The weekend in Inis Mór

October 27, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

The other week I made my second visit to Ireland this year. It was a much shorter trip than the one I took in August, and had a very different feel to it.  This time around I was there primarily to visit friends Hazel and Rachel, whereas the last time around I was there to tour the country. My friend Rachel and her boyfriend James were kind enough to let me stay in her home in Limerick for the few days I was over, and for the most part we just relaxed. 

The one big plan for the weekend was to visit Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands located in Galway Bay. The islands are known for their strong Irish culture and loyalty to the Irish language and are only accessible by a small plane or boat.  To get there we had to take about a three hour drive north past Galway and through Connemara to a ferry in Ros a' Mhíl. The ferry ride was about an hour long, and we arrived on the island sometime after dark.

The first thing that struck me was how quiet the island was. Aside from the few cars that were waiting at the pier when we arrived, there wasn't a vehicle in sight.  The sky was perfectly clear and we could see ten times as many stars as I could ever see back home in Derby, and aside from the waves crashing and a few teenagers playing on the steps near our hostel, there wasn't a sound.

At night we walked up the hill to a pub called Joe Waddy's.  They had some of the best Guinness I've ever had and the experience was a memorable one.  There were some regulars, some sober, some drunk.. one guy with no teeth and drool all over his face who was stumbling from one table to a next trying to find someone to join him for a dance.  Then there some people visiting from the mainland of Ireland, including a man from Dublin sitting on a stool in front of the musician singing along, who dropped his pint on the floor then made his way towards our table for a sloppy sing-a-long of the Saw Doctor's "N17" - a song I had never heard before until that night.  By the time the night was over we found ourselves acquainted with a number of people, including three other Seans - a first in my life.

In the morning the three of us rented bikes for the day.  Since there aren't many cars this is the primary way to get around the island.  We rode from Killronan, the main town of the island, to a prehistoric fort on the cliffs about four miles away known as Dún Aengus.

Inis Mór is by far one of the best locations I've visited in Ireland.  It's one of those places I know I'll return to someday, but maybe not for years to come.  There are other parts of the country I'd like to see first.  On my next visit maybe I'll head north towards the northern counties or back to the parts of the Dingle peninsula I skipped for the sake of time during my previous visit.  Time will tell.

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New Haven Register: Spiffed-Up Shubert

September 30, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

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Labor Day in Portland, Maine

September 08, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

With a long weekend in front of me, I was determined to go somewhere new.  After taking in all the suggestions people gave me (Woodstock, Montreal, Stowe, Philadelphia), I decided to take a trip to Portland, Maine with my buddy Kamil. 

Besides discovering that I had a flat tire upon arriving in Portland, it was a smooth drive up.  We hardly encountered any traffic, allowing us to make very good time (about 3 and a half hours from Connecticut).  The hotel, a Travelodge, was very cheap at only $65 a night.  The room wasn't that bad considering the low price, and it was only a few minute's drive from downtown.

We spent most of our time in the Old Port section of town - an area littered with microbreweries, restaurants, shops, and cobblestone roads.  My favorite place was Gritty McDuffs, a brew pub where I tried the "Halloween Ale" and met up with my friend Mindy, who was also in town that night.  Another good spot was Oasis, located right down the street, where they had $3 22oz cans of PBR's, a live reggae band playing mostly Bob Marley, Sublime, and Vampire Weekend songs, and giant versions of Connect Four and Jenga.

Even more impressive than the pubs was the coastline only a few miles away.  Before driving back to Connecticut I took a drive to Cape Elizabeth - home to Two Lights State Park and the Portland Head Light. 

Driving back to Connecticut wasn't as pleasant as the drive up.  We hit miles and miles of stand-still traffic in the area between Portland and Kittery.  I opted to drive US-1 instead of I95, which at least provided some scenery along the way.  A few things I noticed about the southern Maine coast: they love their lobster, mini golf, and amusement parks.  

Once in Kittery we took a break from the traffic and visited Flo's Hot Dogs for some of the famous steamed hot dogs, and then stopped in the Kittery Trading Post, an outdoor megastore packed with guns, bikes, kayaks, fishing equipment, and more.

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The drive from Dingle to Limerick

August 07, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

At this point in our trip we had given up entirely on worrying about any sort of a schedule, so we took our time driving north to Limerick.  We made our way through Conor Pass blasting Beatles the entire way, and then slowly wound our way back down from the mountains to the coast, pulling over to stop whenever something interesting caught our eyes.

By the time the mid-afternoon had come, we had already seen and done enough to fill an entire week. In need of a boost, we stopped at the first "coffee" sign we came across. We pulled in thinking we had come across a small cafe, but instead found ourselves drinking coffee in a someones kitchen and chatting about the weather.

