Hello everyone!

We just got home last night, so I haven't had the time yet to really write much. So I will update as I go...

We had a wonderful first trip to Ireland, and I’m really sad that we aren’t there anymore!
Before I write anything about the trip, I want to thank everyone for their help in planning this great vacation. I know that without your help, we would have fallen into some of the tourist traps, bad restaurants, etc. So thanks again!


<b>Tuesday</b>- arrived in Dublin. We took the Aircoach to our hotel, which dropped us off near Trinity College. We checked into the Trinity Capital Hotel, and took a quick nap because neither my SO nor I can sleep on planes. Quick showers and we were ready to go!

We headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It was quite pretty, but packed with people. I really enjoyed the library much more- just striking in its size.

We then walked to Grafton Street for a bit of shopping and a quick dinner. We purchased a Vodafone SIM card for our unlocked cell phone. We had dinner at what used to be Bewleys, and then basically walked around for several hours. We hit Temple Bar, Saint Stephen’s Green, the Ha’Penny Bridge… we saw quite a bit of Dublin on our first night.

The weather was fantastic, and my favorite part was just sitting in Saint Stephen’s Green and watching the families walk by, enjoying the park. We walked back to the hotel and crashed!


<b>Wednesday</b>- we got up early, as this would be our only full day in Dublin. We had a great breakfast at the hotel and then headed out on the “Hop On, Hop Off” tour bus.

Our first stop was the Guinness Storehouse. It was actually a lot of fun to take the tour, which surprised us both! We loved the view from the Gravity Bar as well. My SO had his first Irish Guinness there (I opted for Fanta- it wasn’t even lunchtime yet!) as we enjoyed the view.

We got back on the bus and headed to Kilmainham Gaol. We had a great tour and guide, and learned a lot. If you have Irish heritage, it is a must- see.

We then contacted my mom’s friend A* who is a life-long Dubliner. We were to meet her for dinner that night, and we agreed upon Fitzer’s on Dawson Street (thanks to Siobhan’s suggestion!).

My SO and I took the tour bus to the General Post Office, where we stopped and took pictures, in addition to a little shopping and a quick caf&eacute; snack. We then walked back to our hotel and prepared for our dinner.

A* met us at our hotel and we walked to Fitzers for a lovely meal. The three of us hit a pub afterward, and then she took a bus home.

It was such a nice evening, and we felt we had seen a bit of Dublin. The next day, we were to pick up our car &amp; head out of Dublin!

More to come…

Katya, Can't wait for more. Do tell us how your accommodations where. Thanks, Joan

Katya - can't wait to hear more. I stayed at the Trinity Capital a few years ago - really nice, isn't it? I recall the service being excellent (considering we got in realllly late from the bars) and the night desk guy was sweet enough to have some amazing chicken sandwiches sent up to us)

Joan: Thanks for your note! This is my first time posting a trip report, and after reading quite a few I was trying to decide how to lay one out to be most legible. I have a running list going of notes about stops, accomodations, etc. which I will post soon. As far as our first hotel...

Joan &amp; celticdreams: we also really enjoyed the Trinity Capital. At first glance, we were unsure about it- it certainly doesn't look like much from the street.

When we got settled in, though, we were <i>very</i> glad we chose it over the Burlington. It is such a great, easy location, and the breafasts were enough to get us through to dinner!

I would highly recommend it, with the one caveat: be sure your room isn't near the firehouse. We were away from it, and didn't hear any sirens or anything (and I am a very light sleeper). I can imagine that being close to the firehouse would be tough.

Continuation soon... I promise! Off to switch the laundry around again...

continued...

<b>Thursday</b>- woke up early for another great breakfast thanks to our hotel, and headed out in search of an adaptor. <i>(I am a fairly well-traveled person, so I knew that our laptop would need an adaptor for Irish plugs. Unfortunately, I never took the time to actually try to fit our power cord with one before leaving- big mistake. None of our adaptors accommodated a 3-pronged cord, so we were stuck. )</i>

So we walked around and into three shops, all with varying levels of help. Once we found the necessary 5&euro; piece, though- we had to laugh. Every shop we went into after that point had these adaptors everywhere, in great supplies. It became a running joke for the trip (this, along with our upcoming experience at Hertz rental car became fodder for quite a few funny moments… but I’m getting ahead of myself).

Eventually we checked out of the hotel, which was good enough to get us a cab to the Hertz office near downtown Dublin. When we arrived, there was a queue about 5 families long, with looks of varying degrees of anger/hatred/desperation in their eyes.

