Ireland: Part III

Sunday: Leaving Falmore and Meeting David's relatives
Sunday morning we had a liesurely breakfast with Geordy, Diane, and Diane's other sister, Lori. And then David and I were off to drive all the way to Leitrim to meet some of his distant relatives. His parents have met up with them several times at this point, so they opened the door for David and I to meet them as well.

On the way out of town, we stopped and took some pictures of the tower that was down a bit from our cottage, as well as some pictures of the road up to the cottage. I need to include a couple of them here. Because you have to see what the road to our cottage really looked like! Check it out:





Ok ok...so not really. But each one of us who came up the way saw this dirt and rock road heading off to the left and thought "no way -- is THAT the place we're supposed to veer left to get to the cottage" and freaked out a bit. Geordy's reaction was "oh no...no way...I'm going back NOW." Jacqui's was "oh come ON, this can't be right!" Luckily, David and I were spared the freak out because Jacqui had met us on the road and we followed her.

Anyway, we headed off and hauled it all the way to Leitrim. We stopped briefly in Donegal town again and had a quick lunch at the coffee house. The trip down took a bit longer than we had estimated and we were unable to find a B&B before meeting his family.

We found them easily enough and they were warm, wonderful, welcoming people. Plus they had a beautiful black lab named Ranger. Susan, who is the matriarch of the family (at 82) was a spritely little woman with a heart of gold. Tom, the bachelor of the family (at a few years older than David) was an absolute sweetheart. They drove us around the area and showed us where David's relatives were from, including his direct descendents (his great grandfather and grandmother), Harry Deacon and Mary Coyle. Apparently Mary was the daughter of the constable and she fell in love with Harry, who was their gardener -- totally inappropriate for the time. They eloped and left for America. Interesting story and rather romantic! We also got to see where another relative of David's, Jenny Deacon, had lived. She apparently was never married. She was engaged, but he broke it off, and she never ever was with anyone else. Sad story.

We also made it over to Mohill, where Carolan was from, and saw the memorial statue that was put up not too long ago. Unfortunately, we didn't have our cameras with us for all of this, so we never got pictures.

After being shown around, we retired to Susan's place again, where she plied us with tea and cakes until we were stuffed and could have no more! Then a few other of his relatives showed up (a lovely couple -- Richard, who is a distant relative, and his wife Ann). We chatted for awhile and around 10pm, David decided we needed to head out to find a place to stay (unfortunately, at this hour, our only hope was the hotel in town). Well, Richard and Ann would have none of THAT. They offered us a room at their place, which we couldn't say no to. We headed off with them to their place and dropped our stuff off. I got to meet their dog Andy (who had gotten into a fight with some other dogs and tried to escape, only to run into a huge metal spike -- he had to have stitches...poor thing!).

They took us out to a local pub and there was this older guy with a schmancy keyboard singing all sorts of songs with a cheesy beat to them -- from old Irish songs to country songs. It was crazy fun. We chilled out and watched him and the people dancing for awhile. And then I stepped out to go to the restroom and when I return, David's on stage singing! I missed the fun and surprise. Bah. Richard and Ann gave a note to the guy apparently and he invited David up to sing. He chose Long Black Veil, because it seemed appropriate to the venue...and once the guy settled in and figured out the chords, it sounded great!

We ended the evening shortly thereafter and David and I had a lovely rest in their guestroom.

View pictures from Day 7.

Monday: Longford, Boyle, and Michael Coleman
We woke up at a decent hour and Richard and Ann served us a nice traditional Irish breakfast -- damn were we eating good on this trip!! After that, we headed off to Longford to tromp around for a bit. Our main goal in going there was to stop at Johnny Keenan's widow's shop. It was supposed to open at 11am, so we went there at 11am, then wandered around because it wasn't open, then back around 11:30am, still not open, and finally took one last drive by it around noon. She never opened. Oh well. In the meantime, David found a great tunebook and I bought a couple silly coasters (one with a banjo and one with a whistle).

We parted ways from Ann and Richard shortly after we got back to the house. And then we were on our way to Ennis.

But first...before Ennis...we had to head up to Gorteen to see the Michael Coleman Centre. It was a pilgrimmage of sorts (for those who don't know who Michael Coleman is, he was a great Sligo fiddler who left for Ireland, landed in NY, and made a lot of recordings in the middle part of this century).

On the way there, we passed by the Boyle Abbey and decided we needed to stop and check it out. Absolutely lovely place. We took some gorgeous pictures of the Abbey, felt sad that such a place of beauty had been disbanded and then turned into a military barracks, and then we were on our way.

