Day 6
The plan for the next day was to get up and head out toward the Yeats tower and make our way up to Galway. Once again, for the third day in a row, we awoke to bright blue skies. By this point, we were starting to get sunburned and desperately needed to find suntan lotion!
We headed out on the R476 first to Kilnaboy, where we stopped at an old church, and then made a detour to stop at a ruined tower we had passed before that fascinated us. It was basically chopped in half, with much of the stones buried under grasses now. What's left standing is dramatic to say the least, and is even more so because you can walk right up to it. I stepped into the shadow of that tower and looked up and just felt...something. A presence of sort. It was truly breathtaking. These old ruins always fascinate me...just how DOES something made of stone half collapse like that, what were the people like who lived there when it was whole? So many amazing thoughts go through your head in the presence of things like that tower.
Our next stop was the Kilmacduagh monastic site. We had passed it on our way through to the cottage a few days before, but hadn't had a chance to stop. It is made up of several buildings and churches, plus an intact round tower. Apparently it was built in the 7th century by St. Colman (not Michael!). We spent a fair amount of time wandering around and taking pictures. I'm always fascinated by how near these old ruins, just wandering around, are all sorts of livestock (in this case it was cows). David, Brandon, and Emily headed to one of the far churches while I decided to stick around and soak in the nice air. I got a VERY amusing video of David on his way back that I'll have to share at some point. ;-)
We finally made it over to the Yeats tower after this, and wandered the grounds for awhile. It turned out that the tower was not open yet, but we would be able to get into it on Friday as it opened June 1st. No worries! We got a lot of beautiful pictures from the outside and could wait to get into it.
We headed up into Galway city for the afternoon. Our plan was to get in and get to McDonagh's for fish and chips. We actually worked that out well and arrived at McDonagh's around 2pm (shortly after finding sunscreen -- man were we red by this time!). Fish and chips were as wonderful as last year (and apparently they've been voted the best in Ireland). We also managed to get to the used book store (Charlie Byrne's) and get a pint at Murphy's pub. But, sadly, we discovered that Mulligans (Pat's favourite music shop) had closed! We were so disappointed. That place had some AWESOME CDs. We did manage to find some good stuff at Powell's, but it just wasn't quite the same.
After viewing some of the buskers (some that were REALLY good) and hitting Dunnes stores so Emily could get a rain coat (we discovered that rain coats are cheap - €8, while sunscreen is NOT - €16 for a regular size bottle), we headed back south. We stopped briefly at Dunguaire castle near Kinvarra and then spent a bit more time at the Corcomroe Abbey (yes, we did finally make it there, though we had a few wrong turns as it wasn't marked well!). The Abbey itself was amazing -- the carvings were beautiful. Emily and I got fascinated with this little building (which turned out to be an old infirmary) and she climbed over the wall and into the field where it was. She actually decided to crawl INTO the building, which was totally overgrown (and got a bit of a rash on her hands from the nettles -- oops!). I went around the back and took a couple pictures of the inside, but didn't dare go inside. Of course, only after Emily went around into the field and into the building did we discover that the "cows" in the fields were not just cows, but bulls as well...and there was one REALLY BIG ONE. Oops. Luckily they didn't charge or anything!
Once we were finally done there, we got back to the cottage, and frantically put dinner on (Cornish pasties...yum!). Of course, I was running around quickly trying to do anything that I never noticed the computer cord across the ground and what did I do? Yeah that's right...I ran RIGHT INTO IT. And knocked the laptop on the ground. The laptop was just fine. But the power supply? Yeah...I fucked up the soldering job yet again, so we were only able to run it on battery power. D'oh! An easy fix, but we had to figure out what to do about backing up pictures. Luckily, with David's 80GB hard drive, a fully charged battery on the laptop, and Brandon's 60GB I-pod, we did just fine for the remainder of the trip. And it turned out to be a lot of fun getting to see pictures and videos when we got back in the states.
Day 7
When we woke up the next morning, it was FINALLY looking a bit more like Ireland. A little bit rainy, very dismal. It looked like the end of our streak of nice weather was over. This day promised to be a REALLY long day as we were heading all the way into the north of Mayo -- what should be a 2 1/2 hour trip at the very least (the way we drove, it took more like 4). We got on the road and shot straight up to a little town on the bay called Killala. By the time we got there, we had driven out of the rain and were back under blue skies and puffy white clouds. What luck! In Killala, we found a round tower, which we spent some time exploring, and then wandered over to the beach (which, like so many other times on this trip, was in low tide).
We had lunch in Killala -- more lovely fish and chips (though the cottage pie David had looked REALLY good). And then we were off to Ballycastle.
Ballycastle was our main goal for the day. Mike, one of my coworkers, has done SO much for David and I with fixing our computers, so we felt like it was something we had to do this time. His father came over to America from Ballycastle in 1929 (NOT a good year to come over obviously!) and Mike has never been back. We promised to go and take pictures of the town for him. And take them we did! David and I tromped all over town and took a TON of pictures (no doubt the locals were wondering why people were taking pictures of a town of less than 200!). We even managed to find a grave of someone who was probably a relative. It was interesting seeing the town and it was great knowing we would return with plenty of pictures to share. Overall, it was not exactly a remarkable town, but it was situated in a lovely little valley and so the area was quite picturesque.
Our next stop was the Ceidhe fields just up the road. This is an area of the country where, some time ago, it was discovered there was a whole network of stone walls and enclosures buried under the peat bog. Some of it has been excavated, but much of it has been simply marked off and let be (something we really appreciated). It was interesting seeing those areas they excavated and hearing the history of how it was discovered and what it is believed to be. This network of walls and evidence of people living there extends over several miles of bog. Someday I'm sure more will be discovered if people start to harvest the peat. But for now it's going to be left buried in time.
By the time we were done with the Ceidhe fields, it was starting to rain a bit and was about 5pm, so we decided to sadly forgo Westport and headed back to Kilfenora. After all, we couldn't miss the session we were dying to get to! The one session we really knew we wanted to join in on was at Bofey Quinn's in Corofin. It's well-known for being very friendly and welcoming. And was it ever! We were immediately welcomed in. They made a space for David and once I got my bodhran out, another man gave up his seat for me (wow!). That was really nice as I was sitting on the outskirts and dealing with some obnoxious tourist who kept leaning over me to take pictures and bumping into me while I played. I had a lovely time talking to the flute/guitar player next to me, a man named John. And an older gentleman behind me was a total sweetheart...he asked me if he could have some of my hair because "you see, I have none left." So cute! We just had a grand old time. And it got even better (um...funnier?) when the drunken French farmer showed up on the scene. He was first outside the circle of musicians with a drink in each hand (and he got Brandon and Emily to drink some of his drinks). That was pretty amusing (especially as we found out later he asked for Brandon's name, he told him, and his response was "Fuck the war in Iraq" -- um ok?). But then the piper decided to leave, which left his seat (right in the middle of the group) empty. Drunk French dude moved right in and started dancing. He took the seat and started turning around on it, imitating each musician as he came to them. And then he started joining in on songs! His rendition of the "yippey yippey yi" chorus to "She'll be comin' 'round the mountain" was HILARIOUS. As was his really off-key version of La Marseilles. Really, this is just something you HAVE to see on video. I'm thinking about possibily uploading it to youtube or something so others can share in the experience.
