Danger: Blowholes

We took a 4 day road trip before Christmas down to the Southeast of Ireland to celebrate the holidays and explore a few towns. Erica’s boyfriend Majid is visiting for Christmas and came on the trip with us, which was a lifesaver as we were supposed to get an automatic car but ended up getting a manual. None of the girls know how to drive a manual well enough, especially when you take left hand side driving into consideration, so if Majid hadn’t been there we have no idea what we would have done. The car was under Sarah’s name because she is the only 23 year old and technically was supposed to be the one and only driver. Of course, the car was parked directly in front of the office, so Sarah had to drive out of sight so that Majid could take over. A few stall outs later, Sarah managed to get going and turned down a side street, handing over the keys to Majid. He did quite well driving out of the city, especially considering that we didn’t have a map. After a quick breakfast in the small town called Kill, we were on our way to Kilkenny.

It only took a couple hours for us to get to Kilkenny, and our first stop was at the castle. We took a pleasant walk around the grounds and inside the large castle. Afterwards we explored a few craft shops and walked along the main streets of the medieval “city,” which were bustling with Christmas shoppers and even a hilarious dancing Santa. We stopped for lunch at a little place called Mug Shot Café and then continued our walking tour, stopping at a couple churches along the way including the Dominican Black Abbey and St. Canice’s Cathedral. By this time it was dark, so we went to the grocery store and made our way to our hostel about 10 minutes outside of town. After driving on extremely dark roads and missing our turn, we eventually made it to Foulksrath Castle, which is a renovated 15th Century Norman castle supposedly haunted by the original owner’s daughter who was killed in the castle. It was really cool to stay in an old castle, and we spent the night playing cards by candlelight, drinking wine and making delicious curry for dinner.

After a sound night without sleep disruptions from the ghost, we walked around the castle/hostel before heading to the nearby Dunmore caves. We were the only people there and it was quite nice to have a private tour of the limestone caves. After descending hundreds of stairs (supposedly around 700 stairs in total throughout the cave) into the wet darkness, we learned that the cave was a site of a Viking massacre back in 928 and thus many artifacts have been uncovered by archaeologists deep in the cave. It is also the home to eyeless shrimp and 6mm “straws”, which are mini stalactites the exact diameter of raindrops that hang from the ceilings. It also has the biggest stalagmite in all of Europe, which strangely happens to be in the shape of a hand holding a Guinness pint over the Irish flag.

A man working at the cave suggested that we check out the priory ruins in nearby Kells, about a 30 minute drive away through tiny, twisting country roads. Upon reaching some ruins that we thought were the priory, we discover that the entrance was locked and tried to decipher a map showing the way to the actual priory entrance. Erica wanted to walk down the hillside, but the rest of us overruled her and decided to try to follow the map via our car. A few minutes and u-turns later, we find a parking lot that says “Entrance to Priory” next to a run down old mill on the river. We take a stroll for a few minutes along the water, only to discover that we’re on a peninsula and reach a dead end. We now half-jokingly conclude that this priory must not exist, and head back to the car and decide to drive down the road just a bit further to see if we can find it. To get out of the parking lot in the direction we wanted, it was an awkward, sharp right turn on a hill. This proved very difficult for Majid as he stalled out at the top and each time he restarted the car and tried again we sank further and further down the incline towards a stonewall. This was definitely the scariest car moment of the entire trip as we thought we might have no alternative but to crash into the wall. However, with a turn of the wheel in the opposite direction, Majid managed to get out of the situation and onto level ground again. With relief, we decide to give up on the priory and now have a new mission: lunch.

There were 3 pubs to choose from in Kells, and we walk into the first one to find it empty during prime lunch time on a Saturday afternoon. We ask the bartender if they’re serving lunch and he responds, “Food isn’t served on the weekends.” We’re completely mystified as to why a town wouldn’t serve food on the weekends, and this plus the nonexistence of the priory made Kells pretty worthless, though it was pretty scenery. We continued on our journey to New Ross, where we stopped for lunch and devoured fries and sandwiches. Then we took a tour of the Dunbrody famine ship, a recreation of the original ship built in 1845 which transported people and cargo from Ireland to the New World during the potato famine. We again had a private tour of the ship, and it was fascinating to learn about the conditions that people endured for 50 days in hopes of surviving long enough to make it to the US. Interestingly, JFK’s great-grandfather left from New Ross to New York, and Jean Kennedy Smith came for the launch of the replica in 2001. After our educational afternoon, we drove to nearby Waterford where we stopped for a coffee before heading to our hostel in the seaside town of Tramore. The Beach Haven hostel was really nice and clean, and the main room had a fireplace. We were all excited about having a real fireplace to sit by, but despite attempts by Erin and Majid to get a fire going using coal and a phonebook, it took a real Irishman to show us what fire starters look like in this country (grey blobs which were, naturally, right next to the fireplace).

The next morning we explored sleepy Tramore, where it was quite obvious that the town thrives as a summer resort but has little going on the rest of the year. We went in search of the famous “metal man,” a metal statue set on top of one of three pillars on the coast and originally erected to warn sailors of shallow waters. However, we couldn’t find the statue for awhile and, after driving for at least 20 minutes and asking for directions, see three pillars off in the distance with a tiny man on top of one of them. We couldn’t get anywhere near the statue, and wondered how a town could advertise having a statue that you can’t even get close to. Confused, we head to the beach to take some pictures and a walk. We quickly abandoned the idea of the walk after we got out of the car and realized how windy and cold it was. We snapped a few photos, then decided that Tramore had little to offer us and we continued on to Waterford.

We were all looking forward to the tour of the Waterford Crystal factory because it’s a big tourist attraction and is supposed to be really interesting. Sarah had called a couple weeks ago to make sure that tours were still going on so close to Christmas, and they were supposed to be open. However, we arrived only to discover that the workers had been sent home early a few days ago and therefore no factory tours were possible. Slightly annoyed, we walked around the crystal retail store which had some very impressive pieces of crystal- a grandfather clock, chandeliers, and even a small version of Cinderella’s carriage complete with horses, yours for only 23,000 Euros! Now it wasn’t even lunchtime and we weren’t sure what to do with ourselves, so we went to a museum called the Museum of Treasures which had a few interesting artifacts but was pretty much a waste of money as it went into excessive detail about Waterford’s history. After a great lunch at Subway, we visited a couple churches and then had dessert and coffee at a really cute café. Finally we headed back to our hostel where we hung out for the rest of the night, watching tv, reading, and making dinner.

We woke up on our last morning and drove to Hook’s Head peninsula, taking a shortcut on a car ferry, much to Majid’s dismay. The peninsula was beautiful and we stopped at the lighthouse, which is the oldest working lighthouse in Europe (possibly even the world)! The existing tower dates to the 12th century, but some sort of beacon has been in place since the 5th century. The lighthouse was closed for Christmas, but we still had a lot of fun climbing on the seaside rocks and enjoying the scenery. We also saw a bunch of seals in the water right near the coast! Right near the lighthouse were haystacks, and as some of you may know Erica loves taking pictures on top of haystacks. We had trouble finding haystacks the entire trip because it was hard to find good places to pull off on the side of the road, but these were perfect and she was very happy. Our next stop was the coastal town of Wexford, a tiny place hard to maneuver by car. We didn’t have much time here because we needed to get back to Enterprise in Dublin that evening, so after a quick stroll through lively Main Street we had a delicious lunch at a café and were back on the road. A few hours later, after finding our way through rush hour and one-way streets in Dublin, we made it back just in time to return the car. It was a really fun few days!!