Leaving Glocca Morra and Heading North

Monday was our last night at Glocca Morra. So Tuesday morning we packed our bags, ate another lovely breakfast and said our good­bye’s to our wonderful host, Michael.

We had a LONG drive up through western Ireland to get to our next hotel. We stopped along the way in the city of Galway. We were overwhelmed by traffic as we entered the city so we parked and walked through the streets. Galway was a lot like Dublin… very Americanized, but you still can find a unique Irish shop here and there. We decided we needed another CD to listen to since we’d been listening to the same one for days. The music shop was fun to explore and I got chatted up by an older gentleman I could barely understand. At least he was friendly.

After eating seafood for over a week, I told Eric I wanted some good old pizza. We found a Papa John’s in the city square that was just opening for lunch. We enjoyed our nice American chicken BBQ pizza with a couple of Cokes!

When we were finished with lunch we decided we’d had enough of the city of Galway. We found our way out of town and headed north to The Sandhouse Hotel.

The Sandhouse hotel was built in the 1960’s and is located just south of Donegal. It’s built to look like a luxury hotel from the early 1900’s and it’s just oozing character! Since it’s located right on the beach, it attracts vacationing locals. Our room is huge and features a lovely four-poster bed and a sitting area that overlooks the ocean.

After we checked in, we found a laundry place and a grocery store. We ate dinner in our room and went for a COLD walk on the beach. We warmed up with a couple of pints of Guinness in the sitting area downstairs before turning in early. Vacation is all about rest right? ; )

Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula

Monday marked the day I was most looking forward to! The town of Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula!!! Dingle is known for being one of the cutest towns in all of Ireland. Apparently Ireland had a “Tidy-town” competition 30 years ago and all the towns painted their storefronts bright colors. Dingle was charming and full of friendly people.

Dingle

Our drive into town had been long so we stopped in at John Benny Moriarty’s for lunch and visited Murphy’s Ice Cream. I had Bailey’s and coffee ice cream… I could die a happy woman! We also visited the Dingle Music Shop before heading out for the scenic drive around the peninsula. The shop owner was a riot and he had lots of helpful tips on where I should look online for an Irish flute.

Most of the scenic drive was on a one lane road that you had to pull over if you met another car, but it was worth every stressful kilometer! I thought the Oregon coast was beautiful, but it pales in comparison to the Dingle Peninsula! The hillsides are dotted with sheep and small homes, but the coastline is the most spectacular. Rocky cliffs give way to sandy coves and the water is the most beautiful shade of blue I’ve ever seen outside of a magazine. That was what most surprised me. You wouldn’t expect that color of water anywhere but the Caribbean!

We were fortunate enough to get sunshine the whole trip. I got to put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast. It was as cold as the Pacific on the Oregon coast, but very worth the numb feet! We really enjoyed the drive and frequently stopped along the road to snap pictures of the beautiful scenery.

When we got back to Dingle we walked all over the cute little streets. We visited several of the small shops and chatted with some very lovely shop owners. Once we’d worked up an appetite again we ducked into Murphy’s Pub (not to be confused with the ice cream shop) for dinner and a pint before heading home.

It rained most of the way home and we were very thankful it had held off while we toured the town. The best part of Monday was getting to skype with our boys! We’ve been trying to chat with them over the internet every few days. It makes the ocean seem not-so-big when you can see their smiling faces and see the projects they’ve been working on at school. They enjoy telling us about every little detail of their lives since we’ve been gone.

The Cliffs of Moher

We woke up on Sunday and had a lovely breakfast prepared by Michael. (Seriously, those pancakes… mmmm…) We had big plans to visit the Cliffs of Moher that day and we were informed that it would be an interesting visit because of the high winds already blowing in Ireland. We were told to be careful not to get sucked off the cliffs!   : O

It took some time to get there, and when we did we realized what they meant about being careful. Forget about walking, we could barely stand up straight because of the blowing winds!!!