After the session petered off (probably mostly due to drunk French dude), we got to chat with this lovely whistler (who was reading from music -- yay!). She really enjoyed my bodhran playing and wanted me to tell the other bodhran players to play quieter. Most amusing. It was nice being the good bodhran player!
Once again, we braved the roads home late at night and immediately crawled into bed, totally exhausted.
Day 8
We awoke the next day to somewhat cloudly skies. But again, the trip was rather charmed when it came to weather. We decided to head south into Kerry this day. Our first goal was to get to Killimer, Co. Clare, so we could take the car ferry across into Kerry. We made good time to there and hopped on the ferry (we were very glad to find out this one only cost €25 roundtrip for the whole car). That was such an interesting experience. I've never been on a car ferry before, but it worked rather well. We got off of that only about a half hour later and were on our way into Kerry. By the time we got into Kerry, the clouds had cleared off and it was getting brighter again.
Our first stop was Tralee. I'm not entirely sure why David wanted to stop there, but it did work out rather well. We had a very nice lunch at a pub there, stopped at the bank, and moved on to the Dingle peninsula. Wow was I ever glad we went that way! I wasn't sure about it originally, since it was a good distance, but the drive was amazingly gorgeous. The famed Kerry mountains are just breathtakingly beautiful. We stopped a few times on the road to take pictures of the mountains and finally made it to Dingle. Dingle is a really cute picturesque town. We didn't get to do much more than get gas there and drive out past it to take a few more pictures. What we saw really just whetted our appetite for more exploring in Kerry. That very well may be the goal of our next trip.
We headed back in the hopes of making the ferry, though none of us were sure when the last one headed out. Of course, when you're feeling rushed, everything has to slow you down...like the tour bus that drove only about 50k on a 100k road. We made it back to the ferry just about 7pm and found out the ferry would leave at 7:30 -- talk about luck! We hung around there for a bit, enjoyed the nice breeze, and finally got on the ferry.
Our goal for the evening was to go into Kilfenora and see the Ceili dancing at Vaughan's. Unfortunately, the music wasn't provided by the Kilfenora ceili band, but rather by another great group called the Four Courts Ceili Band. Wow did they play fast! Pat (of the Kilfenora Ceili band) says he couldn't play that fast for that long! We were really into watching the dancers as they were fabulous. Brandon especially seemed to be totally into what they were doing. It was a nice relaxing evening of just kicking back, having something to drink, and watching dancing and listening to music. We left there around midnight and went back to the cottage to crash.
Day 9
Friday was yet another beautiful day. By this time we were really thinking the whole trip was just charmed. How else to explain so many days of nice weather? It seemed like the bad weather was heading where ever we were NOT. It went south the day we went north and north the day we went south. Just...odd. But we weren't complaining! ;-)
We decided to have another day on the Burren this day. But first we had to go check out the Kilfenora churches and the famed high cross. It would be very wrong to NOT go see that! We were lucky in that we totally missed the tourists. We got a chance to wander around in complete peace and quiet, get into the churches and see the crosses, without the tourists that showed up just as we were leaving. Brilliant timing! Charmed, I tell you. Charmed!
After Kilfenora, it was off to Yeats tower yet again (our third stop there -- once to see the tower, once to hit the restroom - something that would become a joke - and now to go into the tower). We headed straight in and had to deal with a couple other people, but they were mostly quiet and unassuming (in fact, we saw one of them at the airport the next day -- ironically, she was getting on the same flight). We did a quick wandering through the tower. Since I've been there before, I was glad no one really lingered TOO terribly long at it. It's interesting, but not totally fascinating. And today we had maps and were planning on checking out some harder to find sites on the Burren!
Our map had TONS of sites, but for some reason David and I latched onto two particular ones (Cahercommaun stone fort and the Temple Cronin). In a further ironic twist, they were rather close to each other. We were first searching for the Temple Cronin and having little luck. I had the sense it was further up the road than we had gone, but we kept driving around looking for it anyway. And lo and behold, we found the Cahercommaun stone fort. The walk to it was a 1k walk up some difficult terrain, but everyone was up for it. And it was well worth the climb to get to it. We wandered across more dangerous Burren terrain and made our way to a walkway that had been created to get around the side of the fort. There were some spectacular views up there, though we couldn't get inside the fort to look over the cliff it is situated on. To truly appreciate this fort, check out this arial view. The path takes you all the way around the outer ring (heading to the lower right side of the picture) and up above the inner ring. Just gorgeous!
After climbing back down, we again went in search of the Temple Cronin. Again...no luck. We did find a wedge tomb (marked Leaba Wedge tomb -- apparently also known as the Creevagh wedge tomb) and decided to hop out and explore (how could you pass up a wedge tomb?). We got out to it, again a grueling walk along some of the Burren, and were well rewarded by a lovely wedge tomb just out in the middle of a field. Brandon never joined us and when we got back out to him, we discovered he knew exactly where we were and how to get to the temple. Yay for his compass! So off we went and then we finally found the sign for the temple. Phew. I was happy to have found what David was looking for as well.
Of course, getting to the temple was an interesting experience. We first discovered we were doing nothing more than following the path made by a farmer's tractor. Brandon didn't think the path curved around to the left like that one did, so we ended up getting confused because the only way to go, the way it SHOULD be, was blocked off by an electric fence. But then Brandon realized there was a handle on it to remove a section of the fence so people could get through. I can't imagine many go that way! But go that way we did and we were rewarded with finding a lovely little ancient church complete with burial places of saints that people had pilgrammaged to for years. They were these sort of slab shrines that were set up in a triangular pattern. We found the one easily, but the other one was found again due to Brandon's compass and ability to tromp all over things to find it. It was just outside the stone wall, practically buried in weeds.
When we left, we left with sad hearts, realizing this was our last site for our trip. It was hard to leave that little church. Those last couple sites were lovely simply because they were SO untouched by people. They were overgrown and left to the elements. Those are my favourites sorts of things.
That evening we spent a little time cleaning up the cottage. David and I headed up to settle up with Mary and Pat and found ourselves invited in for a cup of coffee and cakes (plus I got to play with their lovely new Golden retriever, Lily). We talked a lot about music and that was great fun. There's nothing better than hanging with a member of the famed Kilfenora ceili band. He even had a first edition copy of O'Neill's book of tunes. What a neat thing to see! Both Pat and Mary were really wonderful people. Pat offered to pick us up stuff at Custy's if we needed it and ship it to us in the States. We hated to leave them, but we finally did around 9pm and then we headed to Bofey Quinn's for one last meal. By the time we got there, they were just serving pizza, but it was lovely pizza and a great least meal in Ireland. We went back to the cottage and crashed for our last night in Ireland.
Day 10
The next morning was finally looking like typical Irish weather: very rainy, very overcast. We got on the road at a decent hour and headed to Ennis, where we stopped at Custy's for the requisite CDs and books. Brandon bought some stepdancing videos -- he was REALLY into the ceili dancing. Brandon, Emily, and I bought David a Custy's t-shirt as a thank you for driving us all over Ireland. And then we headed to the airport.
For the most part, the airport was fine. The USA people added an extra layer of security which sucked. I made it just fine through the first one, but at the second (which no one was told about), some bastard Yank took my saline solution because it wasn't in the 1 quart bag. I pointed out that it says to specifically separate anything over 3oz and to NOT put it in the bag (which was verified on the website AND by two TSA agents) but he got really nasty and wouldn't let me show him the print out from the website. I'm guessing he just didn't want to look like an idiot. Um hello? TSA? LEARN YOUR OWN FUCKING RULES. I followed them and got burned by some fucking Yank bastard. Welcome back to America, eh? I hate police states.
At any rate, the flight back was uneventful. David and I were lucky enough to have an empty seat next to us, so we had more room to shove our bags underneath the seats and therefore more room to move around. Very nice! We watched a cute movie (Music & Lyrics, with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant) and just relaxed for the longish flight. His parents picked us up and we had a nice relaxing evening in Vermont before heading home the next day (poor David drove again!).
And so...here we are...back in the states...and ready to get our one-way tickets to Ireland!
View pictures from Days 6-9 here.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Ireland 2007: Days 4-5
Day 4
We were told that Sunday was going to be a total washout, so we went to bed Saturday night with the plan of taking our time Sunday morning and eventually making our way to Ennis. When David and I got up, it was bright sunlight! Once Emily and Brandon woke up, we decided we should get moving and head to the Cliffs of Moher. We figured we'd see as much outside stuff before the rain hit us.
We got out to the cliffs around 11am and after spending a little time in the gift shop headed out to them. It was a bit more packed with tourists this time, but it was still amazing. We first got to stop and listen to a German concertina player who was sitting on a bench near the entrance to the cliffs. She also happened to have her dogs with her -- a cute puppy of some sort and an older dog who looked like some sort of Yorkie on steroids. Then it was up to the Cliffs. We first headed in the direction David and I couldn't go last year -- they were working on something up near O'Brien's tower, so it was all closed off. We got some amazing pictures on our way up to the tower. The day was so clear you could see the changes in colour of the ocean depending on the depth and the striation was amazing. With David's zoom, we were able to see a lot of the craggy parts of the cliffs that we couldn't see with the naked eye or our other cameras. We were also able to zoom in on some people further up the cliffs who looked like they were in a place they shouldn't be. Since we could barely see them, we weren't sure if they were local kids or tourists. When we looked at the photos later, we discovered they were indeed tourists. I was pretty amazed at how many people were willing to break the rules there. And how many people were so reckless -- these people were standing right at the edge of the cliff with a major wind that was capable of knocking you off your feet.
We discovered up on the other side that a lot of people were doing the same thing. There was a sign there that said you weren't allowed past it and yet plenty of tourists were up there wandering around and some were a bit closer to the cliff's edge than they really should be! One guy was standing down a bit on a slanted part and I was pretty sure he was going to fall off. He didn't, but damn was he lucky!
We left the Cliffs and decided that we should stop for tea...and ice cream. And damn was the ice cream good! Mmmmm...
Then we were off to the Burren. We really had no major plans in mind, but we ended up basically following the first day we had over there last year -- only we had much better weather! First we stopped in Lisdoonvarna to take some pictures of the musician statues and also to have lunch (a very nice cheap lunch at a cafe). Pictures were taken of David and I in front of the statues (a bodhran and fiddle player) and we took some great pictures of Brandon and Emily posing like the dancer statues. It was a brief visit, but nice and relaxing.
We stopped and took some pictures of a ruined house along the way and got to listen to some woman complain that she couldn't get up close or even into the house to take pictures. People just don't get that others LIVE HERE. We also took pictures of a lovely ruined church and its graveyard. There was a place to kneel that was terribly uncomfortable, but David managed to look rather pious (though Brandon looked more pained than anything).
And then we were off to my very favourite place in Ireland (so far!): The Poulawack Cairn. I don't know what it is about this place, but I just really connect to it. Last year when we were there it was dark, dismal, and very windy, but so dramatic! This time it was bright and sunny, but no less magical. The nice thing about this particular spot is that tourists just don't come there. We saw two people -- one guy who made it out to the cairn, but didn't stick around and his wife who turned back as soon as she saw how far away it was. I do really get tired of being around a bunch of obnoxious tourist types who have no respect for the history of the place they're at. At any rate, we made it out to the cairn slowly, because that's the only way to do it without twisting an ankle (or at least, without twisting an ankle badly, as I did twist my right one a few times while up there). I took several pictures of the cairn, the outbuildings, and everyone wandering around. It was strange, but I spent most of my time around the cairn by myself, just soaking it in. I really did spend a lot more time with it this year, including climbing up on top of it, and examining the collapsed entranceway. From what I recall reading, the original bodies (4 of them) were buried in the cairn some 3500 years ago, with more buried over the next 1000 years. It was apparently a very important one since very few were buried there over many years. It really is a fascinating place. Near the cairn there is a souterrain (an artificial cave). Last year, David and I took some pictures of it and moved on. This year, we got much more involved in this section. All 4 of us climbed through it to the other side. We ended up calling it the "fairy fort" and we all felt rather spirtually changed after crawling through that cave. It was nice going to the places we had been before and getting to see it through other people's eyes. We never would have thought to crawl into the cave, but we're very glad Emily did!
After visiting the fairy fort, we climbed back down the hill and were on our way to the famous Poulnabrone dolmen. Even if you don't know that name, it's the image you always see for Ireland. It's overrun with tourists as its easily accessible, quite dramatic, and they've now put in a car park next to it. Oh well. It's still quite lovely. We wandered across the Burren floor for awhile and enjoyed just being outside. One of the truly amusing moments of the trip came when we were done at the Dolmen. For some reason, Brandon said we should take a picture of David as he came out of the portapotty. And we did. Which was followed by a picture of Brandon coming out of it. Silly pics, but such fun!
From the dolmen, we decided to head north up the Burren toward Ballyvaughan. We stopped a handful of times to take pictures of the limestone hills (a rather dramatic site!) and managed to find the Burren Centre for the Arts, a place that Emily had thought about applying to at one point. We've ended up dubbing the place "Emily's Centre for Mortally Wounded Dreams." The centre is made up of some new buildings, but the centerpiece is a refurbished castle (the Newtown castle, I believe). It's a gorgeous place, certainly perfect for visual artists! We also managed to head out onto the pier near Ballyvaughan and nearly got blown away. The wind was really strong!
