Trip to Ireland
September – October 2006
Wednesday 4 October
Waterford - Dunmore
East - Waterford - Tramore – Waterford.
The bus to Dunmore East is run by a separate
company -
Suirway. We found the bus and verified
that it was the correct one. There are
no tickets given out. It seems that this
is for locals. Les, the driver, took
quite a lot of flak from the three regulars including a lady who worked
occasionally at the Dunmore East bakery and had just become a granny. There were several comments about "Grab
a granny". This was just like a
radio talk show and the comments on the political future of Berty
Ahearn were quite
amusing. A late comer had to run for the bus and had
dropped his
tobacco while running to the stop. The
entire bus was looking for his tobacco as we left - they spotted it on
a
crosswalk but couldn't get Les to stop in time.
"Ah well, it was only cheap tobacco but now it has
turned
very expensive."
Someone pointed out a swan in some reeds in a lake. Les said
"I shouldn't look because I am driving."
The granny and one of the regulars were going on
further as
the bus makes a loop through the village but they took advantage of the
short
break to have a smoke. Dunmore East is a small fishing harbour and we
were able to
have an unimpeded look around.
It was a
very quiet place and there are a number of thatched buildings, one of
which was
being redone. Les had a city-type bus to take us back, it
wasn't
very well
patronized but was for shoppers.
Waterford Treasures, the display in the old
granary, was
weird but it had some very interesting artifacts such as manuscripts.
The bus to Tramore takes a big circle around
Tramore before
depositing passengers in a parking lot next to the derelict Waterford and
Tramore Railway station and
offices. Tramore was windswept and
derelict. Most places were either shut
down for the winter or permanently.
Dooley's fish and chip shop was open and we had a late lunch. The chips were very crispy with a creamy
interior, very good indeed. People were
sitting in their cars looking at the
sea.
We decided to get back to Waterford as soon as possible. Three
people
got on, one had Dooley's chips which he shared with them.
The two old ones smelt of baked potatoes
cooked over a wood bonfire. They both
had weird hair - thin and with patches of dark brown although basically
white. The man's was long on patches as if
it had
been attacked with a pair of scissors.
We went to the Plunkett
Street station and found
out that the trains to
Limerick Junction were being replaced by buses tomorrow.
We decided to take the direct train to Dublin tomorrow.
Note - don't
ever go back to Tramore - or Waterford for
that matter.
