Ireland

Day 1: Utah to somewhere en route to Ireland

Nothing like a large truck coming toward you in the “wrong” lane to make you freak out.

And just for reference, this is the size of our car…

Why would anyone walk on these things?There’s basically no shoulder at all. Most of the side roads had stone fencing but had been overgrown with bushes and such, so sometimes Mark scraped by the bushes and just hoped for the best, especially when a tractor or farm truck was oncoming, along with a stray pedestrian.

Exempli gratia… well, minus the pedestrian

Irish Breakfasts…I can’t take credit for this picture. We never did take pictures of the food but it was all delicious and FRESH! Breakfast is a BIG deal in Ireland. The first thing we did when we landed was find somewhere to eat. This is what Mark had, but add on fried potato cubes, baked beans and sautéed mushrooms. Those discs in the corner are “pudding.” They’re basically oats and onions and kind of like a dry oat pancake. The black pudding has the addition of blood. I did eat it, but because I knew about the blood I just had a bite and that was it. Definitely an acquired taste. Bacon is more like a ham steak and the sausages are definitely ground finer and have kind of a spongy consistency.

Welcome to Ashford, my name is John

Mark without sleep produces…

Sachi without sleep induces…

No rest for the weary, off to school

Mark’s new best friend. Surprisingly, he’s only about 1.2 pounds.

And although he’s much bigger, he’s only about 4 pounds.

Everything’s green in Ireland

Day 3: Kylemore Abbey and Aillwee Cave

Goodbye Ashford! It was a rough night of sleep…

We came around the corner and saw this!

Neogothic architecture, i heart you

Real live flying buttress ceilings!EEEEE!

Off to the walled gardens, it was a beautiful walk…

We passed a cemetery. The headstones with the circle and cross are the blending of Pagan and Catholic religions.

Ruins would just pop up all over the place. I spent most of our driving time with the camera right in my hand.

The view from the peak of Aillwee cave

We spent the next three days touching down here, at Ballinalacken Castle

Having fun with Mark at dinner(so not amused)

Day 4: Bunratty Castle and a few other hot spots

That’s the actual fort in the background.

This is left over from the BRONZE age. Come on!

Supposedly the reason why it’s not totally gone is because it had been an important part of rituals throughout the ages. They thought it to be a portal to the afterlife. The residents would let a body decompose and then take the bones to the Poulnabrone Dolmen and place them there for “transportation.”

The limestone corroded in these brick-like patterns

I decided to “climb” the rocks. Mark quickly told me to get off the ground.

They call this area the Scottishmen’s Road. Apparently it was a main road at some point.

The Burren Perfumery… so not worth the pain to get there, but pretty…

Clare Castle, again off the side of the freeway

Mark was in love with the village areas

Uh, that’s a toilet. Sick. According to Mark’s well-readness, he says the shoot goes straight out the side of the building. Yummy

Those are actual tortoise shells they used for serving vessels during banquets.

The architecture was just super gorgeous, over-the-top extravagance.

King and Queen Hansen reporting for duty.

We couldn’t figure out what these were. They had one hole in the top. Giant bird nests?

We had a medieval dinner and entertainment, but this is the only picture. Mark seen here struggling to eat with just a knife. We had this fabulous curried parsnip soup but no spoon. Thick soup minus spoon spells frustrated hungry people.

We came home to a real live FOX! Be still my beating heart. I have waited for this day since I first read The Little Prince.

The staff had only been feeding him dinner for 2 weeks and had already been trained.

Mark spent the morning finishing his book. YAY!

Then off to throw up, I mean, to cruise the seas to the Cliffs of Moher

Even with Dramamine, I struggled. Mark said he was ok until the guy behind us almost threw up. We were ready to be done with the cruise.

Do you see the tiny people? It’s a 700 ft. drop.

The seagulls nest in the cracks

Then we drove around and walked the top

Scary wind-blown hair from the boat and the cliff. Good thing Mark’s already invested 

Over on that side is private property and isn’t fenced. Apparently a lot of people die because they’re pushed off the edge by gusts of wind… and because they ignore the following sign…

Notice the people on the other side of the sign.

Day 6: King John’s Castle and GouganeBarra

We passed through Limerick on our way to our next hotel and checked out Kind John’s castle, which was really more like a fort.

By far, this was the most touristy castle, or rather, more visitor-center like. Hence the talking King John.

