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.