More Ireland--Kilkenny and the Rest

We left Dublin Easter Sunday, after going to mass at the church next to our hostel. The mass was an interesting experience because Tanya and I lowered the average age of the attendee about 30 years, and it was more like a funeral service than an Easter service. We didn't even sing! Tanya and I were both like, "He's risen! Hallelujer! Did you miss the memo?!" It was kind of funny in a sad, sad way.

So we bid farewell to Dublin, and headed off to Kilkenny with Shannon, our GPS, and Judy Rose, our car. Driving to Kilkenny was our first real glimpse of the Irish countryside and it did not disappoint. The further south we went, the greener it got. It was magical.

We arrived in Kilkenny after a few stops along the way to frolic, probably illegally, in people's greenery and taking every tiny, off the map road our GPS wanted us to take. Shannon was a little bit... special. We got to our B & B, Berkley House, and I ran in to ask about parking. Once we parked and checked in, we asked the very nice lady at the desk about a place to eat and how far away the Rock of Cashel, our reason for visiting Kilkenny, was. She gave us directions in relation to the castle. "What castle?" both Tanya and I replied.

"The huge castle you saw on the way into town," she said.

We looked at her, puzzled, until we went outside and saw this:

The huge castle that we did, in fact, miss on the way into town. Our only excuse is that we were very focused on trying to park at the time.

Our first order of business was to eat, and we chose a place recommended by Rick Steves' guide, Kyteler's Inn. It was also recommended by the lady at the desk. This place was built in 1324, and was an inn at that time. Now it's a restaurant and pub. The history of the place is pretty cool, because the woman who owned it was accused of being a witch. There's a lovely homage to her on the second floor, complete with ugly, hairy moles and a cauldron.


And because I love irony, this was in the bathroom. Twenty-first century vanity and tools, chillin' in a 12th century building's bathroom.

After lunch, we went to the Rock of Cashel, which is, well, a rock that rises above the ground as like, a hill. The Rock has been used by several different entities, royalty to begin with, and then the king gave it to the church because he didn't want it to pass from his hands.

On the cite, there are buldings from the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 15th centuries. Pretty amazing. There's also St. Peter's Cross, which, legend has it, if you can wrap your arms around you'll never get a toothache again. Legend also has it that if you hop around it three times on one foot, you'll be married within the year. I tried to hug it (well, a replica, not the actual one) and was unsuccessful. I didn't want to try the hopping...


Later that night we went back to Kytler's for dinner and walked a bit around Kilkenny. The next morning, we had a full Irish breakfast, complete with black pudding, which is made of, well, blood. I kind of liked it and even ate Tanya's portion. I didn't REALLY know what it was as I was eating it, but I knew it had blood in it. Anyway, it was a new experience so that was cool.

Next on our agenda was seeing the Cliffs of Moher and spending the night in Doolin. The day started off okay, and as we drove through the countryside, we were inspired to stop and take pictures.

But by the time we made it to the Cliffs of Moher... the weather was another story. It was probably 45 or so degrees and raining pretty hard, plus there were literally gale-force winds blowing. It was... unpleasant. But... the Cliffs were still beautiful and totally worth being soaked and freezing. Observe...

In this one, you can get a picture of the weather we were dealing with. Fun times.

After our wet trip, we checked into our room for the night, another B & B, and it was really a cute place. The lady who ran it was so nice, and upgrading from hostel to B & B was the right choice--our room was huge and totally brought Tanya and I peace. We took all our wet stuff off to dry, hoping it would be by the time we had to pack up and leave the next day.

Doolin itself is a very cute little "town"--but it's really more of a long, sprawling, little community of houses and businesses than a "town." I'm pretty much in love with it, and it's also really known for traditional music, which we got a taste of that evening. We went to a place called McGann's, THE place for traditional music in Doolin, and heard some great tunes and had a nice meal. I ate the Irish stew and it was probably the best meal I had in Ireland (the food's not amazing there, be warned.). I also saw an amazingly beautiful boy that I fell madly in love with. I'm sure that even though we didn't talk, he felt it too. :)

After our dinner, we met this lovely couple from New York (or New Jersey) who told us about another place where the music was rockin', and so we headed there. The coolest thing about the second place, was that there was this whole circle of musicians just jamming, and two of them were kids. I think it's great that there's a desire to keep up traditions in the younger generation. As we were leaving the second place, an old Irish man put on my hat. He was awesome.

