To Dingle & beyond!

     Today was a lot of driving for one day.  We woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn (but was probably closer to 7 am lol) to check out and start on our first trek to Killarney.  After leaving the "class" hotel in Cork, we sat in the car for the hour and half drive on windy roads to Killarney National Park and the historic Muckross House.  Addresses are a scarce commodity over here.  Even when you do get an address, it rarely comes in the typical format...you know, the kind with a house number attached.  This Irish tradition makes finding places tucked into the woods a tad difficult to find, but I guess it's all part of the adventure. :P  Killarney National Park was gorgeous!  The grounds, originally encompassing 11,000 acres of lush Irish land, now covers nearly 25,000 acres of land.  The house on the grounds was built in the 1800s and sold a few times, before being given to Ireland as a gift from the current owners in the 1930s.  There are immaculate gardens surrounding the house and vine and moss-covered trees overshadow paths that lead to waterfalls and lakes.  Horse and buggy rides clip clopping across the pavement around the house make you feel like you're in a whole different world.  It never ceases to amaze me how old everything over here is.  You will see brand new buildings put up around crumbling stone walls with ferns growing out of every nook and cranny.
     After touring the house that Queen Victoria once stayed in for a whole two nights, Dad, Ashley, and I explored a bit in the woods to the boathouse and through the aged woods.  We went into a weavers' shop in the park and then jumped back in the car.  The GPS (or "sat nav" here) directed us out along a spindly peninsula to the fishing town of Dingle.  Dingle reminded me a lot of Kinsale, with boats dotting an open quay and wall-to-wall streets filled with shops and cafes catering to camera-laden tourists such as myself...We found a late lunch in a side street cafe called the Goat Cheese Cafe.  Dad & I finally tried seafood in Ireland!  I can't believe it actually took us this long.  Ashley had a questionable encounter with something in her penne that may have even been eel...I really don't want to know what it is.  From Dingle, we wound our way back down the peninsula and onto mainland toward Adare.  Adare is a town with a bunch of thatched cottages.  When we finally got to Adare, the sun was setting and drowsiness was majorly setting in, so we looked around from the car and headed on toward Limerick.
   The hotel we booked in Limerick looked awesome online with blue lights on the outside that reflected down onto the river right next to the hotel.  We started to get a bit nervous when we were less than a mile from where the hotel is and we were driving through some of the sketchiest area that we have seen since arriving in Europe.  People were scarce and graffitti seemed more common than street signs.  Then we crossed a bridge and everything looked a lot better!  Luckily, the hotel is on the non-ghetto side of the street.  The hotel is majorly modern, with paintings of cartoon-esque flying sheep and a sheep eating cupcakes (don't worry...I definitely took pictures of that).  It's really classy...we decided it's neat to stay in for a night, but we're more Best Western people. :P  When we went in and asked for a table without having a reservation at the restaurant downstairs, the hostess looked at us like, "Good luck with that."  It felt kind of like the couple in Date Night when they wanted a table at Claw.  But hey...the Slavokian waiter told us he likes our accents!
   I forgot to mention what we did yesterday!  We spent the morning at the Blarney Castle, which was built in 1442.  It's amazing to think that something that old is still significantly intact after all of these years.  The stairs to the top of the castle were extremely small and slippery from wear of millions of tourists' feet.  You have to hang on to a rope bolted to the wall to make it up the dizzyingly spiral staircase.  If you're feeling brave, you can poke your head out of the random holes in the walls that they call windows.  It was a clear, sunny day (yes, they DO have them!) and we could see for miles out across the towns and fields lined by more hedgerows.  If you make it to the top of the castle, you have to walk around the outer edge of the castle past the Blarney Stone to get to the equally scary stairs heading back to ground level.  Ashley & I were not planning on kissing the possibly disease-ridden rock, but when we got up there, we figured that it's our only chance and it's ridiculously cliche...but why not?  You have to lay on the floor of the castle and hang on to the metal rails as you stick your head (& half of your body) out over the edge of the wall to reach the stone.  Was it worth it?  We'll see...maybe if I magically become eloquent.
     We drove to the quaint, picturesque town of Kinsale on the Irish coast near Cork after the Blarney Castle.  Wandering along the town streets and docks took a couple of relaxed hours before we headed back to Cork City.  Ashley and I went along the curvy main road to look at the shops.  We found a soap shop with chunks of solid soap with random bits of fruit and honey imbedded in it.  In search of a cafe that was actually open after the late late hour of 6 o'clock, we found a little cafe on a corner that served us brilliant banoffee (caramel, banana, graham cracker crust, chocolate goodness) and smoothies.  Perfect end to a good day. (:

Tomorrow we're headed up to see the Cliffs of Moher and Galway...can't wait!

