/travel/ireland/"Port Lairge"
I just arrived in Waterford (which Google Maps has wrongly marked with its Irish name, Port Lairge.) I cycled ~190km yesterday, making it my second longest day ever. Then today it was 15km from the B&B that I stayed in. I figured most B&Bs would be open for the season, but I ended up wasting ~10km chasing down phantoms late last night -- not fun. I was pretty tired at the end of yesterday, and I had started to get a headache, so I was a bit anxious to find somewhere. (Not anxious enough to pay 60EUR like the first place wanted, though.)
When I got here, I found the tourist office -- Clare is driving down today, and I figured we should meet there. I sat on a bench on the pedestrian street, and within about 5 minutes, an older Irish man came up to me and said "Welcome, welcome, welcome." We had a chat about where we had come from, then he said "Will I tell you a joke?" "Sure," I said. "Do you know the island of Nantucket?" Uh-oh..."I've heard of it." "Well, there once was a man from Nantucket." And a pause, for effect. "He kept all his money in a bucket; his daughter Nan ran away with a man, and as for the bucket, Nan took it!" He finished with a grin, "It's a good one, isn't it?" "Yes, but that's a limerick, I'd expect to hear them in Limerick not in Waterford!" "Well, I was born in Limerick, you see."
So I guess there is some kind of connection. I also learned that not all limericks involving Nantucket have dirty endings.
The cycling was great...I had a tailwind (very unlikely for the direction I was going), the traffic was calm and abiding, and I even got a sunburn (also unlikely!). It's a gooder, quite sore to the touch. I was riding on my smaller road bike, with almost no gear -- Clare is bringing down a couple changes of clothes for me -- so it was quite different from distance touring.
I've learned that nobody in Ireland knows the numbers assigned to roads, though in general they're marked quite well. You have to look on your map, and guess which place they're most likely to know the way to. And even that only works if there's no chance they'll direct you by the busy roads.
This internet cafe is killer expensive, so that's all for now. And I didn't bring my camera, so no photos.
Comments
julia wrote
from a dirth to a glut.. nice to see you writing again. yet another way i can pass the hours at work.
Andrew wrote
Nice limerick. I don't think i've ever heard the end of one starting with nantucket. I'm also glad to see that you're writing. Keep it up.
Patty wrote
There was a good article in the Ecology North newsletter about carbon credits to ease flying guilt (the biggest part of the footprint for eco-northerners by far). When you visit the Canadian Interior (Ontarior) do you have time to train or bus it from the coasts? Great to hear a bit of your life. My life on the lake is pretty wild right now. We should do a 4-way!
Patty wrote
Just looked for a link to that carbon credit story but there is none, and I burned the papercopy to start a fire in the woodstove. Sorry.
P
