Finding the Craic…and Then Not (Ireland 2 of 2)

Carla and I arrived early at the Arlington Hotel, Temple Bar, where we had purchased tickets to Celtic Nights, a dinner with both Irish folk music and modern dancing (featuring World Champion Irish dancers, many of whom have toured internationally with Riverdance and Lord of the Dance troupes). We arrived for dinner one hour prior to the performances, where we ate more traditional Irish food and matched it with a few glasses of Jamison and ginger ale (we were obligated to, since we never made it to the Jamison Distillery). The crowd slowly trickled in and we befriended an older married couple from Alabama (who sat to our left) and two older women from Manitoba, Canada (who sat on our right). A third of the room was filled with a bachelorette party of about 30 women (age 18-70 dressed in somewhat provactive boarding school uniforms) and 1 gay male (dressed as an old school primary teacher), who were definitely the life of the party for most of the night. The performances started with an Irish folk band playing traditional Irish songs (mostly requests from the crowd). The music was lively and upbeat; though unfortunately, we didn’t know the words to the songs and they had somewhat thick accents, which made it difficult to make out what they were saying all the time. The group would crack jokes between songs and just had great stage presence in general. The group played for around an hour before the Irish Dancing started.

The Bachelorette Party at the Arlington Hotel

The Irish Folk Band at the Arlington Hotel

The dancers looked really young, but were extremely talented (not quite sure how their feet moved as fast as they did). In addition, apparently one of the male dancers gave Irish dance lessons to the bachelorette party earlier in the day, so they screamed his name when he came out (though apparently him being there was a coincidence, because they didn’t know he was a dancer in this particular show). Towards the end of their performance, they asked for volunteers (two men and two women) from the audience to come up on stage. They grabbed the “Bride to Be,” as well as the gay best friend for two of the dancers. Carla and I were then volunteered by the older couples sitting around us, so we obliged. It was a lot of fun, though we pretty much just went on stage and tried our best to mimic what they were doing (brought back some memories of doing an Irish jig for St. Patrick’s Day on the Bonnie Hunt show). When the dancing was done, the folk band came back on stage for about another hour or so (including Molly Malone, which I actually recognized…apparently it is the unofficial anthem of Dublin City). When it was over, Carla and I ran to hop on the last SAS shuttle going back to the ship at 11:30pm.

The Professionals

Carla and the Bride to Be Dancing 

Myself and the Gay Best Friend Trying to Keep Up

On the way back to the ship, Carla and I passed by lively streets as well as an Octoberfest (in September…okay) festival and decided we weren’t in the mood to be done with the night just yet…especially since we felt like dancing after the show. We got back, threw our bags in our cabins, and headed back out at midnight. We were lucky and didn’t have to walk the 30-minutes to the city center, as a taxi came to drop students off at the ship right when we left, so we hopped in and asked the driver to take us to Octoberfest. Unfortunately, Octoberfest was only going till 12:30am, so we couldn’t get in; however, this didn’t stop us from dancing on the sidewalk outside the ticket area to “The Time of My Life” (Dirty Dancing) and a medley from Grease (guess no traditional Irish music at Octoberfest). We continued on to the Temple Bar area and tried a few pubs with live Irish music, but they were jam packed with people, so Carla and I kept moving. We decided to make our way back to the Arlington Hotel, where we knew live music had continued after the Celtic Nights performances. This turned out to be a good life choice.

When we walked in, the place was almost empty, except for the bachelorette party, which was still going strong (the entire group) and dancing to the live Irish music. We struck up a conversation with the “Chief Bridesmaid,” Linda, who remembered Carla and I as the other two Irish dancers that went on stage. We learned the group was half Irish and half English and the “Bride to Be,” Emma, is Irish, but works as a 2nd grade teacher in England (hence the group’s outfit choice). Linda is Emma’s younger sister and works as a dental hygienist in Perth, Australia. In addition, the wedding is set for April 2014 and the groom is an Englishman. The wedding site is in Wales, because I assume an English-Irish wedding has to be at a neutral site (I kid). Anyways…more information than you needed to know, but this group accepted two Americans with open arms and we ended up closing down the Arlington Hotel pub at 1am with them. I was impressed that everyone in their group stayed till close (even the grandmothers/older women). We then traveled with the younger crowd, who were staying out, to Fitzsimons Temple Bar (which is a pub/club with 5 floors, 4 bars, 3 DJs, 2 live bands, and a partridge in a pair tree). At 3:30am, Carla and I decided we needed to part ways and get some sleep, so we wished Emma the best, said our goodbyes, and taxied it back to the ship. I didn’t get to bed till 4am and set my alarm for…7:45am, so it was more like a power nap than sleep. 

Carla & I with Emma at Fitzsimons Temple Bar

Before I knew it, my alarm was going off and I was heading out on the Galway Day Tour: The Land & Sea (or more accurately titled, “Bus”). This tour would go from 8:30am till 10:00pm, since we were going from the east coast to the west coast and back…all in one day. A car ride (according to Google) from Dublin, Ireland to Galway is supposedly a little over 2 hours. In addition, a ride from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher (one of our destinations) is supposedly 1 hour. Thus, one would assume our total driving time would be close to 6 hours (to get there and back in one day).

