Mon, 07 Jul 2003

author Tim	location Onboard Stena Line ferry bound for Fishguard, Wales
posted 21:24 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 2 ( all photos )

Leaving Dublin, and Ireland ( 6 photos )
Wow - so much to catch up on - it's been a few busy days in Dublin recently, so much so that we haven't even thought of the journal until now, as we sit on the ferry, in the docks at Rosslare. Let's try to get this all down.

[ entries separated ]
Which brings us to today - Monday. The morning wasn't too bad, we said our goodbyes to Gail (she is planning to come out to Oz in March so it's not all bad), before cleaning up after ourselves and heading back into town to find the bus out to the caravan park. Finding the bus stop proved not too much of a problem, but getting a bus was another matter. An hour and a half of waiting later (during which Liz had a wander as I stayed with the bags), we were on bus 69, trying to get back to our beloved Rosie.
We came towards the caravan park in quite a different way to that which we left it, so where to get off became a guesswork exercise (I suppose we should have asked the driver but that seemed a bit to easy). This left us not quite where we expected, jumping off the bus, wandering one way until we found a service station to ask for directions, then wandering back the other way for a mile or so to the park.
Along the road there was what I guess is called a commune - a bunch of old beat up caravans parked on the side of a four-lane highway with quite a lot of people living there, in reasonable squalor. We have seen several of these here, not sure how they get away with it, but nobody seems to mind.
So, we extracted Rosie from the lockup, threw the bags in and hit the road. Choosing to avoid the cursed semi-ring-road, we headed west out of town before Liz carved us a great way through the back roads, taking in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. We stopped for lunch hidden away totally in a picnic spot beside the road, where the silence (except for the ringing in our ears from the nights in Dublin) was total. We ate from what food we still had in the van, making some sandwiches once again which hit the spot nicely.
Choosing not to stop after that, we headed straight for Rosslare, through the increasing fog. We arrived very early for our 21:50 ferry back to Fishguard, and so cooked some dinner in Rosslare town carpark, before enjoying one final pint of Guinness (well, ok, Liz had some cider) then driving on to the ferry.

So here we sit, feeling a little queasy on the ferry, and having totally enjoyed Ireland. Like everywhere I guesss, we feel as if we could have spent more time here, but there's always next time.
This is one place we feel there definitely will be a next time for.
We now head back Across England.

author Tim	location Onboard Stena Line ferry bound for Fishguard, Wales
posted 21:24 BST 07/07/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 2 ( all photos )

Dublina, Temple Bar ( 11 photos )
Sunday morning, our decision to have a light night payed off as we let ourselves out to explore a bit more of the city while the late-stayers slept for hours more. Breakfast was at a cheap but not to amazing cafe, a far cry from our favourite morning-after food at Nulla Nulla cafe, in Cronulla.
We decided that a visit to Dublina was worth a visit, and it proved a pleasant way to kill a few hours and learn something in the process. Set in Christ Church Cathedral, there is a wander through where you learn plenty about Medieval Dublin - the best I thought was the scale model of the city as of 1500 with commentary where they talk you through each part in turn. Correlating this with what we already knew about the city was a great geography lesson.
We just had to drop next into The Old Jameson Distillery, but this time no tour, just a quick stop in the gift shop which had nothing in store for us, we headed on to partake in the final part of our Dublin experience - the musical pub wandering.
There are a few official such things around the place, but ours was from the guide books. This was basically a wander through the more famous pubs in Dublin, with a view to finding some traditional Irish music to our liking. The basic outline was something like this: the Patrick Conway, nasty but filling chicken burgers somewhere, John Mulligan's (where Liz chatted to members of the Wexford hurling team who were drowing their defeat), a fantastic dinner at an American-style Diner, some great music at a pub under a hotel (where Liz had a chat to the old Norwegian flautist after the show, getting his recommendation on where to get an Irish wood flute from), then the Temple Bar. This was enough for us, having had our fill of music and other things, and needing to get home for Gail to let us in.

author Tim	location Onboard Stena Line ferry bound for Fishguard, Wales
posted 21:24 BST 07/07/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 2 ( all photos )

