Friday May 17, 2013

We set an alarm and left Charlie’s around 8:00am, driving around the northern segment of the Ring of Kerry from Killarney to Portmagee.  We arrived in Portmagee at 9:20, as we had read the boats leave for Skellig Michael at 10am.  We had a bit of time to kill, so we pulled into a car park that boasted the best toilet in Ireland! 

From there we drove the last two blocks to the docks and parked in the car park there.  We hadn’t even shut the car door before we were approached by an eager skipper, almost as if we pulled into a used car dealership.  Here’s a summary of our conversation after our feet barely touched the pavement:

“Hi, are you two going to Skellig Michael?”

“Yes, well we are looking for a boat to ta…”
“I can take you anywhere!” He proceeds to thrust his pamphlet into our hands.
“I’ll meet you on the dock at 10:30. You have time to go into town and get a coffee.”

Uh, ok.

So we went over to the little bakery and bought a fruit turnover for 3 EUR and waited for about an hour when we headed back to the dock.  The other used car salesmen/skippers started after us, but our new friend Michael O’Connell came swooping in and showed us to the boat.  There we met a very nice couple from Washington DC, and after a brief wait, took off for the Skellig.  Michael didn’t talk to us much on the boat ride but did peek his head out to tell us the names of the passing islands.

We made it to the Skellig dock at 11:50am, and Michael told us that we would be departing at 2pm.  We pretty much stuck with Nicolette and Ryan (from DC) up the winding stairs to the monastic site.  We will attach pictures, but I doubt they will do this place justice.  An IMPOSSIBLE ISLAND is the best way I can explain what we saw. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the other boats had docked earlier than us, so after a bit, the DCs and we had the place to ourselves.  Around 2, we headed back down to the dock, and boarded the boat.  We circled Little Skellig, where we saw the gannet residents as well as 2 seals, but the ocean was MUCH choppier than it was on the way out.  Once we finally got back to Portmagee, we paid Michael 100 EUR (10 EUR tip) and had a late lunch at the Fisherman’s Bar with the DCs.

View of Little Skellig from the top of Skellig Michael

After lunch, we followed the Ring of Kerry to the south, back and around to Killarney at 6:30.  We met up with Charlie at Murphy’s Ice Cream, had a 5.50 EUR treat (it was the best Melis has ever tasted, she says), and took our bags back to his place.  We went with Charlie, Norena, and Miguel the Argentinian to the Pay As You Please restaurant, where the two of us split a pizza, all shared wine, and I got a carrot cake piece, and dropped another 20 EUR.  Afterwards, we headed to O’Connors pub where we heard some traditional Irish music.  Ryan and Nicolette met us there for maybe an hour, and after Melissa left her inferior Bulmer’s Cider unfinished, went back to Charlie’s with Miguel at about 12:30am.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

 

We woke up at Fionnuala’s around 9:00am. She was leaving for work so after a quick goodbye, we were on our own (her brother Joey was milking cows down the road).  Two dogs, called Ben and Toby, assumed the hosting role and escorted us up and back the nearby Tory Hill, which lay right behind the farmhouse.  We left the farmhouse around 11:00am and headed toward the town of Cashel.
 

 

 

 

We paid 4.50 EUR to park in the Rock of Cashel car park, and walked into town.  We got some lunch at a café where we saw a bunch of local school kids dining (food was filling and decent, nothing exceptional).  We hiked back up to the Rock of Cashel and did a self-guided tour from Rick Steves’ book.  After exploring the Rock, we walked down the road to the ruins of Hore Abbey.  We were in Cashel for about 5 hours, so parking costs were average with street parking.
 

 

 

 

Hore Abbey with Rock of Cashel in background

We decided to skip Blarney Castle as we would have arrived just before closing time, and headed straight for Killarney.  We stopped at a car phone shop to call our Killarney host, Charlie O’Brien, and met him at the library car park near the city center.  We chatted with Charlie for a while at his flat when he got a call from a friend of his, Norena, who would be coming up from Cork that evening.  She met us for dinner at the Smoke House, where we had some great Bangers and Mash (off the menu, good thing we had our local along!) and then to The Grand, where we drank Beamish and a spectacular Irish Craft Cider.  After the bar closed at       11:30 we went to a nightclub, where I got some more drinks (Melissa didn’t need any more at this point).  To use Charlie’s words, the music was “So sh*t” we stayed for only the one drink, and headed back to Charlie’s place for the night.  We had a full-size bed with a bathroom en suite, while an older Argentinian man that spoke little English slept on the sofa downstairs.
 

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

We were about to leave the Chicago airport at 3:50pm on our way to Ireland.  We were very excited as we sat in the terminal listening to many Irish accents chatting away.  After filing through the line to board the plane, we found our seats, and hunkered down for the long flight.  The guy sitting behind us was a bit annoying, but we ate some melatonin gummies (supposed to help you sleep on the plane as well as help with jetlag) and dozed.

We arrived in Dublin at 4:50am, just in time for basically nothing to be open.  We found the Hertz car rental desk, and dropped the serious cash to pay for the hefty insurance required.  The guy handed me the keys and said, "have fun in Ireland."  I asked if I should do any practice driving around the airport and he said, "just drive on the left."  ...Um, ok.  So I drove out of the car park and hopped on the interstate.  On the left.

We drove south of Dublin to Great Sugar Loaf, a small mountain near the city.  Our GPS wouldn’t turn on, and the cell phone signal was spotty, so our mobile-wifi thing wouldn’t work very well either.  We eventually found the car park for the mountain and pulled in.  We walked for about 10 minutes before we saw the only other two people there, and their dog.  The next 30 minutes to the top were a rocky scramble, but at least we didn’t have to make fools of ourselves in front of anyone.  We reached the summit of Great Sugar Loaf in what I will describe as gale-force winds and bitter cold (it probably was about 45 degrees and 30mph wind).  We couldn’t stay to celebrate too much as we could not stand up for fear of blowing off the mountain, so we snapped a few pictures and made the descent.

 

 

We drove from there to Powerscourt Waterfall, but it was still only 8am, and it was still closed until 9:30 or so, and we moved on.  We headed to Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock) where we saw the monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin.  We walked on some of the trails there, took a bunch of pictures, and realized we were very tired still.

 

 

We headed through the Wicklow Mountains to Mullinavat, where we were meeting our first couchsurfing host, Fionuala (Finn-oo-lah) at the Rising Sun car park.  We followed her to her family farmhouse on the narrowest roads we were on yet, she cooked us a delicious fish and veg dinner, and stayed the night on the floor of the living room.