Ireland

I know that it has taken me a long time to get the update about Ireland up, and I apologize!! I just didn't feel like uploading my pictures, and then loading them onto here!! But now that I have I shall continue on with my talk about Ireland! Or shall I say Southern Ireland, because I went on a three day tour of Southern Ireland which was really fun!

After Dublin this was our first stop. I liked this tour, because it seemed like we were never in the bus for very long. We stopped a lot and saw things.

There isn't a whole lot to say about this place except that it's an old castle that is under construction.

It looks pretty in the pictures though so I decided to include it in.

This is a picture of St. Patrick. St. Patrick was originally an Englishmen, but he was captured by the Irish as a slave. He ended up escaping back to England, but then he had a dream that told him that he had to go back to Ireland to bring Christianity to the Irish people.

This is the Rock of Cashel or St. Patricks Rock. It is said that St. Patrick was chasing the devil across the cave, and the devil pulled a chunk of rock out of the nearby mountains and threw it at St. Patrick. St. Patrick avoided it, and it landed on top of the cave. I know that this story sounds pretty unlikely doesn't it?? It's how a lot of stories my tour guide told us about sounded. It seemed like every place we went had numerous stories behind its origins and half of them didn't really make all that much sense. My tour guide really really liked to talk. Chris (who I'll introduce you to in a few more pictures) and I were kind of making fun of the tour guide at the end of the tour. He told a bunch of lame jokes as well... and you could tell that he thought they were hilarious. I'll tell you these jokes at the appropriate times throughout the blog.

Here we are going down into the cave!! Now the OTHER story about how the cave was discovered sounds a little bit more legitimate than the other story. In 1813 there was a man mining the limestone rock above the caves entrance, and he dropped one of his tools. He wasn't a rich man, and he really couldn't afford to lose the tool so he moved some rocks around to get his tool back, and he stumbled upon the entrance of the cave.

We went 200 ft. down into the cave. I wasn't able to take many pictures inside of the cave because my camera was flashing that it was low on batteries and we were heading to Bilarney Castle next, and I really wanted to be able to take pictures there!! So I limited my pictures in the cave. There were four other American girls on the tour, and at one point in the cave there is a section of the cave that looks like a natural stage, and the acoustics in the room are apparently very good, and they hold charity concerts in there and everything. So our guide told all of the American girls to sing a song. He was like I'm sure that you all know your national anthem. And it was so embarrassing the one girl actually didn't know it, and she was like we can't sing that... and we stood their awkwardly for a while trying to figure out a song until finally the one girl started singing it. And I think only she and I knew all the words to it... and they all stopped before the ending and walked off... it was very awkward and embarrassing. Way to disprove American stereotypes on that one.

Our tour guide that took us through the caves was very good. You could tell that he was very passionate about the caves. He pointed out all kinds of shapes that you can make out in the rock formations. Unfortunately they didn't come out very well in this picture, and it was very hard for me to take notes in the caves because we were constantly on the move and there wasn't an surface to use to write on. Tours of the caves have been going on since 1831, and lights weren't put into the caves until 1972!! At one point our guide turned off all of the lights in the cave, and it was so completely utterly pitch black that I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I literally put my hand directly in front of my eyes... my palm was touching my nose, and I still couldn't see my fingers. Our guide let us sit in the complete silence and darkness for just long enough to where it was getting kind of creepy and uncomfortable... and then he lite a lighter and told us that before 1972 people toured the caves using candle light! Trust me in that thick of darkness the little light doesn't make a huge difference. Coming down the stairs to get into the cave wasn't nearly as bad as getting out of it. The steps were incredibly steep, and it was hard getting out. You really needed to use the railing but the railing was disgusting!! It looked like it was covered with a thick layer of rust, but upon touching it it felt very slimy and disgusting. It was a horrible feeling, because I didn't know if I could make it out without using the railing, but touching it was repulsive. It looked like something out of the Titanic after it had been in the ocean for a couple decades. Bleh!! Not pleasant at all!! As soon as I got out I was shaking my hands going ewww I really need to wash my hands!!

