Sydney/Bangkok/London/Dublin/Ireland/Dublin/New York/San Francisco/Sydney

21 August 2006 to 15 September 2006 – Mileage 25,418

7 Days driving around Ireland– Kenmare to Dublin – 2/9/06 to 6/9/06

I awoke with a start and looked at the time – 8.00!  Cuz hadn’t bothered to waken me, and by the time I reached the breakfast room she had almost finished her breakfast.  As usual, separate was the go. The sky above Kenmare was cloudy and just something we accepted now about the trip.

We packed up the car ready to leave and I expected that she would drive as I had driven the first two days.  However, she parked herself in the passenger seat saying that we would take it in turns.  When I pointed out I had driven the first two days she just shrugged.  No doubt she was as glad to get in the passenger seat as I had been.  We travelled around the Ring of Kerry, picking up the road again outside Kenmare, and followed the narrow winding roads around the cliff face.  The views again were spectacular and I stopped often so cuz could take photos and I could have a look, something she didn’t do when she was driving.  I madly tried to snap pics out the windows of the car as she sped past everything that I would have liked to slow down and look at in another life. 

We passed a sign to an old fort, so I turned around and went back again.  The road wound up the side of the hills above the road we had been on.  It was a tight single lane this road with little room to go anywhere if another car came in the other direction.  Finally we made it to the fort and put our donation in the honesty box at the gate.  We walked up the hill and I was careful not to tread in any sheep dung that seemed to be lying almost everywhere in the grass and on the rough path to the fort.  My camera died so I couldn’t take any photos.  I decided not to go through the narrow entrance into the fort and stayed outside enjoying the views, watching the sheep in the next paddock.  The fort was almost all gone with the exception of parts of the wall. The sheep were more interesting and are much different to our sheep.  They are white and kind of round in shape with black heads and funny black tails.  They are all stamped with coloured markings on their backs and have skinny legs.  Mountain sheep.

I drove back down the road to the main road and into the driveway of a kind of shop come restaurant on the corner.  I wanted to buy some batteries but they didn’t have any, so I purchased a few postcards (old pics in black & white) and used the amenities.  We sat outside for a few minutes having a cool drink before leaving once more on our travels.  There were a couple of dogs there that cuz played fetch with.  She was missing her little mate too I think although she didn’t say she was.

We travelled next to Sneem, and parked up a side road just before a bridge in the main street.  I noticed a lovely old church on a hill and it looked as though we could walk up and through the grounds and perhaps see the river.  Leaving the car parked, we walked up to the church and down through the grounds where there were some interesting stone cone-shaped dwellings, or I thought they must be as they had doorways into them.  It was disappointing that there was no signage that I could see, that gave a hint as to what these structures had been.  I heard a loud sound like a waterfall and walked out from some trees to a view of beautiful hills across the water in the distance.  I turned and faced the Church, and was amazed to see large two or three-storey homes facing that view but with almost totally solid walls and just a few small windows on the very top levels.  I wondered about that as anyone from Australia who had a view like that would have had windows to the max on the back of the building, with decks so they could sit and feast on the view.  Perhaps it is the extreme cold of winter or the winds that might come across the water.  Seemed such a shame though not to face that view.

I remembered the story I had been told in Waterford about the tax that was levied in the 1700s on owners of dwellings, including Churches.  It was a tax on the amount of light that came into your property through windows, and many home owners, and the Churches, boarded up their windows or cemented them because they couldn’t afford the tax.  These houses weren’t that old though, so the reason for so few windows couldn’t be blamed on that tax.

We walked down the short road from the church to the main street and the shops across the road were just divine.  They were painted in colours that we would be horrified to see here in Australia, and yet in Ireland they were just perfect, with bright colours, and each building a different, clashing colour.  I took photos of the shops as they really caught my attention.  Flower boxes on the windowsills completed the picture.  Turning the corner into the main street we saw the bridge over the Sneem River and the sound of the water became louder.  The most amazing sight was a howler of a river, white water supreme, running through the middle of the town.  The bridge was built with a grate section that pedestrians walked over, so you looked down into that raging torrent.  We walked over the bridge, down the side of the river and took photos of the river, the rapids, and that view.  Just amazing.  Sad to have to leave sights like that, but we had to keep moving as the days were passing by.

The road led us past some lovely beaches, long stretches of sand with waves rolling in gently.  There was no big surf as there were numerous islands between the shore and the open sea.  On one stop by a bay, I picked up two pretty grey stones to take home with me. We arrived at Waterville and I bought some batteries from the chemist store in the main street. All I could buy were Kodak batteries, so I purchased two packs hoping they would last me until I could get hold of some lithium.  There was a statue of Charlie Chaplin at Waterville, on the side of the road in a small concrete enclave at the front of the grassed area that ran along grassed area that led to the water.  I took pics of cuz with him and she took one of me.  Some young girls were there doing Irish dancing around Charlie’s statue and I think they danced if you paid them.  Not sure because I didn’t pay them!