We tromped around the Centre for a little while. I bought a few more CDs, as did David (and he also bought another tune book). We were still disappointed though that they didn't have the Breathnach tune book he was looking for (volume 5 in the series -- he already has 1-4). But we did get a lot of great stuff!

We also visited the monument they had put up in Coleman's honour. And while I was there taking pictures of it, David suddenly said "We have friends." The "friends" were two beautiful and super friendly white dogs who fell all over themselves to get attention from us. The smaller one was prone to rolling over to get belly rubs, the bigger one was prone to jumping on you to get attention. They were adorable and SO sweet. They ended up following us to the car and so we had to distract them in order to get out of there and not hurt them. I did manage to take a couple pictures of them and it turns out that David took a few pictures of me playing with them. Oops. I don't want to see those pictures!

From there, we stopped by the replica of the cottage he would have lived in, took some pictures even though we knew it wasn't the REAL cottage. The guy that was there who was working on the visitor's center, said that the real one was down the road and off to the right. We think we saw it, but it was too hidden to take any pictures. Oh well. We did see some signs to Killavil (a couple famous tunes are named for Killavil) and so we decided to just drive through there since it was only 1k away. And what did we find? A memorial to Fred Finn, another great fiddler. How strange that we should stumble upon that!

And then, finally, it was time to head off to Ennis, our last stop on the journey (*sniff sniff*). The drive there was fairly easy since we were on major roads all the way through. It only got a bit hairy when we arrived in Ennis and headed to town centre. But we survived that easy enough. After driving around a bit, we found a lovely bed and breakfast (which we drove past and then David insisted we should turn around because that place was our "destiny"), and headed into town for dinner. We ended up at the Old Ground Hotel, which the woman had recommended, and had a lovely dinner of fried plaice and salmon. David got his last couple beers in Ireland and then we headed off to wander the town a bit. We did FINALLY manage to find a session going on, but of course, our instruments were in the B&B, so we didn't go back to get them. Sadness. But on the good side, we found Custy's shop, so we knew where to return to the next morning!

We headed back to the B&B around 10pm and crashed for the evening. Our last night in Ireland. It was very sad. But David and I got very mushy and sweet and chatted for a bit about how wonderful the entire trip was.

View pictures from Day 8.

Tuesday: Ennis and the trip home
Ah...our last morning in Ireland! *sniffs* We woke up, well-rested, and had our very last traditional Irish breakfast out in the dining room. The food was fantastic and we got chatting with a nice couple from Australia who seemed to feel a little too sorry for Bush.

We packed up everything, cleaned up the inside the car, and then headed back into Ennis. Our first stop was Custy's shop, where I bought a couple more CDs and David finally found the Breathnach book he was looking for. We eyed some lovely instruments -- a beautiful deep-shelled bodhran and some lovely banjos. And then were on our way wishing we had a lot more money than we do!

We ended up at the Ennis Friary and took a lot of beautiful photos. And then, sadly, we had to leave Ennis to head to the aiport. *sigh*

The drive down was easy and we marvelled at how different we felt coming INTO the airport than we did going out just 8 days earlier. We dropped our car and bid it a sad farewell.

And then we took our last breath of Irish air and were into the airport.

The lines were a bit long and we felt a bit rushed, but we managed to get onto the plane in good time. The trip felt REALLY long this time, but it wasn't a bad flight overall. We listened to some music, edited some photos, and were generally terribly mushy (no doubt to the annoyance of those around us).

We landed at 4:30pm and were greeted by David's parents who were nice enough to come pick us up. And then we were back to Vermont, where we had a nice light dinner and went to bed very very tired and rather sad to be home.

The next day we went on a fruitless search for a CD and then drove back to Syracuse. We spent part of the evening with my parents -- the presents were a big hit, then went out to dinner at Kitty's (of course!), and spent some time with my roommate before collapsing into bed.

I have to admit the one thing that amazed me both coming and going was that the jet lag just never affected me. I changed times easily, so now I know I won't have a problem the next time we go...which might be next year. ;-)

View pictures from Day 9.

Thanks everyone for reading all of this if you did! It was a truly magical trip and one David and I won't ever forget.

