No Longer MIA

Picnic Time!

Bridgette has been doing a fantastic job keeping this blog up-to-date. The last time I posted something was towards the end of February! What on earth (and in France) have I been doing!?

The Land 'O Ire: Part IV

Ok, it's about time to wrap up all this Ireland stuff, but we have just a few more highlights to share....

Putting a close to the Burren, we made our way north along the coast until we hit Galway. Galway's a huge university town and packed with tons of cafes, restaurants, pubs, and music venues, and despite it being the third largest city in the country, we thankfully found it not overwhelmed with chain establishments and kitch tourist shops. The downtown felt relatively small and hometown with a good, lively vibe. Being day 6 of traveling and touring, we weren't feeling quite as lively; aimlessly wandering and doing not too much sounded a-okay to both of us. After a lunch of clam chowder, brown bread, and an irish coffee, Adam I meandered the streets and found ourselves at a bookshop buying some reads about Celtic legends and folklore. Yeah, that guy in Doolin certainly pricked our ears; we were fascinated with the history of all this stuff. Holing up in, first, a cafe, then a pub, we lost ourselves within our ghost stories and mythology, coffee, then guinness (Cider for me, of course ; ) It was great to have some solid chill time, but then you're instantly snapped out of this dreamy reading daze when the pub starts playing Garth Brooks. Wha?!

On the River Walk-view to Galway Cathedral

Galway Cathedral

The following day we hopped back in the car to check out the ever-so talked about Connemerra National Park just a few hours out of town. Instantly, the coastal landscape turned into rocky scruff that lead up to Connemerra's vast mountain peaks. Seriously, we had probably seen every possible landscape on this trip! Of course, being down-season, most things were closed (even the visitor's center?!), but we were able to stop for a few hours at the acclaimed Kylemore Abbey. We were expecting more monastic ruins, but this, in fact, was actually some rich guy's fairytale retreat, that after years of abandonment and disrepair, was finally taken over by the nuns, turned into a school, and restored for tours. It was said that this rich fella was on honeymoon with his wife sometime back in the 1800s, and they simply fell in love with the area. They bought the property, tore down the original lodge, then built and elaborate mansion and garden. After the wife's death, he then had a mini cathedral built on site in her memory. Absolutely gorgeous (yes, this all seemed like a perfect place for a wedding...but probably a bit outa the question ; )

 View across lake

View from the Abbey to the lake

Boating seemed to be a favorite pastime here. 

Numerous docks in ruins were found scattered about the lake (left)

A small slice of the gardens...JUST beginning to bloom (right)

 One of only a few of the numerous surviving greenhouses 

(these are the places that all the ladies would come hang out in 

during the winter for some sun)

 Garden Shed

 Miniature Cathedral

The following day we made our way back to Dublin hitting up ONE last tourist site, the ruins at Clonmacnoise. Now this stuff was SUPER old (we're talking back to the 6th Century) with a bit more religious history compared to our fairytale abbey. And crazy enough, the sun stayed out just long enough for us to wander the grounds photograph the place, but as we headed for the car and decided we'd had enough of site seeing for one trip, it started to rain, and we hopped back in the car. It still amazes me that the total time from coast to coast takes about the same time as a trip from Chicago to Champaign. 

 Clonmacnoise Ruins

Structures dating back to the 10th Century

Landscape on our drive back

Our last night in Dublin turned out to be a pleasantly chill evening as we met up with one of Adam's old co-workers who recently moved to Dublin for a project he's engineering. We were sad to hear that we were missing his wife's arrival by a mere couple days as it would have been nice to have her in the conversation about moving abroad, the comparison of our lives, and what the future held for us all. Guess it was just comforting to know that not too far off, there's another couple out there just like us experiencing this crazy transition. 

