Sunday in the Emerald Isle.

Hello friends,
I am still trying to catch up. It takes so long for me to post, sorry. For Tammy- a hostel is like a bed & breakfast, except the rooms are not private. There can be as many as 6-10 bunks in a room, or you can be in a private room but of course the fewer beds the more it costs..There are mixed and separate sex rooms. Some come ensuite(with a bath in the room) or sharing a bath. So far we have been in a 5 bunk room, 3 bunk, 2 bunk and tonite a private only because she needed the bigger room. Breakfast, if there is one, consists of cereal and toast, tea & coffee. This one does not except for scones in the AM. There is a kitchen for making your own meals and a common room. For the budget minded, it is great.
Now back to Sunday. We got up early ( me before Tom this time). Drove to the Dingle Peninsula. Beautiful scenery. Dingle is a fishing village and is very small. Walked around, a little hilly. Here's a little funny-we kept smelling apples. Thought it was a candle in the first store, but smelled it again down the street. Tom was smelling it as well. We thought, how neat. A whole town that smells like apples. Then as we were leaving, I found my hand sanitizer's cap had come off. Guess what scent it was? Green apple from Bath & Bodyworks. My SP gave it to me. It was all down the bottom of my pants. I was so disappointed.
Decided to drive on. The road got down to one lane in places, one lane for 2 cars. Luckily we didn't meet anyone headon, but I was plenty nervous. We went to an ancient fort - Fort Dunbeg. It is a cliff fortress. Walked around the ruins and could almost feel the old spirits watching. Sheep also walk around the area and even though I tried to be careful... you already know. All over the bottom of my pants. An interesting combination. The Beehive huts we could see from the road. There were small circular huts for travelers or pilgrims in ancient times.  Drove on to the Blasket Islands Heritage Center. These Islands are just off the coast from Dingle. Inhabited until 1954. Very bleak place. Very hardy souls.


Dingle peninsula coast



The harbor at Dingle.



Dingle countryside




Ireland flag in harbor




The Craic (crack) House. Craic means fun or a good time



Row houses in Dingle

Local wildlife

Bee Hive huts

Ferry to Tarbert

Freezing cold on ferry

 After that we drove on to Tarbert, where we were going to catch the ferry over to Kilrush and begin our drive to Doolin. It also used to be a fishing village. It sits on the coast, very small village. Our hostel is the best yet. The Rainbow Hostel. Used to be a family home and they(Mattie & Carmel) are slowly fixing it up and adding on. Nice and cozy living room with a small woodstove, big beautiful kitchen and dining room, skylights and all baths ensuite. But no breakfast, just scones-delicious scones. We went down the street to a pub for dinner and met 2 girls from Boston staying at our hostel. Ate a tasty fresh salmon dinner and had my first hard cider.All tasted so good. Stayed and listened to Trad music for ahile. and then off to bed. Tata all. Love you mom.

Saturday in the Emerald Isle.

Friends,
Sorry about the delay but the hostel in Killarney had very poor WiFi and this one was not turned on last nite. I will go back to Saturday. We got up in the morning and went out to see Ross Castle. Unfortunately there was a triathlon going on so we had to park at a golf course and walk in. Weather was typical. Ross Castle is a restored tower castle on the lake. We took a tour and I was amazed that the space was so small. It had a spiral staircase and the rooms went right off that. Guard rooms on first 2 floors, then a parlour type room, then the bedroom, one bedroom. Everyone slept in the same room. On top of that was the banquet room. There was even an indoor toilet. Actually just an open place to sit down and the waste products went down the side of the castle into the compost pile. They used moss for TP.
After the castle we walked back and drove up to the Gap of Dunloe. Saw Kate Kearney's Cottage. Now a pub/restaurant/tourist shop. The road was too bad to go on to Moll's gap so we drove down and went to Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. Beautiful church and the women can pray fast. Dinner was next and we went to get Tom's fish and chips. Was disappointed-fish was fatty and the coating was greasy. But at least we tried it. Got to bed late because I was trying to blog. I had a semi-disaster with my camera. It deleted all my pics, I don't know what I did, but I couldn't get it to stop. The fellow at the camera shop said I could recover them at home. Thank heavens. But I had to buy a new card. (Some pics below are from Friday.)