We had to track back a bit after the Ring of Kerry to get to Limerick and finding a sign to Limerick, 96km, I headed off.  However cuz insisted I was on the wrong road, as it would take much longer to go that way.  I argued that it didn’t matter as we were on holidays and as long as we got to our destination that was all that mattered. However, she insisted, so I turned around.  It took us about ½ an hour, and more kilometres, to find the other road, and a sign said that Limerick was 126km away.  She still insisted it was a better road and I guess, as she hadn’t ever been there before, she would know.  Off I set and off to sleep went cuz.  I stopped once for a smoke along the road and she didn’t stir. 

I drove the 126km with no conversation until we entered Limerick and she woke up.  I asked her where to go to get to Tipperary, as it was supposedly only 17km from Limerick.  She didn’t have a clue, so I pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car.  A man and woman walked towards me and I asked them for help.  Fortunately the man knew exactly how to get to Tipperary, very unusual for Ireland, and we did a U turn and headed off.  Tipperary was about 35km from Limerick.  I drove to Tipperary with cuz asleep again and decided to head back out from town as I had seen a couple of B&B places on the way in.  There didn’t appear to be much in town and it was too hard to see while driving.  It was dark and so were the roads.

I pulled into the car park of a hotel that had accommodation next door to a home with a B&B sign.  We decided to try the B&B home first but there were no rooms available as a wedding was being held at another hotel up the road and all the B&B places on that strip were booked out.  The lady kindly rang another B&B the other side of Tipperary and we made out way to a service station along the road just outside town where the lady from the other B&B met us.  We followed her car to her home, around dark roads that could have been going anywhere, and she showed us the room.  It was small but we really didn’t care as it was late and we hadn’t eaten.  Our prospects of finding anywhere at that time of night were limited but I drove into town along the dark country road, nervous that I wouldn’t be able to find my way back again.  Once in town we found nothing much open except a pizza place and a takeaway where you could get hamburgers and chips.  I bought a burger and chips and coffee and cuz bought nothing.  She was in another mood and said it was too late to eat.  I drove back to the B&B, cuz went off to bed, and I sat in the sunroom eating my solitary meal while I did some writing before having an almost cold shower and hitting the sheets. 

I decided that night I didn’t want to continue with the trip and go to the US.  I sent Bryan an sms message and asked him to contact my travel agent on Monday and get me a ticket out of Dublin home.  I had had enough of cuz and whatever it was that was making her behave like she was.  Spending hours a day in a car with someone who didn’t want to converse was awful, as were the nights of no speaking in the rooms where we slept, and the almost silent meal times.  I wondered if I was the problem, but I was careful to use deodorant and perfume J and being so excited about seeing Ireland I couldn’t figure what it was I had done to make her like she was.

I reached the stage where I said nothing much at all because it seemed every time I opened my mouth all she could say was “I know”, “I saw it”, “I heard” or for the thousandth time ….’huh?’ so that I had to repeat almost everything I ever said.  Nothing every led to a conversation, just a couple of words that closed the door and made me appear to be an idiot for saying what I said.  The fact that the US leg of the trip was expensive, with the accommodation in New York alone costing me $200 a night with no breakfast, didn’t faze me at all.  I would happily have gone home from Dublin and just whistled goodbye to the money. 

However, I changed my mind as I felt that if I did go home, my actions would equal hers and no way was I going there.  Her rudeness had offended me greatly and confused me, but repaying in like wasn’t the way to go, although I guess withdrawing and keeping my own counsel was probably bordering on being like her.  I contacted Bryan again and told him to forget it, that I would continue on with the trip to the bitter end. It would also have been a complicated mess to get out of Dublin to Australia, and I had already been in a mess for a couple of weeks so another mess wasn’t much of an idea on reflection.  I withdrew into my own world then and soaked in the environment around me.

I drove on some of the most scenic roads in the world I imagine, and nothing can ever take away the beauty I saw and felt in Ireland.  In spite of my dreams of sharing the excitement of Ireland not coming to fruition, nothing could ever take away from me the memories and emotions I felt.  Not even my cuz.

Next morning, and more rain.  I was up at 7.00 and dressed, with my bag packed in the car before cuz woke. I started to get the feeling that she purposefully waited for me to get ready each day and once I was out of the door, she got up and hurriedly got ready.  I seemed to be becoming neurotic and tried extra hard to appear unfazed and happy although for a Scorpio, it’s very hard not to take on someone else’s mood for some weird reason. 

I looked up at the sky as I packed my gear into the car and had the impression there was a lot of water up there that was about to fall somewhere.  It was Sunday and our B&B hostess advised that little would be open that day.  There were tourist places to visit, but because of the weather we decided to move on and hopefully away from the rain.  After breakfast at 8.30 we set out back to Limerick.  Finding Bunratty Castle, we parked the car and entered the grounds (13.00 Euro each).  Inside there was plenty to look at, aside from the Castle that has been restored and is interesting in its own right. 

