Sean Henri

The Last Day In Dublin

September 21, 2006 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Well today we had hoped on taking a ferry across the Irish Sea over to Liverpool to see all the Beatles sights, but unfortunately all service was canceled due to rough seas.  We were slightly disappointed at first but made the most of the day and still ended up having a lot of fun.  I actually considered getting a tattoo (but didn't), I got a haircut, we did a bunch of shopping, ate some dinner at a very relaxing  and modern looking bar, and then slept in a lousy hotel in the Temple Bar area.

After hardly any sleep due to the sounds of smashing bottles all night, we made our way to Dublin Airport, had a quick "American" meal at Heathrow airport, stopped in the tourist shops so we can could feel like we visited London, and then flew back across the Atlantic to good ol' America.  I'll write more shortly.  Check out Steph's blog for more about the end of our trip.

Click here to read "Dublin, not Liverpool".

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Grafton Street

September 19, 2006 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Today we did a whole bunch of shopping around Dublin on Grafton Street and then went back down to the Temple Bar area at night to enjoy the pubs.  This is another post I'll expand on shortly.  Here's a link to Steph's post:

"After our crazy adventures on the west coast, we took it easy on Tuesday, wasting excessive Euros on Grafton Street, Dublin's main shopping street is the pedestrianized path lined with stores like Brown Thomas, River Island, and Chanel. Good stuff! Had the best tortellini of my LIFE at an outdoor Italian bistro."

Continue reading "Grafton Street".

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland 2006, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (0)

Limerick City

September 18, 2006 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

After a rather uncomfortable night on the floor in Meelick, Steph and I woke up to find out that Richie's mother, Mary, had cooked us a full breakfast that included eggs, toast, fried cherry tomatoes, and tea.  We had slept in till almost noon so I felt kind of bad that she had waited around to cook us breakfast.  We sat around for about an hour talking about my previous trip to Ireland and catching up on things.   Her husband stopped home for lunch and to say hi.  I hadn't seen him since I was 15 when he took us for a drive through the Ring of Kerry so it was great to run into him.  He suggested that we make a stop up in Galway but we told him we couldn't because we were only sticking around one more day.  It was cool looking around because I could see things that they had picked up in America including a magnet my mother gave Richie when he came over to America a few years back.

After our convo, Richie, Steph, and I all packed into the car and headed into Limerick city.  Richie brought us down to King John's castle for a discounted tour and then over to St. Mary's Cathedral which was built in 1168.  From there we took a quick trip up to the University of Limerick, which is where Richie goes to school.  We had a heavy downpour while we were there so we just lingered around in the bookstore for a while.

Once we left the University, Richie had to pick up a friend in downtown Limerick.  So we grabbed her, then headed back up to Bunratty Castle to pick up my car.  Unfortunately we had to part ways at this point, but but it was alright because Richie has plans to come back to America in a few months.  I can't thank him enough for his and his mother's hospitality.  Our time with him was the highlight of the trip.

Steph and I hung around Limerick for a bit longer.  We did a little bit of shopping and stopped in a cafe for some coffee and then decided we should start our trip back towards Dublin.

I enjoyed the drive back a bit more.  I had some music this time around and I was feeling pretty good after our time in Limerick. Steph and I had some interesting convos to pass the time.  Heard some great stories on that trip.  We were pretty drained by the time we were getting close to Dublin but decided we should pull off the N7 to see if we could find some food.  We found this cool restaurant right off the highway where we had some AMAZING bread and a flagulant waitress.

And that concluded our Irish road trip.

Click here to read Steph's post "Limerick City"

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Road Trip to Limerick

September 17, 2006 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

Today was incredible!  Steph and I woke up bright and early to hit the road.  Using only a vague map we managed to drive from Dublin on the east coast to Limerick city all the way on the west coast of Ireland.  Of course this was only a 3 1/2 hour drive, but I was still glad to pull it off without getting lost.  Actually, we did get lost right in the beginning, but that lead us to get an awesome breakfast so I didn't mind too much.  The drive there was pretty damn dull.  There isn't much to see in the middle of the country.  Just flat fields and a lot of cows.  The radio stations were extremely boring and lacked music, and we had forgotten our ipods so it was just painful.  Steph fell asleep after maybe an hour so the drive was almost torture. 

