West of Ireland with Amy

Day 1 of into the West:
We flew back into Dublin and picked up a car. It was time for Amy to try out driving on the left side. After an interesting start in the carpark, we were on the road to the West. It took no time at all for her to have the knack of driving and a few hours later (well maybe 4 hours) we were rolling through Cork and onto Blarney Castle. We were on a tight schedule since we needed to reach Kenmare by nightfall. We piled out of the car and walked straight to Blarney Castle, up the steps, stopping in a few rooms along the way, and up to the tippy top to kiss the Blarney Stone. We paid a man a few quid before having him help hold us backward to kiss the stone. He had windex there to clean it! I kissed it first even though the last thing I need is the gift of the gab. I convinced Amy to do it to, since she was there, she might as well! We grabbed some snacks and dinnery food to go on our way to Kenmare. We checked into our lovely little B&B and walked into the town. Such a quaint town, and dwith a Druid Circle just down the laneway from the town centre. We had our cheese sandwiches while sitting in the Druid Circle and watched the sun set. We moised our way back into town to have a Guinness to top off the night, while drawing smiley faces in the head (sign of a well poured Guinness). It was an early night, since we had to be up with the sun.

Day2:
We did the first half of the Ring of Kerry, driving down random roads deliberately getting lost, just to see where the road would take us. Kerry is so beautiful and it is a beautiful drive. We had to be at Portmagee by 10:00 to make our little 12 man boat out to Skellig Michael. We arrived early so we went into the pub and had a bit of coffee and some yummy waffles. The first waffles I have found in Ireland. I love waffles! While waiting for the boat to get ready we laughed at this little dog that was shivering in the wind and just crouched against the cold on the seawall. It was an overcast day when we headed out with 10 other people on our boat. I had no idea what we were in for, I just knew there were lots of steps on some island. After an hour boat ride we disembarked on a small little crag and walked up some nice flat concrete stairs, I thought no bother, I can do this. We walked about halfway up and then it changed to these uneven, partially broken stairs that were narrow and were right on the edge of the cliff that meandered up the mountain precariously. Now I am a little afraid of heights, but if I follow Amy's footsteps I can do it. We saw the puffins popping in and out of their little holes as we ascended and just near the tippy top, i was about to give out to yer man for stopping mid stair just to look at the view, I needed to keep moving or my legs were to stop. Climbing that was about as easy as nailing jelly to a tree, but we made it. Monks used to live up there and the tour guide still does. Just amazing that people used to cling to the side of a crag in the middle of the ocean and survive!

After a boat ride back to Portmagee we kept on going through the Ring of Kerry, looking for any signs of ancient archaeological ruins. We drove into Tralee to look for a place for the night. No one seemed very friendly. We asked where the bay was, and the little old man kept repeating that there was not water in the bay, but we just wanted to know the direction. We found a small B&B and an unfriendly lady was willing to rent us a place but she was not to happy about having us there and it sort of smelled of old Chinese food, we decided to move on. As we tried to leave Tralee we just kept ending up in the city centre over and over and over, it kept forcing us to drive in a big circle. We finally took a very wrong turn, which put us on a road to a small little village, Fenit. It is a one-pub town where the pub is also the town's B&B and restaurant. West End Bar was the perfect place for us to have a nice meal and have a few Guinness and sleep for the night. As the sun set we went for a nice walk along Tralee Bay. There were some perfect places for swimming to be had since the water was so blue and clear. We came back for a good nights rest since this was our one morning to sleep in.

Day 3:
We had a lovely full breakfast to start out the day that was to jammed packed full of touristy items. As we drove through Limerick, we came up with a Limerick on our least favourite place in Ireland:

There once was a man from Tralee,
who discovered it burned when he pee’d.
He said to his mate,
‘I should’ve known my fate,
when she’d given it up for free.

We reached Adare to stop for a bite to eat where they had just the cutest little town. Thatched cottages and all. Renowned as Ireland's prettiest village, Adare is designated as a Heritage Town by the Irish Government. We walked up and down the main thoroughfare enjoying the quaint little town, but then it was back int he care heading to Bunratty!

