Travel Chores

Day 31

Today was a chore day. I was up pretty early, I had to be to fit everything in. I had to wash my clothes, get a box from the post office, dry the clothes, pack the box and get it back to the post office before closing time. All the while I was updating the blog, organizing pictures and watching Airplane II. This is the dirty side of travel. As opposed to the dark side.

Even though I was stuck inside I was glad that it was a sunny day. Or it was until it started to hail. I had never seen anything like it. Each piece of hail was the size of a dime. Car alarms went off all over the place. It was nuts.

By the time Michele and Rory got back from work I was just about caught up with everything. It had been a long day, but at least a productive one.

The three of us headed off to their local pub, Harry Byrns. Knowing that it was my last night in Ireland I thought that it was only appropriate for me to have a Guinness. It was not nearly as bad as I remembered, but it will never be a favorite of mine. We ended the night with pizza and Wii bowling.

I was quite sad that my time in Ireland had come to an end. I had really had a great time exploring the country and spending time with Rory and Michele. Today also marked the one month anniversary of my being on the road. This is not my first big trip, but it is the first one where I am on the move constantly. Already I can tell that this trip was worth all the hard work and everything that I sacrificed for it.

Clear as Mud

Day 30
I was up with Michele to head into Dublin's city center. I was going on a day tour of the Wicklow mountains that both Michele and Rory had highly recommended.

The tour guide, John, was pretty funny. The only problem was that he kept using the same jokes over and over. At the end of each explanation he would say that it was clear as mud.

The Wicklows aren't too far from Dublin and make a great day trip. Unfortunately it was raining a bit today making it more difficult to get out of the bus and really enjoy the scenery. The rain stopped when we pulled over to check out some sheep.

We drove past the Guinness estate. It was massive and they allowed people to explore it on several marked paths. There was one lake that was sort of shaped like a pint glass. The water in all the lakes in the area looks very dark due to the large amount of bogs that it runs through first. To make the lake look even more like a pint white sand was brought in. A commercial was later filmed here.

Due to the intermittent rain we only had about 15 minutes to explore the ruins of St. Kevin's monastery. There was a tower that the monks had used to protect themselves from the vikings, much like the one I had seen in Kilkenny. The ruins were beautiful. One of the buildings still had its stone roof and was known for its fabulous acoustics. The surrounding cemetery was still active. The older stones slanted every which way. One of the several Celtic crosses is thought to be over St. Andrews remains. All of this is located in the area known as the Glendalough Valley.

We had a quick lunch in a town called Avoca. The whole thing is only about the length of one New York City avenue. Avoca is also known as the place where I finally found a pharmacy and could pick up some allergy meds. Ok, so Avoca is basically known for nothing, however it is really cute.

The last stop of the day was at a place called the meeting of the waters. Two small streams meet here to form one slightly larger stream. It's quite beautiful. Thomas Moore wrote about it in his poem “Meeting of the Waters.”

“There is not in this wide world a valley so sweet As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet! Oh the last rays of feeling and life must depart Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart”

The allergy meds I had taken soon knocked me out and I was fortunate to sleep though most of Dublin's rush hour traffic. That night Rory, Michele and me played Wii for a while. After they had gone to sleep I spent some time researching and planning a few more weeks of my trip. I ended up going to bed quite early.

Howth are You?

Day 29
After a slow morning of blogging and America's Next Top Model I took the DART 20 minutes to the little town of Howth.

I didn't know much about the town, just that it was a cute seaside peninsula and there is an island to check out. I guessed left coming out of the DART station and my guess was correct. After a quick lunch I walked out on the levy. From where I had my lunch it looked like I could walk to the island. The further out I walked it became apparent that this wasn't the case. I looked around for a boat to the island but didn't see one. I was a bit hesitant about going out there anyway. About 5 years ago I got stuck on an island in Oslo for about 4 hours. There wasn't any shelter and it was quite cold when I wasn't walking. Rory told me later that the island is said to be overloaded with rats. I was happy in my decision.

I wandered up to some ruins that are actually in the town and not on the harbor. The first tower looking one turned out to be a museum about the Hurley Burly. It wasn't open and I'm not sure that I would have visited if it was. The ruins of St. Mary's were quite beautiful. There was a little history explanation, but no reason why it was a ruin. I'm assuming it was because of the reformation. The surrounding cemetery appeared to still be active, or people were actively leaving flowers there. The whole thing was an interesting hodgepodge of old and new grave stones. There were some interesting crosses there.

As I wandered back down to the harbor I noticed that everyone had ice cream. I wanted some and managed to find it. I had come for the cliff walk and at first I thought that I had wandered the wrong way because I was surrounded by houses. Soon the houses gave way and the trail became apparent. A lot of it was uphill and a lot of work. Along the way I met two crazy Spanish guys. Not crazy because they were Spanish, but because they were riding bikes on the trail. The trail was a bit hairy and I felt like I had to carefully watch each step I took. The views were worth it and the reward for huffing and puffing my way around.

