All Things Ireland

We've been in Ireland since Monday, the 13th. I came to Ireland with my mom and grandparents when I was 16. My grandmother is from Ireland and my mom lived here for a year when she was 6. I hated everything back then, and I didn't want to go on the trip at all, and didn't appreciate being here. It's been nice being here again and enjoying it this time. We stayed in Dublin for the first four nights, and we've been in Doolin for the last 3 nights.

Dublin was okay. My mom had to take care of some family business, and the weather wasn't that great. We were really glad to see my brother and dad on Tuesday morning. They were pretty jet lagged. My brother went straight to sleep, but my dad decided to try and stay up. We went to see my great uncle, Larry. Larry is 74, and he is my grandmother's brother, or my mom's mom's brother. He's never been diagnosed, but he most likely has some form of autism. He's really sweet, and we took him to lunch that day with his caregiver and next door neighbor, Rose. It was good to see him again after 7 years and he remembered us. We went back to Larry's and looked at old pictures, had tea, and actually got to do some laundry, which was a real treat for us. We walked around downtown that night and ended up at Arlington Hotel, where they have Irish dancers. We didn't get to see any dancing, but they had some live Irish music that they played while we were eating dinner. My dad and brother were about to crash after that so we called it a night.

The next day, Wednesday, we walked all around downtown Dublin and it rained on and off. We went to Trinity College, in hopes of seeing the Book of Kells, but it was closed by the time we got there. On Thursday, we took the dart, which was like a tram, out to the beach in Dublin, called Port Marnoch and Mallahide. It was so windy that day it could have been a category 1 hurricane outside. The beach was pretty. It was rocky and sandy at he same time. Real gray and typical Irish looking. There were people swimming. Crazies! That water is about 55 degrees. We ate lunch at hotel called White Sands, which is the same place we ate when we came 7 years ago. After that it was raining pretty good and blowing really hard, but with my mom there is no such thing as relaxing and wasting time, so we caught the bus on to Mallahide. Mallahide was like a port town that looked like it could be the Irish Beaufort. It would have been really pretty and nice if it wasn't raining, cold, and blowing. But it was, so it was pretty miserable to me. We walked around for a little bit and then went into a pub, where I immediately fell asleep and they all got a drink. That's about it for Dublin.

Friday we headed to Doolin, which is on the west coast, and is where you access the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher. Doolin is very charming and the weather has been much nicer than in Dublin, despite people telling us that it rains nonstop in "the west" so I'm happy about that. We took a train to Galway, and then a bus, so my dad and brother got the true traveling experience. We're all staying in a hostel, in one room, sharing a bathroom. My brother and I are sleeping in bunk beds (he's 36) and my parents have a double bed. It's pretty comical if you think about it. I wish I could record all the stuff that goes on in here. It's a good thing we love each other.

The first day we got to Doolin, Friday, we just walked down to the "sea" and checked everything out. It's about a 15 minute walk from the village, but it's really pretty. You walk by dozens of cows and wildflowers and you can see the cliffs of Moher in the distance. There are lots of people camping down at the sea, and that's where the ferry is to get to the Aran islands. We walked all around and took pictures. There were more idiots swimming. We were also told that people surf out there, which seemed like a death wish because of all the rocks. At least it would be a pretty way to die. It was really beautiful out there and it wasn't raining so we enjoyed checking out the scenery for a while. We walked back and ate a a pub called Fitz's and ended up sitting next to a couple that lived in North Carolina. It's a small world. They had been in London, judging some sort of horses for the Olympics or something along those lines. I got horses, judge, and Olympics from what they said. It was really loud in the pub with the band. The band played "Sweet Caroline" before we left too. That was pretty cool.

Saturday, we took the ferry to one of the Aran islands, Inisheer. It's the smallest island and supposed to be the most beautiful. It was definitely beautiful. We rode bikes all around, uphill, downhill, aroundhill, throughhill. You name it. My legs got a workout. The weather was really beautiful and perfect. We saw the ruins of a fort, which we climbed all through, and we went to the beach where there was a 1960s shipwreck. We had lunch at a B&B, and the woman served fresh crab claws that my brother and dad got. If you like seafood, they were to die for. They practically fell out of the shell. My mom and I got the seafood stew that is an Irish staple. Riding all over the island was a lot of fun and it was really beautiful and quaint over there. I would have liked to have seen the other two islands if we'd had more time. On the way back, the ferry drove us by the Cliffs of Moher and let us check them out up close and personal and take pictures. That was a really cool experience. I'd seen them when I was 16 and thought they were even cool then, so seeing them from the boat was pretty awesome.

Today, we took the bus to the Cliffs of Moher, so my dad and brother could see them from the top and check out the tower. It was pretty windy today, but still a nice day. We walked around the top of the cliffs and climbed up the tower and caught the next bus to Lahinch beach. Lahinch is the surfing beach, and my parents surf, so they wanted to go out there and check it out. There were definitely some waves, but I just don't know how people go out there in that cold, cold water. There were plenty of people out though. Lahinch was a really cool town, and we walked around and went in some shops for a while before we had to catch the bus back to Doolin. Tonight we went and ate dinner at Fitz's again. They had more live traditional Irish music. We went to another pub in Doolin that we named the "stinky pub" because theres a sewer smell outside and listened to some more music for a bit.

