Shamrocker!

Okay, so I’ve finally got this written up - it is a little rushed, so if you’d like some more info, just leave your question in the comments bit below and I’ll answer it there.

So, Thursday evening arrived and it’s off to Stansted airport and through some nice English countryside in the sun to begin the next adventure...

Next stop: Dublin, Ireland.

Arriving in Dublin at around 9pm, it was onto the Aircoach to head into the centre of Dublin and stash my stuff at Kinlay House hostel. I got off the bus in O’Connell Street which is pretty much the city centre and about a 20minute walk to the hostel. Happily enjoying the spectacle of Spanish football fans pouring out of the pubs after Spain just made it to the Euro final. Anyway, it was a pleasant enough walk down to the Liffey river before heading along it’s boardwalk for a while until I had to cross it and head into south Dublin, past a hoard of pubs n cafés to Kinlay House.
After checking in and meeting Justin, one of my roommates for the night, and fellow Aussie (from Perth), it was time to venture into Dublin’s nightlife for myself - preferably without getting lost. Early start in the morning, so staying out too late wasn’t really an option. That said, I ended up returning at around 1am after circling Dublin Castle and then visiting a few different pubs as I wandered around the nearby streets. The nicest by far was The Bank (pictured with the first Guinness of the night), but the best atmosphere and typically “Irish pub” was O’Neills. It was more of a stereotypical Irish pub than an actual Irish pub, as I was later to find out.

Day 1
Friday morning and it was up early thanks to the street sweeper vehicle going past outside the window at 5am. Okay, so I didn’t actually get up til about 6.30am, but you get the drift. Downstairs for breakfast and I met a few of the nice ladies who were also doing the Shamrocker tour of southern Ireland, so things were looking to be off to a good start.
Once checked in, we were onto the bus and off on our jaunt around the south of Ireland. It didn’t take long before we were out of the ‘burbs of Dublin and travelling through ‘rural’ Ireland on our way to the west coast. I’ve seen pictures of country Ireland, but it was far greener than I was expecting. Nothing like home!
[unfortunately, no matter how picturesque or stunning the countryside was to be, it just couldn’t be properly captured by a camera]
First stop was the Locke Whiskey Distillery in Kilbeggan for a tour of one of Ireland’s oldest distilleries before sampling their products - even trying some pre-production whiskey that was 80% proof. Quite entertaining that tasting as you watch all, well, most of the folks have that 2 second delay in reacting to their sip of this one! Locke’s Distillery was established in 1757, which means it’s nearly 20years older than Captain Cook’s discovery of Botany Bay. After a quick visit to the teahouse attached to the distillery, it was back on the bus and on to the next stop.
Along the way it was ‘introduction time’ for all on the tour. Basically, you introduced yourself and then did one of the following - ‘most embarrassing moment’, ‘two truths and a lie’ or a ‘naked story’. For some reason, Danny, our guide, was of the belief that those of us from ‘Team Australia’ all had great naked stories... I combined most embarrassing and naked story, which furthered his theory. Effectively, it turned out that he was right - only one American went close with a naked story, but the rest of the nationalities went with the other two options. All up we had a great bunch on the bus.
Next stop on the itinerary was Clonmacnoise on the banks of the Shannon River. It is an ancient settlement and monastery that dates back well over a thousand years and has survived being pillaged by nearly everyone over that time. See one of the surviving buildings left. Typical Irish weather timed its appearance with our time wandering the graveyard and ruins of what was left of this site. Even in the light drizzle, it was quite an interesting place with a really serene feel to it. It warranted more time, but myself, Megan, Tyler and Ashleigh discovered that subtle little hint that told us the correct answer to our earlier pondering of the correct time to get back to the bus, so we headed back just in time to climb aboard. I could have done with a bit more time here, but one visit was enough. Don’t get me wrong here, as it was well worth checking out.
On the road, and Danny was at it again with tales of ancient Ireland and its history (he’d given us a good rundown of Clonmacnoise and the distillery earlier). This time it was the Síle na ghig (pronounced ‘shale na gig’), which was a pagan symbol placed above church entrances to entice the pagans to convert to Christianity and attend the churches. What the Christians didn’t know was that this was a fertility idol that you rubbed for “improved prospects with your crops/breeding/family creation”. We then stopped by an old church that would have fitted in with Clonmacnoise to see one, and even give it a rub yourself should you be inclined - Tyler gave it a go, but no one else did.
Back on the bus and it was time for the story of our next stop - a faerie circle - along with a plethora of faerie tales and other mythical(?) folk of Ireland. I have to admit that I did enjoy these tales as some of them fitted in with one of my favourite authors, Calseal Mór, who writes of the history of ancient Ireland (or Eirinn as it was known back then) in the times of the bronze ages or the coming of the Romans, etc... Anyway, we reached the faerie circle, which was actually a national heritage site, and then proceeded to walk it in line with correct custom - you must walk around it in a clockwise direction, you must not enter it, and you must thank the faeries when you complete the circle. Naturally, they only speak Irish, so we had a brief language lesson on the bus prior to arrival. I’m not sure of the actual spelling, but ‘guro ma-ha-got’ is probably the closest I can write the pronunciation to it.
From here it was on to Prol na Brón, which was another sacred ancient site with a legend to go with it. We were in county Clare, which has a very interesting style of terrain that you can see at the base of the col - very rocky. Here, Danny gave us the story of how these cols came to being with the cursed love story of a King’s daughter, her lover and the great warrior she was supposed to marry.
With the weather taking a turn for the windy, it was on to the town of Gort before making our way to the Cliffs of Moher. Some of you may have seen that email floating around a while back with the pictures of the two mountain bikers riding along a ledge along some cliffs? Well, these were those cliffs, only we didn’t get to see them too well thanks to a lovely Atlantic mist rolling in. See for yourself in the pic here. Oh well, something to come back for later (along with plenty of other things in this country).
After a good half hour of wandering the cliff tops, it was time to head to Doolin - the town where we were to stay the first night. Doolin is touted as the home of traditional Irish pub music, and to give you an idea of the place, it has four pubs and a phone box. There are various houses around it as well as a few hostels, but they are sparse. Nothing like a suburb or township as we know it. It’s more like someone just tossed a bunch of houses across the countryside like throwing a handful of corn. But I digress... Once we’d settled our stuff into the hostel where we were to spend the night it was off to McGann’s, which Danny had touted as the best of the four pubs, with the best beef stew in Ireland. Now THIS was a proper traditional “Irish Pub”. Danny and Celia (our driver) had been playing nothing but Irish music throughout the entire journey so far, and had mentioned that one of the artists they’d played would be at this pub tonight.
So Guinness and a stew later and it was time to celebrate Danny’s birthday with a few birthday ‘lifts’, (which you can see in action here) and much Guinness and Irish music. The music for the night began in the corner of the pub as three musicians just seemed to take up their instruments and proceeded with what was basically a ‘jam session’. As the night went on they were joined by several others and it all just continued from there. Fantastic stuff really, while we celebrated Danny’s birthday and got to know each other over several more drinks. I don’t recall what started off the next series of events but I managed to get myself into a ‘last man standing’ challenge with Danny himself. Considering the lack of sleep from the last two nights it was pretty stupid, but the honour of Team Australia was at stake according to the group on the table I was at - Sascha and Casey from Port Lincoln (of all places), and Abby, Brandon and Jordan from the US. We were both still standing when the pub closed, and both sported hangovers the next morning. At least no one had to get me up to make the departure time of the bus! A top night anyway, and one I’d happily repeat in Doolin.

