Flashback #1: Ireland

So, I have been requested to put the Ireland and Hungary pictures on here - so we are going to have a few flashbacks to trips this spring. Sandor and I took our belated honeymoon in March, which just happened to follow an unplanned trip to Hungary the week before. Needless to say I finished 3 books on my numerous trans-Atlantic flights, in addition to watching a few movies and attempting to sleep.

In short, Ireland is BEAUTIFUL! We had such a wonderful time and we actually relaxed - I know it's hard to imagine me relaxing on a trip, but it happens every once and a while :) Some of what follows as far as text follows the e-mail I sent out in case you read that. But I put more pictures in here than I sent out with the e-mail, and so there are some extra stories that go with them. So anyway, back to Ireland - we flew into Shannon airport instead of Dublin and stayed on the west coast of Ireland the whole time - an excellent decision that I would recommend to anyone. We bought bed and breakfast vouchers and rented a car so that for 8 days we just drove around to wherever we wanted to go and slept there that night. The vouchers came with a book of all the B&Bs that take them so you pick one out and sleep away. It was definitely the way to go for someone who likes to plan (me) and someone who likes to just go wherever whenever (Sandor), so I felt like we had a plan with the vouchers and he felt like we didn't since he could plan the trip quite literally on the plane ride over. Mom had gotten us Rick Steve's guide and his tips were excellent.

The first day we landed, got our luggage and car, found a place to eat and the went to bed a 4:30. But after a good night sleep we were ready to go.

Our first little Ireland town - Ennis

I loved the cute little streets! Sandor didn't as much since he had to drive on them :)

Sandor's first Guinness in Ireland

Look left, stay right - driving on the 'wrong' side of the road...and car'

my first countryside picture. I made Sandor pull over to the side of the road because I was convinced I'd never see anything this great - I had a lot to learn about Ireland with it's pictures after every turn...literally

another 'pull over, pull over' picture - but can you blame me? random castles by the side of the road!


the beginning of my sheep obsession. believe me, there will be many more sheep pictures to follow

The next morning we drive down to the Al Daingan peninsula (Dingle peninsula in English) which turned out to be our favorite spot in the trip. In fact when we ended up having an extra day after doing everything we had planned we went back to Dingle for our last day. We stayed at a great B&B that recommended one of the pubs for dinner. Had ourselves some fish and chips, listened to Irish music, and wandered around the little fishing town. Then the next day we drove the peninsula which has tons of artifacts from pretty much any age you can name. That was the one and only day that it rained while we were there, so that was the impetus behind going back at the end. We definitely saw greater view without the rainclouds. But on our first trip we persevered irregardless of rain (hey, at this point I'm used to it, it's rained on pretty much every family trip I've ever been on in my life) and had a great day.

we found a beach on the way to Dingle and we all know I'm a sucker for sand and water - even when I have to wear a hat and gloves when I'm standing on the beach

see, told you, more sheep. but the point of this picture is all the fields marked by the walls - those walls are made of rocks that were cleared out of the fields. an amazing number of rocks!
our favorite pub in Dingle - we came here for music the first night

a view of the waterfront pubs at sunset - there really are as many pubs in Ireland as they show in the movies

random side of a pub on the peninsula - apparently a famous soccer player owns this

Sandor and I beside a ring fort...in the rain

beehive huts - as you can tell there are a lot of artifacts on the peninsula. it's amazing walking through things that were built over 2000 years ago!

random sheep checking us out

Sandor in the field - we had a few breaks in the rain so we took advantage of them and walked in the wet grass down to to cliffs

according to Rick Steves, this is the prettiest view on the drive...not so much for today

Sandor checking out the road ahead of us

road signs in Gaelic

one of the unexplained stone pillars along the way - cool design on it!

the chicken outside one of the very first churches built - if you haven't heard the chicken story we'll save that for another day :)

the inside of one of the newer (but not that new as you can see) churches

variety of headstones in the cemeteries - lots of celtic crosses!

After 2 days in Dingle we headed north up the coast with our ultimate destination being a night in a castle! Driving out of Dingle we through Connor Pass, which is a VERY narrow road that has a few areas you can pull to the side of the road to let other people pass - quite an experience! Going on the recommendation of our B&B owner we stopped at an overlook and climbed up a non-existent path to a cute little lake.