About a half hour before we made it to the city Steph woke up and did her first try at driving on the other side of the road.  She did pretty good!  It felt extremely strange to be sitting on the left side of the car without a steering wheel in front of me.  I was glad that she didn't drive for too long because it just didn't feel right being a passenger on that side.  Shortly after I got behind the wheel, we pulled into a shopping center to try to find a hair dryer and a power converter so I could charge up my laptop.  We stopped in their version of Best Buy, and in TK Maxx, the UK's version of TJ Maxx.

Shortly after we passed through downtown Limerick and drove right past King John's castle.  It was really cool to see one of the places I visited when I came 7 years earlier.   It made me extremely excited to be there.  A lot of my memories from my last trip to Ireland 7 years ago had started to fade so seeing some of the places again was a great refresher.

Our only solid plans for the day was to meet up with Richie Hayes at Bunratty Castle for a traditional Irish night so we weren't sure what we were going to do until right when we got to Limerick city.  It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to check out the city the next day and drive north of Limerick through the Burren region and then down along the coast to the Cliffs of Moher before our dinner at the castle.  During this drive we came across some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen.  There were old crumbling castles and abbeys scattered across the country side, miles and miles of open fields spotted with sheep and cows, stone walls everywhere, and beautiful thatched cottages along the coast.  We stopped once or twice to take pictures, and managed to come across Ireland's famous Poulnabrone Dolmen, an ancient portal tomb that dates back to somewhere between 3800 and 3200 BC.

After the Dolmen we drove along the coast, passing through a few small villages and a matchmaking festival before finally coming to the incredible Cliffs of Moher.   I was somewhat disappointed with the cliffs because there is construction everywhere and it takes away from some of the natural beauty.  But even with the construction it was still amazing!

From there we raced down to Bunratty Castle and met up with Richie minutes before the show began.  We had some great food, plenty of mead and wine, and got to see and hear some traditional Irish song and dance.  I even got pulled up onto the stage to learn how to do a dance!  Once the show was over Richie took us for a private tour of the castle and told us a lot of information about the castles history.  He works there so he was able to take us into rooms that you usually can't visit which was really cool.  From there we hopped in Richie's car and went into Limerick city to meet up with some of his friends and went out to a club for a crazy night.  When came back to Richie's around 12:30 in the morning to find his mother sitting in the kitchen with food prepared for us!!  We stayed up for a while, enjoyed some melted cheddar and tea and had a nice chat with his mother and then finally called it a night.  I love the Irish!  I swear they're the nicest people on earth.

Steph - "Cross Country Road Trip"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland 2006, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (1)

The Brazen Head

September 16, 2006 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

The rest of today went great.  After the internet cafe we walked around O'Connell Street and the area surrounding the Spire of Dublin and did lots of shopping.  I stopped in to investigate Supermac's, Ireland's fast food chain, but decided McDonalds would be the safer bet.  The McDonalds there has a nice cafe and curly fries!  Around 3 we took a break at a little French cafe for some really good coffee and analyzed the beggars on the streets.   From there we did some more shopping, stopped in a crappy Irish mall, picked up some souvenirs and then walked to the oldest pub in Dublin called the Brazen Head.  The place opened in 1198 and has been serving the public as either a pub or an inn ever since.  On the first floor you can see a name that was etched into the windowpane in 1726!  We ate our dinner here and had a few pints of Guinness, and then just relaxed for a good hour or so.  The place had a great atmosphere and the walls were completely covered with things to look at.  I strongly recommend going here if you ever happen to visit Dublin.

Once we were done with our drinks, we walked around the medieval part of the city.  We came across a part of the old city wall and took a look inside the gates of Dublin Castle.  After a great day we got on the Nitelink and headed back to the Shieling for an early night.  Tomorrow's the big cross country road trip to Limerick!

Steph - "The Brazen Head"

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Day 3 in Ireland

September 16, 2006 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Dublin right now.  I don't have much time so this is gonna be brief, but I just want to let people know that so far everything's been great!  We've had beautiful sunny days since we've gotten here.

