Ireland Day 10: Skelligs!

Monday was probably my favorite day of the whole trip. It was also long and busy, so this is your warning that I cannot be held responsible for the length of this post! We also took a llllllot of pictures, so well, um...good luck getting through I guess. ;) I'll understand if you skim.

We started out early, after having a giant breakfast at our B&B of course, and drove down to what is called the "Ring of Kerry," which is a scenic route along the Kerry peninsula (very popular with the tourist buses).

We saw lots of nice scenery along the way, but the main point of our journey was to get to the little town of Portmagee, where we would hop aboard a boat headed to the Skellig Islands.

The what Islands, you are asking? The Skelligs! Skellig Michael to be specific. I had heard amazing things about Skellig Michael, so I made sure to include it on our itinerary, even though it did take up almost an entire day. Skellig Michael is this rocky, jutty-up island off the coast of Ireland where some monks decided to build a monastery back in the 7th century. They picked the Skelligs because they were so inhospitable, and the monks felt that the harder their lives were, the closer they'd be to God. So they carved stairs out of the rock face and built these little stone beehive huts on the very top and lived up there, in total isolation, for centuries!



















It is very remote, and they only allow a certain number of boats full of tourists to dock there each day, so we had to reserve our spots in advance. When we got to Portmagee, we found a little dock with several smallish speed boats. The tide was very low at this point, so we had to climb down a long ladder to get in (and then clamber over into the next boat since ours wasn't the one closest to the dock), which felt fairly adventurous.

The boat ride out was about an hour long, but it was pleasant with lots of green Irish coastline to watch as we went by. Kevin and I were sitting facing the back of the boat, listening to an audiobook on the mp3 player (we each got one earbud). Unfortunately, this meant that we didn't see the whale which apparently jumped out of the ocean at one point while we were on the boat. We didn't notice the commotion until it was gone. A lady tapped me on the shoulder and said, "It's whales!" but at first I thought she meant, "It's Wales!" and I was really confused, because that would be a VERY far distance to have traveled in an hour!

Anyways, soon we could see the twin rocks jutting out of the sea. The bigger one was where we were headed--Skellig Michael. But the smaller one was quite impressive also (it's just called Little Skellig). It is a bird nesting site, and is totally COVERED in birds. In fact, it was quite a shock when I suddenly realized as we got closer that all that white stuff covering the peaks were millions of birds. Well, I guess not millions. Tens of thousands. But you get the point.


When we arrived at the island, we had to ascend about 750 feet to get to monastery site. The beginning part was paved switchbacks (paved recently for tourists of course), but after a little while, we started climbing up the steps that the monks had carved out of the rock. It was quite the workout, actually. We did stop to take some pictures of some neat birds, including several puffins. We tried to climb fast so that we would beat the other tourists to the top. Unfortunately, another group had docked before us, so we didn't beat *all* of them up there. But at least there weren't too many people around when we first arrived at the ruin site.


The monastery buildings were incredible--extremely well preserved. It was just amazing to consider what it must have been like living up there. The stone huts are made out of dry stone, which (I can't remember if I've explained before) means they are laid on top of each other without mortar. Surprisingly, this made them extremely resilient to shifts in the earth, etc. and helped preserved them fully intact. In contrast, there was a much newer stone structure which had once been a church up there as well, but it had been made with mortar, and it was in ruins.

We got to spend an hour or two poking around the ruins and eating some of the (many) cookies we still had from our dinner the day before (although we had to eat the food away from the ruins so as to not encourage the birds to land--and poop--on the ruins. The bird poop is serious business, as I was soon to find out.) We were glad to have had those, because we didn't have time to buy sandwiches before we got on the boat as was the original plan (note to self: always double driving time estimates when in Ireland).




Then, we hopped back on the boat and headed off again--but not before one of the puffins pooped RIGHT on my head. GROSS!! I was enjoying the ruins so much, though, that it didn't phase me too much.

Once we arrived back to Portmagee, we had a nice late lunch at a little pastry shop--they also served sandwiches and soups. I had some sort of cheesy crab soup thing. I forget what it was called, but it was awesome. And it came with AMAZING brown bread. Kevin had the chicken salad which he also really liked. Of course, I had to have a pastry for dessert too.