Bunratty Castle was built in 1425 and was restored in the 1960s furnished with mainly 15th and 16th century items. We first went through the folk park which recreated rural and urban life in 19th century Ireland. We ran around mad as a bag of fish to view all the different farmhouses of various economic backgrounds, a watermill, church and village street. At the peasant farmhouse we had good fun pretending to be the downtrodden worker looking sad and famished. We just had too much fun goofing around the two of us. We headed to the castle where we played High Queen in the throne room, went down into the 'dungeon' room and just pretended we were back in time. We had to head out for a bit to play with the cannons before going to our 5 course banquet! There were harp players, minstrels, singers all dressed up in period clothing. They even made a couple a queen and king for the night and during supper they even threw someone in the dungeon. Amy and I got to speak some Irish and much to the wandering singer's delight Amy and him had a bit of banter and was shocked that Americans knew Irish! WHEEE! We got to use what we had learned. Go raibh maith agaibh! (Thank you) We drank our mead and I picked up my pork leg and ate it like a true medieval person and even grrrrrrred a bit! Amy got a great photo to send to her boss, showing that we enjoyed our meal together thanks to him! Good boss to have. After dinner we went out the drawbridge and down to listen to a Scotsman playing the bagpipes, frightening a small child, I never laughed so hard! She was terrified but entranced all at the same time.

We had no idea where we wanted to stay that night, not in Enis since the water is bad, but needed to keep heading north. We followed signs to a B&B and thought we were lost, but saw a cute boy along the way so we figured it must be the right way and finally stopped for directions by a nice lady and said it was just over the ridge and to the left. We were in Newmarket-on-Fergus in the middle of nowhere and absolutely loved it. We pulled up to a large house with lots of farm animals and fell in love with the place. A nice American woman there gave us the tour before Noreen could come down out of the fields to let us know if there was room for us for the night. There was, much to our delight, and it was well under what we were willing to pay as well, added bonus. Noreen showed us the newly birthed calves and the new foal that was born that morning. All of the sheep were sheered that day as well and all the lambs were calling out to their moms since they did not recognise them. Too cute. We tucked in for an early evening after having some tea, homemade scones and brown bread, fresh butter and homemade jam. What more could you ask for.

Day 4:
I had one of the best breakfasts ever! Noreen is the best cook. During breakfast Amy got to talking French with some of the other guests. So within 5 days, Amy spoke, Egyptian, French, Irish and English. She started teaching me a few Yiddish words so it was a weekend of random languages! We left early enough to get to the Cliffs of Moher before everyone got there for the day. It was great to go back since the last time I was there in 2006 the visitor centre had yet to be completed. It looked good as we did the quick tour of it. Noreen had told us of the illegal walk that you climb the fences for to get better photographs of the cliffs so of course we had to do that. When have I ever followed the rules?! The sun was out and it was a good day to start heading towards The Burren. The Burren is an area that has loads of archaeological stuff. We first did the Poulnabrone Dolmen since up until then, the dolmens had eluded us on our adventures. It is one of the most photographed places in Ireland and it was crawling with tourists. We tried to get a photo making it look like I was surfing on it, but the angle just was not there and too many people, but we did get them to laugh at us having a good time. Further down the road was the Caherconnell Stone Fort. We watched the little video and did the quick walk around but it just was not as magnificent as it is seen in photos, we were expecting something much bigger. When we asked your wan in the gift store where some of the other ancient stuff was she said, Just look for the white mark (making a vertical hand movement like painting) and pull over and find it. We drove around the area for ages and just as we were to give out, there was the WHITE MARK! Not for what we were looking for, but we did find the Cahermore Ring Fort which we saw in the little video at the other place. It was awesome to pull over on a narrow Irish road, climb over some precarious rocks, up a winding little path, and find something cool! No more white marks were to be found since they sort of blend in with the white rocks and the copious amounts of bird excrement. We stopped in Ballyvaughan for tea since it is a picturesque little village with the most signage I have ever seen on a single wall! Just boggles the mind. As we passed through Galway City on our way back to Dublin, the rain started, it knew our trip was over. Perfect timing.

Early the next morning I took Amy back to the airport since we had to drop the car off and i had to navigate us through city centre. I saw her off on the plane and had a nice day to myself. After my grocery shopping I ran into one of the lads and had lunch with the Friday Lunch group at our regular lunch place Antiqua Venezia. They were going to head into Smith's Beer Garden after work to see off one of the lads heading back to Poland so I met them there for a few scoops before heading home to pack for ITALY since I could tell the night was to turn into a mental session! Stay tuned, more to come on Italy soon.......