Ireland: Part II

Thursday: Poison Glen, Glenveagh, and Colmcille
The day started off well -- a lovely Irish breakfast made by Diane, some good conversation, and then the group of us were off to town for a little bit. Jacqui went shopping at the 2nd hand store and found some nice sweaters, David and I mailed off some postcards, and then we all picked up some fish for the evening's meal. Luckily, Jack was also in town and he directed me right into a store that sold luggage. I found a large wheeled duffel bag for only 22 Euros. So that was a good amount of weight off my shoulders. Then we saw a bank and I thought I'd try my card yet again -- no luck. I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but past the Shannon airport, I haven't been able to get any money out. It was a huge stress on me -- I feel very poor. And I'm borrowing money off David for everything. He doesn't mind, but I do -- I hate having to do that. Geordy ended up taking me into the bank, where the woman eventually offered to essentially use my card as a credit card and give me a few hundred Euro. Unfortunately, it was declined. We began to get worried that they had frozen my account due to "suspicious activity" (read: I'd never been to Ireland before). I was really upset, though David kept telling me he'd take care of me.

At any rate, after town, we headed off to Glenveagh -- a lovely place with a beautiful lake, a large herd of deer (which we didn't get to see), and a more modern castle. On the way, we stopped to take some pictures of the Poison glen (apparently named because the Irish word for poison is close to the word for another word like shaded or something and it was mistranslated). We then wandered around the garden at Glenveagh, which ultimately didn't interest me much (David ended up telling me he wasn't as interested in the sculptured garden as the beauty of natural foliage -- me neither!), then took the tour of the castle (in which Geordy asked way too many questions and teased the poor tour guide a bit too much). It was an interesting place, but a bit modern as it was given over to the government in the 80's. We did discover the tour guide was a fiddler of sorts and tried to talk her into coming to Dungloe to play some tunes with us, but she seemed rather hesitant. I don't think she'll be showing. Ah well.

From Glenveagh, we went to see Colmcille's monastery and his birthplace. Lovely places. We visited the Holy Well, where you're supposed to be healed of your ailments (unfortunately, it seems that didn't work). It's so fascinating seeing all the old graves and crosses, treading ground where so many have gone before. While I don't feel such a connection to the old christian relics, I still find them absolutely amazing. I can almost hear the old chants when walking through them.

We headed through a little town called Churchill, named not because of Winston, but likely because it's a hill with a big church on it. We managed to stop there for me to make my phone call and because Jacqui needed to hit a restroom. I finally got Solvay Bank on the phone and found out they had deposited my money into the wrong account, so I had very little in my checking. Gah! They transferred over money on the phone, which was sweet of them, so I should be able to get money out now. With that stress gone, I was able to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

We drove through the country roads to get back to Dungloe, rather than hitting the N56. What was amazing about this was that we actually drove through some of the most phenomenol scenery I've ever seen. And it was entirely abandoned. Not a soul there, not even a bird or sheep or cow. Just...nothing but stripped mountains. And old abandoned cottages. I really cannot describe the sadness inherent in this place. These people left their homes, tore down the roofs, burned things, and all went away to America during the Famine. Entire villages of people. It was haunted. I wished we could have gotten out to walk to the cottages and pay homage to these people. How many made it to America? How many didn't? It boggles the mind to imagine how hard life must have been for these people to leave in such a way...in droves. All going one by one until the village was dead. And no one else settled here. The cottages have been left as a tribute to people long gone. Someday, perhaps, some of their relatives will return to see where their distant relatives once lived, loved, worked.

We did get a chance to stop and take pictures of some of the scenery, so I'm glad to have that at least, but still...I wish we could go back up that road and take pictures of these sad, old villages. But really -- it's something you'd have to see live to imagine. If you're ever up in the north, go to Churchill and take the road to Dungloe. You'll never be the same.

We did run into a little bit of a problem when we stopped -- Jacqui and Patrick were in a fight, which meant there was a lot of tension going on.

We finally arrived back at Dungloe around 7pm, got a few supplies at the supermarket, and then headed back to have dinner. Jacqui disappeared and things were still rather tense. Definitely not the happiest moments of the trip. At any rate, dinner was finally together and WOW was it great! Diane cooked up the cod we had picked up with a little flour and it had a nice, light, fresh taste. She also made champ, which is so delicious. Wonderful food, great company.

We retired to the living room to sit around the peet fire and talk. Finally, around 11:30pm people crawled off to bed. David and I ended up having a very intense conversation about how I'd been feeling with all the stress. He was worried about things and felt like I wasn't having a good time and he needed to make sure I still loved him as much. The conversation did end well and things were resolved, but he was worried. Traveling can be such a terrible stress on people!