So...updates. (:

Wow…I didn’t realize that it’s been almost a week since I posted.  Since the last time I’ve posted, I’ve been to a couple parks, a couple airports, and another Irish city (this one much less impressive).  The last couple days in Edinburgh were spent exploring around the city.  On Sunday, we went to the meeting right in the middle of the city with a few of the older friends in Edinburgh, a couple of visitors from near the border of England & Scotland, and a couple of local professing students.  Sunday afternoon, we spent time with a great professing lady and the friends before Bible study that night & some exploring around the city centre for pictures.  Monday morning, we went to tour the Royal Yacht Britannia right across the street from the hotel.  The Royal Yacht is enormous.  There are 4 stories on the yacht where you can see the royal family’s quarters, the tearoom, the officers’ rooms, and other various perks of life aboard a well-traveled yacht.  The yacht traveled more than one million miles in its’ lifetime, an average distance of one round-the-world trip every year for the almost 50 years that the yacht was in service.  After the yacht, Dad & I headed back to city centre to tour Edinburgh Castle.  There was no parking anywhere near the castle and we only had an hour or so to look around, so we parked down Queen Street and walked around the more pedestrian-friendly parts of Edinburgh.  The Princes St. gardens were misted in rain and covered in beautiful roses in all of the flowerbeds.  The Edinburgh Castle loomed overhead, since the park slopes downward from street level.

We had to return the car early, so we spent about 7 hours hanging out at the Edinburgh airport before our flight back to Ireland.  We made it back to Dublin safe and sound with enough time to get a few hours of sleep before heading back to the airport to pick up Ashley!   The next day, Ashley joined us and we headed back to Kilcoole to visit the friends again.  They took us up to Glendalough up towards the Wicklow Mountains.  There are gorgeous lakes, a waterfall, and moss-covered woods everywhere!  An 11^th century monastery’s ruins, an ancient cemetery and the Round Tower spot the landscape.   One of the legible gravestones dated back to 1277!  Ashley, Dad, and I drove back up to Glendalough the next day so Dad could paint some more and we could hike a little bit.  It’s so peaceful up past the waterfall, with dappled sunlight just streaming through the trees.  When we got back to the house, we went to see the movie set being built on the farmland down the street and look at the boggy land down by the railroad tracks.  The ground is so wet that it squelched when we were wandering across it. 

This morning, we went to Powerscourt in Enniskerry for eclairs (yum!) and hot chocolate before heading to Waterford to tour the crystal factory.  After some more driving, we made it down to Cork in southern Ireland for the night.  Most of the more current pictures are on Facebook.  

Edinburgh thus far...

Edinburgh, Scotland

September  9

After four and half hours on a train from London, we just arrived in Edinburgh.  There were no available cars for rent at the train station at Waverly.  We snagged a taxi to the airport through Edinburgh’s city centre to find a rental.  Apparently there’s a massive conference in town, so there was only one car available at all of the different rental companies…a gorgeous, white BMW complete with new car smell and about ten miles on the trip meter!  Aww shoot…I guess we’ll survive. :P  Our hotel is right on the waterfront too…Scotland is looking pretty good so far!

September 11

Well, Scotland is still looking good. J  We got to meet most of the young professing friends in Scotland on Friday night.  One of the girls had us and a few others over for games at her apartment.  Friday was fairly uneventful.  We drove up around Stirling, Dunblane, Callander, and some other little towns in the afternoon in search of a painting spot for Dad, with little luck.  The roads here aren’t quite as narrow as Dublin’s, but so far none of the roads in Europe have a significant shoulder at all.  We did manage to get some great pictures of Stirling Castle and the Scottish countryside though!  We found an awesome restaurant by Stirling Castle for lunch, and then drove around some more before heading back to Edinburgh for the night.  It’s been raining everyday, but it doesn’t last long and the skies are clear again.  The Scottish countryside is brilliantly green.  The grass is that chartreuse color in the pastel box that we only use when we’re exaggerating natural colors dramatically back home.  The clouds dip so low that they seem to almost touch the ground without the air being foggy.    

