Leaving the Comfort Zone

Ireland, Day 3 Cont'd - Bantry/ Schull & the Black Sheep

2007-03-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

We ended up getting to Bantry in plenty of time to do the check-in and change thing, as well as meet up with a few friends from NYC in the hotel's residence bar for a spot of dinner, before the buses were to depart for Schull. Since there was a time crunch Sarah didn't take even one photo of the hotel, the view, the room... shocking, really, when you think about it. So all the pictures here were taken after we arrived in Schull.

A few notes to remember:
1. The groom in the wedding is the co-owner of our local NYC pub is from Schull. Our local was named after the pub he worked in back home. Although that Courtyard was having a different private party this night, we were still headed to a big hometown celebration for Pat & Julia.

2. A hotel's residence bar never really closes all night. The night staff working at the desk is also responsible for making sure that ANY HOTEL GUEST who would like to have a drink gets served in the residents' bar. Seriously, this is the most wondrous concept - and when you think about it, an extremely dangerous precedent to set...That being said...

At the appointed time we all shuffled outside to board our buses for the 30 minute ride to Schull. The first thing we should explain is that "bus" in this case refers to more of a shuttle-bus by American standards. Twenty-some odd people, no bathroom, light on the shocks.

Did I mention we'd already been to the hotel bar? Beer and cider flowing... if you know David at all, you know that in spite of the fact that he'd hit the loo before we got on the bus, 5 minutes into the ride he was desperate to stop. No matter how much he didn't want to be known for stopping the bus, and that deep down he knew he could probably make it, he finally couldn't take it, and asked for the driver to pull over. Amid shouts & collective assurances that we were only 5 minutes from the bar, David hopped off and ran to the closest pub.

Sure enough, about 5 minutes after he joined the rest of us (jeering him) on the bus, we stopped in front of The Black Sheep - our destination.

We admit, much of this night has been lost to the fuzziness of inebriation and time past, but a genuinely good time was had by all. We can report the following:

As you can see from the photos, while you can no longer smoke inside an Irish pub, you can take your drinks to the street to have a smoke! By the end of the night, it looked like a block party up and down the main road where The Black Sheep is located, what with so many pubs' patrons milling about.

There was a gent singing & playing guitar at The Black Sheep. Eventually, there was a little karaoke-type thing going on... which Steve gladly got photos of our friend Elizabeth & Sarah participating in! (thanks Steve!)

On the bus-ride back to Bantry, there was a little "incident" - causing far too much sobriety to be injected into the festivities.

Due ward off said sobriety, many of us (Sarah & David of course included) adjured to the aforementioned Residents' Bar to raise our glasses, our blood-alcohol level, and a bit of the staff's ire before heading to our beds for a much needed sleep.

Ireland, Day 3 Cont'd - Bantry via Old Head & Skibbereen

2006-12-02T14:24:00.000-05:00

THE PLAN: We intended to take a leisurely drive by semi-costal route down from Kinsale toward our final destination of Bantry. Perhaps stopping around Skibbereen for a late lunch. We were to be in Bantry by early evening, so as to have time to change and get unpacked before we hopped on buses for the start of the wedding festivities.

THE REALITY: Those of you who have driven in County Cork (or in most of Ireland, we'd bet) will understand when we say that no matter how much you study the map, plot your course and feel assured that you can navigate what the roads have in store, about once an hour you take a bend that suddenly unfolds into a mysterious and unmarked fork in your route. And/or you suddenly realize you are far, far away from where you thought you were on the map!

The drive to Bantry was filled with such instances. Seemingly at every junction, we had to make an uneducated choice - no signs, nothing on the map to indicate there could be potential turn. We (at Sarah's insistance) drove up wrong roads and turned around in people's driveways. We'd start down one road, then go only a few yards and turn around (or back up!) and take the other turn. There were additional pratfalls along the way, like when we went to a gas station and Sarah asked where she could get a "top off" instead of "top up" (for the Irish cell phone) --> much to the amusement of the station attendant!

This being said, David blossomed into a brilliant navigator on this trip, showing a fairly keen sense of direction that, despite of all the potential hazards, led to us merrily poking along and enjoying tons of "happy accidents".

One such occasion was our "discovery" of a route that took us down to Old Head peninsula. We had guessed and taken a left turn at one of those pop up forks ~ we did a lot of well, it seems to be going leftish on the map kind of stuff . Sarah being nervous to keep driving as David studied the map explaining that while it seemed we had gotten off our route, this should just take us on a long detour & otherwise making "hmm, yeah, this should work"-type comments. Then we hit the top of a hill, and saw the narrow peninsula stretched out not only before us, but on either side as well. Going as fast as we were, combined with the scenery, it truly took our breath away. The car seemed to stop in mid-air for a moment as we turned to each other with a collective WOW!

Obviously, we had to stop. Sarah was desperate to get out of the car and take photos; the sky was so blue, the day so clear and bright and mild, that she drove the car off when we found this little turnoff to the beach.

