A Green, Wet Peninsula (Part 2)

To pick up from where I left off last night, we checked into our hotel. The view from our hotel window is above. From there we drove back to the town of Dingle, which was a few miles from our hotel, and began our westward loop around the coast.

As we set out west from Dingle the rain, which had been on and off all day, began to let up and the misty fog that had shrouded the peninsula since we had arrived began to gradually lift. We proceeded around Dingle Harbor to the next protected bay, Ventry. There we stopped at a beach and circled around the bay to look at it from the other side. At this point it is a lot easier to just use pictures:

We then proceeded further west towards the eventual tip of the peninsula, stopping a few times along the way to appreciate the breathtaking scenery and wonderful ocean views, which got better and better as the visibility gradually improved. We stopped at Dunbeg Fort, a Stone Age archaeological site on the edge of a coastal cliff. We stopped at a few curves in the road, passed a hairpin turn where a rather substantial stream flowed over the roadway, and suffered through the nerve wracking experience of driving on the incredibly narrow roads that were pretty much directly on the edge of cliffs. At one bend in the road (at Slea Head) we saw a crucifix which seemed rather randomly placed, and no obvious reason for its location was given. We passed Ryan's Daughter, the westernmost point on the peninsula, and eventually proceeded back to our hotel for dinner.

As we went to bed, we could hear rain pounding outside and the wind howling across the hills of Dingle. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and it was great.

The next morning we returned to Ryan's Daughter and hiked out through fields sprinkled with sheep to the westernmost point on the Dingle Peninsula. It was VERY windy on the summit of Ryan's Daughter, which is actually a slight hill in addition to a finger of land extending into the Atlantic Ocean. As we walked out to the small stone hut on the hill, it began to rain in a very light, misty, cold fashion, blown in from the ocean. This sort of rain persisted intermittently for the next few hours.

We then went about a mile north to hike out to the end of the next finger of the peninsula, which does not extend as far west and is a bit rockier and taller than Ryan's Daughter. From there we could see a good deal of the western coast of Dingle.

From there we completed our loop around the peninsula, passing Mount Brandon and the wonderful car-falling-over-cliff sign. We returned to Dingle town for lunch at around 1pm and then began the drive back to Cork city, passing through Inch and running into traffic due to Puck Fair (an event I know nothing about other than that it generates traffic in Killorglin). On the way home we listened to Cork's Gaelic football team beat Tyrone on RTE radio followed by Cork's hurling team losing to Kilkenny (also on RTE). Both were quite entertaining to listen to.

All in all, the Dingle peninsula is awesome. And to cap off my Dingle ramblings, here is a picture of Ryan's Daughter:

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An Daingean (Part 1)

I spent this weekend in County Kerry on the Dingle Peninsula with my dad, who was visiting me for the weekend on his way to work in Tipperary starting on Monday. It was a pretty incredible experience. The tip of the Dingle Peninsula is the furthest west point on mainland Ireland and the islands just off the peninsula are the westernmost points in all of Europe. While the weather wasn't perfect, we didn't mind seeing it in the mist and occasional rain because a little finger of land jutting out into the ocean seems more natural if it is exposed to the elements in a rather harsh manner (or maybe that's just me).

We left Cork city on Saturday morning in a rented Nissan Note armed with a map or two, a hotel reservation, and a change of clothes. The drive was to theoretically take around 2.5 hours and take us through Killarney and a variety of small towns in Cork and Kerry (including my personal favorite, Inch). We stopped in Killarney for lunch, but ran into very little traffic and ended up being on the road for just about 3 hours. Even before we arrived in Dingle town itself the trip became pretty interesting in terms of sightseeing and general entertainment. Below is a rather narrow street in Killarney. At that point in the journey we thought that this sort of street was incredibly narrow. We later learned that by comparison, this street isn't bad.


