Since Em is a whiskey girl, we went to the old Jameson Whisky Distillery and caught the tour. It was actually fascinating. The triple distilling process means that Irish whiskeys are definitely gluten free. They walked us through the whole process including the sprouting and drying of the barley, the stills, and the aging. I now understand why it's so expensive to buy old whiskeys. It isn't whiskey until it's been aged three full years. Emily enjoyed a tutored tasting of four higher end whiskeys. Basically we all left buzzed and happy.
The next morning we got up to drive the Ring of Kerry, a 178 km loop of highway with some of the magical vistas of the emerald isle. Terrible weather made this far less thrilling than we had imagined. The winds were intense, blowing moderate rain sideways in huge gusts. Fog and heavy clouds distorted views. It was an adventure, but we couldn't spend much time out of the car.
The Gap of Dunloe was our first section and my favorite part. It's a super narrow road into a valley of high cliffs and waterfalls, sheep and ruins. It was so windy that the waterfalls were blowing away, as in the water was not hitting the ground! I've never seen anything like it. It was beautiful and unique. The sheep were spray painted bright colors to differentiate the flocks. My next favorite stop was a cool ancient stone fort built on a hill among the tall grasses. It was still in great shape.
The weather broke about the time we entered Killarney National Park. There were flooded fields everywhere. The drive from there was beautiful, all 17 km of it. There was a sprawling lake complete with a rainbow nestled in a wild green valley. We hiked to and above Torc Waterfall which was churning with brown water from the heavy rains. We walked through the fields along the Ring of Kerry Trail to Muckross House, a huge estate in varying states of remodel. The house was closed, but we explored the gardens.


We went to a fabulous whiskey bar in Killarney for dinner. Emily bought a flight of Irish single malts. She and Mike developed a good appreciation for the differences in Irish whiskeys on this trip. I'm not that tough, so I stuck to wine. We walked up the street to explore the town. There was a street performer dressed as Donald Trump with a Bernie pin singing parodies of American tunes with lyrics making fun of Trump and Clinton. How embarrassing to the United States that these are the best we could muster. We were given a sample of the most heavenly caramel ice cream sundae ever and had to buy ice cream at Murphy’s. Yummmm!
The happy Irishman from the airport had recommended Dingle. It's a shorter loop than the Ring of Kerry out on a peninsula. Since we had the time, we decided it could be worthwhile. Spoiler alert!! It was! Ireland is already a super lush, gorgeous, country. Dingle is quintessential. It has the seaside farms with stone fences, white-capped waves and white sheep. There was a spot a whole bunch of people were stopped. So we got out to take a picture of the Blasket Islands to the West. We hiked all the way out to the end of a rocky peninsula to watch the waves crash on the rocks... and do handstands, because, why not?


Our last day in Ireland, we visited the highly acclaimed Cliffs of Mohr. I thought about skipping it if the weather was terrible, but I'm so glad I went. We walked all of the way out along the edges of sheer cliffs up to 700 feet tall in a strong side wind with gusts up to 45 kmph. It made us walk a little sideways and a little meanderingly, like we'd been heavily drinking. Being next to a super high cliff like that with such crazy winds was a little bit disconcerting at the beginning. We walked to Hag's Head, an abandoned, crumbling tower. The walk is about 10 km round trip. It was beautiful, awe inspiring. We spend some time taking silly pictures trying to demonstrate just how windy it was (and failed). Our host for the night had said we would be there for 30 minutes. Ha! We spent 3 hours!


The drive back to Dublin was beautiful, but arduous. We finally made it to the cute airbnb just before 7. We cleaned ourselves up and caught the Dart train to Temple Bar. The people watching was really interesting. We had drinks at a few bars with live music. Last we found what ended up being my favorite bar: the Norseman. Its sign proclaimed the bar was established in 1696. The vibe was great! It was full of people singing along with the musician, some playing some sort of rowdy card game.