When we first got out of the car on this side of the peninsula, we were surprised by just how mild it was. The high sun seemed to quickly warm everything, and with only a slight breeze coming off the water, there were folks out in full swimwear - walking and laying out on the beach. Finally we got back into the car and drove around the edge of Old Head to the other side where there were more open beaches.
It may not be apparent in the pics, but it was so windy! So chilly that the sun seemed to not to be able to penetrate the breeze. We pulled off the road into a parking area, and when David rolled down his window sand blew in all over him!

Not to be deterred, Sarah got out of the car and spent about 10 minutes taking photos; lying on the grassy side of this little hill, hoping to keep sand from blowing into the camera lens.

Having satisfied the photo jones, Sarah got back into the car and off we drove - connecting back to the original road we had been on, just as David had predicted.

We did stop in Skibbereen for lunch at a pub (the best Roast Beef sandwich Sarah has ever had!) & so Sarah could get another 1g memory card for the camera.

Ireland, Day 3 - Kinsale

2006-10-31T10:38:00.000-05:00

After waking up in our itty bitty guestroom, we headed down for the traditional Irish Breakfast. The breakfast area had recently been expanded and renovated, so we had been told by the owner of The White House the night before. We had been able to see it from our room's window above, and it was a nice area, with a lovely little stone patio... down we went and proceeded to have what must be described as the most ghastly meal of the trip - an Irish Breakfast most vile!!

Still rather hungry (but knowing there was always a Luna bar to be had once we got back in the car again), we headed off to see a bit of Kinsale. Most notably, we wanted to check out The Wine Museum at Desmond Castle. As it turns out, Kinsale was extreemly important in the early wine trades... you can read more about that here, if you like.

Following the streets ever upward, we reached Desmond Castle as a nice light rain started to fall. The word castle is probably misleading to most - having already seen 2 large and imposing castles in 2 days, we were braced for another round of serious stair-climbing and the like.

Yeah... not so much.

The first shot is of the stairs going UP to the castle - The other is the castle itself.

Don't misunderstand, it was really quite a nifty little place, and the gentleman who was manning the desk and "tour starting point" could not have been nicer. Everything was most informative! Plus, there were all sorts of props and maps and dioramas and... it really was rather kitschy.

These are "prisoners" in one of the old cells in the castle - note the "rat"! What we couldn't capture were the lights and auto explaining the history, and adding ambient noises of moaning and the like. Not even going to bother with the American prisoner who was chained to a wall...

That's (acording to the map) right where we were in Ireland ~ Kinsale.

A bit goofy, to be sure, but the self-directed tour did provide us with numerous "action" shots, and even a few nice ones of town...

David is trying to steal his glass of wine!!

Ireland Day 2 Cont'd: Kinsale

2006-08-29T21:42:00.000-05:00

Our next stop on the zigzag tour of SW Ireland was Kinsale. Another little port town, well known for it's wonderful restaurants and quant atmosphere.

We got to Kinsale early in the evening, and it was obvious there was some event going on in town and at the marina. Which we has expected when we had encountered so many problems booking a guesthouse for the night. And explians why we wound up in the smallest bedroom ever encountered outside of Manhattan. As you can see, you really couldn't get around the bed by walking. This photo is of the entire room.

So, after we checked into our very basic, itty bitty room at the guesthouse, we walked down toward the marina. Passing the Seafarers' Memorial,

and Merlin's Keep (ok, not really anything but someone's guesthouse, probably - but Sarah thought it was amusing).
Eventually reaching Vista, this lovely little wine and tappas joint by the marina.
This little wine bar was so cute, and obviously had it's own little happy hour crowd (that's them, behind David).

After a little bite to tide us over, not to mention a few glasses of wine, we wandered back into the downtown area to find a restaurant for dinner.

Those of you who know David well know that one of his great loves in life is a fine meal. And more than that, he loves to check out menus online of everywhere we may go to eat. Planning a night out for dinner can involve serious research for him. Naturally, he had looked into restaurants in every town we had booked into on our journey. And he had lists (ok, only in his head, but still) of his top 5 places to go for meals - as well as for drinks before and after. We tried a few places he'd scoped out, but unfortunately they were so crowded they had 2 hour waits (!!), so we settled on The White House.

Even though they were also very busy, we were able to be seated and started on our basket of yummy breads and creamy butter, ordered more wine & decided on which of the seafood specials we wanted.

We lingered over our meal, going to their back patio area to grab a smoke now and again... This is David in the back... You'll notice it was still bright out when we went in, but by the time we left, night had finally fallen in Kinsale. Did I mention we lingered?

This is a view of Kinsale at night. Actually, it's the street right across from the White House and right in front of our next stop - The Armada.