When I had finished I worked my way down through the town. Along the way I met two really cute and attention seeking donkeys. There was a sign up warning people to not feed them. Apparently someone did and one of the donkey's died because of it. Sad.

I was in luck and found the Dart station just as I was feeling like I couldn't walk any further. In no time I was back at the apartment. We spent the night watching a Kevin Bacon movie and eating hamburgers.

I Vant to Svck Your Blvvd

Day 26
The luxury of my own room and a comfortable bed combined with my exhaustive 3 day tour kept me in bed far later than I am normally there.

Rory and Michele had some errands to run so they set me up on their computer and I got to work on catching up with the blog. I love the blog and I like that I have something that I am accountable for, there just isn't always a place to upload pictures for a while. It's very easy to get very behind. I did keep journals on my previous trips, however they were not day by day and I feel that I lost a lot of memories because of that. The blog keeps me writing every day so that 50 years from now I will be able to remember every minute of this trip. So please forgive me if I am behind or if I'm boring for a day on occasion while I update the blog.

I wasn't boring all day. When Rory and Michele returned we headed across the street to the Dracula Experience. The experience started with some scary music and facts about Bram Stroker. He was bedridden until he was 7 and no one thought that he would survive. Part of his weakness was due to his doctors continual bloodletting. When he did regain his health he became a great sportsman and grew to over 6 feet tall.

He briefly worked at Dublin Castle where he wrote a book to standardize clerk office rules throughout Ireland. The woman he married, I forgot her name, also dated Oscar Wilde for a bit.

Eventually Stroker moved to London to run the Lyceum Theater. He also published books at this time. Dracula was one of his later books and really the only on that people recognize.

The actual experience took you through the book Dracula. It was pretty corny, but still made me jump a few times when things popped out at me. None of the movies or interactive bits were working. Still, it was a good laugh.

The three of us then headed to a local place called The Yacht for a Sunday roast. For a small price we each had a huge and fabulous dinner.

It was deceivingly late (it stays light for quite a while here) when we got back to their apartment. To stay in the Dracula mood we watched the 1983 movie with Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. I would definitely recommend it!

Bog People and Friendly People

Day 22
My plan for the day was to walk clear across town to the Dracula Experience. This only half worked. I walked there just fine, but it wasn't opened. While I was in a coffee shop trying to figure out the way back without having to walk it all I realized that I was right next to where I needed to go that evening, I was moving out of the hostel and into a friends apartment. I figured out just where I would need to go later in the day and hoped on the DART back to the center of Dublin.

I headed to the National Archeology Museum of Ireland. It was easy to spend the afternoon here. There was just so much to see. The prehistoric display was quite fascinating, everything was organized chronologically. It was really easy to see how weapons and jewelry manufacturing progressed over time.

The bog people were the most interesting. These were the remains of prehistoric people that had been found in bogs around Ireland. Let me tell you, this was seriously creepy. The bodies were leather-like and seemed more sculpture than human. Bones, organs and hair were visible. One guy was only a torso, it looked like it was right out of a horror movie. It was clear that another man had had bright red hair. The nipples had been cut off of another showing that he had been of noble rank.

Other things besides bodies have been found in the bogs. There were clothes and shoes and weapons and all sorts of odd things. It was like an ancient dump.

I guess that I hadn't had enough of dead bodies yet because I headed up the stairs to the Egyptian section. It was small, but very well done.

The best known piece in the museum is the Tara Broach. Famous for its beauty and for being found in the area that is known as the Tara Hill. It was pretty magnificent.

When I had finished with the museum I parked myself in a pub and nursed a pint while I caught up on writing my journal. I was woefully behind and determined to not let that continue. I then headed off to an Internet cafe to try and get at least a few of the entries typed up. Enroute I waked by Trinity College and the Molly Malone statue.

After a long walk and a quick cab ride I was at Michele and Rory's apartment. Michele is a close friend of my friend Rose. I had met her a few times, but had never gotten the opportunity to know her well. Michele had a fairy tale for me.

About three years ago Michele and Rose made a pilgrimage to Dublin to see U2. At a pub Michele spotted a boy that she knew that she had to meet. He felt the same. Michele and Rory talked all night and parted regretfully, determined to stay in touch. After a transcontinental relationship they were married and Michele moved to Dublin.

Because of this fairytale I had a place to crash and wonderful people to stay with for the rest of my time in Dublin. Michele also made me the best dinner that I had since leaving my parents house.

I think that we may have spent a few hours too many chatting because we were all destined to be tired in the morning.

April Fool's

Day 21
I was up pretty early and headed out to one of the most touristy things I could do, the Dvblinia exhibit. This was about Viking and medieval Dublin and was more interesting than I would have thought. I learned that eye glasses were invented in 1290. I had always wondered about that.