Ultimately, I think the tension between Jacqui and Pat really got to people. Everyone was a bit miserable and uptight that night. We all felt on edge. This was definitely the low point of the trip.

View pictures from Day 4.

Friday: Around the cottage and music at the Corner pub
Friday began ok to some degree. We were doing well until Jacqui got up and joined us. Poor Jacqui. We're really not sure what to do about her. She was still in tears that morning and she and Patrick decided to get going that day instead of sticking around until Sunday. Everything was still so tense with her it was unbelievable. And then she said entirely the unthinkable -- she said that the night before she felt completely left out of the conversation, like she was being ignored, and then went on to say she felt like that at session! That everyone played above her level and didn't pay any attention to her. So not only did she insult Geordy's wonderful hospitality, she also insulted all of us from session who have tried to help her along all the time, who ask her for a song, who offer to help her out with chords and guitar and banjo and bodhran. I have to admit, I was offended, and a bit angered for Geordy. He went so far out of his way to make us all feel comfortable there, to provide a warm place in a beautiful country, and feed us the entire time. It was lovely. And she was horrible about it.

At any rate, they finally left, and we could all breathe a sigh of relief. Geordy, David, and I headed to town for a short bit. David finally got his Donegal tweed cap and we managed to briefly be able to check e-mail, When we got back, we discovered we were having some problems with water, so David and I were off to the spring (that no one knew where it was) to try to get some fresh water for tea. Of course, we got a bit sidetracked and headed all the way down toward the ocean across fields of stone and grass. It was a hard but lovely walk down to the coast. We took a lot of beautiful pictures of the area. On the way back up, we ended up lost a bit, though heading in the right direction. We crossed over right by this thatched-roof cottage that a Scotman had bought and was redoing. What a lovely home!

We did finally find the well, though it turned out that behind the house we were near there was a spigot and we should have used THAT, and retrieved some water for the house. Of course, by the time we got back, they were already making tea from water from the bathroom faucet (which was apparently ok). Oops.

Tea was nice and relaxing, but everyone was ready to head off for another walk. This time we headed up the road to the top of the hill and then over a bit. It was a tough walk, very steep at times, but absolutely breathtaking. The highlight was seeing another famine cottage and this time actually getting to be up close to it. We spent a lot of time being contemplative there, walking around within it, touching the walls, and wondering who the people were and if they made it out of Ireland ok. There was a lot of sadness in that old burned out cottage.

The walk back down was much easier than getting up there and I spent much of the walk back chatting with Diane while Geordy and David hung back and chatted. Just a wonderful time!

By the way, in some of the pictures we took, you'll see a small island off in the middle -- that's Roan Inish, for those of you who have seen the movie.

After a lovely dinner, we headed down into Dungloe to hit the pub that Jack and lined up us playing at. WHAT A TIME. We first walked in and there was a bunch of people in the front room watching the World Cup game. I was rather nervous that we would be interrupting their game, so we headed back into the lounge and the pub owner (a lovely woman named Ann) said we were welcome to play there if that was what we were comfortable with. The game was on back in there too, but an interesting and very funny young man named John insisted on turning it off for the musicians.

We took up playing some tunes and things started off slowly. But then once we got really into things, and started singing some songs, people came out of the woodwork to listen and join in. Many of the locals started songs or made requests. And once Jack got there things just went crazy. With he and Geordy, it was like a competitions of songs that David and I just happened to accompany.

The pub owner was SO generous and brought as much as we could drink and she wouldn't take a cent for it. The locals had a blast and we only packed it in after the garde came around to close the pub down. Oops!

And of course, it was such a wonderful night that Jack and Martin invited us up to their place for tea and toast. We stayed there until shortly before 3am and then finally crawled off to bed. This night David and I actually had our very own bed and it was LOVELY sleeping in that room!

View pictures from Day 5.

