1) It is cold, wet, and difficult
2) I don't ever want to do it again
3) It was absolutely amazing
All of these are true. We had brilliant weather for the first three weeks of our trip (sunny and hot, anyone?), and it only ever rained on the days we weren't biking. The last week the weather was a little crappier, but we got through it. While biking was really, really difficult--we forgot that Ireland goes up and down more often than a desperate stripper--it was also awesome, in that we got to see a side of Ireland that's completely untouristy and completely random. Like the horse chilling out (untethered) on the sidewalk in Carlow, or the mall built into the side of a castle in Macroom.
But before I get to all that in later blog posts, here's our complete route, just to prove we did it!
Days 1 and 2
Location: Dublin
Method of Arrival: Plane
Where We Slept: Hostel
Days 3 and 4
Location: Greystones
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: At a couchsurf...after our original couchsurf kicked us out
Day 5
Location: Aughrim via Wicklow
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: At a B and B, run by Sheila and Pat
Day 6
Location: Carlow
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: At a B and B with a horse statue outside
Days 7 and 8
Location: Kilkenny
Method of Arrival: Train
Why We Cheated: We were tired
Where We Slept: At a couchsurf
Day 9
Location: Dungarvan via Waterford
Method of Arrival: Train/Bike
Why We Cheated: We needed to catch ourselves up
Where We Slept: At a B and B, which we were promptly chased out of the next morning after the proprietor tried to not let us take showers, offered to boil us water so we could wash our hair in the sink, and talked incessantly about funerals for people who ODed on bad ecstasy.
Day 10
Location: Youghal via Ardmore
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: At a B and B, run by Phyllis, who was incapable of wearing blouses that weren't see-through
Days 11-13
Location: Cork
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: At a couchsurf
Day 12
Location: Cashel
Method of Arrival: Bus
Day Trip from Cork
Day 14
Location: Macroom
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: In a hot pink glittery room at a B and B run by Geraldine
Days 15 and 16
Location: Killarney
Method of Arrival: Bus
Why We Cheated: The road went up a mountain. We did not.
Where We Slept: In a hostel
Day 16
Location: Ring of Kerry
Method of Arrival: Bus
Day Trip from Killarney
Days 17 and 18
Location: Tralee
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: In the weirdest hostel ever
Day 18
Location: Dingle
Method of Arrival: Bus
Day Trip from Tralee
Day 19
Location: Kilkee
Method of Arrival: Bike (and technically boat, we had to cross the River Shannon somehow)
Where We Slept: At a B and B
Day 20
Location: Cliffs of Moher
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: At a B and B
Day 21
Location: Doolin
Method of Arrival: Bike
Where We Slept: In a hostel
Day 21
Location: Inisheer (Island)
Method of Arrival: Ferry
Day Trip from Doolin
Days 21-24
Location: GALWAY! via Oranmore
Method of Arrival: Bus/Bike
Why We Cheated: We were over biking. But we still biked the last 10 km
Where We Slept: Two different hostels
Day 24
Location: Inishmore (Island)
Method of Arrival: Ferry
Day Trip from Galway
Day 25
Location: Clifden (Connemara)
Method of Arrival: Bus
Day Trip from Galway
After that, we put our bikes on a bus, bussed it back to Dublin city, slept in a really bad hostel before switching to the good one, and then sold the bikes.
And that is how we biked from Dublin to Galway.
The End!
3 comments:
Do you have photos of the hot pink glittery room? It sounds interesting :-D
The last comment was from me by the way - I fogot to switch from Google account to name/url...
I didn't! MAN! Why didn't I do that? It was pretty amazing, I'm going to blame my lack of picture-taking on sheer exhaustion.
--Tina
Post a Comment