I left at 8 PM and arrived 5 1/2 hours later at 8:30 AM
I sleep on a waterbed. If you are used to that kind of bed you know that sleeping on a regular bed is not particularly comfortable. What is the chance that I will be able to sleep crammed and twisted into a seat that is too small for my 6-2 frame? Not to mention that I was on an airplane that found every single patch of turbulence between North America and Ireland. I may have dozed off three or four times for 10 minutes or so each time. I can't really remember, I was too tired.
After blearily collecting my bags and rental car I paw thru my briefcase for the itinerary I had prepared for my first day in Ireland.
I can't go to my hotel! Check in time is 2:30 and after mashing the time zone change button on my watch hoping that it would just stop telling me that it was 9:30 in the morning when my body knew it was 4:30 I gave up and dragged out my directions (HAH!) to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. It seemed like a good place to start my vacation. Sure why not see a beautiful medieval castle and village while I was half asleep. Perfect!
More on Bunratty in a bit (pictures included, golly!) but first a word from the transportation department. The fine folks at Frommers told me quite a bit of interesting and useful information about Ireland. Things like Ireland has the second highest traffic fatality rate in Europe. Always nice to know when you have to drive a stick shift from the right side of the car on the left side of the road. For some strange reason automatic transmissions seem to be frowned upon in Ireland or at least hard to come by.
This is a stupid picture
The reason it is stupid is that I have been driving in Ireland, on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, with a stick shift, all of 15 minutes and just had to capture the moment for posterity. Fortunately I was not buried with the camera.
So I have about 5 hours to kill before I can check in to my hotel and get a much needed nap. I knew this ahead of time and planned a bit of an outing. going so far as to purchase a map of Ireland (long before Google maps...) to assist in my finding my way around. One problem I discovered too late: not enough detail.
the Map is 5 by 3 feet. This is the map of the part drove, actual size.
My route from Shannon airport (upper left) to Bunratty Folk Park (in yellow) seems straightforward. Sure it looks easy enough but there is a problem. There is a reason that Ireland has such a high traffic fatality rate: the roads suck. They are narrow and poorly marked. In the week I spent there I think I saw two signs telling me which direction the road went (north, south, etc.). And the signs that are there are small, sparse and confusing.
In all fairness I am sure a lot of my problem was (for me) driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car. Not to mention a different way of indicating what roads you are on, what the next exit is and what the speed limit is (Ummmm, make that "funny looking signs")
After I had gotten some sleep and had a little more practice I started to get the hang of it. But I still insist that need better signs.
So what should have been a 15 minute drive took me more like 45 minutes of going the wrong way (twice) on the N18. And getting otherwise turned around in the absolutely beautiful irish countryside. But I finally did find the place without killing either myself or the poor sod who flashed his lights at me for driving the wrong way. That'll put a spot on the seat!
And once I got there, Bunratty was actually pretty cool. Click for more...