At this point, we decided to head over to Corcomroe Abbey, which was not far from Ballyvaughan. Well, we got a bit off the path sheerly by accident. We were supposed to continue on the N67 to get to the abbey, but took a wrong turn and ended up driving up along the coast to Black head point and Fanore. It took us awhile to realize we were heading in the wrong direction, but all of a sudden we noticed that the bay should have been on our left side, but was on the right. Oops. It turned out to be a FANTASTIC mistake. The view was great and we got a lot of beautiful pictures.
We headed back via Lisdoonvarna, found one of the ruined castles we took pictures of last time we were in Ireland. and got some more pictures from different angles. One of the nice things was that this time around, we found out the name of it: Ballinalacken castle.
We rolled into our cottage quite late that evening and had a nice dinner at home of hamburgers, mashed potatoes, brown bread, and salad. Yum!
It was a REALLY long day but we saw so many amazing things. Bed that night was well-deserved!
Day 5
I awoke the next morning to blue skies yet again. We hadn't made many plans for what we were going to do that day, but I decided that it was the perfect day to head out to the Aran Islands. The only problem was that we didn't have a rain coat for Emily (as she left hers in Dublin). With swapping around coats, we managed to get her to use my coat and I used Brandon's fleece. It all worked out well!
We got down to Doolin in decent time, spent way too much to get on the boat to Inishmore (€40 a person!), and then waited around for awhile for the boat to finally arrive. The seas were REALLY choppy (good thing none of us has seasickness!), but we made good time nonetheless. The view on the way over was just beautiful. We headed up, where Emily got into a conversation with a lovely man named Jack. He invited us out to the Doolin pubs that night, told us to come down with our instruments and play some tunes...he'd be floating between the three pubs and hopefully see us there. We REALLY adored Jack. He was so much fun, and just so sweet. We decided immediately to head down to the pubs that night for our first Irish session experience.
We arrived at Inishmore around 12:30pm and were trying to decide what to do. No one wanted to take a bus originally, but then when this one guy started talking to us about getting on his bus tour, we realized there was no good way to see things on the island without a vehicle of some sort. So on the bus tour we went (luckily it only cost €10). We first stopped for some lunch and to see Dún Aengus, an amazing fort up on a cliff. Unlike the Cliffs of Moher, you can go right up to the cliff here, and look over. Talk about vertigo! Eek. David, Brandon and I all hung off it to take pictures, but I wasn't about to stand too close to the edge. Brandon actually jumped down to this tiny ledge below...crazy boy! Of course, this place was overrun with tourists, so we had to deal with annoying people, like the woman who complained that they should put a warning on the place about the climb up to it. Um...have you looked around the landscape? It's just like the Burren. And it's high on a cliff. Did you EXPECT it to be easy walking? Yeesh.
After Dún Aengus, we headed back to the bus for the rest of the tour. We got out in a few places -- one at the ocean where I could stick my hands in it, another at the Seven Churches (where we had to listen to some obnoxious tourist going on and on, saying things like "Hey did you hear that? That thing there is a privately owned roundhouse!" -- he was really fascinated by some ugly modern thing). We got to see the two remaining churches and also the graves of some saints.
We wrapped up our tour of Inishmore with a pint at local bar and hostel, and then headed back on the boat. I spent most of the trip back working on keeping my balance with the rocking of the boat. It was fun, but tiring on the legs. By the end of it, I was able to stand in place without holding onto the railing even when the water was rough.
We had a lovely dinner at home that evening, made especially more lovely after Mary and Pat Lynch (who own the cottage) stopped by to greet us and to provide us with a very lovely homemade apple tart. They were really sweet people and we enjoyed meeting them. After dinner, we headed out to Doolin to find some music. The first pub we ducked our heads into had a band performing (a very good one I might add), so we opted to not go there. The second one had a session in it and so we decided to go in and play with them. Well, it turned out that the banjo player was a very famous Irish tenor banjo player named Kevin Griffin, one of David's idols. *gulp* He was a bit nervous and I felt it too, since I'm all too aware of who he is! We managed quite well though, and realized we were doing well when he offered to get us drinks (free of course, but still!). He was a nice guy and so was the piper from Switzerland, who we got talking with for a little while after the session.
We braved the dark roads home, which wasn't too bad since we left around 1am, and fell into bed exhausted but very happy.
See pictures from Days 4 and 5 here.
We were told that Sunday was going to be a total washout, so we went to bed Saturday night with the plan of taking our time Sunday morning and eventually making our way to Ennis. When David and I got up, it was bright sunlight! Once Emily and Brandon woke up, we decided we should get moving and head to the Cliffs of Moher. We figured we'd see as much outside stuff before the rain hit us.
We got out to the cliffs around 11am and after spending a little time in the gift shop headed out to them. It was a bit more packed with tourists this time, but it was still amazing. We first got to stop and listen to a German concertina player who was sitting on a bench near the entrance to the cliffs. She also happened to have her dogs with her -- a cute puppy of some sort and an older dog who looked like some sort of Yorkie on steroids. Then it was up to the Cliffs. We first headed in the direction David and I couldn't go last year -- they were working on something up near O'Brien's tower, so it was all closed off. We got some amazing pictures on our way up to the tower. The day was so clear you could see the changes in colour of the ocean depending on the depth and the striation was amazing. With David's zoom, we were able to see a lot of the craggy parts of the cliffs that we couldn't see with the naked eye or our other cameras. We were also able to zoom in on some people further up the cliffs who looked like they were in a place they shouldn't be. Since we could barely see them, we weren't sure if they were local kids or tourists. When we looked at the photos later, we discovered they were indeed tourists. I was pretty amazed at how many people were willing to break the rules there. And how many people were so reckless -- these people were standing right at the edge of the cliff with a major wind that was capable of knocking you off your feet.
We discovered up on the other side that a lot of people were doing the same thing. There was a sign there that said you weren't allowed past it and yet plenty of tourists were up there wandering around and some were a bit closer to the cliff's edge than they really should be! One guy was standing down a bit on a slanted part and I was pretty sure he was going to fall off. He didn't, but damn was he lucky!
We left the Cliffs and decided that we should stop for tea...and ice cream. And damn was the ice cream good! Mmmmm...
Then we were off to the Burren. We really had no major plans in mind, but we ended up basically following the first day we had over there last year -- only we had much better weather! First we stopped in Lisdoonvarna to take some pictures of the musician statues and also to have lunch (a very nice cheap lunch at a cafe). Pictures were taken of David and I in front of the statues (a bodhran and fiddle player) and we took some great pictures of Brandon and Emily posing like the dancer statues. It was a brief visit, but nice and relaxing.
