Day 11: It's a Small Jewish World

Coincidental meetings are common enough in Jewish circles that experiencing one, while it may get a surprised look and a laugh, is to be expected now and again.

So I was surprised, but not stunned, that Friday night dinner at the rabbi included two members of my synagogue from Jerusalem, friends from only a block away from where I lived. I wrote it off as coincidence. It's to be expected that a religious Jew passing through Ireland will have dinner at the rabbi's house, and it's merely coincidental that, if they are Israeli, I happened to know them.

But I was stunned when the same things happened the next day, with a different person at a different host's house. This time a very good friend of my (ex)step-daughter, and someone who had been in my house in Jerusalem on several occasions.

Like last shabbat, both meals by the warm and welcoming Jewish community members of Dublin were delicious.

Game Night

I headed out to central Dublin to meet some BGGers for a game night. It wasn't the brightest idea, as it meant a long trek in the cold while I'm sick. However, the people I met were lovely, and so was the evening.

Eoin on the right

Just don't expect me to remember their names, as I couldn't pronounce them. I gave Eoin (pronounced Owin) a copy of It's Alive as a gift; but then I decided to take a taxi back instead of a bus, and I was shy some cash, so he gave me some, so it ended up being kind of a sale.

They had never heard of my game, so we played that first. I'm not a fan of playing it five players, but the basic game worked out pretty well. The advantage of the basic game for five players is that both the high and low cards are worth something; since it's a while between each of your turns, this matters more. They played fairly slowly, but we still finished in 45 minutes. I think they all enjoyed it.

We then played Carcassonne, or one of its many variants. All I really need to know is what scores when, and how much, and if it scores incomplete at the end. I got some of this information - I didn't catch the half score for incomplete cities and roads, for instance - but it didn't matter because I couldn't draw the tiles I needed. Ever. I had three cities waiting to be capped, two from near the beginning of the game, and they never got capped because I couldn't draw a capping tile.

While frustrating, the game is still fun to play as you can mess up other players or just make pretty pictures.

Tomorrow: the airport.

Day 10: Half-day, actually

This morning I saw the National Gallery in Dublin. A small collection as far as national galleries go: about 300 works, half of them from Ireland and the other half from the rest of Europe. Some nice pieces, once again highlighting the dramatic drop in talent as art entered the twentieth century and became "modern". Free entrance, so can't complain.

The gallery is around the corner from one of the four national museums, three of which are in Dublin. The one round the corner is the archaeological museum. I poked my head inside, but wasn't in the mood for more unearthed bone pins, clay pots, and gold necklaces.

It's raining so I'm back in bed in my effort to continue to get well. I stopped on the way back only to pick up a present for my friends in Kansas City, which is my next stop after Ireland.

Shabbat shalom.

Day 9: The Beauty that is Culture

Absent Moonlight

Yesterday evening I was too tired to go out or even take a picture of the town of Castleconnell. Here are some snaps from outside the B&B this morning.

The B&B

Now imagine that with a full moon over it.

Everything takes twice as long to get to/drive to as I originally planned. Therefore, I have ended up driving hours more than I had hoped to. Still, I can't say that I didn't love what I saw.

Doctor

My only plans today were to drive back to Dublin, rest, return the car, and see a play to which I had already bought the ticket.

However, I was feeling worse than I had yesterday; this is not unexpected for a week-long cold. The throat issues generally kick in after three days, so that was right on schedule. Then I begin to get better after a few more days. I didn't want to suffer my entire trip (nor cough during the play), and just to be sure that nothing more nefarious was happening to me, I decided to get a check up at a doctor. Hopefully my travel insurance will cover this when I return to Israel.

The first two doctor offices I visited at random were bust; the doctors weren't in. Finally I found one available about midway between Limerick and Dublin. She said that nothing nefarious was happening, but she gave me a prescription for paracetamol and an anti-biotic. The former to control the hot and cold flashes that were leaving me drenched, and the latter to take only if I got worse.

Later in the evening I acquired the paracetamol and some cough syrup, and twenty minutes later I felt much better.

A Play and a Book: A Perfect Evening

All that driving around, only to discover that a perfect evening can be had reading a good book in a pub followed by a great theater experience.