Then, we drove the rest away around the Ring of Kerry, stopping along the way a couple of times to take pictures of the scenery and to check out a drystone ring fort (also made without mortar, like the monks' "beehives"),











and then ending at Killarney National Park. We saw a few quick sights such as "Ladies' View" overlooking the lakes (a bit of a letdown, probably mostly because the sky was overcast), the Torc Waterfall (and a bit of the forest surrounding it--I swear everything in the forest was glowing green), and the outside of Ross castle on the lakes, where I snapped one of my favorite pics from our trip. We would have stopped to see the gardens at Muckross house, but there was a sign warning that they closed the gates at exactly 7 and then charged you like $100 to get out after the gates were closed. It was only 10 minutes before 7, so we didn't have time.

We then drove up to a mountain pass in the National Park called the Gap of Dunloe. During the day it is filled with hikers and carriages (they call them pony and traps), but by now it was almost empty of other people. We had planned to hike up the pass for an hour or two, but we were still tired from our Skellig adventure, and the road was actually pretty good, so we just drove it! (Don't worry--cars are allowed; it's just too busy during the day usually to be able to drive up there). It was really beautiful, especially since by this time the sky had cleared up some and the sun was going down, creating vibrant colors and long shadows.

After we drove back down out of the pass, we had to make our way back to Camp. Unfortunately, we had some navigational troubles (you would not believe how windy and unmarked those roads are! Even with a compass, I got us fairly lost). I was rather stressed out, I'm afraid.

Luckily, Kevin wasn't and we made it back just fine--even if it was 11pm by then! But, the sun was just going down, so all was well. We were beat! But we were back, having had an Irishly fantastic adventure.

Ireland Day 9: Sunday, Foggy Sunday

The bed and breakfast we stayed at while in southwestern Ireland was in a little itty bitty village called Camp. I'm posting a map to orient you. You can see Dublin in the east, where we flew from on Saturday night, and then the little Kerry airport (where we flew into) in the south west is marked by a airplane symbol. Then the little yellow house is Tralee, where we went to church, and the flag is our B&B in Camp.

The B&B was up on a hill that looked out over the ocean--it was a gorgeous view, and although a little bit hard to find, the building was brand new and very nice. And our host John was super duper friendly and helpful (and he cooked a delicious breakfast, praising Kevin for going "full Irish"--including the baked beans). Unfortunately, we awoke Sunday morning to lots and LOTS of fog, so we couldn't enjoy the view very much as we sat at the window for breakfast.

We drove about 20 minutes to Tralee to go to church in the only branch that was anywhere near there (in fact, I chose our overnight stay location partly based on the fact that there actually *was* a branch nearby we could go to.) I had an exact address with directions because I had done some sleuthing around on the internet. (The church's website gave an incorrect address for the location of the Tralee Branch, with no meeting time listed or phone number. But, I managed to round up a Tralee Branch member's email address, and he replied to my request for more information.) It turns out that the meeting time was at 11am, just like almost all the congregations in Ireland. We were glad that the Irish are smart enough to start their church services at a reasonable time, as opposed to all those Hawaiian wards that all seemed to start at 8am! ;) (I guess it's because in the winter in Ireland it doesn't get light until quite late in the morning?)

Anyways, we set out fairly confidently for church, leaving ourselves lots and lots of extra time for parking and finding the building. However, we soon found that even our specific address with directions were not much help when none of the streets were labeled, not to mention the addresses. And, we're talking major spaghetti tangle type streets here. We parked the car and walked back and forth down the street we were pretty sure was the right one. Nothing. Finally, we went back to look (again) at the town map that they had posted on a big sign in the center of town.

By now church was already supposed to have started. I was getting grumpy and a little desperate---I *really* wanted to go to church this Sunday! But it looked like we'd just have to give up. I offered a silent prayer that we'd somehow be able to find the church building.

Just then, a young man started walking behind us, dressed up in a suit and tie. He said, "you must be Mormons." And then he led us to church! (I think that the fact that I was holding a Book of Mormon may have clued him in.) The building was actually one we'd passed at least twice already. It was just a couple of rooms upstairs from this storefront. The door was open, and there was a little paper that said "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" on it, but since the door was open, the sign was perpendicular to the sidewalk. (Does that make sense? Bottom line: we couldn't see the sign.) We felt so blessed that God sent us *another* guide to find our way to the church building, just at the right time, just like He had in Bray. I bet that young man didn't realize he was answering a prayer by being late to church that day!

The branch was VERY small--even smaller than the Bray branch. But the members had very strong faith. Many of them were converts. One of the Sacrament Meeting speakers was the fellow I had emailed for directions. He was actually a theology Ph.D. student, and had a lot of interesting things to say. We loved getting to know the people there and feel their testimonies a little bit.

