Recounting Pieces of the Trip
Getting There and Back Again: Long days in either direction.
The Albuquerque to Chicago leg in both directions was aboard an Embraer 175 - an aircraft company I hadn't heard of. 2x2 seating and around a hundred people. Not much legroom.
The flights between Chicago and Dublin were Boeing 767 variants with some odd refits. Flying out it was apparent the monitors over the center rows had been put in later, and I ended up sitting where there wasn't an air nozzle and my overhead reading light actually focused on the row in front of me. Heh. Flew overnight, and I managed a little sleep going on. The flight back had controllers in the arm rest that could serve for TV's or game consoles, but no individual screens in the seat backs, so that was sort of a pointless addition.
Our flights out of Chicago both ways were delayed. Going out, they reported a "mechanical problem" about a half hour before flight time, delayed things, gave us dinner vouchers, and finally got another plane in to use almost four hours late. Coming back the flight crew that was going to be aboard was delayed from Philadelphia, then planes were switched, though that only amounted to about a 45 minute delay in the end.
-
History and Politics: Oh boy, there's a lot there. As I mentioned elsewhere, it's an anniversary of sorts of a battle a thousand-years gone between the "high king" of Ireland and a Viking-Irish force. Lots of blood spilled back then. So there's a focus in the museums on Viking influence and how they settled in Dublin and mixed with the native people. Yep, current people of Irish decent are probably part Viking.
There's also a lot of back blood and devisiveness built up over the last few hundred years as well. The Irish have always chafed under the control exerted by neighboring England. There's far more history to that than I could absorb or recount, ranging from an English queen declaring Irish bards were to be killed and their harps destroyed to English lords coming over to establish property with Scottish mercenaries to the potato famine's mind-boggling effects.
And there's a lot of religious undercurrents as well. Ireland went largely Catholic a long time ago. England went Protestant and those in power started doing things like only hiring Protestant workers. That discrimination built up a pretty big divide between the religions and the social classes. Ugly stuff. I remember hearing about IRA car bombings in my youth, though I never understood it all. Things are a bit more stable now, but there are still extremists that rock the boat. Probably most people don't feel too strongly either way, but there are enough to be a danger.
The Republic of Ireland consists of most of the south and west of the island. It's predominantly (at least historically) Catholic, and there are a lot of "Republicans" who believe the entire island should be one independant nation. The country is part of the European Union, using Euros as currency.
Northern Ireland is really a good chunk in the northeast corner. It's predominantly Protestant, is part of the UK and has its "Unionists" who favor that. British Pounds are the currency. They fly the British flag, rather than the Irish one, and the more devoted to the cause account for thousands of marches in support of the union through the year.
Mostly it seems fine these days, but sometimes people get in each other's faces, and that's never pretty. There's a lot of bad blood, and some people don't want to let that go. Some towns are split by this - perhaps most notably is one on the border known as Londonderry. It's part of Northern Ireland. Technically. But there are a lot of Republicans in the city who are strongly entrenched in their neighborhoods and very much want to be a part of the Republic, referring to the city instead as just Derry. We also toured some of the very political neighborhoods of Belfast. Also a striking reminder of all the confrontations is how a number of buildings - a few churches, but mostly police stations - are set behind large walls and steel security fences with cameras everywhere.
I really don't feel anything I can say about it can do justice to the situation and the history involved...
-
Food and Dining: I ate a lot. Most of it was quite good. The B&B's tended to serve an "Ulster Fry" in the morning, involving toast and small English muffin/pancake things along with sausage, bacon (well, not American "bacon" but rather the more ham-like variety), eggs, and a tomato. All this along with a selection of cereal, fruit, and yogurt. It's a pretty heavy way to start the day and not exactly "typical" in daily life, but sort of the so-much-better version of the "continental breakfast" offered by hotels over here.
Lunch was frequently a sandwich or something at a cafe while we were doing things, then dinner wherever we found that caught our eye. We ate at an Indian restaurant in Belfast, a few pubs, and other restaurants. No real fast food on this trip. I had some good fish, a number of tasty chicken dishes, and absolutely loved the "sticky toffee pudding" which I need to find a recipe for. There was also some homemade pavlova was night that was heavenly.