            Dad got some painting in on the side of some back road in Cleiff this morning, even weathering the rain to block in some more color.  We headed back to the oceanside mall by the hotel for lunch overlooking the water.  The Queen of England’s old yachts are anchored in the harbor right by the mall.  Yesterday, we walked over to the deck and watched the sun set over the ocean.  Being from a landlocked state, I think I could sit in the ocean breeze and just watch the water for days.  Later, we drove into the city centre to get some night pictures of Edinburgh castle and wander around town.  The castle looks like it was carved right into the jagged rocks that it sits on.  It's getting late here and pictures take ages to load, so I'll put up pictures in a post tomorrow after we get back from meeting.  

A Foggy Day in London Town (September 8)

Okay…that was really cheesy.  Sorry.  It sounds better if you imagine Michael Buble singing it like I do in my head.  Today, as our one and only touristy day in London, was filled to the max with your typical tourist outings for London (minus the double decker bus tour…we ran out of time for that :P).  I think we left the hotel room for the day around 8:30 this morning and we just got back for the night at about 10:45.  My feet are killing me, but it was totally worth it and that’s what I get for wearing a cheap pair of flats on a day of exploring.  We started out at the Tower of London.  By arriving before the first tour of the day even started, Dad and I were trying to avoid the rush of people and we halfway succeeded.  I didn’t want to look like a total American tourist, but I figured I was getting out-touristed by all of the families around me taking posed pictures every 5 feet.  “Look!  A British tree!  Let me document it!”  I just went for it…camera around the neck and all for a while.  Plus, any picture worth taking required hanging the camera off ledges or other semi-precarious positions.  We took a few canned shots (you're welcome, Mom) before heading off on our rather entertaining tour.  I didn’t know that learning about England’s first official gallows and the prison for both Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Anne Bolelyn could be so interesting.  It helped that our tour guide was making fun of an Australian in the group every few seconds.  The crown jewels are amazing!  The workmanship is extremely intricate and some of those gems are nearly palm-sized!  It’s crazy to think that people would actually wear that much wealth on their heads, even for a few minutes.  Other things of note: a giant (now grass-filled) moat, 20 stone towers, 2 spiked gates suspended above sidewalks, some beefeaters and Royal guardsmen, an array of armor, and some giant fake cannons. 

From the Tower of London, we saw the Tower Bridge before hopping back on the London Underground in search of the Lyceum Theater to buy tickets for the Lion King.  We got some more of those wonderful English directions  from well-meaning Brits, so we had a bit of wandering before we found it.  Just another opportunity for adventure. (:  In the roundabout process, we got to find Tralfalgar Square…I think.  Dad and I secured some seats for the show and got back on the tube to find the old Tate Gallery.  The Gallery is reminiscent of the National Gallery back home in Washington, D.C.  We got to see some really neat paintings by John Singer Sargent (the whole reason we went to the Tate), including my favorite painting of two girls in a garden with Japanese laterns.  I saw the classic Piet Mondrian piece and some neat contemporary art by British artist Fiona Banner. 

With a couple hours to spare before the show in London’s West End, we made a pit stop back at the hotel room for coats as the fog progressed to rain and took shelter in another café in Kensington for supper.   Seeing as how we couldn’t pull a total tourist move by catching a bus tour, we did it on our own by going to see Big Ben, Westminster Abby, the Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye by riding the Underground again.  The sidewalks were brimming with hustling Londoners and snap-happy tourists (much like ourselves) so we bailed on that area fairly quickly to go to a coffee shop a couple tube stops down at Temple.  The show was amazing!  The stage was so dynamic and the sets were gorgeous.  The little kids asking their parents if/when Mufasa died, Scar died, and what hyenas were only added to the show.  (The fact that they had pint-sized British accents made it even cuter.)  So, even if this day was busier than most, it was perfect for getting to see all that I wanted to see in London in one day.

