MacsTravel Blog

We left Galway for Dublin to meet up with the Vagabond tour we were taking around the Wild Atlantic way. More on that in a bit.

Dublin was absolutely packed with Americans in town for the Aer Lingus College Football “Classic” between Texas Christian University and North Carolina. The only reason this really mattered for us was that, as a result, hotel prices were insane, so we ended up booking a room over the Ferryman pub on the south side of the river. We checked in on Friday to find the pub quiet and the room very tidy and well appointed. Pleased with ourselves, we set off for a pint and a Guinness pie at O’Neil’s Pub and a walk through the idyllic campus of Trinity College.

Dinner at O’Neil’s was another win!

We continued south into the campus of Trinity College and stumbled upon a hundred or so members of the North Carolina marching band and cheerleader squad getting ready for the pep rally a short walk away.

My elbows firmly up, I was ready to move on, but like a bloodhound on the scent, Robin followed the band to the pep rally, and as Bill Belichick mumbled his way through a 25 second speech (they don’t pay that guy by the word) Robin scooped up Aer Lingus paraphernalia for the grandkids from the now empty souvenir stalls, and coerced me into jumping on a double decker bus (one of six) taking North Carolina fans to watch their women’s soccer team take on the local Shelbourne FC women’s side. I was determined to have bad time, but the very friendly soccer parents on the bus soon passed out Fireball shots and we got swept up in the moment.

About 20 minutes later we pulled up to historic Tolka Park, which had a very Ted Lasso vibe to it.

There were probably 1000 North Carolina fans and about 300 bewildered local supporters.

Things got particularly strange at half time when the field was taken over by the NC band and cheerleaders while a group of adorable 6 year old girls played a mini match at the same time. Tough, perhaps even unfair competition for the band.

We left a little early to ensure we could get a seat on the return bus to the city centre (success!) and were congratulating ourselves on a great day as we rounded the corner to find a crowd of 50 people gathered on the street right at The Ferryman, right below our hotel window. It turns out that there is a reason for the relatively cheap room rates at hotels located directly over Irish pubs.

Slightly sleep deprived the next morning, we headed out on a food tour of Dublin led by Ketty, a transplanted French citizen who has lived in Dublin for 20 years and runs her own food tour company, Delicious Dublin Tours. Ketty was a fantastic guide: interesting, very responsive to the group and generous with her time. This was one of the best food tours we’ve done, and we have done a lot of them over the years. We finished the day off with a mildly disappointing tour at the Jameson distillery (good tasting, so so tour) before heading back to another sleep deprived night at The Ferryman.

Vagabond Tours

Fortunately, pubs in Dublin do shut down relatively early so we were able to sleep from midnight on. We got up and headed to the meeting spot for our tour.

While a fan of one off day tours, we have never signed up for a multi day tour. Friends Jeff and Sally had recommended Vagabond, which emphasizes active itineraries with lots of choice and small group tours (15 max). So we piled into our cool little van with two sets of American parents, their adult kids and partners, and tour guide Stevie who looked and acted the part of the Irish adventurer. The first day involved a lot of driving as we headed for Dublin to the very west side of County Cork, but we did hit a couple of interesting spots on the way.

Rock of Cashel

This iconic Irish site went through many iterations over the years, from a Celtic ring fort to Gaelic fortress to a Christian church and settlement.

It is perhaps most famous for Saint Patrick’s conversion of the Gaelic King of Munster, King Angus (Aengus Mac Natfráich) to Christianity. The story goes that during the ceremony Patrick accidentally impaled the foot of King Angus with his staff, and the king suffered in silence, believing this to be part of the baptismal ritual. Now, Saint Patrick did many impressive things in his life, including driving all the snakes out of Ireland. Take it from me, nothing tops getting an Angus to suffer something silently. Kidding! Just checking to see if Robin reads my blogs. It does speak to a certain stubbornness I’ve noticed on rare occasions.

The grounds are really quite impressive and the ruins certainly are evocative of ancient stories and forgotten peoples.

Blarney

Our next stop was Blarney, home of the famous castle and stone. Blarney Castle is in an idyllic setting, surrounded by 150 acres of beautiful gardens and woodlands.

Of course most people come here to climb up a claustrophobic staircase so they can hang upside down over the edge of an architecturally suspect crumbling stone tower in order to brush their lips against a rock that 100s of other tourists have already smooched earlier in the day, all to supposedly obtain the gift of eloquence, but certainly COVID.

Did we do this? Of course we did. Did I want to? Not really. Why did I? See the story of the Rock of Cashel.

While there are many legends about the origins of the Blarney Stone the most likely story is that the Irish tourism authority is having a laugh at our expense.

But the gardens! Gorgeous.

Gougane Barra Hotel

One of the nicest surprises of the day was where we ended, at the Gougane Barra hotel in a hidden valley in West Cork, where in the 6th century a man named Finbarr sought a place for silent and solitary religious contemplation. Unfortunately his plan backfired as stories of his silent and solitary retreat reached others who joined him in establishing a noisy monastic community. Wandering through the valley by the hotel, one certainly gets the attraction of how this serene landscape must have been a draw.

So far this guided trip thing is going pretty well!