Irish Food and Culture

The thing that I've enjoyed throughout the trip so far is the Irish culture. Every part of it has been a thrill. After the sea voyage we went to Murphy's Pub in downtown Dingle. The thing that was really cool is that on the wall behind the bar there were patches from American police, firefighting, and rescue squads. Not just like one or two, I want to say about 50 or so that were all different. The "chips" or fries as they are called in the states look nothing like they do in Ireland. I'd more relate them to breakfast potatoes than our "french fries," and horrifying to me, no ketchup. Mayonnaise is what you get, and surprisingly it actually was very good with chips, I enjoyed it. For dinner we went to the Chart House which is one of the best restaurants in Ireland. There were awards all over the wall, most notably Food and Wine Magazine voted them the best in 2007 and 2002. I had Basil and Mushroom Soup and Irish Chicken, and finished off with Irish Chocolate Pudding. I know my mother is probably drooling at this point, and rightfully so, because it was delicious. I have also discovered that white wine is completely disgusting. One glass of Chardonnay from South Africa and I had made my decision. Following the dinner, we all heard music down the streets and went to investigate. We found in a pub (there were other pubs that were the same I'm sure) a band playing Irish folk tunes. Although we only stayed for a single song, that was enough to get the little thrill of the Irish culture. Upon returning to the hotel, Wade and Patrick said I had to sign up for the full Irish breakfast in the morning. I agreed, not knowing what I was getting myself into, but looking back on it, the meal wasn't bad. The meal contained, 1 blood sausage, 1 sunny-side-up egg, 2 pieces of bacon, and 2 "normal" sausages. I tried everything but the normal sausages, I was full by that point. The blood sausage wasn't bad, jsut its kind of like veal, once you figure out how its made, it's ruined. For those who don't know blood sausage is the same as a real sausage except they dont drain the blood out of it. Overall though the food has been amazing, as have most of the drinks, but I'll wait on that topic until the end of the trip.

Old Church and Sea Voyage

After spending a night in the town of Dingle, we started toward the westernmost point in Europe which I thought was very cool. Being on the edge of a continent...pretty much amazing. After that, we went to a pottery shop. Now I know one particular family member will be in awe, and others should appreciate it as well. This man is one of the more famous potters in Ireland, and I soon found out why. After the pottery, we went to an old church, doesn't seem like much, but a building that lasts in Europe for 1400 years is pretty amazing to me. Also, it is made by only stacking stones on top of one another, nothing to hold it together. However, the best part of the day was probably the sea cruise. We saw the southwestern Irish coastline in full beauty, along with The Great Blasket Islands whose inhabitants all left to go to Springfield, Massachusetts. The sights out on the water though were incredible, I think I took about 100 photos just out on the water. To finish the day off right, a dolphin swam up about five feet from the boat as Patrick said "it came so close you could hear it take a breath." I apologize for not snapping a picture, Patrick and I were in awe.

Traveling Again...

Traveling to our next destination was kinda fun actually. Patrick and Wade in one car for two hours, scary, I know. From Patrick getting annoyed at Irish parking (which I've found is about as awful as Massachusetts driving) to Wade talking about the newest thing he's read about raising cattle...it was quite the adventure. Irish parking though is seriously atrocious. Parking in the middle of the lane isn't uncommon, and neither is on the sidewalk in a "Do Not Park" area. When you don't have idiot parkers to annoy you, you notice how amazing the scenery is. The countryside during this was incredible, and you can see this with the picture. I was seriously in awe, just driving down the road. In the majority of places, the ivy grows so tall that it is impossible to see anything past it, except at the gates they used for cattle. I've lived in Maine for more than 10 years and hear about how green it is from everybody...MAINE IS NOTHING COMPARED TO IRELAND! Green is a different color over here, I swear. What I love though is it is basically all back roads. There isn't a "scenic route", that is the MAIN route. I'm glad Patrick was driving though, because the roads are TINY. Tiny as in a one lane road for two. No middle line, they just assume two cars can fit down it. Some places you can, others the side of the road in the bush is the only way to not get killed. After all of this though and two hours of insane driving, we made it to the Irish B&B..!