There were cottages that depicted the early life of the Irish farming people.  The cottages all had peat fires burning in them, and on a wet, cool day, they were very warm inside, but the smoke was a bit choking.  The less affluent farmer had a cottage of one room with a barn off the end.  The room was divided up so there was a main bedroom, with a double bed and perhaps a smaller bed or crib, and in a loft, more beds that were accessed by a ladder.  The cottages have been moved from other areas of Ireland to Bunratty Castle, lovingly restored with furniture from the period, some clothing, handbags, boots and shoes, and crockery and cooking utensils.  There was also a cottage that depicted the more affluent farmer and this one had a number of rooms downstairs and upstairs. The dining room had treasures that were a delight to look at, although it was roped off so look was all you could do.

There was also a village where you could wander into the schoolhouse and see the old wooden desks with inkwells and a real find for me, a blackboard on an easel with Gaelic writing on it and the equivalent words in English.  I took some photos for my granddaughter, as this was typical of the schoolroom I spent my early years in.  I still remember the inkwells and the dirty fingers and those awful messy nibs.  There was a doctor’s home and surgery where some archaic instruments were on show. Upstairs were the bedrooms and an alcove, with a nice bay window, where a sewing machine was set up. 

I wandered around the village, alone, and found it extremely interesting.  Along the street a ways was a shop that sold Irish Linen and beautiful lace tablecloths and cotton nighties and baby’s clothes and young children’s outfits.  All just beautiful.  When converting the cost of items from the Euro to the AU$, they were quite expensive.  I didn’t purchase anything there, as I still had to be mindful of the weight of what I bought and the bulk.  I found some old farm equipment in a yard and took photos of them.  There were also some interesting looking straw stacks in the yard on legs above the ground, and I wondered if that’s what they were or if they were some kind of dwelling.

We spent a couple of hours at Bunratty and part of the time was under the umbrella as the showers came and went.  Cuz wandered off in the direction of the signs to the loo and I thought that’s where she went.  I sat and waited for some time but she didn’t come back so I went on through the tourist store that led outside the Castle grounds.  There she was, standing, waiting.  I sighed inwardly again; no communication just walked off and left me waiting.  It was like a game with her I started to think, but shook off the thoughts and headed to the car.

We drove on to Ennis, and had to backtrack a little to the town of Clarecastle.  We had driven through the town and not realised we had as it was almost joined to Ennis. This was where we needed to go to find Islandmcgrath.   We had read about it on the Internet and were eager to find the place, knowing only that it was a hill, not an island at all!  Impossible on a drive through Clarecastle to find any street names, so we found a service station and asked for directions.  No one had heard of the street – Lissane Road – and there was no street directory at the service station.  Totally frustrated we drove through the town and headed out along a road to the right.  I saw a shop on the left and asked cuz to stop, as I wanted to go and ask about Lissane Road.  How amazing it was!  We were on Lissane Road!  All we had to do was keep driving and it would become Islandmcgrath. 

We travelled further than the 2km that Islandmcgrath was supposed to be from Clarecastle before we came upon a hill.  It was the only one around, and it was a typical Irish green, lush hill.  It had to be the right place.  Driving up and around the road to the top of the hill, we seemed to be going nowhere but into driveways to houses.  Stopping at one house, I got out of the car only to be confronted by an angry dog.  I hastily retreated to the car with no sign of life at the house, although a car was parked out front.

Back down the road below the hill, we pulled in beside a paddock at a place where the road had been widened out a bit for passing cars.  There was a herd of young bulls on the other side of the fence, very curious about us.  I took some pics of them and the hill and then saw a 4WD coming down the road.  I put my hand out for the car to stop, which it did, and explained to the driver what we were looking for.  His answer?  “You’re standing on it right here and up to the hill and across to the water and back down to the other road is all Islandmcgrath”.  All double-dutch to us as we hadn’t seen any water; but we had seen the hill.  He told us that the old home, what was left of it, was on top of the hill amongst the trees and that we could see the ruins except that the gate was locked to the property.  He gave us permission to climb over the gate, saying that he was the caretaker for the area.  I thanked him profusely, smiling broadly that we had found what we had been searching for.  I even think that cuz was a bit chuffed at that point. 

Back up the road and into the driveway to the gate.  Damn!  It was one of those big farm gates, with a lock, and neither of us attempted to try and climb over it.  I was disappointed; so near and yet so far to where the McGrath clan once lived.  There was nothing to be seen because of the thick trees so we climbed back into the car and headed out along the road looking for the water.  We ended up amongst quite a group of houses, with dogs running out at the car, and it seemed all the roads we took were dead-end roads that led to homes, so we turned around and headed back out to the main drag.  I imagine those homes, that were huge, must have been worth quite a bit of money.