Portmarnock, Ireland

Their roads have some pretty good views.

View of Ireland from the plane to London

First sights of England

London from the express train

Victoria Station 

& back to Portmarnock (they're a tad out of order)...

First night in London

The Tower Bridge 

1st cool sidewalk I've seen Abs (: & in honor of Mom's wonderful videos from Europe...

Inside the Tower of London

The Tate Gallery

Westminster by the London Eye & Big Ben

Big Ben

The Lyceum Theatre where we saw the Lion King

Better shot of the Thames 

London Calling

(This was written on September 7.  This is the first chance I've had to post.)

     I finally arrived in London…it looks really cool, but it’s horrendous to get around in…when you arrive on the one 24 hour strike so the London Underground isn’t running at all.  We took a super short flight (only an hour and 5 minutes) from the Dublin airport to London-Gatwick.  We spent the morning dropping off a bunch of excess luggage with Bernie at St. Pat’s before heading to Malahide and Portmarnock.  The coastal road was gorgeous and we got our second semi-sunny day in Ireland.  After finishing up our drive, we wandered around town on back roads and found a cool little café called That’s Amore, where we ate…paninis!  It was really cute and it started raining again while we were eating.  Dad and I meandered back to the center of Malahide to get the Ford Fiesta for the last time before heading back to Dublin’s airport.

     We dropped the car off and checked Dad’s bags before checking in for our flight.  His duffel was 4 kilos over…which added 80 euro to our trip.  Remind me to pack a tiny backpack for any other flight I’ll take on Ryanair!  By the time we made it to our gate, the sky had totally cleared back up.  For the first time in my life, we wandered out onto the airfield to board the plane.  It’s definitely not as glamorous as it usually looks, since everyone was clamoring for seats (as they’re all unassigned on Ryanair flights).  As we were first coming into England, Dad pointed out the Cliffs of Dover from the plane.  They’re gorgeous and gleaming white since the sun was actually out.  Anyways, it was better to pay attention to those instead of the French couple in front of me making out intermittently through the flight.  Customs was a breeze…I don’t think the border guard in England even glanced at my passport coming in.

            Getting to the hotel in Kensington was a whole new unexpected adventure all its own.  We collected Dad’s bag, picked up our second currency for this trip (British pounds), and bought tickets for the express train out of Dublin airport to Victoria Station.   Victoria Station is extremely busy…like a cleaner version of Grand Central.  People are coming and going in all directions and they’re all in a hurry.  Armed with our hotel map, Dad and I were all set to jump on the London Underground and settle in at our hotel.  It didn’t take long to figure out that we had managed to book our flight on the one day of the month that all of the Underground workers decided to go on a 24-hour strike.  Buses were going every which direction and lets just say that the directions the English give could use a little work.  They were extremely willing to help, but it’s hard to follow, “Jump on bus C1 to Kensington station, walk and get on bus 9 or 10, get off the bus when you see Boots, walk a couple blocks and the hotel should be on your…left…or…yeah, your left.”  After the first round of directions, a bout on a very crowded London bus, and 8 pounds down the drain, Dad gave up on the idea of walking and we took a cab to the hotel.  It took us longer to get to the hotel from the airport than it took to fly from Dublin to London. 

            Our hotel is down a quiet street off Kensington High Street, so we settled our stuff in the room and headed out to wander the streets of London in search of pictures and food.  The streets are beautiful at night.  The double decker buses, full to overflowing, and pristine black London cabs are still making their rounds.  Old, established buildings push right up against the posh, polished buildings that look like they were built yesterday in comparison.  Random flower markets, ancient churches, and solid statues dot the main streets, reminding you of how old London really is.  London has a really neat polished feel to the city, not as gritty or raw feeling as some of the cities in New England back home.  Tomorrow is our one and only day touring London, so it’s going to be a busy one.  By Thursday morning, we’re headed to King’s Cross rail station to catch a train to Edinburgh.

I've got another post I wrote in London, so I'll attach pictures to that one.

