When I finished grad school, I needed to recuperate. Big time. And what better place to do it than Ireland? Friendly people, lots of drink, music, gorgeous natural wonders… perfect. Little did I realize, though, just how quickly and how hard I would fall in love with the city of Galway, where I spent my first five months as a regular person (a.k.a. a non-student).
Last week as I flew into Dublin, I was so happy to be returning to the spot I love so much, The Emerald Isle. This time I was with 46 other travel agents on a "FAM". A fam trip is a working trip with lots of site inspections….experiencing the product makes it easier to sell. Tough job, huh? The trip lasted only 5 days, but a lot was packed in. We spent a lot of time on the bus, but it was so relaxing watching the beautiful countryside pass by. The highways are aligned on both sides with daffodils. The fields and hills are full of sheep and baby lambs, as it is the season! There are green pastures with cows and calves(looked a little like Wisconsin!)horses, flowers, flowers and more flowers. The farther from Dublin that we traveled, the more serene and beautiful was the scenery. Our bus driver was a fountain of information, as well as jokes, and when he rested his voice for awhile and put some lovely Irish music on, all the agents sat amazed at the beauty of the landscape, relaxed and figured that they were in Heaven!
If you only have a day or two to see Ireland, Dublin is a touristy little spot worth swinging by. The Guinness Brewery, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the "Book of Kells" at Trinity College are all worth a look.
But if you want the real Ireland you won’t find it in Dublin. People there offer a luke warm at best reception. They’re bombarded by tourists year round and most of the Irish Brogue accents you’ll hear are phony put on’s for the tourists.
If you are truly to experience Ireland, you must see the Aran Islands. You really must. I recently spent 10 days in Eire and enjoyed every moment and every aspect of my journey (reviews will be forthcoming on Dublin, Galway and Waterford City), but I would not have known Ireland, nor still be captivated by its spell, had I not traveled across water and time to the tiny windswept islands off the coast of Galway. The ferry deposited us on the pier along with 10 or 15 various residents, students and tourists. Immediately upon arrival we were approached by several small tour bus operations that promised to whisk us to the Ruins and back in plenty of time to make the next ferry run. It’s a shame that apparently many people read about the Ruins and feel they have to see them, but completely miss out on the Islands themselves. We politely declined, and were left alone to walk up from the sea to the main village where a tourist center provides small maps of the island. There were bicycles for rent, which were tempting, but we decided to hike the road to the ruins. If you decide on this path, let me warn you that it is quite a hike…but there is a small grocery store in the village where you can buy fresh bread, meat and cheese, as well as cheap, very drinkable wine. In a word, perfect.
Edinburgh Review by Leslie Watson (eider@barrow.com)
Edinburgh, Scotland Tuesday, September 3rd
We arrived in Edinburgh and went right to Edinburgh Castle where we met Keith, our guide for the rest of the day. He was a large Scotsman fully dressed in the traditional kilt and everything. He was an extremely funny and entertaining guide with a booming voice.
Dining in Bratislava
After two years I visited Bratislava again, and decided to test the timeliness of my old Bratislava review. I took great pleasure visiting Bratislava”s restaurants, but was a little disappointed to find out that my review needed a complete overhaul. Bratislava has evolved, and now the city contains so many great restaurants that my previous selection became very obsolete. In order to fit in here all the restaurants I recommend I divided this review into several sections: snacks, bars and dining. Each section contains my favorite places.
Snacks
Dublin Review by Leslie Watson (eider@barrow.com)
Dublin, Ireland Saturday, August 31st
By early evening we arrived in Dublin where we would spend two nights at it’s oldest, most posh hotel. The Gresham was a gorgeous hotel. Well, I should say the lobby, restaurants and bars were gorgeous. Once again, all the budget is spent in what the public sees, not the rooms. The lobby has Waterford crystal chandeliers, a sweeping staircase and elegant bars and restaurants. The rooms however, were very plain and dull in appearance. It was comfortable though and we had two twin beds separated by a nightstand. Brian was sad that we would have to sleep apart, but I was not. Haha, Just kidding.
Ireland has only recently gotten its economic feet under itself. For years, it was the source of a migrant, unskilled workforce. Then it became the source of a migrant, highly-educated, professional workforce. Finally those high-tech jobs are coming to Ireland. This is mainly due to Ireland’s corporate-friendly tax policies giving US multinationals a great base in Europe.
So Ireland is suddenly quite well off, and Dublin is getting the lion’s share of that. This makes Dublin city a unique place to visit.
Dublin is famous (rightly or wrongly) for a number of things - Friendliness, Literature, Georgian Architecture, and “the craic”.
Review Topic: Overview
Review Topic: OverviewBack in 1987, one of my neighbors introduced me to a young couple from the Caribbean. The man was Haitian and the woman, Dominican. Obviously, among them, they used two or three major languages: French, Creole, and Spanish. I soon found out that they wanted to live in Ireland because they could not go back to Haiti. Baby Doc and his men kicked them out of the country. They just did not want to live in the Dominican Republic. So they wanted to learn English to be able to integrate themselves into the Irish society. I soon found out from one of my aunts who had been living in Ireland since the 1960s that these people were la creme de la creme of their respective countries. For sure, they were highly educated. What was more important at that time was that even though they were people of color, they did not encounter any problems in Ireland.
I and a friend travelled from Boston to Iceland over Thanksgiving, 1999.
Days 1 - 1 1/2: Wednesday and Thursday, November 24-25
The five-hour flight was made more comfortable by the fact that we had exit row seats! We chatted, ate yummy beef stroganoff (Iceland Air’s food is actually tolerable) and before we knew it, five hours later, we were there.