Back to Ennis and then on to Galway via Lahinch, a seaside resort on the Atlantic.  It was again a very hilly town, and we found a place to leave the car safely and walked back to the town.  There was a jewellery shop there with a half price sale on and if you bought one item you were given another one of equal value.  I would have lingered and probably spent some money there, but time again was snapping at our heels if we wanted to go as far north as we planned.  We bought takeaway lunch and sat on the rocks at the beach (no sand) and watched the people on their surfboards and boogey boards.  A ride in on a wave had you heading for the rocks so it looked a bit precarious.  There was sand of course, but it lay under the water, not as a beach. The beach consisted totally of big boulders. 

Across the way a lady sat with a Golden Retriever.  He/she looked very much like my sweetie Shaye, but had a shorter face, more Labrador looking.  I took some pics of the dog using the zoom lens on the camera.  As we got up to leave and return to the car, the family were leaving with the dog.  It jumped all over me, sigh* just like Shaye, and the lady apologised saying she never could seem to break that habit. I knew exactly what she meant.  The dog’s coat was wirier than Shaye’s, maybe from the salt water of the sea.  I bid the dog a sad farewell, again having pangs of homesickness for my loved ones, and Shaye.  It was extremely windy in Lahinch and we were both glad when we made it back to the car and got out of the wind. 

Lahinch wasn’t far from the Cliffs of Mohar.  On approaching the site of the Cliffs, we were disappointed to find a car park that we had to pay to park in, prior to the walk to the Cliffs that appeared to be quite a trek up a hill on the other side of the road.  Because of the high wind and the fact that we were angry to have to pay to see something that belonged to nature, we drove on past the car park.

We were in the hills of Burren then, and they are a striking contrast to the rest of the countryside, with their limestone colouring.  The road stretched ahead and you could see it winding across the countryside.  We drove up a mountain road to Allwee Cave, which is supposedly the most visited cave in Ireland.  It goes under the Burren hills.  The cave was disappointing, and I found wandering around underground in the very blackness of the place daunting.  I think if you are going to go underground like that you should be able to see where you are going and what is around you, not just what they highlight for tourists to see along the way.  Anyhow, we made our contribution by visiting.  The cost was 10.00 Euro each. I can remember visiting Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains out of Sydney when I was a school kid, and they were fantastic.  

On to Galway and beds for the night at a B&B out from the town.  We were finding it much more practical to locate B&Bs out of towns and cities than trying to navigate around in the traffic and narrow streets.  Next door to the B&B was a pub and we walked there for dinner.  I was still eating it hours later!  There wasn’t much to choose from at the pub and again, I was really wanting a plate of vegetables, a seemingly hard thing to find except at home.  The pub had quite a good crowd there, both eating and just drinking. 

A B&B business in Ireland must be quite lucrative as there were a lot of people travelling around when we were on the roads.  Not that much traffic out of the towns and yet the B&Bs were always full or almost full when we turned up looking for beds.  It’s a mostly cash in hand business too so must go a long way towards paying a good wage to those homeowners who choose to let out rooms and cook breakfasts.  Most of the B&Bs had probably 4 rooms to let, singles, twin share or doubles, and at 25 Euro up to 40 Euro each person per night, the profits would be quite acceptable.

After the usual great breakfast the next morning, we headed back to Galway to take the road out to Clifden.  Clifden was a surprise to me as I expected it to be on the seaside, like Lahinch.  It was raining lightly as we drove into Clifden, and it was my turn to drive that day. I knew the sea was close by because of where Clifden appeared on the map, so I headed out from the town on a road called Sky Road.  It was a narrow winding road and I had no idea where it would lead us, but it seemed to beckon me.  And wow!  Was I rewarded for taking that little adventurous turn?  Indeed I was. Around a bend and the ocean and all the beauty that it beheld was before my eyes.  The views on this road were spectacular with just a low rock wall between the car and the cliff edge.  I saw a roadway into a driveway of a house that lay below the road on the side of the cliff, and pulled over.  The Sky Road was very narrow and winding, mostly uphill at this point, so the only way you could stop was to find somewhere wide enough to pull over while leaving sufficient room for cars to pass.

We got out of the car and stood looking out at the view of the ocean, the bay, and the islands.  Even on a not so good day it was still so beautiful.  I could imagine roads like this in Australia around our coastline, and wished we had more of them.  Our coastline is beautiful too, but on trips we only get glimpses of the sea unless you go off the beaten track.  It just doesn’t seem like something I don’t do much of at home.  But in Ireland off the beaten track is where most people do go to see the treasures there are to be found.  The difference between being a tourist and living somewhere that you just take for granted and don’t take the time to go smell the daisies. 

I looked down to the right and saw a man amongst some kind of garden on the side of the cliff.  I said hello to him and asked him what he was doing down there.  He told me that he was working in his vegetable patch and was picking peas.  What a wonderful place for a vege patch; there on the side of a cliff above the sea, nestled amongst the weeds, grasses and wild flowers.  What a life!  I took his picture and told him I would be taking him back to Australia with me.