Again with steep narrow stairs

They had underground houses, which was cool. The numbers on the stones are from excavation and were marked so they could be reassembled correctly.

Another gothic church in Limerick

The dungeon caves and probably the only time in Mark’s life he wished he was Asian.

The right picture is looking down 3 floors but the floors themselves have rotted out.

Interesting tid-bit: The kitchen was located on the 4th floor because if there was a fire, it wouldn’t burn down the whole castle. Also, incase someone needed to pour out hot oil on trespassers, it was right there and ready.

Mark wanted to scare someone on the steep, steep stairs.

Kissing the Blarney stone… peeing my pants. I got upside down and freaked at the sight of my pending death, and then the nice man told me it was down farther and I needed to lurch off the edge of the ledge.

The view? Yeah, let’s check in on that. We approximated 5 stories. Head first. Holding on to a complete stranger. Kissing something that is visibly wet.

I’m glad I went first. Mark’s turn, he said he almost passed out when he got up because all the blood rushed to his head.

See the shadow? That’s someone kissing the Blarney stone.

The “marijuana” plant cracks me up. They had to put a little sign underneath saying it was just hemp and not chronic or anything worth stealing and smoking.

Mark always rides a tree branch with that face

Mark after he fell to his death trying to get a picture. He sprained his ankle. I told him I was taking a picture because the next day he was going to laugh about it. I was right.

Just to show you how big this thing is, that’s Mark by the lower tower.

A bird guided our walk. And I don’t know what these things were, but they were pretty…

Crafty corner. The cow-boy cracks me up.

Fern forest. Just so you know though, they did have palm trees in Ireland.

Forest. Those on the right are wishing steps. Supposedly if you only thought of the wish all the way down the stairs while walking backwards, it would come true.

Witch’s hut. Historians will tell you it’s an early cave dwelling though.

Giant freak of nature cousin to rhubarb

On the way home we were behind this

We think this was a lake with tree stumps. Whatever it was, it was kind of eerie.

Hiking in GouganeBarra Forest Park

You could easily see how nymphs and fairies sprung out of the culture.

The giant rock is a result of a glacial run-off forever ago.

We started up on this path. So worth 5 euro to get into the park.

Busted ankle and all. Go Mark!

The day we left GouganeBarra was such a gorgeous day

This was interesting. One of the friars decided he wanted to do a festival of prayer and so from late June to July for 13 days, they’d pray infront of one mural that depicted some scene of Christ’s life. Then the next day, pray in front of another, and so on.

Catholicism is pretty much in your face everywhere. It’s really a huge part of the culture. This was at the T in a road. There were lots of other random areas that would have the virgin Mary nestled into some brick wall, or some saint or some apostle. They’re not shy about it, which is kind of cool.

Abbey at Muckcross. And then we turned around because we didn’t have much time before horse riding.

Horse riding through Killarney forest park.

I had a stubborn horse. His name was Budweiser. I think another horse was Guinness and another Jameson.

Then we went back to the park and got a buggy and our friend Alton. He insisted on getting the mountain in the background if I had to take a picture.

Alton insisted we needed a picture of the mountains in the back

Clay pigeon and rabbit shooting. Out of 25 shots, I think Mark shot 16 and I shot 11. I did, however, shoot 5/6 of my doubles (they float one up and then another immediately after). Take that Calamity Jane!

You can see the clay pigeon exploding in the left picture and then the orange clay rabbit bouncing along the ground in the right picture.

1,500 acres of estate at Mount Juliet. It was absolutely amazing.

Our room and bathroom. Mark would like to note the claw-foot tub.

Relaxation for Mark: putting greens. And for me: The spaaaa(not pictured)

We passed through Waterford and saw this amazing suspension bridge. And as a side note, getting around and understanding the maps were ridiculous. As you can see, signs were given in English and Gaelic in most regions. But in others, you’d just get the Gaelic. Uh, the map doesn’t come in Gaelic and sometimes the names sounded so different (note that Waterford is Port Lairge) we’d end up getting lost. It was still nice though because the scenery is just so gorgeous.

…and then some ruins on the side of the road, literally just across the way from the bridge.

They were doing renovations on this area but we got to see it because we went to a cooking class!

The village was so cute. Apparently it won some cutest village award.

What I will miss the most is the air. It was this lovely, freshly-rained-on grass smell with the crispness of fall and the sweetness of hay. I will miss it.

Ireland

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Ireland