Our Ireland journey continues.....
On Tuesday we had planned to get up and drive to Galway for the St. Paddy's Day Parade, but after our late night, we didn't get up early enough to make the 2 hour drive (the parade started at 12). And what seems like a 2 hour drive here may end up to be a 3 hour drive because you can often get caught behind a tractor. I have learned how to pass on the right though! Instead of Galway, we headed up the coast to the Cliffs of Moher. I can't understand why that is not one of the "wonders of the world." Absolutely beautiful. We were blessed with a beautiful sunshiny day also. We headed a little further to the small town of Doolin for a delicious dinner of fish and chips. The village was packed with celebraters -- we apparently just missed the parade, but the pub was very full. We headed back around 5 and every village we went through had people spilling out of the pubs into the street. We have noticed that every village, no matter how small, has at LEAST one pub!
On Tuesday evening we were told that there would be music in the local village pub. We poked our heads into one and it must have been a room 10x15 feet. We decided it was too small for music and headed back to the one we were at the night before. It was quiet as well. We stayed an hour or so (it was 10 by then) and headed back to our car. I heard music coming out of the small pub so in we went. There was a guitar player, a squeeze box player and some singers. We went in and were serenaded by Irish tenors until about 1:30 am. They sang Happy Birthday to me. People would just start singing from all sides of us and for some songs the whole pub was singing. There were probably 15 or so people there and when they found out we were from Texas, they enjoyed singing all the cowboy songs they know also!
Yesterday we took the ferry to the next peninsula and drove to the tip of it to Dingle -- the western most city in Europe. It is buried between mountains and the sea. It was absolutely beautiful also. The drive was incredible with steep drops down the side of the mountain and sheep grazing in the fields. We actually did something we would never do in America -- we picked up a hitchhiker! There was a man standing in the middle of the road at a turn we made and he flagged us down. We thought he had car trouble so we stopped and he asked if he could have a ride into Dingle. He seemed harmless and Tommy said yes, so he rode with us the last 20 miles or so. Dingle is much more "touristy" and we saw a lot of Americans. We enjoy our area where we are the "oddity". I did buy a piece of beautiful locally made crystal there. The artist autographed it while we watched!
We got back to town around 7:00 and stopped at the store for more breakfast food (we have been cooking all our own breakfasts). Then we decided to get some chinese take out. The Irish apparently love chinese food! We saw a video store and they let us rent a movie so we had a night in last night.
Today we are doing a little more local sightseeing and then there is music in another nearby village --Creegh ("Cree") -- tonight so we will head down there at "half nine" or so. Tomorrow we will pack and do laundry before heading to Dublin on Saturday.
It is sunny again today and Allyson says this is the first sunny week they have had since September, so we are really blessed. Yesterday we were in shirt sleeves and very comfortable -- must have been close to 70 and sunny. Today is a little windy, but still quite warm and sunny. This is the third day in a row with sun which apparently is an oddity here. We have not seen a drop of rain although it often looks like it might rain.
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On Monday, we toured around the peninsula that we are staying on. Beautiful countryside and cliffs looking out at the Atlantic.
Our "landlord" Allyson, told us that the local village pub was having a "quiz" that night and it should be fun, so off we went. We got there at 7:30 or so, thinking that would be the starting time, being a Monday night -- there were only a couple people at the bar and we were surprised to learn that the quiz didn't start until 9:30! So we had a good time talking to the locals at the bar before the quiz started. Around 9:00, people started filing in and by the time the quiz started there were over 100 people there! There were 22 tables of 4 people and the bar was full. I got drafted to play on Allyson's team. It was a type of trivia game and I wasn't a lot of help as most of the questions were Irish. The quiz lasted until close to 12:30 and we ended up staying at the pub until about 2:30 talking to people and having a good time. We had walked down there and some of our new friends gave us a ride back home.
On Tuesday we had planned to get up and drive to Galway for the St. Paddy's Day Parade, but after our late night, we didn't get up early enough to make the 2 hour drive (the parade started at 12). And what seems like a 2 hour drive here may end up to be a 3 hour drive because you can often get caught behind a tractor. I have learned how to pass on the right though! Instead of Galway, we headed up the coast to the Cliffs of Moher. I can't understand why that is not one of the "wonders of the world." Absolutely beautiful. We were blessed with a beautiful sunshiny day also. We headed a little further to the small town of Doolin for a delicious dinner of fish and chips. The village was packed with celebraters -- we apparently just missed the parade, but the pub was very full. We headed back around 5 and every village we went through had people spilling out of the pubs into the street. We have noticed that every village, no matter how small, has at LEAST one pub!
On Tuesday evening we were told that there would be music in the local village pub. We poked our heads into one and it must have been a room 10x15 feet. We decided it was too small for music and headed back to the one we were at the night before. It was quiet as well. We stayed an hour or so (it was 10 by then) and headed back to our car. I heard music coming out of the small pub so in we went. There was a guitar player, a squeeze box player and some singers. We went in and were serenaded by Irish tenors until about 1:30 am. They sang Happy Birthday to me. People would just start singing from all sides of us and for some songs the whole pub was singing. There were probably 15 or so people there and when they found out we were from Texas, they enjoyed singing all the cowboy songs they know also!
Yesterday we took the ferry to the next peninsula and drove to the tip of it to Dingle -- the western most city in Europe. It is buried between mountains and the sea. It was absolutely beautiful also. The drive was incredible with steep drops down the side of the mountain and sheep grazing in the fields. We actually did something we would never do in America -- we picked up a hitchhiker! There was a man standing in the middle of the road at a turn we made and he flagged us down. We thought he had car trouble so we stopped and he asked if he could have a ride into Dingle. He seemed harmless and Tommy said yes, so he rode with us the last 20 miles or so. Dingle is much more "touristy" and we saw a lot of Americans. We enjoy our area where we are the "oddity". I did buy a piece of beautiful locally made crystal there. The artist autographed it while we watched!
We got back to town around 7:00 and stopped at the store for more breakfast food (we have been cooking all our own breakfasts). Then we decided to get some chinese take out. The Irish apparently love chinese food! We saw a video store and they let us rent a movie so we had a night in last night.
Today we are doing a little more local sightseeing and then there is music in another nearby village --Creegh ("Cree") -- tonight so we will head down there at "half nine" or so. Tomorrow we will pack and do laundry before heading to Dublin on Saturday.
It is sunny again today and Allyson says this is the first sunny week they have had since September, so we are really blessed. Yesterday we were in shirt sleeves and very comfortable -- must have been close to 70 and sunny. Today is a little windy, but still quite warm and sunny. This is the third day in a row with sun which apparently is an oddity here. We have not seen a drop of rain although it often looks like it might rain.
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