He asked us where we were headed and we told him we were going on to Westport.  He told us to keep on going on the Sky Road and we would eventually come to a turnoff to Westport.  It was a bit longer trip by his estimation, but well worth the extra time.  After bidding him farewell I settled behind the wheel once more and headed off up the winding road.  A number of times I had to head for the side of the road to let other cars pass by, even a large camper that seemed to want the bit of road we had as well, and we did get a bit lost for a while.  Being told to just follow the road and don’t veer off it in Ireland is not so easy at times!

This was real driving that people like my father used to do in New South Wales in the early days; well the 1940’s onward.  I remember many trips with my Dad along our highways of those days, and they were scary trips too, around winding roads and huge hills where the old cars used to boil.  I remember the old canvas water bag that hung on the side of the rear of the car for those times.  I can remember drinking from that bag too at times and the water always seemed to be so cool and nice.  There is little adventure in daily driving for me at home along main roads and highways. 

Here in Ireland I was back adventuring – the feeling of returning to a long gone past was strong and it was a grand feeling.  This car didn’t boil though; it purred along.  The car was fitted with one of those satellite road map thingos, but I didn’t envisage we would need one so didn’t pay the extra to use it.  In hindsight I realise now how handy it would have been and how much easier we probably would have moved around.  But there again, with such a device there would have been a loss of the adventure of getting lost and finding roads like the Sky Road that weren’t on our itinerary.

We happened upon a small village called Killary and I was blown away that I actually ended up passing through there.  I have a picture of Ireland on my website that an Irish photographer I found on the Internet gave me permission to use and it’s of Killary, the only true fiord in Ireland.  And there I was, in Killary.  I crossed the bridge and parked the car opposite one of the large woollen tourist outlets and stood by the fence looking out across the water, wondering where the picture I had was taken.  I took some of my own photos and also read the large signboard that depicted all the true wildflowers of Ireland and those that were taken to Ireland from other countries and have now become part of the scene.  How neat that was to have unknowingly stumbled on Killary.  The day wasn’t good for sightseeing or for photos, and it rained lightly with poor visibility.  But the feeling was there of having actually stood in a place that I had a treasured photo of.

Travelling on we passed through Westport, Castlebar and Ballina to Sligo and then from Sligo to Donegal.  We hadn’t stopped at any tourist destinations that day and had just kept driving between stops to view the scenery.  Our days were becoming less and less and I thought that probably once we reached Sligo we would head across the country and back down to Dublin.  However when we reached Sligo, cuz said we might as well keep going to Donegal.  I knew from my research that the McGrath name was part of Donegal in days gone by so going there seemed like a must. 

Donegal was another hilly town on the water, and in finding somewhere to park the car to visit the tourist information centre, I ended up parked in a hard to get out of place.  It was earlier in the afternoon that day than most days when we arrived to look for a bed for the night, so our first stop at a B&B, after getting out of the tight spot I parked in, saw us with a bedroom for the night.  The B&B had a huge backyard that went down to the river.  Shame it was raining most of the time we were there as the seats down on the grass by the river looked inviting.  It would have been nice to sit down there and do some writing.  We weren’t far from town so we walked there later to find somewhere to have dinner, ending up in a restaurant at the rear of a shop, in a car park.  I had chicken with pineapple and banana, some salad and chips, and two cups of cappuccino. 

It brought to mind a similar takeaway dinner from Red Rooster called the Hawaiian Pack that we get in Australia.  I don’t think you get a banana anymore though as they are around the $13AU a kilo!  That equals about $2.50AU per banana. I haven’t bought bananas for a long time even though prior to the time the price skyrocketed I was eating a banana every day.  To have one every day now would cost probably $15AU or more, depending on the size of the bananas.  As a country that grows a lot of bananas, I can’t work out how come they now cost so much.  The reason given was Cyclone Larry that wiped out apparently most of the crops in Queensland.  I’m not so sure about it; who do you believe in today’s world when we see petrol prices going up overnight by 20 cents or more a litre and then down again a couple of days later with reported costs of oil barrels dropping prior to that period?  I heard on a radio station in Sydney one morning a discussion between the announcer and someone from the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, far north coast of New South Wales.  From the observations of the person at the Big Banana there were plenty of bananas around and they weren’t expensive either.  Work it out, I sure can’t.

Back to Donegal.  After dinner we walked back to the B&B passing by a pub where there was a notice in the window about a night of Irish music.  Cuz went in and asked what time the entertainment would commence – 10.30 pm.  Too late for us, and it was wet and cold.  Back to the B&B and interestingly, no TV set in the room.  This was a first.  There was a sitting room I guess you would call it, for guests, at the top of the stairs outside the rooms.  I went out there and sat down taking in my surroundings.  The window looked out across the water, but it was night so the view wasn’t visible.  I noted that there were tea and coffee facilities in the room; another thing missing from the room we were staying in.

