Sláinte!

It’s not often that I get to have two travel adventures in one summer, but 2019 is apparently the year!  My research took me to Reykjavik and then to Dublin in these past two weeks, but since I’d gone all the way to Ireland, I thought, why not tack on a holiday at the end?

I studied abroad in Dublin almost sixteen years ago, funnily enough at Trinity College, which owns the manuscript I came to consult last week.

The Long Room at TCD, which is not where you work with manuscripts from the library, but which you do have to pass through to get to them

I thought I knew Dublin pretty well, but as it turns out, I knew the route from my flat to my classes, and I knew where the River Liffey was.  Apparently I didn’t get out much as an undergrad.  So this time I behaved like a proper tourist and…spent most of my time on Grafton Street.  But that’s only because I could get a sandwich at Marks and Spencer and eat it in their café when it was raining!

Grafton Street, home of expensive clothing and cheap sandwiches

My good friend, Mr. Wilde

Samuel Beckett Bridge, designed to look like Ireland's national symbol, the harp

Art market outside St. Stephen's Green

Large, slightly scary squirrel

On impulse, I joined a tour to Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway my last day in Dublin.  I’d been to Belfast before, and in fact I’d been on the same Black Cab tour of the city, but I don’t remember the experience of hearing the history of the Troubles being so traumatic.  Maybe I was oblivious in college, maybe I had a less impassioned tour guide.  Maybe the world looks a little different now than it did.  But this time I just about cried at every stop.

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall"

The only good use for a wall is as a canvas for protest

One thing I did enjoy about Belfast was getting a glimpse of the Game of Thrones studio and a corner of their last set, King’s Landing.  

Green screen and King's Landing: yellow cranes not included in the series

And we stopped by Dunluce Castle once we’d left town as well, now better known as Castle Greyjoy.
 

A very drafty workplace

The Giant’s Causeway was what I’d really come for—something that had been on my bucket list since I first lived in Dublin.  Legend claims that these geometrical formations were put down by the giant Fionn Mac Cumhaill paving his way to Scotland, but in this case science is wilder than legend.  The stones are so regular and so numerous, it’s almost easier to believe a giant put them there than it is to accept that they are a natural phenomenon.

I'd have you know it took significant effort to get a few shots of the rock formations without tourists in the picture

Our last stop on that tour was Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.  The first bridge to this island was put up by salmon fishermen hundreds of years ago, but there aren’t enough salmon anymore to sustain commercial fishing, so tourism has taken over instead.  We tourists happily pay real money and then wait in a long line for a chance to cross this wobbling bridge a hundred feet above the turquoise water—twice: once over, once back.  I absolutely loved it and I’d pay to do it again.

The reason the line was so long was that people kept stopping to take pictures of each other on the bridge

The abandoned quarry nearby was also a Game of Thrones filming location, but our guide, who has never seen GoT, told us simply that it was the site of “a battle,” which, given the context, was a little unspecific.  So here’s a picture of the coastline instead.
 

It probably doesn't look like this when it's raining

After Dublin, I took the train to Killarney to spend a few days exploring the southwest of Ireland, one of the only areas of the Republic that I hadn’t gotten to visit when I was studying abroad.  Side note: I hate trains.  Even on a bus, that most plebeian of public transports, someone will stow your luggage for you in a secured compartment.  On a train?  Good luck lifting that suitcase over your head to wedge it into a luggage rack by yourself, and keep your fingers crossed that it’s still there when you reach your destination.  Also, you might be able to sit in the seat you reserved.  Or there might already be someone in it who looks offended when you tell them they're in your spot; they might or might not move.  It’s sort of a whimsical, fly-by-night organizational system.  Have fun with that.

But Killarney is very cute.

Killarney: the cute part

Because I suffer from a common American handicap (i.e. I can’t drive on the left-hand side of the road), I took coach tours to the places I wanted to see: the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula, and the Gap of Dunloe.  I can now say that the Ring of Kerry isn’t best seen from a bus, even the small 16-seater I was in.  On the narrow, shoulder-less road, there are very few overlook points to stop at, so if (like me) you happen to be sitting on the wrong side of the bus, your trip consists mostly of looking at hedges.  Here’s the best of what I got from Kerry:

Waterville: a town with a creative name

A cottage abandoned during the Irish Potato Famine, framed by, if you'll look at the bottom of the frame, a hedge!

One of the overlook points we did get to visit

Taken from the bus window: sometimes it works

Ladies' View

Dingle Peninsula has all the same problems as the Ring of Kerry (narrow roads, few places to stop), and yet I enjoyed that trip much more—either because my bar had been lowered or because it wasn’t nearly as crowded as Kerry had been, so we didn’t have to pass up any overlook points because there was nowhere to park.  Also, Dingle is the most charming little town in the sunshine!

 

Inch Beach, with dog

The Shire?

Slea Head, with cheeky seagull

Bray Head

Dingle Town! Also probably doesn't look like this when it's raining

The Gap of Dunloe isn’t so much a tour as it is a transport service: the bus takes you from Killarney to one end of the gap between the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks and the Purple Mountains, drops you off, and picks you up on the other side several hours later.  In between, you either walk or hire a horse and cart for the seven mile trip through the mountains, and then you boat through the Killarney Lakes to find the bus again at Ross Castle. 

Mind the Gap

This is my kind of tour.  I love walking (as long as it’s not raining) because you see so much more and you can take as many pictures as you want!

A bridge

A horse!

Could I have taken this picture from a the window of a moving bus? I ask you

View from a bridge (not the one in the first picture)

Cotton-candy flavored sheep (the coloring is actually for identification purposes)

The downhill part

The part where Frodo says, "Get off the road!" (jk)

One of my favorite pictures from the trip

A horse and trap

Our companion boat entering Loch Leane

Grateful for this beautiful little adventure, and equally grateful for good weather and good hiking boots, I reluctantly returned to Dublin (see above for my feelings about trains) for my flight home.  That may be all my travel adventures for the summer, but already the wanderlust is setting back in, and I’m sure it won’t be too long before I hit the road (or the skies, or the seas) yet again!