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Rating
: 
Dublin
Dec 9, 2003
Pros:
lots of hiking and driving, many places worth a visit
Cons:
none
Driving on Irish roads involves avoiding a lot of old Irish men
taking their evening constitutional. It also takes a little patience
(not my strongest point behind a wheel!) and good windscreen wipers.
Nine days ahead, a general feeling of....north?....., 6 travel guides
(nice crisp pages, you can tell we prepared!), 3 people, 1 car,
one virus of unknown strain. Our very own outbreak was about to
begin, who brought that monkey?
The team:
Me; driver...the rest of the team may have some criticisms to insert
here but I deny it all!!
Katie: Navigator: I have a theory that each trip must involve Katie
giving one wrong direction, but after that you are home free. Sure
enough, a little detour (which I sure there was a good reason for!)
and then no probs!
Rach: Accommodation guru: 3 stars all the way! No hostel was good
enough for this trip and with Rach getting us accommodation each
night at up to half the price we were set. Just don't let her have
the map! It is not so much an inability to navigate, just a greater
interest making sure we had good tunes on.
There are so many places to go, and never enough time. To cut down
the selection I now rule out "Gateway" or "Market"
towns. Anything with a postcard is at least worth a look, and an
attempt to get some pics.
Up the road from Dublin airport is Newgrange, an ancient gravesite
dating from 3000BC. We actually ended up in Knowth, another of the
graves. The graves are large mounds with tunnels leading to central
chambers, surrounded by large slabs of stone carved on all 6 sides.
Over the millennia various settlements have actually been built
on and around the mounds. The centre chamber has a large stone bowl
that poses a puzzle: how do you get a large bowl through a tunnel
much smaller than its dimensions. Solution: the bowl is first, then
you spend centuries covering it over in stone and earth....or so
the story goes.
Our next puzzle was, where do you stay in Belfast when Rotary hold
a convention in town....solution, way outside the city! But if you
get a concierge who knows a cook, who knows someone else...this
was the start of a trend everywhere we went in Ireland, people going
out of their way to help.
Falls Rd (Ulster-Red Hand-Protestant)and Skankill Rd (Catholics)
are separated by a large corrugated iron wall called the 'peace-line'...although
it was anything but peaceful given the violent conflicts in the
region. Both sides have painted large murals over the decades with
strong political messages. There's a few pics above, walking around
the streets makes you appreciate the nice quiet suburbia of home
to grow up in.
Hiking and driving along rugged coastline occupied much of the next
few days gradually heading to the northeast coast and stopping along
the way at places like Glenariff Forest Park(nice walks, waterfalls),
Cushendall and Cushedun (the last recorded foot and mouth case was
here, a statue of a goat and and lone goat chained below it... not
sure of its tourist appeal though!!) and then along to Ballycastle
and Londonderry. Managed to squeeze in an essential detour to the
Bushmills distillery for a little whiskey appreciation along the
way.
The Irish have the alternative version to the Giant's Causeway story.
Since they have the far more impressive end of causeway I will run
with their version. It was said that an Irish Giant by the name
of Finn McCool challenged the Scottish Giant Benandonner to battle.
Finn then dresses as a baby. When the Scottish Benandonner comes
across he finds the giant 'baby' Finn and thinks to himself, if
this is the baby I don't want to meet the father. He flees back
to Scotland and the causeway is torn up.
The scientific explanation is about volcanic rocks and erosion....the
causeway is all protected national park now and has plenty of hiking
trails that are worth wandering along.
More hiking, driving and stopping at various natural sights and
monuments and we end up on the western coast heading towards Sligo.
About this stage of the trip the tinier took a bit of U turn as
a passport and wallet went walkabout. So back to Dublin and an unexpected
trip to the consulate.
The Sat morning spent sitting watching the Ireland-Australia World
Cup match. 2nd best place to watching it after Aust!
At the end after walking and driving a substantial distance a strong
feeling of exhaustion lingers but was worth it. No luck with the
leprechaun hunting on this trip but perhaps next trip! |
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