Ireland, from the east to the southwest and west

If you are looking for a country full of clichés, a country which has such a rich, complicated and long history, a country which has gone through 800 years of occupation by neighbouring Britain, a country whose history is portrayed by conflicts with elements of ethnic, religious and civil strifes, a country with endless natural masterpieces, with a scenery so beautiful, breathtaking and difficult to describe, with a full range of all shades of emerald green, and an absolute perfection of a liquid elixir called Guinness, then this is definitely the right choice. Here, an usual combination of walking around natural landscape in any direction and a random afternoon pint of Guinness in a randomly selected pub is a perfect day where nothing can go wrong, an incredible sense of belonging which almost always ends up by hanging out with beautiful local talkatives, warm and kindhearted people. This is Ireland.

I was sitting on the plane from Paris to the capital of the Republic of Ireland, Dublin. I didn’t need 10 minutes and already I've met and began talking with kind members of the Irish population. This people know how to laugh, they love to talk and to socialize. As I am talkative and abnormal social, I have found my own little paradise. The people on the plane did not even consider my offer to drive them with my rent-a-car to their homes. No wonder, cause I've never driven with the steering wheel on the right side on the left side of the road. However, it turned out that the driving on the opposite side is not a problem and it’s just a matter of adjustment, which takes 2 minutes. My trip included the best, most viewed and most Irish part of Ireland. I went from Dublin to the southwest, the historic sites as Kilkenny and Cashel to Kerry and Dingel Peninsula and the west coast through Clare County, Galway and Connemara, and back through the heart of Ireland to Dublin. The southwest and the west of Ireland belong to the An Ghaeltacht areas, or areas where the Irish government recognizes the so-called "Irish" or "Gaeilge" language as predominant.
These are small short pieces of this ten-day trip.

As this country has definitely a lot of "highlights" to visit, and although the tourist season was not on the highest point this time of year, yet a bunch of so-called "instant tourists" spoil the worthy parts with their presence. This refers primarily to larger cities and the fact that the largest Irish festival, "St. Patricks Day” (17.03.) brings up a lot of drunk tourists, who travel overseas for two days of drinking in Irish pubs dressed in green with at least 10 garments from Souvenir Shops. However, with a little effort, you can separate from that mess and surround yourself with people rich in spirit and character whom I met on the road, and if you take a car or a bike, it is possible to discover the true Irish sites.

Definitely, at the beginning the places of music and general socialization should be mentioned. Places I'm talking about are called pubs. Almost every town, no matter how small fishing or farm village, has a pub. In some places, the pub has the added function of a barbershop, a store, a shoe repair store, or even offers services as a gas station. What is never missed in a bar is the standard Stout (Porter) Guinness and ale Smithwick's, at least one type of cider, some lighter beers like Heineken or Carlsberg, and a few good souls with whom you start a conversation before you get your first pint (0,568 Lit.). Yes, these people love to talk and drink, and as they are older, the story is mostly related to the war, the crisis, or that the state government has robbed their country. If you come here to explore and learn about Ireland as I did, these stories are always welcomed, and situations such as buying rounds of Guinness, smoking a cigar with a good old farmer, or even a situation of entering the pub where a man sleeps on the floor unconscious, while his friend is sitting naked at the bar in those green thongs which Borat was wearing in his same named film (yeah, that really happened). :)

The best pubs I visited with a reputation for the best pint of Guinness and the most Irish pubs ever are definitely DickMack's and Curran's Pub in Dingel, O'Connor's and McGanns's Pub in Doolin, and John Kavanagh from the year 1833 in Dublin, also known as "The Grave Diggers" due to its location near the Glasnevin cemetery and its permanent guests.

DickMack's Pub, Dingel, half a shoe repair store, half a pub, the perfect pint of Guinness, a phenomenal atmosphere, according to the descriptions "like the inside of a whiskey bottle", from the year 1899

Curran's Pub, Dingel, a pub where you can buy stuff like for example an old lamp with a Guinness sign on it or seedlings of onion and whatever. However, on the other side you can have the best poured pint of Guinness in Ireland (at least they say so). Here we were drinking with 5 old locals. They spoke mostly Irish (Gaeilge). We recognized them on a black and white picture that showed them in their younger days with a horse. The oldest of them is Timi with 86 years. There was also his brother Steve, and some other lads. To finish the story, they even today after 50 years of their friendship drink their standard dose of pints of Guinness together every day, this horse on the picture was a seven time world champion race horse, his owner was Steve, and the jockey was his brother Timi.

O'Connor's and McGanns's Pub, near Doolin, home of traditional Irish music and a perfect pint of Guinness. The music and atmosphere can be found through all the tourist places of Ireland and in the major cities. The only difference is that here the musicians meet together spontaneously every night, almost every day and they are not playing for tourists, but for themselves.

An example of a pub in the town of Leenane. The pub is also a grocery store, a gas station, but beside all it has a bar, some food and standard drinks.

Throughout the country you can find these small and wonderful hostels. Almost every hostel has a cozy lounge with a fireplace. This example is from Killarney.

Irish breakfast at the picture above. Normally comes with more beans and double the amount of sausages and black pudding. This example is quite “poor”. However, the southwest and the west of Ireland are famous for their fish and seafood. This white thick soup, stew type, called "Chowder" is one of the best meals from seafood I've ever eaten.

And if you want to save some money there is always a good "mother's kitchen" in the form of "canned food" at best "restaurant" called "Lidl".

Killkenny

The country is full of old churches and cemeteries.

Be sure to look at that. Near Dublin, Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. Beautiful lakes, remnants of the old a cemetery, crosses and the remains of the old monastery fortress.

 

Dingel and Kerry Peninsula, the Counties Clare and Galway, the pearls of the southwest and west of Ireland, An Gaeltacht regions, home to beautiful green glades, idyllic beaches and cliffs like at the end of the world.

A Dolmen, the name of a tomb of this type, a couple of thousand years old.

A rocky (karst) region called "The Burren" in the region of Clare, one of the most frequently visited national parks of Ireland, just stone, rock and stone.

Galway, the parade for St. Patrick's Day. I tried to picture the crowds picturing the parade.

Dublin at night. Temple Bar in Dublin, the central part of Dublin where all the tourists look for fun and a pint of beer.

A real genuine Irish pub, outside the city and the crowds, John Kavanagh from the year 1833 in Dublin, also known as "The Grave Diggers" Pub.

One of my favourite places, "The Cliffs of Moher", feels like the end of the world, the maximum height of 214 meters, heavily visited by tourists. However, at the end of the day, all buses and all the tourists that come here just to make the famous photos from a known point, disappear. In this example, there's only a few of us, watching the sunset, drinking Cider and enjoy the view. When I came home I read somewhere that a little more up north on the west coast, are cliffs called "Slieve League" which were poorly visited but they go up to a height of 601 meters. So they remain for another visit. :)

Finally, a masterpiece by Marko Capek Moving Pictures Studios, a film about an island, a car and an idiot. Roadtrip Ireland.