Chasing Shiny Pennies

Today (19^th). New Quay to Castletownbere. AKA Castletown-Bearhaven. Either one will get you here by Maps. But don’t come. At least not from New Quay (pronounced New Key). There’s one route. Ok, there’s another, but it would be much longer and we’ll be traveling much (or most) of that route on the way out. Just sit tight for now. I’ll let you know.

This post starts yesterday and runs in to tomorrow. So I’m not sure what I’m going to provide for tomorrow. Just drink a touch more wine, or beer, or whatever tomorrow. Let me off the hook…please..sir….(extra credit for the reference).

I pulled over three times to work the knots out of my shoulders and upper back on the drive down. We made it pretty much on time though. When we left, Maps estimated arrival time at 2:19. We made it around 2:40. 263 kilometers, about 158 miles. It took us about 4 hours. I would guess that about half that time we were either on an M road (more wide – thank you Google) or a good N road (the gamble paid off on this one), speed limits were 120 and 100 kph, respectively (72 and 60 mph). So, if half the time we’re traveling an average of 66 mph, that’ll tell you how fast we were traveling the other 2 hours. It’s a word problem….yay!!.

Thomas and Liz leave New Quay at 10:45 am. They plan to travel to Castletown-Bearhaven. Also known as Castletownbere, A total distance of 263 km or 158 miles. They planned on arriving there by 2:00 pm (which was a pipe dream to start with). They traveled on various roads including M7, N71, R572, etc. They arrived after 4 hours of travel. For ½ the trip they drove on M and N roads (7, 71) and their average speed for those 2 hours was 66 mph or 110 kph. Using any system of units you like, what was the average speed of travel for the other 2 hours of the trip? What was the average speed for the complete trip? Extra Credit (25 points): How many buses did Thomas and Liz pass when their only option was to stop and cower? Hint: use ALL the numbers provided, except the ones you don’t need. Remember, show all your work and clearly state any assumptions you make in solving the problem. You have 18 minutes. Doris….no help to the challenged ones, please. WW group if you collude together, I’ll know….. And NO calculators.

Enough with foolishness. We are just relaxing for now. We’ve stumbled into a town where most everything is shut down. As near as we can determine, there is one restaurant in town currently operating. There may be another, we’ll check it out later. In self-defense, we bought lamb chops, sweet potatoes, etc., tonight and plan on making dinner at home tomorrow.

Today (20th) was an administrative day. I attempted to assure Avis that their car was NOT stolen, do laundry, figure out our next stop, and get the Lucinda Williams tickets on my phone. Liz went and took a walk. I failed (mostly anyway, though, we’ve got an alternative route on the tickets now). Then we took an amble. Down to the pier, stopped and had a beer (in search of information about food), then went and had dinner, and shopped for tomorrow. We got to talking with the owner of the pub we stopped at. People will engage when you encourage them to. Liz is very adept at engaging others.

I guess those who know me (Mary Beth, Beth, Liz), realize, I can talk to just about anyone and today that paid off big time. Since there are only 2 pubs open (it’s off season) in this village, we have gone back to the same one twice. The woman (Rosemarie) who engaged us briefly yesterday, was behind the bar today. We were the only patrons, and sat at the bar on stools and ordered beer. Yes, I had a beer but only because they didn’t have Chardonnay. I know, what’s a bar without a Chardonnay?.

Anyway, this time Rosemarie was a bit more chatty. She shared about the village she grew up in, that she was married to the man whose family has owned the pub for at least 50 years, her father dying when she was 5 years old, how a relative from America (they don’t refer to us as the US) sent her and her siblings clothes every year and a prized pair of shoes. We discussed how important it was to have at least one piece of clothing in your closet available for funerals (her Mom’s advice…always have a coat, shoes, and a suit). Having broken the ice with the trivial we then we moved on to more serious discussion, how her daughter died from vasculitis, seven years, later her mother died, and then her older sister. It was at this point, we held hands across the bar. It amazes me how similar we all are. If someone is willing to listen, truly hear the other, we feel safe and willing and we share. Before too long she and I seemed like old friends. I asked if I could take a photo, she agreed but only after she could go check out her hair. When she returned she invited me back behind the bar for the photo. As we were giggling about having Thomas take the photo and walking back around the bar, she said she loved talking to me. But not about Trump! Now, how politics infiltrated a conversation, after everything she had shared, is a study in itself. Of course that led to her brother-in-law joining in and him asking us, “Don’t you Americans have anyone better than Biden or Trump to be running for president?” That lead to a discussion about the economy, immigrants, etc. All this to say, people are people and these wonderful folks invited and allowed us to experience their struggles, frustrations, and hopes.

I almost forgot one of my favorite parts of the pub visit. When we arrived two days ago an elderly gentleman engaged us in discussion. It was innocent banter about the dart game (two younger guys were playing). He was keeping score for the game and kept asking me to check his scoring for accuracy. Me and math, now that is a joke. However, later that evening we were looking for an open restaurant and found him sitting at another location at a different bar. I playfully, asked him if he was following us. He said, “No, you’re following me”. Well, here we are again at O’Donohue’s, and in he comes. Obviously a regular….like us. I regret I didn’t get a photo with him. He could be the poster child (senior??) of an Older Irish Gentleman. I love this guy and hope to bring him home. You are all going to love him. I’m hoping tomorrow when we make our now daily trip to the pub, he will be there and I can capture a photo.

