Ireland, day 5 (pictures)

Picture time!

A view of the Aran Islands from the Cliffs of Moher:


And a view of Connemara behind the cliffs, looking inland:


A closer view of Hag's Head at the end of the cliffs:


"I'll jump, I swear!"



The other side of the cliffs, and O'Brien's Tower:


The entrance to Markree Castle:


A view of Markree Castle from the back garden:


A view of the garden from the window in our room:


Stained glass window in the lobby:


A river in the back of the castle. I have no idea why there are steps going down into the water but it was kind of creepy:


Ashford is going to have its own entry coming shortly - I have way too many pictures and it was way too big to do it justice in just a couple of shots.

Ireland, day 5 (Ennis to Sligo)

First up on Wednesday were the Cliffs of Moher, which we had skipped the night before. We made it there quite early, and it was freezing, plus it was raining off and on. It was miserable at first, but it cleared up somewhat. It was still cold and windy, but at least the rain mostly stopped. We wandered around the cliffs for a while, and climbed to the top of O'Brien's Tower. We could vaguely see the Aran Islands across the ocean through the mist, and looking inland we could see part of Connemara.

Once we left the Cliffs of Moher we headed to Ashford Castle (aka Winterfell for Christian, though I'm thinking it's more like King's Landing >_>). We got waaaaaay lost on the way there. We missed one little turn off and spent probably 3 hours driving in a big loop. We finally made it there though, and it was completely worth the delay. The castle and the grounds are massive. It would have been nice to have a bit more sun, but it was still good enough weather. We wandered around the castle and all of the gardens (there were I think five of them? I don't even remember) for a while and I took way too many pictures.

We left Ashford and headed to Westport House. We got lost on the way there yet again, so we didn't take the time to do the tour or anything. Jade grabbed something to eat and I wandered around a little bit, but then we continued on. We were originally going to head over to Achill Island but had to skip it as well. I was disappointed but we just didn't have the time after all of the getting lost that day. Out of the entire trip that was the only thing we'd planned to do that we never got to, so I figure I can live with that.

We headed north towards Sligo to our hotel for the night, Markree Castle. It was fantastic, and I'm glad I was so determined to stay in a castle. We had a little tower room in our room with a writing desk, and a spectacular view of the back gardens from our windows. Before dinner we went around and explored the outside of the castle and the grounds. We ate in their restaurant which was excellent but entirely too fancy for us. Jade went out for a bit and I wandered around the castle - then when she got back we wandered some more and took videos at midnight, complete with a trip out to the car in the pitch black. I swear the place is haunted. Seriously, it was awesome, but parts of it were just creepy as hell!

And that was our day - picture entry will of course be posted soon, and possibly another picture entry dedicated to Ashford, since I took so many there!

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1. The Cliffs of Moher
2. A random picture taken out the window on our looong roundabout way to Ashford
3. Ashford Castle
4. This was near the entrance to Markree Castle. I have no idea why, but it was hilarious.
5. Our first look of Markree Castle as were coming down the driveway.

Ireland, day 4 (pictures)

And here are some more pictures from the fourth day of our trip:

Jade in front of Blarney Castle:


Another view from Blarney Castle:


Yet another view from a different side of Blarney Castle:


Me at the Lakes of Killarney:


Some rocks in the middle of the lake:


Me inside Muckross Abbey:


Jade inside the Muckross Abbey fireplace:


Another view of Muckross Abbey:


One shot from inside Muckross Abbey:


Surfers - Dingle Peninsula:


Dingle Peninsula:


Yet another from the Dingle Peninsula - I got so many amazing pictures there, the scenery was just amazing:



Dingle Peninsula again. Took this one out the car window and thought it turned out pretty well:



Another on the Dingle Peninsula, once again showing my mad skills at hanging out a car window taking pictures:

Ireland, day 4 (Blarney to Ennis)

We went to Blarney Castle first thing in the morning, after breakfast in the hotel. We made it over there not long after it opened, but there was already a massive line to kiss the Blarney Stone. So we waited for over an hour, but it wasn't too bad. We had lots of opportunities on the way up to get pictures, and we chatted to the people around us in line, who were all very nice. It rained off and on a little while we waited, but nothing major. It was one of those rains where the sun is still shining - which according to the lady in front of us in line means that the Devil is beating his wife (Jade and I both thought at first that she said it meant the Devil was beating off...and were somewhat alarmed that a 60 year old woman would tell us something like that!).