Our guide, per usual, was extremely knowledgeable about all things Ireland. He explained a phrase “finding the craic” to us. Craic (kræk or “crack”) is a term for gossip, fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation; particularly in Ireland. Thus, “finding the craic” is translated to “finding the fun.” Carla and I definitely did this the night before and hoped this day would be more of the same!

It turns out this field program was going to make additional stops at various places where turloughs are located. Turloughs are a unique type of disappearing lake, found mostly in limestone areas of Ireland. They essentially are underwater caves that have formed allowing groundwater to drain to the sea (under the earth) and can be flooded at any time of the year (mainly in the autumn) making substantial sized lakes with just a few hours of rain. The bus stopped at three locations to show us this: Loughrea, Coole Park, and Gort. This was interesting, but honestly, these locations looked like anywhere in the US where a small lake is in the middle of a wooded area…not too exciting.

We stopped in Coole Park for lunch, which was tasty (yet rushed). In the early 20th century, Coole Park was the center of the Irish Literary Revival. We saw the Autograph Tree, where poet Willaim Butler Yeats (along with George Bernard Shaw and other prominent writers) carved their initials in an old beech tree that is still standing. We then got back on the bus and headed to the Cliffs of Moher.

I hesitate to say this field program was a complete waste, because I did get to see the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are located in the southwest of Ireland and rise between 390ft. to 702ft. above the Atlantic Ocean. Around one million visitors a year come to take in the amazing view and the Cliffs of Moher have appeared in a number of films, included The Princess Bride, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Leap Year. Talking with our guide, the weather isn’t usually good and sometimes the cliffs are entirely shrouded by clouds or fog. Luckily, the weather was absolutely perfect for our visit as the sun was out (with a few clouds), which meant we had a clear view of the entire area!

 The Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher were incredible, but that being said, our group was only given 45 minutes to explore the area, before we had to board the bus once again and make our way to Galway for dinner. After close to a two hour drive back to Galway, we exited the bus, walked straight into a restaurant, ate another delicious meal, and went straight back on the bus for the return trip to Dublin (where we got back at midnight, two hours later than planned). 

More often than not, I’ve found SAS field programs are pretty good. Although they are a bit more expensive than doing things on your own, the convenience of things usually makes up for it. However, this was definitely not the case as this trip was almost a complete bust. In summary, we spent a total of 10 hours riding on a bus (though parts of the Irish landscape were beautiful), had 45-minutes at the Cliffs of Moher, and got off/on the bus in Galway for dinner (without seeing any of the city itself). I definitely wish I would have done this trip on my own, but hindsight is 100%...guess I’ll just have to move on and (obviously) come back to Ireland again in the future!

The icing on the cake for this trip being a bust is the fact that the All-Ireland Football (also known as Gaelic Football) Final was taking place that same day at 3pm…in Dublin!! The Final was being played at Croke Park, the largest stadium venue in Ireland (and 4th largest in Europe), holding 82,300. This Final is equivalent to the Super Bowl in the US (and I’m obviously a fan of all things sports related). To prove my point, an audience of 1.5 million watched the Final live (74% of people watching television in Ireland at the time) and single tickets for the match were being sold for more than €500. To make it even more exciting, Dublin’s team was IN the Finals against Mayo (also seen as “Maigh-Eo”, a team who hadn’t won a title since 1951…sounds like Cleveland), so the city was going crazy the few days leading up to the match. Now I don’t know all the rules and didn’t watch the game, but when the match was over, Dublin defeated Mayo by a single point (the scoreline was: Dublin 2-12, Mayo 1-14; which I want to say is 18-17 in regular scoring). The city was going crazy, people were partying in the streets…and I was on a bus in the middle of Ireland surrounded by SAS participants.

The View of Croke Park from the MV Explorer

Day 4 and my final day in Ireland consisted of me being on-call and stuck on the ship, so nothing exciting…actually pretty similar to Day 3 (minus the cliffs). I slept in then watched the award winning 2009 film Five Minutes of Heaven (with Liam Neeson) on the shipboard television. The film is based on a true story and was pretty captivating all around (Liam Neeson was great in it, per usual). Afterwards, the students returned to the ship and we embarked from Dublin the next morning.

Dublin was a fantastic port city and one of my favorites thus far. There’s plenty in the Emerald Isle I didn’t get to see, so I will definitely be returning. Some sights I missed included: the Blarney Stone, Belfast/Northern Ireland, the Kilmainham Goal/Jail (which is in Dublin…I just didn’t have time to visit), the Giants Causeway, and then spend more time at the Cliffs of Moher, and plenty additional places I’m sure.

Off to Lisbon, Portugal! 

PS: Go Tribe!!

"Every day is a chance to start over. Any day can be bad, surely, but any day can be good, can be great, and that promise, that potential, is a beautiful thing indeed."