Kinsale

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Blarney Castle and grounds

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Cork

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Kilkenny

We had a great day trip to Kilkenny, just two hours by train from Waterford.

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Tramore

From Waterford, we took a half-day trip to Tramore Beach & Boardwalk.
Video Clip:


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Waterford

We took a two hour train ride to Waterford from Rosslare. We found a great hotel in the center of town, The Belfry. Each day we ate breakfast at the Granary museum cafe, which boasted "the best coffee in Waterford." We took their word for it, and also enjoyed their fresh baked scones, egg breakfasts. The cheerful staff of Polish guys always made us feel welcome. We did the walking tour, Reginald's tower, the Waterford Crystal showroom/museum, and enjoyed the pubs and music scene at night. On our last night, we saw a music and dance performance called An Emigrant's Tale.

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Rosslare Strand

After four days in Dublin, we took a 3 hour train ride south to spend a night at the Irish Sea. Rosslare is a port where ferries arrive from Europe. The Strand, or beach, just a few miles north, has a long stretch of beautiful unspoiled beach, and not much else. We loved taking a long walk on this beach, breathing in all the fresh sea air and picking out some pretty shells.



There are only two hotels in Rosslare Strand. Kelly's, a super nice resort, and Crosbie Cedars, a funky old family run hotel that had Kids Karaoke going on in the pub. We chose the latter, since it was 1/3 the price, and we were taking a 7am train to Waterford in the morning.
Just a few photos from the beach:
http://picasaweb.google.com/laurieandmitch/Rosslare#

Dublin

Top 5 favorite activities in Dublin:

1. Guinness Storehouse, a Mecca for stout beer lovers. The brewery tour starts at the ground level and works its way up a pint-shaped atrium. Each section has a stunning display of the beer making process- from barley, water, hops, and yeast- to the history of Arthur Guinness. There's a tasting lab, exhibits of the colorful Guinness advertising and interesting short films on Cooperage-the lost art of barrel crafting. We learned that The Guinness Book of World Records was started by a Guinness manager. Who knew?! The tour ends at the top "The Gravity Bar" where everyone gets a free pint of Guinness. It doesn't get any better than fresh from the source. The bar has a 360 degree view of Dublin. The ceiling looks like the rich frothy head, as if you're swimming in a glass of the stuff. Here's a taste:
   
   
   
2. Pub Crawls:
   Literary Pub Crawl.

   From Dublin

   We started at The Duke pub upstairs where the two crawl hosts re-enacted Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, sang a few songs, and gave a nice overview of the literary wit that Dublin is famous for. The crawl went to 4 pubs with a stop at Trinity College campus. Stories and readings from some of the great Dublin writers entertained us between and during pints. We met a nice teacher from SF who showed us the Temple Bar area. Together we enjoyed a late dinner at Gallagher's Boxty House.
   
   The Musical Pub Crawl led by two talented musicians/teachers, gave us a great background on Irish music.

   From Dublin

   We learned about the different instruments, trad sessions, and "playin' the boot." The hosts played and sang their hearts out, and at the end, opened it up to anyone who wanted to share a song. Its not about a performer in the spotlight, its more about the song and shared experience. Througout our trip, we did notice how people sing along and know the words to most of these Irish folk songs. We also loved how strangers feel welcome and become friends by the end of a session.
   Both pub crawls were perfect introduction to Irish culture and music, and prepared us for the adventure to come.
   
3. Trinity College Tour and Book of Kells
   We thoroughly enjoyed the student-led tour of Trinity College which also included admission to the Library and Book of Kells exhibit. Our guide was a sharp-witted history grad student who shared the history and some interesting stories about life as a Trinity student. See Photos 42-49. The Book of Kells exhibit shows the history of the beautifully illustrated book of the 4 gospels written around 800 AD. The color and detail of the script is truly amazing.
   
4. Jameson Distillery Tour takes place in the original distillery where John Jameson started making whiskey in 1780. For tour photos with captions see photos 18-32. Everyone gets a taste at the end, but I was one of the lucky ones selected to be one of the tasters, and even received a certificate!

   From Dublin

   
   
5. Open-top Bus Tour
   We decided to do one of those 24 hour Hop On - Hop Off bus tours of Dublin, which ended up being a great way to see the sights and get to some of the attractions that were far from our base. We made good use of the stops and visited the Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Museum, Jameson Distillery, Dublin Writers Museum, and St. Stephens Green. Unlike the red bus tours with cheap earbuds and pre-recorded commentary, the Green busy tour has real tour guides with great senses of humor, so it was entertaining as well as informative!
   

Random Dublin stuff:

The Boss:
We met different groups of people who were going to see the Bruce Springsteen concert in Dublin that weekend. Love for The Boss was strong! We saw lots of people in concert t-shirts and many of the fans were hanging out at the ThunderRoad Cafe in Temple Bar.
Our hotel:
We arrived in Dublin the morning after an overnight trek from SFO > Philly > Dublin. I had booked the hotel using Orbitz that looked like a good deal and we were pleasantly surprised with the 3-star O'Callaghan MontClare Hotel, across the street from the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square, and convenient to the airport bus stop. Though it was in the quieter Georgian neighborhood of Dublin, it was an easy 5 minute walk to Grafton street, and 15 minutes from the busy Temple Bar area. Dublin was so fun and the hotel was so comfortable that we decided to extend our stay 2 more nights. The manager even extended our Orbits rate of 60 euro for the extra nights($85 a night).
Dealing with time zone change and jet-lag:
A flight attendant gave us some great advice on dealing with jet-lag and the 8 hour time zone difference. After getting settled in the hotel, take a 3 hour nap and make sure you use an alarm so you dont sleep all day. The buddy system helps to force eachother up, because you wake up from this nap groggy and disoriented. Shower and get out and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. Force yourselves to stay awake until after midnight. This will encourage a good first night sleep and waking up at a normal time the next morning. We did this and it totally worked!