We wound around outside the castle and then up through all of the steps inside. Near the top it was ridiculous. The stairway just kept getting steeper and narrower, and by the very top it was pretty much vertical. I was hanging on for dear life to the rope that was there for a handrail, while trying to keep one hand on my camera so it didn't go plummeting down to the bottom. But we made it up there. The view from the top was awesome. We kissed the Blarney Stone (gift of eloquence, my ass) and headed back down. Thankfully the stairway down wasn't nearly as bad as the one we went up.

After a quick stop in town for stamps so I could mail postcards, we packed up the car and headed west to the Lakes of Killarney. We didn't realize before we got there just how big the lakes or the park would be. We parked near one of them - I have no idea which, and wandered around for a couple of hours. There were some breathtaking views, though it was a bit cloudy out so we couldn't see the mountains around the lake clearly.

While we were walking through the park, we came across Muckross Abbey, completely by accident. I'd never even heard of the place but it ended up being a blast. It was the first place we'd been that wasn't a regular tourist attraction. There were no tours or anything, and we were able to just wander around the entire thing, even upstairs. It reminded me a bit of Hogwarts, which was really cool.

We were heading back to the car after that when it started pouring. We'd initially considered going to at least one of the other lakes, but we were cold and drenched and weren't sure when the rain would stop, so we continued along for the day. Our next destination wasn't a stop really; we just went on a drive around the Dingle Peninsula. It's a very scenic drive with a lot of spectacular views, so we would randomly pull over, or I'd take pictures out the window (I did that a lot, all week...I was surprised how well some of the pictures actually turned out).

We were going to go one more place that day, but by the time we were done driving around the peninsula it was getting a bit late (and the place closed at 8pm) so we decided to save it for the following morning. We headed to our second hotel, the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis. It was a nice place, but it was a bit odd. We had to walk down a ton of hallways to find our room, and it reminded us of the hotel from The Shining. I seriously expected those creepy twin girls to be waiting for me when I turned the corner. And with that, I'll leave you with a video we made getting to our hotel room (again, sorry for the watermark, though I managed to get the quality to be much better this time...). Pictures will be posted soon.

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1. Blarney Castle
2. A view from the top of Blarney Castle
3. The Lakes of Killarney - again, not sure which one
4. Muckross Abbey
5. One random picture from the Dingle Peninsula

Ireland, day 3 (pictures)

As promised, here are more pictures from day 3 of my trip, inclucing the Irish National Stud, Kilkenny, and the Rock of Cashel.

The Japanese Garden:


Me in the Japanese garden, on the Bridge of Life:


Another view of the Japanese garden:


Tea house inside the Japanese garden:


Me again in the Japanese garden - I have no idea how I didn't fall in the water:


A view inside St. Fiachra's Garden:


The monastic cell inside St. Fiachra's Garden:


The Waterford Crystal garden inside the monastic cell:


The Zen garden:


The round tower at the Rock of Cashel:


One of the entrances at the Rock of Cashel:


There were a number of faces carved into the walls inside. All of the architects had their faces carved, as well as wealthy people who would pay to have their faces put inside the chapel:


Me climbing around outside the Rock of Cashel:


Day four will be coming soon. I'm trying to get all of these completely finished within the next week or so - then I'll be able to get through another goals update and hopefully an entry about my last trip to Philly, before the start of Nano!