We braved the high winds though and walked all along the cliffs. We were treated to amazing views and spectacular winds. I got lots of pictures, some of which I plan to enlarge and frame when we return home.

We were so cold by the time we got back to the  visitor center that we needed something hot to warm our insides. We stopped at the café for some coffee and browsed the gift shop for some souvenirs. Thankfully the weather held up for us. Just as we were getting in the car, it started to rain.

We sat in the car and ate a little snack before heading down to the little town of Doolin. Apparently Doolin is somewhat of a music mecca for traditional Irish musicians, so we were excited about hearing some great music at dinner time.

We visited a woolen goods shop and purchased an itchy sweater for Eric and ducked into some of the other little shops in town. The weather had really picked up at this point so we were mostly seeking shelter on our way to the pub for dinner.

We ate at a great little place called Gus O’Conner’s. We walked in the door and were greeted by a nice crackling fire. We even snagged a table close to it! My dinner was a disappointment, but that’s because it wasn’t what I thought I was ordering. Irish smoked salmon is cold smoked so it’s not cooked. I have a hard time eating anything with that raw texture and my plate was PILED with smoked salmon! I ate most of my dinner and Eric helped me eat the rest.

We enjoyed the music as we finished our pints of Guinness. We had a long drive home though so we had to duck out before the music session was over.

Thankfully we made it back to Glocca Morra without incident… WHEW!

Making New Friends in a Faraway Place

On Saturday we had plans to meet a couple from the US. My mom’s cousin’s cousin and her husband live just outside of Cork, Ireland in a little town called Ballincollig. We were invited to their home for a nice home-cooked dinner. But first we had other sites to see!

The bridge over the River Shannon in
Limerick.

Our first stop was King John’s Castle in Limerick, Ireland. It is the same King John from the Robin Hood movies! We learned a lot about his “reign” and about the town of Limerick. It’s a very cute town and as we were taking the castle tour, we heard the church bells ring at noon from across the River Shannon. The bells didn’t just toll the hour, they also played a lovely song! I got a video of it because it was so cool!

We ate lunch in the car along the way toward Cork because it was a long drive on the crazy Ireland streets. We got into Ballincollig a couple hours early so we walked the town. Most of the small towns in Ireland are exactly the same and this was no exception. Very cute with lots of store fronts that drip character. The one thing about this town that we hadn’t seen before was a shopping mall. We went in to explore and discovered that in Ireland, they have grocery stores inside their shopping malls!

I’d like to take a moment to share some of the funny things we’ve discovered about grocery shopping in Europe. You almost can’t find peanut butter… apparently it’s a very American thing, but Nutella is everywhere. They’re called “ice lollies” not popsicles. Half and half is non-existent here, they all use milk in their tea or coffee (yuck). What we call “raw sugar” they call “brown sugar”. Orange marmalade is a BIG thing here and it’s pretty delicious. The Irish people put sweet corn in everything! We got some pasta salads (like a macaroni salad) at the deli counter and it had pasta, a mayonnaise sauce, poppyseeds, red onions, sweet corn and pineapple in it. They also put sweet corn on their pizzas... very strange, but pretty good. The checkers all sit at the checkout counters and most people bring their own shopping bags, so if you don’t have one, you have to ask for one.

When it was time, we went to the designated gas station to meet Keith so he could lead us to their hard-to-find house. I was glad for that because we seriously wouldn’t have found it otherwise. When we got there, we were treated to an amazing view of the countryside surrounding their home. Keith’s wife, Linda and their daughter, Regina greeted us at the door and welcomed us into their home. It was nice to spend an evening laughing about the funny differences we’ve all experienced in the Irish culture.

New friends!

They served us a wonderful seafood dinner and an equally amazing berry cobbler dessert. We all laughed at the way the Irish package their ice cream too! It was such a nice visit and we felt like we’d always been friends by the time we left.

