Day 1-2: Dublin, Killarney
· Sunday May 25, 2008
Dublin
Early on Saturday morning, I flew into Dublin International Airport on a FlyBe flight. For those that aren’t familiar with FlyBe, it’s another low-fare airline that operates in Europe, similar to Ryanair or Frontier Airlines in the states. In any case, it all went quite smoothly (somewhat to my surprise) and I soon found a slightly sleepy Elizabeth at the Meeting Point in the arrivals hall :)
We knew that we’d both be a somewhat drowsy, and Elizabeth a bit jet-lagged, so we took the day easy. After checking in to our hostel, we proceeded out to the Guinness Storehouse! Dublin seemed a nice enough city, but both of us decided that it was probably a better experience for those who lived there as opposed to casual day-tourists. In that way, it was similar to Philly, where we’d both gone to uni.
The queue for the Guinness Storehouse was actually longer than we’d anticipated (though perhaps we should have expected this, in retrospect). A slow but steady stream of visitors lined up outside the main entrance… which we later learned led to an even longer queue inside the building!! A sneaky and effective tactic, oft-employed at theme parks.
Guinness Queue
The multi-floor self-guided tour was fairly in-depth, and you could tell a great deal of thought went into its design. It was all quite over-the-top, though, from the fostering of a cult of personality of Arthur Guinness to the fact that the central portion of the building was shaped like an enormous pint glass!! It was like one enormous propaganda machine, and everyone loved it :) Even the KIDS!
Guinness Kids
Why a family would bring children to the Guinness Storehouse is slightly beyond me, but hey, start ‘em young. After enjoying our Guinness drinks which were included with the price of entry, we whiled away the rest of the afternoon with a walk through the city and a lovely park called St. Stephen’s Green.
The next day, we returned to the airport to pick up our rental car and begin the drive to the South-West of Ireland. The original plan was that I would drive for the duration of the trip, primarily because I was more familiar with the road rules in the country (ie. driving on the left, roundabouts, etc.) and also because I really love driving and have greatly missed having a car in England.
Now, those who know me well realize that I’m a fairly responsible person. Prior to the trip, I’d bought travel insurance, checked my luggage several times, checked that my passport was in order… The one thing that I hadn’t even thought to check was my driver’s license. That’s right, it had expired on my 25th birthday, less than two weeks prior. Dohhh! I’d like to think Elizabeth and I did a fairly good job of hiding the looks of shock on our faces from the lady at Europcar’s desk when she apprised me of this. Change of plans: Elizabeth will drive, and we will rent an automatic, haha.
Well, neither of us were overly pleased with the turn of events, but Elizabeth kindly agreed to drive with my guidance and navigation. To be honest, she was a very safe driver, and the task was simply a matter of regaining her confidence on (the left side of) the road. Off we went to Killarney, as we had planned to do the Ring of Kerry the next day!
Killarney
We arrived that evening having driven through some nice small towns, including a posh-looking place called Adare which was hosting the Irish Open (golf tournament). After getting settled in our hostel, we went out to Killarney National Park, which is just adjacent to the town.
Killarney National Park
Though it was a bit overcast, the climate was very comfortable (though Elizabeth claims it was ‘cold‘) and we both found it quite energising to be out of the car and walking about. The park has some lovely paths, and we followed one of the main ones out toward Ross Castle which sits by the lake.
Circular Walk
The castle we encountered was actually in decent condition, having survived more than 500 years.
Ross Castle
The next day would see sites of even greater antiquity, as we ventured out onto the Ring of Kerry! The next post will be coming soon… :)
— Emery Ku
Comment
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Testing CAPTCHA.
— Nicolas Ward · Jun 02, 11:16 pm · #
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thanks for the fix, Nick! Randomly, CAPTCHA seemed to be working just fine for textpattern (blog), just not on the photo-blog part of the site. But all is well, now :)
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