Ireland, day 3 (the beginning of our road trip)

I think I've decided how I'm going to handle the rest of the Ireland entries. For the rest of the days of the trip, I have a lot of pictures. It's not that we did more things - more that we started going to cliffs and gardens and such, and so I have a lot more variety in pictures. So for each day, I'll write a regular entry like I've been doing, with a handful of pictures. Then I'll also post a second blog for that day with nothing but pictures and descriptions of what they are. That way I don't have to try and figure out what one picture I want to post of a place we walked miles around, and you all get to see a lot more of my trip.

On the third day we left Jade's house for our first day of four making a loop of the country. We actually got on the road fairly early, but we managed to get lost an hour into the trip. This would set the tone for the next few days, where I believe we got lost at least once every single time we got in the car to go somewhere! At least until the end of our trip, where we gave up and started just randomly picking roads and ending up where we wanted to go with no problems...

Anyway! The first place we went to was the Irish National Stud, which also included the Japanese Gardens and St. Fiachra's Garden. We went through the Japanese Gardens first, which are laid out and arranged to symbolize the life of man. Not only were they gorgeous, but the weather cooperated completely for the first time since I'd landed. It was sunny and hot - and I was actually able to take off my (Jade's) hoodie for the first time. We were in the gardens for a while. There were a ton of little side paths and random stairs and whatnot so we both had a blast aimlessly running around. I do find it ironic though, that I had so much fun in a Japanese garden in Ireland.

Once we left the Japanese garden we were trying to find St. Fiachra's garden, but we got lost so we went and looked at the horses for a bit. We also made up some ridiculous soap opera story plot involving gay horses (I really wish we would have caught that one on video). We eventually made our way over to St. Fiachra's. It was completely different from the Japanese garden but still really cool. There was a sunken oak forest, and also a monastic cell with a Waterford crystal garden inside (will post pics in the other entry). The garden also had multiple lakes, a waterfall, and a statue of Saint Fiachra. And on our way out we also saw a huge Zen garden near the visitor's center.

After we left the Irish National Stud we continued south to Kilkenny. What a nightmare of a town, honestly. We were trying to go to Kilkenny Castle. First we couldn't find it and had to stop for directions. Then there was construction everywhere on these tiny little narrow streets and traffic was horrendous. We ended up having to park about half a mile from the stupid castle and walk over. The castle was really cool though. After all of the time it took finding the place and parking and everything we decided not to go through the whole tour, but we hung around for a bit, and got homemade ice cream.

From Kilkenny we kept heading south towards our last stop of the day, the Rock of Cashel. This place was spectacular. We wandered around for a while getting pictures, and then did the tour thing. Our tour guide was fantastic, and really funny. She told us a lot of cool stories about the site, as well as funny little superstitions that people have, like with Saint Patrick's Cross. Apparently, if you can put your arms around the cross and have your hands meet on the other side you'll never have another toothache. And if you hop around the cross three times on one foot (without having the other foot touch the ground once) then you'll be married within a year. The tour guide said that second one didn't work though...

We climbed around outside the walls for a bit to get pictures, and then decided to call it a day. We got back on the road and drove the last leg of our trip, down to Blarney. We checked into the first of our hotels, the Blarney Woolen Mills Hotel, and had some fantastic food at their restaurant. And that was it for the day! We just hung around the hotel and figured out our directions and such for the next day. Despite getting lost a couple of times and a few little hiccups, it was a great day, and a great start to our road trip.

Pictures in a separate entry coming soon!

