Ireland, Part Five

November 26, 2012

We awoke to a beautiful Monday morning in Limerick. It was sunny and clear when we looked out the window.

View from our hotel.

We made our way downstairs for breakfast. Although the full Irish breakfast was again available, I went with fried eggs, toast, and tea. Oh, and possibly a pastry or two.

After breakfast, we decided to walk down to the Medieval area and see King John's Castle. When we stepped outside, we discovered that the beautiful day was a bit misleading. It was extremely windy, which made it much colder than it looked.

Nevertheless, we made it to King John's Castle. I was particularly excited about this, as I'm an avid reader of historical fiction. This is my favorite time period, so I know a lot about King John. The castle was built on his orders around 1210 before he became King of England. Unfortunately, the castle is currently closed for renovations, but we were able to walk around and see the exterior.

There were also some nice views along the River Shannon. By this point, my contacts were so dry that I couldn't really see out of my right eye.

View from the river.

Can you feel the wind?

The Medieval Quarter was interesting, as there were different informative plaques displayed to describe buildings and structures.

The Exchange Wall, built in 1673. The wall is all that remains of the original building.

Another one of my favorite things about Ireland were the colorful doors everywhere. In fact, montages of the doors of Dublin could be found on postcards, books, etc. I did pick up a postcard.

After our walk, we went back down to Arthurs Quay before leaving Limerick. We visited a store called Irish Handcrafts. We met some very nice people. One of them even has a house in Kenmare (my grandma's hometown, where we were headed the next day). She emailed me some information about the Kenmare Chronicle, which I am now following on Facebook. 

They explained what the various patterns mean in knitwear. We ended up buying some Irish woolen scarves and hubby got a hat that he was wanting. 

Next, we made our way toward Killarney. I really enjoyed the drive on this pretty, sunny day. It was exciting to cross into County Kerry, and this part of the country is so beautiful.

It was hard to get photos due to driving into the sun. But it was beautiful.

Due to some road construction in places, it took a little longer to get Killarney than expected. We arrived and checked into our hotel, which was right in the city centre. 

Our hotel, all decorated for Christmas.

We decided to walk around Killarney. It's an adorable town, although it was pretty quiet in the tourism off-season. We did some shopping for a couple of hours.

When it got dark and started to get chillier, we stopped into Charlie Foley's pub for Irish coffees. We warmed up right by the fire. Sitting in an Irish pub by the fireplace with Irish coffee or a pint of Guinness is about the coziest, most wonderful experience imaginable. We enjoyed doing this as much as possible during our trip.

Our friends who were coincidentally vacationing in Ireland at the same time were also in Killarney this night. So we met up with them for drinks and dinner. Many restaurants were closed due to the time of year, so we walked around a bit looking for places that were open.

We stopped into the Porterhouse for drinks and found out that the bartender used to live in St. Louis. Either due to the St. Louis connection or because we were the only ones in the bar, he poured us some gigantic glasses of wine. 

He recommended that we eat dinner at Lord Kenmare's. We walked down there, and while the restaurant was closed, the bar was serving food, which we enjoyed with live music. 

After dinner, we walked down to the Killarney Grand.

Courtesy of my phone's camera.

Luckily, the Killarney Grand was probably a minute walk or so from our hotel. So it was easy getting back and going to bed.

Next up is Part Six, in which we go to Kenmare and the Ring of Kerry.

Ireland, Part Four

November 25, 2012

We woke up to a rainy, grey morning in Limerick. Our hotel was serving the full Irish breakfast in buffet form, so we made our way downstairs. Options included eggs, ham, sausage, roasted tomatoes, black and white pudding, cereal, yogurt, breads, pastries, fruit. Just about everything you could imagine for breakfast.

After stuffing ourselves and drinking a lot of tea (coffee for the hubs) we decided to drive up to the Cliffs of Moher. It's about 60km from Limerick. It didn't rain too much, and was misty/sprinkling more than anything. Toward the end of the drive, the roads became more narrow and curvy.

By the time we arrived, the rain had mostly stopped, though it was still pretty dreary and cold. This didn't hamper our spirits or our views.

We walked up and down both sides of the Cliffs, first up to O'Brien's Tower, and then up the other side.

I read on one of the displays at the visitor center that a guy named O'Brien built the tower to impress the ladies visiting for the views.

