Where Sasha Went

Hanafin’s Pub – Annascaul, Ireland

Our first stop in Annascaul was Hanafin’s Pub. And when I say first stop I mean, we didn’t even change. We dropped our packs at our inn, changed out shoes and popped next door for celebratory drinks.

I unfortunately did not get the name of the bar tender and owner while we were there. I wish I had so I could thank him personally for his hospitality and stories. But either way, if you find yourself in the area make sure to pop in for a drink and tell him hello. As with every one we found in the area, the people we warm, the pub was charming and the drinks were perfect.

We sat in the cozy little pub for a few hours, drinking and chatting with the owner. He gave our group suggestions for after our hike was over, driving directions, hours and various places to visit. He told us colorful stories of locals, like one fellow who brings in a crop of potatoes every year to trade for his drinking allowance.
He explained to us how peat farming worked and pointed out that was how he was heating the bar (yes it was chilly enough that night for heating). We had walked past a number of farms earlier that day and just didn’t realize what it was at the time.
He introduced us to the local sport of hurling. The Annascaul team was playing on the Irish language tv channel in some sort of playoff tournament. The sport was fascinating and so much fun to watch. If we had it on tv here I might be tempted to take up watching sports for the first time in my life.

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Finglas House – Camp, Ireland

As I mentioned, the second we would get to our rooms after each day our bags would explode. The hiking bootes would come off, clean clothes found and often a quick lay down was needed before dinner. Hence the horrendous picture of our room. Aside from the thrown aside bedding and the opened bags, the point however is to point out that while our accommodations along the way were not always fancy, they were clean and comfortable. Which is exactly what we needed given the type of trip we were on.

Day two ended in Camp and as previously mentioned this is in fact the name of a town. This was also the first day we had experienced the baggage transfer done by our touring company and as promised our bags were awaiting our arrival in the lobby of our guesthouse. We were greeted by a very lovely woman named Kathleen who owns the Finglas Guesthouse. She showed up to our rooms and then the exploding of the bags happened. Then off to the Ashes Pub for dinner which I talked about in a previous post.

After dinner and a shower I set myself up in the lovely second floor lounge. There was tea and cookies provided by Kathleen, which I took full advantage of. The rest of the group congregated after their respective adulations and we spent a lovely evening planning our next day.

Thanks to jet lag I was up bright and early. Dressed, repacked and ready to eat breakfast approximately and hour before it was ready. C’est la vie. Breakfast was severed on time in the downstairs dining room that overlooks the bay. There were a variety of options, I of course chose the “Full Irish” plus coffee, toast and a little more coffee. It was perfection as expected from the quaint little place. We were also given a sack lunch again, this time a suspect sandwich and chips. My chips were cheese and onion, though there was a chicken flavor floating around in one of my groups sack lunches as well. Turns out the suspect sandwich was cheese and tomato which was quite good. Chips weren’t bad either.

 

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Wonderful Ireland Walking Holiday

Traveling is a very unique thing, you have to balance how far out of your comfort zone you are willing to go, with the kind of creature comforts that will ultimately keep you sane while your whole world is turned upside down. Traveling is wonderful and adventurous and important to  knowing ourselves and enjoying life, but it is also hard and scary. So knowing what you want out of the experience and what you can handle are very important when booking travel.

If you do not want to spend 8 hours a day walking through the middle of nowhere or if you do but you want to rough sleep in the wilderness then Wonderful Ireland Walking Holidays is not for you, and that is absolutely okay. But if you want to see things off the beaten path, get a lot of fresh air and exercise but you also want the safety net of an emergency out in case anything happens then read on my friends.

Wonderful Ireland Walking Holidays offers several self guided walking tour vacations throughout Ireland. We chose the Dingle Peninsula tour which is 112 miles split up between 10 days of walking. Some of my group did the whole loop, I however opted for the shorter trip. I started with my group and then left after 5 days of walking. The company offers a variety of options for the peninsula from 3-10 days.

Included in the cost of the tour is airport/train station pickup and drop off. Booked rooms which include breakfast and sack lunches. Luggage transfer from inn to inn so you don’t have to carry your bag with you. Maps, guide-book, emergency cell phone, and hiking poles if you want them.