The Land 'O Ire: Part III

We pulled into Doolin as the sun was setting (yes, see the craziness of signs this navigator had to deal with along our entire trip, try figuring these out in the dark!) and checked in to one of the quaintest hostels I've ever been in. Situated akin to the Aille River, we were informed by a local living there that he'd helped out with the renovation and that this cottage was over 300 years old with the bridge leading to it, an extra 500yrs. This land had some serious history with a lot of overly superstitious folk as well. "The Irish," our friend told us, "especially the uneducated country folk, believed in a lot of spirits, fairies and things of the like to explain the unknown. For instance, if a house fell down, it was probably because you'd built it along a fairy path, and they didn't like it being there (try using THAT excuse, fellow archies, ha). Or, for the longest time, little boys would be dressed in girls' clothes until the age of 6 so that it would trick the fairies from stealing them. After age 6, boys were too old for the fairies to want them (or was this just a way for poor mothers to reuse clothing?)...or have you ever heard about the banshee....? " Our friend didn't seem to believe too heavily in ghosts, but he told us a creepy account of taking his dogs out for a walk near a graveyard and them stopping dead in their tracks, tail between their legs. "It was really weird," he said, "and when we got back to the house, they acted all skittish the rest of the night. I looked out the window to see what the hell they were growling about, and there was this dark figure just hanging out down the path. Then it was gone. The next day, my sister-in-law's father died of a heart attack...."  This guy was such a great storyteller, and as we sat by the fire in our little hostel he sucked us into a world of supernatural beliefs, pagan history, and the celtic demise. We could have listened for hours to that heavy accent.

Aille River Hostel: View fm our room & the 800 Year Old Bridge

Photoshoot: Adam vs. Cat

Doolin has only a couple pubs, and both that we tried are noted for their traditional music and awesome food. The first night we hit up O'Connors ready to finally hear some of the real stuff. Waiting for the show to begin, we had a chance to relax across from a warm fire with a pint and had fun watching the accordion player get hammered in the corner with friends. And dinner was all it had been talked up to be; we had some of the best smoked salmon and guinness beef stew we'd ever eaten. Around 9:30, the rest of the band entered the restaurant and plopped down at a corner table and started to play. Oh no, there's no standing around for these guys, because they're there ALL NIGHT. The bar got hopping, and everyone kept asking if we were in town for the music fest. HUH? Yeah, apparently we had JUST missed one of the largest trad festivals in Irland, Micho Russell Festival a music fest in Memorial M.Russell, a famed trad music artist who died on this very weekend (end of feb) back in 1994. Hmmm, who woulda known? But there were plenty back in the bar who'd been there the night before, up until 4am, just jigging away. An older white-haired bearded man walked in the bar and a gal we met from LA leaned over and said, "oh yeah, and that's the match-maker of the town..." just before the drunk accordion player came over to our table and yelled something at us completely incomprehensible. Sounded something along the lines of him dragging a case of wine somewhere, then he went over the a group of French sitting in the corner and called them a bunch of *&%!ers. It was definitely a WTF kind of moment : )

The next day we bundled up and headed out on a 6 hour hike up Blackhead Rock. Again, some of the craziest landscape I've ever been in with the land covered in stone walls, cows, and miles and miles of barren grikey rocks. Ringforts and cairns would pop up out of nowhere along the way and we would sit and ponder just how many 100s if not 1000s of years old this stuff was. Mind boggling. Reaching the top of the peak you would look out and see nothing but a barren wasteland of stone. This was the point that you really did feel alone; we never saw a single soul the entire day. At this point, we hadn't heard all the stories of the land from our friend at the hostel, but looking back now, I think I preferred it that way. He had mentioned that fairies were believed to live under old ring forts and any sort of odd land formation(dips, bumps, whatever...the landscape was nothing BUT these) and that there had been noted disappearances of individuals who sat in them. And where did we plop down for an icy lunch, trying to escape the nonstop wind blowing into our faces?... but a small ring fort located in a dip of the mountain. We were in serious fairy territory, indeed, and had no idea. Ignorance is bliss, ha. "Ah, the wind was a blowin at ya the entire time?" our friend said. "Ya know, people who are out alone in that for long periods tend to go mad. They start hearin' stuff. A friend o mine even though he heard the banshee screamin'." Great.

Ancient Ring Fort

Ancient Road (left) & Property Boundaries (right)

Grikey Landscape

Photoshoot: Adam vs. Cow (left)

End of the Hike Sunshine (right)

The following morning, we drug our exhausted bodies out of bed and hit the road to head up to Galway. Before leaving the beautiful Burren, we made one more stop to Fanore Beach. Again, God was on our side as He brought out the sun once again. And who says it rains all the time in Ireland ?