Saturday: Rossbeg and Ardara
Saturday was a nice and relaxing day. After a late breakfast with Geordy and Diane, we were off to do a little bit of driving in the area. David wanted to hit Ardara and we decided to try to find another dolman out in that direction. And find it we did! The Kilclooney Dolman was situated out in the middle of a field. We saw a path leading out toward it and so stopped. Except the path ended in a very boggy field. We got back in the car and drove around...and around...and around, thinking there HAD to be another way to it. Unfortunately, we were never able to find one and so instead we ended up out at Rossbeg and got a chance to take some pictures of a very pretty beach. And I finally got to go stick my hand in the ocean! :-)

And then we made it down to Ardara. And the trip got even weirder. We walked into this little store that sold a lot of knitted goods -- wool and other materials. The owner, this crazy man named Hugh, who had already spent a fair amount of time in the pubs, came out and told us to not mind the prices because he just "makes them up." I ended up deciding to buy a scarf for my roommate and sweaters for my mother and I (the sweater for my mother was actually picked out by David). As we were coming up to the front, we got chatting with Hugh, who seemed to have a bit of a hankering for David, I must say. He kept touching him and grabbing him by the shoulder, and then saying things about how I was trying to drag him off (typical woman and all that). He ended up charging us only 80 Euro for the whole thing (the sweaters were 60 and 40 and the scarf was 18)...but then remarked the sweaters at 200 and filled out the VAT form so I was getting back 82! I not only got them for free, I got paid an extra 2 Euro for them! Great man and it really made our afternoon.

We headed back after that, picked up some cod for dinner, and then had a really nice relaxing night at home with Geordy, Diane, and Diane's sisters (one of which got totally clocked that night and was SO funny). David ended up doing his "girlfriend" thing because of our run-in with Hugh. We laughed, joked around, chatted, and the tenseness from whole Jacqui thing was long gone, though she was still the subject of some conversation.

David and I made up a bed on the floor again and had a lovely night spent there by the peet fire.

View pictures from Day 6.

Ireland: Part I

Sunday: Getting there
We arrived at the airport around 4:30pm and in my frantic rush to get to a restroom (damn diet coke!), I almost left my purse behind. Eek! Read: no passport, no money, no ATM card. Luckily, I got back right before David's parents were taking off and we rescued it. Phew. Seriously close call. Getting through security, as always, was a bundle of joy. *sarcasm* I got a little peeved with David because he's so overly cautious. I was horrified that these people actually took those special crutches (the type people with polio often use I think?) away from a handicapped man and made him walk of his own volition through the security point. They didn't even offer him a hand! David got freaked out that somehow this would mark me as a terrorist -- or something. Yeesh. We got through fine, but my sugar was low from stress and I was a bit pissed off. I hate security in the airport. I really do. It does nothing to prevent "terrorism" and all it does is make normal law-aviding people feel like criminals and bugs. The people are just total assholes. So why should I be nice to them? I certainly wasn't. But oh well. We made it through just fine.

The flight over was uneventful. I discovered that, despite many people's claims to the contrary, airline food is pretty good. They even had a light cheesecake for dessert.

We dozed on and off for a couple hours, maybe got a few 20 minute catnaps in the middle there. Let's just say, we essentially skipped an entire night of sleep. We landed around 6:30am (read: 1:30am EST) and got through customs (easy!) and got our luggage. This was where a bit of trouble started. I opened my bag to check and see how the bodhran fared. And then the zipper broke. My bag was wide open and we had no way of closing it. *sigh* That made things a bit more of an adventure than we would have liked.

Monday: The Burren
Getting the car was simple. Driving -- not so much. But we managed to do it fairly calmly. We ended up with a Nissan Micra (think Geo Metro and then go a bit smaller!). Tiny car, but enough room for us. The drive out of the airport was a bit nervewracking, but we made it around several roundabouts and onto the main highway without too much difficulty. Amazingly, except for a few moments, I was fairly calm and David did brilliantly!

Our first plan was to head off to the Burren and see what was there, then perhaps find a place to stay, crash for a couple hours, wander around whatever town we were in, and then crash for the night.

This first got waylaid when we missed the turn for R480 and continued on R476 toward the Cliffs. We passed RIGHT by them and decided, what the hell, let's go to the cliffs. We had heard they were way too touristy right now, but since we arrived there around 9am, we were practically the only ones there. Well, us and the bus of German tourists who pulled in right after us. After warming up a bit inside and getting bundled up (it was cold, dismal, and misty -- just as Ireland should be!), we headed up the long trail to the cliffs. They were AMAZING. I can't even describe the beauty of them. I have pictures -- but they're just something you have to see (I discovered this about most of the things we saw this day). As we were coming down to part of them, I thought there was a dead animal laying nearby. Some kids kind of reached out and touched it and it didn't move. I was very sad -- until suddenly a beautiful doggie sat up. Very strange dog though -- it just huddled there and curled into a ball. We weren't sure if it just wanted attention, wanted to be left alone, or was sad and miserable. People petted it, but there wasn't much response. Very odd. I did take a couple pictures of it though!