Some of our stops included Lislaughtin Abbey, Ballyheighe - a place where I enjoyed some of my first beers in life ten years earlier, and a pub Kildare where we stopped for dinner. It was close to ten by the time we arrived in Limerick.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Photos, Travel | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

 

Fungi the Dingle Dolphin

August 07, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

After getting lost in the mountains we found ourselves arriving in Dingle about an hour and a half behind schedule.  In fact, we never actually pinpointed where our bed and breakfast was for the night.  Instead we just drove around until we came across it.  Prior to arriving I had exchanged emails with the owner, Katharine, and agreed that if we were going to be late we would call in and let her know.  Unfortunately we never got around to doing this, so by the time we arrived the door was locked shut and we were stuck out on the sidewalk.

Fortunately the people in the pub across the street where more than helpful.  The bartender called her on her cell and she raced down to open back up for us.  While we were waiting, the owner of the shop next door came outside and offered his assistance as well.  Nice people.

That night we followed the advice given to us by someone we had talked to on the street and made our way to a yellow pub down the street. After a few pints and about an hour's worth of traditional Irish music we stepped outside for some fresh air and were told about the "fine hourses" at the races that weekend in Dingle.

With a long day behind us and another planned for the following, we enjoyed one more pint then headed back to our B&B, the Lantern Townhouse, for some rest.

In the morning we took a walk from the B&B and visited the church where the study abroad program for Sacred Heart University is based.  After a quick, memorable tour of the church and a somewhat uncomfortable conversation with an English author about American culture, we walked towards the water with the hopes of taking a boat ride.

We spent the next hour chasing around Fungi the Dingle dolphin.  It was a lot of fun, and even a bit funny to zoom back and forth with a bunch of boats going "there's the dolphin!" every few minutes for an hour as if we had never seen one before.   Then again, I suppose it isn't every day you see a dolphin.

We finished our morning with lunch in a pub down by the water and then began our drive to Limerick.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Photos, Travel | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

 

Killarney and the Kerry Mountains

August 06, 2009 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

After a somewhat unpleasant night and an equally unpleasant breakfast the Holiday Inn, we took a drive to the nearby Killarney Riding Stables.  This was going to be my second try at horseback riding, and Patti's first.  We had made the reservations two days earlier while eating lunch at the Brazen Head in Dublin, and had chosen the hour long ride through Killarney National Park.

I suppose since we labeled ourselves "beginners", they had decided to give us beginner's horses.  My horse wouldn't budge.  I swear he was was one of the slowest creatures I had ever come across.  I kicked like our French guide told me too.  And then I kicked harder.  Then she gave me the whip - but still no luck.  Did I mention she our guide was French?  While it was fun, and a scenic ride, it definitely wasn't the experience we had imagined it would be.  Think twice before you follow in our footsteps and make a reservation.

After our ride we stopped for lunch at Cathleen's Country Kitchen on New Street, and then began our drive through the mountains.  Our first real destination was the Torc Waterfall, a place I had initially discovered by looking through a friend's photos.  It's only a short distance from Muckross House and in my opinion much more with a visit if you were to chose between the two. 

We then made a stop at Ladies View, a scenic point within the park and a place I had been to once before ten years earlier.  It was filled with tourists, and tour buses, and touristy gifts, but it was still worth the visit.

From this point on we essentially got lost.  But it was okay.  The Kerry mountains are easily one of my favorite parts of Ireland.  So if I was going to get lost driving around a country I hardly know with no GPS and a very vague map, I'm glad it was there.  One place that I do know we passed through Moll's Gap.  We pulled over here and took turns testing out our echos.  If it weren't for the noise we were making it would have been perfectly silent and as there wasn't a person, animal, building or car in sight.  Soon after, as it was getting late, we pulled over and asked for directions from a man who wound up showing us the way towards Dingle, our destination for the night.

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The Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough and the Rock of Cashal

August 05, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

It was going to be a long day.  The night before we had stayed out late on a pub crawl and that morning we had approximately 240 miles of driving planned with many stops in-between.

After a quick breakfast in Dublin (sandwiches from a grocery store), we made our way south towards the Wicklow mountains. Our first stop was Enniskerry, a small village which I had visited three years earlier.  We grabbed a coffee and then visited "Aladdins Cave", an antique gallery on  Church Hill that is PACKED with cool antiques including paintings, silver, jewelry,etc.  After a long conversation with the gallery owner, John O' Brien, I picked up a circa 1870 Victorian-style tankard to make a pair out of the one I had bought at the same gallery during my last visit.