Funny rectangular shaped ice cream.

We had quite a drive “home”, but we made it in good time and in once piece. (Irish drivers seem even more crazy at night!)

Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road

Our final day in Dublin mostly consisted of packing and getting everything back to the airport to pick up our rental car. The nice thing about Dublin is that they have one bus that goes all around the city and picks up/drops off people coming from and going to the airport. The bus picked us up right in front of our hostel and dropped us off right in front of the rental car place.

When we got there, we learned that the extra insurance we’d purchased online was invalid in Ireland. So our car ended up costing us almost twice what we thought it would. Thankfully the lady working with us had eaten her Lucky Charms that morning and had magical abilities to subtract things and make our rental as cheap as possible. We got several euro/day off of our insurance, a full tank of gas and a free GPS! All in all she saved us nearly 200 euro! We will be writing a very good review for her.

Dublin is scary enough to walk around, but once you get behind the wheel it’s terrifying! Irish people drive like maniacs! Not only do you have to drive on the “wrong” side of the street, but you’re sitting on the “wrong” side of the car! Their streets are so narrow that there are times when you have to drive in the other lane just to get down the street. Add the crazy high speed limits (that are apparently more of a suggestion…) and you’ve got near chaos. Parking on a sidewalk with your car halfway into the street is a common occurrence and you’re just expected to veer into oncoming traffic (at high speeds) to navigate around the parked cars.

The only place I felt really comfortable driving is on the newer “motorway”. There are two lanes and you pass on the right. Everyone pretty much stays in the left lane unless they’re passing. The speed limit on the motorways in 120kph, but there’s no minimum speed. So you’ll be cruising along at 125kph and nearly rear end someone going only 60kph. You have to just swerve over to the passing lane to avoid a collision. Then there are the crazies that like to go 140-160kph… it’s very dangerous to say the least.

White-knuckling it on my first day driving in Ireland.

 We finally arrived at our B&B after a couple hours of navigating the crazy Irish countryside. It was nice to hear someone talk without an Irish accent. (Meaning we could understand him!) Michael is the owner of Glocca Morra B&B. He’s a very charming man and we really enjoyed our stay with him. (He also happens to make amazing pancakes!)

Glocca Morra B&B

Michael recommended a place called Gooser’s for dinner. It was a short drive into the nearest town, Killaloe (Kill-a-loo). Dinner was amazing and since it was such a nice evening we decided to walk the town after our meal.

The local park had workout equipment set up along the jogging trail and Eric just had to try some of it out.

The walk was nice and I got several lovely pictures of the cute little town.

We went back to the B&B and just hung out for the rest of our evening. It was nice to have a quiet place to relax!

Castles, Music, Tired Feet and Rain

Our second full day in Dublin started with rain. We visited the General Post Office first for some stamps and to get some currency exchanged. Then we walked up to the Dublin Castle. There wasn't a tour leaving for another 45 minutes so we walked (in the rain) over to the Chester Beatty Library and Museum.

Apparently this Chester Beatty dude was quite the collector. He started collecting Japanese snuff boxes when he was in his teens. His collection of asian and middle eastern artifacts was very extensive. He had traveled to the middle east and Asia/Japan several times I guess. He had this royal robe that was amazingly embrodered with dragons and apparently was supposed to have been worn by some emporer of Japan or something like that. (See how well I pay attention?)

Dublin Castle. This is where their
president is sworn into office.

The library killed our time before the Dublin Castle tour. The "Castle" was more of a mansion or a palace. I guess they still have some of the original walls under the current building, but they said a lot of it was dismantled centuries ago. Today the Dublin Castle serves as a fancy location for dignitaries and honored guests to be wined and dined. They were setting up for a big event with the Irish President that evening.

The building was beautiful, but the tour was a little dry. The tour guide wasn't as passionate about her history as the other tours we went on. At least we didn't have to pay for this one since we have the Heritage card. (Gets you into all the heritage sites around Ireland for a year.)

