on that path

Dec. 22 to 27

The 4 am train we took to Malmo from Karlskrona got us to the plane on time to catch our flight to London’s crowded Stanstead airport. We then traveled by bus with the lower classes to Walker’s brother’s place near Battlesea Park, which provided a great tour of sights in London. At Tim’s place we were within walking distance along the Thames from Tate Gallery, parliament buildings, and London museum. We checked out some caroling in Trafalgar square around the large xmas tree donated by Canada one evening, and jogged in the park on the last day where we came across a huge gold shrine to the Buddha along the Thames. Also did a little pub drinking with Tim and his girlfriend, Lisa, and their friends.

We got out of the city on the 24^th to stay with Walker’s other brother, Ted, who lives in Wheathamstead. He lives next to a golf course, and farm fields, all accessible by public pathways. We ate too much, played Frisbee and illegal golf, did some mtn biking, and of course drank beer in the Cross Keys and other pubs. On a jog one day I came across the “White Horse pub” in a little village nearby. Oh, nostalgia for Whitehorse.

Dec. 27

Arrived in Cork, The European City of Culture 2005 by plane from London. The plane was an hour late leaving due to heavy snowfall, and the forecast of another 2 or 3 cms was threatening to shut all of London down. On arriving in Cork, Walker and I picked up a rental car and drove into town. Like a lot of European cities, Cork’s streets have hardly any signs for street names, making for tricky navigation. I wanted to stop and ask directions to the hostel, but Walker thought it would be more exciting to find the place by driving around the city, with assistance from his handy key-chain compass. It was dark, we were driving fast down the “wrong” side of the road, both of us rubber-necking to catch sight of street names as we screamed though intersections. We finally came across a sign pointing the way to Sheila’s Place, and pulled in. I pried my fingers from “holy shit” handle on the dashboard, and later chilled over a well-deserved pint in nearby pub, happy to be in Ireland at last!

Dec. 28

Cork has a decent farmers market downtown and a Marks and Spencer; we stocked up on groceries, along with new clean underwear for Walker, and got out town while the daylight lasted.

The road along the coast is very hilly, winding, and fast; these roads in Canada would have a speed limit of no more than 60 km/hour, but here it can be as high as 100. The towns along the coast are all much smaller than Cork of course, but there are several large housing developments being built along the way, including “Killmore Forest” in a pretty little spot off the road. As we got further from Cork, the landscape took on a much more agricultural feel to it, but we still haven’t escaped what appear to be holiday houses and tourist spots.

We pulled into a hostel in Baltimore. It turned out that our guidebook’s description of “Rolf’s Holiday Hostel” did not do it justice; this place was beautiful, built with that german aesthetic of simplicity and uncluttered elegance, with buildings of wood and stone blending in with the landscape. It’s a hostel, but really it’s more like a resort, with a fancy restaurant and Wine Room that was doing some good business with tourists, along with affordable rooms for student travelers like us.

The self-serve kitchen of the hostel is a beautiful stone building, and we had dinner there and drank Beamish Draught, while Walker explained to me the difference between “gadgets” and “do-hickeys,” and which one a “widget” falls under.

We also later checked out downtown Baltimore and had a pint of Murpheys at Bushe’s pub on the waterfront. It’s quite a small village – maybe only 1000 people, and looking at the locals I had the feeling I was in an Alaskan fishing town. There was at least one rugged-looking gal wearing faded jeans, boots, and a wool sweater with a ponytail, looking like she either just got out of the bush, or, more likely, just off a boat. Another local, a guy, walked in and out wearing a floater suit. Outside, the town is fairly touristy, but it couldn’t hide the essential fishing town that it is, with large vessels moored in the bay.