A medieval fair had been recreated. You could touch, small and play with everything. The apothecary was interesting, garlic was used to cure ear infections! I visited the scribe and threw plastic tomatoes at the guy in the stocks. The black death was next, it wasn't so fragrant.

Upstairs a merchants house had been recreated. The servants ate their meals off of square plates, this is where the saying 3 squares a day came from.

The viking display was also quite a lot of fun. There was one point that I found to be rather disturbing. The viking often took slaves. The display on this asked you to try on the shackles. There was a group of students fighting over them and laughing. It was really kinda creepy.

The vikings believed that three old sisters wove the tapestry of life and controlled every thing. They had many gods and would often incorporate local gods of occupied people. Christianity and the realization that it was more lucrative to become traders than it was to plunder towns and monasteries that were only able to slowly replace their riches.

Dvblinia was actually a pretty interesting way to spend the day. Thankfully it was not too crowded. I was looking for something different though, something that I couldn't really do in any other place.

I ended up at the Jameson Distillery. I had about 30 minutes to kill before the tour so I had a quick Jameson and coke, much better than Jack and coke. While I was waiting and ended up talking to John, a Kiwi in Ireland to explore his roots. We end up sticking together throughout the tour. It worked out really well because we took turns taking pictures of one another.

Jameson's family was Scottish and became wealthy due to their ability to capture pirates. Jameson was interested in Irish whiskey and wanted to perfect his own brand. The distillery was established in 1780 and has been flourishing since.

Irish whiskey is different than Scotch or American whiskey because it is distilled three times. Scotch is distilled twice and American once. Jameson whiskey is also aged in barrels that had previously been used to age port in Portugal. Scotch is aged in older oak barrels and American whiskey in brand new barrels.

Who would have guessed so much that I would have retained so much about whiskey? I not only became an expert but also a certified whiskey taster. I volunteered early in the tour to taste 5 different kinds of whiskey. There were 3 Irish kinds, 1 Scotch and 1 American. I could hardly even taste the American and Scotch ones, but the Irish whiskeys were quite good. All 6 volunteers picked Irish whiskey's as their favorite. Luckily I had John to take pictures of the entire event. The other perk of the tour is the free Jameson everyone gets at the end. This might have been just a bit too much though.

I still hadn't quite found the 'never before' experience that I was looking for. This lead me to a church. Not just any church, but St. Michan's which was founded in 1096. The building above ground wasn't much, just a typical 1850's rebuild. I didn't come for what was above ground though, I came for what was beneath the ground. The crypts beneath the church were original and had been in constant use since the church's original founding date.

I, along with a couple from Maryland, was lead by a creepy guide into the church's crypts. Due to the natural preservatives in the crypts there are four incredibly well preserved bodies of varying ages. The mummy on the far right was most likely a nun, but was the most deteriorated. Next to her laid the most confusing mummy. It was of a man that was about 300 years old. He had no feet and was missing his right arm. The feet are easy to explain, he was simply too tall for the coffin. The hand is more difficult. It it was for a punishment the only way he would have been buried in a church was if he had reformed and become a priest. The hand could have also been lost through accident or disease. The mummy on the left was a much better preserved nun. Her toenails and feet were still completely intact. Our guide made us all lean over the edge of the barrier to take a look at them.

The fourth mummy was an 800 year old crusader. His legs had been broken because his 6'6 frame couldn't fit into the small coffin. Our guide explained that it was common in the past for people to 'shake' the crusaders hand. It brought luck or a blessing or something. He explained that by shaking he meant touch the finger lightly. He then pulled back the barrier and motioned us in one at a time. I wasn't sure if I could really touch an 800 year old mummy. As I walked up to it I was sure that it would sit up and I almost laughed at myself for being so silly. After hesitating for a minute the Jameson gave me extra bravery and I reached out and 'shook' the crusaders hand. He didn't sit up, and I don't think that he is chasing me, but it was still seriously creepy.

I asked why these coffins had been opened. It turns out that it is illegal to open coffins, but these must have accidentally been opened at some point in the last couple hundred years. He also mentioned that Bram Stroker may have been inspired by these to write Dracula.

The rest of the tour was much more tame. We looked into darkened rooms and could just make out the outlines of dozens of coffins. The crypt is still active so many of the chambers can not be lit up in respect for the families that may bury their relatives there.

One entire vault was dedicated to 3 men who were hung in 1798 for trying to start a rebellion against the British. They were hung, drawn and quartered on Bastille Day. In one stuffed vault the bottom coffin had broken under the weight of all the coffins stacked on top of it.

As I was heading back to the hostel I pasted the Brazen Head Inn and decided to pop in. It was founded in 1198 and is Ireland's oldest pub. I ended up taking to some retired Americans from south Jersey. Oddly, they were soccer coaches from EHT and Absigami. One of them claimed to recognize me from when I played soccer at Oakcrest High School.

All in one day I visited a medieval market, sat on a viking ship, became a whiskey taster, and shook hands with an 800 year old crusader. That is no April Fools!