We took the standard tour of the Waterford Crystal factory and saw glass making, breaking (they chunk the bad ones), and etching at its finest.
Our single night in the small, quaint town of Kinsale consisted of running about for dinner and then hiding away at our B&B while the rain blasted horizontally.
The next day we took a stop and stroll in Cork. A brief visit to the library proved entertaining. Dani's great grandparents tombstone lists County Cork as birthplaces (and even goes as far to designate their parish, Dysart), so we thought we'd partake in a genealogical treasure hunt to see if we could uncover any tidbits. The library was directly in the city center and as we entered the business like building we were greeted with a smile and assistance. We told the gentlemen our intentions and he sent us off to the second floor, or reference library. At the second floor desk we repeated our mission, and the young lady said that we should go to the third floor genealogy area. We gladly skipped away thinking this was going quite well. The two librarian-esque ladies with gray hair at the third floor genealogy desk had their eyes both peering over their reading spectacles and looked as if they had been waiting for us quite some time. After conveying the details, they looked with raised eyebrows at the year of birth we mentioned, 1790 and 1803. They said that few records were present prior to 1820, and she then asked what the name was. As I uttered the words "John McCarthy" she drew a big grin as this was like asking for a Mr. Smith that lived somewhere in the USofA. She did however give us some ideas on marriage records, as those are documented after 1801. Actually, one can now look these up online, so we concluded our search for the day and figured we could take it up via the world wide web at a later time. If you'd like to do a search for anyone, check out: http://www.irish-roots.ie/mallow.asp
After a walking tour of Cork we continued our road trip to Killarney.
From DANI:
Having called ahead from Cork to reserve a room, we headed straight to our b&b which would be home for a couple of nights. We freshened up and then went into town to explore. Killarney is the hometown of our friend and Seattle neighbor, Pio. He'd given us the name of a place to check out some music so we found the location and, it being rather early, we set out to find dinner.
Once again we ended up at a Kebab shop that was delicious. We also stopped in at Murphy's Ice Cream because they had a sign out front that said you could get a free scoop if you made a balloon animal. So, we went for it! Trying too hard to make mine perfect (by unwinding a twist I'd already made) my balloon popped. So, it was up to Mark.. and it took him a while but he did eventually make a dachshund and we scored a free scoop. The ice cream and atmosphere were both incredible.
It was finally late enough to head to the pub for a little Irish music and drinks. I was quite excited to be in a country where everyone knows what a Shandy is and thus ordered one with Smithwick's. Mark, trying to be ironic (?) ordered a nutty Irishman which drew him a blank stare from the woman behind the bar. Not only that, when a coworker walked by she asked him and he looked at Mark as if he were the Nutty something. Mark ended up with a non-ironic White Russian. The music started up and we joined the middle-aged and up crowd in enjoying the talent. As the night wore on and our drinks were emptied, the place started to fill with people much better dressed and looking than us. We happily made our way home with the tune of "Galway Girl" in our heads.
Killarney is a beautiful area...there's a National Park there and one day when we are able to pack more appropriately for a single destination we hope to spend more time there. We did have the opportunity to drive a bit of the Ring of Kerry and had a pretty day with only bits of rain and gusts of wind (or something like that according to the radio forecast). We looked down on the park from the Ladies' View and were again amazed at the beauty of Ireland. We then made our way back down and into Muckrose where we spent some time walking and avoiding being run down by jaunty cars (renegade handsome cabs driven by friendly Irishmen). We dodged the intermittent rain by hiding in the trees. We also went out to Ross Castle which I found to be beautiful despite the wind carrying my scarf parallel to the ground.
We made the decision to avoid driving the entire Ring of Kerry in order to hang out in Dingle. According to our guidebook, Dingle is more rewarding than the Ring of Kerry (I have a feeling because a heck of a lot fewer people are driving there). We parked the car and headed to the information center to get a map and an idea about accommodations in the area. Since we'd spent the two previous nights in a rather hotel-like b&b, our budget was leading us in the direction of the hostel. Dingle town is situated on a harbor. It's quite a cute little town with many a Kodak-moment sort of places. We strolled the town on a mission - to find a barber to cut Mark's hair. We passed a shop and stepped back to look inside. Two chairs with men at work and four chairs with others waiting...I guess Monday is the day for haircuts in Dingle. We continued to look around but eventually made our way back. Mark got in line and grabbed a magazine and I headed a few doors up the street to a bookshop.
On this trip we have stopped in at quite a few bookstores and I'm always curious about what they display. Best sellers in the US are fairly common here in Ireland but obviously less so in France or Spain. In Spain, I got quite excited because the author of a favorite book of mine (Shadow of the Wind) has a new book out and everyone had huge displays. The unfortunate thing is that not all his books get translated into English...I'll have to wait and see.
I returned to find Mark in the chair and enjoying conversation with the barber. I picked up a Time magazine that was about 6 months old and flipped through it. In a short while Mark stood up and as we left I noticed his hair was quite a bit shorter and I reassured him that it looks great (and must be a heck of a lot more comfortable).
We were lucky enough to get a "private" double at the hostel! Still sharing bathroom and kitchen but we had our own double bed and door that locked. We dropped our things and drove to Slea Head, the most westerly point of mainland Europe. There's a pretty beach and as we made our way to it the sun even came out. We climbed the hill and hopped a fence to walk to the edge and say hello to the US. There's a sign here that says, "next parish, Boston". They are proud to be at the end of the continent! It was pretty windy and Mark had been telling me he felt like running (he'd actually even dreamed about it...I wonder if his legs kicked like Murphy's do?) so I ran down and then up the hill through the field to encourage him. It was fun and we lost our breath...and later in the evening realized Mark also lost his magnetic-clip-to-your-prescription-glasses sunglasses. So after having our dinner and dessert we made a second trip to Slea Head to retrace our steps to find said sunglasses. While we didn't have any luck in locating them we did have the break of seeing how high the tide had come in since we had visited earlier in the afternoon...the beach had disappeared under many FEET of water. It was amazing!
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