After church we came back to the B&B to have a nap in the hopes that maybe possibly the fog would let up a little in the mean time. No such luck. We decided to strike out and take our "scenic" drive anyhow. We had planned to drive around the Dingle Peninsula (see the little jutty out part near our B&B on the map?), which is famous for being a very pretty drive. Unfortunately, mostly what we saw was just fog. There were some places were it let up a little and you could see some nice coastlines. And, we were able to see Inch Beach, which is the longest beach in Ireland. The beach is also very, very wide with lots of sand. But, the water was COOOOOOLD! Especially since we'd just been in Mexico's super warm waters a few weeks earlier. It was Sunday anyway, so we wouldn't have gone swimming, but we definitely had no desire to! It was interesting how dark the water was too--almost black. Very different from the crystal clear Caribbean.

We bought dinner at a little convenience store at a gas station (excuse me, I mean petrol station), where we bought sandwiches, juice, and two or three large packages of cookies (aka biscuits). My favorite were the chocolate covered "digestives" which despite the weird name were really yummy.

We took a little windy road to get there and back from our B&B. It wound up mountains and back down, only one lane wide the whole time. It was rather treacherous because of the fog. Luckily, we could at least see far enough ahead of us to know when we needed to find one of the sparsely strewn pull-out areas (where the road would widen slightly so that two cars could actually pass each other) because of an oncoming car.

It was a good Sunday, even though the fog was disappointing. It was good that we could take it easy, because we needed our rest for the next (very busy) day!

Ireland Day 8: the Last of Dublin

Saturday was Kevin's last day at his conference, and our last day in Dublin. Since Kevin again had to head out early, it was my job to go pick up the laundry, pack up the suitcases, and check out of the hotel. (Why does this always take longer than you think it will?) I left the bags at the front desk, and headed out for my last chance to see Dublin stuff.

I still had a fairly long list of things I was interested in seeing (since I missed some time when I was sick), so I had to pick and choose what was most important to me. I decided on the National Gallery (oh how I love art museums!) They have a pretty decent collection (the highlight being the Taking of Christ by Caravaggio) although not as great as some I've been to. I nevertheless managed to wander around gawking for 3 hours before it dawned on me that I was going to be late to meet up with Kevin.

I hurried out and called Kevin and we planned to meet in the middle instead of at his conference building. Unfortunately, we didn't quite understand each other and each went to different places, but eventually we met up. This only left us with about 1/2 an hour to see the National Museum of Ireland, which was such a shame because they have LOTS of really neat artifacts there (HERE were my Viking artifacts I was looking for at Dublinia!) They had lots of prehistoric artifacts (including the stuff they found inside Newgrange and Knowth--remember those burial mounds I talked about earlier?) and medieval artifacts (including some amazing well-preserved clothes that had been found in a peat bog, where the acidity had prevented them from decaying), and lots and lots of gold and other treasures. The staff had to kick us out when the museum closed.

Next on our list was to visit St. Patrick's cathedral, which was a fair distance away. I had planned to take a bus, but as we tried to board I learned that my 3-day pass had just expired (like 30 minutes ago or something)--drat! So, we walked. It took about 40 minutes. St. Patrick's was originally built *outside* Dublin, although obviously the city has expanded since then. It is built at the site where St. Patrick baptized a number of pagan converts at a well (a stone from the well is on display inside the cathedral, along with a statue of St. Patrick.)

Another interesting thing about St. Patrick's is that Jonathon Swift was dean of the cathedral for about 30 years in the 1700s. He is buried beneath the floor of the cathedral.

We then had to embark on the long walk back to the center of town, where we caught a quick dinner (at Subway--I know, not exactly very Irish) and booked on over to the hotel where we picked up the luggage and caught the bus back to the airport. We took a late flight on Ryanair to the other side of Ireland, where the next leg of our adventure would begin. [Sidenote: have yhou guys heard of Ryanair? They are a European airline, the dirt cheapest of the cheap. Our tickets cost like $10 each (base fare) but then they slap on all the fees--a fee for checking luggage (which, by the way, had very tight weight restrictions even if you paid the fee), a fee for using a credit card, a fee for checking in at the airport (even though as non-EU passport holders, we weren't allowed to check in online)...the list goes on and on. Ryanair recently announced they were considering charging passengers to use the BATHROOM. And it wasn't a joke. They don't offer drinks, snacks, magazines, trays on the seats, or even seat pockets. But, even with all those fees, our tickets were way WAY cheaper than any airline in the US. So, I can't actually complain that much.] The flight went quite smoothly actually, as did the rental car pickup (a MUCH friendlier staff this time), which I was grateful for because we were arriving late (10:30 I think) at a tiny little airport and I was paranoid that no one would actually be at the rental car desk. We hopped in the car (which looked exactly like the last one--another Nissan Micra) and drove about half an hour to our little bed and breakfast, where we'd be staying the next three nights. We had a small amount of difficulty navigating there, but nothing too terrible. I'll tell you more about the B&B later. All we really cared about on Saturday was that we *made* it! Our friendly host was even waiting up for us.