After resting and returning the car, I hung out at a pub reading Dubliners and drinking a pot of tea.

Most of Dubliners is lovely - some of it is a bit weaker - but I have promised myself to read all of it in order to reward myself with the final story: The Dead.

At 7:30 (or as they say in Ireland, "half seven") I saw the production of Little Women at The Gate Theater. What a fantastic job. The sets, lights, and sound were very clever. The acting was phenomenal. Jo (Lorna Quinn) in particular had such a range of facial expressions, from a scowled, scrunched up face of disgust to happy bliss to pitiful tears. I'm a sentimental old fool, so I cried.

The screenwriting and directing was also quite good. The use of the scenery and some split stage work were quite inventive. My only complaint, perhaps, is that many of the scenes felt rushed or cut; too much emotional change occurred too quickly. But that's what you get for taking a very long book (I actually remembered it as too separate books, not one) and squishing it down to 2.5 hours.

The price was pretty good, too (20 EUR), though I paid the "preview" price; the official run prices are slightly higher.

Day 8: Still Sick

This morning at around 9 I left Killarney heading toward Limerick. And promptly got stuck motionless for 30 minutes due to road work. I didn't get to Limerick until nearly 12.

My first stop was at the South Court Hotel which is supposed to have a large antiques and craft fair, only I didn't notice that the fair is scheduled for Sunday, not today. My second stop was at the Hunt Museum, listed as a top destination on tripadvisor. Even though the hotel was "straight down the road, can't miss it", it once again took me an additional half hour of driving around - missing the museum, looking for a place to park - to get there.

Not the Hunt Muesum

Not the Hunt Museum

Also Not the Hunt Museum

As far as the museum goes: eh. It's an eclectic collection that was originally the private collection of some rich guy. The individual items might be interesting if you see them at a friend's house, but in a rich guy's house, or castle, or in a museum dedicated to just this guy's stuff, I feel like I'm watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It's voyeurism; not deep enough to give any real history or be especially interesting. I can't stand castle tours for that reason; I have to pay a rich guy to see his stuff? Please.

Now, if the collection of historical items, jewelery, ceramics, paintings, etc were divided up among the national museums, each added to the proper collection, I would feel differently.

And that's the way Yehuda c's it.

Poetry

Anyhoo, the real reason I thought it might be worth my while to check out the museum in the first place was that there was supposed to be a poetry reading at 2:30. In this case, I had the right date, and the poet in question showed up only a few minutes late. Funnily enough, no one else turned up, so I was the entire audience.

The poet in question was a man named Barney Sheehan, who doesn't have much of his own poetry (I think). He runs a poetry reading night Wed nights at the White House pub in Limerick for the last ten years, which has apparently attracted some good Irish talent. Barney came to read selections from a book he created/edited containing pictures, quotations, and poetry from Desmond O'Grady, a man who counts as influences his personal relationships with Ezra Pound and others. O'Grady is still alive, but doesn't get out much.

Barney was thrilled to meet me, as someone from Israel and someone who has tried to organize poetry readings (and who has written some poetry of his own). Barney spent too much time reading the introductory notes and quotations from the book and not enough time reading the actual poems; he was proud of his work and it was important to him to impress on me the importance of Desmond. It didn't matter much, as I enjoyed meeting him and listening to him. And I got to read a few more of the poems while other people were wandering around us, viewing the exhibits and talking.

He was kind enough to gift me a copy of a different book containing poems read at the White House during the first years of the poetry gathering. He really wanted/wants me to come back to the gathering tonight, but I'm too sick. If I get out at all, I'll poke my nose around Castleconnell, which is where I'm staying.

Tomorrow it's back to Dublin.

Day 7: Beautiful Killarney

Corkless

I basically missed Cork, owing to my being sick. I'm still sick, but I was determined to make the most of my vacation. I drank hot drinks and liters of grapefruit juice, I bundled up and I rested. In between, I saw some lovely sights. Unfortunately, only one of them was Irish.

One of my stops was at the Prince August toy soldier visitor center and factory, which I have blogged about on Purple Pawn.