Some of the food wasn't great, but most of it was good. The only real disappointment for me was the potatoes. The island certainly has a complicated history with the roots, but I expected more. Whether served as "chips," mashed, baked, or even some sort of baked/deep-fried hybrid, they were always bland. I guess people must like them that way, but even a little salt and pepper after cooking would have gone a long way. By the end of the trip, I was looking for ways to avoid potatoes ("can I get onion rings instead of chips?").
Tea was pretty big, though it seemed moreso in the north than the south. I wonder if that's British influence or simply because our limited time in the south was in the urban center of Dublin, where things are much more busy and touristy.
The pace of dining was a little off-putting to me, though I am given to understand it's a European norm. Meals were very laid-back. You don't get a bill until you specifically ask for it, and service was often slow compared to my usual experience here.
I didn't drink a lot there, but sampled some of the best Guinness and Strongbow I've tasted. The whiskey didn't really do it for me, though I appreciate the craftsmanship I saw on the tour.
And hey, Coke with sugar rather than HFCS!
-
Roads and Travel: Ireland is smaaaall. But my concept of effective distance and travel times was somewhat off simply because you can't travel as quickly. There are only a few main highways, and once you're off those you have to deal with two-lane, winding roads in the best cases. In the worst cases, they're more like one lane with no markings and having to pull off for oncoming traffic to get past. There's definite historical influence there as most of the roadways, while paved just fine, are sized more as I would expect for carts and such. Downtown in cities, that naturally translates to lots of one-way streets, though that's common everywhere in older cities. Also, most roads have high hedges build up on either side, adding to a feeling of claustrophobia and restricting the driver's view. All this means means you can't just say "oh, a hundred miles, that's less than a couple hours, no biggie."
And, of course, it doesn't help that they drive on the left-hand side of the road there. Aieee! Lots of roundabouts, too, and many fewer traffic lights. Thankfully, there were a lot of signs, especially in the north, and drivers in general were much nicer than I normally see. Also, the north uses miles while the Republic uses kilometers - doubly tricky when we rented a car that only showed the latter.
Parking is a little crazy - parking up on the curb in some cities seems to be standard procedure
There are some major train lines that help, too. We took one into Belfast, but didn't end up taking one to (London)Derry due to inconvenient connection times. Busses seem pretty good as well in the urban areas, though it's a pain to have to pay in "exact change" when you're only spending a couple days with Euros in Dublin.
But we managed okay along the way, only scraping some paint on the car while adjusting parking once. Heh. I didn't end up doing any driving, myself. I trust my dad to that, and the rental would have cost more with another driver. So I ended up navigating most days.
-
Family: A big point of the trip was to connect with ancestral roots of the McCool family. My dad had done some work on tracing that on the internet and connected with "Cousin Tommy" who offered to show us around the old homestead if we came out. It appears the family forks in the 1700's when one brother went off to the US and another stayed behind.
The old home is run down, but still standing. It exists on another family's current farm land, and they allowed us to visit it. Very little is torn down, if possible, in the country it would seem. So there are these centuries-old husks sitting around, dotting the parcelled landscape. It was nice and interesting to see, though I can't say I felt any sentimental or spiritual connection to the place.
Tommy himself is a pretty solid Unionist/Protestant it would appear. He served as an administrator at a state-run jail for a number of years. We didn't really bring up the mention we found of a McCool who was apparently affiliated with the Republicans who died in a bomb-making accident a while back. Not sure how that would have gone over or if said person is actually a blood relative.
-
Sights Seen: Aside from the old home, we visited a number of more touristy/historic sites...
Our first stop was to the Neolithic mounds at Newgrange. We went to see the Knowth site specifically. It's interesting to see how cultures built upon what was there. And there's a lot to wonder about the purpose of the place with the detailed east-west orientation to the passages in the mound and the decorated stones around it.
Belfast offered a couple things. Saint George's Market was open for the day - a big indoor market area with all sorts of food and crafts available. We also took a "black taxi" tour of the city, which gave us some history about the politics and the murals painted around the place. We hit up a recommended pub (which was slammed on this sunny Saturday) for some excellent drinks.
Along the way up the coast, we stopped at the Glenariff forest and walked along a waterfall trail. It was my first view of something resembling mountains rather than gently rolling hills. Lovely in spite of the light rain.
We also stopped at Carrick-A-Rede and crossed (well, Susan and I did, not dad) a rope bridge to an island that famously fishermen used back in the day because salmon fishing was easier there than on the coast. Nice views.
Portrush could have been an event all its own, but we sort of missed it, coming in as the weekend crowd was heading out, so we missed the fair-like rides and such that seem to be shut down during the weekdays (at least until farther into summer).