The next stop, a spontaneous one, was at Glendalough - home of an early medieval monstac settlement founded in the 6th century by St. Keven, a hermit priest, in a beautiful glacial valley.

Glendalough really impressed me.  It's one of those many places in Ireland where pictures could never do justice.  After walking through the gravestones and buildings, we took a few minutes to stick our feet in the water and relax for a bit.  It was freezing, like we had expected, but also refreshing considering the long drive ahead.

We continued through the mountains and then made our way towards Cashal, passing through Kilkenny along the way.  I had originally planned on stopping here, but with the stop at Glendalough we didn't have enough time.

Around sunset we found ourselves at the Rock of Cashal, much later than expected.  The castle was closed at this point, but we still enjoyed the views from a nearby hill.  For dinner we stopped at a local pub and it was probably the worst meal we had all week.

From here we made our way to our destination at the Holiday Inn in Killarney, which was about a two hours drive away.  We didn't arrive until 11pm at night.  This ended up being a good thing because it was probably the worst place we stayed all week.  The room was massive...  uncomfortably massive.  The lights in our hallway were pick black and our window kept opening by itself.  It seemed the room was haunted.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Photos, Road Trips, Travel | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

 

The mummies of St. Michan's Church

August 04, 2009 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

We began our only full day in Dublin by visiting St. Michan's Church, one of the more unusual attractions in the city. Below the church lies a series of vaults, containing numerous coffins and four exposed mummies - two women and two men. They say that one of the mummies was a thief - his body missing one hand, possibly due to punishment prior to his death. Both of his feet are cut off and tucked under his legs so that he could fit inside his coffin. Directly behind him is much older mummy - about 800 years old. It is said that he was a crusader, and it's become tradition to "shake the hand" of the mummy for good luck. Shaking his hand really involves just touching his finger, which both of us did. 

In several of the vaults we could see exposed hands, arms, legs and skulls bursting through decaying coffins.  One vault contained the coffins of nobility.  The coffins were all decorated with crowns to indicate their status, all except for one - a man who was assassinated due to his unpopularity.  The family apparently didn't like him either, so they buried him in a plain coffin.

Another vault contains the remains of the Sheare brothers, who were hanged, drawn and quartered by the British for treason following the Rebellion of 1798.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Travel, Videos | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (2)

 

Clonmacnoise

August 03, 2009 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

In order to break up the long drive between Galway and Dublin, we took a side-trip off the N6 to Clonmacnoise, a former monastery founded by Saint Ciarán in 545 AD.  Considering most of the remaining structures were built sometime during the 12th and 13th centuries and that the settlement had suffered dozens of attacks by the Vikings, Anglo-Normans and English, it's amazing that anything still stands.

I've been told the best way to go here is to take a boat ride up the River Shannon from Shannonbridge, but we were a bit short for time so didn't bother and took the road up instead.

While there we kept running into this overly friendly dog.  I thought it might have been a stray, but after asking some of the staff about it we found out that it was owned by someone living down the street.  They didn't seem very fond of him. 

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Morning in Galway

August 03, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Monday morning we had the option of either catching up on some much-needed sleep or leaving early for a trip out to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands. I'm not sure we made the right choice (as I was yelled at for this choice later on in the week), but we opted against going to to the island and took it slow instead. 

The plan for the day was to drive to Dublin, which is about a 3 and a half hour drive away and a bit boring compared to other parts of the country.  So we took our time walking around the water, stopped for breakfast and a coffee on Quay St., and then stocked up on red bull and cheese and onion Tayto crips before hitting the road.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Travel | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

 

A drive through the Burren

August 02, 2009 // 3 Comments  // Add yours »

This will be my fourth time in Ireland, almost ten years exactly since I first visited for three weeks as an exchange scout at age 15.  During my l last visit over in 2007 I decided to focus on a single area - Limerick, primarily because I had several friends living in the area and I felt as though I hadn't spent enough time there during my trip over one year earlier. 

This time around the plan was to get a rental car and travel across the country with my friend Patti.  We were going to go from Shannon to Galway, to Dublin, to Killarney, to Dingle, and then finish in Limerick.  We had a very loose itinerary, but I made sure I knew all the places worth stopping at in between.  Then plan worked out perfectly, with the exception of one major snag in the very beginning.

The flight over was great.  We flew with Delta from JFK to Shannon overnight.  It was about 5 1/2 hours and we were served both dinner and breakfast.  Wine and beer was complimentary, the food wasn't half bad, and we had dozens of movies to chose from at our pleasure from our seats.  Arriving at Shannon was easy and stress-free as it usually is.  The problem came about when we went to go pick up our car.

