June 14 Day 1
6 pm EST – flight leaves BUF -I got to the airport on time, but my flight was delayed.
11 pm EST – flight leaves JFK – Then I arrived at JFK with barely enough time to get my international flight but it was delayed. Sat next to a nice young man for the flight.
11 AM (IR Time) – I made it through customs with not so much as a flinch, grabbed my bag, and after stopping briefly to buy some postcards met my bus.
12:20 PM IR – I was exhausted. I slept off and on during the 3 hr bus trip to Tralee but mostly just struggled to keep my eyes open (and failed) cause I didn’t know what kind of stop I was looking for my transfer.
3:40 PM IR – Arrived at Tralee bus stop, greeted by grinning Grainne with a huge sign with my name on it, made my day really. So we made a quick stop to pick up a coke to perk me up and a VERY yummy cake we had for dinner and arrived at the house.
7 PM – Had dinner, extremely traditional Irish meal, bacon, cabbage and potatoes. The bacon was more like slightly salty ham, but they call it bacon here. The cabbage was decent, and the potatoes were the new potatoes, from the first harvest of the season, so Grainne’s dad, Bill, did a special Irish saying that I can’t repeat cause it was in Irish.
9 PM – Grainne and I went out to the local pub for a pint, overall uneventful evening.
June 15 – Day 2 in Ireland
10 AM – Went out to Killarney with Grainne’s Dad. I have NO idea how to explain it but I’ll try. Basically it was like Cades Cove and the Smoky Mtn. National Park is to us — a really long drive through the mountains. The mountains are a lot different here, very rocky, I suppose these were more “hills” than mountains, but very large still. It was back in farm country and so there were sheep everywhere. Actually there are sheep everywhere anyway. The roads are TINY too, and no one seems to mind. There are no interstates here, nothing more than 2 lane highway.
On the next bit of the drive we went to the Torc Waterfall, which is basically like Abrahm’s Falls, but the hike up was HORRIBLE.
I took a photo of the stairs but let me tell you, they don’t do that hike justice, we were both pretty bad off by the end.
Next was a quick visit to Muckross House and Ross castle.
Muckross house reminds of me of Mr. Darcy’s house. We didn’t go in because they charged too much. We didn’t go into the castle as we didn’t see any point, they wouldn’t let in food (which we had) and they wouldn’t allow photos (which I wanted) and you had to stay in a tour group (and there were only two of us).
Dinner was a lovely steak dinner that I couldn’t finish. And I had enough champagne and wine, in addition to the pints and whatnot later to sink a fish, and yet somehow I remained stoically sober.
10 PM – We went out with Grainne’s older brother Thomas and her friends Allison and Marie (pronounced Maaary) to The Osbourne, had a few pints, and then before we left we realized Grainne’s purse was missing. After a frantic search and giving up (turns out some polish guys in the corner lifted it… it’s gone now, she’s given up getting it back.) we went to Fabric and couldn’t get in, so went to The Abbey, had one more drink and called it a night cause they were closing, as they so annoyingly shouted at us numerous times.
4 AM – Had a few fab sandwiches and a chat with Thomas, emailed the ‘rents, and off we went to bed. I have to say, the one really great thing about the time change is being able to stay awake into the wee hours.
June 16 – Day 3
Honestly, I can’t remember what we did this day. O_o probable spent the day sleeping as we were out all night.
June 17 – Day 4
After seeing the fabulous morning, sun out for the first time in days, we decided to go to their mobile home on the beach, called the Maharees, and the sun promptly hid itself for the rest of the evening. We had a bit of lunch (hotdogs, which taste completely different—much better–) and took Malachi for a long walk, the most precious dog EVER. Then we went to Brandon Point, the most westerly point of Ireland.
Came back to the home and had a nap, then went for dinner. It was a bit odd, we had to hover over people eating to get a table, and order our food at a counter. And the worst part, I, the shame of the Irish country, couldn’t finish my pint. For the first time too! I had a nice bit of Halibut and chips. Then we went back to the house in Tralee, had some icecream and went to bed.