There were two other people sitting on a lounge across from me, and we said hello and started to chat about Ireland.  They were from the UK and had visited Ireland before; this time they were doing parts they had missed the first trip.  We had an interesting time chatting back and forth, and cuz even joined us.  At 10.30 we all disappeared to our beds and met up again the next morning at breakfast. 

Something I noticed right from day one out and about in the car.  The people of Ireland love their flowerbeds and almost every window has a flower box, on shops and homes alike.  It reminded me of pictures of Italy and Mediterranean countries that you often see depicted in advertisements, in films and even jigsaw puzzles.  The continual array of colourful flowers was a delight and made the towns and villages just so special.  I saw many flowers that we have in Australia and thought how wonderful it would be to live in a country where there is ample rainfall to make the grass so green and the flowers so healthy and flourishing.  Just a note on water in Ireland; I was told that they pay for every drop of water they use, as we do in Australia.  Hard to understand when there would definitely never be a water shortage there or it would be hard to imagine there could be.

Tuesday morning saw us on the road again after breakfast and saying goodbye to our chat mates of the previous evening.  Headed back to Pettigo, so another backtrack.  There we visited the St Patrick’s Purgatory site.  The pilgrimage walk was 12km each way, so we couldn’t take it on due to time constraints and the inclement weather.  The ferry across to Purgatory Island was leaving as we arrived, but we decided not to go out there.  The weather was lousy and we were low on money, as we hadn’t found anywhere to exchange money in Donegal.  The banks didn’t open early enough for when we drove out that morning.  This particular site also has a background heritage with the McGrath clan, as they supposedly were guardians for it at some time.

After having a quick look around and taking some photos of St Patrick’s rowboat, we headed off once more not realising that we were now in Northern Ireland.  I found out by chance when we stopped at Enniskillen, where I went to a bank to exchange some cheques.  I was told that I would have to pay two charges for the exchange because I was in Northern Ireland and wanted Euro!  I asked for Euro not realising that we now needed sterling if we were going to stay in the North.  A bit confused I walked out without doing any business, as we didn’t intend staying in the north so didn’t think we would need sterling.  Another interesting note: you cannot exchange coin anywhere so that’s why everyone comes home from overseas with coins I imagine, as I did.  I had coins from each country I visited left over for keepsakes.

Some interesting insights into Northern Ireland; there were signs on all the streets!  The speed signs were in miles not kilometres.  There were fewer roundabouts.  Very little construction of new homes seemed to be happening although there was quite a bit of roadwork on the roads we were travelling on. 

The road bypassed Dungannon and we headed off on the M1 towards Belfast. Due to the fact that we only had one full day and night left, we detoured from the itinerary Bryan mapped out for us.  There just wasn’t enough time to go right to the top of Northern Ireland, nor to Londonderry.  I was excited that we had gone up as far as we did, although it was just driving past everything without time to stop and look.  I wasn’t driving that day so had a chance to look out over the fence on the M1 at the bit of Belfast I could see.  It looked dowdy, like an industrial city and so different to what we had seen in the south.  It seemed like a waste of time going up that far when all we did was drive, but cuz made the decision to keep going and it didn’t bother me too much.  I was keen to go as far north as possible and if I do get to go back to Ireland, then next time I will make sure that there is enough time to wander up north and really have a good look around.

I had found a map of Ireland that I brought from home, printed from the Internet.  It showed very clearly the border of the north from the south and it was interesting to see that the Republic of Ireland actually continued right up the Atlantic side to the top of the country and that Northern Ireland is just a corner on the right hand side extending part way south to just above Dundalk.

After finding our way through the bypass at Belfast, we drove on to Bangor and then started down the coast towards Dublin.  Although the country in the north is of course similar to the south, it is different as it’s still old-worldish looking with few grand homes.   The green is still there and awe inspiring as it is all over Ireland.  We stopped at a small town called Clogher and purchased some drinks and munchies after visiting the bank to buy some sterling, as we needed to fill the car up and also pay for one more night and a meal.  We weren’t sure how far down south we would get that last day and needed to make sure we could pay for a B&B with the right currency and hopefully for a meal. I bought a newspaper in Clogher as I noticed that the story of the death of Steve Irwin was on the front page.  I thought that later on after I arrived home I might send it to his widow, as she might appreciate knowing that he was so well known, even in little towns in Ireland. 

Following the A2 coast road we headed to Portaferry where we intended to travel on the car ferry to Strangford.  We were at the head of the queue to get on the ferry and as it runs on the hour, we had a bit of time to fill in.  Cuz headed off for a loo and I walked around reading the signs about the ferry service. I imagined, as it seemed the only way across to Strangford, that the ferry would be free.  Not so.  The cost was 5 pound 30 for the car and driver and 1 pound 10 for each passenger.  Now that is a ripoff!  We were both in the same vehicle, weren’t allowed out of the vehicle on the ferry so we weren’t taking up any extra room than the car took up.  Beats me how they can substantiate charging for each passenger in a car.  However, we paid the price and took the ride.  A very short ride it was too and we were at the other side and at Strangford in just a few minutes. 

