We've just finished our whirlwind of 3 Irish ports in a row, and Chelsea and I wore ourselves out seeing as much as we could. Today we have a sea day to recover - and we are making the most of it. We slept in as long as we possibly could. But let me catch you up on Ireland - one port at a time!
Cork (Cobh): Chelsea and I each went on separate tours because unfortunately we didn't get our first choices. I went on a pretty short tour, that drove around Cork so you could see it only from the bus, and then went to Blarney Castle. My first Irish Castle!! I was so excited. The Castle is not maintained - it is a ruin - which made it all the more appealing to me. We had about two hours there, which was more than enough time to do the tourist thing there - which is to kiss the Blarney Stone. Now kissing the stone is, in my tour guide's words, "not for the faint of heart." You have make your way bent-over through passageways, climb through the old castle up several of the most confined stone spiral staircases of the towers, and basically let yourself be lowered out over the highest battlement with the grounds far below in order to kiss the stone. And I'm pretty sure they don't sanitize it in between kissers. But yes, I did it. And now I have officially received the "gift of eloquence," which is the traditional legend. Afterwards I walked around Cobh in the wind and rain until I couldn't stand it anymore. The small port town's claim to fame is that the Titanic was docked there. There is also a pretty impressive cathedral in the French Gothic style that I visited. Ok, next port!
Dublin: Wow, what a city. Dublin seems like a really vibrant and fun place to live. My short tour featured a visit to Trinity College, more specifically to their library called the Long Room and their exhibit on the Book of Kells. The Book is an 8th century manuscript that is a highly illuminated (decorated) copy of the four gospels. The Long Room is exactly that - a long, open, room with vaulted ceilings, with two stories of centuries-old books and ancient manuscripts. (if you've seen Beauty and the Beast, it kindof looks like that library, only really long) It even has the thin sliding ladders that let you reach the books on the top shelf, and the room smells of old books. If you know me well you'll understand that this was right up my alley - I really enjoyed the visit. After that we visited Dublin Castle, which isn't very castle-looking, but is more like a nice mansion. After the tour was over I stayed in Dublin for a couple hours on my own, wandering around and shopping. For lunch I treated myself to some fish and chips and tried a famous Irish Coffee. One neat thing about signs in the Republic of Ireland is that they are all written in both English and Gaelic, which I found really interesting.
Belfast, Northern Ireland: For our last port in Ireland, we left the Republic of Ireland and entered Northern Ireland, which remains part of the English commonwealth. No Gaelic appears on the signs here, and the currency is pounds sterling instead of the euro. Luck was with us today (Irish luck?): Chelsea and I got on the same tour, to the place we most wanted to go. We left at different times, but once we got there she jumped tours and we spent the rest of the day together. The trip was an hour and a half drive to the Giant's Causeway at the very northern tip of Ireland. On the way we drove through some really beautiful, green Irish countryside, seeing lots of farmland, cows, and sheep. We arrived at the site, which is a series of rock formations on the coast. It is difficult to explain how it looks, but basically it is a huge area of stones shaped like hexagonal columns. It almost resembles a honeycomb, but some of the columns are very tall. The expanse stretches out into the sea, and the legend is that an Irish giant built the causeway as a path all the way across the sea to Scotland, but a Scottish Giant's fear of fighting him caused him to tear up most of the path behind him, and what we see now is all that's left. It was a really incredible sight, and Chelsea and I had a good time wandering around taking pictures. On the way back we stopped for quick photos at the ruins of Dunlace Castle. Altogether, it was an amazing day - the perfect conclusion to our three days in Ireland.
In ship news, last night after leaving Ireland the waves were the most rough as we've had yet, and the comedian could hardly stay standing during his show. We suggested he should try sit-down comedy next time....(-: They put barf-bags up in strategic locations around the ship, and I saw a lot of people who weren't looking so good. I didn't have any issues with it at all, but Chelsea had a rough night. Today like I said we are at sea, and it has calmed down considerably after last night. Tomorrow we begin what I see as the second half of the cruise - the Norway half. We'll get to visit one port that I haven't been to yet, which is exciting. Its hard to believe that I'm almost done with the Baltic portion of my contract. Man, I wish we could spend more time in Ireland!! Oh well, at least I really had a great time there. I feel so lucky to have seen so much in less than 2 months. Tonight we have late Big Band sets, which will give me my first chance to have a really leisurely dinner with Chelsea in the grand dining room.
