First of all, I am not a drama queen. But.
Things just happen to me, I swear.
So Greg arrived in Ireland the morning of October 24th. He crashed from his jet lag on Friday, and we spent Saturday, in traditional Irish style–in the rain–at the weekly Milk Market where he fell in love with cheese and pastries all over again (Don’t even ask him how many carrot cakes he ate that week. Well, go ahead and ask him). On Sunday, we decided we would take a bus out to the neighboring village of Bunratty to see the castle and tour the folk park, a 26 acre reconstruction of 19th century Irish village life. I had already been to Bunratty–twice–for dinner and sightseeing, but both times I arrived too late to tour the big attraction. So Greg and I made plans to spend our Sunday afternoon there.
There are hourly buses from the Limerick bus station to Bunratty, except between 11:30 and 2:30, where there is a two hour gap (so you can see where I’m going here). Greg and I got up, breakfasted, and headed out to the UL bus top on campus to catch the bus into the city. We figured that if we caught the 10:15 bus, we would arrive in the city around 10:45 with plenty of time to mosey over to the station and pick up the coach. Even if the UL bus was late–as it was wont to do–we built in plenty of time to make it to the station. After all, if for some reason we missed the 10:15, there should be a 10:30, a 10:45, or even an 11am. Right? Wrong. My first big error in judgment: it was Sunday.
We arrived at the bus stop and immediately encountered a group of my students who were headed to Cork for a local Halloween festival (which immediately sounded way cooler to me than my stupid trip to Bunratty, but then again, I clearly didn’t do my research–on any of this). We chit chatted for a bit until I noticed someone had taken down the bus schedule normally posted on the shelter. One of my students heard me comment on it and said, “Yeah, and some guy just came by and said that there won’t be a bus here until 11:30!” Greg and I looked at each other. “Uh oh,” I said. “11:30? That can’t be right. We’ll never make it into the city in time to catch our bus.” By this time it was only 10:30am.
After waiting for another FIFTY minutes for the bus to arrive, Greg and I started talking about how we were going to rearrange our plans (Keep in mind, now, it never even occurred to me to call a taxi. It just did. Right now. As I was writing this post. Doh.). We decided we would still go directly to the station in case we misread the schedule and there was another bus to Bunratty before 1:30. There wasn’t. So after spending a few minutes at the station, we decided to explore the city a bit more and take some pictures since it was such a beautiful day.
We walked down Mallow St. and in and out of some alleys, taking pictures of local monuments and churches. Like many old Catholic towns, there are a lot of churches in Limerick, like this one on O’Connell Street and this St. Michael’s, which you can get a peak of down a narrow Limerick street here. I’m going to have to start taking pictures of all of them before I head home in a month. We walked down to O’Connell Street, the busiest street in the city, and were shocked to find street workers all over the place. They were hanging Christmas decorations all along the street. It was only October 26th. I had heard that Christmas was big in Limerick, but this was REALLY big. Apparently, they have a beautiful Christmas tree lighting ceremony later in the month, and I’m looking forward to being a part of that. I’ll try to take some good pictures and post them to my flickr account.
We continued to walk down to the river bank and we took pictures of swans swimming in the Shannon river, a local nightclub, and King John’s Castle in the distance (which I STILL haven’t made it to. Cathrine, that means you’re it.). By that time, I was starting to get hungry so we decided to grab some lunch (sadly, American fast food was the only thing open on a Sunday, so Subway it was), and then it was time to head back to the bus station to catch our bus.
Bunratty Castle itself is an imposing structure originally built in 1425 as a fortress for the O’Brien clan, kings and later earls of Thomond or North Munster. The castle fell into complete disrepair by the 20th century until it was renovated in 1954 by the current Earl of Thomond and then donated to the people of Ireland upon his death. The castle is furnished was traditional medieval furniture and trappings, and guests can tour virtually every room, including the ramparts. The castle is surrounded by a 19th century Irish village, replete with thatched cottages, real livestock, and human reenactors who demonstrate 19th century cooking and other crafts. The castle also hosts a medieval banquet every evening, which my students are dying to attend. We’re trying to see if we can get a group discount package for when Plymouth State University’s president visits our program in early December, but it is pricey.
On our arrival at the castle around 2pm, Greg and I spent a large part of our time touring the castle, taking pictures of the interior and battling our way with other visitors on winding, one-way stairwells. Medieval castle architecture remains a mystery to me; I had no sense of what floor I was on, how the rooms where laid out in relation to one another, or even how the building itself was structured. By the time we exited the castle, my legs were shaking from so much stair climbing, and I paid for my inquisitiveness with thigh soreness for the next two days.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon touring the folk park and taking some beautiful pictures, some of which you can view here. It was a beautiful, cool fall day and a great opportunity to be outside and enjoy the weather and countryside. The folk park itself is breathtaking. There are photogenic moments every time you turn around, and I was sorry I was unable to bring my mother to visit when she was in Ireland. We walked through the entire park, taking pictures of the local school house, cottages, farm houses, mills, the manor house (which wasn’t open to the public at the time due to renovations), and even local animals (chickens, sheep, ponies, etc.). We had a great afternoon.
After we finished in the folk park, we headed across to the street to the Blarney Woolen Mill and Waterford Crystal shop for some early Christmas shopping. Little did we know (once again, things just happen to me), it was their annual Christmas sale that day, so the place was swamped with people. You could hardly move to look at scarves, sweaters, throws, or other souvenirs, and I barely had a chance to look at any crystal. I got close enough see some prices and to be nervous that I would knock down entire displays with my backpack, so that was enough for me.
We timed our bus pick up perfectly for 5:50 and proceeded to head back into Limerick for the night. Daylight Savings had occurred the night before, so it was already getting quite dark by then. We were tired and happy to be on our way home. However (again, remember my opening), our bus ended up stuck in traffic because of a children’s football (soccer) tournament letting out at the old rugby stadium in town (They have built a new, huge rugby stadium elsewhere in the city, Thomond Park, which opened in October while I was here. The UL staff tried to get us tickets to a game, but were unable due to the new stadium’s popularity.). Our driver even tried to make a detour, only to get stuck again in the middle of exiting parents and vehicles. What should have been a 20 minute bus ride back into the city ended up being a 40 minute bus ride. Then (again, remember the opening of this posting), we changed buses and walked to the Williams Street stop where we catch our bus back to UL only to find another coach broken down at our bus stop. A giant flatbed tow truck arrived, and about 50 bystanders watched in fascination as they lifted this heavy bus onto the trailer, chained it down, and towed it away. This all took another 30 minutes, during which time NO buses arrived to take us back to the university. By the time we ended up back at home, it was already after 8pm, dark, and we were hungry. As we walked back to my apartment, Greg observed to me, “Why does everything have to be so hard?”
Exactly.