This was my first rental car experience, and I was na&iuml;ve enough to think it would be like the commercials. No such luck. I have read the trip reports of several people who said it is impossible to escape one of these offices unscathed, but still, my na&iuml;vet&eacute; prevailed.

It was really quite reminiscent of the Seinfeld episode (“you know how to <i>take</i> the reservation, but you need to know how to <i>keep</i> the reservation”).

So as it turns out, I do believe we got scammed into paying for a big time upgrade. My SO is about 6’5” tall, so the agent saw us coming.

He claimed they had no automatic Toyota Corollas available (which is what we had reserved) and that the “similar” car was a Fiat Punto. As my SO pointed out, the only similarity is the steering wheel. So we got forced into a big upgrade, and got a very dented, scraped up Honda Accord. We paid for the Super insurance thing, as we were both new to driving on the left. The agent <b>refused </b> to allow me to go over the car for existing problems, claiming that with the “super” insurance, we were safe.

By this point, we had waited for well over an hour and were just ready to get going. So we hit the road. (BTW- several of the other couples/families who were there when we arrived were still there waiting when we left. That place is a mess.)

My SO started driving, with me as his trusty navigator. We drove through some rain to Kilkenny with little issue, and were very happy to find that the driving on major roads was quite okay. We live in a town with a big traffic circle, so the roundabouts were a pleasure, comparatively. We came to our B&amp;B, the Dunromin, and checked in.

We were greeted by Val, one of the homeowners, and we felt at home immediately. Our room was ready and waiting, and quite cute. We got ourselves situated, and then headed downstairs to talk to Val.

Val is, in no uncertain terms, a delight. She talked to us about our plans while in Kilkenny, and very quickly figured out what types of things we would enjoy. She labeled maps with nice restaurants for us to walk to, and had menus for every place in town for us to look at. It was such a pleasant experience to stay with her- I cannot say enough good things.

So we took her advice and headed into Kilkenny by foot. We were hungry by this point, so we had an early-ish supper at Bollards. This was perfect- the type of pub that every American restaurant conglomerate tries to imitate, but can’t quite get. While the town was full of tourists, Bollards had a mainly local crowd, which made us very happy.

After dinner, we walked through town a bit, stopped into the newly opened 24-hour Dunnes (which I guess caused quite a stir in Kilkenny) and some other shops. We decided to stop for desserts and coffee at Langton’s, which was also a great suggestion from Val. After dessert, it was raining fairly hard and we weren’t in the mood for much more rainy walking, so we headed back to the B&amp;B.

more to follow...

katya --- what did you do to your cell phone to get them working, or were they rented there?????? I'm thinking of renting a cell phone but my investigations have shown that it is very expensive.

carkat: We purchased an &quot;unlocked&quot; cell phone on ebay for about $60 (including all accessories, virtually brand new).

It is a TMobile phone, but it is able to take other phone network SIM cards. All we did was go to Vodafone and purchase a new SIM card (about 10&euro which included some air time and the local phone #.

It was really quite easy- and I hope it will work as well when I bring it to Russia next month! Then, I will buy a new SIM card for it, from a local provider.

It seems that the European companies make cell phone use much more user-friendly than their American cohorts do.

It is my impression that most of the companies that rent cell phones are quite expensive- this was fairly cost effective for us. Especially because I know that we will use it again soon!

Good luck with the cell phone search- it definitely gave us some piece of mind while touring around!

I'm glad Fitzers worked out for you. What rate did you get at the hotel?

Langtons is a nice place. I was there years ago for a work dinner and the food and atmosphere was lovely.

SiobhanP: thanks again for the restaurant suggestion! My mom's friend was quite impressed that we made a non-touristy choice!

I believe that we paid about $200 US (for 2 people) per night, including breakfast. We had booked through a travel agency, so I have no idea what kind of commission they earned from us- I have to assume there was a fairly decent one after seeing how much less it would have cost us to go to our B&amp;Bs without vouchers. Oh well! Live and learn!

We had a great trip- Langton's was a nice place. If we had been one more night in Kilkenny, I'm sure we would have made it back there for dinner.

Thanks again for your help, SiobhanP! It really was excellent!

Great trip report...waiting for more!
Shadow

Glad you had such a great time! Loving your trip report and can't wait for more.

Thanks! I'm back-- continuing...

<b>Friday</b>- Up early for a lovely breakfast in the Dunromin dining room. We were planning on driving to Waterford, so Val broke out her maps and showed us a bunch of things we could do along the way, and a different route to take home. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, so we were excited to get going.