I wound up hurting myself on day two, so I can attest to how helpful and kind the individuals at the company are. I called on what we took to calling the “bat phone” the morning of a day of hiking, they organized a private ride for me from one town to the next. They showed up on time and I didn’t have to pay for the ride as it was included in the tour price.

The accommodations that were booked for us were above and beyond our expectations. Every single inn was clean, comfortable and the owners incredibly kind.  The food was exceptional every night and the sack lunches exactly what one would need for a 14 mile hike. As an added bonus every place we stayed had wifi so we could connect with our people back home and let them know we had made it to each town safe and sound.

Our bags were always waiting for us when we got to the next inn, clean, undamaged and undisturbed. Not that we were expecting anything less, but I do know people worry about others handling their personal property and there was never an issue with this group.

We were given a packet of very detailed instructions to go along with our maps. Not only is the trail marked to help guide you but the instructions provided down to the turn precise directions to keep you on track and keep you from wondering if you were headed the right way. They were detailed enough that never once did you have to worry that you might have taken a wrong turn. We spent the entire trek feeling confident we wouldn’t be lost or trespassing and that we would be safe the entire trip.

I cannot recommend the tour group enough. The owner is incredibly kind and helpful. He will answer as many ridiculous questions as you can throw at him and do so with a smile. Never once did we feel confused, worried or unsure of ourselves from inquiring about booking the tour all the way to being dropped back off at the airport on the way home.

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Dingle Ireland

Food Tips – Ireland

I am kicking off the many posts around my trip to Ireland this last summer with a post all about the food. For no reason other than food is one of my favorite things about travel. And the food in Ireland, surprisingly, was some of the best I have ever had. Now I say it was a surprise only because I made a classic travel mistake and assumed something. I assumed because my experiences with food in England haven’t been my favorite and because Ireland and England had been closely tied for much of its history that the food would follow and be similar. I could not have been more wrong if I tried.

One of the things I was most skeptical of was the packed lunches provided by our guesthouses each morning of our hike. To be quite honest I packed and planned so I didn’t have to eat it. But on the first day I took it all the same and turns out it was incredible. As was every packed lunch afterward. The lunch meats, unlike those in the US, were fresh, not slimy and the sandwiches were not layered with condiments. So when it came time for lunch, while it was smashed because it rode around in my bag all day, it wasn’t soggy. It was just delicious and I felt sheepish for judging it before trying it. The one I was most skeptical of was a tomato and cheese which through the packaging looked like some sort of coleslaw, and turned out to be the best grated cheese I have ever eaten. Also these cheese and onion chips were awesome.

The one thing I was most excited about to eat here was the goats cheese, which is aplenty in Ireland. I know a lot of people, some of which were in our group on the trip, that don’t enjoy goats cheese. The goats cheese was creamy and mild and in no way resembled what we have back home. The cows cheese that I bought for the non goat eaters, was actually much more pungent than expected. I loved it all. And am sad I didn’t have the opportunity to try more.
If you find yourself in the area and want to try some cheese I would suggest trying to find it in Tralee, or Dingle. Both have large grocery stores. Annascaul also has two grocery stores but they are quite small and only had a couple of cheeses, not types of cheese a couple of packages of cheese. To go with the cheeses I suggest the Irish Oat Crackers I found in a couple of the stores. They are just oat flour, butter, buttermilk and salt. I plan on trying to recreate then this winter, because as simple as they were they were amazing with cheese!

Dinners I will be talking about in posts about each restaurant we ate at, but they too were surprisingly good. However the biggest surprise was probably the Full Irish Breakfast. It was a little different at each hotel, but along the same theme. Tomato, pudding, sausage, bacon and eggs. I could rarely eat it all as they were quite large and served with a side of breads and fruits. Did I mention this was delicious? It was. And every morning since I left I wake up thinking about how great it would be to start the day with something similar. If you find yourself on the hike it is a must try, at least once. It fueled us for the entire day, tasted amazing and was so much fun to experience a traditional type meal made with care by a local inn owner.

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