We got up to the far part of the cliffs and sadly, weren't supposed to go any further. Like so much of America, they're paring back on allowing people free reign at dangerous places. Oh well. We snapped a few more pictures on our way back and then headed into the gift shop for tea (and hot cocoa) and a snack.

Then it was time to head off again.

Our first stop was Doolin, which was a really tiny town that we did no more than drive through. And then we turned around and drove BACK through on our way to Lisdoonvarna (and I sang the tune on the way there -- David was amused and yet said "ok have you gotten that out of your system now?"). We stopped briefly there and took some pictures of the musician statues (a fiddler and a bodhran player) and a very lovely old church.

And then we were off to Kilfenora (of Kilfenora Ceili Band fame). This was, besides the cliffs, our first main stop. Absolutely lovely town! We wandered around a bit, saw the visitor's center (read: boring), and then wandered around a 6th century church and monastery there. We took some fanastic pictures and got to see the famous Kilfenora crosses there. Unfortunately, again, we were not alone here. A couple buses of tourists (some from the southern USA) were there. Ugh. They get in the way all the time and don't seem to have any real appreciation for the place. Just walking through some of the ancient grave sites and touching the stones is amazing. The pictures are more for posterity, so I can relive it later. They just wanted to take pictures and get in the way of everything. Ah well.

We wandered around trying to decide where to have lunch. We figured they would all head to Vaughan's, since it's a big place for tourists. So we had lunch at a lovely little pub called Linnane's (which also had big signs saying "Kitty's Corner," which made it too good to resist). It turned out to essentially be the home of the Kilfenora Ceili Band. Who knew? We saw a lot of pictures of the group around, and many of which prominently featured Tommy Peoples (one of its former members and a very amazing Donegal fiddler). Lunch was lovely -- David had a nice ham sandwich (and his very first glass of Guinness in Ireland!) and I had some soup and brown bread. Amazing little pub that was. Those were all they offered for lunch there and it was just perfect! As we were leaving, we got chatting with the owner and happened to say something about Tommy Peoples. He says "You know Tommy Peoples?" and we explained that we love his fiddle style and his music, but we've yet to see him in performance nor meet him. It turned out that the owner was Tommy Peoples's brother-in-law! Go figure. Nice man and it was neat to hear about how Tommy sat right in the very seats we sat and played in that dark little corner for 10 years there. What an amazing moment! I almost didn't want to leave Kilfenora. But alas, it was time to head out of there. We bid the owner farewell and were on our way.

After a bit of confusion, we managed to find the R480 that took us into the Burren. Our first stop directed us quite a bit off the beaten path (perfect!). We saw signs for the Poulawack Cairn, and since my main interest in being there was the ancient sites, we headed up to see it. This was the most amazing place we visited this day. Part of the reason was that the tourists weren't there. You had to climb up this hill littered with limestones (they were everywhere -- it's a site you just cannot imagine until you see it). We first saw a small cairn there, took a bunch of pictures, but left it alone as I felt we should. We traipsed across all these stones to get out to the main part of it -- the mound. It was quite a journey to get all the way back there, but I felt we had to. Two other hardy souls were there and they left as we approached. We had the place to ourselves for awhile. We explored it a bit, took some fantastic pictures, and then left as a couple others were approaching. We chatted with them for a bit -- found out they were kindred souls from Australia, and then left them to the cairn.

(I found some more information on the Cairn on this page.)

After climbing down (a whole other adventure), we were on our way again. The next stop was an interesting stone fort. The only problem is that it was a tourist spot and therefore totally overdone. In a way, they ruined it a bit, but it was interesting to read about what the place had been many centuries ago. And we also found out that the mound we had visited was somewhere around 3500 years old. Pretty amazing stuff.

We did get a chance to see the megalithic tombs as our last hurrah for the day. Amusingly, I thought it would be MUCH bigger (like Stonehenge sized) from the pictures we had seen. I turned out to be much smaller, yet still amazing.

On our way up to our final resting place for the day, we took some pictures of the limestone mountains (amazing structures) and I took a silly one out the front window of the car, and then we finally arrived in Kinvarra. This is a lovely little town situated in the very south of Galway right in a little nook on the coast of Galway Bay. We found a nice B&B to stay at and then had dinner at a local pub (great food and lovely atmosphere -- they even had a jig drawn on the wall), and then we finally came back and collapsed for the night. We slept WELL. It was nice waking up the next morning finally feeling rested!

I'm still amazed at how much we did the first day. We were going from 6:30am when we landed right up until about 9pm when we got back from dinner and headed to bed. What a first day!