We found our way to the city of Waterford with little issue- it was just from this point on that we had problems. We should have driven right through the town, and found the factory tour building on the outskirts. Unfortunately, somehow we convinced ourselves to park downtown and walk. Ooops. We figured out the “parking disc” thing (actually when we asked where to buy them, a local guy gave us one! So sweet) and started to walk.

We very quickly left an urban looking area for one that closely resembled our suburban hometown, McDs and all. All in all, we walked about 2 miles to the factory- we arrived tired and a little annoyed when we saw all the free parking that was right there. Oh well.

I don’t think this bit of information will ever come in handy again, because I doubt we would ever go to Waterford again. It was cool to see the glass blown, and to meet with a master carver- but aside from that, it felt like an enormous commercial. We did fall pry to them- both of our moms have Waterford stemware, so we knew we had to buy some gifts for them. They do have a good deal with free shipping, but when we were leaving we found the duty free prices at Shannon Airport to be much better. So buy with caution- and don’t be surprised when you see better or similar prices, everywhere.

We did meet a lovely woman who helped us by pointing out the city bus stop outside of the showroom, which very quickly and efficiently brought us back downtown. By this point, we were concerned about our parking discs having expired, which is unfortunate because the downtown area seemed lively and cute. We had other plans for the day, though- so we headed out.

Our first stop was New Ross. It was a fun little town, and the emigrant ship is located there. I think if we got back anytime soon, we will plan to spend a bit more time there.

After New Ross we went in search of Inistioge, which would become one of my favorite, idyllic small towns of all time. It was so lovely and peaceful there! We had a fantastic early dinner at The Circle of Friends (sitting outside, enjoying the gorgeous sunshine). After dinner, we walked around in town for awhile, and my SO indulged my need to visit grocery stores while traveling.

<i>(I should explain that this is a long-term travel obsession for me- I think that you can learn more about a culture by visiting local grocery stores than virtually any other way. It is so telling, to see whether the fresh goods are prominent, or if chips are the main attraction. Also the prices are interesting to me. I would love to conduct a sociological survey, based on grocery stores. But this is a HUGE aside. Sorry.) </i>

We left Inistioge and returned to Kilkenny, dropping by the B&amp;B to tell Val about our successful outing. We then walked into town to wander around, and stopped off at Kyteler’s for some live music (scheduled to start at 9:30pm, actually began to play after 10:30pm). The band was quite good, and the crowd had a nice mix of locals and tourists. We had all waited patiently for the music, and were excited when the group started to play. It was a group of men in their 40s and 50s, who really seemed quite sweet. This made the following that much more embarrassing.

As stated above, the group took about an hour to get going. People filed in and waited patiently… except for an exceptionally rude group of girls, sadly about my own age, who were obviously already drunk (bachelorette party-style). They came charging in when the music started and crammed themselves in front of the band, screaming the song lyrics and generally making everyone uncomfortable. The final straw was when the inflatable male doll hit the floor in front of the lead singer.

I was so embarrassed to be there. An older man had joined my SO and me at our little table to enjoy the music with a pint- he quickly downed his beer and left. The girls took this chance to take over our little table, announcing to us “I guess we took this place over!”. Yup. We quickly left between songs, embarrassed for the whole situation. I’m not sure that the group was American girls, but still…

We walked home and called home on our handy little cell phone, and told our families about the good parts of our day.

It is nice to know that I am not the only grocery store addict. I love seeing how things are packaged, what is available and how they relate in cost. Now back to the trip report...

Me, too! The first place I head in Ireland is to the grocery store to see what is similar, what's changed and to buy a few things for the car while we are en route. I'll have to remember that trick when we head to other destinations...

Am thoroughly enjoying the trip report, katya_NY! You tell such a wonderful story (asides included) that I wonder if you aren't Irish yourself! lol

Cheers,

w

I am exactly the same about grocery srores. Spent my last 2 hours in Paris running from one to the other with my friend who is the same. Broke my back with cheese and wine in the carry-on.

I am amazed at how many people go to waterford still when the just see its a normal town and factory. I have not seen since I was a teenager with my mother and I still can't be bothered to go back. It's not worth it in my opinion.

I would say the hen night was probably a bunch of Irish Girls. Going to the country is popular for hen nights. I was at a few in Carlow etc. Unfortunately they can ruin a night in the wrong place. I am never having one...at least not like that!