Day 2
Leaving Doolin with a rather subdued guide, and many who were happy to snooze on the bus, we headed down along the west coast of Ireland before stopping at Kilkee for what Celia touted as the best sausage rolls in Ireland. Only the best on this tour for us! I don’t know if these really were the best sausage rolls I’d ever had, but considering the timing of their consumption and how I was feeling, they were VERY good.
Kilkee to Killrush and the ferry ride across the River Shannon, which took just over 20 minutes to cross, before continuing along the coast to the fishing town of Dingle. Quite a pretty little place with some amazing coastline on its peninsula. So after lunching and a little exploring in Dingle, which is the home of Funghi the dolphin, we headed out along the loop that takes you along this very coastline. Amazing stuff too. The highlight of this would have to have been the stop on the small beach where we partook of some volleyball, Frisbee and a few braved a shoeless runabout in the surf coming up the beach. At the water’s edge I reached into the water, but kept my shoes dry. Danny later informed us that we had left part of our souls in the Irish sea, which was supposed to be pretty cool. Then again, not many can say they’ve splashed about on an Irish beach...
Continuing on our way we came to a spot with some large rocks to climb out on to then be at the western most point of both Ireland and Europe as well.
Back through Dingle and on to the Kerry mountains we ventured. Some very impressive countryside in these parts before we arrived in Killarney for the night. Along the way, a game of ‘perfect match’ was played with the promise of a romantic evening for the eventual winners. One of the other single guys had to put out three questions, while three single ladies wrote down their answers before handing them back to Danny. HIs little twist was that ‘contestant number three’ was in fact the guy’s brother. Naturally, the look on the guy’s face when he opened his eyes for the meet-your-date bit was pretty funny.
Killarney has a ratio of three guys to every girl, so after perfect match, Celia worded up all the ladies on what to expect from all the farmer boys of the district, and the etiquette of which drinks you should order when offered. Basically, which ones meant you’re not interested and which ones said you’d be making him breakfast in the morning...
Something else Killarney has is Ireland’s largest botanical gardens, so several of us took up the offer of a horse n cart ride through these gardens. Impressive “gardens” they were too as they were more like a national park. Bordering a 5mile lake and complete with several castle ruins, as well as a leprechaun castle, these ‘gardens’ were also home to the last colony of red deer in Ireland.
Once done, it was back to this night’s hostel to get cleaned up for dinner and the rest of the night out in Killarney.
Dinner was at - you guessed it - a pub, and this was followed by the entertainment of a classical storyteller/musician. Not many of us lasted (or even started) with this as we were keen to just keep socialising amongst ourselves, which meant that we moved on to the night’s second pub reasonably quickly. The first of us to get there were a little surprised by the age group of this venue until we discovered that there was a nightclub in the back half of this pub. Classical Irish Rebel band in the front half of the pub and nightclub out the back half - reach for the lasers...
A top night out with what became a good little group to dance with. Sabine and Jen leading the way with the rest of us getting into it as the night went on as we all ‘stepped up to the plate’ in the circle.