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1. Swan in St. Fiachra's garden
2. Japanese Garden
3. St. Fiachra's Garden - it looks kind of like Dagobah, so we decided to hunt for Yoda. He was in the gift shop!
4. Kilkenny Castle
5. The original St. Patrick's Cross - was moved inside due to erosion, there's a replica outside.
6. The Rock of Cashel

Ireland, day 2 (near Jade's)

I woke up the second day of the trip feeling fine, which surprised me. I had expected it to take at least a day, and probably two or three, to get over the jet lag and get my internal clock reset. We slept in a bit more than we planned to (just until around 9 though), but then we got on the road fairly quickly and headed to Newgrange. We had time to kill before we caught a bus to the tomb for our tour, so we got food and wandered around the visitor's center. Also got a good many pictures on the way over to the bus. Again, Ireland wowed me with it's schizophrenic weather. It was sunny and warm when we first got there, then got cooler by the time we'd eaten, started pouring rain on the bus, stopped at the beginning of our tour, rained some more while we were inside...you get the picture.

The inside of the tomb was really cool. We walked up a narrow passageway into the main part of the tomb. Then the tour guide, after telling us some of the history of the site, shut off the lights and demonstrated with a light bulb how light comes into the tomb - the entrance of the tomb is perfectly aligned so that during the winter solstice, when the sun rises the rays pass through the roofbox (a special hole just above the door). The light goes up the passageway, which slopes upward (again, perfectly) so that the light directly hits the inner chamber and completely illuminates it. Pretty cool how accurately that was set up, especially considering the tomb was built over 5,000 years ago! Apparently you can enter a lottery to have the chance to go into the tomb at sunrise during the winter solstice to see it firsthand instead of with an electric light. If I ever live in Ireland (or at least closer so a trip would be more feasible) I'd definitely try for that. With my luck though it would be cloudy that day and I wouldn't get to see anything.

After we were done at Newgrange we caught the bus back to the car, and went to our next stop - Malahide Castle. We took a guided tour through the entire castle, but again we weren't allowed any photography or video. It's a shame - there were a lot of interesting rooms and art, antique furniture, etc., and the Great Hall was amazing. So was the library.... We were able to wander around outside and get pictures though, of the castle and the cemetery and parts of the grounds.

Once we left Malahide, we headed back to Jade's house. Not far from her house is a park that has the remains of Rossmore Castle. Unfortunately the castle was completely demolished, so there's not much left of it aside from parts of the foundation and the dungeon. There are a lot of paths through the woods in that area though, and we spent a couple of hours there while Jade showed me some of the gardens, the Pet Cemetery (lol), a waterfall (a frog scared Jade to death while we were looking for it, and we caught it on video...) and some great scenery. We also went to the mausoleum (I'm not positive that's what it was but something along those lines), and I randomly climbed over a gap in the wall around it to get pictures of the graves in the area behind it. And of course then I had issues climbing back out again, because the wall was much higher from the other side as I had nothing to stand on. All in all the park was a lot of fun, it was cool having something nearby to do and it reminded me a bit of some of the parks around here that I love going to. Minus the castle, of course.

Here's the video with the frog! Please ignore the stupid watermark in the middle of the picture - I had to find a way to convert my mp4 to something I could edit. I'm just using the trial version so I'm stuck with the watermark, as I don't do enough video editing to justify paying for the full version of the program. And of course between the watermark, the size of the video, and the downgrade in quality when I changed the file format, you can't even see the damn frog...figures.

The sad thing is that I have probably 40 videos from the trip and Jade and I are that ridiculous in nearly ALL of them. ^_^

At any rate, after Rossmore we went back to Jade's house for dinner, and then we went for a drive. There's a mountain with some really nice views quite close to her house so we headed there for pictures at sunset. We kind of missed sunset, but we were close enough that I still got some nice pictures.



Will post the next day of the trip soon, though I might have to start splitting it up and doing two posts for each day, considering the number of pictures I have! We'll see though.

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1. Newgrange, view from the front (believe it or not it was pouring down rain 10 minutes before this picture was taken)
2. Entrance to Newgrange, the entrance stone with megalithic art, and the roofbox
3. Malahide Castle
4. Me sitting on the random wall I was climbing
5. A great and terrifying frog! (I love you Jade, don't hurt me)
6. One of the pictures I took near Jade's house