I had placed a reservation for the car through Expedia.com with a company called Payless Car Rental.  My reservation with Expedia stated that my total would be €314.40 for the week, which equated to approximately $450.00.  I had called to confirm that total with Payless 24 hours before departure to be safe.  I let them know I was concerned that because I had payed in full in advance that there would be additional fees when I arrived, but I was assured over the phone that there wouldn't be. 

As it turned out, Payless Car Rental is an American company that books car rentals through an Irish company called Dooley Car Rentals.  When we finally realized this (there was no sign for Payless), I was informed that there would be an additional €124 for airport fees, taxes, etc.  I disputed the extra charges and brought up my conversation with Payless 24 hours earlier, but they wouldn't budge.  Since the car was a necessity for a week I went ahead and agreed to the additional charges.  So they ran my card, then gave me a second receipt for my payment of €1,500.00 - an insurance deductible that was being put on hold until I returned the car.  My car rental had gone from €314.40 to over €2,000.00 without any warning. 

The moral of this story: Do not rent cars from Dooley Car Rental, do not rent cars from Payless Car Rental, and don't place reservations for car rentals with Expedia.com because you will be cheated.

We canceled the reservation with Dooley, got the money back, and then picked up a car from Budget Car Rental, which still ended up costing $600 more than I had planned.  But we didn't let it bring us down.  We got in the car and a few minutes later the stress was behind us - to be resolved later when I got back to America.

From the airport we took the N18 northwest to Ennis, we we stopped in a pub & restaurant called Brogan's, and then drove towards the cliffs of Moher.  We had the weather you'd expect going to Ireland - cool, rainy and windy.  It was refreshing after the flight though.  The wind at the cliffs was strong as always.  The rain was refreshing, at least initially.  It messed up a ton of photos though.. there's water blotches on more than half of them from the day.

From the cliffs we drove towards R480, which brought us through the heart of the Burren past Leamanagh Castle, Carran Church, Caherconnell Stone Fort, and Poulnabrone Portal Tomb.

That night we stayed in Galway at the Amber Lodge B&B, which I really enjoyed.  It was a few minutes walk from Quay Street, where most of the pubs and shops are located.  It was extremely overcrowded - presumably because the Galway Races had ended a few hours earlier and many people had off from work the following day due to a bank holiday.  We went out and had dinner at Riordan's Food House before making our way out to a few different pubs - meeting quite a few interesting drunken fools along the way.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Ireland, Ireland 2009, Irish Travel, Travel | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (3)

 

Roxbury's Mine Hill

July 31, 2009 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

Driving around and looking for things to write about for the Connecticut Weekender has led me to find a ton of cool places that I never knew exisited, including a park called the Mine Hill Preserve in Roxbury, CT. The park's trails wind through a 19th century mining area, passing over 2 miles of an abandoned mine shaft and massive blasting furnaces.   I was hiking there this past weekend with my friend Amber when I snapped these photos.  You can find more about the park here.

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Paul McCartney at Citi Field

July 18, 2009 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

Paul McCartney.. Billy Joel.. an all-access pass and a front row seat. It all started when I saw this message from @Stereogum:

"Paul McCartney starts his three nights at Citi Field this evening. He’s making a film and he needs some help from all of you young filmmakers out there. We are looking for thirty people to shoot each show, July 17, 18 & 21, on Flip cameras. We have the cameras, all we need is the talent!"

I replied, and then while driving towards New York I received an email letting me know I had been selected to participate.  My friend Mindy and I showed up at the 1st Base VIP entrance where we picked up our "Working Personel" passes and a custom Paul McCartney Flip Cam, and then set off to roam the stadium at our pleasure.

I found myself nice spot in the front row, a few feet in front of Pierce Brosnan and nearby Nancy Shevell.  

Here's a video (shot with my iPhone) of Paul singing "A Day in the Life" and "Give Peace a Chance". 

Read on for the set list and a few photos:

Continue reading "Paul McCartney at Citi Field"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Billy Joel, Concerts, NYC, Paul McCartney, The Beatles | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (1)

 

Fourth of July Weekend in Connecticut

July 05, 2009 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

Here's a few of my favorite photos from this year's 4th of July weekend:

We had cake for my brother Justin during one of this weekend's parties on the river for recently passing his insurance exam.

A local dog who was after my cheeseburger.  He did not succeed.

We soon found out that this mustard had expired in 2006.

Fireworks along the Milford coastline on July 4th.  All residential, but not bad.

My brother Kevin and I took a break from the parties for a hike at Southford Falls State Park.

A view of the falls.

Mickey - our boat driver for the weekend.

Sunday night fireworks on the Housatonic - the best this week.

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Derby, CT, Photos | Link | TrackBack |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (2)