May 28, 2008--Cork and Tipperary and Kilkenny

I haven’t said much about the driving, but now I have to say something about that. There are no road signs or if there are signs they are wrong or not giving the information we need. Also, they do not have house numbers in Ireland unless you are in a new subdivision or I noticed some of the row houses in Dublin have numbers on the doors. So, everything was confusing. Somehow, the GPS system was able to find every place we asked for. However, driving down a road the width of a car with traffic going two-ways and bushes, shrubs, trees and sometimes rock walls on the edge of the road—so to pull over to the left (driving on the wrong side of the road) the car was continuously scraped.

I was grateful we had bought the extra insurance! There is no way to describe here the hilarity of the situation with me dodging the branches hitting the front window, and then scraping down my side of the car. Me occasionally saying, “You’re driving on the wrong side of the road;” Tarzan hyperventilating, trying to keep his blood pressure down, honking the horn as we approached each blind corner and Rachel in the backseat with her eyes wide as silver dollars. Honestly. It was unbelievable! But we had a dream come true. We saw the real Ireland, not the tourist Ireland. It was great.

This day the weather was beautiful. We could go outside with only a sweater on. We started to drive again and once more Tarzan said “Well this is the Ireland I wanted to see, but I am worn out from trying to keep the rules of the road.” Rachel said, “You’re on the wrong side of the road.” Tarzan jerked the wheel and we were straight again.

Oh, I forgot about breakfast, Tarzan had another full fired Irish breakfast. Eggs, sausage, black and white pudding and ham served with toast and soda bread, butter and jam. Rachel and I have finally given up on that and we had yogurt, nuts, cheese, cereal, fruit and orange juice. The lady of the house talked all the way through our breakfast. She was delightful.We drove to Tipperary. This was the most bustling town we had been in. It was clean and busy. There was a store for everything we needed. Electronics for a plug converter, gift stores for post cards and a fruit stand for fresh Tipperary apples. Apparently, they are famous for their apples. We also had a delightful lunch at a hole-in-the-wall that turned out to be real popular with the locals. I had quiche and cleaned my plate. Rachel had a chicken Caesar salad, she cleaned her plate. Tarzan had a hamburger and soup. He cleaned up his plate. Inexpensive and delish! The restaurant was down this alley.

We stayed in Tipperary quite awhile. We liked that city and it was the one place I wanted to go. We bought a CD with the song “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” Loved it. Oh, I almost forgot the funniest thing in Tipperary. Right in the middle of town there was a beautiful black and gold tubular structure that said “Toilet.” Tarzan went over to use it and called me to give him money. It cost 50 cents. I put the money in and the door slid open like something in Star Trek. He was in there a very long time. Whe he came out he said. “You have to use it.” So, I went to put my money in and it said, “Please wait for cleaning cycle to finish.” So I waited a couple of minutes, put my money in, the door opened and I stepped in. The entire room had been sanitized and dried. There was a button to push for verbal instructions. It was just comical. We made Rachel take a turn too. I told her to be sure to listen to the instructions. She failed to see the humor in the situation.

Next we drove to Kilkenny. We chose the Floodhall House B&B. Finding things in Ireland is hilarious. It always takes 3 or 4 phone calls to the B&B to find it.

“Hello, we are in Kilkenny on Dublin Street by the veterinarian. Where are you?”

“Oh, you are by the veterinarian are ya now? Turn around and go back to the main round about. Go left. Go to the second round about, don’t turn this time—go straight trew. Go straight trew the tird round about. Yer goin’ tward Waterford on N-10 den ter is a fourt round about. You can go right or left, go right den you drive trew a little town named Stonyford and we are the 2nd right.”

“Okay, see you in a minute.”

“Hello, It’s me again. We are in Stonyford, is the 2nd right in town or after we leave town.

“Oh, ya, just go trew town and den take the second right. Der’s a sign on da road.”

Whew! We finally found it. A beautiful farm house—three floors. They had a crew there power washing the house so it could be painted. A lovely family with three young children greeted us. The littlest one came out to see us and told us she was watching “Monsters Inc.” She said, “I’m just like da little girl.” And she was. She look just like her.

Our rooms were just as comfortable as all we had found. Dinner was at a little local pub called Carolyn’s—another fine meal. Tarzan steak, Rachel spaghetti, I had soup and side dishes. That’s what I always do when I am fed up with eating out. The Floodhall House was a house that had been the servant quarters to the main house build by Lord Flood. The servant quarters were huge, the main house must have been a veritable mansion. It has been torn down now. The family living there has been there since the 1950’s. They still farm the land. Wow! What a place.