Ireland continued...

Where did I leave off...

After our stay in Waterville, we continued along the Ring of Kerry. Skelligs chocolate, Vanilla Ganache. Valencia Island and off roading in a VW. Cliffs, beaches, lighthouses and slate quarries that provide the slate for the Houses for Parliament. Ferry rides back to the mainland and a GPS that thinks we're driving on water.

Up and around to the Dingle Peninsula. 18 hole Pitch n' Putt on the water. Don't let the fun name drag you in, Dingle is pretty disappointing. Getting late, so we head up towards the Burren area. Stay in Lisdoonvarna. I like saying that word. Laundry and free wi-fi? Pasta dinners and long showers. Next morning we take off to the Cliffs of Moher. Pretty view but an overcast day. Fun fighting birds in the parking lot. One landed on a car antennae and I got a great picture. Off again. The Burren is a limestone region and they're not kidding about that. Stopped to see the Poulnabrone passage tomb. Lots of rocks. LOTS of rocks. Off again. Kinvara or Kinvarra? No one seems to know, including the town itself.

Head towards Galway, then continue north towards Castlebaldwin. Turn down a windy road. Overly-directed directions that finally get us to the UFO, errr, our accommodations for the night. An eco-lodge of sorts. No one there, key in the door. Turns out the owner is in France and has a friend watching over. I guess not many people book this place, but they should because as long as you have a car to get you there, its amazing. I don't think I can put it into words so I'll post pictures at some point. We were in the middle of nowhere with the place to ourselves. It was so relaxing. Read upstairs in the little room for a while. Took tons of photos. Felt more like a dream than reality, I've never been in something like it.

Next day we explore the northern coast of Ireland. Originally this wasn't in our plan but we had extra time and this area turned out to be my favorite of the trip. Beautiful unspoiled beaches. Blue water and soft sand. Rocks for climbing and peeing. I peed on a few rocks in Ireland, woops. Make use of my crazy camera contraption. The first photo I posted was from this location. Just to note, the one on this post is from a castle in Killarney National Park, and the previous photo is from Malahide. Drive around, see more and more beaches, and sheep crossing the road. I love sheep.

Cross the border into Northern Ireland. When exactly did it change over? On our way to Portstewart for the night. Cute little seaside community. Ricks Causeway Hostel with a friendly Canadian employee who liked to talk. Rick showed up later on. Met two older woman from NZ who Nik striked up a conversation with. Ezmay and Bev I believe were their names? We ended up meeting them at 9a to drive to the Giant's Causeway so they wouldn't have to catch a bus. The Causeway was beautiful, and I can see why its the most popular site in NI. All the walking proved that I'm still out of shape which was quite depressing. Made me love the ocean though. So pretty up there. Over to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. My fear of heights didn't get the best of me and I managed to cross over without issue. My legs felt like spaghetti but due only to exhaustion, as this was soon after the Giant's Causeway walking and climbing. Most beautiful scenery and some of my favorite digital photos from the trip. To finish our last full day in Ireland/NI, we drove down towards the Mourne Mountains and came upon our bed for the night in a community centre. Friendly manager and big bed. Great, long nights sleep. Off back towards Dublin the next morning. Car washes and tar. Sketchy guys in nice cars offering us coins for the vacuum. Back through Malahide to the airport. Then home sweet home, or second home I guess.

Pretty boring summary, I'm sorry. If anyone ends up traveling to Ireland, let me know and I'll come up with better stories and suggestions. My photos speak louder than my words I'm sure. I'll post some soon...