A Visit to Eire

So Slow

Ok, I'm slowly getting pictures from the trip up on my flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deweydell

More to come soon, promise!

posted by Michelle @ 6:50 AM 0 comments

Blake Bell needs to Blog

Just an addendum to Michelle's post (which incidentally has pictures attached to it if you scroll down) - if Blake doesn't comment on our blog by the time we get home, he will have to eat Pita Pit for a week.

- Morgan

posted by Michelle @ 2:08 PM 1 comments

Somewhere in Offaly

We're not sure where we are right now, we know it starts with an M but we can't remember the rest; it is in Co. Offaly, though, as we're on our way to Kells, Co. Meath for the night. We're spending the night close to Newgrange so hopefully we can be one of the lucky few who get into see it each day.

We spent last night in Clifden in Connemara, which, if you look on a map, is the furthest west you can pretty much go in Ireland. Today we're driving almost as far east as you can go. Fortunately Ireland is small and it's only taking about 4-5 hours.

We stayed in another B&B last night; man, these Irish breakfasts are going to kill us, I think I feel a heart-attack setting in right now. You walk into the dining room and there's muesli, wheatabix and cornflakes and some fruit and some yogurt, juice and tea. Then your hostess brings you toast and a plate with eggs, sausages, rashers (like wide bacon) and for some reason, a piece or two of tomato. It's really good but really a lot, too. Morgan's thinking about becoming vegetarian for a week or two after this trip; he's all meat-ed out. All you can really buy here (as far as meals in establishments go, without paying €20) is meat-based things: shepherd's pie, fish and chips, meat sandwiches, meat salads, chowders. And chips come with everything; a salad is basically some lettuce that you're supposed to eat on top of your meat. I'm ok with it, I was seriously interested in trying the battered sausage at the pizza place we went to the other day but I'm definitely looking forward to not eating out for a while once we get home.

I guess that's the toss-up between hostels and B&B's - we've stayed at some really nice hostels with ensuite bathrooms, double rooms, for like €20 each and then you can cook for yourself and everything but we've stayed at some nasty ones, too, but the B&B's are nice, they're just all the same and you have to eat out for dinner every night, hence the meat overload.

So anyway, onto Kells, Newgrange and the Hill of Tara. Tomorrow night we're in some swanky airport hotel and we fly out of Dublin in the morning on Tuesday. We will see as much of London as possible in a few hours and then we're in a hotel near Gatwick Tuesday night because we have to be at the airport at 3:30 am (we'll have a review of Zoom later) for our 5:55 am flight back to Vancouver.

I'm tired just thinking about it; plus we have to turn in our sweet little car, which sucks as then we'll be packing all the crap we've managed to load ourselves up with.

Here are some pictures for your perusing enjoyment. One is the portal dolmen from the Burren area, another is of me as we try to follow the Burren Code and not squash any flowers on a hike up one of the Burren hills, there's one of a kiteboarder in Dog Bay and then some donkeys outside of our hostel in Dublin, the Aille River, a home away from home.

Enjoy and see you all soon!

posted by Michelle @ 1:52 PM 1 comments

Rain is dumb

So, usually May in Ireland is pretty dry, but this year they've blown by the 150 year rainfall record. They've never had so much rain since they've started keeping track. While it doesn't really bother us too much, it would be nice to not have to wear 4 layers every single day. We've bailed on going out to the Aran Islands just because there has been so much rain it just wouldn't be nice to walk around out there. Instead we went inland a bit and saw the museum of the Irish Famine in Roscommon - very interesting - and today we're cruising around the coast of Connemara.

Anyway, internet on the west coast is pretty non-existant. This is the first internet connection we've seen in 4 days, so hence the lack of updates. It seems that you really have to be in the big cities to get any decent internet access. Actually, there is a wireless broadband service in Dublin/Cork/Killarney that only costs 18 euro a month. It's weird how a large part of the country seems so far behind technologically, but the big cities seem further ahead than North America.

Anyway, so no pictures again. Sorry. We'll probably get to post some the night before we leave, since we'll be back near Dublin. That's only 3 nights from now actually...


-Morgan

posted by Michelle @ 12:50 PM 0 comments

The Burren

We're still using the free internet at the hostel in Doolin which has a hidden tower so no pictures again, sorry!

Last night we went to McGann's and had seafood chowder and Guinness and Irish music. It was great, better than our pub experience in Dingle which was basically all Americans drinking Miller. This was definitely more authentic and they did this Irish-pub-music-rendition of U2's 'Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' - gorgeous!

Today we went to the next biggest town closest to here (last night we went to buy groceries in Doolin and they didn't even have a Spar! Or a bank machine so we had about 24 euro to our name, which will still buy 2 seafood chowders and a pint and a half of Guinness) Listoodervin or something close to that, but they didn't have an ATM (although they did have a grocery store) so we had to head to Ennistymon where there was an ATM (happy days!) and a Spar.

Then we were off to the Burren which is a national park that is basically all limestone. The ground is rock with tufts of grass and the limestone has worn in lines and things so some of the limestone sticks up and there's these deep lines in the rock (like 2-3 feet deep). It's like nothing I've ever seen although if I lived here I would rename it the Brrrrren because it is still so cold. The wind blew a hole in my ear, I'm sure of it.

We saw a stone fort, Caherconnel (gaelic lesson: 'caher' is 'rock' and 'rath' is 'earth') and a dolmen, a stone burial monument thing. Both date back to 500-1300 BC. It is such a strange feeling to actually contemplate the fact that 3000 years ago, human hands touched these stones, walked on this ground. This trip has been very humbling in many ways and the history is definitely one of them.

Anyway, we stay in a hostel in the middle of the Burren tomorrow, Clare's Rock. Should be good for pics.

Hopefully we'll be able to post some more pictures soon!

posted by Michelle @ 6:10 PM 2 comments

I got dirt in my mouth at the Cliffs of Moher

We left Dingle today and drove toward the sun. I feel like I've been cold since we've been here but I know there's been at least 2 days when my face got a bit sunburnt. Right now the sun is shining in Doolin, where we're staying tonight, but the wind is pretty frigid. We are at a very cute hostel, Aille River, I think.

We went to Bunratty Winery today and tasted mead, which is very good, no wonder it's the drink of the High Kings of Ireland (or was). We also tasted an Irish moonshine, Potooch? Something like that, it's pretty strong but it's been illegal from the 1600's to the early 90's and is only now allowed to be brewed by approved places. That doesn't stop people, though, so I hear.

We also went to the Cliffs of Moher which is a huge gong show - there's basically construction everywhere so that if you go back there next year at this time you'll get the 'Cliffs of Moher' experience which will be a visitor's centre and restaurant and more fences to keep you away from the cliffs themselves. Oh, and it'll probably cost you 8 euro or something. They were beautiful but the devleopment is kind of sad. The wind was fearsome and I could see how a small child could be swept off the cliffs. Very thrilling, though, too.

Anyway, we're here for the next two nights and have internet access. Yay! More to come soon, wish you could all be here :)

-Michelle

posted by Michelle @ 5:20 PM 4 comments

Another pic

Stupid blogger only lets you put up 5 at a time.

posted by Michelle @ 6:08 PM 0 comments

Dingle (ha ha)!

Ugh - lost my big post! Stupid IE.... now I'm gonna have to cut this short. Anyway, last night we stayed in a hostel along the Ring of Kerry owned by the smartest Irishman in Ireland - he had five busloads of tourists this morning paying him for the privelige of watching him round up his sheep. He also owned a pub, a quarry and was somehow connected with the post office.

So the weather finally broke today as we finished the Ring of Kerry and got onto the Dingle peninsula. We stopped at some amazing beaches - the Inch sand spit is 5km long and is a giant dune field with amazing surf... and after that we found a tiny beach off the beaten path with a castle and a quarry at it. The quarry just happened to be full of quartz crystals - which brought out a silver lining to all the rain we've had. Without any tools, we could only forage for the crystals, and the rain had exposed them in the dirt. Michelle found an amazing aggregate of scepters, and the whole ground was gleaming with tiny ones. And did I mention the castle? And the beach?

The answer to the last post, btw, is Dr. Pepper. It is the sparkling fruit flavored soda here. ??? Seriously.

Here's some pictures of the last few days. This takes forever on Blogger but we'll try to get some more up soon.

posted by Michelle @ 5:48 PM 0 comments

Quick update

We're in Kenmare now and heading to the Ring of Kerry today. The weather has been complete crap for the last couple of days but it's supposed to be a bit nicer today and supposedly a bunch nicer tomorrow. We've had no internet access since we left Cork, and are now in a tiny library with 10 minutes of internet time. So, see if you can guess what North American product is described by "Sparkling fruit flavored soda" here in Europe.

-Morgan

posted by Michelle @ 11:08 AM 3 comments