O'Brien's Tower

It was a little chilly, but we just bundled up and enjoyed our time there. I imagine that it gets pretty crowded in the summer months.

The Atlantic Ocean from the Cliffs of Moher.

The views were really pretty great in all directions.

We saw some people climbing over the barrier and taking pictures on the other side of it. They probably should have heeded this warning.

This is what you don't want to do at the Cliffs of Moher.

After taking our time to enjoy all the views, we made our way to the visitor center. There's a gift shop inside where we bought a few souvenirs, including an Irish penny whistle. When you're in Ireland, right? So far, I do not seem to have inherited any tin whistling ability from my Irish roots. But hey, I'm willing to work on it a little. My cats think I should give it up.

Anyway, when we got back to Limerick, it was pretty much dark. Other than the minimal crowds in the off-season, another bonus is that everything is all decorated for Christmas. 

We walked down to Arthurs Quay, a shopping area on Patrick Street. I then had my first experience in a store called Penneys. Penneys is basically a department store with some amazingly low prices. I'm talking boots for as cheap as €6. I ended up picking up a pair of boots for €10 and a scarf for €3. If transporting our purchases back to the the US wasn't a concern, I probably would have bought a ridiculous amount of items in this store.

We also went into the Tesco at Arthurs Quay. Here, we decided to buy some Irish junk food. We bought Tayto (Irish potato chips) and some various Irish chocolates. We also bought a couple boxes of chocolate covered butter biscuits. I may have eaten these for breakfast for most of our remaining days in Ireland. Don't judge me.

After our shopping trip, we walked to the Locke Bar again on our way back to the hotel. We enjoyed Guinness by the fireplace. The husband complained it was too hot, but I was happy as a clam.

Doesn't this make you happy just looking at it?

After partaking in our Guinness, we walked back to the hotel and had dinner at the Absolute Bar & Grill. I'm not sure if it's because it was a Sunday night or what, but there was no one there. In fact, the restaurant was actually closed, although they were serving the full menu in the bar. 

Regardless, I ordered my first ever Bangers & Mash. From this experience, I'm a fan. We finished off with alcoholic coffees. Who can say no to an Irish coffee or a coffee with Baileys in it?

Stay tuned for Part Five, in which we finally get to County Kerry!

Ireland, Part Three

November 24, 2012

On our third day in Ireland, we drove from Dublin to Limerick. We decided to stop in Kildare for lunch.

It was a small, adorable town that is definitely worth a stop.

We quickly found a pub serving food all day and stopped in at Silken Thomas. I had a tasty toasted sandwich with ham, cheese, onions, and tomato. I had the potato and leek soup with it. The husband had a duck wrap with vegetable soup. I'm not usually a big fan of veggie soup (I'm talking about the typical beef broth with little frozen veggies floating in it). This was delicious, creamy, pureed soup. The potato and leek was my favorite though. Great prices and a yummy meal - it was a winner.

We drove on to Limerick, which is about 200km from Dublin. This was our first look at some of the Irish countryside. As expected, it was gorgeous. Here are some views from the passenger seat.

As you can see, the day was a little misty and grey. But for the end of November, everything was still very green. The rolling green hills were really pretty.

We arrived in Limerick and could walk down to the city centre from our hotel. We walked around St. Mary's Cathedral just before it started to get dark. The cathedral was built in 1168 and is the oldest building in Limerick still in daily use. 

Walking up to the church.

St. Mary's Cathedral.

The small cemetery on the church grounds.

We walked down to the city centre as it became fully dark. We did some shopping and made our first trip into Dunnes Stores which is Ireland's largest retailer. I guess it's kind of the Irish equivalent of a supercenter. There were clothes (like any department store) and also a grocery store inside.

It was chilly walking around outside, so we ended up stopping into Flannery's Pub for Irish coffees.

The coffee was delicious and served with ginger nut cookies.

While we were enjoying our coffees, the Wales vs. New Zealand rugby game began, so we stuck around to watch some of that with the locals. I don't really understand rugby, but I think I could get into it. I enjoyed it anyway, for the atmosphere alone.

We walked down to The Oyster House at the Locke Bar for dinner. They had a pretty good selection of Irish craft beers, so I went with the Galway Hooker. I couldn't turn down the fish and chips. I'll mention now that the fish and chips in Ireland are served with minty mushy peas. These are exactly what they sound like. I didn't dislike them, but the flavors together are a little strange.

