October 29, 2005

The Emerald Isle

Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 12:54:05 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Raining animals, driving experiments, and crystals on Day #2

Oy!

Hurricane Wilma, or what's left of it, has made its way to Ireland now, and
according to a local radio announcer in Wexford, "it's not raining cats and
dogs anymore, it's raining lions and wolves". ha. haha. ugh.

I didn't eat dinner last night, only a few fig newtons and wheat thins that I
had left over from the flights. So this morning at the motel -- after waking up
at 7 AM from the loud TV alarm in the next room -- I had a full Irish Breakfast
(13.95*1.24 dollars + tax). Expensive but worth it -- that hit the spot! Left
Dublin "after rush hour" -- forgetting that today was Saturday! oh well. I
could've used an extra hour today, but that doesnt matter now...

It's been raining tigers all day. I'm now in the town of Macroom, County Cork,
near the southern coast. Today has been... eventful.

In yesterday's email I gave myself a pat on the back for navigating through
Dublin city streets without any problems. Hmmmm... Today was a slap on my face
that put me in my place!

Started out relatively easy -- I was driving south from Dublin, along the
coast. The road is about 50 or so kilometers of ocean scenery, and the rest
inland through forests, mountains, grasslands, and farmlands. I got lost a
couple places in Dublin itself while trying to get onto the road I wanted to be
on (N11). Finally I gave up trying to find it and just headed south on "some
street", and a few right turns, left turns, U-turns (on 1-way streets), and
3-point turns later, I ended up driving south next to the coast. This is a
beautiful road -- still in Dublin, with waves pounding into the beach in strong
winds (courtesy of Wilma).

Once out of Dublin, there is a 4-lane motorway for a while, then the lanes
merge, the road narrows, heads into a forest, then narrows some more, then
there is a "Road Narrows" sign and it narrows some more. This is still a 2-way
street but with barely enough room for 2 cars to pass each other, let alone a
truck and a car. Well... it was fun!

After that were some nice mountains, or as nice as mountains can get in heavy
sideways rainfall. The road is scenic -- no doubt about that! I just wish the
visibility was better. Then there are some more forests and grasslands towards
the southeast corner of the country.

My first stop was in the town of Waterford. I took the Waterford Crystal
Company tour. Very Good! 3-stars on my rating scale. I got a little carried
away with the pictures over there, so I won't say much here. The tour included
the moulding, cutting, engraving, and quality control of the crystals. One note
about the quality: The people who check the crystals for mistakes are not paid
a salary. They are paid by the number of objects they reject.
HHHHHHHHMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

At the end of the tour I stopped by in the cafeteria for a large chocolate cake
slice that rivalled anything at True Confections in Vancouver! With a price to
match.

On the way out of the factory, I had to turn right to get back onto the
highway. I turned right, realized what I was doing before hitting anybody,
quickly reversed without hitting anybody in the back, and merged into the
correct side of the road and started driving, ignoring all the dirty looks by
other drivers as I stared STRAIGHT AHEAD when they passed by.

I left Waterford at 2:30 PM, and Blarney Castle was a good 2 hours away.

The town of Blarney is a little north of Cork. I got lost in Cork.

I managed to find my way to Blarney, but got hopelessly lost there too, and
never did find the castle -- apparantly the largest structure in town!
Somehow I made it back to Cork (it was getting dark and I still had to find my
motel). The trouble with Cork is that there are several national highways that
converge on the city. Unlike Dublin, these roads all meet in a single large
roundabout in Cork. And as a result, there is a lot of traffic in that
roundabout. Well, I did not know that.

If any of you have ever seen "National Lampoon's European Vacation" and
remember the scene in London near the Big Ben, I felt like Clark Griswold:

(while entering roundabout)
"Look kids, there's Big Ben! And the Parliament! Oops, I need to turn left here..."
(misses the turn because of traffic)
"That's ok, we'll get it the next time around... Look kids, there's Big Ben
again! And the Parliament!"
(misses the turn again; keeps circling in the roundabout)
"Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!"
(scene cuts to several hours ahead, it's now nighttime. He's still stuck in the
roundabout)
"Look kids!..."
"We know. Big Ben. Parliament."

Well, mine wasn't exactly like that. I was actually driving in the left lane
(the outside lane), and I was forced to take every single one of those roads
that meet at the roundabout! That would be ok if I actually wanted to take the
first exit. Problem was that I had to go more than 3/4th of that circle for my
exit. In between those, I must have gone on about 5 or 6 different streets,
then had to find a place to make a u-turn and come back again and take the NEXT
street and repeat the process! Of course, that's *IF* I could make a U-turn.
Usually, I couldn't. That meant 3 rights, or 3 lefts, or any combination of
right, left, U-, and 3-point turns to get back on that road and back to the
roundabout. I think it took me about 1/2 hour just to get through all that.

So that was Cork. Cork is otherwise a very beautiful city, especially the roads
by the river. It is great for walking!

I'm now in my motel in Macroom, about 20 miles west of Cork. It is close to
9:00 PM, dark, still raining leopards, I'm hungry, and I'm looking forward to
"raining kittens and puppies day" tomorrow and Germany next month!

Auf wiedersehn.

Dublin and Eastern coast: