Lost In Ireland

So we’re here. We left on Friday night at 7:00, and with time zone changes and layovers and all of that, we arrived at the Cork airport at about noon local time. We didn’t get harassed by security and everyone on the planes were nice to us. The first thing we did was go to the car rental place, where we had to take a quiz. The first question was what side of the road do you drive on here?

Alan and I are both pretty good drivers. We were quite confident that we would be able to handle the left side of the road, and the driving from the passenger’s seat stuff. Until we hit the first roundabout, and the second one, and then on the third one went the wrong way and were introduced to the terrifying Irish country roads. It was exciting. Or terrifying. I’m not really sure which. Anyways, we got super lost, and then asked a nice guy in a post van how to get to our hotel, and he decided it would just be easier to lead us there. We made it, and spent Saturday afternoon getting lost in Cork but on foot. It was a good choice.

Sunday morning we got up and went to the town of Blarney, slowly mastering that which is the Irish road system. It was raining, because that’s what it does here. Blarney Castle is cool and apparently castles don’t have safety requirements. When we got to the castle, it had been pouring rain for about 15 minutes. To get to the top, you have to go up these crazy spiral stairways with 500 years worth of visitors having made these stones incredibly smooth. And slippery. And terrifying. I wasn’t the only person freaked out by them, there were others. By the time we got to the top I was completely freaked out, but it was gorgeous up there. Here’s a whole bunch of pictures:

So then we went to Limerick for lunch. There was nothing happening in Limerick, possibly because it was Sunday, and possibly because nothing happens in Limerick. We don’t know which. The real reason for going to Limerick is because it is built around the River Shannon, and I wanted to see my river. We didn’t know where it was in the city, so we picked a highway that went along the coast and were going to veer off eventually.

And that’s when we made it to Askeaton. Askeaton is one of those quaint little villages that they seem to have plenty of here in Ireland. There is an island in the middle of town, and there’s a half-standing castle on it. We were standing around taking pictures and some old lady came by and gave us the town brochure because the tourist information place isn’t open on Sundays. On the map, the island is labeled Desmond Castle & Hell Fire Club, which certainly sparked my imagination. Turns out the Hell Fire Club was a drinking club. Also in town there is an old Fransiscan Abbey. With a horse who I had to go pet. I named him Clyde.

So the brochure the nice old lady gave us told us of the Beagh Castle, which was supposed to go back to Viking times, and be on the banks of the River Shannon, and we were off on our river hunt. When we got to the village of Balleysteen, this is what we found:

We followed a road that did not lead us to the castle, and got increasingly narrow and terrifying. When we finally found the river, after passing through a different village and never finding the Viking Castle, this is what the river looked like:

But! Here’s the river! We found it!

The old farmers who were hanging out on the pier verified that we were at the right river, and then talked to us about the weather (that’s how I knew they were farmers), and then we were off, back down the terrifying roads and eventually back to Cork.

Will tell more later, like how Google Maps sucks here, and how we’re always a little bit lost, and why I ended up reading a Neil Gaiman book in a park all day today, and about that time I got to watch Dr. Who on the BBC at its original airtime.