Today we're just walking around Dublin and tomorrow we're driving out to Limerick and Bunratty Castle for dinner.  We'll be meeting up with my friend Richie who I met when I came here 7 years ago.  I'll have some video shortly.   Many more updates to come!

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Exploring Howth and the Wicklow Mountains

September 15, 2006 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

We started off today by driving north along the coast to the small, picturesque fishing village of Howth.   The road there went up a small mountain which provided an incredible view of Dublin Bay.   I kept on slowing down so we could snap some pictures and pissed off some of the locals driving behind me so I had to pull over.  We tried to find a good spot to snap pictures, but didn't luck out.  So we kept on going, and made our way into the village around lunch time.  The streets there were very steep, narrow, and windy, and all the building were pushed right next to each other and painted bright colors.  Almost as soon as we got out of the car we saw a narrow alley way with a staircase leading up the hill and we had to check it out.  At the top we came across the Cock Tavern, and right next to us was a small cafe called The Big Blue.  The weather was beautiful so we grabbed an outside table that overlooked the ruins of the 12th century St. Mary's Church, as well as Howth harbor and a small island called Ireland's Eye.

We stayed there for about an hour, slowly enjoyed our food, and overheard the conversations of the other people eating outside who were clearly locals.  A young boy came walking up the street and sat down with his mother, and people kept on driving by and saying hello.  Everybody knew each other.

From there we walked around Howth for a little while, and then drove south through Dublin's congested and confusing streets to the Wicklow Mountains.  We didn't have a detailed map or very good directions, so we ended up getting lost and asking for directions at a gas station, but we managed to get to the general area of where we wanted to be.  We passed through the small village of Enniskerry, driving passed fields of cows, over mountain tops, and down windy roads.  We had hoped to make it to the Powerscourt Waterfall, but the gates closed the very second we pulled up.  So we turned around for Enniskerry came across two hitchhikers on the side of the road.  I asked Steph if I should get them and she replied "Nope".  So I pulled over, they hopped in, and we started driving.  It was kinda silent at first, so Steph broke the ice and asked where they were from.  Turned out to be an Italian couple from Milan who had miscalculated the distance to walk from the waterfall from Enniskerry.

Once we got back to the village we parted ways with the Italians and checked out a small antique shop.  I bought an old Guinness mug and Steph bought a tiny Irish whiskey bottle that came from Hartford, CT.  This was the first place where I could really notice the smell of burning peat in the air.  Peat's commonly used in Ireland as a fuel or for heat because there isn't much wood available due to the lack of trees.  You can smell it almost everywhere outside of the major cities, and its a scent that you miss after you leave.

It was starting to get dark, so we made it back to Dublin for round two at the Pubs.  We hadn't eaten in a while, so we stopped at this cheap place in the Temple Bar area where I had a meatball sub and Steph had Hawaiian Pizza.  For some reason they love Hawaiian Pizza over there.  I don't really understand why, but it's everywhere.  It was disgusting.  After that little mistake we walked around a little and checked out some souvenir shops before walking back into Quays for more traditional Irish music and drinks.  This time we skipped the Guiness and downed several glasses of Baileys Irish Cream.  Eventually the music stopped and we headed into the crowded downstairs for a few more drinks and enjoyed hearing Franz Ferdinand blasting from the speakers.  Then George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set On You" came on and we went nuts!  We NEVER would hear that at a bar back home.  Once we had spent enough money we found our way to the bus stop for the Nitelink, which is Dublin's late night bus service, which runs every hour.  It took a while for them to come, so me and Steph just relaxed for a little bit, sang SITBSOMC, and watched Ireland's drunken youth play chicken with death as they stood in the middle of traffic.  Even had to turn Steph's head away at one point... crazy kids.  The double decker bus came and we grabbed a seat up top right up in front and had an awesome ride back to the hotel.

Another quality night in Ireland.  Click here for more pictures!