After our breakfast the next morning, we did an unplanned drive through a region known as The Burren, which is basically just scenery. On one side of the road is rocks and blue, blue, ocean, and on the other are these limestone mountains. It's extremely dynamic and fascinating and beautiful.

This is me on some rocks...notice the footwear. I couldn't wear my sneakers because they were still wet from the Cliffs of Moher.

This is the ocean side.
The land side.After our beautiful drive, we boarded the ferry across the Shannon to save us about 80 km of driving. On the ferry, I met three people from Lansing--one lady even knew the zip code of Holt. What a small world indeed.

I snapped a picture during the crossing because it was so pretty.

Once we got to the Dingle peninsula (yes, it's called "Dingle" lol), we checked into our hostel and set about exploring the area. It's a really cool little place--touristy but not kitschy. It's a Gaelic-speaking region as well, which is awesome, and it's another place known for its traditional music. Our first night there was just relaxing and heading to the pub to recover from driving all day. We went to a place called An Droighead Beag (Don't ask me how to say it!) both of our nights in Dingle. It was a great place and both of the bartenders we met were awesome. There was Bob the first night, a Scottish guy, and Michael the second night, a 20 year old Ginger. We also met a lovely couple from Seattle who taught Tanya and I the magic of a drink called hot whiskey. It's like tea... but with alcohol. Great for those cold nights... like EVERY night we were in Ireland! It was a great pub, and the Guinness there was magical.

Our main purpose in Dingle was to do the Slea Head drive, which is a scenic drive. It's basically the same type of scenery as the Ring of Kerry, but less of it and better night life, which is why we chose it. So our first full day in Dingle, we took the Slea Head drive and it was spectacular.

Along the path there are various stops you can make, and the first one was at the beehive huts. The beehive huts are these, well, huts built only of stones piled on top of each other. Nothing holds them together--no tar or mortar or anything like that. And they've stood the test of time for hundreds of years--I think they go back to, like, the year 800 or something like that. Pretty amazing!

The panoramic feature on my camera was key on this drive, and I took one panoramic after another. This one might be my favorite. OUT of control beautiful, and the trek down there yielded some nice pictures too. Tanya and I dubbed it, THE picture spot.

Our first night at the pub we found out that there was a Celtic music festival in town, and so there were all sorts of events happening all over town. This was a traditional music session we went to, where the musicians just showed up with their instruments and... played. The guy playing the bones is my favorite. He came and talked with us a little bit after, and he was super sweet and I'm obsessed with him. Any man whose had matches his coat and who plays the bones is okay by me!

Our second night at An Droighead Beag, we talked most of the night to the bartender who gave us quite a lot of information. We talked about "The Troubles," Gaelic football, the potato famine, all sorts of stuff. He seemed pretty intelligent for a 20 year old kid, and he told us that we should drive the Conor Pass on our way back to Dublin, and that ON the Pass, there was a little turn off and a waterfall that was worth climbing.

The Conor Pass was just brilliant and beautiful. There were shadows on the mountains and the day was crystal clear and perfect. It was a great way to bid farewell to western Ireland. I mean, look at this...


OUT of control. And the little turn off and waterfall Michael told us about? Yeah, we found it. And we climbed it. And I took that picture from there. Here I am, after a bit of a climb.

The rest of the day was spent with Judy Rose, Shannon our GPS, and Lady Gaga and Beyonce on the radio because we drove back to Dublin. We stayed near the airport in an effort to ease ourselves back into American life.

I can tell you what--the power of prayer got us back to Atlanta first class. I sat next to an Irish guy who was "in the pub" business and found out why American Guinness is not as delicious (unclean taps, different system to deliver the beer, glasses at the wrong temperature). He has a pub in Colorado that has real Guinness, so next time I'm in Denver I'm looking it up. The power of prayer also got us back to Miami from Atlanta, because if we hadn't made the plane we did (which was by the skin of our teeth), we would've had to spend the night in ATL. Thank God, literally.

Ireland was the trip of a life time--a dream come true for me. Every moment of it was just beautiful, and it was so perfect. I have to go back to Doolin soon and actually talk to my husband. :) I highly recommend taking a trip there, and to the rest of Ireland, soon.

If you want to see more pictures, I have two albums on Facebook. The first is here and the second, here.

Much love.