Here is Bilarney Castle where the Bilarney Stone is!! You have to climb ALL the way to the TOP of the Castle to be able to kiss the stone. Now the kissing the Bilarney Stone is on the international list of 99 things you need to do before you die. The legend goes that once you kiss the stone you will have the gift of gab, or the ability to twist words or the truth to meet your own needs. Now when I was picturing this stone I was thinking of Stone Hedge. Something huge, decorated, and special... Imagine my surprise when I made it up to the top of the castle and was actually able to bend down and see the stone. It was a stone used to make the castle. In fairness it wasn't the same color as the rest of the castle... it looked like it was marble, and it was in the shape of a regular building stone.

At the top they don't allow you to take pictures of the actual stone, because they take pictures and sell them theirself. But this is from the outside of the castle. The stone is just on the opposite side there.

This is where you kiss the stone! My friend Chris and I ran to the stone first, and we got very lucky. We didn't have to wait in a line to kiss the stone, and we were able to get some pictures and stuff. By the time we left the top of the castle there was a line about 20 people deep waiting to kiss the stone. What you do is sit down on this mat, and there is a man there that helps you lean back. You grab onto the bars there and you lean back and kiss the stone. Of course I put on my lip gloss first so that I made an imprint in the stone hehehe. The stone is just below the mat. It's too bad that you can't see it at all, and they didn't sell postcards of it or anything. In the pictures that they take for you... you actually block the whole stone. The pictures they took of me didn't look good at all, and they were expensive so I didn't bother getting one. It was cool to say that I made it to the top of the castle and got to kiss the stone though. :)

Here you can see the line and the man at the top helping people.

Now when I said that it was an accomplishment that I made it to the top to kiss the stone I'm not kidding!! It was NOT easy getting up to the top. These are the stairs on the way down, and they are actually a lot better than the stairs that lead up to the tower. The steps are extremely small and steep, and it seems like the tower continuously gets narrower and narrower and narrower... there was a point that I was getting claustrophobic and I didn't think that i was going to be able to fit through if it got anymore narrower. I normally don't get claustrophobic, but it really felt like the walls were closing in on you, because with every turn and every step it felt like the walls were getting closer and closer. And while the railing in this picture is metal on the way up it is a rope that you have to use to pull yourself up. I was not the biggest fan, and I was so thankful when I finally made it to the top. We passed a couple of older ladies that were going to try to make it up to the top and we wished them luck, because I really don't feel like that climb is one that would be easy for an older person. It's one of those things that if you want to do it I'd suggest doing it when your younger. However, I don't think that it was as many steps as St. Paul's Cathedral in London. But I know that Chris and I both had sore calves the next day!

This is the view to the ground from the castle.

This is a room on the next floor of the castle. The castle had several floors.

Here is another view. After what it took to get up there we weren't too excited about heading straight back down so we stayed up there taking pictures for a few minutes. Chris took a lot more than I did because I worried about my camera dying.... which it never did by the way. I took quite a few more pictures that day, and it never died.

Here I am!! After hanging around the top for a while Chris and I went exploring the castle. When we were done we had quite a bit of free time so we went exploring the grounds.

There were a lot of trails that you could follow at Bilarney, but we had to go off the regular path and enter a new one through this little doorway. It made me think of the story "pay the toller" I was looking for a troll or something somewhere to make us pay for crossing!! Can you see how small the entrance is?? Chris had to bend way down to make it through. Me... I'm a shorty. I could have probably made it through standing up regularly, but it was so close I bent down anyways.

So instead of the paved path around people we went off into the woods to find the witches area of the castle. At first I didn't know how much fun we would have just walking around looking at old ruins, but we had sooo much fun. It was one of those places that was an adventure and we started making up stories and running around to all of the different parts of the witches area.

As you can see it was very pretty, and it was a bright sunshiny day!! The skies were blue, and it was very nice out.

Oh considering that I've talked about Chris so much already I should probably show you him!! Here he is!! I ran around with him quite a bit during the three day trip, and we cooked dinner together every night. On our exploration trip of the woods the only people that we ran into were the ones that took this picture for us. They were a couple from Florida on their 30th wedding anniversary. So on we went!!