Day 3
Sunday began rather slowly as most of us had only got in at around 3am, so the day’s drive through what was some very picturesque countryside was fairly quiet as many chose to sleep through it on our way to Blarney. I do have to admit that I dozed a few times, but was trying to stay awake so that I wouldn’t miss anything - including Danny’s history and tales of the legends of the areas.
Blarney Castle was the first stop of the day, and again, while we had a good 2hours to explore it and it’s grounds, I’d have been happier to spend more time here. Admittedly this is the sort of tour that I’d look at to be an introduction to the places where you can then decide on whether it would be worth coming back to see at your own pace later on.
So, coming back from my tangent, a couple of us went directly to the top of the castle to kiss the Blarney stone. We did this as we’d just seen a busload of elderly tourists head off in the same direction and thought it wise to try and ‘beat the rush’. After a pleasant walk through the grounds to the castle itself, we were then heading up to the top where the stone is located. Once again, I was reacquainted with narrow stone spiral staircases, and I should point out that some of the climb to the top of this castle isn’t one for those who are not good with heights. That said, the actual location of the Blarney stone is in the outer edge of the battlements at the top. This means that to reach it you are leaning out over the edge of the main walls and you can see straight down to the ground. You could also fall straight to the ground as well if you managed to get through the bars that are now in place. Still, it’s a rather unnerving experience to lean out backwards off the edge to kiss the stone itself! Do I now have the ‘gift of the gab’ after having kissed it? Well, you tell me [even is this is a rather rushed job so that I can get this done for you tonight before the next notable adventures take place!]
After taking in the views from the top of the castle, Tyler, Casey, Erin, Jordy and myself decided to explore the Rock close, which contains all sorts of things like druid circles, witches kitchens as well as the Wishing Steps, which have their own legends as well as a ritual to perform if you’d like your wish to come true.
Next it was time to explore the small tunnel system and caves known as the dungeons that extend underneath the castle itself. Not one for the claustrophobic nor for those who mind a bit of mud as it was quite damp in there with water trickling from the ceiling and down the walls in places. I continued along the path that led to the dungeons, only to find that it brought me back around to the main entrance to the rear of the castle itself. A quick watch check and it was time to head back towards the Mills where we parked and grab some lunch along the way.
Back on the road and it was time for the sun to return and light up the countryside for the journey to the Mitchelstown caves. Don’t get me wrong here, the overcast and occasional drizzly weather wasn’t all that bad. It was both typical and true Irish weather. If I’d wanted sunshine then I’d have been in France or Spain for the weekend and not Ireland. However, I wasn’t complaining about the sunshine. It did add to the countryside and the viewing of it regardless of how brief that may have been for.
Mitchelstown caves. Well, they’re no Naracoorte Caves that’s for sure, but they were still interesting, and still had their own charm to them. The one highlight that they did have was the fact that they have been used for services and concerts due to the natural stage and brilliant acoustics. It also happened that Megan was a classically trained opera singer and was invited to sing. It’s not many opera, or any singers for that matter, that can boast of having sung in such a location. With no accompaniment she gave us a stellar performance too. No pics allowed, but I did manage to sneak a couple.
Moving right along, we headed through Tipperary before eventually reaching our final stop at the Rock and Castle of Cashel. More stories of the old kings that inhabited this castle were told on the drive there, and it was a most impressive structure. A quick word in our ear from Celia as we were getting off the bus had myself, Brandon, Abby, Megan and Ashleigh heading off to a different spot nearby for what Celia said were the best places to view it. Nothing like a bit of inside information to improve your trip!
Tales abounded on the drive back to Dublin as Danny took us through a brief history of Ireland, while folks took in our last looks at the countryside or just snoozed in general. This was followed by a round of goodbyes once we reached Kinlay House again and folks started to head off in their different directions. Several were off to a pub to watch the European Championship final which was due to start at around 8pm.
This wasn’t the case for Megan, Ashleigh and I as we had flights at around 9pm. We headed off into regular street side Dublin, which took us past the pictured buskers. We found a decent cafe to dine and while away the time, before heading to the airport and eventually saying ‘Until next time’ to both each other and Ireland...

A great fun trip all up with a top bunch of folks - some I'll even see next weekend. A superb introduction to Ireland, and a great way to get an idea of where to come back to and spend more time. Personally, I think a bike would be a top way to do it as there are so many small townships that are easily within less than a day's ride of each other. Now if I can just get the time to do it!

And now it's off to Duran Duran tomorrow night before flying out friday morning to the next destination!