I know, I know we’ve been absent. The stay in Castletownbere was longer than the previous ones and we just settled in. Lived like locals for a few days. Most days were a mix of administrative (with the exception of keeping up the blog) and ambling around town from time to time. Going to the store to get wine and beer, cheese, fruit, and a couple of nights for dinner fixings. As Liz laid out in the last post, We met Rosemarie at O’Donoghue’s Bar. The first couple of days we spent some time figuring out what was closed and what wasn’t. Much was.

There were several restaurants in town and 3 bars. Only one restaurant was open. When we arrived and had unloaded to the Airbnb, we went searching for food and discovered that, despite google’s assertion, all but one of the restaurants were closed and one of the bars that supposedly served food, didn’t. Most of the places I’d booked had small kitchen areas. While I hadn’t intended to cook our way across Europe, it’s nice to have the option (and useful in preparing our regular cheese, cracker/bread, preserved meat snack).

As we figured the town out (at least in this season), we discovered things, and people. I’ve decided that the minimum stay in one location should be 4 to 5 days. It’s long enough to pick up the local rhythm and short enough that if you’re not enthralled with the choices available, moving on is easy. Everyplace we’ve stayed so far, I would go back to in a heartbeat. But for different reasons.

The next day, we went to MacCarthy’s, the bar across the street from O’Donoghue’s. One of the things we figured out was that the bars served food but only until 3. So we went to MacCarthy’s for lunch/dinner. That’s where we met Margaret. She was the lady behind the bar. We chatted with her for a while and Liz disclosed that we had recently married and that I was younger then her. Margaret said, “Oh!, a toy boy.” I loved that. There are smart asses the world over.

By the way, for those among you that are self-employed. If you’re self-employed here, you have to pay into the government retirement fund (the equivalent of our Social Security) but you can’t collect benefits when you retire. Go figure. Here are some other observations that might be pertinent if you’re planning on moving here.

The chairs are closer to the ground than in the US. Not a lot, I would say 1 to 1 ½ inches. All the young adults (mid-teens to early 20’s) are very tall. It makes one ask why the chairs are shorter. The restaurant protocol (confirmed by a waitress we talked to in Killybegs) is this: Go to the bar or cash register and pay. The pace of order taking, order delivery, receipt of check (don’t assume that will happen) is much more relaxed. She said that they expect patrons will stay 1 ½ to 2 hours. Except during high season, then apparently, they will rush you a little.

We left a day earlier than originally planned and went to Kinsale for a day. That day turned out to be rainy, very windy, and cold so we didn’t get much seen. The drive (yay!!, another driving story) to Kinsale was very interesting. Perhaps the most interesting of any drive so far (but we’re not to Scotland yet). When we got to Kinsale and into our stay, I did some research. The trip started like all the others, narrow roads, harrowing blind corners, stone walls (and sometimes sheer dropoffs) within inches of the passenger side. The further we got into the journey, the more convinced I became that something was awry with the driving instructions we were receiving from Google maps AND Apple Maps. I’ll explain…..Liz was having trouble getting Apple maps to accept the eir code as a destination.. The eir code is an identifier that uniquely identifies every property in Ireland. 7 characters, the first 3 (letters and numbers) identify the postal area the property is located and is common to all other properties located in that area, the last 4 characters (also letters and numbers) identifies a property’s unique geographic location. Apparently it was created because 35% of properties here share the same written address. I think it’s ingenious.

Anyway, 2 electronic map apps running, we’re using Google Maps because it will recognize the eir code. Liz though was using her phone with Apple maps running. The input to her app was just the town, Kinsale, mine had eir code as the destination. At some point, we began getting conflicting directions. The first time it happened I found a place to pull over and assess. We (I) decided to go with Google. That’s about when the Low Fuel Level light came on. Have you ever noticed that when that light comes on, your anxiety level ticks way up? Even when you know that you’ve got plenty of fuel to get to a gas station. Our (perhaps free) rental car had the added feature of tracking the number of kilometers before we’d be walking. I compared the car number with the google map number and we had a large safety margin. The anxiety didn’t disappear though, it remained for the duration. With me comparing the 2 numbers every few seconds. So anyway, we’re getting conflicting messages from 2 different apps. Choose one and roll the dice.

It’s at that point that the road choices being made took a concerning turn (you begin to question your choices at this point). Before then the trip had been mostly things we’d already experienced. An aside, picture this (sorry to the non-Texas residents) you’re new to the area of Round Rock, someone mentioned that you should visit Fredericksburg so you decide to visit and spend the night. You load your destination in to your trusty navigation app and head out. You’re about 2/3’s of the way to your destination when you are instructed to turn onto roads that are progressively narrower (your low fuel light comes on at this point). Until you end up on a road that is 2 tire paths (paved but, still). No way to turn around. And even if you could, you know whats behind and it won’t solve the low fuel light that seems to be blinking faster now. You forge on, slowly following a tractor trimming those wonderful hedgerows. A comparison just came to mind. The hedgerows, stone walls, sheer dropoffs, and earthen berms that line the roads here are like the bumpers for kids when they bowl. The roads are not much wider than a bowling lane, so it works for me. Then magically, you see the first signs of civilization you’ve seen in 30 minutes and then, seconds later you stumble onto Main Street. That was our trip to Kinsale.

I did some research after we’d arrived. In 2022, Ireland had 75% fewer (per capita) deaths due to car accidents than the US in 2022. Life is slower here. I like it. I like it a lot. Despite the narrowness of the roads.

We stopped and had dinner, found our Airbnb, and settled in. The next day dawned. Rainy, cold, windy. Liz was less than enthused with going out. So I wrote some of this, we hung out. Around 2, the rain had abated somewhat, but we knew the clouds were not wrung dry yet. Maybe that never happens here.

We visited Charles Fort, had a bite to eat and went back home. Tomorrow we leave for Dublin.