Ireland Day 7: Handel's Messiah and Greek Papyri

The first thing I had to do on Friday morning was haul our laundry off to the launderette (I had kept hoping until this point that I'd find something more reasonable, but then I finally caved and just paid the 14 euros or whatever it was.) Then, I was free to sightsee. I had to wear my shorts this day, since I'd just given all my pants to the cleaners. But it was cold, so I was also wearing my coat.

First I toured Christ Church cathedral, which is the older of Dublin's two medieval cathedrals (the other being St. Patrick's). It dates back to the 11th century, although today it is no longer a Catholic cathedral--both St. Patrick's and Christ Church are now Protestant cathedrals, belonging to the Anglican Church of Ireland. A Norman king called "Strongbow" (who conquered Dublin for the English crown) rebuilt it in stone in 1171. A major restoration was done in Victorian times, though, so much of the style actually looks Victorian. The underground crypt, where they hold all the treasures (and where you can't take pictures), is the city's oldest surviving structure.

Inside the cathedral are a few noteworthy things: a grave which is said to belong to Strongbow (although apparently historians don't think it does actually house his remains). They also (supposedly) have St. Lawrence O'Toole's heart encased in metal as one of their relics, hanging from the wall (you can see it in one of my pictures below.) And finally, I spotted a replica of the Christus statue--a small version in a little alcove. My parents have seen the original in Denmark (I think?)--there sure are lots of copies of it all over the world! (I found one in Kaiser Wilhelm's palace in Potsdam, Germany too, a couple of years ago.)

When I first entered the cathedral, I was suprised and tickled to find a choir and orchestra rehearsing Handel's Messiah. (My family sings the Messiah together at Christmas time, so it's always been special to me.) I learned that the first performance of the Messiah was actually by the Christ Church Cathedral's choir (although it wasn't sung in the cathedral but in a concert hall across the street. The concert hall doesn't seem to exist anymore, but there is a plaque showing where it once was.) So I got to listen to "For unto us a child is born..." and so on while I wandered around the place. What a treat!

After I finished up at the cathedral, I decided to visit the Dublinia museum which is an adjoining building. They offered a discount for admission if you went to both, so I figured I might as well. The Dublinia museum is about the vikings, and I thought I'd get to see viking artifacts and stuff, but it was actually very disappointing. It was pretty much just for kids--lots of replicas and wax models and exhibits about life as a viking. Mildly interesting, but FILLED to the BRIM with kids. Not that I mind kids, but it was noisy and crowded and not that great. Overall, a waste of an hour.

Finding my time quickly running out, I dashed over to see another museum I had higher hopes for--the Chester Beatty library, which is a collection of ancient manuscripts and books (Chester Beatty was a private book collector who willed over his vast collection to the public when he died.) They don't allow picture taking there, but if you want to see images you can check out their website. It is an AMAZING collection! There are all kinds of old books, but he specialized in collecting religious texts (from all different religions). Probably the most meaningful to me where his early New Testament papyri--including the earliest surviving copy of Paul's letters and the book of Revelation--cool stuff! There were also lots of Islamic texts, and Hindu, Buddhist, etc. Some of the books he collected just because of the impressive bindings or artwork on the illuminated pages. I DEFIINITELY wished I had skipped the Dublinia museum and just spent more time at Chester Beatty.

But, I had to hurry back to meet Kevin, who was getting out of his conference a bit earlier on Friday (5pm instead of 6pm), giving us enough time to take a bus tour of the city together (my second time, but Kevin's first.) When Kevin and I met up at Trinity College, we had to wait for a processional to pass by us, which turned out to be their graduation ceremony.

After the bus tour, we had dinner at some random restuarant on O'Connell St. We actually really liked this one, and they even had reasonable prices (AMAZING for Dublin. Well, for Ireland in general, really--the restuarants are very expensive there.) Then we spent our final night at the Schoolhouse Hotel--just one more day left in Dublin!