We stopped and took some pictures of a ruined house along the way and got to listen to some woman complain that she couldn't get up close or even into the house to take pictures. People just don't get that others LIVE HERE. We also took pictures of a lovely ruined church and its graveyard. There was a place to kneel that was terribly uncomfortable, but David managed to look rather pious (though Brandon looked more pained than anything).
And then we were off to my very favourite place in Ireland (so far!): The Poulawack Cairn. I don't know what it is about this place, but I just really connect to it. Last year when we were there it was dark, dismal, and very windy, but so dramatic! This time it was bright and sunny, but no less magical. The nice thing about this particular spot is that tourists just don't come there. We saw two people -- one guy who made it out to the cairn, but didn't stick around and his wife who turned back as soon as she saw how far away it was. I do really get tired of being around a bunch of obnoxious tourist types who have no respect for the history of the place they're at. At any rate, we made it out to the cairn slowly, because that's the only way to do it without twisting an ankle (or at least, without twisting an ankle badly, as I did twist my right one a few times while up there). I took several pictures of the cairn, the outbuildings, and everyone wandering around. It was strange, but I spent most of my time around the cairn by myself, just soaking it in. I really did spend a lot more time with it this year, including climbing up on top of it, and examining the collapsed entranceway. From what I recall reading, the original bodies (4 of them) were buried in the cairn some 3500 years ago, with more buried over the next 1000 years. It was apparently a very important one since very few were buried there over many years. It really is a fascinating place. Near the cairn there is a souterrain (an artificial cave). Last year, David and I took some pictures of it and moved on. This year, we got much more involved in this section. All 4 of us climbed through it to the other side. We ended up calling it the "fairy fort" and we all felt rather spirtually changed after crawling through that cave. It was nice going to the places we had been before and getting to see it through other people's eyes. We never would have thought to crawl into the cave, but we're very glad Emily did!
After visiting the fairy fort, we climbed back down the hill and were on our way to the famous Poulnabrone dolmen. Even if you don't know that name, it's the image you always see for Ireland. It's overrun with tourists as its easily accessible, quite dramatic, and they've now put in a car park next to it. Oh well. It's still quite lovely. We wandered across the Burren floor for awhile and enjoyed just being outside. One of the truly amusing moments of the trip came when we were done at the Dolmen. For some reason, Brandon said we should take a picture of David as he came out of the portapotty. And we did. Which was followed by a picture of Brandon coming out of it. Silly pics, but such fun!
From the dolmen, we decided to head north up the Burren toward Ballyvaughan. We stopped a handful of times to take pictures of the limestone hills (a rather dramatic site!) and managed to find the Burren Centre for the Arts, a place that Emily had thought about applying to at one point. We've ended up dubbing the place "Emily's Centre for Mortally Wounded Dreams." The centre is made up of some new buildings, but the centerpiece is a refurbished castle (the Newtown castle, I believe). It's a gorgeous place, certainly perfect for visual artists! We also managed to head out onto the pier near Ballyvaughan and nearly got blown away. The wind was really strong!
At this point, we decided to head over to Corcomroe Abbey, which was not far from Ballyvaughan. Well, we got a bit off the path sheerly by accident. We were supposed to continue on the N67 to get to the abbey, but took a wrong turn and ended up driving up along the coast to Black head point and Fanore. It took us awhile to realize we were heading in the wrong direction, but all of a sudden we noticed that the bay should have been on our left side, but was on the right. Oops. It turned out to be a FANTASTIC mistake. The view was great and we got a lot of beautiful pictures.
We headed back via Lisdoonvarna, found one of the ruined castles we took pictures of last time we were in Ireland. and got some more pictures from different angles. One of the nice things was that this time around, we found out the name of it: Ballinalacken castle.
We rolled into our cottage quite late that evening and had a nice dinner at home of hamburgers, mashed potatoes, brown bread, and salad. Yum!
It was a REALLY long day but we saw so many amazing things. Bed that night was well-deserved!
Day 5
I awoke the next morning to blue skies yet again. We hadn't made many plans for what we were going to do that day, but I decided that it was the perfect day to head out to the Aran Islands. The only problem was that we didn't have a rain coat for Emily (as she left hers in Dublin). With swapping around coats, we managed to get her to use my coat and I used Brandon's fleece. It all worked out well!
We got down to Doolin in decent time, spent way too much to get on the boat to Inishmore (€40 a person!), and then waited around for awhile for the boat to finally arrive. The seas were REALLY choppy (good thing none of us has seasickness!), but we made good time nonetheless. The view on the way over was just beautiful. We headed up, where Emily got into a conversation with a lovely man named Jack. He invited us out to the Doolin pubs that night, told us to come down with our instruments and play some tunes...he'd be floating between the three pubs and hopefully see us there. We REALLY adored Jack. He was so much fun, and just so sweet. We decided immediately to head down to the pubs that night for our first Irish session experience.
We arrived at Inishmore around 12:30pm and were trying to decide what to do. No one wanted to take a bus originally, but then when this one guy started talking to us about getting on his bus tour, we realized there was no good way to see things on the island without a vehicle of some sort. So on the bus tour we went (luckily it only cost €10). We first stopped for some lunch and to see Dún Aengus, an amazing fort up on a cliff. Unlike the Cliffs of Moher, you can go right up to the cliff here, and look over. Talk about vertigo! Eek. David, Brandon and I all hung off it to take pictures, but I wasn't about to stand too close to the edge. Brandon actually jumped down to this tiny ledge below...crazy boy! Of course, this place was overrun with tourists, so we had to deal with annoying people, like the woman who complained that they should put a warning on the place about the climb up to it. Um...have you looked around the landscape? It's just like the Burren. And it's high on a cliff. Did you EXPECT it to be easy walking? Yeesh.
After Dún Aengus, we headed back to the bus for the rest of the tour. We got out in a few places -- one at the ocean where I could stick my hands in it, another at the Seven Churches (where we had to listen to some obnoxious tourist going on and on, saying things like "Hey did you hear that? That thing there is a privately owned roundhouse!" -- he was really fascinated by some ugly modern thing). We got to see the two remaining churches and also the graves of some saints.
We wrapped up our tour of Inishmore with a pint at local bar and hostel, and then headed back on the boat. I spent most of the trip back working on keeping my balance with the rocking of the boat. It was fun, but tiring on the legs. By the end of it, I was able to stand in place without holding onto the railing even when the water was rough.
We had a lovely dinner at home that evening, made especially more lovely after Mary and Pat Lynch (who own the cottage) stopped by to greet us and to provide us with a very lovely homemade apple tart. They were really sweet people and we enjoyed meeting them. After dinner, we headed out to Doolin to find some music. The first pub we ducked our heads into had a band performing (a very good one I might add), so we opted to not go there. The second one had a session in it and so we decided to go in and play with them. Well, it turned out that the banjo player was a very famous Irish tenor banjo player named Kevin Griffin, one of David's idols. *gulp* He was a bit nervous and I felt it too, since I'm all too aware of who he is! We managed quite well though, and realized we were doing well when he offered to get us drinks (free of course, but still!). He was a nice guy and so was the piper from Switzerland, who we got talking with for a little while after the session.