Sugar Club ( 1 photo )
Early Saturday afternoon when we awoke, the day looked like a good one to do not much in from the start.
First thing was first, we needed to do some shopping. Gail had organised our combined birthday celebration (hers is on same day as mine) for that night, at a trendy place where you had to wear any shoes except Trainers (that's sneakers for Aussies). Guess what the only pair of shoes I had bought in with me were. So, with the advice of Gail and her sister Emma (who spent the afternoon at Gail's house where they all fussed over her eleven month-old girl Eimier), we headed for a cheap place to pick up clothes and did so. First day in living history where I came home with new clothes and Liz didn't!
Lunch was at O'brien's Irish Sandwich Bar, which I had been to the London branch of and was quite impressed, before we headed home with our spoils (including a cheap Gameboy for the long nights when we have run out of books to read in the van).
Gail's invited friends arrived late to eat small portions of the huge quantities of assembled snacky foods, have a few drinks and then embark on the fifteen minute walk to the venue for the night's entertainment, the Sugar Club. Not being clubbing people ourselves, Liz and I weren't holding out for much and at first we weren't impressed. The hefty entry charge, and the fact that we were taking it easy after the excesses of the previous days meant that the hot smoky environment had us asking for the keys for the walk home at about midnight.
But, little did we know, there was something special waiting in the wings to save the day/night - The Camenbert Quartet. This was easily one of the best bands I have ever seen play live, having a go at anything and everything, multi-media presentation looping away in the background with "Buy Now" flashing across the stage as they mentioned their own album, and above all playing good funny music, having a good go at themselves in the process.
Two hours later, we retired our battered ears to the relative silence outside the club, walking back to Gails place to once again inflate our air mattress, build a room and flake out. Just like the van!

author Tim	location Onboard Stena Line ferry bound for Fishguard, Wales
posted 21:24 BST 07/07/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 2 ( all photos )

Into Dublin ( 23 photos )
We'd hoped that Friday would be a bit more successful, and we were right. First thing was to work out what to do with the van while we were going into Dublin for a few days - no parking in there, and we were to stay with Gail, a friend of mine from working at RTA in Sydney. Chatting with the manager of the park, we managed to put the van into secure storage for the extended weekend for fifteen euros, way cheaper than we thought we could organise.
A bus helpfully pulled up right at the park and took us straight into the middle of the town - no fuss at all.
Now in the middle of yet another strange city, we needed to work out a plan of attack - first stop was the nearest cafe. Consulting city maps, we found the tourist office where we asked about places that could store our heavy pack for the day, and found one nice and central at one of the internet cafes. Of course, we popped our head into a few touristy shops to see if Dublin was any better in this regard.
By now we had a bit of a feel of the city, and it has a great vibe to it. It's been said that it's not a pretty city, it doesn't have fantastic museums, but it has plenty of life. The people we had chatted to thus far seemed genuinely happy and wanted to chat. That is strange in a commercialised big city - how Dublin does it I'm not sure, but it works well.
For lunch we found our way to the Dublin Castle, where we sat in the courtyard and ate sandwiches we had brought with us. On from there to wander the city semi-randomly, taking in the awesome Saint Patrick's Cathedral and accompanying Park, a few more tourist info places where we gathered intelligence to refine our attack on the city.
We had to get one thing out of the way - the Guinness Storehouse, home of the dark brew which you just have to drink when in Dublin. Despite the high price, the tour was suprisingly self-guided, although after a while we didn't really mind. It's not where it's actually brewed anymore - that's done down the road. Think of an all-singing, purpose-built Guinness World and you'd pretty much have it.
The history, brewing, transport, cooperage (very interesting) and other aspects of the world that is Guinness were explained in just enough detail. The highlight of the tour is the included pint in the Gravity Bar, easily giving the best views over Dublin you can get (the city has no high-rise buildings), and, the best pint of Guinness you can get anywhere. Supposedly. Even Liz drank hers, and described it as slightly less awful than usual, so that's saying something.
On the way down from there, we were suckered into the "Perfect Pint Machine". This is where they train you how to pull a pint of Guinness properly - it's not a simple task to get correct. We both had a go, and, oh whoops, had to drink the result. Great fun and we have the certificates to prove we are experts in it now.
Our ongoing text-message communication with Gail resulted in a call to meet up the road for the first time in two years or so, and we all seemed happy to see each other. After a quick wander back to get our bag from storage, we went to her place - a very new one-bedroom in central Dublin (walk everywhere!) which she had generously lent us the lounge-room of with an air mattress.
The night was supposed to be a gentle welcome of Thai dinner and then maybe a few drinks (several other friends were with us), but it somehow developed into a 3:30am arrival home, having visited a great Thai restaurant (going well so far), the trendy and truly massive "French cafe bar" Cafe en Seine (looking a little shaky) and then making it to "the biggest pick-up joint around" Break For The Border (oh deary me). It was such a great night, a good introduction into Dublin night-life.