Dec. 29

Getting off to a late start, we ended up staying not too far from Baltimore – we stayed in Schull. I really needed to get out of the car for a little exercise, since I don’t really trust the narrow shoulderless roads in Ireland to jog safely and haven’t gone in a while. The rain actually stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun shone! We checked the guidebook for the closest hiking opportunity, and pulled into Schull. If anyone tells you something is unsafe to do in Ireland, like hiking up Mount Gabriel just outside of Schull because there’s only 2 hours of daylight left and the fog is rolling in, don’t always believe it. This is exactly what happened to us, and Mount Gabriel turned out to have a paved track switchbacking all the way to the top, and took half as much time as they say. The walk was well-deserved, actually managed to break a sweat, and there were plenty of sheep on the hillside to keep us company. The fog did roll in and so there was no view really, but no one was around, and no one lives there, so we felt we were in having a nature experience, sort of.

We found the pub atmosphere in downtown Schull very friendly and relaxed; the Murpheys draught tasted particularly good there. Had a game of checkers and went back to the hostel we checked into for the night to cook a meal. Another couple staying here were off for some jazz and Irish music at Hackett’s pub, and we tried, we really tried to get there, but it was raining fiercely outside and I was falling asleep. Should have waited before having my beer so early in the evening. Hopefully come across some good music later in our trip!

Dec. 30

It stormed all night, and in the morning, the clouds parted again for a whole day of mostly sunshine, all the way around the Beara Peninsula. From Schull, we drove up to Bantry, then down to Dursey where the cable car connects the island off the very tip; we’re sure this is partly how the local kids get to school each day. We walked around the sheep-grazed field here overlooking the rocky coastline and watched the sea spray shooting into the air from the huge waves hitting the rocks; it was quite spectacular.

Later on, we had a bit of a hard time finding affordable accommodation. We had our heart set on the Buddhist hostel/retreat centre, but it was having a retreat this weekend, and was full. From what I saw it’s a prime place to stay since it’s in a remote area overlooking the rocky coastline, far from any community, and looks very cozy inside, with white adobe-looking buildings. We settled for a room in at the Ocean View Hotel in downtown Castletownbear. Here we met a young Canadian master’s degree graduate, Eric, who is getting some work experience in fisheries; he’s done some work around trans-genetics, and is currently working with a company here. The aquaculture industry is not very big in Ireland, and can’t get as big as in Norway for example, since it doesn’t have the fjords and protected coastline Norway does.

We spent some time in the evening at MacCarthy’s for a pint of Murpheys and Walker showed me how to play backgammon. This is a family restaurant, convenience store, and bar, all adding to a warm friendly atmosphere. During the day it’s crowded with families eating lunch with their kids running around, and last night it was full of folks having a pint and watching the dart competition on the telly. I hadn’t played backgammon in ages; I won one game and let Walker win the other (beware the male ego).

There isn’t any music in the pubs here in town! Very disappointing.

Anxious to get off to Kilarney for some hiking.

December 31

Luck of the Irish is the only way to describe how our day ended. Things started off well enough leaving Castletownbere, swearing we wouldn’t recommend the place we stayed in (the Ocean View Hotel) to anyone, and had an enjoyable drive through Healy Pass into Kerry County and all the way to Killarney. It was an hour away from darkness when we arrived since we had left the Ocean View a little late, lounging around in our room all morning, taking advantage of the extra-luxuriousness of having nothing to do but enjoy ourselves on holiday. That feeling lasted only until we got to Killarney and found ourselves on New Year’s Eve without reservations in a town with all accommodations booked solid, ditto for surrounding villages. Just as we were beginning to contemplate tenting on the rain-saturated ground at a nearby campsite (and dangerously close to finding out how graceful we can be under pressure) Walker saved the day by finding us a double room at the Neptune hostel that just had a cancellation! I gave him a big sloppy kiss on the cheek in front everyone. We went to our room, drank some beers to celebrate, ate part of a still-warm roasted chicken I got at the market, and headed out for the last couple of hours of 2005 where we took in live traditional music at some pubs. It was lucky we escaped minutes before midnight, avoiding New Year kisses from hoards of scantily-clad women wearing too much lipstick, and beer-bellied men with brushcuts.