The next village was Downpatrick, where we visited the Cathedral and the burial place of St Patrick.  The church is located up on a hill and the grave is well marked and easy to find in the graveyard.  We had a quick look inside the church but had to make it short and sweet because they were bringing in a casket for a burial service.  We both took some photos of the grave. 

Our next port of call was Newcastle, still in Northern Ireland.  Newcastle is by the sea but the Irish Sea isn’t like the Atlantic.  It’s different in a lot of ways, or so it appeared to me.  It seemed to be a darker sea and the beaches weren’t as beautiful as those on the Atlantic coast.  Driving through the town, we decided to continue up the road along the coastline to see if we could find a B&B, after looking at a few down around the township that weren’t near the water.  We found one overlooking the beach and pulled in.  It wasn’t the usual B&B, was more like a two-storey motel or hotel building with a large car park.  We walked inside to the reception desk and noticed a lot of older people sitting around in the lounge area.  The lady at reception told us that the business was really a holiday place for the elderly but they also kept some rooms aside for B&B.  We were tired and it was a nice place so we took a room and unloaded our gear out of the car.  We were on the first floor and had a part view of the beach from the window.  The cost was 25 Euro each.

After settling in the room we headed back into town to find something to eat.  Again there was little to choose from and we ended up with takeaway that we ate sitting on a seat near the beach in a howling wind.  At least it wasn’t raining!  There was nothing about sitting there that made us want to stay long so back in the car and up the road to a Casino that we had seen when we were walking around trying to find somewhere to eat.  It appeared that some places in Ireland that we visited closed down early and some pubs didn’t cater for meals after 4.00 pm.  That kind of busted apart my idyllic idea about Ireland being alive most of the night with people everywhere and lots of music.  I imagine that no smoking in the pubs has cut back on clientele too as it’s not much fun in the cold and rain standing outside for a smoke.  They don’t cater for smokers with outside covered areas and there are no awnings so if you go out for a smoke you stand in the rain. I had also been told that while the north of Ireland was beautiful it wasn’t as happy or musical as the south.  Our visit to Newcastle that night backed up that statement.

The Casino was indeed an eye-opener and the best thing I could say about it was the fact that you could smoke in there.  The machines were archaic and the biggest jackpot that you could win was 8.00 Euro.  I lost 2 Euro and then won it back so gave up very quickly.  Cuz ended up winning 10.00 Euro I think in total.  There were kids in there playing the machines.  Amazing.  We were the only adults except for the attendant and there were two minors playing on another machine.  The rest of the town was asleep by this time, so back to our room we went.  I watched some TV and cuz went off to sleep as usual. 

I was able to text message on my mobile all the way around Ireland and I found that to be quite amazing knowing how many dead spots there are in Australia.  I didn’t get any answers to my messages to Bryan for a couple of days and was worried about him so messaged my daughter and asked her to ring him and see what was wrong.  I finally heard from him and he told me that Shaye had chewed up his mobile phone and he had to buy a new one.  Woops!  Not the doggie’s fault really as the user should have made sure it was out of reach. 

I’d had a bad day with my eye on this last day out and about, and wasn’t too happy knowing that I would have to drive the next day and into Dublin.  I had a patch on again with the ointment until the pain subsided, as I couldn’t see without shutting down for a while.  I cursed my eye as I do constantly.  The strain of driving and also the stress I was feeling due to the lack of communication between cuz and me was apparently bringing on the attacks.  I was also worried about running out of clothes to wear and not being able to find anywhere to do some washing.  I knew that at the rate I was going I wouldn’t have any clean underwear to fly to the US with.  I made a decision to try and buy some underwear in Dublin and if I couldn’t find anywhere to do washing in New York I would have to buy more clothes to see me over the last week.

I was up early and had my gear packed in the car first as usual.  The rain was still hanging around and it was cool, but nice.  Breakfast was 9.00 am for everyone and we were going to be sitting with the other guests.  If we had known that it consisted of only cereal and toast and jam and coffee, tea and juice, we would have left much earlier and had more time on the road.  We headed south after a quick breakfast, and bought enough fuel to get us to Dublin and the airport the next day.  On arriving in Dublin I was at a loss where to go to find the Cassidy’s Hotel.  We knew the street it was in but hadn’t a clue where we came into Dublin or how to find the street.  Traffic everywhere and everyone but us seeming to know which way they were going and to where.  I pulled over and parked in a spot I found, but knew it was dicey staying there because we would be clamped.  The cars parked on the street where we were all had parking certificates on their windows.  I stayed with the car and cuz walked up the road to see if she could find out where we needed to go.

