Galway, Ireland-Part 2

Stone Walls-Connemara

Clifden

Sky Road

Sept. 3, 2007-Irish Sun Is Shining

My, oh my what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine came our way. I should add Zippedy Doo Da, Zippedy Ay.

Our host, Padraigh, is so the opposite of the ones at other B & Bs. He’s what a host should be. He’s garrulous, knowledgeable, and eager to help. He’s interested in us and he’s an interesting person to talk to. He has the gift of gab and I’m sure he kissed the Blarney stone. I could have spent the morning with him. I never did find out what he does, but he and his wife Maureen are well traveled. They’ve been all over the U.S. going cross-country by Greyhound Bus and visiting Florida every two years. He’s a sweetie too calling Maureen “me har” (my heart). He asked if we didn’t eat any meat or just pork. We told him we were Jewish. I don’t think he’s ever met any Jews that he knows of and was surprised to hear there are three synagogues in Galway (and a kosher butcher). He did know the term synagogue and knew of the story of the Macabees.

Padraigh told us that if we get lost to just knock on any door. He tried that in the U.S. but no one would open up. He learned that in the U.S. we ask for directions at a gas station. He also said not to pay parking tickets in Ireland. The follow-up is awful. He knows his way around this island and gave us our directions for the day. He told us how to get on our way making two lefts instead of rights since rights are harder here. When we left after breakfast David asked if I thought he really spoke that way or if he was putting on the accent for us. He’s right out of central casting.

The black cloud of the tour company followed us. Padraigh told us that they called about a week and a half ago to cancel the other couple who was supposed to be traveling with us. The Ciminis were never on this leg of the trip and a room never should have been held for them. I’m so glad David called the office in the U.S. and Dublin to straighten it all out.

County Mayo

Today lifted our spirits. We spent the day in Connemara mostly in County Mayo. It was Joyce country as in James, the writer. We took Padraigh’s advice and followed Galway Bay. He said that if we squinted on such a clear day we’d see Boston. The area we entered was Gaelic. It’s the inhabitants’ first language and all the signs are Gaelic. That adds to the magic of the place. Alas, we’re not jaded. We’re picky. We drove all day breaking to take pictures, eat lunch, and stroll in villages. It was ideal. The coast soon gave way to desolate boggy flatlands and meadows of wildflowers. Ponds and lakes popped up at random surprising us with their tranquility and abundance. Sheep polk-a-dotted the hillsides all the way to where the grass stopped growing on the mountains tops. Yes, there were mountains too, the Maamturks. They bobbed and wove in and out of sight as we hovered at the edge of the precipice. Yes, there was a sheer drop. We chose to take the Sky Road or high road instead of the Low Road. When I first looked straight down I said, “Holy s---t.” As I looked up to tell David how steep it was I was confronted with a cement truck coming at us. That remark is totally expurgated. What amazed me most were the swans. They were so plentiful they had to be more than a flock. It was a gosh darn herd of swans!

We stopped in a grocery store to gather our picnic lunch and heard enough conversational Gaelic to say that it isn’t as guttural as I thought. The Irish accent is there and I thought they were speaking English with such a thick accent it was incomprehensible. But what it really sounds like is Irish English played backwards.

Lunch was sitting on a bench in Roundstone overlooking a lake, mountains and playground where the kids didn’t even notice how beautiful it was. We walked down a long hill to a music store and drum factory built on the grounds of an old monastery. They made traditional Irish drums called bodhrans. We didn’t buy a drum but I had a good chuckle over the sign “Restrooms Suitable for the Disabled.” I thought that the only disabled who should use it were blind people since it was gross. Restrooms here have been pretty clean. That was a surprise.

I didn’t complain but it was HOT today. I appreciated every degree of it. Tomorrow it could be gone. As we continued on away from the precipitous drop to the sea, I noticed that the hedgerows were huge fuchsia bushes. David used them as edge-lines. They were feelers that told him he was too far over to the left when he heard them brush the side of the car. Did I mention that the roads were narrow? Cars coming toward us stopped as we approached. We stopped too. Then we inched past as if we were afraid of each other.

Yes, there is a town called Letterfrack and we stopped at the Visitor Center there. We wanted to see a marble quarry and were assured there were none to see. They asked why we wanted to go to one and I said I wanted to see marble in the wild…raw marble. The worker held up a chunk of unpolished marble for my approval. It looked like a rock. I was satisfied. He told us of a store in Recess that sold marble objects and we went there. There was a workshop nearby but we’d seen marble being cut and polished elsewhere so we skipped it. Instead, David had a lovely conversation with the proprietor of the shop. The man asked David what he did and when told he was a rabbi he launched into politics. When he learned David was retired he asked what he did to keep busy now. That brought up the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) issues. That led to abortion rights. Ultimately the man told David how upset he was when at the start of summer his priest told the congregation that he knew they’d be going on holiday so maybe they could give him their credit card numbers. He could then charge their weekly donations when they were gone. The man in the store told us he was amazed at how many did just that.

We had one last thing to see, a castle. When we arrived we thought something was wrong and it was. We were at Aughnanure Castle instead of Ashford. Heck, they both start with an “A.” We corrected our trajectory and managed to get to the right one. It had the usual golf course surround. How else to make money from all that royal land? Well, it wasn’t really royal. The Guinness family built it in 1870. A busload of Japanese arrived as we did. They do love golf. This is a hotel castle and is famous for who stayed there. Past presidents of the U.S. including Reagan, Bush, & Clinton have stayed. John Travolta loves it, as did Prince Ranier. Pierce Brosnan took it over for two days for his wedding. It is huge and Gothic and the lobby is dark and paneled. I took pictures and we left.

Dinner was in Galway City. There wasn’t much there to see so we circled endlessly trying to park then did a quick walk through the old city. In our circling I realized that I’d misinformed you. Speed bumps are called “ramps” and road calming means that the road will narrow to slow traffic.

We’re going to Northern Ireland tomorrow and asked Padraigh how we’d know when we got there. He said the roads would get better and there’d be no more Gaelic on the signs.

Toby