Well, I'm taking a break from my exam study to continue the story of our adventures in Ireland, so I'll jump straight into it! Continuing on from the last post, where the four of us were driving to Waterford on Thursday (I neglected to mention in the last entry that we had a hire car, a silver Renault Clio)...
In Waterford, we toured the Waterford Crystal Factory. Sound familiar? Yep, it was Ben's and my second time there in 7 months!! But it was definitely worth a second visit (especially since we got in free last time!), and Jim and Jenny thoroughly enjoyed it too. Click
here for the blog entry written about our tour of the factory last year - I won't repeat it all! Click
here for a video of a glass blower at work (it's not a particularly interesting video, but it's hard to predict when pressing "record" whether they're going to do anything exciting in the next minute... :P).
That night we stayed at a hostel in a quiet but colourful seaside town called Tramore, just south of Waterford. It was a proper old 50s-style seaside town, with amusements and show-type rides set up on the esplanade! They were mostly deserted, and we couldn't figure out whether they were permanent fixtures or a travelling fair in the process of setting up - possibly a bit of both. A rollercoaster was being lifted into place as we watched, and a couple of men were fishing rubbish out of a small waterway - presumably in preparation for the paddle boats waiting on the shore. We wandered around amongst the other rides (bumper cars, merry-go-rounds, and various scarier/faster installations), but saw only two operators and two customers.
Anyway, we had a relaxing evening strolling around the streets and eating fish and chips near the beachfront (where I declined an offer by Madam Lee to have my fortune told in her little caravan!).
The next day, Friday, we set off for Kilkenny, a pleasant inland town north of Waterford. Ben and I had spent a night and day there during our first trip to Ireland, and loved it - click
here for the old blog entry. Jim and Jenny did a tour of Kilkenny Castle, which we had already done, so instead we wandered around the huge castle gardens (mostly woodland and grassy fields). Then we walked through the town and enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the same great place we discovered last time. Took Jim and Jenny there after their tour finished too!
That afternoon we had time to spare as we set off for Swords, the town just north of Dublin where we would be staying the next two nights, so our drive was relaxed and involved lots of stopping to take photos of the gorgeous green countryside! That night a certain member of our party fell asleep prematurely, so we didn't end up going out for dinner...
Saturday was our planned big day of sightseeing in Dublin. (Click
here to read about our previous trip - scroll halfway down.) After some frustrating hassles with the local buses, we eventually caught one and headed into the centre of Dublin. Then, we got our open top bus tour tickets and proceeded to have a thoroughly enjoyable day.
The bus tour system works in such a way that a ticket lasts for 24 hours and you can hop on or off at any of the designated stops, with buses coming by every 10 to 30 minutes (depending on the time of day). Our bus drivers provided almost constant anecdotal and factual live commentary whilst skillfully navigating double-decker buses through impossibly narrow streets and hair-raising traffic situations. One driver in particular, whom we were lucky enough to get twice, was delightfully random and would hum relaxedly to himself (but into the mic) throughout the aforementioned situations!
After a complete circuit of the bus route to decide what we wanted to see, we waved Jim off to see Dublin Zoo, and the remaining three of us went to
Trinity College. Jenny went through the Book of Kells exhibit, which Ben and I had already done, so we spent the time wandering around the college, something we hadn't had time to do on our last visit. It's certainly a very stately and impressive old place! There was even a wedding taking place in the grounds. Afterwards, we had a delicious lunch in the famous Temple Bar district (Guinness stew for the other two; honey soy stir-fry for me).
Towards the end of the day, Jenny, Ben and I went through
Kilmainham Gaol, which was sad but interesting. Our tour guide told us that even though the jail was so unpleasant and overcrowded, during the famine people would commit petty crimes just to be thrown in there, as at least that way they were guaranteed a basic meal or two each day. Parts of the jail were built at different times, and the newest part was designed in the Panopticon style, "the all seeing eye", which meant that guards could see all of the cells from anywhere in the wing - see photo below.
We also saw the place in the grounds where some involved in the 1916 Easter Uprising were executed. Our guide told us that for executions by firing squad, one of the guns would have a blank in it. This was so that if a soldier's conscience bothered him, he could always think that his gun might have been that one.
Here are some other Dublin photos that don't fit anywhere in particular, taken from the top of the open top bus during the day...
After we all met back up, we took the bus back out to Swords and had a late tea there. The next morning we went to the meeting - the one we couldn't find last time! - and wandered around the town of Malahide in the afternoon. It was a nice town with its own little castle, which was set in the middle of a large park with beautiful woodland walking paths.
After a mid-afternoon lunch/dinner in Malahide, we set off for the airport, as our hire car had to be returned a few hours before our flight. The rest of the evening passed in a haze of reading books in airport bookshops and noticing our flight to Edinburgh being increasingly delayed on the flight announcements board, so I'll continue from there next time! Bye for now!