     I just got back to the hotel after 2 wonderful days with a professing family about 20 minutes south of Dublin.  They have 4 kids (3 girls and 1 boy) ranging from 2 months younger than me to 13 years old.  The oldest girl is the same age with the same major, who reads the same crazy mystery and adventure novels as me.  I think I'm going to spending a lot of time with them...if they'll have me. (: 
     Dad & I spent a couple hours looking for their house on Saturday, driving around aimlessly and exploring for a while since we didn't have a phone & we knew the family wouldn't be home yet anyways.  Saturday was pretty foggy and spitting rain for a while, so we couldn't see out to the sea, but it was beautiful just the same.  Our little car zipped along the left side of the road all the way to Wicklow, where we ate more paninis and met even more friendly people.  All of the storefronts overflow with flower baskets so full that you can barely see the hanger that the baskets are on.  We got directions back to Kilcoole and survived a trip with some of the most narrow two-way roads you have ever seen.  Saturday night we hung out at the friends' house & ate amazing curry!  Okay...enough about food for now.  (But everything I've eaten over here has been delicious!  I just might be massive by the time I come home.)
    Sunday, we went next door, to their grandparents' house, for the Sunday morning meeting.  The Spirit was the same as always and we got to meet some more of the professing Irish, even if they are one field south of the field my school is in.  Most everybody came next door for tea right after meeting.  After everybody else went back to their houses, the kids tried to explain the game of hurling to me...I'm not sure if I understand it, but I'll try and hopefully get it by the time my semester here is up.  We had a few more cups of coffee and tea before we all went to Bible study nearby this evening.  I've only known these people for a few days, but I'm already going to miss them in the week or so that I'll be out of the country with Dad.
    The jet lag wore off by Friday night and I'm already back to my bad old habits of staying up late.  I can't get over how friendly and helpful everybody we've met has been, professing and otherwise.  Ireland is really good at making you feel totally at home, even though it's obvious we're foreign as soon as we open our mouths.  As one of the older men in meeting said this morning, "There's no country like Ireland." (:
     Tomorrow is going to be full of errands between packing for England and Scotland, booking our flights, getting a mobile (so I don't feel totally disconnected here anymore), figuring out the DART around Dublin, and going back to St. Patrick's to drop off some of the stuff that I won't need until school starts.  I still have to wander around O'Connell Street and the River Liffey too.  Here's to hoping that I take better pictures there than the ones I've taken so far...

None of the exit signs here say "EXIT."  They're all just symbols of people running at random doors.

There should definitely be something else here...like, possibly, a steering wheel.

The traffic around the Dublin city centre is absolutely bonkers at anytime of day.  Everytime we get on the road, I'm glad I won't be driving this semester.

As you can see by his marvelous parking job, Dad isn't quite used to the little spots in Ireland.

This is the only picture I took at my college so far.  The college is kind of walled off from the road.  This is the cathedral on campus.

I know...here's some food pictures, Abby!  Nothing too different or exciting yet, but it still tasted good!

These next few pictures of all of the flowers and the sea are in Malahide, which is about 10 minutes from our hotel and maybe 15 or 20 minutes from Dublin.  (Abs...it's Illy!  I promise I didn't notice when I took the picture.)

We got our first glimpse of the ocean on Friday afternoon when we went in search of free wi-fi at Starbucks.  Internet at the hotel is 20 euro for 24 hours of access!

The Dublin Fire Brigade was doing water training in the river.  Traffic wasn't moving so I figured I may as well take pictures to entertain myself.

  Dad, looking like a total tourist with the cheesiest grin ever, at lunch in Wicklow.

  Yes, that is a palm tree in Ireland.

Kilcoole and Newcastle don't seem to look all that different from home in some spots.

Dad was making fun of me for taking pictures of weeds, but I thought they were pretty so I kept right on going.

This is a two-lane road in Ireland...depending on which way the cars are going.  A regular two-lane road is a little bit wider, but not by much.

Irish-ism of the day:  craic (pronounced "crack) - fun
*Alanna had to explain it to me, so I must have made a weird face when she described something as being "the crack."


P.S. I learned my first word in Irish today!  Alanna taught me how to say milk, which is bainne.  We'll see if I can remember how to pronounce it tomorrow.