We braved the dark roads home, which wasn't too bad since we left around 1am, and fell into bed exhausted but very happy.
See pictures from Days 4 and 5 here.
Ireland 2007: Days 1-3
Note: These three days were written at the end of each day.
Day 1
The flight over was amazingly uneventful. We arrived at Boston in good time, got through checking in our luggage fine (though we had to wait for them to get this one garment bag that was caught underneath the luggage mover...oops!), and amazingly enough security wasn't a real issue. We had to wait in line forever and it was a bit like herding cattle, but we went through without any sort of problem. I even got to take the evil saline solution on the plane! Ooooooo...
The flight itself was long and fairly boring. We got stuck behind an annoying couple who kept throwing their seats back and then forward and shifting around a lot. They made it hard to sleep, though I did manage a little. I'm pretty sure I got more sleep than I did last year!
We got off and through customs slowly, but still in decent time. Everything was going REALLY well. So you knew something had to go wrong. Well, two things did:
1. I went to get money out of the bank and it kept saying my pin was invalid! I have no idea why. As I found out in Nenagh later, there's nothing my bank can do about it and I had to get a cash advance on my card just to have money. Bye bye Solvay Bank -- I can't deal with that kind of screw-up!
2. Our original plan of skirting around Limerick and then heading north into the middle part of the country was BAD. We ended up in the middle of Limerick, during rush hour, when all the kids are heading to school. It was slow-going and incredibly stressful, especially considering we had just gotten there, were rather tired, and were trying to get re-used to driving in Ireland.
These both left David and I a little tense, me peraps more so than him, but we got through it ok. We took some wrong turns, mostly due to a road that was blocked because of construction, and got a little more stressed, but we finally found the N7 and headed north. From there on out it got much easier.
Our first stop was Craggaunowen, a spot with a castle (mostly fixed up) and several re-creations of different time period's living arrangements. It was interesting and I got some lovely photos, but I'm mostly interested in the unspoiled, untouched, natural ruins...not some fixed up castle and its fake stuff. Oh well. I do understand the need for tourism, but what the hell is so wrong with leaving things in their natural state? We still had a good time walking around, seeing things, and taking pictures.
We stopped in Nenagh next, where we had a lovely lunch of homemade burgers, potatoes, and veggies. So...good. Burgers topped in pepper sauce are just amazing! We stopped by an old monastery there, took some pictures, and I attempted to clear up my bank mess (see point #2 above).
From there it was off north again, this time to Clonmcnoise. We booked a B&B there with some lovely people, John and Kate of the Kajon House. We dropped off our stuff, and then headed to Clonmcnoise (which I always heard as "Clown McNoise" because I'm weird like that). We first went and watched the audio/visual presentation. Well, I should say David watched it. I dozed on and off during it, just like I did last year at the Ring fort. We then wandered around and saw the crosses they had removed from the outside to protect them (so sad! again with that tourism thing). They were just beautiful. We then wandered the grounds and made sure we avoided the large German tourist group. There were a couple lovely round towers there and the ruins of a castle that have been left untouched and wow were they amazing! They were up on this hill and the whole thing had kind of collapsed in on itself in such a way that I was amazed it still stood! Unfortunately we couldn't get near it, but we did get some decent pictures. After we were done there, we finally headed back to our B&B. And lo and behold, what do I discover upon returning? They have doggies! We were met by a beautiful golden retriever who brought us his tug toy. After much petting and belly rubbing, and rolling over, we finally went inside to have tea and scones and then finally fresh salmon for dinner. Yum!
It was a nice leisurely dinner and we got to talk some with Kate, who is a huge dog lover, meet their other dog (a 12-year-old collie mix named Dinjo -- the Golden was named something like Ciaran or Ciara), as well as a couple from England who were seeing the central part of Ireland on bike (one of those two-people bikes, too, which was interesting).
We finally headed off to bed around 10pm, much later than I ever thought we would get to bed! The bed here had to be one of the most comfortable I have EVER slept on. It was one of those foam mattresses and they had an electric blanket. I sank into that with a sigh and was asleep before David even joined me.
Day 2
We awoke the next morning to discover the weather was GORGEOUS. Blue skies and all. After slowly getting ready, we made our way to the dining room for breakfast. We packed up and headed out, but first we had to take some pictures of the scenery in bright sunlight.
This is when disaster #2 struck. It seems I cannot travel without bad things happening to me! I took a couple pictures and noticed they were foggy. Why? Because there was moisture on the INSIDE OF MY LENS. WTF??? I was so upset and then David was upset that I was upset and he got REALLY unhappy for a bit -- even said he wanted to be back in Syracuse. *sigh* We tried some things to clear it up, but it only got worse. Finally I opted to give up on it in the hopes of it either clearing up on its own or finding a camera repair shop later on.
We headed to the West Offaly railroad, which is a tour of the local bog (more interesting than it sounds!). We hopped on the train and discovered it was just the two of us and our tour guide. That made it really nice. She sat up in front with us and told us how they gather the peat to use for fuel at the local power plant. We got out and saw how they mined the peat in the old days and also got a chance to try it ourselves. David did a great job, but I was rather bad at it. I guess I wasn't meant to be a peat farmer!
When we got back on the train, I opened up my camera to check on it, and amazingly, the lens had totally cleared up. Phew! What a relief that was. I took a few pictures to test it and it worked just as good as it did before the moisture problem. I've learned my lesson -- next time I need to clean the lens, I'm not spraying stuff on it to do it!
Feeling much relieved, David and I hopped in the car to high tail it to his relative's place near Roosky. The trip up was pretty uneventful. We made it there in pretty good time, arriving around 2:10pm. We were immediately greeted by Susan, a very sweet older lady, and their dogs Ranger (a black lab) and Lucy (some sort of little mutt). We spent the first part talking with Susan and playing with Ranger. Eventually others started trickling in. By the end of the evening, there were several people there, including David's closest relative (Ollie), who looks a LOT like his father, Mark, Richard and Ann (who put us up last year and again this year), William and Eileen, and Jim (his wife, Pauline, was off at some sort of set-dancing thing). We had a nice long time to chat with everyone and stuff ourselves silly. Like last year, Susan just kept bringing out tea, cakes, and sandwiches, and we ate and drank far too much! It was lovely though (or "grand" as Susan would say). We all stayed until about midnight. They were so nice to both David and I, even posing for pictures. And they insisted we get our instruments out and play some tunes for them. They were impressed with both of us, and even liked my whistle playing. Mark said we could make a lot of money playing that up his way (he and Ollie live in the south of Northern Ireland). They even had to pass up a gig for 300 pounds...that's nearly $600! -- just playing in a coffee shop for 2 hours...they said if we could have come up that way on Sunday they would have told the guy about us...oh well! I was glad they were so easy-going. It's funny though -- we're used to Geordy and his pro-Sinn Fein, pro-IRA (former foot soldier for them even), singing A Nation Once Again, etc. and these folks are on the total opposite side. I mentioned Geordy in passing (as the one who introduced me to the bodhran), but I would never say anything about his politics to them!!