The Armada was a really nice, large pub. Also very dark, so most of my photos turned out really blurry (or maybe that was the wine?). We were drinking the local brew, Kinsale Irish, and enjoying watching some folks playing Snooker or 9 Ball, or whatever it was. When they finally left, we thought we'd shoot some pool, just for kicks. Or, at least we tried to. It was pretty ugly, I have to say. We muddled through a couple of really bad games, when suddenly this man starts walking briskly through the bar shouting "FINISH! FINISH! FINISH!". And then he turned the lights over the table off. As we were shooting! It was amazing! Never seen a bar clear that fast at closing! Oh, and we should mention, this was about 11:40 pm. Because bars in Ireland close at MIDNIGHT! Alright, seriously, what is that about? And we did try a few other places, but after 11:45, not one bar would even think of serving us.

So that's how Cinderella & the mice felt... We headed back to the guesthouse, stopping to chat with a college kid who was also staying at our guesthouse, and who was headed off to the World Cup a few days later. We all eventually headed inside, wishing the rooms weren't so tiny, or there was somewhere - anywhere - open past midnight.

Ireland Day 2 Cont'd: Blarney Castle

2006-08-29T20:28:00.001-05:00

We did reach Blarney Castle eventually & we headed in on the heels of a large student tour group. So instead of going directly into the castle, we walked off into the grounds.

This wee girl wandered into the tower by the castle when Sarah was inside.

But as we got deeper into the grounds, the vegetation reached serious heights.

That's David in one of the gigantic trees.

The "Druid Tree". A famous spot on the grounds.

Finally, we emerged from the grounds and once again approached the castle.

So, beyond David in the next photo is the actual Blarney Stone.

This is where you are supposed to lie down on the roof of the castle, bend over backwards through a hole that is 6 stories high (or so it seems), and kiss the outer wall of the castle.

Right... sorry, but - don't think so.
And we admit, even though our Irish-born friends had warned us that young Irishmen like to breach the grounds and piss on the Blarney Stone, Sarah was still considering kissing the Stone. But after we climbed narrow stairway after narrow stairway, and then we saw folks bending backward through that hole, her resolve crumbled under the weight of her fear of heights.

However, the view from up there was spectacular!

This is looking down to the path that we started off into the grounds on.

And remember the student tourists that caused us to go backwards through the grounds up to the castle? Well, we did manage to avoid them... by the time we got to the top, most of them were milling about just below the castle, waiting to head back to their bus.

Ireland Day 2: Road to Blarney

2006-08-23T22:27:00.000-05:00

On the drive from Kenmare across the middle of SW Ireland to Blarney Castle, Sarah was still getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road. Yet every few kilometers she was dying to pull over and take photos. Only once did she actually succumb to the urge, though - and stopped at the top of someones' driveway, which overlooked the River Lee.

It was almost too easy to take beautiful photographs of the scenery.

We did make one other stop along the way, in the town of Macroom, as Sarah was trying to find batteries for her camera.

So, natuarally, we took in a bit of the scenery in town.
Unfortunately, we never found Sarah's batteries, but we did enjoy the stop.
Can you believe this is the town's information center? Beyond this, the castle in Macroom leads back to the public park. How cool would that be?

Ireland Day 1 Cont'd: Kenmare

2006-08-23T21:59:00.000-05:00

Eventually we made our way down the Western edge of Co. Kerry to the town of Kenmare. The town itself reminded Sarah very much of Shepherdstown, WV, where she went to college.

We stayed at Virginia's Guesthouse, on the main drag. Though just a moderate guesthouse, we ranked this as the best place we stayed the whole trip. They were so lovely, and the breakfast they served us on our first real morning in Ireland was amazing.

We spent most of the evening in Kenmare wandering about town, checking out a few pubs and their menus. We had our first Irish Guiness at O'Donnabhain's, ate a bit here and there, and finished off our dinner at Davitts.

The next morning we had the incredible breakfast including Sarah's scrambled eggs with fresh salmon and fresh squeezed juice, followed by packing to the comforting sounds of the Dukes of Hazard.

Ireland Day 1: Bunratty Castle

2006-08-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

The night of July 4th we flew out of NYC and into Shannon Airport in Ireland - that's where we picked up our itty bitty car - and Sarah drove off with David navigating through an unbelievable number of "roundabouts". Fortunately, our first stop on our brisk tour of SW Ireland wasn't very far away. Bunratty Castle.

Bunratty is a restored and functioning castle and "folk park". We spent a good couple of hours climbing castle steps and through the folk park village - mostly pressing through our jet lag and stretching our muscles after the long flight.

Let's just stop for a moment to say, for what will not be the last time, we had exceptional weather the entire trip to Ireland, save the day of the wedding we had gone to attend. We had more sun-shiny days and blue skies than anyone would expect of the famed "beautiful Irish weather" - we were told to expect wet and chilly - we got sunny and mild.

Bunratty was a lovely way to ease ourselves into Ireland, and, we got to see all manner of animals to boot! (We live in a city, please understand, this was exciting.)

And we took the opportunity to do some of those cheesy touristy things.

We finally headed back out, but not after Sarah took many more photos. We will try to get those up on a separate link.