Biking the Green Isle
The Adventures of Will and Patrick Cycling through Ireland

But where in all of Ireland is MY sign. You know like a sign that says “your destination 30 miles this way” or a “turn here” or even a simple street sign. This sums up our day pretty handily actually.
Having arrived in Dublin just after 8:30 AM we quickly received our bikes and luggage, which were in excellent condition, despite the numerous stickers which were applied with liberal applications of glue.
We made our way out and asked what the quickest way out of the airport was by bike (if there even was any). We made our way out of the airport fine; things went screwy after that. What I thought was the correct way to go looked like a dead end with no sidewalk or bike lane so Patrick suggested we try the other direction. After heading north for a mile I realized there was not going to be a way through to Dublin in the south by riding toward Belfast, so we went back and on closer inspection found the right way looked wrong because they were doing road construction, this particular bane delayed us several times but none as¬†egregious¬†as the Irish people’s apparent distaste for road signs. I would estimate less than 4% of roads in Ireland have any sort of markings at all, and many change there names several times making navigation problematic.
To top it all off, my iPhone battery gave out and my changing cable for use with the backup battery was discovered to be quite lost. Locals knew how to get to Naas (pronounced with a long a like name) but only on the expressways, no bikes allowed. Having finally found a shop that carried iPod cables I connected to the backup battery and found it not charged so it only gave an additional 10 minutes of available power. We used this to plot a rough course and through prayer and following the logical south west direction as much as possible, we cut our ways through steep narrow country roads and hills, and after 5 hours and 40 miles finally reached Naas.
We have since purchased water which was desperately needed, having run out of water hours ago, and rented a room at a Bed and Breakfast for the night, to recharge, refill and be ready for the next day.
Patrick and I both passed out once we got the room… Patrick is still sleeping

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Ireland. You can follow responses to this entry through the Comments RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.