Elvis Lives in Galway!

 

Elvis Lives in Galway!

The owner of our B&B said that he was singing at a local pub that evening and asked if we wanted to come by and see his show. After our excellent dinner (another surprising positive from a rocky start to our trip), we took a taxi to Ward's Hotel where we came upon a sign advertising the evening's entertainment...Larry Grogan performing Elvis! We were taking bets as to if he would be wearing the full costume. We didn't have to wait long before out struts Elvis wearing a white leather one piece suit with a red cape and scarf. We were laughing pretty hard seeing our middle aged, Irish, day job accountant, about to perform in a Galway pub as Elvis. We laughed until he started to sing. He had a marvelous voice and he knew all the songs and even had the moves! After Larry/Elvis was done performing, an older gentleman was urged by his friends to get up and sing. He was very shy and had his back to the audience while he sang, but he had a wonderful voice. The evening concluded by everyone standing and singing the Irish National Anthem. It was a very moving experience. Our trip to Galway could have been a disaster, but we didn't give up as we ran into obstacles, and we had a fun, fun weekend!

Galway Oyster Festival

One of the main reasons that Mom and Dad came to Ireland at this time was to go to the Galway Oyster Festival. Well, let me tell you, we have found that information on the internet in Europe is much less detailed than in the States. We arrived in Galway in the pouring rain and took a taxi to our bed and breakfast. It was not quite as nice as it sounded on the web...in fact it was a dump. Oh well, we decided to take it in stride and head out to the festival. We arrived at the spot to find that it was one large tent and it would cost us 100 Euro each to get in. For our 400 Euros we would hear music, drink Guinness, and eat oysters. Hmmm, again not what we learned from the website. We decided to go into town to see what else was going on regarding the festival. The town of Galway has a stretch of shops and restaurants along a pedestrian only street. It was packed with people and we found a pub that was serving free oysters! First positive thing about Galway so far! We then heard music and a parade was coming down the street. All the people (including us) joined in the parade and walked down the street. We ran into someone we know from Dublin and stopped for a chat. He then recommended a few restaurants and we went to make dinner reservations. As we started inquiring about reservations, we found that they were all booked. We were getting nervous (and hungry). After 3 or 4 inquiries, we found one place that would take us at 9:00 p.m. Whew. We went back to the B&B to get out of the rain and relax until dinner. See the following blog entries to see how how evening progressed!

Galway Oyster Festival

Powerscourt Gardens

 

Lift Out

Because of the winter weather on the Irish Sea; rain, winds, currents, and swells, the boats in Bray Harbor are lifted out every September and put back in the water in April. We helped Joe and Eilis prepare their boat for lift out. A crane and a tractor are hired for the day to lift 26 or more boats out of the harbor. A small boat takes you out to your boat and you have to take down the mainstay and loosen the safety lines. You then take your boat to the side of the harbor wall and are given straps to put around the boat, and then you are given chains to attach to the straps. The crane starts lifting and up you go! As the boat reaches the level of the wall, you hop off the boat and the crane lifts the boat up and onto your trailer. After securing your boat to the trailer, the tractor pulls the boat and trailer into the pen. We have really enjoyed sailing this summer and are looking forward to next year's sailing season.

End of season lift out at Bray Sailing Club

 

Curzon Street

We have been in corporate housing for our first 2 months in Dublin, and now we have moved into our rented house. It is an old Georgian terraced house that has been completely refurbished. We have a small garden both in front and in back and a rooftop deck off our bedroom. Two bedrooms and another room with a fold out couch, so lots of room for guests. Hope to see some of you soon! We are close to city center and close to Craig's work as well. We can walk almost everywhere, which is great.

Our new home!

 

Stay left!

I learned to drive on the left side of the road! I went out several times for "lessons" with Cr aig since he has done this before. Besides training your brain to drive on the left another challenge was the manual transmission that I hadn't used for about 8 years...and you have to use your left hand! I practiced on the roads of Phoenix Park (twice the size of New York's Central Park). I did pretty well, so we ventured out on the roads of Dublin. We made it home without hitting any cars or pedestrians. The next step was to venture out without Craig as my copilot. We bought a GPS for the car that is loaded with maps of Ireland and it verbally talks you to your destination. It's fabulous! I have now driven 3 times on my own and love the feeling of independence. Dublin is a city where you can walk everywhere in the city center, but it is nice to have a car to get further out.

Stay left!

 

Greystones Cliff Walk

Saturday morning we hiked The Great Sugar Loaf, Saturday afternoon we entered a sailing race with Joe and Eilis, and Sunday we hiked the Greystones Cliff Walk. Joe and Eilis live in Bray, so we spent the night at their house after sailing and got up the next morning for our hike. The hike begins nearly next to their house and follows the coastline 7.5km to the next town of Greystones. It was another gorgeous day and the hike was lovely...much easier than our hike up the summit of Sugar Loaf! We arrived in Greystones after a 2 hour walk just in time for a pint and lunch and then we caught the DART train back to Bray. Another fun weekend in Ireland!

Bray to Greystones

 

The Great Sugar Loaf

We drove south of Dublin about 30 minutes to a town called Kilmacanoge where we left our car to start our hike. We had trail maps and books and off we went. The trails are not marked with signs at all, and it looked as though it hadn't been travelled in quite a while, so it was a bit difficult to locate and stay on the trail. We were hiking up to the summit (500m), so when we lost the trail we just went up, and up, and up. The bracken fern was over 5 ft high so I couldn't see where we were going, so Craig blazed the trail. Gorse bushes were everywhere and their thorns are very, very sharp. At times we wondered if we were enjoying ourselves, but luckily it was a gorgeous sunny day and the views (once we got past the bracken ferns) were spectacular!

The Great Sugar Loaf

 

Dublin v. Seattle

I thought I would compare some statistics between Dublin and Seattle and here's what I discovered:
Latitude/Longitude: Dublin 53.4 N 6.2 W, Seattle 47 N 122 W
Elevation: Dublin 85 m (279 ft), Seattle 0-158 m (0-520 ft. )
Population: Dublin 505, 739, Seattle 573, 911
Average annual rainfall: Dublin 733 mm (28.8"), Seattle 970 mm (38")
Average temperature: Dublin 9 C (48.2 F), Seattle 11.5 C (52.8 F)
Highest recorded temperature: Dublin 31 C (88 F), Seattle 37.7 C (100 F)
Lowest recorded temperature: Dublin 12 C (10.4 F), Seattle -17.7 C (0 F)
For more interesting details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle,_Washington

Gaelic Games

Gaelic football, hurling, camogie and handball are the traditional sports of Ireland. Today we watched the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship on tv. The game was broadcast live from Croke Park, here in Dublin. Over 80,000 people filled the stadium to watch 70 minutes of incredibly fast play. Kilkenny beat Cork (1-16/1-13). Hurling is the fastest field game in the world. Players use a stick called a hurley and a ball called a sliotar (pron. shli-ther). The game is played on a rectangular field and the ball may be struck with the hurley when it is on the ground, in the air, tossed from the hand, or lifted with the hurley. A goal is scored when the ball is played over the goal-line between the posts and under the crossbar. A point is scored when the ball is played over the crossbar. Kilkenny beat Cork 1-16/1-13, which means Kilkenny scored one goal and 16 points and Cork scored one goal and 13 points. Goals are worth 3 points, so Kilkenny scored 19 and Cork scored 16. For more information on hurling and other Gaelic sports go to www.gaa.ie.

Sailing to Wicklow