Good two-mornings-after Thanksgiving to you all! Do hope your turkey day was thankful, fulfilling and lacked familial political grumbling at the table. I begged off a family T-Day gathering trying to cure a nasty head cold acquired from virus-and-people packed airplanes, jet lag, very little sleep and a dose of Texas Cedar Fever (allergy) for good measure.
This diary will cover unusual sights (and plants) in County Kerry, Ireland and Copenhagen, Denmark from October 25 thru October 31. The 12/2/17 diary will cover Sweden and Limerick, Ireland.
I traveled a path not frequented by many people headed to Europe for vacation, proving Kurt Vonnegut’s saying, “Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.”
This adventure with my three decades long artist friend, Judy, began when we started tracing our family trees several years ago. Actual trip planning/booking took 6 months since we each had budgetary and time constraints. My family roots are in Ireland; hers in Sweden. She’s a dedicated gardener in Minnesota. On 10/24/17 we met in Boston (outstanding clam chowder and lobster dinner!) to visit with mutual friends. Stayed at an old hotel, The Winthrop Arms, in Winthrop MA, where we had a very gray and expensive view of the ocean from the windows. The next day we flew out of Logan to Shannon airport, rented a car at the airport and promptly got lost in Ireland trying to decode and maneuver the roundabouts while driving on the left side of the road to find our Airbnb in Ballyduff. Never heard of Ballyduff, (County Kerry) Ireland? More on that later.
My forefathers came from Kerry, a rather large land area generally known as a tourist destination. It’s beauty is unparalleled because of the intense green scenery everywhere and part of it being on the famous Wild Atlantic Way. Leaves were turning. No pics taken on this leg of travel since I was busy following directions on the phone and counting the number of exits on busy roundabouts. Did make mental note of flowers, trees and shrubs everywhere and the gregarious magpies and numerous blackbirds (rooks, ravens, crows, hooded crows, jackdaws, cloughs and starlings). Bird pics later. I was stunned to learn that Ireland’s growing zones are 9a, 9b and 10a. Something to do with the Atlantic current.
County Kerry — famous for its butter, cream and milk — is made up of many small family dairy farms congregated around tiny villages (population < 500) mostly comprised of pubs, a church, what passes as a grocer, a bookie and a few hair dressers, hardware store, petrol station and auto repair. My original personal ancestry destinations were the thriving towns of Listowel and Lisselton (never got there); our mutual destination was a bump in the road called Ballyduff where our home base Airbnb for 7 days (a working dairy farm) was located. Judy took responsibility for driving, thank God.
Ballyduff is home to Irish hurling champions. Had to inquire of Google what hurling was...and, no, it’s not associated with the porcelain throne. It’s a crazy, fast-paced field game that mixes styles of tennis, baseball and soccer (with use of the hands) to make field goals.
Day trips to Castle Ballybunion, Rattoo Round Tower and Kilmore Beach; then a 14 hour day trip over Connor Pass (gah!) to the artist community at Dingle and around Slea Head Penninsula. Nerve-wracking drive on extremely narrow roads alongside very steep cliffs in a rented Hyundai. We could NOT figure out how to turn on the headlights. Had to stop at a petrol station and ask. Duh. The drive included spectacular ocean views and many ancient ruins dating back to 500BC. We used all the data on both our phones in the first 10 days for directions, then bought more mbytes as we traveled.
The rest of the 7 days in Ireland was spent watching birds, studying the abandoned house across the road and assessing whether it would be worth buying, tromping through our host’s flower gardens attempting plant identification, spending nights gazing at a jillion stars, unsuccessfully contacting my potential relatives, and a half-day slog through the diary farm so Judy could compare her early life experience on a Minnesota dairy farm with current milking methods. We had sunny days and 50+ degrees about half the time.
Took the train to Dublin to catch a Ryanair flight to Copenhagen. Warning: Ryanair may be cheap but it’s anything but comfortable and you have to pay for everything, even a glass of water. They don’t take credit cards onboard. And you walk outside on the tarmac to get on and off the plane. How very 1955! It’s the only direct flight from Dublin to CPH. All the major airlines had 3-5 hour layovers in London or the Netherlands. Hard to squeeze 60 days of budget sightseeing/ancestry-tracing into 22, let alone lose 10 idle hours in airports. We spent a lot of time getting from one country to another — queuing in airport security and passport control lines. I was singled out in every security line to be “wand scanned,” even though Security said it was random. Think it was the underwire in my bra. Even had my cell phone “wand checked.” Guess better safe than sorry.