View pictures from Day 1.

Tuesday: Galway, Mayo, and Sligo
I think this was on Tuesday. How easily I've lost track of time and days. *sigh* It's Wednesday morning as I write this and two days of this lovely trip are already gone. Wow.

We woke up to a lovely breakfast in Kinvarra -- you're typical Irish breakfast: sausage, eggs, bacon, and beans, plus some delicious brown bread, OJ, and tea. It was filling and the perfect thing to start off another long adventurous day.

Our first goal was to get to see Yeats' tower and Lady Gregory's estate. On the way there, across yet another tiny country road, we came across other places that warranted stopping. The first was a lovely ruined castle out in the middle of a field of sheep. The second was an old church near Kiltartan. Since the cemetary there was still active, we were able to get onto the grounds to explore a bit more and take some nice photos of it. These old churchs and ruined castles, farmhouses, and cottages are simply everywhere out there. It's amazing. We passed by many more throughout the morning, but were unable to stop anywhere near them to take pictures.

We finally got to Kiltartan and found the museum, but opted at that point to first head to Yeat's tower. What a fascinating place! And this one we got to actually go into. After the (somewhat boring) audio-visual presentation, we were set free inside the tower. We climbed around, took several pictures, went up the crazy narrow winding staircase (if you read Yeats', and I've read very little at this point, you can see some of his inspiration in this tower), went through the living area, their bedroom, and a few other rooms. We ended up on the battlements looking out over the scenery of Kiltartan. Just amazing! It would be such an inspiration as an artist to live there, to see that, to have ACCESS to see such a scene. It was very easy to see why Yeats fell in love with the place. The only problem with it was that it was damp -- very damp. Which meant there were a few too many arachnids around. So much for David's theory that there aren't that many in Ireland! *shudders*

Next on our list was Coole Park, the home of Lady Gregory's estate. Lady Gregory was, according to David, a folklorist and a friend of Yeats. Yeats visited there often. David did his undergraduate thesis on Lady Gregory and Yeats, so it's been a dream of his for a long time to see the estate and Yeats' tower. With one down, we were off to explore the other. The park was absolutely lovely -- forested, which much of Ireland isn't (apparently Lady Gregory planted the forest there). we took a long walk in the woods that took us right down to Coole Lake. It was utterly beautiful -- rocks littered the beach, which isn't a site you see too often. And I don't mean little rocks. I mean boulders. We were only just a bit out of Co. Clare and the Burren, so there were still many limestone boulders to be seen at this point. Not quite as many as in the Burren, but they were still prominent. We sat by the lake for a little while, just enjoying the peace and quiet, and did manage to see a swan (i.e. the Wild Swans of Coole, which is a well-known Irish tune). We went in search of the autograph tree (a large tree signed by Lady Gregory and many of her friends), but didn't find it at that point.

The walk back was tiring, but felt great. I relaxed for a bit, while David explored the nearby horse pump. And then we went over to the old foundation of Lady Gregory's house (long since torn down) and the garden.

The garden was amazingly huge. When I think of gardens, I think of small spaces with lots of plants or flowers crammed into one space. This was a spatious place with plenty of grass and the trees, flowers, and bushes spaced far apart. We did manage to get to see the autograph tree at this point (we were wrong on where it was) and took a few pictures. We ended our time at Coole with drinks and snacks.

Then it was off to Galway. The drive there was nice and easy (the N17 is so much easier to drive on than the country roads). We hit Galway around 1:15pm, found a car park and headed out to the town. Unfortunately, we had to take a couple runs back -- once because I forgot the list Pat had given us and the second time because David thought his wallet was stolen! Luckily, it turned out that he had tossed it in a bag and forgotten that. Phew!

We perused the shops, had lovely fish and chips and McDonagh's (Pat's suggestion), got a pint at Murphy's (another suggestion), picked up a total of 10 CDs at Mulligan's and perused the used books at Charlie Byrne's. Lovely town and we enjoyed wandering around greatly!

We left around 6:30pm to head north into Sligo. Our plan was to stay around Sligo but we ended up north in Drumcliffe. No complaints there! We enjoyed a lovely dinner at the Yeats Tavern and found a B&B at the Yeats Lodge, a lovely place with a view of Benbulben and even some horses! After another long, successful day, we collapsed into bed and had a lovely long sleep.

View pictures from Day 2.