After saying our good-byes we followed Richard back to their house (always an interesting trip, since it's dark, the roads are teeny, and Richard drives a bit fast in his zippy little sports car!). We spent a little time with them, David getting to sample the potcheen, and I getting to check my e-mail since they now have broadband. Then we finally crawled into bed.
Outside of the morning camera fiasco it was a lovely day! I do hope nothing bad happens for the rest of the trip. I'm so OVER these little disasters!
Day 3
I woke up rather early Saturday morning. About 6:30am, I just couldn't go back to sleep. I suppose it was just complete excitement about getting on our way and seeing whatever we could see. I managed to spend a little time on the internet, as Ann and Richard got broadband sometime between last year's visit and this year's one. It was nice to catch up and see what was going on in the world outside of Ireland. Imagine my surprise when I found out one of my coworkers (the one we've dubbed the "Mississippi Slut") was fired and another coworker () and his wife had their baby (I hope all is still well there!).
Once David got up, we had a nice breakfast with Ann and listened to their daughter, Daphne, play some piano (a little bit of boogie woogie), and then their dog Andy finally showed. I know...I'm pathetic. But I was glad to get to play with him for a little while before we headed out. After a few pictures, we were off.
Our major plan for the day was to get to Kilfenora to get our cottage and then pick up Brandon and Emily. But we needed to do it via Gurteen as we had to pay homage to St. Michael (Coleman that is ;-) ). We got slightly sidetracked and ended up going up to Ballymote, home to another great fiddler, James Morrison. It was a small town and we didn't see any memorials like we did to Fred Finn and Michael Coleman. But we did get a chance to see a bit of Kesh and Kesh Mountain, including the caves. We hope to get back there on one of our trips. We stopped by the Michael Coleman memorial and took a few pictures (alas, no ghost dogs), and then were off once again.
As we got closer to Kilfenora, we realized we were going to be late. It was taking so long to get there that we started getting stressed. We were both tired and worried about being late. We drove around damned near forever trying to find the cottage. The problem was that the directions were crappy: get to X point and then follow this map. Well, there was no information on the scale of the map, nor the amount of information it contained. After a few wild guesses, we made it up the hill to the Fuchsia cottage. And NO ONE WAS THERE. WTF? I was told the cottage would be open (it wasn't) and that someone would see us arrive and come to meet us (no one was). After wandering around for a little bit and waiting, we decided we had to leave to meet them at the train station.
This was, unfortunately, another stresser and by the time we finally found it, we were so stressed out we could barely read the signs. But find them we did, and it turned out that they had arrived late as well (due to someone getting sick on the train, they missed a connection and they got them a cab, which was nice of the company!). I made a quick call to the Lynch home and someone there agreed to meet us at the cottage.
The rest of the evening was a bit more relaxing. The guy did meet us at the cottage (a little late) and we chilled out for a bit. Then we headed off to get some groceries (unfortunately closed, but we found a few things elsewhere) and then had dinner at Vaughan's Pub. The guy who helped us out there was really nice. They had just closed the kitchen, but he offered toasted sandwiches and then came back and said he could get us lasagna too. The lasagna was great and we even got chips with it! The whole dinner with 2 pints of Guinness and soda cost us only 50 Euro for the 4 of us. Not bad at all!
We went back to the cottage (much easier to find this time around!) where David and I played some music and then we finally collapsed into bed.
See pictures from Days 1-3 here.
Day 1
The flight over was amazingly uneventful. We arrived at Boston in good time, got through checking in our luggage fine (though we had to wait for them to get this one garment bag that was caught underneath the luggage mover...oops!), and amazingly enough security wasn't a real issue. We had to wait in line forever and it was a bit like herding cattle, but we went through without any sort of problem. I even got to take the evil saline solution on the plane! Ooooooo...
The flight itself was long and fairly boring. We got stuck behind an annoying couple who kept throwing their seats back and then forward and shifting around a lot. They made it hard to sleep, though I did manage a little. I'm pretty sure I got more sleep than I did last year!
We got off and through customs slowly, but still in decent time. Everything was going REALLY well. So you knew something had to go wrong. Well, two things did:
1. I went to get money out of the bank and it kept saying my pin was invalid! I have no idea why. As I found out in Nenagh later, there's nothing my bank can do about it and I had to get a cash advance on my card just to have money. Bye bye Solvay Bank -- I can't deal with that kind of screw-up!
2. Our original plan of skirting around Limerick and then heading north into the middle part of the country was BAD. We ended up in the middle of Limerick, during rush hour, when all the kids are heading to school. It was slow-going and incredibly stressful, especially considering we had just gotten there, were rather tired, and were trying to get re-used to driving in Ireland.
These both left David and I a little tense, me peraps more so than him, but we got through it ok. We took some wrong turns, mostly due to a road that was blocked because of construction, and got a little more stressed, but we finally found the N7 and headed north. From there on out it got much easier.
Our first stop was Craggaunowen, a spot with a castle (mostly fixed up) and several re-creations of different time period's living arrangements. It was interesting and I got some lovely photos, but I'm mostly interested in the unspoiled, untouched, natural ruins...not some fixed up castle and its fake stuff. Oh well. I do understand the need for tourism, but what the hell is so wrong with leaving things in their natural state? We still had a good time walking around, seeing things, and taking pictures.
We stopped in Nenagh next, where we had a lovely lunch of homemade burgers, potatoes, and veggies. So...good. Burgers topped in pepper sauce are just amazing! We stopped by an old monastery there, took some pictures, and I attempted to clear up my bank mess (see point #2 above).
From there it was off north again, this time to Clonmcnoise. We booked a B&B there with some lovely people, John and Kate of the Kajon House. We dropped off our stuff, and then headed to Clonmcnoise (which I always heard as "Clown McNoise" because I'm weird like that). We first went and watched the audio/visual presentation. Well, I should say David watched it. I dozed on and off during it, just like I did last year at the Ring fort. We then wandered around and saw the crosses they had removed from the outside to protect them (so sad! again with that tourism thing). They were just beautiful. We then wandered the grounds and made sure we avoided the large German tourist group. There were a couple lovely round towers there and the ruins of a castle that have been left untouched and wow were they amazing! They were up on this hill and the whole thing had kind of collapsed in on itself in such a way that I was amazed it still stood! Unfortunately we couldn't get near it, but we did get some decent pictures. After we were done there, we finally headed back to our B&B. And lo and behold, what do I discover upon returning? They have doggies! We were met by a beautiful golden retriever who brought us his tug toy. After much petting and belly rubbing, and rolling over, we finally went inside to have tea and scones and then finally fresh salmon for dinner. Yum!