And we came to the wishing steps. There we 30 steps all together, and the story says that if you can close your eyes and walk up the stairs and then back down them backwards without any help from anyone else while only thinking of a wish... that your wish will come true. Apparently an old witch was forced to grant wishes to anyone that was able to complete the feat. Chris and I were thinking about doing it, but then when we saw the stairs we changed our mind. They didn't look very safe, and as you get closer to the top they change sizes and steepness... and they were slippery. So it didn't feel like a good idea to us.

I wonder if it would actually work though. At first we really thought that it was complete nonsense, but after what happened to us next... we weren't too sure that we didn't believe in the witch anymore...

This is the witches kitchen, and I was too scared to go into it first!! I made Chris go in first haha!! And basically while we were there... we were like wooow... nice kitchen, and we kind of made fun of it. Notice how bright this picture is... that is because the sky was bright blue and the sun was shining. Well we walked out and we were laughing and it started down pouring. Not the normal drizzle that you get in Ireland/Scotland... because it drizzling happens a lot, but an actual hard rain very rarely happens. And if it does... it doesn't last long at all. It poured the entire time we were in the witches forest, and then as soon as we stepped off of the forest trail and back onto the regular path the rain stopped, and the skies were blue and the sun was shinning once again...

Now this was the creepy part! We were walking around the different areas of the witches dwelling adn we were coming up to the witches stone. Chris and I were laughing about how the witch must have gotten upset because we'd made fun of her kitchen... so she'd started the rain. Well as we were walking up to the stone I stopped Chris and pointed at the witches stone. There was this old dirty woman standing in front of it putting a feathered doll onto the stone. And Chris and I looked at each other, and we were like... omg.. it's her!! She looked up at us, and then walked off in the woods somewhere. So we ran over to the stone, and looked at all of the stuff that people had put ontop of it. Oddly there were alot of American nickles on top of it. Don't ask me why! So we were like I wonder why it's calld the "Witches Stone" and we made up all kinds of stories about maybe thats where the witch performed witchcraft and what not... but then I stepped back, and I was like woah it looks like a witch! Oh. Haha!! I guess that's why it's called the witches stone. Can you see it?? There is the eye, the long witch nose, and a curved up mouth.

This is the druids circle. Supposively if you stand in the middle of it evil can't touch you. So of course we stood in the middle of it. We think it's a lie, because the rain did not stop!!! There was also a sacrificial alter at the end of the path. We put Chris on it, and said that he was a sacrifice to stop the rain. Then we walked out of the woods onto the regular path and the rain stopped!! So we weren't exactly sure if it was Chris's sacrifice, or if we were just beyond the witches power that made the rain stop. Concidence?? I think not. But it was a great time, and by the end we kind of wished that we would have tried to the wishing steps, because after all we SAW the witch!!!

This was later on. We stopped for a little while to take pictures and walk around.

Ahhh remember how I would tell you about the stupid jokes my guide made? Well we stopped to take pictures here at the beehive huts. They are 1500 years old, and the white maryters used to live there. They are called white maryters because they didn't die for their cause they only lived in seclusion and exile. Well after we were here our guide said "Yep the people lived in Beehive huts to honor the St. of Bees... they always buzzed about how she was sweet as honey. Har har har... We actually had two guides on our trip, and we realized that it was probably because one of them were in training. There was a guy and a girl. The girl seemed to be just observing more so, and she seemed to have a pretty good feel for the group, so we thought that the guy that was telling the bad jokes was teh one in training. Turns out SHE was actually the one in training and he was actually the director of the company. We were shocked.

I know my poses are lame!! I can't help it!! I'm not used to this many pictures being taken of just me! It's hard to come up with clever poses haha.

Here is a better view of all the beehive huts.

Here are a couple that was on our tour group.

Our guide told us so many stories along the way, and some of them were cool... but it was hard to write them down because I could never even come CLOSE to guessing how the places are spelled!! I liked this story so I asked what this beach was called. Ready for it?? Welcome to Caolmhdhianeal Beach! Yep. That is how it's spelled. I think. Haha. It's pronounced Cue Me Nall. If that helps. Anyways!! It is said that if you step onto the beach and put your feet into the water part of your soul stays on the beach, and before you can go to heaven you have to come back and get it.