Nonetheless, the fish and chips are amazingly good.

The Locke Bar.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and relaxed in front of the tv. We watched some British X-Factor and The Graham Norton Show.

Next up is Part Four, in which we enjoy the full Irish breakfast and go to the Cliffs of Moher. I took a lot of pictures there, so be patient with me if it takes a couple of days.

Ireland, Part Two

November 23, 2012

After a much needed night of sleep, we got up and walked toward the city centre. The streets are pretty with great architecture, so although we walked a lot, the walks were pleasant. Here's a view of Pembroke Road.

We had breakfast at Insomnia (mine included a fantastic lemon and white chocolate muffin). We browsed the shops around  Grafton Street and found a very American-esque mall. In fact, there was a T.G.I. Friday's out front, which was interesting. And no, we did not eat there.

We also walked around St. Stephen's Green.

It was interesting to walk around the park and read the inscriptions on the statues. There's a lot of history there. As you can see, it's a pretty place.

After exploring Stephen's Green, we decided to walk to Dublin Castle.

This is right outside of St. Stephen's Green.

On our walk to Dublin Castle. There are a lot of shops and pubs everywhere.

I loved looking at all the wonderful architecture everywhere.

So we made it to Dublin Castle. We had a look around Dubh Linn Garden. The history is amazing. This was the original site of the dubh linn, or dark pool. As you may have guessed, this is where the name Dublin comes from. Where the River Poddle used to join the River Liffey, a dark pool formed. This is also where the Vikings settled.

The entrance to Dubh Linn Garden.

And the inside of the garden. So much history.

So either fortunately or unfortunately, the interior of the Dublin Castle was closed that day due to a government event. Because we were unable to tour the inside, they were doing free tours of the Medieval undercroft area. Umm, yes, count us in for that one.

We got to go into the undercroft area and learn about how some archways were closed off with bricks during the black death in 1348. There were a lot of interesting historical facts learned on our tour. Apparently, Bram Stoker worked for the Irish government writing tax codes. Fittingly, he then wrote Dracula later in his career.

Our tour concluded in the courtyard of the castle.

There used to be Irish Crown Jewels. They were stolen from somewhere in here in 1907. They're still missing.

You can kind of see Lady Justice at the top of this one. She's not blindfolded and the scales did not balance due to rain water accumulating faster on one side. Apparently they drilled holes in the bottom so that they wouldn't immediately become unbalanced every time it rains (you may have heard that it rains a lot in Ireland).

By the end of the tour, it was pretty much dark.

We decided to walk around Temple Bar, which is a touristy area with a lot of pubs.

We walked by here. It was fun to see my name on things.

We stopped into The Auld Dubliner and had some pints. They were playing live music and we heard "Whiskey in the Jar" and "Molly Malone" among others.

The Temple Bar area.

Afterward, we started the long walk back to our hotel. It was a busy Friday night with lots of people out and about. We did some shopping along the way.

We ate dinner at The Dubliner, which was conveniently attached to our hotel. The hubs had shepherd's pie, which I bravely tried, despite the fact that I don't like lamb. As I expected, I was not fan. However, I did definitely enjoy my fisherman's pie.

Overall, we did a lot of walking this day. We explored several areas of the city and had a great time. I absolutely became enamored with Dublin. Stay tuned for Part Three!

Ireland, Part One

I have always wanted to go to Ireland. You see, my grandmother was from Ireland. She had been born in Kenmare, County Kerry and immigrated to the US at age 19. My dad was very close to her. She died many years before I was born, when my dad was only 16, but he spoke of her very often. Our Irish heritage was a significant part of our family life. My dad and uncle always talked about going to Ireland, but never made the trip.

After getting married last year, the husband and I never went on a honeymoon. We wanted to go to Ireland, but due to life circumstances, it took us a little more than a year to get it together. We finally made the trip in November, and it was an amazing experience. We want to get back there as soon as it's feasible. But for now, I'm going to document our trip with photos. As I have nearly 350 photos to go through, I will do a little at a time.

Here is the first part.