Tomorrow we have to get up bright and early to catch the bus back to Galway and then the train to Dublin for our last official night in Ireland. I can't believe I'm actually about to leave Europe. It's kind of surreal. 5 weeks is a really long time to be gone. Tomorrow I'm going to write a blog that's dedicated to how much I love America. Stay tuned... :)

These are pictures from the past week. A whole lot of them...

Cheers! At Port Marnoch Beach

Some guys playing at a pub called The Cottage

the village of Doolin, where we are now

Doolin at the sea

(crazy) people surf here sometimes.

the beach and sea at Doolin

on Inishmeer, Aran islands

Inishmeer... they put the crocs where they should be :)

us in the fort on Inishmeer

Dharma up in the fort

Inishmeer

another part of the fort

Dad and I in the fort

Mom biking

The shipwreck

Inishmeer beach

looking at the beach from inside the wreck

Dad in the boat

Inishmeer beach

Inishmeer

Cliffs of Moher from the boat

Cliffs of Moher

 Cliffs of Moher

Me, Cliffs of Moher, August 2006 (age 16) - obviously not happy

Me, Cliffs of Moher, August 2012 (age 23) - a little bit happier :)

tower at the cliffs plus Dad

Dad at the top of the tower, one of my favorite pics that I took.

Family at cliffs

surf break at the cliffs. some (crazy) people surf here too.

Doolin

being cute

Moooooo.. these guys are everywhere

beer, pancakes, fried bananas, and "streaky" bacon... the breakfast/lunch of champions

Lahinch, the beach town

Lahinch beach

surfers at Lahinch

Lahinch

Wales to Ireland

We've been in 3 different countries in the last 2 days. Pretty Crazy. Scotland to Wales, stayed less than 24 hours in Wales, and then caught a ferry to Dublin, Ireland. We will be in Ireland for the remainder of our trip.

Even though we only stayed in Wales for a short time, we were able to walk around a bit when it wasn't raining and get a taste for it. It was really remote and quaint, compared to all of the other places we've been. We rode the train from Edinburgh, Scotland to Holyhead, Wales for about 5 hours yesterday. I guess I was really tired of traveling, because I had an extreme blonde moment right before we got off the train in Holyhead. The last train we were on was an inner city train, and it stopped frequently. At all the train stops and metro stops (except in Italy) they have the name of the stop clearly printed somewhere on the wall or on a sign. That's usually the first thing I look for, so I know that we're getting off at the right stop. The conductor had announced that Holyhead was the next stop, and everyone was to get off. We stopped not 30 seconds after that, and there were still a couple of girls that didn't even get up to get off, so I thought he could have meant it was the stop after that. I didn't want to get off the train at the wrong stop, which we've done several times in the past month. So, I look outside for the sign that is the name of the stop. Keep in mind that they speak Welsh in Wales, and they have funny names for things in Europe. In Amsterdam, our metro stop was named "Weesperplein" for example. So, the first big sign I see is "cycle rack" so I tell mom, "This isn't Holyhead, this is Cyle Rack! We don't get off here!" She just looked at me and said, "give me the damn book bag." I was determined that we were at Cycle Rack and it wasn't time to get off, but mom starts to get off anyway so I follow her and that's when I see the sign for Holyhead. She pointed at the cycle rack sign, which had a bike rack underneath it. So, I mistook the bike rack sign for the name of the town. Epic fail. We called it cycle rack the rest of the time we were there though, and couldn't stop laughing about how dumb that was. Who calls it a cycle rack anyway?

From what we saw of Wales, it was beautiful. We were obviously on the coast since we were catching the ferry and the coastline was exactly how I pictured it would look. There were tons of sailboats in the harbor and when we got there it wasn't raining and we actually saw a really beautiful sunset after dinner. The really wonderful thing was, there was nobody around! After being in big cities like London, Paris and Rome the past month, we really appreciate the peace, quite and solitude. Today, we had a little time to walk around before we had to catch the ferry. We walked up along the coast line and it was cloudy and breezy but still very pretty. The beaches are all smooth stones like they were in France. The rocks were covered in some sort of moss or seaweed. Everything is so green and there are lots of flowers since it rains so sporadically. In Scotland, Wales and Amsterdam there are so many hydrangeas. I was in hydrangea heaven. And they're so colorful. In North Carolina, mostly you just see the classic blue ones. Here they are all shades of pink and deep purple to white and some blues. I loooove them. Anyway, it started to rain and we had to hurry back to catch our ride to the ferry. I would have liked to have seen more of Wales (Cycle Rack) but maybe another time.

