Ireland {Part 5}

I have no idea how many posts this will be, how much I will share, or how long it will take me to share.  I took roughly 1,000 pictures and recorded ~90 videos during my two week trip to Ireland.  I haven’t watched most of the videos and managed to narrow the pictures down to more than 400.  Still, too much to share.  I’ll figure it out along the way. 🙂

Day two of my tours started off with a slight panic attack. I had gotten an email confirmation regarding my hotel pickup for my Saturday tour and I realized I had no idea if or when I was getting picked up for my Sunday tour.  I couldn’t get my cell phone to work and my hotel phone wouldn’t make an outside call.  After calling the front desk to activate my room phone, I was able to get ahold of the tour company and they told me they’d pick me up in the lobby.  Crisis averted!

Sunday’s tour was to Blarney Castle and Cork for shopping.

Our first stop was Adare to take some pictures of their famous thatched room buildings.  I also got some of Holy Trinity Abbey Church.

The lighter thatch was put on more recently.  It gets darker as it ages.

After a short break in Adare, we continued on to Blarney.

I have no idea where I took this picture but I thought the church was gorgeous.

It was such a gorgeous day on Saturday that I was a little disappointed to see overcast skies.  As we approached Blarney, it started pouring!  Thankfully, the rain mostly turned to infrequent sprinkles for the rest of the afternoon.

After barely arriving in Blarney in one piece….

http://youtu.be/i74NZgHFx0o

….I was excited to finally get to the entrance of the grounds of Blarney Castle!

My first sight!

Someone kissing the Blarney Stone!

The climb to the stone wasn’t so bad in terms of the number of stairs to climb (although there were a lot).  The bigger problem was that the stairs were steep and narrow, the rise unusually high, and the stairwell was uncomfortably small.  I’m not a very tall person but there were many places that I had to stoop a bit and my backpack rubbed the ceiling/wall behind me multiple times.  I had to put my feet on the steps sideways because they were so small.

The person in front of me (or really, above me).  Notice that she’s climbing the stairs with her feet sideways on the steps.

Finally out of the tower and onto the wall on top….still very tight.  We were pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder in between the stone walls.

Blarney Village from atop the castle:

Poison garden from above:

Blarney House:

One more level to go!

Did you notice that the stair rise was pretty much the same as her shin length?  That’s pretty much what all the stairs were like….

Can you see how narrow the stair is here?  The foot in the picture is basically hanging off the stair (which is why I put my feet on the stairs sideways):

Once on the top level, there were these holes/cutouts in the stone…not sure why they were there but it was all around the wall on the very top level so I’m guessing it served some defensive purpose.  Maybe so the men couldn’t be seen over the wall?

Almost time to kiss the stone!!!

I’m glad it occurred to me to wear contacts that day.  I figured I’d have to take my glasses off!

Remember the pic of me posing beside the Blarney Castle bench?  Here it is from the top of the castle!

The person before me kissing the Blarney Stone….

They have you lay down on your back and grab hold of the bars.  The guy sitting there grabs your coat/clothing….

….and slides you backwards and head-first towards the stone.  Kind of like doing a backbend.

Here is the stone waiting for me to smooch it!

I asked the guy behind me to take a picture but he didn’t actually snap anything (I think he mistook the lens focusing as it taking a picture).

I illegally took a picture of the ones they sold in the gift shop below (and got scolded for taking the pic).  I bought picture 2171 as proof that I kissed the stone  but it seriously is the least attractive picture I’ve ever taken in my entire life.  LOL

I was pretty shaky after kissing the stone.  It was way scarier than I expected.  LOL

Some more pictures from the top….

Remember how I said that once outside, we were standing shoulder-to-shoulder against the stone walls?  This is that same spot from above:

http://youtu.be/FzzgV9CY7PE

Stairwell to go back down…

http://youtu.be/XYUjnGajyNY

Blarney River

After that, I had to quickly run to Blarney Village to grab lunch and a potty break before meeting my group at the bus.  The line in the restaurant was so ridiculously long that I almost didn’t have enough time to get food!