It was a nice leisurely dinner and we got to talk some with Kate, who is a huge dog lover, meet their other dog (a 12-year-old collie mix named Dinjo -- the Golden was named something like Ciaran or Ciara), as well as a couple from England who were seeing the central part of Ireland on bike (one of those two-people bikes, too, which was interesting).
We finally headed off to bed around 10pm, much later than I ever thought we would get to bed! The bed here had to be one of the most comfortable I have EVER slept on. It was one of those foam mattresses and they had an electric blanket. I sank into that with a sigh and was asleep before David even joined me.
Day 2
We awoke the next morning to discover the weather was GORGEOUS. Blue skies and all. After slowly getting ready, we made our way to the dining room for breakfast. We packed up and headed out, but first we had to take some pictures of the scenery in bright sunlight.
This is when disaster #2 struck. It seems I cannot travel without bad things happening to me! I took a couple pictures and noticed they were foggy. Why? Because there was moisture on the INSIDE OF MY LENS. WTF??? I was so upset and then David was upset that I was upset and he got REALLY unhappy for a bit -- even said he wanted to be back in Syracuse. *sigh* We tried some things to clear it up, but it only got worse. Finally I opted to give up on it in the hopes of it either clearing up on its own or finding a camera repair shop later on.
We headed to the West Offaly railroad, which is a tour of the local bog (more interesting than it sounds!). We hopped on the train and discovered it was just the two of us and our tour guide. That made it really nice. She sat up in front with us and told us how they gather the peat to use for fuel at the local power plant. We got out and saw how they mined the peat in the old days and also got a chance to try it ourselves. David did a great job, but I was rather bad at it. I guess I wasn't meant to be a peat farmer!
When we got back on the train, I opened up my camera to check on it, and amazingly, the lens had totally cleared up. Phew! What a relief that was. I took a few pictures to test it and it worked just as good as it did before the moisture problem. I've learned my lesson -- next time I need to clean the lens, I'm not spraying stuff on it to do it!
Feeling much relieved, David and I hopped in the car to high tail it to his relative's place near Roosky. The trip up was pretty uneventful. We made it there in pretty good time, arriving around 2:10pm. We were immediately greeted by Susan, a very sweet older lady, and their dogs Ranger (a black lab) and Lucy (some sort of little mutt). We spent the first part talking with Susan and playing with Ranger. Eventually others started trickling in. By the end of the evening, there were several people there, including David's closest relative (Ollie), who looks a LOT like his father, Mark, Richard and Ann (who put us up last year and again this year), William and Eileen, and Jim (his wife, Pauline, was off at some sort of set-dancing thing). We had a nice long time to chat with everyone and stuff ourselves silly. Like last year, Susan just kept bringing out tea, cakes, and sandwiches, and we ate and drank far too much! It was lovely though (or "grand" as Susan would say). We all stayed until about midnight. They were so nice to both David and I, even posing for pictures. And they insisted we get our instruments out and play some tunes for them. They were impressed with both of us, and even liked my whistle playing. Mark said we could make a lot of money playing that up his way (he and Ollie live in the south of Northern Ireland). They even had to pass up a gig for 300 pounds...that's nearly $600! -- just playing in a coffee shop for 2 hours...they said if we could have come up that way on Sunday they would have told the guy about us...oh well! I was glad they were so easy-going. It's funny though -- we're used to Geordy and his pro-Sinn Fein, pro-IRA (former foot soldier for them even), singing A Nation Once Again, etc. and these folks are on the total opposite side. I mentioned Geordy in passing (as the one who introduced me to the bodhran), but I would never say anything about his politics to them!!
After saying our good-byes we followed Richard back to their house (always an interesting trip, since it's dark, the roads are teeny, and Richard drives a bit fast in his zippy little sports car!). We spent a little time with them, David getting to sample the potcheen, and I getting to check my e-mail since they now have broadband. Then we finally crawled into bed.
Outside of the morning camera fiasco it was a lovely day! I do hope nothing bad happens for the rest of the trip. I'm so OVER these little disasters!
Day 3
I woke up rather early Saturday morning. About 6:30am, I just couldn't go back to sleep. I suppose it was just complete excitement about getting on our way and seeing whatever we could see. I managed to spend a little time on the internet, as Ann and Richard got broadband sometime between last year's visit and this year's one. It was nice to catch up and see what was going on in the world outside of Ireland. Imagine my surprise when I found out one of my coworkers (the one we've dubbed the "Mississippi Slut") was fired and another coworker (
Once David got up, we had a nice breakfast with Ann and listened to their daughter, Daphne, play some piano (a little bit of boogie woogie), and then their dog Andy finally showed. I know...I'm pathetic. But I was glad to get to play with him for a little while before we headed out. After a few pictures, we were off.
Our major plan for the day was to get to Kilfenora to get our cottage and then pick up Brandon and Emily. But we needed to do it via Gurteen as we had to pay homage to St. Michael (Coleman that is ;-) ). We got slightly sidetracked and ended up going up to Ballymote, home to another great fiddler, James Morrison. It was a small town and we didn't see any memorials like we did to Fred Finn and Michael Coleman. But we did get a chance to see a bit of Kesh and Kesh Mountain, including the caves. We hope to get back there on one of our trips. We stopped by the Michael Coleman memorial and took a few pictures (alas, no ghost dogs), and then were off once again.
As we got closer to Kilfenora, we realized we were going to be late. It was taking so long to get there that we started getting stressed. We were both tired and worried about being late. We drove around damned near forever trying to find the cottage. The problem was that the directions were crappy: get to X point and then follow this map. Well, there was no information on the scale of the map, nor the amount of information it contained. After a few wild guesses, we made it up the hill to the Fuchsia cottage. And NO ONE WAS THERE. WTF? I was told the cottage would be open (it wasn't) and that someone would see us arrive and come to meet us (no one was). After wandering around for a little bit and waiting, we decided we had to leave to meet them at the train station.
This was, unfortunately, another stresser and by the time we finally found it, we were so stressed out we could barely read the signs. But find them we did, and it turned out that they had arrived late as well (due to someone getting sick on the train, they missed a connection and they got them a cab, which was nice of the company!). I made a quick call to the Lynch home and someone there agreed to meet us at the cottage.
The rest of the evening was a bit more relaxing. The guy did meet us at the cottage (a little late) and we chilled out for a bit. Then we headed off to get some groceries (unfortunately closed, but we found a few things elsewhere) and then had dinner at Vaughan's Pub. The guy who helped us out there was really nice. They had just closed the kitchen, but he offered toasted sandwiches and then came back and said he could get us lasagna too. The lasagna was great and we even got chips with it! The whole dinner with 2 pints of Guinness and soda cost us only 50 Euro for the 4 of us. Not bad at all!
We went back to the cottage (much easier to find this time around!) where David and I played some music and then we finally collapsed into bed.
See pictures from Days 1-3 here.
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