We saw the Giant's Causeway - hexagonal basalt rock pillars involved in a legend of Finn McCoole, and swung by the Dark Hedges which apparently make an appearance in Game of Thrones. I still haven't watched that myself.
We walked around Londonderry, viewing the Republican murals and a museum there, as well as walking along the castle wall and across the Peace Bridge.
We saw some old structures in the area including Dunluce Castle, Hezlett House, the Bishop's Gate, and the Mussenden Temple (such views perched on the edge of the cliff as it is).
The Bushmill's Distillery was interesting. I found the smells very appealing, but the drink itself is still not to my tastes.
The Ulster American Folk Park was an interesting display of relocated and recreated houses from various time periods tracing along the Irish immigration to America. I found the ship recreation interesting and the blacksmith demo fascinating even if I can't claim to have learned much new, per se.
We also stumbled across an Ogham stone in our travels - a stone bearing ancient markings of a language from the late Iron Age or so.
In the Enniskillen area, we went to Marble Arch Caves, which didn't involve marble so much, but were some interesting water-carved caves none the less. We took a short boat ride down there over a flooded stretch that reminded me of Pirates of the Carribean - only without the pirates, music, or rails.
There was a stop at the pottery fascility in Belleek. It's apparently pretty well known. I was a little disappointed at hearing they did molded pottery, but then I saw how much manual work still goes into it. And even more impressive is the hand-made latticework that they do in some pieces, essentially making little baskets out of clay.
We was Castle Coole - really more of a massive manor and estate, and Trim Castle - much more of a traditional Norman-style fortress.
In Dublin, we saw a number of museums. Highlights there include the Cross of Cong (said to have been made to house a fragment of the True Cross), bog mummies, several stories of Brian Boru, and some classic artwork. We viewed the Book of Kells at Trinity College (and even stopped to watch part of a cricket game we didn't understand).
The Albuquerque to Chicago leg in both directions was aboard an Embraer 175 - an aircraft company I hadn't heard of. 2x2 seating and around a hundred people. Not much legroom.
The flights between Chicago and Dublin were Boeing 767 variants with some odd refits. Flying out it was apparent the monitors over the center rows had been put in later, and I ended up sitting where there wasn't an air nozzle and my overhead reading light actually focused on the row in front of me. Heh. Flew overnight, and I managed a little sleep going on. The flight back had controllers in the arm rest that could serve for TV's or game consoles, but no individual screens in the seat backs, so that was sort of a pointless addition.
Our flights out of Chicago both ways were delayed. Going out, they reported a "mechanical problem" about a half hour before flight time, delayed things, gave us dinner vouchers, and finally got another plane in to use almost four hours late. Coming back the flight crew that was going to be aboard was delayed from Philadelphia, then planes were switched, though that only amounted to about a 45 minute delay in the end.
-
History and Politics: Oh boy, there's a lot there. As I mentioned elsewhere, it's an anniversary of sorts of a battle a thousand-years gone between the "high king" of Ireland and a Viking-Irish force. Lots of blood spilled back then. So there's a focus in the museums on Viking influence and how they settled in Dublin and mixed with the native people. Yep, current people of Irish decent are probably part Viking.
There's also a lot of back blood and devisiveness built up over the last few hundred years as well. The Irish have always chafed under the control exerted by neighboring England. There's far more history to that than I could absorb or recount, ranging from an English queen declaring Irish bards were to be killed and their harps destroyed to English lords coming over to establish property with Scottish mercenaries to the potato famine's mind-boggling effects.
And there's a lot of religious undercurrents as well. Ireland went largely Catholic a long time ago. England went Protestant and those in power started doing things like only hiring Protestant workers. That discrimination built up a pretty big divide between the religions and the social classes. Ugly stuff. I remember hearing about IRA car bombings in my youth, though I never understood it all. Things are a bit more stable now, but there are still extremists that rock the boat. Probably most people don't feel too strongly either way, but there are enough to be a danger.
The Republic of Ireland consists of most of the south and west of the island. It's predominantly (at least historically) Catholic, and there are a lot of "Republicans" who believe the entire island should be one independant nation. The country is part of the European Union, using Euros as currency.
Northern Ireland is really a good chunk in the northeast corner. It's predominantly Protestant, is part of the UK and has its "Unionists" who favor that. British Pounds are the currency. They fly the British flag, rather than the Irish one, and the more devoted to the cause account for thousands of marches in support of the union through the year.