She eventually returned and we found our way to the laneway, thanks to her sense of direction, that ran up the side of the hotel, the lane we presumed must lead to the rear and to a car park.  We found the car park, right in the midst of a construction site.  I got out and asked for a vehicle to be moved so we could get into the car park and fortunately there was one spot left to park in.  The car park was tiny and a sign said ‘first in best dressed’ – well sort of.  So much for supposedly having a car park booked. We walked around the laneway to the front of the hotel and found out we had to drag our bags around to the front from the car.  After complaining about all the water and mud that we had to walk through we were told to bring them in through the back door that led into the bar.  The doorway at the read led into a small hallway that was almost totally blocked by deliveries and it was hard to fit our bags through and into the bar area.  We made it to the reception, with the help of a young man who worked for the hotel.  He heard me exclaim, “this is a joke”, as I was trying to get myself and my bags through the narrow walkway between the delivery boxes, and took my bags from me and went up in the lift to the third floor with us to our room.

Cuz said she was going out for a walk so I tagged along behind, as usual.  We only took one card for entry back into the room as I thought we would be together and coming back in a short time.  We walked down the main street and up a side street where we had been before in the first few days in Dublin.  Cuz went into a kind of mall and I stayed out on the street as I had a cigarette.  I waited for her but she didn’t come back out so I went into the mall.  I spotted her up the end and started walking down, but by the time I got to the end of the mall she had disappeared.  I looked in all the shops but couldn’t find her so I went back out and returned to the hotel where I had to ask for another key because of my stupidity in not taking the second one with me.  She arrived back about 2 hours later asking me where I had gone as she had lost sight of me. Ho hum, as if!  My eye was hurting to the maximum by the time I made it to the hotel and I hurried upstairs to my ointment and patch.  I crawled into bed and went to sleep until cuz arrived back.

I decided I better go and try to buy some undies as we were flying out the next morning and things were desperate in the clean clothes department.  It was too late to get any washing done at the hotel even if I had decided as a last ditch option to pay the price of having it done that way. I dragged myself out of bed, pulled off the patch and went off on my own, and this time I was gone a couple of hours.  I actually did find a place where I managed to buy some underwear at a reasonable price and I breathed a sigh of relief.  How hard it is to find shops like you are used to at home out there in the other world.  There weren’t any Woolworth’s or Target or Coles stores and I resorted to going into a large complex that had a number of floors, each one dedicated to a specific line of clothing.  I couldn’t find anything in there that was remotely like I wanted at a price I would pay.  I walked back outside and found a store further up that sold discounted clothing, and there I found underwear that was reasonably priced.

I was surprised to see that almost every store I visited in Ireland had security staff walking around.  I noticed the same in Bangkok and in London.  Kind of creepy and yet a necessity I’m sure.  You just don’t see that in Sydney, and it’s hard enough to find someone to help you if you are searching for something, let alone see security people wandering around.  Guess the cost of stock lost to thieves is less than the cost of employing staff to spend their days wandering around watching people.

Returned to the room to find cuz gone again and as I hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, I decided to find something to eat before going to bed. 

Thursday morning arrived and I wished I were returning home to Australia, not flying out for another week to the US.  Another long day in planes and airports, more searches, more customs, more of it all.  I was really sick of flying and hoped I would wake up and be at home.  Didn’t happen though.  Up early and packed and took my big bag downstairs, pulling it behind me out into the street and up the lane to the car park as the bar area was locked and I couldn’t go through that way.  Cuz was still asleep when I left.  Returned to the room and she was up getting ready to leave the room.  I took my cabin bag and handbag and we left, heading downstairs to sign out.  I was glad she was driving but she wasn’t.  When I handed her the keys she asked how come she was driving and I reminded her it was her day to drive.  “That would be right”, she said, “in all the traffic!”  Seemed she had forgotten how I drove into Dublin the afternoon before in the traffic and with no idea how to find the hotel.  Oh well, not to worry.  I slid into the passenger seat happily. 

One problem. The gateway was blocked again to the car park.  There was a crane with a pallet that was being hoisted up to workers on the construction site next door for unloading.  We sat there for 20 minutes while it was unloaded and the crane could be moved to allow us out.  Just as well we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport.  Another problem, we got lost.  So glad I wasn’t driving.  We ended up in a terrible traffic jam and I finally asked a taxi driver in the lane next to us how to get to the airport.  He said to follow him if we could and he would take us there.  Fortunately the gods or whoever were with us, and cuz managed to stay behind him and we finally arrived at the airport.  We were going in a totally wrong direction and had wasted quite a bit of time.  We waved goodbye to the taxi driver and were eternally grateful to him for his kindness.

Found the car park for Hertz in the neck of time before they would have charged us for an extra day.  We stood waiting while the attendant went and checked the car and then he came back signed the papers and we set off for the departure area.  Once we had our boarding passes for Dublin/Frankfurt/JFK, we made our way through the various checkpoints to the departure lounge.  I had some Euros to spend so went for a walk and bought Opium perfume for a great price and a tube of lipstick as mine had broken days before.  We were flying Lufthansa on these two legs of the trip and the flight to Frankfurt was to be less than 2 hours with 2 hours standby at Frankfurt.

Vena McGrath

7 October 2006