We took breakfast in the same table at The Hydro as the night
before; I realize I am wearying of the full Irish breakfast and have sought
variations. Still do like eggs, beans and tomatoes. I realize the mushrooms I had in northern Ireland were aberrations but delicious ones.
I saw these photographs in
the lobby that epitomized the “singles weekend” activities here in September,
and made sure to capture them... Just a bit racy, eh? Looking
at the two photographs, it appeared like debauchery run amok, appearing more
like Romans and Caligula. It’s become so
successful that other hotels in town get in on the act too.
Matchmaking Festival Lisdoonvarna: Smokia, Dopia and Alcoholica
This was to be a long driving day, back to Dublin. The wind was still
and it wasn't cold. It’s so amazing how
quickly the weather changes. I wish it
had been this way up at the Cliffs of Moher the afternoon before. We would have definitely done more walking around if we could be sure not to be blown down! Lorraine started the driving today on the
narrower roads, leaving the Dublin ring road madhouse to me. So, since this was our last driving day in
Ireland, I took a few videos to show different scenery for those who want to get a flavor of driving in Ireland.
This first video is high in
the Burren (limestone karst), the second one shows us coming down the switchbacks showing some of the high
hedges that line the narrow, twisting roads.
By this time in the tour, I realized that the
countryside of Ireland is literally Packed with B&Bs. They’re just everywhere, in every nook and
cranny, even the narrowest of roads (except, possibly, Belfast ;-)).
Once we got near Galway, the road had turned to motorway, and listed speeds were 120 km/hr, which is something like 75 mph. I took over driving after lunch. After doing 120 for a while, 100 seemed like crawling. Even at 120, many cars would pass us as if we were standing still. While I'd been driving through Ireland, I'd noticed how the shapes of trucks were narrower and taller than those in the US. Just thought I'd take this shot of a truck on the highway.
We decided to have lunch
in Athlone, a town with a nice looking castle downtown, on the river
Shannon. After a short walk around the
cobbled streets, we sat at an outdoor café and ate vegetarian crepes made by a
transplant from Brittany. His accent was
an interesting mixture of French and Irish.
His business was called The Celtic Café and featured flags of the six
Celtic countries: Ireland, Scotland,
Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany.
That’s why we got crepes. Good stuff!
This time I wanted to get to Dublin earlier
than the last time, so I could see more of it.
I managed to take a wrong exit
just before the airport, but even that was a stroke of luck since it led us
right to cheap diesel, which I needed before dropping off the car. It was easy to get to the airport, but just a
bit dicey in finding our way to where to drop the car (in the lot inside
terminal). We had been given some
directions when I signed Lorraine up as a driver, which were partly correct,
but only got us so far. Eagle eyes and
intuition got us there. Got the 747 into town, dropped our bags at the
new place (Celtic Lodge, right above a bar) in the midst of many guesthouses
near the center of town on the north side of the Liffey river.
Since it was late
afternoon and shops would close, we went out on a long walking tour. As I had been there for a few hours the
week before, it was easy to put something together. We first headed for the wide O’Connell,
street, then along a row of restaurants on the north side of the river Liffey, which goes east-west, dividing Dublin right down the middle.
We crossed a pedestrian bridge, into the Temple Bar area, over to the
City Hall and medieval part of town, down to St. Patrick’s cathedral and park
(picturesque), back over to St. Stephens’ Green. Here are a few of the sights in Dublin.
Above is St. Patrick's cathedral. To the right is where a number of government buildings are and adjacent to the medieval part of town. Not sure what this street furniture is to the right, but it did captivate my attention. Above left is in Trinity College campus.
Had to go into the crowded Butlers Chocolate
shop to get some chocolate to take home and some hot chocolate to drink – the kind you
dip in your hot milk. By this time it
had turned windy and drizzly in the last hour, but we headed into St. Stephens’
green anyway, and did a good circuit, seeing flowers, tree-lined walks, ponds
with ducks, etc. Exiting the northeast
corner of the park, we saw preparations being set up in the street (barricades
and such) for President Obama’s family's visit to happen shortly. Making our way back towards our guesthouse, we continued
walking through Merillon park, through Trinity College campus, back across the
Liffey to the row of restaurants. 
Tonight, Thai was in order, and I vowed to learn how to make the delicious fried
tofu with cashew and veg dish that I had.
On the way back to the Lodge we saw that Butlers had another shop just
off O’Connell just a few blocks from our lodge. It's a chain! We will go there tomorrow morning to stock up before leaving the country. Writing the notes for this blog, I'm listening to music downstairs, again, of
course, in the bar, but they stopped at a reasonable 11:30 pm… unlike my
neighborhood in Inwood, Manhattan, where they go till 4 am.
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