Driving on the left side of the road takes a little getting used to:
May 8th: Laura and I flew in on a different flight than everyone else. We got in at 10:30 pm and stayed in a nearby hotel to the airport. The Irish people were wonderful, all of them, except the the car people at Eurocar. we had reserved a car online, but after realizing we should be insurance the guy wanted to charge us about 300$ too much. So Laura walks down to another place and they quote her everything for half that price. Well, what do you know, our guy at Eurocar types in his computer and somehow finds that we can get that same price. How convenient, huh? After dealing with that and more for an hour, we left to find our hotel. It was quite a challenge, at first, driving at night on the left side of the road. But after a very nervous 10 minute drive we found our hotel and crashed for the night.
May 9th: In the morning we left to meet the other group at their car place in the heart of the city. This also was a big challenge. There was a lot of traffic and we couldn't find the street for a long time. After we met of up, 2 of them rode in the backseat and we made our way outside Dublin 1.5 hours to the town of Kilkenny. Once there my car quickly found parking but we waited for the other car for a long time. Standing on the street corner there was an older woman who walked by. This is an example of the people. She initiated with us and asked if we need anything. We asked her about a place to eat and she recommended a great diner. She kept talking to us for a long time while we waited. After lunch we walked to the castle and some of the other sites in the town.
Then it was 2 more hours to the city of cork. It was at this point that we realized google's directions we bad and we ditched them soon after. Cork didn't have too much to see but it was a very modern city. Here is the only picture we took:
Finding our hostel was a nervous adventure. Finally i stopped on the side of the road to ask someone. Again the Irish people go above and beyond. He calls the hostel on the his cell phone and figures out how to get us there. We decided we wanted to get to bed early because we would leave at 7 a.m. the next day.
May 10th:
This was a fun packed day. We left Cork and drove to nearby Cobh, an old fishing town where the Titanic set its maiden voyage.
If there was movie remake for Titanic who do you think should be casted? I guess this picture answers your question:
We walked the town and went up to the huge cathedral.
It was a beautiful place, but we had to move on. Next we left to drive past cork to nearby Blarney Castle.
Liz and Laura in front of the Blarney Castle:
A view inside the castle:
Our travel group:
The castle grounds had some great walks with interesting trees and buildings. We took the Blarney tour and we pretended to kiss the famous Blarney stone, which is one of the most famous places in Ireland. Legend has it that kissing the blarney stone will give you the gift of elequant speach. Wiston Chruchill was a big fan of the stone. (We pretended because we heard the guards pee on it at night).
Laura getting in position:
And pretending to the kiss the stone:
A cool house on the castle grounds:
After Blarney it was lunch time and we grabbed lunch at a gas station and also maybe the best purchase, an Irish road map. Driving was no problem after that. We made our way to the Dingle Peninsula. It was absolutely beautiful, our favorite drive in the country. We stopped at Inch Beach where everyone was excited to walk, jump, run or do cartwheels.
Laura and Stacy:
We continued on all the way to the end of the peninsula, stopping frequently to let cars pass on the road or take take pictures of the beautiful view, the numerous sheep and cows, or take a walk.
We even saw Santa working a summer job:
One of many stops on the tight peninsula road:
A common site on the Dingle Peninsula, sheep feeding on very green grass with the ocean in the background:
We arrived at our killarney hostel around 10 pm very satisfied with our day.
May 11th:
We left the killarney hostel at 8 a.m. and went to a nearby castle. Then we drove back into town and ate breakfast. After getting some fuel, we went on a beautiful hike 20 minutes away in the Ring of Kerry called the Gap of Dunloe.
Tim resting on our hike:
Just snapping a random picture that turned out nice:
Sometimes Ireland felt like driving through a tunnel:
But the big anticipation of the day was driving up to the cliffs of Moher (a.k.a. the cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride).
The cliffs were amazing.
Staci, Liz, Laura and I went under a fence past the tourist area to the far end of the cliffs.
A nice place for a nap, just don't roll over in your sleep:
There were 2 guys there hanging out and Laura got to talking with the one wearing a skydiving T-shirt since she has been skydiving a couple times. The guy informed us that he was about to base jump from the cliff. We along with 2 other people got to watch him jump. It was nervous for me because in base jumping he holds his folded parachute in his hand and throws it up after jumping. If it doesn't open right...but everything was fine.
video at the Cliffs:
A guy base jumping off the cliffs, kids don't try this at home:
Afterwards we drove to nearby town called Doolin and ate at an Irish pub that had live music.
I had Irish stew and Laura had fish n' chips:
After dinner we drove to Galway where we stayed in an 8 person hostel again. Laura and i both had a sleeping mask and ear plugs so we slept really well every night.
May 12th:
The girls in our group all wanted to go horseback riding on the beach, so in the morning we visited a tourist office in Galway and made a reservation at a place along the coast. The horse back place was run by a family on the end of a peninsula into the ocean. Tim was the photographer and went to the beach to hang out.
Laura with her horse:
video of horseback riding on the beach in western Ireland:
After riding we all went to the beach. The water was very cold and much to the surprise of her husband, Laura said she would go out in the ocean and get under the water. It was freezing!
Tim made a new friend who shared his love for icey ocean water:
The rest of the group was flying out very early the next day so we all drove back to the Dublin.
Driving across the country on the way to Dublin we passed through an area that was covered by stone. I wish we had more time to stop there.
Here is a picture i took from the car window:
After parting ways with the rest of the group, Laura and I went downtown and checked into our hotel. We walked then walked around the temple bar to get dinner.
May 13th:
This was our final day in Ireland and we wanted to see as much of Dublin as we could. At 9:30 a.m. we went to the Guinness Storehouse brewery tour. It was a very educational and we now feel that we fully understand the beer making process. We had to finish the tour quickly though to make our next appointment at the Trinity college graduates historical Dublin walking tour. (some famous Trinity Alum include: Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett) The tour guide did a great job explaining the history of the city and the different key events and their locations.
Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin:
Laura unfortunately was preoccupied for much of the tour trying to track down where her sister Mary Page was. MP was supposed to fly into Prague that day but had missed her flight. Nevertheless, it all worked out. After the tour, Laura and I ate lunch and quickly went to see the famous book of Kells at Trinity College. The book has beautiful pictures and a Latin transcription of the four gospels and was made in the early 8th century. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the book though.
If you click on the picture, you can see an example of the book of kells design on the left and also read about a monk's life during the 8th century:
Upstairs, we also saw the library that was used for the Harry Potter movies. At this point, it was early afternoon and time for us to drive to the airport and fly back to Prague. What a trip!
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