Mostly it seems fine these days, but sometimes people get in each other's faces, and that's never pretty. There's a lot of bad blood, and some people don't want to let that go. Some towns are split by this - perhaps most notably is one on the border known as Londonderry. It's part of Northern Ireland. Technically. But there are a lot of Republicans in the city who are strongly entrenched in their neighborhoods and very much want to be a part of the Republic, referring to the city instead as just Derry. We also toured some of the very political neighborhoods of Belfast. Also a striking reminder of all the confrontations is how a number of buildings - a few churches, but mostly police stations - are set behind large walls and steel security fences with cameras everywhere.
I really don't feel anything I can say about it can do justice to the situation and the history involved...
-
Food and Dining: I ate a lot. Most of it was quite good. The B&B's tended to serve an "Ulster Fry" in the morning, involving toast and small English muffin/pancake things along with sausage, bacon (well, not American "bacon" but rather the more ham-like variety), eggs, and a tomato. All this along with a selection of cereal, fruit, and yogurt. It's a pretty heavy way to start the day and not exactly "typical" in daily life, but sort of the so-much-better version of the "continental breakfast" offered by hotels over here.
Lunch was frequently a sandwich or something at a cafe while we were doing things, then dinner wherever we found that caught our eye. We ate at an Indian restaurant in Belfast, a few pubs, and other restaurants. No real fast food on this trip. I had some good fish, a number of tasty chicken dishes, and absolutely loved the "sticky toffee pudding" which I need to find a recipe for. There was also some homemade pavlova was night that was heavenly.
Some of the food wasn't great, but most of it was good. The only real disappointment for me was the potatoes. The island certainly has a complicated history with the roots, but I expected more. Whether served as "chips," mashed, baked, or even some sort of baked/deep-fried hybrid, they were always bland. I guess people must like them that way, but even a little salt and pepper after cooking would have gone a long way. By the end of the trip, I was looking for ways to avoid potatoes ("can I get onion rings instead of chips?").
Tea was pretty big, though it seemed moreso in the north than the south. I wonder if that's British influence or simply because our limited time in the south was in the urban center of Dublin, where things are much more busy and touristy.
The pace of dining was a little off-putting to me, though I am given to understand it's a European norm. Meals were very laid-back. You don't get a bill until you specifically ask for it, and service was often slow compared to my usual experience here.
I didn't drink a lot there, but sampled some of the best Guinness and Strongbow I've tasted. The whiskey didn't really do it for me, though I appreciate the craftsmanship I saw on the tour.
And hey, Coke with sugar rather than HFCS!
-
Roads and Travel: Ireland is smaaaall. But my concept of effective distance and travel times was somewhat off simply because you can't travel as quickly. There are only a few main highways, and once you're off those you have to deal with two-lane, winding roads in the best cases. In the worst cases, they're more like one lane with no markings and having to pull off for oncoming traffic to get past. There's definite historical influence there as most of the roadways, while paved just fine, are sized more as I would expect for carts and such. Downtown in cities, that naturally translates to lots of one-way streets, though that's common everywhere in older cities. Also, most roads have high hedges build up on either side, adding to a feeling of claustrophobia and restricting the driver's view. All this means means you can't just say "oh, a hundred miles, that's less than a couple hours, no biggie."
And, of course, it doesn't help that they drive on the left-hand side of the road there. Aieee! Lots of roundabouts, too, and many fewer traffic lights. Thankfully, there were a lot of signs, especially in the north, and drivers in general were much nicer than I normally see. Also, the north uses miles while the Republic uses kilometers - doubly tricky when we rented a car that only showed the latter.
Parking is a little crazy - parking up on the curb in some cities seems to be standard procedure
There are some major train lines that help, too. We took one into Belfast, but didn't end up taking one to (London)Derry due to inconvenient connection times. Busses seem pretty good as well in the urban areas, though it's a pain to have to pay in "exact change" when you're only spending a couple days with Euros in Dublin.
But we managed okay along the way, only scraping some paint on the car while adjusting parking once. Heh. I didn't end up doing any driving, myself. I trust my dad to that, and the rental would have cost more with another driver. So I ended up navigating most days.
-
Family: A big point of the trip was to connect with ancestral roots of the McCool family. My dad had done some work on tracing that on the internet and connected with "Cousin Tommy" who offered to show us around the old homestead if we came out. It appears the family forks in the 1700's when one brother went off to the US and another stayed behind.