From Killarney we continued on to Killorglin, where we turned north briefly until we ran into the R561, which we took west through Inch and eventually towards Dingle. We made a brief stop at Inch point to look at the beach and coastline extending beyond the point and out into the ocean mists and rain of the western coast of Ireland. After about 3 hours in the car we reached Dingle town just as it began to absolutely pour. We then got directions to our hotel, which was in Ballyferriter (Baile an Fheirtéaraigh), a small town a few miles outside the town of Dingle where the primary spoken language is Irish. After checking in (at around 4pm) our actual exploration of the peninsula began.


More to come on the Dingle visit, most likely tomorrow.
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Ennis and the Cliffs of Moher

Yesterday two of my housemates and I traveled up to County Claire to the town of Ennis and the Cliffs of Moher. The final destination of the trip, the Cliffs, was the furthest point north I had yet traveled to in Ireland and was the first time I had seen the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland. I had also never been to County Claire before, so the trip included a number of interesting new places.

It began with a bus that left Cork City at around 7.30 in the morning, which was not so much fun to wake up for. We then switched buses in Limerick and eventually stopped in Ennis. We had about four hours between our arrival in Ennis and the next bus to Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher so we had lunch and wandered around town for a few hours. Ennis is the largest town in County Claire and since Claire play Cork in an important hurling match tomorrow the town itself was draped in yellow and blue banners.

In Ennis we visited the creatively named Ennis Friary, which is right next to the Fergus River and was built in the 13th century. The town itself grew up around the friary, which was built by the ruling O'Brien family near their stronghold. Ennis itself is a nice town, considerably smaller than Cork with narrow streets and a rather small downtown area that includes a few main streets. The picture at the top of the post is of the main street of Ennis taken from the base of the O'Connell monument at the center of town. Below is the Friary.


After a few hours and lunch in Ennis we returned to the bus station to start the 50 minute bus ride to the Cliffs of Moher. The bus ride from Ennis to the cliffs provided gorgeous views of the Claire countryside. Claire is far rockier than Cork. Rolling hills extend into the distance covered with rocky-spotted fields bordered by rock walls, a sharp contrast to the empty grass fields bordered by hedges and trees of County Cork to which I am more accustomed. The main road to the cliffs passes a large quarry not far outside the town of Ennis. After about a half hour or so we came over the crest of a hill and saw a large bay (Lehinch, i believe), which was the first view of the Atlantic Ocean I have had since landing in Cork. The town of Lehinch (once again I am not positive that it is this specific town) had a couple of really cool-looking golf courses that had ruins of some ancient-looking fortifications between fairways. After we passed the golf courses we passed a very long, wide beach. We followed the curve in the bay and then started climbing the hill that would eventually take us to the top of the cliffs. Looking back from the bus:


We eventually got to the cliffs themselves and they were rather breathtaking. It was actually sunny or only partly cloudy for most of the day and fairly clear, so we got a good view of the cliffs and the surrounding countryside. The cliffs are about five miles long and rise slightly more than 700 feet above sea level at their highest point. They're pretty incredible.

The picture above is looking in the wrong way for them, but since it was clear we could also see the Aran Islands in the distance. There was also a stone watchtower near the middle of the cliffs, O'Brien's Tower (in the picture below).

Just as we were about to catch a bus back it started raining faintly and as the bus ride began it started pouring. Good timing on our part.
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Is that....Sun?

Today is, I believe, the 6th consecutive day that it has not rained significantly in Cork. This is by far the longest streak of its kind since I've arrived in Ireland. Its almost spooky. We've had brief drizzles on a few of the six days, but they have been so inconsequential that you would not be able to tell that they were happening if you were inside. Its a different side of the Irish weather, I suppose, although one that does not often stick around for more than a day or two.

Yesterday I walked into the City Centre Center and passed a pub named Costigan's. I'm sure I've passed it before because I have walked down this street before but this was the first time I really noticed it. For maybe the next 10 minutes all I could think of was DiCaprio's character from The Departed.

Tennis balls are expensive here. The cheapest can I could find was 5.50 euro, which is ridiculous when compared to 2 or 3 dollars back home. Its easy to pay 10 euro for a can as well, which is roughly a third of the price of a (slightly discounted) GAA jersey I saw in the sporting goods store where I saw these tennis balls. The thought that nine tennis balls could be worth the monetary equivalent of a replica jersey of any sort is completely mind-boggling to me.
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Munster Final (Football)

Today at 2pm, Cork played Kerry in the Munster Final for Gaelic Football at Páirc Uí Chaoimh just outside of Cork City. I was fortunate enough to go to the match and watch Cork pull off an amazing comeback upset over Kerry, the reigning All-Ireland and Munster Football champions. The final score was Cork 1-16 (for a total of 19) to Kerry's 1-11 (for a total of 14) after Cork had trailed at halftime 0-3 to 1-8. The game was immensely entertaining and a ton of fun to watch in spite of some very fickle weather.

We arrived at the stadium by bus about 50 minutes before it was supposed to start and got to watch the end of the Minor (under 18) Munster final between Kerry and Tipperary, which ended in a draw. As we arrived it was raining fairly steadily but not particularly hard and that rain kept up until about five minutes prior to the throw in of the Cork-Kerry match. The weather and expected result (a lopsided victory for Kerry) kept attendance on the rather low side, with the announced attendance at the Páirc Uí Chaoimh only around 22,700 (its capacity is closer to 30,000 or 40,000).

We watched from the very top of the West Stand, the end closest to the city. We happened to be surrounded mostly by Kerry fans with a few Cork fans sprinkled here and there between them. Cork and Kerry are rather bitter rivals as they border one another, and their teams are referred to, interestingly, as the Rebels (Cork) and the Kingdom (Kerry). The match started out pretty well for Cork with the Rebels scoring the first point within a minute of the start of the match. It remained fairly even for a few minutes after that until it was tied at two points each. At that point, Kerry began to run away with the match. By halftime it was 0-3 to 1-8 in favor of Kerry and the general feeling was that it would be kinder to use some sort of mercy rule so that the Cork players didn't have to suffer anymore. The only solace for the Cork fans was that after the rain had stopped just prior to the start of the match the sun had come out and the weather had turned quite warm, sunny, and very plesant.

After the last of the stragglers wearing Cork red trudged to the locker room for halftime, a sort of mini-pitch was set up in the middle of the real field and the girls teams from Cork and Kerry ran out to play a football match of their own, presumably for halftime entertainment. About 60 seconds into their mini-match, however, the sky darkened and the entire stands rustled as literally every person in the stadium put their jackets back on and reopened their umbrellas pretty much simultaneously. It was actually quite an impressive sight to see thousands of people very abruptly and rather frantically put on water-resistant outerwear. Just about as the last of the fans were done getting ready for the rain, it began pouring. It was quite possibly the heaviest rain I have ever been in. In about 60-90 seconds the weather went from quite warm, sunny, and apparently perfect to buckets of rain and strong wind. Fans huddled under umbrellas, some crouched against the back wall of the stand, others rushed out of the stands into the inner hallways of the Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The pouring rain persisted for pretty much the rest of halftime.

Strangely enough, the rain began to taper off before the half started and after about two minutes of the second half the rain had stopped completely although some clouds persisted. Cork looked better to start the second half and began to pull some points back but after about 5 minutes a Cork player was sent off for a second yellow card, making the outlook for the Rebels even bleaker than before. Nearly right after he was sent off Cork scored a point, but it seemed small consolation as Cork were still down 5 points and a man.

The Rebels didn't give up though, and a few minutes later scored a goal to put them within 2 points of Kerry, making the match interesting once again. At that point you wouldn't have been able to tell that Cork were a man down without counting. A mere minute or two later a Kerry player was sent off for what appeared from my angle to be a vicious elbow/shoulder to the head of a Cork footballer sprinting down the wing. At this point Cork were trailing by two but seemed by far the better side of the half, and they quickly got two more points to draw level with the Kerrymen. The teams traded points, but by looking at the two teams it seemed only a matter of time until Cork pulled ahead for good, which they did soon after. Cork eventually won by 5 points, a remarkable achievement considering that they were down by 8 at half time.

The announcer made repeated requests to fans to "please stay off the pitch" after the match was over, but these requests went completely unheeded. Eventually the police simply opened the gates onto the pitch so that the supporters didn't have to hop the fences.

The Cork captain raising the cup (taken from the pitch).

As we made our way out of the stadium, it began to rain once again. The Cork weather ended up bracketing the match with rain before, at halftime, and after. Somehow the times when the players were actually playing stayed fairly dry. Read more

A Token American in a Foreign Country on the Fourth of July

Today was the first time (and it may turn out to be the last time as well) that I have ever worked on the 4th of July. It was a Friday so it was a rather light day, but it still felt weird to be working on a day that (in many cases) is part of a four day weekend in America. Its also interesting to answer my coworkers questions about what the 4th is like in America. Just to give a general flavor of the questions, here is a sampling:

"So what do most people call it? Independence Day? The 4th of July?"

"Does everyone just....have fireworks?"

"Do English tourists get harassed on the day?"

For some reason, people seem to think that Independence Day is a very anti-British holiday. I don't know where they got this idea, but it seems to be fairly widespread. Everyone seems to think that the whole fireworks part is really cool, especially when I explain to them that fireworks are the only universal official celebration aside from what everyone chooses to do themselves. It was a rather curious experience to go to work today especially because the date seemed to emphasize the fact that I'm an American and, therefore, not Irish. That was an especially interesting feeling because generally in the United States 4th of July celebrations have quite an opposite effect.

Also, it has been raining (hard) today since about noon. Also something I'm definitely not used to on the 4th of July, although since I was at work I didn't notice as much as I would have normally as I was inside all day.
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Pubs, Trivia, and Rainy Mornings

Last night I went to a pub with a few friends of mine to do a trivia night sort of thing. It was a ton of fun, and I felt like I got a very Irish sort of pub experience out of it because I was the only non-Irish member of the group for the majority of the evening, which was a first for me. Later Bartek, my Polish housemate and coworker, joined us. All in all, it was quite an entertaining evening and me being American actually helped the trivia team. A few questions about American TV, tennis, and the Beach Boys came our way, which I happily helped out with. And we finished tied for 3rd, so we won some money out of it as well.

The most amusing part of the evening was when we ran into a group of English tourists. It was a group of about 6 girls who were part of some sort of organized Cork festival. As they loudly proclaimed their love for all things Irish, it occurred to me that by doing so they very obviously marked themselves as non-Irish, especially because they were describing Irish things in very non-Irish ways. They marked the first group of people who I've come across outside of work who have appeared more obviously non-Irish than I am, or at least the first group that I noticed. I suppose I'm not a particularly good judge of such things, but it seemed a rather interesting thing that I observed to myself at the time.

This morning was gray and rainy, standard Irish weather. I actually quite enjoyed it. A short walk to work in a rather light rain is not an altogether negative way to start a day so long as you're wearing a jacket that does a good job of keeping you dry.

On a completely unrelated note, this is an awesome website.
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Sports, Shops, and Rain

People in Ireland like sports. A lot. It seems like there is always some form of sports on television and nearly half the people you see on the street are wearing some form of replica jersey, usually either something related to the County Cork GAA or an English Premier League team. Gaelic sports, specifically hurling and football, are huge. They vary in relative popularity depending on the part of Ireland you're in. In East Cork, where Cork City is, hurling is more popular, although football is quite popular as well. In West Cork football enjoys more popularity than hurling, although hurling is still quite popular there. You see a lot of red Cork shirts walking around town.

There always seems to be some sort of sporting event on TV. If no Euro 08 match is on at the time there is always something on, either cricket or rugby or non-European soccer or hurling or Gaelic football. I even saw a bit of of USA v Canada in rugby yesterday. All of this on standard television, with about 10 channels. I'm pretty sure you'd need uber-cable to watch that rugby match in the United States, and here its on their equivalent of NBC. They like their sports here, obviously.

Earlier today I saw the end of a hurling match. Its fascinating to watch. Everyone here claims that its the "fastest game in the world". I'm not quite sure what that means, but the game is very high tempo, although I'm pretty sure its impossible to quantify speed of play and compare across different sports.