We left on November 21st. What should have been a 3.5 hour drive to JFK turned into a 5+ hour fiasco. It was the day before Thanksgiving, so we were expecting some delays, but there was a ridiculous amount of standstill traffic. Having finally arrived in New York, we flew out around 9pm. The flight is only about 6 hours long, and we kept busy watching movies. We landed in Dublin around 8am.

Getting through customs was easy, and we picked up our rental car.

Now, as a side note, we did not opt for the GPS in the car. I grew up going on long road trips before GPS was a thing. I feel proficient in my map-reading skills. And we're cheap.

Reading maps is great, but when it becomes difficult is when there are no street signs anywhere. Combine this with driving on the left side of the road, and it becomes unpleasant. Eventually, we did sort of learn how to find street signs (which are placed sporadically on the sides of buildings). But many of the intersections are just unmarked.

So needless to say, we got lost looking for the hotel. Significantly lost. It was about noon by the time we checked into the hotel. By this point, we had been awake for 24 hours.

When we finally arrived in our room, the electricity wasn't working. We tried all of the light switches. Nothing. We called the front desk to inform them that we had no power in our room.

What we did not know is that you need to insert your room key card into a slot by the door to get the power to work. It looks like this.

So the front desk staff possibly had a laugh about the dumb Americans who couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights.

After a quick shower and change of clothes, we slept for a few hours.

By coincidence, some VEB friends of mine had flown into Dublin the same day. We met up at the Cliff Townhouse's oyster bar for dinner. It was a bit of a hike, but we weren't about to drive in Dublin again, so we chose to walk everywhere.

(I didn't get my camera out until the next day, but I'll borrow a couple of photos taken by the hubs on the first night).

Here's the Cliff Townhouse.

We had some Irish craft beer and the best fish and chips I think we had during the entire trip. Definitely a great spot to check out in Dublin.

After dinner, we headed to Foley's for Guinness and live music. When we walked in, the musician was playing "Stand By Me." Here, we enjoyed our first pints of Guinness in Dublin.

Drinking Guinness in Ireland really is a bucket list experience not to be missed.

At the bar, we met a very intoxicated gentleman who kept talking to us about the US. This led to hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" live in the Irish pub.

Overall, we had a great first night in Dublin. It was my first Thanksgiving without turkey, but probably the best one yet.

Coming next will be day two, which I will try to get up tomorrow. Stay tuned!

the garden

I love summer. I really do. I realize that it's not officially summer quite yet, but with the temperatures climbing here in south central Pennsylvania, I am feeling good. Today reached about 90 degrees before thunderstorming this evening. Not quite the booming Midwestern light-up-the-whole-house kind of thunderstorms that I'm used to, but a respectable storm nonetheless. 

I love summer for a number of reasons. Not only the hot weather, but the feeling of freedom so intrinsic to it. I want to do things during the summer. I want to go go go and savor every last sun-filled drop. 

This year, the hubs and I are attempting to nurture a container garden. It's a new experience for both of us. But I'm hoping that it results in some yummy fresh veggies before the summer's end. We're already harvesting fresh herbs out of our little container herb garden, so the payoff has been quick in that regard.

Here's our little garden hanging out on the patio. I love that gardening in small spaces forces creativity. I've happily scoured the internet for ideas and inspiration. 

For the veggies, we used storage tubs with holes drilled in them for drainage. For the herbs, just some inexpensive pots and a 24 inch planter. From the top, here is what you see growing: Better Boy tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomato, Sungold tomato, bell peppers, thyme, rosemary, basil, cilantro, mint, and radishes. The only thing not pictured is the russet potatoes. We planted the seed potatoes in an old trashcan with holes drilled for drainage.

Here's a shot from the other side.

I'm very excited about this and hope that it's the start of many gardens and yummy goodness to come. So far, we've used the basil, mint, and cilantro. The basil in particular smells amazing and is growing fast. Can't wait to eat fresh basil all summer long!

We also planted some purple petunias in our windowbox, so our house has slightly more curb appeal. Although we still have weeds growing in the upstairs windowboxes. We wouldn't mind planting flowers, but I think watering them regularly would be a pain, since there's a screen on the window.

Since I can remember, my mom has always many different petunias in her gardens, so I have a soft spot for them. I remember helping her plant them into the flowerbeds when I was a little girl.

