Ireland

After our few days in Inverness touring with Scott, he dropped us in Glasgow where we explored on our own for a day and then flew to Ireland. 

We arranged to have Jack, another local driver/guide, pick us up and take us to Killarney where we spent 3 nights and did day tours based from there with Jack showing us everything. Once again we all agreed that having the driver/guide worked out best for us and I recommend doing that if you have the chance. We were able to see so much this way - long days in the car but worth it. We saw castles and ruins, cemeteries, amazing scenery, sheep and cattle, Rock of Cashel, Blarney Castle, lots of water and islands, did the Ring of Kerry drive and the Dingle Peninsula...and lots more!

Here is Jack with Dave, Cathy, and Al...and I have no idea what they are doing, but it made me laugh:

Ireland is beautiful; it differs from Scotland which kind of surprised me, I thought they'd be the same! Much greener, there are low rock walls dividing up hills and fields making for almost "natural" fences for the sheep, horses, and cattle - there are less sheep but still lots of sheep (!), and because of all the water the fish and seafood is off the charts delicious...I had the best mussels in my whole life 2 days in a row and if they would have offered it on the third day I'da had them again ;). Seriously I was in heaven.

the farmers can tell which sheep belong to them by painting
different colors on them - this farmer is going for the tie-dye look!
most seemed to just do one color for marking.

On our way to Killarney the first day we stopped at the Blarney Castle near Cork to see the Blarney Stone. Again, not what I thought it was (perhaps I should have done more research before going on this trip?!)...you climb up a narrow, dark, twisty stone staircase for a few flights to arrive on the roof of the castle (it's a partial ruin now). The Blarney Stone is in the oddest place - how did anyone figure out that you need to lay on your back and do a backbend to kiss the stone upside down in order to receive the "gift of eloquence"? I always thought it was the gift of gab, but nope - it's for eloquence. When Dave said he wanted to kiss it we all said he certainly didn't need to have help with the gift of gab hahaha, but once we found out it's actually the gift of eloquence then we said oh yeah, he should def kiss it LOL. Check out the pic of how you reach the stone!

up the twisty castle stairs...

kissing the Blarney Stone.

A few more pictures from our first couple of days in Ireland:

we got to watch a sheep herding demonstration - 2 border collies are in the front of the picture and all of the sheep are up at the top against a hedge. The shepherd uses a series of whistles to tell the dogs what he wants done - each dog has it's own specific whistle tone! The guy could make them go left, right, slow down, speed up, etc. It was SO fun to watch (and judging how these dogs responded to sound I realized that Sarge can hear me WAY better than he pretends he can, Brat!).

you can get an idea about the stone hedges dividing up the land into plots.
the bright green area on the left middle is the easiest square to see is full of sheep
being contained in that square. these stone fences are everywhere. everywhere!

I so want to live in one of these little houses on the edge of a cliff looking at that beautiful water! 

putting my feet in the Atlantic. yep, it's super cold water but Cathy and I couldn't resist. 

After leaving Killarney, Jack drove us to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren on our way to Galway. The morning we hiked the Cliffs was pretty much the only rain we saw on our whole vacation and it was the perfect time to get some rain - it added to the whole atmosphere and dramatic cliffs. One tip if you are traveling here - be prepared with hats, warm layers, waterproof jacket! Even without the rain I'm pretty sure it's going to be windy and cold out there, Cathy and I wished we had gloves (and she went back to the car for warmer socks!). The Burren is made up of limestone fields, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention (not gonna lie) but I think they were carved out after a glacial period - however they were formed they are incredible, it totally seemed like what the surface of the moon would look like - rock as far as you could see.

We only had a day in Galway to explore on our own - it's a cute city with a pedestrian only area that was fun to stroll thru. We did a hop-on hop-off bus ride around town, after seeing the sights we decided to walk out to a lighthouse that looked closer than it was (HA!) and after getting out there realized it's closed to visitors...uh wish the bus guide would have mentioned that when he suggested walking out there! While walking though we saw a black swan mixed in with a bunch of white swans and ducks, that was pretty cool.  

the black swan is in the upper middle
of the picture, closest to the rock wall

The next morning we took a train to Dublin where we had a very short day to explore - that night we got the best surprise when we stumbled on a fun, entertaining, and really good Irish band playing at a little bar down the road from our hotel. A great treat (we bought their cd we enjoyed them so much) and the perfect ending to our trip. We didn't spend much time in Dublin, pretty much all the info we got while planning the trip was to get out of Dublin - it's a big city and I'm sure tons to do there, but the beauty of Ireland is getting out into the countryside. We didn't regret that decision at all and LOVED our time exploring outside of the city.

The Celtic Gypsies

If you're still reading - thank you for being interested in my travel blogging!! It's a great way for me to have a journal of some of the things we did...I used to write about our travels in a diary but now with blogging the last couple of trips I've just put it on here. Hopefully you enjoy reading about our adventures - and if you are planning a trip anywhere we have been and have questions just give me a holler and I'll try to help! Number one tip from this trip? LAYERS! ;).

Oh, and number two tip is don't ask about rainbows (I did catch this little glimpse of one!), pots of gold, or leprechauns...they really don't like it!