June 18 – Day 5
I was freezing all day at the Maharees and had to borrow a jacket, so today I went to a really nice store called Irish traditions and bought a woolie and a hat, both lovely, and very expensive. Also FINALLY found a converter for the laptop power and bought a new bag that I LOVE. We went to lunch at Allison’s work, Reuben’s, a small sandwich type place, and walked through the Tralee rose garden after. That’s what Tralee’s known for you know, roses. We also ran into an old friend of Grainne’s, Brian. He had really cute black spiky hair and worked with computers. More of him to come later. I was upset I didn’t have my camera so we went back to the house and grabbed it then headed up to Ballybunnion.
Ballybunnion—Ballybunnion is a cute little town with a big castle wall sitting on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Clinton plays golf there so much he has a statue in the town center.
Ratoo Tower—On the drive back from Ballybunion we passed a big tower, so we popped in. There were gorgeous green fields surrounding it, and it looked really sturdy considering it was built when the Vikings were invading. There was a large wall surrounding the tower and a farmer had put up signs saying to stay out of the surrounding fields, and then a man pulled up in a car but didn’t get out, so Grainne figured it was the farmer following us to make sure we didn’t go in his fields, so we couldn’t figure out how to get into or near the tower, unfortunately.
We got back and Thomas fed us a lovely dinner with sausages I have NEVER tasted but absolutely loved. Kind of like a flavorful hotdog, definitely made by a butcher. I love the villages in Ireland because there are no big industrial stores shutting down the small shops, so everything is still handmade and lovely.
Oh I could also talk about the houses at this point. Ireland apparently has building standards different than the states, so their houses are all made of cinder blocks and plastered on the outside. They remind me of beach houses at home, except all the homes are like it, not just the ones near the beach. The villages are so cute too. The tallest building in Tralee is 5 stories and the locals consider it a monstrosity. Even Alcoa can beat that height.
Tonight Grainne’s pretty knackered and is in bed early so I’m up watching a movie and blogging my trip, catching up with sorting my photos. Oh yes, the other thing, it doesn’t get fully dark here until about 11 PM, and the birds start singing at around 4 AM. It’s really a bit disturbing.
June 19-21 Day 6-8
We’ve gone up to Roscommon for a few days. It’s pretty much just farm country. Grainne’s mom is from Roscommon. On night 1 we went to a pub with Grainne’s cousin Amanda and I snagged a date with aforementioned black-haired pale-faced gorgeous-eyed Irish lad Brian for Friday via txt message.
On day 2 of Roscommon I shot Joe’s shotgun. Joe is Grainne’s other cousin, I think he’s 17. I hit the target every time! So now I like shooting guns (only at inanimate objects!) And I took my first empty cartridge home with me. Clint Eastwood here I come! We also walked around a lake with a big castle in the middle with Amanda later. Can’t remember what it was though. We went out that night with Amanda and Joe and their friend Porrick. That night was actually really great, cause we went to my first pub session! I loved the music. Grainne did too but the boys were less than impressed.
June 23-24 Day 10-11
Grainne and Alison and I went to Cork for the weekend.
June 25 Day 12
Grainne and I went out to Dingle, which is the furthest town west on the peninsula. Forgot the camera again :( It’s populated by rich Americans. Blah. Lots of job openings there though! We drove around the rest of the peninsula and saw some beehives and walked down a really steep path to a tour boat port.
June 27 Day 14
Today’s my last day in Tralee. I shopped a little, to get gifts for Grainne and her family to thank them for their hospitality, packed up my stuff for the early morning drive, and met up with Brian for our last date. We had dinner and met up with the girls for a last night at The Os. I’ll miss that place. We stayed out all night and he saw me off when we pulled out at 4 AM for Shannon airport, about an hour too early at least. The boy I sat next to on the plane was from Ballybunnion and was coming to live in NYC, never having left his own little country town. Really sweet lad, I hope he makes it ok. And now comes the part where I endlessly complain about the airlines. First, I had to collect my luggage at JFK because it was an international flight and recheck it. So I did that, THEN found out my second flight was cancelled. And the following 3 days of flights to Buffalo were also sold out. They offered me standby. Jerks. Anyway, after standing in line for about 4 hours to arrange for my checked luggage to be delivered in Buffalo I made my way to Port Authority bus station to get an 8 hr bus home that cost almost as much as the plane ride. I arrived in Buffalo at 3 AM and was extremely exhausted. Gena was kind enough to pick me up at the bus station in those wee hours and drop me at home.