The last thing I'll say about summer is that I always gain a big boost of motivation. I want to take on a  variety of projects and accomplish goals. I have a number of ideas in the works, from composting to cooking to travel plans, and am looking forward to cataloging them here. 

If you have a moment, send some green growing vibes to our little garden! I'm hoping that the storm this evening didn't hurt any of our plants. I suppose hubs will survey the damage while I'm at work tomorrow. Onward!

Pittsburgh

This past weekend, the hubs and I headed out to Pittsburgh. I had never been there before, unless I'm forgetting a drive-through-it type experience from childhood.

The drive was actually a bit better than I was had predicted - right around 3 hours. However, the turnpike in this state is expensive. This non-Pennsylvania native is not used to paying $35 roundtrip to travel across the state. We probably would have taken other roads, but we didn't realize how much it cost on the way there. And on the way back on Sunday night, we didn't want to add an additional hour onto our trip as we both had to work bright and early on Monday.

The reason for our trip was because my beloved St. Louis Cardinals were in town. What ended up working out well was that this week also happens to be the inaugural Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week. A weekend of good beer and Cardinals baseball? Yes, please.

The weekend got off to a good start on Friday with a trip to Troegs in Hershey. Troegs is our favorite local brewery. They've moved from Harrisburg to Hershey, so it's a 20-30 minute drive for us now. However, we still head out there pretty often because it's awesome.

I was feeling like something a little different, so I decided to try my Java Head (an oatmeal/coffee stout) floated with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

You may be skeptical of the beer and ice cream combination. I'll be the first to admit that this would probably not be appealing unless you have the right beer. I think that Java Head is the right beer, because it was delicious. Highly recommended that you give this a try with your favorite coffee stout or similar beer.

We headed out to Pittsburgh on Saturday morning. We had plenty of time to kill before we could check into the hotel or head to the game, so we decided to check out the local craft beer scene.

The first stop was House of 1,000 Beers. I don't know if they actually have 1,000 beers, but they did have a lot of bottles. They also had a nice draft selection of about 50 or so beers. Between the two of us, we enjoyed 3 excellent beers - Atwater VJ Black, Clown Shoes Blaecorn Unidragon, and Long Trail Coffee Stout. I'm not really sure which one that is, as all three are stouts. The VJ Black was especially delicious and vanilla-y. I'm not sure how widely available it is around here, but I hope I find it around here somewhere.

We had lunch at a place called Hough's. They were actually having a whole pig roast that afternoon, and we would have liked to have partaken, but it wasn't kicking off for another hour upon our arrival. And we were hungry.

We stayed downtown with the goal of being in walking distance of the ballpark. The view from our room on the 11th floor was of some cool architecture.

We debated the nearly one mile walk from our hotel to the ballpark. In typical summer baseball weather, it would have been wonderful. In 40 degree rain? Less enjoyable. April baseball is always a bit of a crapshoot. We didn't win this weekend, although I guess we should be thankful that we missed the snow by one day. IT'S ALMOST MAY, MOTHER NATURE.

So we walked to PNC Park. It was a lovely view from up high behind home plate on Saturday evening.

The game not a great one for the birds on the bat. Although they started the game by loading the bases with no outs in the first, they somehow managed to be blanked by AJ Burnett. It was painful. The highlight of the night was our own St. Louis Blues clinching a playoff series for the first time in a decade. It was nice to celebrate the win on the walk back to the hotel with some other St. Louis fans.

The Sunday game went a bit better. We sat almost on the field and our offense was not shut out. That's a step up right there.

Here's our own Mr. Kyle Lohse and Yadi Molina before first pitch. Quite a few Cards fans were on hand to cheer on our team to a 5-1 win. Other than the cold, it was a very pleasant weekend. Fans on both sides were nothing but considerate all weekend. The only time the hometown fans said anything to me was to ask polite questions, like "Who are you starting tomorrow?" and "How in the heck do you pronounce Rzepczynski?" Likewise, the Cards fans in attendance all seemed to be courteous and respectful from what I witnessed.

On the way home on Sunday night, we stopped to eat at Mad Mex. Very yummy and fun atmosphere.  The next time we're in an area with a Mad Mex location, we will definitely check it out again.

Overall it was a nice weekend. It was over too quickly, as most weekends are, but we had a nice time. We're continuing to look forward to more east coast adventures!