The ferry we took to Ireland was enormous. It was like a mini cruise ship. I didn't expect it to be like that at all. If you've ever been on the ferry to Ocracoke or Hatteras, it's nothing even comparable to that. They drove us on a bus onto the ferry, and let us off and told us to go to the 5th floor. We got up there and I didn't even know what to think. There was a full blown restaurant and cafe and lots of little seats and tables. There were places people could sleep a floor up, for extra money. It was the craziest ferry I've ever seen. We made it to Ireland and didn't have trouble getting to the hotel.

My Dad and brother are on there way to Ireland now to spend the rest of the trip with us. I can't wait to see them in the morning!

Best things about today: Checking out Wales, making it to Dublin.
Worst things about today: Lack of sleep.


*No pictures tonight because the internet sucks here.

Edinburgh, The Highlands, and Loch Ness

We've been in Scotland the last two nights. We're staying in Edinburgh, and we took a bus tour through the Highlands today all the way up to Loch Ness. I think Scotland is really gorgeous. The weather we've had couldn't have been more perfect. It hasn't even rained! The temperature has been around 70 during the day, and it's been perfectly sunny and beautiful. We've been very blessed.

Our first night in Edinburgh we were worn out from traveling, so we decided to eat in the restaurant that's next to the hotel and go to bed at a reasonable time. I ordered chicken and it had bacon on it and something called haggis that I'd never heard of. I asked our waitress what it was and she said a traditional Scottish dish that is "quite nice" so I decided to try it. It came on my chicken, looking like ground beef. I took one bite and decided it wasn't for me. Later, I found out what haggis really is: sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, salt and cooked in animal intestines. Gag. My dad feeds suet, one of the ingredients, to the birds in our backyard. Never again will I try something without knowing what it is. I can't believe that went in my mouth.

Yesterday, Friday the 11th, we went and walked around in Edinburgh. They're having the Fringe festival, which is a theater festival. It's all free, and they have live improv shows, music, stand up comedy, and all kinds of venders and other stuff. It lasts all month. We ended up starting off by climbing the Scott Monument, which is a big Gothic looking tower in town that has panoramic views of Edinburgh. It was a tight squeeze in some spots, but well worth going up. We walked through some of the venders after that, and then we decided we wanted to climb Arthur's seat, which is the highest (I think) peak of the "hills" in Hollyrood (not Hollywood) park, in Edinburgh. We had to walk all through town to get out there, and the town is just so unique and pretty. All of the buildings are so different looking that anything we've seen yet. They were so in character to what I would think a Scottish town should look like. They all had stone facades and the streets were stone too.

We finally made it to the bottom of where we were supposed to hike, and it might be called a "hill" but it was definitely a hike all the way to the top, and this girl did it in skinny jeans and flats. That's what I had on, and I wouldn't have had any better options anyway because my clothing selections are pretty limited right now. So, I don't recommend hiking in skinny jeans and flats, but it was really, really beautiful on the way up and at the top, so it was well worth the effort. You could see all the way to the water, and all of Edinburgh from the top. It was really stunning all the way around. I'm really glad we were able to do that, it was definitely one of the coolest and most scenic things we've done. After that, we stopped in a pub and caught a free stand up comedy show, which was part of the Fringe festival. It was actually pretty good. The guy's name was Ionni, he was Australian, and we got some good laughs. When that was over we got some dinner. No more haggis. I kept it safe with fish and chips, and then we called it a day.

Today, Saturday, we went on a bus tour to the highlands. It was another gorgeous day. The drive up there was stunning. Several times I would see a little cabin, sitting in the middle of the mountains, next to a loch, looking so isolated. It made me want to go stay there for about a week and escape and explore. It was so beautiful there. Mom got motion sick in the bus, but I felt fine, just bad for her that she felt sick. We stopped at several places along the way, but our main destination was Loch Ness, home of the Loch Ness monster, Nessie! Loch Ness is part of the Great Glen, and our stop on Loch Ness was Fort Augustus. It was really beautiful there. We went on a boat ride on the loch. It had sonar, in case Nessie decided to make an appearance. I looked and looked, but I never saw her. I have a feeling she only shows up on foggy, dark, or rainy days, when she can be mysterious. The water in Scotland is a brownish color, because the peat runs off from the mountains when it rains. It's sort of odd looking and it makes the visibility low. Another good way for Nessie to hide. It was still a really beautiful one hour boat ride. Fort Augustus would be a pretty town to stay in.

I've really enjoyed our time in Scotland. I think it's a really beautiful place and it has a lot to offer. The people have been really, really nice. If you ask someone on the street for help, they are more than happy to oblige, and give you a smile to go with it. It's always good to be around nice people, especially people that speak your language. It makes you feel much less isolated. Tomorrow we head to Wales to spend the night before we catch a ferry in Holyhead to Dublin on Monday. I've heard Wales is beautiful, so I'm excited to check it out, even if it's only for the day!

Best things about today: The views from the tour were unbelievable. Awesome sights!
Worst things about today: I feel sorry that mom felt bad.

Edinburgh from Scotts Monument

We climed to the top of the thing on the right

From the top

Top

On one of the bus tour stops

Where we stopped for lunch on the tour

Leading out to Loch Ness

Loch Ness

The Highlands

Edinburgh