The old home is run down, but still standing. It exists on another family's current farm land, and they allowed us to visit it. Very little is torn down, if possible, in the country it would seem. So there are these centuries-old husks sitting around, dotting the parcelled landscape. It was nice and interesting to see, though I can't say I felt any sentimental or spiritual connection to the place.
Tommy himself is a pretty solid Unionist/Protestant it would appear. He served as an administrator at a state-run jail for a number of years. We didn't really bring up the mention we found of a McCool who was apparently affiliated with the Republicans who died in a bomb-making accident a while back. Not sure how that would have gone over or if said person is actually a blood relative.
-
Sights Seen: Aside from the old home, we visited a number of more touristy/historic sites...
Our first stop was to the Neolithic mounds at Newgrange. We went to see the Knowth site specifically. It's interesting to see how cultures built upon what was there. And there's a lot to wonder about the purpose of the place with the detailed east-west orientation to the passages in the mound and the decorated stones around it.
Belfast offered a couple things. Saint George's Market was open for the day - a big indoor market area with all sorts of food and crafts available. We also took a "black taxi" tour of the city, which gave us some history about the politics and the murals painted around the place. We hit up a recommended pub (which was slammed on this sunny Saturday) for some excellent drinks.
Along the way up the coast, we stopped at the Glenariff forest and walked along a waterfall trail. It was my first view of something resembling mountains rather than gently rolling hills. Lovely in spite of the light rain.
We also stopped at Carrick-A-Rede and crossed (well, Susan and I did, not dad) a rope bridge to an island that famously fishermen used back in the day because salmon fishing was easier there than on the coast. Nice views.
Portrush could have been an event all its own, but we sort of missed it, coming in as the weekend crowd was heading out, so we missed the fair-like rides and such that seem to be shut down during the weekdays (at least until farther into summer).
We saw the Giant's Causeway - hexagonal basalt rock pillars involved in a legend of Finn McCoole, and swung by the Dark Hedges which apparently make an appearance in Game of Thrones. I still haven't watched that myself.
We walked around Londonderry, viewing the Republican murals and a museum there, as well as walking along the castle wall and across the Peace Bridge.
We saw some old structures in the area including Dunluce Castle, Hezlett House, the Bishop's Gate, and the Mussenden Temple (such views perched on the edge of the cliff as it is).
The Bushmill's Distillery was interesting. I found the smells very appealing, but the drink itself is still not to my tastes.
The Ulster American Folk Park was an interesting display of relocated and recreated houses from various time periods tracing along the Irish immigration to America. I found the ship recreation interesting and the blacksmith demo fascinating even if I can't claim to have learned much new, per se.
We also stumbled across an Ogham stone in our travels - a stone bearing ancient markings of a language from the late Iron Age or so.
In the Enniskillen area, we went to Marble Arch Caves, which didn't involve marble so much, but were some interesting water-carved caves none the less. We took a short boat ride down there over a flooded stretch that reminded me of Pirates of the Carribean - only without the pirates, music, or rails.
There was a stop at the pottery fascility in Belleek. It's apparently pretty well known. I was a little disappointed at hearing they did molded pottery, but then I saw how much manual work still goes into it. And even more impressive is the hand-made latticework that they do in some pieces, essentially making little baskets out of clay.
We was Castle Coole - really more of a massive manor and estate, and Trim Castle - much more of a traditional Norman-style fortress.
In Dublin, we saw a number of museums. Highlights there include the Cross of Cong (said to have been made to house a fragment of the True Cross), bog mummies, several stories of Brian Boru, and some classic artwork. We viewed the Book of Kells at Trinity College (and even stopped to watch part of a cricket game we didn't understand).
A full and fantastic trip it seems! Thank you for sharing and I am pleased to hear you had such a good time (save for parts about the potatoes, of course)
ReplyDeleteDamn, that sounded like quite the trip. Glad you had a good time of it. :) Can't wait to see the pictures - maybe you should post some of them on FaceBook! ;)
ReplyDeleteFacewhat? :p Pared down duplicates and still have over 700 photos and one video. No idea how to post 2 GB of stuff somewhere for sharing. o.o; Nevermind labeling things so they make sense. Aieeee!
ReplyDeleteDropbox. Imgur albums. There's means and ways
ReplyDelete