Yep. I did it. And it was SO incredibly cold!! It wasn't a very hot day to begin with and it never gets hotter than 70 degrees in Ireland as it is (20 C) so you can imagine how dog gone cold this water was!! I ran into it, squeeled, stayed long enough to take the picture, and ran out of the water!! I thought my feet were gonna freeze!! Then I had to walk up to the top to put my shoes back on!! The sand did NOT want to come off. It really stuck to my feet, and it was hard work getting all the sand off.

See that mountain/hill! I climbed to the top of it!

And trust me if you saw the path you'd understand how great of an accomplishment that was!! It was not the easiest trail to follow. I actually fell once and got all dirty. I almost twisted my ankle, but lucky I'm smart enough to just fall down instead!!

This place is called Cloverhead and it is the most Western Point in Europe. Iceland is techincally on the American tectontic plate so it wasn't considered Europe haha.

But yes here I am at the VERY top of it! Yippee!! I was thinking about the Miley Cyrus song "The Climb" while I was making my way to the top haha!! "Ain't about how fast I get there, ain't about what's waiting on the other side... It's the climb!" :) I was secretly excited about it.

Here is everyone walking back down. Our guide told us yet another fabulous joke... He was saying that every year the farmers had to take all of their sheep up to the top of the mountain to meet the rams up their so that they would have baby lambs in the spring. He was like you might wonder why they just don't bring the rams down insead of taking all the sheep up. Apparently the rams can't perform properly out of their natural environment, and there would be ramifications to that. Har... Har... Har...

Here is Fungie the performing dolphin. Apparently years ago a fisherman was helped by a dolphin. The dolphin helped him bring his nets back into his boat, and then the dolphin started doing tricks and performing for the fisherman. After that the dolphin would swim up to all boats in the area and perform for them. They thought that Fungie might have escaped from an aquarium where they are taught tricks. Dolphins are usually very social creatures, and I know this from Sea World. Usually they hate being alone, but Fungie doesn't hang out with other dolphins. He is the solitary dolphin. The people even tried to bring in "friends" for him, but he didn't show any interest in them. Apparently there are boat tours in the city to see Fungie, and they guarentee that Fungie will perform for you on your boat tour or you get your money back.

This is the plaque to Fungie. My tour guide says that he's a little bit skeptical, and he thinks that they are actually on Fungie 2 or 3 now... but it's still pretty cool. This city was very cool. We only stopped here for a little while, but they had an ice cream store with all kinds of crazy flavors. Ohh I can't believe I haven't mentioned it before, because this is HUGE in Ireland. Guiness! The Irish love Guiness because it's an Irish beer company, and Guiness is EVERYWHERE in Ireland. The icecream shop that we visited even had Guiness flavored ice cream! They also had sea salt ice cream which was surprisingly wasn't too bad if you paired it with honey ice cream, because they offset each other nice. I got a honeycomb cone. It had little pieces of honeycomb in it. It was very yummy.

I'm not sure what it is about Scotland, but it seems to be just SO much cheaper than any other countries around the world. There is a pound store in Scotland, but it's close neighbor Ireland has the 2 Euro store. And basically that pretty much sets the setting for prices in Ireland. About twice what you would pay in Scotland. And trust me the exchange rate doesn't make that much difference. I think for 100 Pounds you get like 108 Euros. So it was expensive in Ireland, and that is why Chris and I made our own food. It was sooo much cheaper that way!!

Now this is something that you don't see everyday. There were about 30 or 40 tractors beeping their horns in this city just driving down the road. They were charity tractors raising awareness for their cause by driving all around Ireland, and I just so happened to be in a city they were in!

I thought this was a very pretty picture. I'm not 100% sure which city this is... but I know it's in Irleand!! And it's not Dublin or Kilarney! Which reminds me Irish is taught in school in Ireland, and there are about 50,000 people that speak it as their first language in Ireland. However, there are about another million people that are fluent in Irish, and another million that have a working knowledge of the language and can hold a conversation. My tour guide was very passionate about Ireland, and their customs and traditions. Ready for another joke?? Currently Belfast is the largest city in Ireland (which happens to be where the Titanic was built) but my guide said that Dublin was catching up to it pretty quickly, and he was sure that it would eventually over take Belfast. You know why?? Because it keeps Dublin and Dublin and Dublin. Har... har... har...