After all that walking we were done. We had been going, going, going for days at that point and our feet hurt badly. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hostel resting and catching up on some chores. (Laundry, writting post cards and other such tasks.)

The previous night we had gotten a tip to go to a place called The Cobblestone if we wanted to hear really good Irish music. After catching a bus and walking what felt like all over Dublin, we finally found the place. It was a little scary looking from the outside, but we could hear the music on the inside so we went in.

We're glad we did too! We were there pretty early so there were only a handful of musicians there. We sat right in their section at the bar and ordered some Guinness. As the time passed the musicians started filing in. The music got better and better! By the time we left there were over a dozen musicians crammed into this little tiny area.

It was amazing to me that none of them had a single sheet of music. There was one fiddle player who seemed to lead off each tune. She'd play the first lick of the tune and everyone would just join in. They'd usually play a couple different tunes in a row. Each new tune, the guitar player would just sit on one chord while the fiddle player played the next lick for the group. After a couple phrases they'd all join in and it would pick right back up. It was facinating to watch and even more fun to listen to! It was a good tip and we're very greatful to the pub crawl musicians for it!

Kilmainham, Trinity, Guinness and Music

Our fisrt full day in Dublin was packed full of activity! We had our days here planned out very well after learning from our first pourly planned day in London.

We hit the ground running at 7:30am! (Those of you who know me, know how thrilled I was with that...) Our first stop was the Kilmainham Jail.

Kilmainham Jail

I was very surprised to find how much I enjoyed the jail tour. The woman leading the tour was VERY knowledgeable about her country's history and she delivered that history in a very entertaining way. It was a good way for us to start our tour of Dublin. We learned a lot of backround on Ireland and particularly Dublin. That came in handy on some of our other tours.

Next we hit Trinity College and the Book of Kells. I was also very impressed with that tour. The young man leading it had a masters in history from Trinity and was going to be getting his doctorate in history starting in the fall. He was witty and very knowledgable. He explained a little more about how the books were made and it made all the difference when we went in to see them. I was blown away by "The Long Room" which sits right above the Book of Kells. It was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. (I also love the smell of all those old books!)

They had these trees on the grounds of the school that were absolutely beautiful. They were the only maple trees I'd seen since we got to Ireland. We later found out that they were from Portland, Oregon! It was nice to see a piece of home in the middle of Dublin.

HUGE maple tree from Portland, Oregon!

After Trinity, we caught a bus up to the Guinness Brewery where we took the tour and learned how to pour the "perfect" pint. We both got certificates stating that we're "officially" certified to serve Guinness.

Eric pouring his perfect pint.

Finally we ended our evening with an organized traditional Irish music pub crawl. Two musicians took us from pub to pub and taught us all about traditional Irish music. They were very entertaining and extremely talented! We got a few tips about where to go in Dublin to hear the best music.

Larry and Steve, our musical hosts for the pub crawl.

As we walked through the streets of Dublin back to our hostel, it poured on us. Our feet were hurting and our backs were sore from all the walking we'd done, but we were happy!

Dublin Bound

Our last morning in London was spent packing up and hauling our stuff to the airport. We decided that since Heathrow is such a busy airport we would just arrive way early. We ended up being there 4 hours early though because we didn't think the Tube would get us there that fast!

We had a leisurely brunch and wrote and sent some postcards while we waited.

As our gate opened we headed down to the area and met a nice couple from Canada who were on our flight. We chatted with them through the various check points on the way to our gate.

As they started calling people to board the plane, Eric pointed out a man carrying a very battered, old looking instrument case. He asked me what instrument I thought it was and I told him it was a violin. Then we started commenting on the man carrying the instrument. Eric said that he looked just like Elvis Costello. I agreed and we chuckled about the similarity.

