Prior to our departure, my partner, H, had written down a plan of what to do during our first week of travel. Spoiler: it did not go as planned!
The first hotel of our trip
We had a late start on our first day of travelling, April 24. We severely underestimated how long it would take to pack our whole lives into a car, so instead of having time to hike and enjoy ourselves on that first day before we checked into the hotel, we drove directly to the hotel and only got there after dark...
We stayed at the Charleville Park Hotel during this first week of our trip, from April 24 through April 29. Our stay there was very pleasant and I want to tell you all about it. I am not a specialist and do I wish to bring anyone down but I will be as honest as I can when telling you about the places I visit, stay in, or eat at. You may be luckier or more unfortunate than me when you go to these places. I hope that reading my experiences helps you make informed decisions, but I also hope you do not choose a big corporation instead of a small business I review just because of a couple of negative points. I firmly believe that small businesses are the way to go - even with occasional hiccups.
After that rant, let's talk Charleville Park Hotel. The hotel is stunning and we were well-received by the person at the reception desk. Our room was certainly large enough for the two of us, with a separate bathroom with both a shower and a bathtub - and even a heated towel rack! It was well-cleaned (though I have this annoying habit of always spotting something else that could have been cleaned better) and the bed was comfy. With great WiFi connection and two desk areas, it also felt great for two digital nomads. Oh, and it has a gym and a heated pool too!
Have I mentioned before that I am vegan? I do not think so. Well, I am and so is my partner. Hotel breakfasts are not usually our thing because it is too much of a hassle to figure out what is vegan - especially since the reward usually consists of just a couple of staples not worth what we paid for. But Charleville Park Hotel embraced our veganism in a way we were not expecting. We had read online that they catered to all diets but we expected the usual bread with jam we get everywhere else. Instead, they prepared three special breakfast meals for us - oatmeal, pancakes, and full breakfast (the type with baked beans, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms, and roasted tomatoes)! Every day we sat down, asked the waiter for what we wanted and they prepared it and brought it to our table. The dishes we tasted were not to our taste (and we got mouldy berries on our penultimate morning there which was a bummer), but the effort is definitely commendable!
Eating was a challenge
Breakfast went well for the most part at the Charleville Park Hotel, but we did not do a good job of keeping up with lunch and dinner during our time in Charleville. We had planned a few places to go out to eat at (and we went to some of them) but for the most part we just ate the brioche we had made on the morning of our departure and the snacks that I otherwise had to carry on my lap in the car!
As far as we are aware, Charleville only has one place with proper vegan options for dinner: The Four Winds. We tried the restaurant at the Charleville Park Hotel but their only option was a salad... Back to The Four Winds though. This traditional Irish pub seems to be divided into sections, aka winds. The restaurant is at The Second Wind and offers two great vegan options: a Khao Pad and a Vegan Burger.
I had the Khao Pad and loved it. It was tasty and just what I need after a couple of days of mild hunger! My partner had the Vegan Burger and, from what I recall, liked it but did not find it special enough to repeat. If we returned to The Four Winds we would have asked for one Khao Pad to share instead of two. The portion is REALLY large and that may lead to food waste if you are not ravenous like we were on that first day!
The next day, Wednesday, we were up in Ennis and had a couple of options lined up for dinner. Their did not materialise though - everything was closed! We ended up turning to the trusty Milano. For those who are not lucky enough to have a Milano near them, this is a chain of Italian restaurants spread throughout Ireland (and other countries from what I know). They have an ever-growing separate vegan menu with starters, mains, and pizzas (no great dessert options yet though...).
The Milano in Ennis was the best we have been to. Everything was clean, the service was spot-on, and it did not take long for the delicious food to arrive. We asked for four new dishes on the menu: the Broccolini, the Parmentier Potatoes, the Baked Garlic Mushroom, and a pizza with Quorn chick*n that I think may be the Vegan Ad Astra. If we are ever back in Ennis, this Milano will definitely see us again!
On Thursday we planned our work so that we had enough time to go out to lunch at Mallow. Unfortunately, we had some trouble finding the reaturant because the address was incorrect where we checked it. That meant we ended up with not too long to eat before an upcoming virtual meeting.
Since we did not have much time, I asked for the dessert to come at the same time at the mains. I know the waitress understood my request because she repeated it back to me. However, the mains came and no dessert to be seen. I thought they had forgotten about it, so I did not complain, but just as we were about to leave (and right on time for our meeting) the waitress arrives with the dessert! We had to refuse it, which I was very sad about due to the needless food waste. We were not charged for it though.
Is it just me that likes to have the dessert at the same time as the main? By going back and forth between sweet and savoury, you manage to replicate the first bite of each countless times! Not sure why it is not a bigger thing but I highly recommend you to try it...
Anyway, I had the the Vegan Burger, which was average, and my partner had the Vegan Vegetable Korma, which he liked. It was not a cheap meal but it tasted cheap to me. I would not return to The Wild Goose nor would I recommend it, due to both the average food and the slow and chaotic service. It is great that there is a vegan option there though!
I saved the best for last! This next meal may be the last meal we ever have as people who live in Ireland - as far as we know, next time we are there it may be as just tourists - so we were ecstatic about it being this tasty.
On Friday, we boarded our boat to Spain in Waterford, down in the Southeast of Ireland, and decided to have dinner there to make sure we were close enough to the boat not to miss it. There are not many vegan options in Waterford and, having tried most of them already, we were very unlucky to only find Kyoto on this last day in Ireland. Had we found it before we would have gone there way more often!
The service was kind and swift, the food was absolutely delicious, and the price fair. I loved everything we ate and my favourite was clearly the soup with seaweed and tofu. It felt like a warm embrace from an Asian home I never knew I had.
I would (and hopefully will) return to Kyoto every time I am in Waterford!
We did too much but not enough
While we love eating, I was hoping to have enough activities to share with you that I could have them above the food in this entry. That was not the case this time though. Our time in Charleville was spent getting rid of stuff, buying other stuff, and rearranging the stuff in our car...
There were a couple of days in which we went out to nature though. Here they are!
The first was on Monday, April 25, in which we went to the Canon Sheehan Loop. It was a pleasant walk, very similar to other loops we had been to in Ireland, that allowed us to clear our minds from our endless to-do lists. On the first leg of the loop we walk alongside a rocky river that provides us with both a relaxing sound and interesting images. There was a lot of green (of course - it is Ireland!) as well as several flowers I had never seen before. I would definitely return to this loop but I would not seek it out when compared to others in Ireland.
Then on Thursday, April 28, we went for a walk at Lough Gur. This one felt more special. The huge lake is surrounded by nature and small mountains. There are clear paths to follow and signs everywhere pointing out the native trees and stories that give life to the place. I always love fairy trails and I do not think I have ever seen one as beautiful as the one in Lough Gur - there were not many fairy houses but there were hidden figures which are not as common! If we are ever in this area again, we will definitely return to Lough Gur.
Where is Gato? #1
As part of this 2022 Europe Road Trip series I am creating a section dedicated to where my cactus, Gato, hangs out during each leg of our journey.
On my last entry you saw it been transported by me in the car to the hotel, Statue-of-Liberty-style. It is going to be travelling with us all the way, which means that I will definitely have to come up with a smarter way to prop it up in the car and that the first thing I do when we get to a hotel is finding a good spot for it with a lot of natural light!
At the Charleville Park Hotel, Gato stood on a desk next to our huge floor-to-ceiling window. Looks like they are having the time of their lives (yes, Gato is agendered!) 💚