Steph - "Howth & Wicklow Mountains"

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First Day In Ireland

September 14, 2006 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

The flight was pretty good.  We had a smooth take off and landing, and had a really good meal over the Atlantic.  Steph fell asleep almost instantly after she ate, but I had trouble sleeping in an upright position.  Got to watch some of Nacho Libre so I didn't mind too much.  After about 6 hours we had made it to the West Coast of Ireland, and I could start to see some of the lights in the villages down below.  We came just to the north of Dublin, flew out over the water again, and then came in for our landing at Dublin Airport.  It was a long line to get our passports stamped, and we were already pretty tired.  Once we finally got through to pick up our luggage, we still had another 2 hours to hang around the airport until we could get our rental car from Enterprise.  So we sat down for a little bit, watched some Sky News and ate some Cadbury chocolates. 

When they finally opened, I jumped up to get into line.  I'm all ready to pay, and then I find out the cost of the rental car was going to be 250 Euros higher than what I was told, and the car I had reserved wasn't even available.  It was a lousy way to start off the trip, but I didn't let it get to me.  We left Enterprise and hopped on a shuttle to pick up the car, made it to our destination, and then got stuck standing around for another 20 minutes waiting.  The lady comes out with the keys and a Honda Civic, then suggests I try driving manual because it was half the cost.  Even though I hadn't driven manual transmission in years, and I had never driven on the opposite side of the road before, nor did I know any of Ireland's street signs or traffic laws, I decided to go for it.  Big mistake.  I thought I was doing pretty good with all things considered, but after hitting a couple curbs and stalling once or twice, Steph was about ready to snap.  I was pretty aggravated myself, so I pulled over into a parking lot in the village north of Malahide, completely lost, and got out of the car to cool down.  It was one of the most beautiful coastlines I had ever seen.  But I knew I had to return the car for an automatic, so I got right back in and headed back to Enterprise.

Once the Enterprise nightmare was over, I found myself in the small fishing village of Howth asking for directions.  Thanks to the help of an old Irishman in a dog race betting office, I finally found the Shieling Hotel in Raheny.  The hotel was beautiful.  It seems more like a local place and not very touristy.  I think we were the only guests when we arrived.

After a nice long nap, we had regained some of our energy so we decided to hop into the car and head into Dublin.   We did OK driving in.  It was extremely exciting to drive by all the pubs and Guinness signs, and to absorb all the differences you notice when you travel to a different country.  We crossed the River Liffey, passed the Guinness Brewery, and then parked near the Brazen Head.  We weren't exactly sure which direction we wanted to head in, so I pulled out my map and instantly a local came up to me and told me where I wanted to go.  We followed his directions and soon found ourself in a lively, cobblestone paved section of the city called Temple Bar.  The streets were closed off so pedestrians could walk around, and there were people, pubs, and restaurants everywhere.  We stopped in at Quay's Bar for our first meal and a few pints.  I had the most incredible salmon of my life and Steph had some tradition Irish stew.  The Guinness there is incredible!  It tastes much, much better than it does here in the states.  The place had a great atmosphere and there was a guy playing Irish folk songs all night.  From there we checked out the Hard Rock Cafe where we found a pair of Ringo's drum sticks and a pair of shoes Paul McCartney wore in the 60's.  We also stopped in another bar which was a lot more like what we had in the states.  When we left Temple Bar we drove up to Howth and walked around the coast for a couple minutes.  It was amazing.  Felt great to be there.  I'll never forget it.  After an insanely fun night, we hopped back into the car, and headed towards the Shieling.

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All night I kept on asking myself "Why the hell don't I live here?"  Even with all this mornings frustrations,  the trips been amazing so far.  I love Ireland!

Steph - "Arrival In Dublin"

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On our way to Ireland!!

September 13, 2006 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Stayed up late last night packing with Steph.  Had planned on going out but there was just too much to take care of, so we decided to stay in.  We both got up really early today and finished packing up.  I threw on my Guinness shirt, threw the stuff in the trunk and we were off!  We had to go up to Derby town to meet up with Justin so he could drive the car back.  Mickey came along for the ride so he wouldn't have to drive back to CT by himself and unfortunately had to deal with my mess in the back seat.  (Sorry about that.)  On the way down we got a little lost, but just broke out his trusty gps ready cell phone and got us to the airport on time.  The luggage felt like it weighed a couple pounds and the airport was hot as hell.  Kind of annoying.  But who the hell cares?? We're going to Ireland!!

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland 2006, Travel | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (0)