Day 6: Kevin's big day

Thursday was the reason we came to Ireland to begin with. It was the day of Kevin's presentation at the conference! The Programming Language Design and Implementation is a VERY prestigious conference in his field (only a few *professors* at Purdue have gotten papers accepted there, and he's still a student!) so it was a big deal to give this talk. He decided to skip the morning meetings to practice his presentation some more, so he was still at the hotel at 10am or so when I finally got up. So, we had breakfast together in the hotel (most hotels in Dublin provide breakfast included, and ours was no exception. The breakfast was pretty amazing! I definitely over-did it with the eating those last few days at the Schoolhouse hotel--but hey, I missed the first two days of breakfast entirely because I was sleeping, so I figured I might as well gorge myself.)

Kevin headed back to Trinity College after breakfast, and I slept a little more (still trying to get all the way better.) Then, I rode the bus up to O'Connell Street, which is pretty much the main street in Dublin, very busy with businesses and lots of tourists. And lots of cigarette smoke (but that's kind of a given in Europe.) I went to scope out a few things: I needed to find a laundromat or somewhere to get our laundry done, and I needed to find a cybercafe or something where I could print another copy of my "Master Travel Plan", which I thought I had lost (turns out, the pages weren't lost--they were in Kevin's backpack, but I didn't know that.) I also wanted to buy a cheap compass if possible, because I thought it would help us in navigating the crazy roads in upcoming days.

I actually checked out several laundry services online and in person, and it turns out that in Ireland you pretty much can't do your laundry yourself if you don't have your own washer and dryer. Instead, you give the clothes to the laundry service and they wash them *for* you and then charge you a small fortune. I think it cost me about 10 euro (~$14) to do ONE load of laundry, once I finally caved and gave up on trying to find something more reasonable. Craziness. Still better than the ~$5 PER SHIRT that the hotel would have charged to do it...

Anyways, I scoped out the laundry situation, printed my papers, and bought a 2 euro compass and then took another bus over to Dublin Castle and had a tour. The castle, for the most part, is not what you'd imagine a castle to look like. Maybe they should call it "Dublin Palace," because that's pretty much what it is. I guess the castle burned in 1684 and they decided to rebuild it in a more "modern" fashion at that time, so little of the original castle is left. There is a section of the original castle which they discovered underground during excavations, and which they take you down to see during the tour--that was pretty neat.

Dublin was originally a Viking city, and back then there was a Viking fortress at the castle site. The Irish briefly took it over, but then the Normans invaded in 1169, and later built a stone castle, which was ruled by the British ever after (until 1921 when Ireland finally achieved independence). The English Kings ruled Ireland through a Viceroy who lived at Dublin castle (and occasionally the British royalty would visit and stay there too.)

Aaannnnd, the Irish are not too fond of the way the British ruled their country (they tried to gain independence many times before they finally succeeded), so it's kind of an interesting place to visit. In some of the pictures you can see a statue of "Justice" standing at the gate of the castle. (see the bottom right side of the first pic above of the castle , and in the pic to the left here you can see her back above the gate) Some of the Irish will tell you that it's ironic that she stands with her back to the people (she's facing the castle instead), is depicted without a blindfold (as you usually see "Justice" since she's supposed to be blind), AND, the scales that she's holding apparently used to often fill up with water, making them tip one way or the other. Such is the "justice" that the Irish felt they were dealt by the British.

Nowadays, the Irish government still uses the Castle to host visiting dignitaries (I think Clinton stayed there, and Margret Thatcher), and for state events.

One interesting thing inside is a throne, which apparently used to be taller until Queen Victoria came for a visit and couldn't get up into the throne because she was too short, so she order its legs to be chopped off.



Anyways, that's probably more than you wanted to know about that. After my tour, I walked back to Trinity College, in time to catch Kevin's presentation. As far as I could tell, it went splendidly (although most of it was over my head). The picture is not so splendid, alas. Maybe you can barely see Kevin's outline in all that blurry blackness?



We ate dinner in a pub in the Grafton St. area. We saw a few pubs with live traditional music going, but they were soooo crowded that we decided to forego them. I ordered fish and chips, just because I *had* to order that at least once while we were in Ireland. Truth be told, I'm not a fan.

On the way back to the hotel, we bought some frozen yogurt with berries (which I was a MAJOR fan of), and walked through St. Stephen's Green (another big, beautiful park inside the city.)

A successful day! Now Kevin could relax a bit (although he still had two days of the conference left) and I was feeling mostly better, so things were definitely looking up.