Wednesday: Yeats grave and on up to Dungloe
Wednesday dawned cold, misty, and rainy. What a disappointment! Instead of waking up to a lovely view of Benbulben, which we had fallen asleep to, we awoke to grey skies and no sign of the mountain. No pictures for us, so instead we began the day with an attempt to head into Sligo town in search of a new suitcase for me. Wow was THAT one a mistake. Besides the fact that it was clearly rush hour, Sligo was a complete mess with construction. In the end, we found our way back to the N15 and headed north. We stopped at what was supposed to be our last major spot on the trip up -- Yeats grave and the round tower.

The church was a lovely church from the 19th century, perhaps the latest building we had taken any pictures of. We found Yeats' grave easily enough and spent a little time contemplating the epithat. We also got a chance to get close up to the round tower (from the 10th or 11th century) and took some lovely photos of it. It's so fascinating to see these ancient ruins. They're just there -- on the side of the road. And they're everywhere. The entire time we've travelled so far, we've seen these things all over but haven't always been able to stop.

We did finally get a chance to take some pictures of Benbulben and took a nice walk down by the river. It was just a gorgeous area.

After a stop at the tea room (where David and I each bought another album), we headed off. We were going to head right up to Dungloe at that point, but David saw a sign to Glencar waterfall. People had been talking about it at breakfast and we decided we should head over to it. I'm so glad we did! The area was quiet, peaceful, and the landscape dramatic. We stopped at the side of the lake before we headed to the falls. This was just an amazing place. It's really hard to describe these places without just BEING there. It was so far away from civilization, so peaceful, perhaps one of the quietest places I've been, the only sound was from the man in the lake casting his fishing line.

We headed over to the falls after that -- another lovely place. We truly lucked out here as well. There were people around, but none of them were up at the falls when we were. The whole trip has been charmed in a way.

Then finally, after the falls, we headed off to Dungloe. The trip up was fairly easy. We started playing Donegal fiddle music once we hit Donegal. And then stopped in Donegal town for lunch. I discovered that, despite claims to the contrary, my ATM card is NOT working anywhere here. It worked great in Shannon and everywhere I've stopped since they've been telling me I've selected an invalid account. *sigh* So I have no real Euros on me and now I owe David money. Very frustrating. It's become a huge stress for me unfortunately.

After a lovely lunch at the Abbey Hotel of fish and chips (and so sorry Pat -- we didn't finish the chips...spud abuse, I know!), we made the final leg of the journey into Dungloe.

Unfortunately, when we got there, David and I were so stressed from the condition of the roads (very bumpy, narrow, and winding) that we got into a little tiff when I panicked over a car coming at us. *sigh* It meant when we arrived in Falmore (where we're really staying), I wasn't doing too well. We ran into Jacqui on the road. She and Pat were heading out to town and saw us coming up the way and they slowed down so Jacqui could jump out of the car (something that caused Pat to be mad at HER -- oops!). They led us up to the cottage which was WAY out of the way on a little winding one-way road. It was a crazy trip up and I'm not sure I want to go back DOWN! lol

After a nap, and some good talks with David, I felt much better. I took a shower and then joined in on the festivities. Perhaps the best part of this trip so far was that evening. Geordy and Diane had met the guys who live in the cottage a bit over from ours (I'd say next, but nothing is next over here). They were such an amazing joy. Jack and Martin -- a gay couple. Jack was in theatre and has since retired, but wow is the theatre still in him. He got into singing songs and he knows SO many -- from traditional Irish and Scottish to Stephen Foster and old American ballads. We spent the evening playing traditional tunes and all joining in the songs. Jack was amazingly funny and an absolute joy. We hope he'll come to the States sometime and he said he'd love to come out and stay with Geordy and Diane, but only after Shrub is out of office. They REALLY hate him over here -- it's nice to be among so many people who hate him as much as I do!

Jack finally indicated it was time for he and Martin to take off by singing the Parting Glass. Once they had kissed everyone on the cheek and left, we set up a bed on the ground in the living room and collapsed. It wasn't the most comfortable lodgings, but it was the best we could do. Unfortunately, a woman from the Westcott Center decided Geordy's tossed off invitation was meant for her and told him she was flying out here...for two weeks. Geordy's REALLY not happy with her being here. She's in poor health (heart problems) and has a hard time getting around. And he's just not sure what to do with her. Ultimately, the decision has been to just let her be and let her figure out what she can do.

Day 3 ended in a wonderful way. It was lovely to spend the evening with friends from home here in this little cottage far out in the wilds of Ireland.

View pictures from Day 3.