Once the group gathered on the bus, we made our way to Cork and did some shopping.

http://youtu.be/hd3aLV-R7Nk

http://youtu.be/yXiTKkpayhg

http://youtu.be/p07ixs27jZk

http://youtu.be/FK3ZEb5LCDw

And then it was time to head back to Limerick….

http://youtu.be/f9WsQ7tNHIE

http://youtu.be/hpWYSrHo6TM

And back in Limerick….

http://youtu.be/VPPLBysd_vI

http://youtu.be/fjqvXbnN-U0

http://youtu.be/g5XOjR9qov8

http://youtu.be/bxVOhlHK3Kw

http://youtu.be/CxnwmB86e-A

The video in which I get a shout out:

http://youtu.be/-_ugONFfKR4

http://youtu.be/0aS99XayzEo

I know the videos are kind of long and boring but I wanted to show my family what Ireland looked like….and the only way to do that was to take lots of pictures and video. 🙂

I have no idea how many posts this will be, how much I will share, or how long it will take me to share.  I took roughly 1,000 pictures and recorded ~90 videos during my two week trip to Ireland.  I haven’t watched most of the videos and managed to narrow the pictures down to more than 400.  Still, too much to share.  I’ll figure it out along the way. 🙂

It wasn’t long into my trip when I realized that while I wanted to do sight-seeing in Ireland, there was no way in H-E-L-L that I was going to be driving myself around the country.  Driving on the wrong side of the road made me very nervous and navigating unmarked roads (even with a GPS) was more stress than I needed.  Sometimes it’s worth it to pay someone else to do the hard work and in this case, it was MORE than worth it.

I booked two tours with Barratt Tours for the full weekend that I was overseas.  The first day was a trip to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren….

Leamenagh Castle

The Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Ennis

I found it interesting that there were ruins, abbeys, and castles all over the place in Ireland.  After a while, I just stopped taking pictures of them….but they were all over the place.  I’ve never seen anything like that before.

Our next stop was Caherconnell Fort – an Irish ring fort.  I walked the fort and took a few pictures.

I caught the end of the sheepdog demonstration…

Just down the road, we stopped at Poulanbrone.  This portal tomb (dating between 4200 BC to 2900 BC) was excavated and 20+ bodies were found underneath.  It was thought to be  used for ceremonies and rituals.

As we drove through the Burren, you could see the limestone all over the country-side.

Our next stop was Ballyvaughan for lunch at Monks Pub, right along the shores of Galway Bay.

I loved the sign on the pier across from the restaurant:

I had fish and chips – I took a picture because I figured my family would never believe I ate fish. 🙂  It was soooo good.

After we ate lunch, it was like they were having a convertible convention on the pier.  I have no idea why there were so many convertibles there but they looked super cool.  LOL

The B&B and pub from the pier.

One last shot of Galway Bay before getting on the bus.

Next was a stop in Ballyreen to look at the Aran Islands.

I was excited because the Cliffs were over there!!!

The Aran Islands:

The view behind us.  I’m pretty sure those women on the top of that cliff were going to need rescued.  They barely got up there to begin with.  LOL

Random castle ruins.

Finally!  The Cliffs of Moher!!!

The gift shop and restaurant were built into the side of the hill:

http://youtu.be/RpDCUMWX1zQ

http://youtu.be/Km-L6ag0Mcs

The Aran Islands

http://youtu.be/I8Jt-l20bEI

Crazy people climbed over barriers to get closer to the edge.

http://youtu.be/wVAEg2GFRnc

Walking to all the viewing points at the Cliffs was quite the workout.

I think this is Liscannor

The Cliffs of Moher were absolutely stunning.

It was such a gorgeous day on our trip that I actually got sunburnt on my face.  LOL  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t quite so nice for my tour on Sunday….

I have no idea how many posts this will be, how much I will share, or how long it will take me to share.  I took roughly 1,000 pictures and recorded ~90 videos during my two week trip to Ireland.  I haven’t watched most of the videos and managed to narrow the pictures down to more than 400.  Still, too much to share.  I’ll figure it out along the way. 🙂

On Friday night, I went to Traditional Irish Night at Bunratty Castle (the castle right beside the highway at the end of my last post).

Dinner and the show were in the Corn Barn:

http://youtu.be/6aTtolE-seQ

http://youtu.be/qrU30GcSUY0

http://youtu.be/ewX3Y_Avk0k

I had Irish Stew, potatoes, apple “pie” (not like what you would consider American apple pie), and a few other things.  Here is the host presenting the menu:

http://youtu.be/Pq6arxSemNo

http://youtu.be/sKbTT4OAlfY

http://youtu.be/-ohRkwhtJfY

They brought two men up from the audience to dance.  The guy in the white shirt didn’t speak English.  LOL

http://youtu.be/AAEQg0sBfEA

Our server was the accordion player:

http://youtu.be/DlD_sUfrY_Y

http://youtu.be/448BigErNNE

http://youtu.be/4ipDlCfuDf0

http://youtu.be/gZs-tXR2BkE