Connor Pass
the road behind us - a bit narrow and winding

ahh, frog sex! apparently we were there in prime breeding season. we realized half way up that in between every rock were either mating frogs or puddles full of their eggs

view from the top - at this point it was still on and off rain

us in the clouds

Sandor by the lake

me on the way back down to the car

Up next was the Cliff of Moher. We were impressed with the cliffs, but not the tourist trap that surrounded them. We also saw a section of the coast called the Burren which is extremely rocky and looks completely different than where we had been. Granted the entire island is rocky. I see why they can't grow much on it. They have fences and houses and forts and everything you can imagine made of rocks that were taken out of the farming fields and there are usually still some rocks in the farming fields. Hence they raise sheep. Lots and lots and lots of sheep. Really I was quite obsessed with the sheep within a few hours of being in the country. I think we have 100 pictures of just sheep.

taking a trip across the Shannon Estuary

this is a random town we got lost in for a good 10 minutes because the single sign pointing to the road we needed was missing. so after trying every road in the entire town we found where we were supposed to go. good picture though :)

Cliffs of Moher
more cliffs - the little castle looking thing is not real, but makes for a good picture

yes the cliffs were rather impressive

old church and fence in the Burren

close up of the fence - the rocks here were laid vertically but the ones in Kerry County (where Dingle was) were laid horizontal - interesting random thing we noticed

crazy, eh? they aren't sure what this was used for - although they assume burial, but it was huge

what the ground looked like here - pretty wierd
another castle by the side of the road :)

Onward north we headed that day to OUR CASTLE! Yes, we upgraded one night stay from the B&B's to a castle. And a glorious castle it was. We stayed in Ashford Castle and really did get treated like a king and a queen. There were robes and slippers waiting for us, a bathroom about as big as our bedroom with one of those showers that feels like it's raining on you, and a view that was amazing. In the morning I went out for a quiet morning walk and took some pictures. It was beautiful.

our HUGE bed and robes

this was our TV screen when we arrived

the lane that leads around the property

view from one side of the castle to the other. our room was on the 4th floor above that bush with the yellow on the top

front view - it was daffodil season!

my aunt gave me some of my cousin's ashes to put in Ireland - daffodils always remind me of her and I was searching for a perfect castle spot - so this was the answer!

abbey outside of the castle in the town named Cong

there were tons of graveyards outside the old churches and abbeys

walking through the woods behind the abbey - this was the monk's fishing spot

we searched for some time for this stone circle thing, but finally found it. you had to walk through a random person's field to do it, but there was a break in the field to let you in so we figured we were allowed

That day we drove around the section of the country called Connamera, a strange empty place where you can drive for an hour without seeing anything but sheep. That night we planned to stay in Galway. THAT was an adventure. Galway is not a huge town but much bigger than anything else we had stayed in at that point. So between Sandor needing to drive on the left side of the road while shifting with his right hand and making sure to go around the round abouts the correct way, and me attempting to navigate us through a town that has no rhyme or reason to where streets start and end, and every street changes names after a few feet so none of them are labelled, it was a fiasco. Needless to say, after using every skill I have ever gained through travelling I finally figured out how to get us the info we needed, get us to the B&B and successfully checked in for the night. The next morning we got up and visited the market, wandered around a bit and headed out - moving back south this time.

a look at Crough Patrick - there was a sign that said it took 2 hours to hike. ladies and gentlemen I've been to a mountain that was scarier than that and I can say there is no way that takes 2 hours to hike! try 4 or more likely 6

a statue commemorating the emigration as a result of the potato famine

my favorite irish friends hanging out on the side of the road

lone little sheep walking to nowhere
another potato famine memorial - Connemera was one of the worst hit areas

Sandor and I at Kylemore Abbey

Ireland does not have a shortage of picturesque places!

I loved how the clouds were reflecting on the lake
Galway is the place to go as a musician looking for some work, so there is great music just walking down the street - these were my favorite
fresh fish at Galway market

We drove back down the coast to the Rock of Cashel - an old church on top of a huge rock outcrop. That was a fun afternoon and the one tour we took from people rather than on our own. It was a gorgeous view from up there!

Rock of Cashel from the road

inside looking up
it was amazing how big this place was! one random fact, there was a tiny slit way up top where lepers could watch mass from so that the congregation didn't see them
looking down the hill on an old abbey

lots of celtic crosses - I love it!

looking down on the town of Cashel

Sandor looking cute :)

random castle built into the street front - we actually ate dinner there

The next day we did Dingle peninsula - take 2...

this is what it looks like when it's sunny out!

not a bad view, eh?

random fort with fields in the background

we walked down to that beach on this trip around

not something you want to fall onto

Dingle harbor - we met one of the sailors in a pub one night. he was obsessed with the fact I was a marine biologist and asked me all sorts of questions about fisheries management in the US - he was hilarious (from what I could understand of his conversation - the accent was a tad thick, very much everything you'd expect of an Irish fisherman)