We had a short visit to Copenhagen — Tivoli Gardens completely decked out for Halloween — then off to Stockholm, Sweden via 6 hr train ride. Fabulously relaxing and inexpensive way to travel. Rented a car and I drove. Realized just how old and out of touch I am when I couldn’t find reverse on a new Toyota Avensis 6-speed manual (pull up, stupid!) Our Swedish destinations were Uppsala and Nora, from whence Judy’s ancestors come and we just HAD to visit the art glass-blowing region in Lessebro. Vaxjo was also on the list.
Few of you have probably ever heard of these places. I certainly hadn’t. So our adventure was truly mind-altering since we didn’t speak “Irish” or Swedish and relied on our phone gps and maps to find our destinations. In Ireland I quickly learned that 32.33 Euros is pronounced tirty too tirty tree. And that “tocks-a-micka” means thank you very much in Swedish; fisk is fish on the Swedish menu; coffee is universal as is tay (tea). The most favored swearing adjective in Ireland is “fecking.” I didn’t understand enough to catch on if a Swede was swearing at us. Ja?
Added to the list of things to see and do was my insane quest to learn about and photograph the flora of both countries. Judy’s list included tromping around ancient graveyards associated with even more ancient churches looking for headstones with the names “Amblat” and “Perrson.” This was not a normal vacation. Bizarre, as Vonnegut said.
On the positive side, we laughed and ate our way through Ireland and Sweden. Delicious boiled “bacon and cabbage” with mounds of mashed potatoes and fresh sweet carrots and french fries, washed down with Guinness, and in Dingle the lightest battered/freshest fish ‘n chips I’ve ever eaten. In Sweden we re-energized daily with outstanding fresh fish, STRONG coffee and sweets = giant meringue cookies. Took a break with Italian pasta for a 1 day stop in Copenhagen on Halloween.
We estimate we each walked 400 miles on this vacation, mostly uphill outside and on the straight-away and tarmacs in airports.
Now for the photos:
Airbnb in Ballyduff: our own 4 bedroom, 1 bath house, a grand kitchen with a fireplace and a kitten to warm our laps. Apologies for the terrible lighting in the photo.
Our day trips were long, tiring and sometimes treacherous; lots of driving using gps directions on phones via very narrow paved roads slowed by tractors and sheep. Roads seemed to be carved out of the farmland, so the shoulders were 4’ tall walls of brush, blackberry bushes, reeds, grass and trees. On more than one occasion while making room for cars coming the other way, we literally ran into the mixture of bramble. Apparently this is perfectly acceptable/understood by Hertz!
Day trip #1 — Ballybunion
Day Trip #2 — Rattoo Round Tower, outside Ballyduff, Ireland
Some of the flora in the front garden of Airbnb:
We also collected pounds of pebbles and rocks. My geology-nuts daughter asked me to bring her a pebble or small rock from each place I visited. A serious culling of said poundage was required before flying home! Sorry, no pics.
Day Trip #3 — Connor Pass, Dingle, Slea Head Penninsula
Dingle
It was windy and cold. I didn’t take many photos because I was busy buying Irish wool sox and a hat, plus many other gifts.
Slea Head Penninsula (Wild Atlantic Way)
Day trip #4 — Kilmore Beach (Wild Atlantic Way). Local Ballyduff residents told us about this little known beach.
The remaining days in Ballyduff were spent perusing food selections at local grocer, buying ingredients for and preparing our dinners; having a Guiness or two at the local pub; checking out the church; admiring local “grottos” — niches cut out of the road adorned with a large stone celtic cross and a remembrance engraving. Bought the most delicious local Kerry raspberry jam which we hauled with us through Copenhagen and Sweden. Finished the 16 oz jar the day before we came home! Sorry, no pic. First ingredient on label: raspberries, NOT sugar!
Then we packed our suitcases, dropped off the rental car near Tralee where I saw a murmuration of starlings. Photos suck since we were traveling at speed and were taken thru the windshield. It is, however, firmly embedded in my memory! We headed to Dublin via train to catch RyanAir flight to Copenhagen. Our only stop in Copenhagen was Tivoli Gardens on a cold, windy, rainy day. We took the local bus to and from our Airbnb. Entrance passes were inexpensive since we both declined the amusement rides.
A poster that greeted us at the entrance
More of Tivoli:
A bit of ‘spooky’
Our Airbnb in Copenhagen
Next week I’ll recount our time in Sweden and the final 5 days in Limerick, Ireland.
“Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.”-Susan Sontag