Boardwalk (left)

Granite Rock formations on the Beach (right)

Ahhh, beach to ourselves

Sand Dunes at Fanore (probably home of fairies, too ; )

The Land 'O Ire: Part II

Our road trip began. Adam instantly became a master at wrong-side-of-the-road driving, though we did have a few panic moments. For this trip, we decided to go old-school and used nothing but the map of Ireland from the rental place and a few print-outs we made before the trip. We could handle this, especially considering the price of renting a GPS/day was almost as much as the car rental/day. huh? Yes, navigation was my duty, and I'm quite proud to say we have very few 'turn-around' moments. ha.

Heading west from Dubin, we had planned two stops before our final destination, the Rock of Cashel, ruins of a 12th-15th century cathedral and castle and the Castle at Cahir, one of Ireland's best preserved medieval fortresses located on the beautiful River Suir. These two sites were our first introduction to the beauty and mystic these ruins held amongst the county side with their stark contrasts of dark heavy stone against a palate of soft green. And to think, these were just two of tens of thousands of historic sites scattered about the island. Truly amazing to ponder. And truly amazing, that unlike the states, there's no regulations on putting handrails and guardrails everywhere. It really helped preserve the true nature of the buildings; I liked that. If you fall off a stair with no rails, then that's your own fault!

Rock of Cashel

Getting the perfect shot

Castle at Cahir

We still had a bit of time in the car, though, before the reaching Kilfenora, our final stop for the evening near the western coast. And as the sun set and we hit rural roads, the driving became a bit more white knuckled. There's no such thing as a shoulder along these country roads, only miles and miles of limestone walls situated no more than a foot or so from the edge of your car. No room for mistakes here.

We reached Kilfenora, pitch black, in the rain, and pulled into a pub's parking lot located next to our hostel. I think we were the only visitors within miles; you could certainly call this a one-horse kind of town. The hostel owner said the shower was broken, so she put us up in our own house located right across the street...."and as for the keys," she said, "well, we don't have any. I mean, this IS Kilfenora, ya know." Apparently no need to lock out any creepy country folk? The house was a good place to crash for the night, but a little unsettling as we listened to all the strange new noises of the place, realizing we were really in the middle of NOWHERE. Spooky and awesome all at the same time.



The next day we awoke to gray skies (yet surprising just about NO rain the majority of the trip), and headed out for our tour of the Burren. The Burren is a region in NW County Claire that hosts one of the largest 'Karst' landscapes in Europe, a land that was once covered in forests, yet now has been eroded away to vast expanses of limestone and granite severed by grikes (these were our faves), sinkholes, and glacial erratic. Within the next few months, the flora within these rock crevices explode into full color and brings visitors by the 1000s to experience the beauty. We were a bit early for the bloom, but having the entire landscape to ourselves was surreal and just plain priceless. For the entire day we drove through the counry side looking at rock formations, old ruins, cows, and even visited the Burren Perfumery where all products are organically produced using only items found in the area.

Poulnabrone Dolmen: Tomb constructed in 3000BC! (left)

Karst Landscape: Grikes in the Limestone (right)

Church ruins overrun with gravestones (very common we've found)

Corcomroe Abbey:13th Century Cistercian Monastery

Corcomroe Abbey

Stone walls Everywhere!

Sampling at the Perfumery

Newtown Castle

As the sun was lowering, we had one more important stop to make, The Cliffs of Moher. You can't come to Ireland without seeing this spectacular site! Unfortunately (or fortunately?), unlike the unregulated castles we'd just visited, a barrier wall had been erected a few years back, so there's no more leaning over the edge. Yes, people have actually fallen off the cliffs.....down 700ft to an icy death. We witnessed a few hopping the walls to lean over themselves, and it made my heart stop just watching (& photographing) them. Apparently, though, they used to have a permanent table set up on this ledge where you could come out and enjoy a pint or two. Ahhhhh, how times have changed.

Cliffs

Cliffs, Cliffs, Cliffs!

Back in the car and off to Doolin for the night....Doolin, the home of traditional Irish Music and settling ground for what they call the 'blow-ins'. "You see" a local was telling us, "people from all over the world just blow in to this place, fall in love with it, then never leave." And we can see why. More to come in Part III.....