Ireland day 2: Back on the road

Today we are going to explore a little more Dublin, then head off in a rented car and explore a little more Ireland, so after a good old fried breakfast, it's out and onto the streets of Dublin. We head over to Grafton street to see the bustle of the shopping streets. It's like any other shopping street. What's nice about Dublin is that the various statues that you find in any other city are given colloquial names:

Molly Mallone becomes the "Tart with the cart"



James Joyce becomes the "Prick with the stick"



Oscar WIlde becomes the "Fag on the Crag"



There are various others:

Hags wi´ the bags



Floozy in the Jacuzzi



The latest is a huge needle which sticks up out of the shopping street near the post office:



No name has been settled, but there have been several suggestions, the "Stiletto in the Ghetto", "the Skewer in the sewer" or just Milligan(After the famous comedian Spike Milligan)

While we are here, we take a quick trip for stamps and post cards in the post office. This is no Ordinary post office, it is the post office that Michael Collins defended when the Irish republic launched a revolt against their British invaders. You can still see the bullet holes in the front of the building. Unfortunately it was scaffolded for repairs when we were there.

We head back to the hotel via a little open market for some picnic supplies. It's now time to head off and pick up the car before hitting the road.

Once on the road, we are reminded that the Irish Hurling League final is on in Dublin tomorrow. The reigning champions Cork are playing the underdogs Gallway. We are on the Dublin to Gallway road, so it seems like every car which passes us in the other direction is heading to the game.



Hurling is a team sport of Celtic origin, played with sticks and a ball. The game, played primarily in Ireland, is the world's fastest field team sport. It resembles the games of shinty that is played primarily in Scotland and bandy that was played formerly in England and Wales. Hurling played by women is also known as camogie. Hurling is Ireland's native sport.
The roads are unremarkable and I'm pretty glad when we get to Athlone.

Athlone (Baile Átha Luain in Irish, meaning "town of the ford of Luan") lies on the River Shannon near the southern extremity of Lough Ree, some 130 km west of Dublin. The west side of Athlone forms part of County Roscommon while the larger east side lies in County Westmeath, but administratively, almost all of the town has been included in Westmeath since 1898, and planning applications are dealt with be the respective county councils. The town's population in 2004 was 15,936, slightly more than that of Mullingar. Athlone sits close to the geographical centre of Ireland. Nearby are Moate on the road to Dublin, Ballinasloe on the road to Galway, and Tang on the road to Ballymahon, County Longford.

We are staying in Athlone to break up the journey to Gallway.

We have a small Bed and Breakfast on the outskirts of town, and once we are settled, we head off into the centre for an explore. The only thing worth seeing in Athlone is the castle. It is however a nice little town, and it is probably more genuinely Irish than Dublin has become. For want of somethign better to do, we head off to the Cinema. I would calculate that our last family trip to the cinema was at least 10 years ago, so it's quite good fun. We go and see "The longest Yard" which is a bad Adam Sandler and Chris Rock comedy. We really enjoy it. Chris Rock is always funny though:



I wouldn't however recommend it. It was just good film to go and watch with your family.

Afterwards, we head to the night life area for something to eat and another few pints of guinness. After lapping up a little bit of atmosphere in "sean's bar" we settle on Indian for the night. We fill ourselves with curry and then see if we can find a space at the bar. The bar is really long and authentic, going way back into a beer garden, the floor is uneven and dilapidated and the whole bar has a great atmosphere. Given that it's saturday night, it seems like everyone in the surrounding area is drinking here toinight, so we squeeze ourselves back out and wander round a little before heading back to the Bed and Breakfast and finding something a little closer to home.

We eventually settle on a little bar whose name I can't remember, but it has live music and Guinness on tap. We tap along to some music while enjoying our drinks, and then head off to bed ready for a drive to Gallway the next day, making sure on our way to the room, that our guinness fueled mother hasn't defaced any of the varnished jigsaw painting which adorn the walls of the B and B