Ireland 2022

 

Ireland 2022

And Belfast

September 21-30, 2022

With Sally's Friends

But Sally Broke Her Hip and Couldn't Go

21- W- Dublin/Belfast

I arrived in Dublin at 8:45 AM and made my way to Belfast by bus. I get off the bus station and quickly discover that my hotel is just a little ways up the street.  What luck!  I am staying at a boutique hotel right in the thick of the city. My room isn't ready because I am there before noon.  But the waitresses, in the bar, at my hotel find me a place to rest in the corner.  I order lunch and a delicious beer and wait, filled with exhaustion, until I can check in to my room and rest. I have been up over 24 hours now.

22- TH- Belfast

I take a Black Cab taxi tour and the moment was grand.  I had a guide who looked like a human form of Dumphy in the Harry Potter series.  He addresses me by my name each time he talks to me but he just cant seem to remember my name.  So I am Bernadette, Brenda, Barbara and Betty but never Bridget.

23- F- Belfast/Dublin

I leave Belfast and make my way to Dublin by train.  It is stunning to ride public transportation without any effort and so reasonably.

24- SA- Dublin

Our tour starts today with a tour of the city and Dublin Castle.

We have dinner at the Merry Ploughboy Pub that offers lots s Irish music and dancing and a banquet of food, stouts and Irish coffee.  I roll out of there like a stuffed, bloated pig.

25- SU- Ireland

We go to the Blarney Castle and I do not climb those damn steps up to the stupid stone.  I was here over 20 years ago and once was enough.  Most of my group do climb the steps and I can hear them as they shriek when they realize that they have to lay flat on their backs and then shimmy down between and narrow opening just to kiss the stone.  A few of them pass on this opportunity.

I went sweater shopping and I started out with a commitment to myself that I would not buy a sweater.  But I leave with  a blue sweater that is more like a jacket and it is beautiful and I know I am getting a good price so I buy yet another sweater that I just don't need.

I buy Sally a tee shirt and I wish I had purchased one for me.  It is silhouette of a glass and Guinness and it says "hello darkness, my old friend."  I will just have to look for it elsewhere.

26- M- Ireland

Today we drove around the Ring of Kerry, 100 miles of beautiful scenery.  We stopped in a few small towns and went to Moll's Gap to see a panoramic view of Ireland.  But it was so windy up there that we almost blew away.

The highlight of the day was the demonstration of the sheepdogs as they herded sheep.  All of the commands are given through various whistles that the dog learns to identify.

27- TU- Ireland

We travel to the Cliffs of Moher but it is raining so hard that the fog lays heavy on everything. We cant see two feet in front of us.  I use most of my time to find the coffee shop to grab a cup of soup and a coffee in hopes that it will take the chill out of me.

We go to a medieval banquet and it is just OK. I don't particularly like this time period and I would have preferred more of what we saw the other night.

28- W- /Galway Bay

We head to Galway today and our driver said he would take us back to the Cliffs of Maher.

29- TH- Galway Bay

I am sick today.  I am afraid that I have covid.  We have a free day and the others were going to go back in to town and drink.  I wanted to make my way to a brewery but I don't have the energy to take on such an ambitious trip.  I am afraid of getting somewhere and not being able to get back.

30- F- Ireland/USA

It's a travel day today. We head home in the late afternoon and will arrive in Philly around 730 PM. It's a day of hurry up and wait. Dublin airport is a shithole.