Kinsale

Kinsale is the town Wade and Patrick live in, and where I am staying for 10 days. After the first two days, I had some free time, so I explored a little. Basically, I wandered around a city a couple hours to see what was there. It's little, so there isn't much, so before long I just went back to the apartment and slept. After my nap, I went to Dino's for some fish and chips. It was what I expected, amazingness!!! The story in Dino's though is I spotted an American (pretty simple) and just went and asked to sit down. We talked a little and then I realized he was from Indiana, parents worked for Lilly, and goes to Zionsville (spelling?) spooky...I know...After that adventure though, I just went on the computer and waited for Patrick and Wade to come home so we could start our trip to Dingle.

Making It To Ireland

After sleeping for about three hours, I woke up to corn flakes and orange juice about an hour outside of Shannon. I was happy to hear it was only a 5 hour flight, compared to the 9 hour flight I thought. Upon arriving, I went through all the lines I needed to, such as passport, baggage, customs, before finally finding Wade. Upon reaching the car, I went to the right (normal passenger side in the states) only to get laughed at by Wade. After that little fun though, it was a 2 hour drive to Kinsale, which is just outside of Cork. During the drive, we talked about basically everything, hows life, hows school, all that jazz. Apparently, we drove by Blarney Castle during this time, but I was clueless. After all that, we finally made it to Kinsale, and Wade and Patrick's apartment, which is awesome. Here, I get my own bathroom, which is sweet an my whole wall, essentially, looks right out onto the harbor. Wade dropped me off and headed to work as I went on the computer...half an hour later I was passed out on the couch. Woke up, and Patrick had arrived home, and Wade wasn't much later. After they both went and took naps and such we went to Kirby's. Which was a little restaurant, about a 3 minute walk from their apartment. We all drank Prosecco (spelling), and had pizza. I had order a "Jersey Jeff", basically a bunch of meat and goodness on pizza, it was delicious (didn't realize pizza was eaten with a fork over there though, made for AWFUL table manners). Dinner lasted a good hour and a half, which went by very fast, and then we walked Compass Hill. This had an amazing view of the town as well as the harbor (probably should take a few pictures.) After that, we basically crashed at the house.

Traveling

The first day was actually all flying. I started off in Portland, where I sat around and waited an hour for Delta to fix my name, and then waited another 2 hours for my flight to actually take off. The flight from Portland to JFK was basically uneventful, except for the fact that I was first class and didn't really understand what that meant on a little tiny airplane. Apparently, I just got more snacks and drinks as well as water when I got on the plane...woo hoo. After arriving in JFK met a girl from Atlanta and we chatted for a while before she headed off to live with her friend in Brooklyn and then waited around for my 10 o'clock to Shannon. While waiting around, I stood next to a lady, and we just started talking about various things. This lead to me meeting her Irish boyfriend, who was actually a very nice man, and we went on to spend an hour and a half talking about everything from Gaelic football matches to world politics. The thing was I spent so much time talking to them because Delta took FOREVER to get the plane over to the terminal. Basically, there was a group of 200 people waiting for this plane, and that was it for the whole area, just us. The thing that was awful, is they had TVs going on and on about how flying is now so unsafe cause airplane companies are cutting back on fuel. Which made us all look up and go, wow we feel safe. But finally, around 10:40 EST we boarded flight 102 to Shannon. I was in business class for this flight and didn't have a problem realizing my amenities for this flight. The list of things is so long, from the personal TV to mouth wash, to noise drowning head phones, it was sweet. The only bad thing with this flight I think was that we sat on the tarmack for WAY too long. We finally took off at midnight, so that sucked. However, Dinner was amazing, as I had Greek Salad, Cream of Asparagus, Cous Cous, Breast of Chicken stuffed with Artichokes, and then an Ice Cream Sundae. This was all as I watched the movie 21, which was very enjoyable. I finally went to bed around 1 or so (I had just checked my map to see the time and where we were).