Unfortunately, the Irish love of all things sports-related does not seem to extend to tennis. Yesterday I went into town and looked in at least 3 sporting goods stores for tennis balls and returned empty-handed. This could have something to do with the weather. It rains quite often here, making regular tennis training a rather difficult goal.

Speaking of rain, on the way back from town after looking for said tennis balls I got caught in a rather heavy downpour. It rained nearly 2 inches yesterday, and as luck would have it most of that came all at once in the afternoon during my 20 minute walk from the City Centre Center to my house near UCC.
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Rain, Tea, and Surfing

It rained pretty much all day today, varying from a steady light drizzle to a rather steady downpour from when I woke up until 6 or 6.30. As the French postdoc in my lab put it, "welcome to Ireland". The view from the window of my lab is rather incredible. It looks out over the attractive part of the UCC campus and on to the town itself, including the City Centre Center and Cathedral. the portion of the window directly next to the desk that my mentor and I share has a number of haikus written on it, many of them relating to rain. Go figure.

As luck would have it, the rain was hardest as I was walking home. The rain actually made me decide to put off my planned trip to the bank to finalize my bank account, which is turning into much more of an ordeal than I expected it to be. To open an account at the Bank of Ireland you need to have a letter confirming an Irish address and two forms of photo ID. Evidently you must live in Ireland to hold a bank account here. I personally find this absolutely bizarre, I don't know why a bank would care about where you live. The other thing I found strange about the process was that when I gave them my California Driver's License as my first form of ID they said it was no good because it had my American address and not my Irish one on it. The lady who helped me then asked to see my passport. She either didn't understand my explanation that my passport would have the same address because it is my permanent address or didn't get that because I'm living here for 10 weeks I'm not going to have any ID with my address here on it. Either way, I thought it was strange.

Today was the first day I was asked to come into work at a relatively normal time. They decided to ease me into it by asking me to get there at 12 on Monday and 11 on Tuesday. Today I got in at 9.30 and did a bit of preparation with my mentor for the day's experiments. Then at right around 10 or 10.15 everyone in the lab went off for tea. My mentor and I were among the first people in the lab, so most people were at work for 15-20 minutes or so before tea, which lasted until about 10.45 or 11. Then most people worked until 12ish, when they went off for lunch for roughly an hour. Not me, though. Mixing and stirring chemicals until 12.30 and then a lecture at 1, lunch in between. I'm not sure when most people leave though, my mentor and I left early because of a screwy reaction that we ended up leaving overnight. Not having anything else to do we left around 4 or 4.15. In any case though, the pace of work and mentality is far more relaxed than in America.

During some down time in the lab today I was talking to one of the grad student and it turns out that she surfs. I was rather shocked, I suppose I knew that there were surfers in Ireland but I had always assumed that they were transplanted Americans making the best of a gorgeous, if not stereotypically surf-friendly, coastline. Evidently I was wrong though, my coworker is from somewhere in County Kerry and her accent demonstrates that she's lived in Ireland for a long time. It does seem like it would be rather cold though.
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Airports and Islands

And so it begins (almost). Tomorrow afternoon sometime I will get in a car, drive to LAX, give my bag to an airport employee, wait for a few hours, and get on a plane and then sleep sit and try desperately try to close my eyes for the next few hours. Fortunately, I have a window seat so I have something solid to lean against. After that plane lands in Heathrow I'll go through the entire process again except with customs and without attempts at sleep. I'm scheduled to land at Cork Airport (ORK) at around 1pm local time, which is around 5am San Diego time. Presumably I will stumble around until I find a cab to take me to where I'm staying in Cork.

While I'm not looking forward to the whole physical fatigue and jetlag part of this whole travel bit, it has just occurred to me that this will make Great Britain and Ireland the only islands that I have ever flown to in addition to being the first foreign countries I've ever visited. Not that I'll be able to tell, in any case.

Its supposed to be in the 50s and rainy this weekend in Cork, a bit of a wake-up call to Irish weather coming straight from mid 70s and sunny in San Diego. Everything has a downside, I guess.
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