Small farmhouse at Muckross Traditional Farms

The original Murphey's bed

Dried turf used for fuel

View of mtns from Trad. farms

Inside of large farnhouse

Muckross House

Abbey ruins

Me in doorway of Abbey ruins

Kate Kearney's cottage

Street in Killarney

St. Mary's Cathedral

Friday, Day 5 of Ireland Adventure

Friends,
Killarney is a beautiful town up in the mountains with a national park attached to the town. The park has 3 lakes or Loughs(locks). One is huge and the other 2 are much smaller. Our trip to Killarney was uneventful except I left my towel at the hostel. The streets here are even more narrow. Our hostel is a Paddy's Hostel because the second nite is free. A 2 for 1 sale. It is almost in the center of town, much smaller than Dublin's. They are renovating it so we got a 2 bunker with a couple from Australia. And this bathroom is actually ensuite. So many young people we've met are on tours around the world. I surely didn't have that kind of money when I was young.
Tom and I went to the park first, before going to the hostel. We visited Muckross traditional farm villages. You walk around and see recreated farms from the 30's and 40's. There was a small, medium, large and laborer's farms. Boy it makes you appreciate what we have now. No outhouses even. Just potty pans that they emptied every AM on the compost heap. Every cottage, which we are not supposed to say, because a cottage actually belonged to to a laborer, had flower pots in the windows. They used turf(dried peat) with some wood for their fires. Cooked eveything in a fireplace just like our pioneers. The large farm however had a black cookstove in their kitchen. They also used older children from other farmers as servants or handimen, field workers or dairy helpers. Everyone worked hard to make a living then and they valued what they owned.
After that tour we had a cuppa to warm up( Did I mention it was cold and windy?) and off we went again to walk to Muckross House, a huge mansion. We didn't go in because how many rooms of finery, fancy furniture and paintings can you see before they all resemble each other? We continued walking to see the Muckross Abbey ruins. Very impressive structure with a Yew tree growing in the middle of it. Apparently the Yew held a special meaning.
After that I was exhausted so we checked into our hostel. Our room has a new wood floor and curtains! And the bath has a shower with a regular handle you don't have to hold in. What a luxury. I wanted to buy more pants and a sweatshirt so we went to a store called Penney's, just not our Penney's. Clothes in my budget. Then we went walking around to find a place to eat and finally settled on Caraigh,(Carrack). Their smoked bacon is our ham. You wouldn't believe the proportions. Tom and I split that and a bowl of seafood chowder. It was way too much and now my tummy is not happy. After a hot shower I am heading to bed. TaTa to all. Love you mom.---You all will have to wait until later for the pics, they are not uploading. :(

Thursday, Fourth Day in the Emerald Isle

Friends,                                                                                                                                     Cork, IE
Each day I wake up and still can't believe I'm here. The people are extraordinarily nice. Everyone we have stopped and asked ?'s of will wish us a happy holiday. And the food. Anyone who says there is only potatoes and cabbage haven't been to the places we have. Tom and I share a dinner entre and it has been enough for both of us. Of course that way I can order dessert. They have wonderful desserts. We had Banofee Pie tonite. I would weigh 200 lbs if I lived here. But maybe not since I would expend alot of calories just trying to stay warm. We walk our legs off everyday as well.
Today we got off at 9:30 to see and kiss the Blarney Stone. We were in a line  as we walked the 100 steps up to the top of the castle. The steps at one point were so steep, we had a rope to hold on to. It was as you can guess, cold and blustery. The actual kissing part was quick. It is not really a stone at all but a sort of wall that goes around the outside at the top. Anyway the best part was walking around the grounds. Beautiful rhododendrums, azealeas, ferns, and trees .
One part was an old Druid settlement. I made a wish on the Wishing Steps. You have to close your eyes and walk down and up 28 stone steps and think of your wish the whole time. If mine comes true in a year, I'll let you know. We spent about 3 hours there, and then drove on to Cobh, pronounced cove in gaelic.( Bh says v.) Cobh was the last stop for the Titanic before her fateful journey. Also many of Ireland's emigrants left out of that harbor to escape the hardships and famine of that time.


Blarney Castle




Posing on the grounds in front of Blarney Castle




Backside of castle




The narrow tower steps and rope ladder




Me on the steps, freezing.




Getting ready to lay one on the stone.




That's the hole where you kiss the stone.




It's really high up there.




What an odd tree




Can you see the witche's profile?




Waterfalls in the Druid ruins




Colorful row houses on the River Lee in Cork.




A cathedral in Cork

 We didn't get back in time for me to go shopping-the stores close at 6:00. (Are they more civilized than us?)  Maybe that is a good thing. The clothes I saw were right expensive. 30E for a pair of casual pants. (E=$1.48). Walked a ways for dinner. A large group of very pretty girls were having a graduation celebration. Such outfits. Super short dresses and tall heels, lots of blonde hair. Where were their mums when they were getting dressed? There were excited to be eighteen and able to drink, smoke and wear short dresses with tall heels. Just kidding. They were going clubbing. Tom got us going the wrong way home. But that extra walking earns me another dessert. Yeah! Tomorrow, it's on to Killarney. TaTa. Love you mom.

