June 23, 2009
· Filed under Animals!, Life, Pictures, Running
Monday, Eddie got to experience the thrill of driving on the left side of the road for the first time. We stopped off at Hertz to pick up our car. Amazingly, Ireland is one of the most dangerous countries in which to drive in the world. As a result, our credit card, which normally provides insurance when renting a car, does not have this coverage for a select few countries, Ireland among them. So, we paid 15 euros/day for the car and ~26 euros/day for the insurance. Phew. Obviously we only elected to have one driver and given my total inability to judge distance, Eddie was the obvious choice. He did an amazing job, and we started out on our trip across Ireland. Our first stop was the Rock of Cashel which is actually a very cool combo of a fort and cathedral:
Gorgeous views of the Irish countryside. Notice the cows in the distance.
From there, we went on to the Castle of Cahir which was awesome because you got to explore almost all the rooms. If only our condo had a “murder hole” so that we could drop rocks on unsuspecting salesman as they tried to approach.
We finally arrived at our bed and breakfast around 8 pm and headed out for a quick dinner at the nearby Sailor’s Bar. This is the view for our dinner. Note that at this point it’s probably close to 9 pm and still full daylight.
Tuesday morning, we debated a good bit whether to check out the Ring of Kerry (a popular tourist destination) or the Dingle Peninsula (awesome name, but farther away). We ultimately ended up going with our host’s recommendation and driving around the Beara Peninsula which was absolutely gorgeous with amazing views of both the ocean and mountains. This beauty was interspersed by moments of pure terror because apparently someone decided it would be fun to make very windy and narrow roads, just wide enough for 1 car, and then set the speed limit at 80 kmh. Luckily, Eddie was driving, and I just let out frequent squeals of terror.
Anyone who knows me knows that I have love animals, so we frequently stopped to try to entice the cows and sheep to come closer. Apparently the cows loved me:
But the sheep were quite fearful. Here is one running away from us:
Here’s one example of some of the amazing views.
Notice the crazy winding road:
Unfortunately, I’ve been rather sick for this entire vacation so I haven’t been able to get much running in. I’m actually starting to feel better, but I’m left with this horrible hacking cough. Lovely.
June 21, 2009
· Filed under Life, Running
I had a lovely to start to my vacation. My official first day was Wednesday but I was post from working overnight in the ED and then I had to work another overnight on Thursday to pay someone pack. Prior to going to work on Thursday, I managed to wake up and run my last long run (of 14 miles) prior to my half marathon (coming up on 6/28!). The first 10 miles felt great, the next 2 miles didn’t feel too bad but the last two were rather painful. I did have some left foot pain which has been bothering me off and on for the past few weeks. Also had some right hip pain which is new. Anyway, after this, I rested for a bit and then did some laundry and packing for Ireland. I got to work and discovered that there were ZERO patients for me to take care of. Awesome. And somehow, miraculously, made it through the whole night without a single admission. I did have some trouble sleeping because I always have trouble on call and because I’ve been working nights for a while. I left work around 8 am and went home to finish packing and drop our cat off at “cat camp,” which is how Eddie and I refer to Cat Whiskers Inn. Finished cleaning up the condo and then headed to the airport around 4 pm to catch my 7 pm flight to Ireland.
The flight went well: there was both dinner and tiny TVs for each person. Shockingly, I didn’t actually sleep at all. We landed in Shannon around 12:30 am US time (5:30 am Ireland time). I had a 1 hour layover there and then finally made it into Dublin around 7:30 am. Got through customs very quickly and took a bus to our hotel and arrived by 9 am. Eddie was at his conference so I got unpacked and then wandered down to the lobby to send him an email and let him know I was there and, wouldn’t you know it, there he was. Excellent. We walked down O’Connell street and found our way onto Grafton Street where I bought 2 of the best scones I’ve ever eaten and a very peculiar (yet tasty) iced coffee. From there, we walked through St. Stephen’s Green and then I walked him back up to Trinity College to go back to his conference. I wandered back to the hotel and took a nap from about 1 pm to 3 pm and then met up with him again. We went running along the Liffey and then met up with some of his friends and headed over to the Market Bar for dinner. Turned out to be a Tapas bar and was very tasty. There were four of us and we managed to sample a cheese plate, meatballs with potatoes, 2 types of salad, chicken skewer, fish pie, and olives plus Guinness and Krombacher (surprisingly tasty). I was sad to find that the Guinness here tastes exactly the same as in the States. After that, we wandered around some more and then I succumbed to some very strange ice cream concoction at Burger King. We finally made it back to our hotel around 11 pm, just as the sun was setting. So cool to be at this latitude.
Despite our best attempts, we didn’t wake up on Sunday until close to 11 am, and even then only because the cleaning people knocked on our door. We hurried out and grabbed a scone and croissant at a convenience store (1 on every block!) and then dropped off Eddie’s laundry. Then we walked over to Trinity College and went on a very cool tour that ended with the Book of Kells. From there, we headed over to the Queen of Tarts for a delicious lunch. We stopped off and saw Dublin Castle and then checked out a very over crowded street fair before picking Eddie’s laundry back up and heading back to the hotel. On the way, we found some Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. This stuff is amazing! Why don’t they have it in the States!!!? Eddie went for a run, but I’m tapering so I stayed at the hotel and planned our driving route for the next few days.
We grabbed dinner at a takeout fish and chips place called Leo Burdock’s which was delicious. Then we stopped in at a very touristy bar where you could pour your own beer. As it turns out, they also had some excellent Irish singing and dancing. Very cool to see. Now we’re finishing packing so that we can leave tomorrow to check out Kenmare on the southwest coast.
Pictures to follow…