Somewhere on the Road From Cork to Killarney

Yet another church

Yet another small town

Same town

Pottery shop and proprietress

Yes, there is Celtic knotwork on the vase and an Irish word on the plate, but the potter hails from the US

Moo crossing

More moo

Killarney National Park
Killarney National Park is beautiful: lake, hills, moss, ferns, etc. I hiked two km from what looked like an entrance to the Muckross House. Then it began to drizzle on and off, so I drove about 15 km south around the shore and then back. Someone told me that I should have kept going because the scenery gets even better. I'll have to take her word for it.

The first entrance to the park. I walked from here.

Muckross cathedral

One of the world's perfect spots

Same spot, looking right

Same spot

In order to give a better feel for the above spot, I have uploaded a p.o.v. video pan:

On the drive

On the hike

On the hike

Moss and vine fighting over a tree

Path to the Muckross House (a mansion in the park)

This place must have been used in some movie, no?

Looking right from the above shot

Somewhere in the park

Somewhere else in the park

Killarney

After rest and drinks, I hazarded out to town to see what the local nightlife was like. Turns out: full of tourists.

There are a few spots with music. The crowded one was the Grand Hotel, with nightly entertainment starting with "traditional" Irish music and then a band on one side and a disco on another. The band wasn't bad, quite good in fact; a bunch of old-timers playing well and singing very well. They played to an entirely tourist audience, however, and the audience was loud, shouting while the music was playing and crowding the musicians.

One girl did some clogging, which was much appreciated. However, she hailed from Chicago.

I left the Grand and went down the street to another pub (O'Connors) with a younger Irish band playing American country music. Most of the patrons in that pub were watching a match on the telly.

Killarney at night

At the Grand

Clogging

 

Day 6: The Emerald Isle

Don't Believe Google Maps

Google Maps is often right, but not often enough to make it truly reliable. On this trip it's been wrong several times: it directed me to the wrong end of the street for my (ill-fated) car rental; it added all sorts of little intermediary steps to what should have been a straight road to Clonmel. But the most egregious is that it directed me to the wrong location, 150 km from the location I actually wanted.

Glendalough is on this list of the 10 most beautiful locations in Ireland. Google Maps clearly has it located a few km south of Clonmel, which is why I went there to Clonmel the first place. Unfortunately, it's really located in Wicklow Mountain National Park, south of Dublin. It didn't even give me a choice among several Glendaloughs. The Glendalough that exists on Google Maps (and I think there really may be a hill or something called Glendalough in the Clonmel area) is invisible to anyone driving by, or through or past, it.

Moss Covered Fences

Nevertheless, it was a very pretty drive from Clonmel to Youghal. It was my first encounter with scenery as nice as Scotland's.

Animals abutting the roads include sheep, cows, and horses

The weather continues to be sunny and clear, as you can see.

At noon I was in Ballymcarby, reading my copy of Dubliners and eating lunch beside a small stream. Like many of these small towns, there doesn't appear to be anything more to the town than a pub (or two) and a small general store.

Ballymcarby

Further on the road to Youghal

A shrine in one of the small towns, not the only one I saw on the way

Youghal

Youghal is a small seaside port village that once had a wall fortification. The small streets between the wall and the docks were a nice stroll.

Tower on Main Street in Youghal

Door on Ashe Street

Outside a Cathedral on Ashe Street

Cathedral on Ashe Street; Ireland has lots of cathedrals, and they're probably interesting (but to me they all look the same)

Door adornment on Ashe Street

Ashe Street Sign in Youghal

Old Fortification Wall in Youghal

Overlooking Youghal Harbor Area

Not Looking Seaworthy in Youghal

A Nice Place to Sit in Youghal (not downtown)

From Youghal I made my way to Cork.

Cork

I made my way to the B&B and now I feel a cold coming on. I drove downtown, anyway, picked up a box of grapefruit juice, and asked about live music. None of it starts until 9:00 or 10:00, and it's only 7:00. At night, downtown Cork looks like many other downtowns with pedestrian areas: bars, restaurants, sporting goods, etc.

I'm going to bed. Hope I feel better in the morning.