Katy, You are the first to say something nice about New Ross, even the guide books aren't kind. I'll keep that in mind if I get back again. I also thought Inistioge was lovely. Enjoying your report so very much, Joan

Sorry about your Hertz experience. I think we went to the same Hertz office just south of downtown and ended up with a free upgrade to a BMW which my husband loved driving. However, in Paris we ended up with the Toyota corolla you were looking for and they took nearly two hours of our time.

I'm glad my husband isn't the only grocery store fan!

Waiting to see if the rest of your itinerary is similar to ours. Enjoying vicariously visiting Ireland again!

Yay grocery store junkies! I actually have gone so far as to bring groups of my students into Finnish shops while on 4 hour lay-overs in Helsinki. They think I'm crazy until they see how different it is!

waffle: how did you guess? My grandfather was born in Co.Kildare, and the majority of my relatives are Irish. Most of the family has moved away, with just a few distant relatives in Donegal now- I'm no geneologist, but I believe it was my great-great uncle who was Michael Collins.

SiobhanP: it was so loud, I couldn't get a feel for the girls' accents, but it was a bit embarrassing for the band, I think. Gives us girls a bad name!

hoping: I do think if we had the ability to hold our ground, we may have gotten an upgrade for free, but the guy we dealt with was awful. We just wanted to get out of there! I am glad to hear that other people have had more pleasant experiences there, though!

<b>Saturday</b>- We woke up early, and found a bit of that “Soft Irish Rain” was falling again. No worries, as we were heading west that day, and assumed that we would be moving away from the bad weather. We had a terrific last breakfast with Val, enjoyed a bit of conversation with the other guests, and packed up. We were heading to Kenmare, via the Rock of Cashel that day.

We made a final stop into town, with my SO promising that we would come back soon. I dropped into Dunnes and packed us a picnic lunch to eat along our ride, as we had a full day of travel ahead of us. I was a bit sad to leave Kilkenny, as it seemed to be a very nice sized, livable town. But we had to leave, and I knew we had much more left to see in the west! So off we drove.

The Rock of Cashel was incredible, and quite impressive to visit in the “SIR” (Soft Irish Rain). Strangely enough, we bumped into one of the families we had eaten breakfast with while touring the site! (The wife and her mother were Russian, too- which was funny. I heard quite a bit of Russian while in Ireland, strangely enough.) Small world. They were headed to Killarney, so we figured with these coincidences, we would most likely see each other again while in the National Park.

This leg of driving was quite a bit more stressful, as we were covering a good distance, in what had become a strong, driving rain. My SO did a great job of driving, and I tried to help him as much as I could with navigation, etc. The tight roads and LARGE, speeding trucks really got to us after a few hours, though, and we pulled over in a church parking lot to eat our picnic lunch, in the car (still raining).

After our gourmet :-? meal, we continued our drive into Kenmare. Our B&amp;B was located about 5km from town, along the Beara Peninsula. The house was very cute, and the location was very peaceful. We were greeted by the homeowner, who showed us to our room.

Now, this was probably the low point of our Irish B&amp;B experience. After our two nights in this home, we felt quite confused about what was the “norm” for B&amp;Bs. We had come from Dunromin to this place, Oakfield, where the reception was quite different. It is hard to explain- this house wasn’t bad, and the hosts weren’t all that rude- but we felt like everything we did was an imposition to them.

There is also the question of the vouchers. We booked this, our first Irish trip, through a local travel agency. This agency provides “vouchers” for B&amp;B stays, which essentially means we prepaid them, and the B&amp;B owners would be paid via the agency. Having been there now once, we would not bother with the vouchers again, as it seems in most instances they are a more expensive way to go than just bringing cash.

Regardless of this, though- in a few B&amp;Bs we had a sneaking suspicion that we were given less desirable accommodation because of these vouchers. Our vouchers entitled us to en suite accommodation- at Oakfield we were told when we booked (in early June, mind you) that they had no en suite rooms available. Since this was the tenth place we had contacted, we were happy to get anything, so we accepted the non-en suite version.

Upon checking in to Oakfield, we were shown to our room, and shown the bathroom across the hall- it was fine. But as we headed into town, another couple arrived (unscheduled- no reservation) and were given an en suite room! Interesting, yes? We thought so, too.

The other issues with our room would come up later. They involve a smoking terrace directly outside our window (non smoking house) and strange breakfasts, in addition to kids running up and down the halls yelling late at night. So it wasn’t the ideal situation, but we were happy to be in Kenmare, regardless.

My SO and I headed into town, where we had a lovely prix-fixed dinner at Coachman’s. We then walked around in town, I bought some nice table linens, my SO tried his best to seem interested. It had been a long day of driving, though, so we headed home kind of early to try and get some rest.