January 1

The Neptune Hostel is a great place to stay, but we’re close to a National Park and why not stay somewhere a little less down-town in the Killarney area? This is why, after Walker’s new year’s surprise breakfast of eggs and dee-licious blood pudding with kippers, we packed up and moved onto the Killarney International Youth Hostel a little ways out of town. The only thing was that it was a beautiful sunny morning, and having experienced the changeable weather now for almost a week in Ireland, I knew it couldn’t last. I was pretty anxious to get going – OK, maybe a little grumpy we were moving so slow - and we finally did just before noon, heading for Ireland’s tallest peak, the Carrauntoohil, in the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks.

Prior to this day, I had imagined Ireland’s tallest peak to be not unlike the mountains around Whitehorse: small, treeless, rounded, not too steep, with some scree slopes near the top, and I wasn’t very far off. What makes them different however, is the weather. The weather here can make the land soggy, slippery, and anywhere you go, foggy and hard to see where you’re going. Prior to this day, I hadn’t realized that people actually die on these mountains every year, getting lost in the unpredictable fog near the top, overcome with hypothermia – all due to the weird weather. This probably explained the resistance we encountered on speaking with people familiar with the hiking in the area, when we mentioned our desire to hike the tallest peak, and me with little more than street shoes, sans map and compass.

It turned out that we actually never came close to the tallest peak, because in our haste, we drove down the wrong road, and tried hiking up the wrong part of the reeks, far from the Carrauntoohil. So it was just as well.

The hike we did was still challenging enough, and had us hopping from rock to rock, occasionally slogging through mud and sheep shit, up an almost vertical slippery gorge. After an hour and a half we reached the cold blustery ridge next to a scree slope ascending toward the rest of the reeks, where we could see two other backpackers hiking up into the clouds. We made a hasty retreat in the unbelievably strong wind, and after making our way down the gorge, we finally stopped at some large rocks overlooking a small lake for a well-deserved beer break. While we were there, the lady of the lake emerged from the watery depths and gave Walker a magic sword that will protect him from all evil (except maybe pelts of twinkies) on his quest to slay George Bush and save the world.

January 2

It seems to be sunny in the mornings here until around noon, then clouds come along and it becomes drizzly for the rest of the day, which isn’t too good for Walker and I since we’re such late starters in the mornings. We were the last ones leaving the hostel today, but still allowed ourselves the pleasure of a quick toss of the Frisbee in the parking lot outside the hostel. Heading straight for the Dingle Peninsula, we kept our eyes peeled for stone monuments, since this was the sole reason for heading in this direction; this area is apparently crowded with them.

We’re still not sure if this is true or not; we didn’t come across that many. It would have helped if we had a bit more information on where they can be found; Ireland lacks effective signage for tourists and many are on private property, thus inaccessible.

Stopped at the town of Inch for a walk on a very expansive beach where many others were taking in the so-far clear, non-rainy day. We were in fine spirits and somewhere along the way we had a pint in a pub. There we watched the international dart competition on the telly again with the locals, with Walker rooting for both the long-time champ, with the new guy on a roll threatening to take the title. The pub had a very unpronounceable Gaelic name and two guys at the bar were having a serious conversation in Irish, or Gaelic, whichever you call it. This is also why we weren’t sure which town we were in; this part of Ireland is very native tongue and much of the signage is not in English. It actually got pretty confusing around the very tip of the Peninsula past Slea Head. There are quite a few intersecting roads with signage for towns often only in Gaelic. Walker got us in the right direction driving and we made it back to Killarney in the dark and drizzle without any difficulties.

Killarney was our last new destination. We drove the shortest route back to Cork, and the flight back to London the next day ended our time in Ireland.

# posted by kate @ 10:12 AM