I guess I should update since I have a lot to share.
Last weekend I decided to go down to Waterford. I left Dublin at 7:30 on Thursday morning (or "half-seven"), the first train to Waterford for the day. We were due to arrive at 10:10... somehow in the course of our journey we lost 45 minutes and did not get to Waterford til five minutes to 11... I am STILL not sure how that happened.
Regardless, I got to Waterford in one piece and had a good time exploring the town. I visited Reginald's Tower which was a stronghold at the corner of the ancient city walls. Since I went on a Thursday morning, I got a very nice tour with only 3 people on the tour with me. The tour guide was a nice woman from Waterford who really knew a lot about the building which has been a military stronghold, a mint, a prison, a family residence (The Chief Constable live there with his family with no electricity or running water from the late 19th century up until the 1950s!)
Reginald's Tower
That evening I stayed in a little town just south of Waterford, called Tramore. (Tra Mhor in Irish)The hostel I stayed in there was very nice. It is run by a couple who also own a B&B next door. So it has a lot of the charm of a B&B, but in a hostel.
The room I stayed in had 4 other girls in it. 3 Candians, 1 Frenchwoman, and myself. We met a couple of the guys next door, a German man, and another Canadian. We decided that we must be the "min-UN," though "mini-NATO" would have been more accurate. Together we went out to a pub and to hear some Irish music. It was great. The pub we went to was small and very "untouristy." It was filled with local people... a lot of them older but that didn't matter. And they played real Irish music, not American music for the tourists like in Dublin.
Rebecca from France and Markus from Germany.
Jeff from Ontario, Sophie from Ottawa, Lindsay from Vancouver (working in Dublin this summer) and Heather form Ottawa (she and Sophie were traveling together.)
The next morning I took a tour of the Waterford Crystal factory with Sophie and Heather. We went through all of the stages of production from blowing the glass, to cutting and engraving the glass. It was very interesting and now I understand why Waterford glass is so expensive. Everything is done by hand.
A master glass cutter (requires at least 8 years of training)
One of my favorite parts of the tour was when WE got to break glass. If a piece has the tiniest of air bubbles or cracks when it come from the blowing room, it is broken and remelted before it is cut.
We also got to pick up some of their trophy pieces. They always make three copies when they get an order of a trophy. One for the event, one to keep as a reference for other glass cutters and one "just in case."
After returning to Dublin, the rest of my weekend was a lot of fun, too. I went to a pair of hurling matches on Sunday. For those who are unaware, hurling is a Gaelic sport. It looks like a mixture of soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse. There are 15 players on each team and they each have sticks, called hurls, which they can use to move the ball (which looks like a baseball). They can carry the ball in their hands for only 4 steps. They can carry it on the hurl indefinitely. They can kick the ball, bat the ball with there hurl... the goal is to get the ball into the goal on the ends of the field.
The games we went to were the Leinster Minor Finals and the Leinster Senior Finals. According to people I have talked to, we didn't go to a great game because Kilkenny is such a good team, there is no contest. But it being my first match, I didn't know any better.
Not much else to add right now... I will give an update on my trip to Wicklow and to Kilmainhem Gaol soon.
Hope every one is doing well... leave me some comments.
~Dannielle
Regardless, I got to Waterford in one piece and had a good time exploring the town. I visited Reginald's Tower which was a stronghold at the corner of the ancient city walls. Since I went on a Thursday morning, I got a very nice tour with only 3 people on the tour with me. The tour guide was a nice woman from Waterford who really knew a lot about the building which has been a military stronghold, a mint, a prison, a family residence (The Chief Constable live there with his family with no electricity or running water from the late 19th century up until the 1950s!)
Reginald's TowerI also visited The Museum of Treasures, a former granary that was converted to a museum only fairly recently. A fairly large portion of the museum is devoted to the Viking era in Waterford. Waterford, like Dublin, was a Viking settlement because they were both port towns. Waterways were very important in Ireland because the road system was nonexistent. It is the Romans who set up many of the roads in Britain and mainland Europe. Because Ireland was never conquered by the Romans, no such roads were built. The Museum of Treasures has a substantial amount of Viking artifacts because a few years ago a shopping center was built and in the excavations to built the parking garage they stumbled upon a Viking church.
(an ancient anchor that is on display)
(an ancient anchor that is on display)That evening I stayed in a little town just south of Waterford, called Tramore. (Tra Mhor in Irish)The hostel I stayed in there was very nice. It is run by a couple who also own a B&B next door. So it has a lot of the charm of a B&B, but in a hostel.
The room I stayed in had 4 other girls in it. 3 Candians, 1 Frenchwoman, and myself. We met a couple of the guys next door, a German man, and another Canadian. We decided that we must be the "min-UN," though "mini-NATO" would have been more accurate. Together we went out to a pub and to hear some Irish music. It was great. The pub we went to was small and very "untouristy." It was filled with local people... a lot of them older but that didn't matter. And they played real Irish music, not American music for the tourists like in Dublin.
Rebecca from France and Markus from Germany.
Jeff from Ontario, Sophie from Ottawa, Lindsay from Vancouver (working in Dublin this summer) and Heather form Ottawa (she and Sophie were traveling together.)The next morning I took a tour of the Waterford Crystal factory with Sophie and Heather. We went through all of the stages of production from blowing the glass, to cutting and engraving the glass. It was very interesting and now I understand why Waterford glass is so expensive. Everything is done by hand.
A master glass cutter (requires at least 8 years of training)
We also got to pick up some of their trophy pieces. They always make three copies when they get an order of a trophy. One for the event, one to keep as a reference for other glass cutters and one "just in case."
After returning to Dublin, the rest of my weekend was a lot of fun, too. I went to a pair of hurling matches on Sunday. For those who are unaware, hurling is a Gaelic sport. It looks like a mixture of soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse. There are 15 players on each team and they each have sticks, called hurls, which they can use to move the ball (which looks like a baseball). They can carry the ball in their hands for only 4 steps. They can carry it on the hurl indefinitely. They can kick the ball, bat the ball with there hurl... the goal is to get the ball into the goal on the ends of the field.
The games we went to were the Leinster Minor Finals and the Leinster Senior Finals. According to people I have talked to, we didn't go to a great game because Kilkenny is such a good team, there is no contest. But it being my first match, I didn't know any better.Not much else to add right now... I will give an update on my trip to Wicklow and to Kilmainhem Gaol soon.
Hope every one is doing well... leave me some comments.
~Dannielle
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