author Tim	location Onboard Stena Line ferry bound for Fishguard, Wales
posted 21:24 BST 07/07/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 2 ( all photos )

Newgrange, around Dublin ( 14 photos )
Thursday we started off the morning at the farm hostel, and headed to the one main attraction in the area - Bru na Boinne, the best known part of which is Newgrange. This (along with its lesser known cousins Knowth and Dowth and a few hundered others in the area) is a five thousand year old passage tomb. The most striking feature is the outer quartz wall, which is a reconstruction, but the rest of it is pretty much original. There's one long passage you enter which, during a Winter Solstice, the sun shines down all the way as it rises in the morning. There are three little chambers at the end of this passage, forming a cross shape.
We reached the monument after a brief wander through the visitor centre (very good, as they go), then clambering on a bus to the site itself. From there, we were given an hour or so worth of guided tour, chat and wandering around the impressive construction itself.
After the tour, we watched an audio-visual thing, the most annoying aspect of which was that there was lots of speculation presented as fact. Pseudo-science is a dangerous thing.
From there, we were to tackle our biggest city in a while - Dublin, so we allowed plenty of time to bugger it up. Good move.
There is a ring-road around it, which we headed to first (from the North, of course), and drove around to the south-side heading to a caravan park recommended all over the place to check in for the night. There had been one more junction added since our map was printed - no suprise really, but I was suprised that the ring hadn't actually been completed. It's more of a half-ring road, which then dumps you un-ceremoniously in the suburbs to fight your own way to where you want to go. We later heard on the radio that there is a conservation fight going on as the proposed path of the motorway goes through an old castle. They seem to have come to some compromise - not a moment to soon for the drivers and tourists around the place.
That was all fine, we had dealt with worse, so we drove on to the target town of Shankill, south of Dublin itself but on the train line. Only the caravan park wasn't there anymore. It had closed down, despite a friend having stayed there recently and the February edition of Lonely Planet Ireland recommending it too! Oh well, back on the road, back through the city, trying to find the semi-ring-road to the only remaining caravan park in Dublin, Camac Valley, on the N7 near Rathcoole.
Quite a nice place, we cooked dinner, Liz went for a walk around the local park before we collapsed into bed, worn out from our tricky city driving.

author Tim	location Slane, Meath, Ireland
posted 19:52 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 2 ( all photos )

Louth and Meath ( 1 photo )
(Continued from the Northern Ireland section)
We only had one go at it this time, but we still managed to miss the border itself. No signs at all that we saw, only the switch back to Republic-style signs, markings, and the steady degredation in road quality.
We bumped our way south through Dundalk the joined a motorway (our first in Ireland, somehow not up to the British standards, but since everyone drives at 60mph instead of 90mph it doesn't matter too much anyway) heading towards Drogheda.
Here, we attempted to enter the town Information Centre, only to note that there was not any parking areas we would fit in. Cars would fit in one part (well, very short ones), and the rest was taken up by the bus station, which was attached to the Information Centre.
Unphased, we parked in a bus stop and Liz ran in to ask for the nearest caravan park (our guides didn't really show any in this area), while I awaited military action. Then I remebered that, since we had crossed the border, everybody was too busy having a good time somewhere else to worry about it, and I relaxed.
After a while of explaining what she wanted to the phased staff, Liz and I were directed to where I currently write from - fifteen kilometres down the road at the Slane Farm Hostel. This pleasant little place is just what it says on the box - a working farm which also contains a hostel, and allows camping in the basic but nice back field.
There is a big world map at reception where you can put a sticky-star on your place of origin - there were already plenty from Sydney so we didn't bother. Interesting to note how far and wide people are from.
We are parked in some form of holidaying pecking-order here. We arrived first, parked wherever it suited us and unpacked to relax for the afternoon. A little while later, a massive motorhome of the needs-its-own-postcode variety pulled up to one side of us (this perplexes us - we have more than we need in this little one, not sure what more two people could need), followed soon after by two cyclists on the other side who have pitched their tent. There's plenty of ways to see the world, we're happy being somewhere in the middle. Some of the weather this country has pitched at us certainly isn't cycling weather.

(customised)