Wednesday, Third Day in Ireland

Friends,
Today began rather late according to Tom. My alarm went off at 6:30 and I promptly turned it off. Tom, of course, was up, had eaten and was ready to go. I staggered into the bathroom and got ready to greet the day. We packed up and put the luggage in lock-up while we played in the city. The sun was actually in the sky this AM. Thought it might turn out half decent. Wrong! Get to that later.
We headed for Grafton Street which is said to be the most expensive street in the world. Don't know how true that is but we couldn't afford to even window shop. We could afford some postcards and stamps, though. Made our way down to the Grand Canal. This side trip was exclusively for Tom. It was a heck of a long ways to go to see a "ditch" half full of water. Apparently they partially drained it to clean it out. Poor Tom. He was very disappointed. We went on our way to see the Grand Knight. All you Catholics will know who I mean. By this time our sunny day disappeared and you know what happened. Off and on. We enjoyed our tour of the Ely House (1798) which used to be a real person's home. a rich person. Gorgeous frescos, marble fireplaces, statues, etc.I met the man of my dreams.(see pic) Now it is the headquarters for the Kof C.
On our way again, we passed a real protest march. Small then but later the news reported 10,000 people. They were protesting the small return the farmers have on their meat, milk and produce. We met a young Ital. professor who got us in free to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Very interesting but I am glad we didn't pay the 5E to get in. We made our way to the Thrifty car rental. That was another adventure. Apparently I forgot to raise the limit on our debit card and we were denied. A call stateside to Tammy at T&C banks set that right but it took awhile. Thank you Tammy for getting us out of a jam. On the road in our "new" Ford Focus. 12km on it. But by that time it was rush hour. Here is Tom on the right side of the car on the left side of the street in rush hour. My stomach was not well. We eventually got back to our hostel and I had to run in and pull our luggage up a flight of stairs while Tom drove around the block bcause their was no parking. Luckily he had a red light so I could throw the luggage in, and we were off.
Driving thru Dublin did not get any easier, but it is a good thing we have been married for 31 years. A few angry words were bantered about. Finally the highway, actually M8. It took us forever to get to Cork. The round-abouts are definitely a trip. We had to keep reminding ourselves, the left, the left side. Stopped by the Rock of Cashel and took a pic but it was late and it was closed. Cork finally. and rain. Found our hostel. It is a Bar and hostel. Definitely smaller that Paddy's. Our ensuite bathroom is not in the room??? Very tiny room with 3 bunks. Took a walk to find a bar open with food. They stop serving food at 9-9:30. Ate at a modern Italian and had the best Tiramisu ever.... Alright, but I did walk all day. Now I am ready to go to bed. Will send our laundry out tomorrow AM before we go to Blarney. Could get used to that. Good night friends, and hello Marla. Love you mom.


Trinity College




The name says it all.




Flower mart on Grafton.




One of the entrances to Trinity College.




The "Grand Canal"




Wedgewood frescoes & marble fireplace insured for over a mil. euros.




Ulysses-the man of my dreams.




Farmers protest. The man has a cow hat on.




Rock of Cashel-A castle on a limestone outcropping. It's undergoing renovation.




Statues at the Heritage Center at Rof C



Tuesday, Day 2 Irish Vacation



Downtown in Kilkenny



Round tower at Glendalough Monastic ruins




View of round tower in cementary




St Kevin's church ruins




Our tour bus from our hostel




Castle at Kilkenny




Brownshill Dolmen




Castle facing courtyard in Kilkenny




Tom and his Guinness




Dinner at O'Shea's pub




Our hostel-Paddy's Palace




Stilleto in the ghetto




River Liffey




Me blogging on Mon. in coffee shop

 .


The President's car

 Today we went on a tour provided free by our hostel. The destination was Glendalough and Kilkenny. We left at 8am. Took about an hour to get there and once there we had 1 1/2 hrs. to walk around. Took a walk around the old cementary, although, it is still in use. Saw a round tower and St. Kevin's church ruins. After that, we hiked to the lower and upper lakes. Chilly and a little breezy. Took us about 30 minutes to get there and then we turned around and came back. Beautiful scenery. Got really warm on the way back.

 Got back on the bus and drove up to Wicklow Gap, stopped and took a picture. Very cold there. Rode on to Kilkenny (Cill Clainnaich) and toured the castle and had lunch in the old stable buildings renovated to be shops and artists studios. Lunch was wonderful, shared it and was quite full. Walked down the town to see the Black Abbey, but it was farther than we thought so we turned around and came back. Got back on the bus and drove to Brownshill Dolmen, a megalithic portal tomb, built between 4000 and 3000 BC. Napped on the way home. All through the countryside you can see sheep pastures, open fields, and stone walls.

Got back at 6PM and took a little and then we went to O'Shea's pub and restaurant for dinner. Lovely roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, shared of course. And a most tasty apple pie for dessert. Their crust is more like a cake. Took a walk around to help digest the meal. It is now 11:30 and time for bed. Ta Ta. Love you mom