We woke to Dingle and our new definition of "clear" skies (bright cloudiness, no rain). We snapped a few pictures from our room (currently missing). What a beautiful spot. In the higher lands, you can still see the property lines of old farms. These belonged to people who abandoned their property when the famine hit and never returned. Between 1800 and 1845, the population of Ireland nearly doubled: by 1850 1 million people had died and another million people had left the country. Although the population has bounced back in the time since, the need to farm at such high altitudes hasn't, so these overgrown plots remain untouched. An eerie reminder of some of what this country has been through.
We picked up the last of our souvenirs, hit the Dunne's (which is Ireland's version of Safeway or Krogers) and made for Galway. It was a longer drive than we had expected. The rain returned, and pounded progressively harder as we went along. We passed through Tralee, Adare, circumvented Limerick and arrived into Galway at exactly 5 past rush hour! Brilliant. We have come over 4,000 km's to discover a city worse than Chicago for driving, and we had found it. It is Galway.
We parked on Docks St., about 6 blocks past the hotel (we couldn't locate the hotel car park), and walked back to our new home, the Park House. Lindsay settled in to the room while Jeremy went to fetch the car and return it to the car park. It took him 45 minutes to drive 6 blocks. We he returned, Lindsay said "oh thank god, I was so worried about you. I thought I was going to have to call the Garda" - as she was waking from a nap.
Due to the diligent "work" that we had put into this trip site-seeing thus far, we had reached a point this day to where we just wanted to relax. So we went for an early dinner at McDonnoughs Fish and Chips, bought a bottle of Bailey's and came back to our room around 7pm for... nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was wonderful. And thanks to Irish/English television, we were able to watch a cricket match, the Simpsons (in English) and "Independence Day" in it's entirety. Jeremy hadn't remembered the movie being that bad.
We have yet to really "see" Galway.
No comments:
Post a Comment