Here we are on the last day of the tour! At the Cliffs of Moher! I was really excited to see the Cliffs of Moher. Why you ask?? Is it because they could possibly be one of the new natural wonders of the world?? Well... yeah... And the fact that the 6th Harry Potter movie shot a part of the movie here helps too!!

For the Harry Potter fans reading my blog does this area look familar?? I can't be 100% sure because I haven't seen the 6th movie in a while, but I'm pretty sure this is the rock that is in the movie, and this is where they go into Voldemorts cave! Woohoo!!

It was god awful cold at these cliffs!! Whew! I was bundled up, and the wind was ripping through the area so it was hard to get a good picture with me in it!! My hair was blowing like crazy. Whenever the wind let up for a second I was like Chris! Quick before it picks up again!! It was almost too cold to enjoy the area sadly.

It was very pretty and exciting though. I was happy to see the cliffs, and we went all the way to the top of the viewing area. Which is all outside mind you.

Here I am again! Bravely abandoning my gloves in this picture!! You can see the big wall that is behind me. Apparently people come to the cliffs to commit suicide a lot so they had to build the walls. Even worse though, apparently a lot of tourists die here because they try to go around the walls to get a better picture. Yes. Let's climb over the protective wall so that it's not in our picture. Maybe they would have made the wall closer to the edge haha there is quite a bit of land on the other side of the wall. There is enough to walk around on and to jump over and be safe... so I can see why people might get the idea that climbing over the wall would be a good idea. After my tour guide told us that story though... I figured I'd just keep the wall in the picture! Haha

Here you go. You can see how much space is on the other side of the wall in this picture.

Here is up at the top top.

Extreme danger from an unstablity?? You don't say. I would have never guessed! Glad to see that they have a good wall up here??? Why have the GREAT wall towards the bottom, but then at the top they have this rickety thing?? I have no idea... There must be logic behind it. My guess would be that this is where people die at the most though.

This is the new tourist facility that they made a few years ago. When you walk in you come into this room that is full of tvs that show different views of the cliffs and the areas.

They have a walk through area where you can learn more about the cliffs.

This is the dinning area.

They have this little help yourself area, and then they have a make your own salad station and a grill.

This is the path that leads up to the cliffs, or down to the service station whichever you prefer.

Here is the side entrance from the cliffs to easily get in. I thought this was a great idea, because then I didn't have to walk all the way down to the front! And I was freezing so I was very thankful!

Here is the entrance.

Here are the Barren Rocks. Years and years ago the tectonic plates shifted and lifted the limestone up frm the center of the eart ontop the top of the surface. You can see in this picture how the limestone is mixed in with the grass. It was a pretty interesting place. This was in Claire County and it's on Irelands west cost and it's the most dangerous shore in Ireland. The land is apparently very fertile though, and people are encouraged to let their animals graze in the area to keep the grass down.

This pub has a "funny" story behind it. Do you remember me mentioning King Charles the first of England during my post about the changing of the guard in London?? King Charles the first was charged with treason and was to have his head chopped off. (His son was King Charles the second, and he was the king that the guards were established for). Anyways, the Englishmen that sentenced the king decided that an Englishmen couldn't kill their own king. Ireland and England have a very bloody and enstrangled past. The Irish really hate the English basically, and throughout our tour my guide told us alot about some of the bad things the English have done to the Irish over the years. Anyways, when this king was going to be executed they decided to let an Irishman kill him. The Irish were very excited about this, and to win the chance to do it was like winning the lottery to them. The man that was selected got the land that this pub was built on as his compensation for doing the deed. He built the pub, and if you look in the top window above the you can see the re-enaction of the kings execution. Sorry that its not too good of a picture. But I have a feeling that this pub might have done quite well when it was first built...

Here is my tour group! This tour group was a lot different than my cosmos tour. They were a lot younger, and more about partying. I felt like I was one of the oldest people on the tour. Most were 18 or 19. But it was still cool to get to go over Ireland, and my guide was very knowledgable... so it was good. I just think that I might prefer Cosmos like tours for longer tours. The hostels we stayed in were great though very modern and nice. So no complaints really. I just would like to be with an older crowd. :)