When we boarded the plane the man was sitting in first class having a discussion with another man in his row about their seats. We made eye contact as I passed and exchanged a friendly smile. I didn't really think anything else of it.

When we got settled in our seats, Eric informed me that the man was in fact Elvis Costello! So we have had our first celebrity sighting! That was kind of a fun way to start our journey to Irealnd.

The flight was uneventful and even though the customs guy was irritated with me when I couldn't understand what he was asking me, our first impressions of Ireland are pretty friendly.

We took a bus to our hostel and got settled before heading out for some grub. We ate at a little pub on the same block as our hostel because the restaraunt was closed when we entered the dining room, so the owner took us down to the pub and served us there. Very nice of him! I had the lamb stew and it was incredible! I could eat that everyday. In fact, we're going back tonight because Eric wants to try it too!

Our hostel is very nice in hostel standards, but in Jessica standards, it lacks a lot. It's basically like living in a college dormitory, which I've discovered I'm too old for. The bed sucks and the "breakfast" consists of corn flakes and toast. (Yuck) It's only for a few days though and I'll live. Eric tried to convince me that it's like fancy camping... whatever. ; )

3,000 Stairs

Our second full day in London was packed full of activities! More walking, more Tube and a never-ending supply of stairs.

St. Paul's Cathedral

We started our day at St. Paul's Cathedral. Worth every "pence" we paid! It was an audio guided tour which was very well done. I wasn't expecting to be as impressed as I was with the cathedral. We'd seen it from the outside the night before and it was spectacular for sure, but what awaited us inside was breathtaking. Unfortunately they don't allow you to photograph the inside of a lot of these places. Lets just say that the acoustics are so incredible I wish I'd had my flute!

View from the top of St. Paul's looking
west. (I think)

We climbed to the top of the highest point in the cathedral and got a spectacular 360 degree view of London. By the time we got back down to the crypt we were SO tired from going up and down nearly 2,000 stairs that we kind of just skimmed through it so we could go eat lunch. (Good training for St. Helens though!)

The Tower of London

It started to rain right after we got done with our tour so we headed back "home" to pick up our coats and to purchase a couple umbrellas. After a quick lunch we headed to the Tower of London.

The walls and all the buildings at the Tower were really cool! In America we're just not accustomed to seeing things that are several centuries old. Some of the things that were on display were beautiful artifacts that were well older than our country!

The best part of the Tower was getting to see the Crown Jewels. Of course, they don't let you snap photos of those either. As my good friends will probably guess, I liked that part a lot. Pretty, shiny, sparkly things always attract me. ; )



We headed back to St. Paul's at that point to get some exterior shots since the rain had stopped.

When I'd taken my fill of pictures we headed back to Westminster Bridge and had dinner (fish and chips with Guiness) at a small little pub on the river. I wanted to get some nighttime shots of Parliment and Big Ben all lit up.






As I finished with my shooting, the skies opened up and dumped buckets of rain on us. We ducked into another little pub along the river and had a pint to wait out the storm.

Parliment and Big Ben

We learned that the tube system has a TON of stairs in it. We figured we walked around 3,000 stairs over the course of the whole day. Our legs were SO sore when we fell into bed that night.

Clocks, the "Tube" and Kamakaze Pigeons

Look! We have a stowaway!

Okay, so I'm doing a little bit of blog catch up because our London days were so packed full that I didn't have time to organize thoughts for a blog. Now I'm sitting in a hot little hostel room in Dublin and can barely walk because of blisters, so I have plenty of time to think about what to write!

Our first day in London was fabulous! We walked everywhere... or at least it seemed like we walked everywhere.

Since we had such a creepy experience on the tube our first day we decided to avoid it and walk into town from our hotel. It was a nice enough walk, but we discovered that we were definately in the "bad" part of town. We found a Starbucks on our way and all was right with the world.

Olympic countdown

We started at Trafalgar Square. There's an olympic countdown at the foot of the steps to the National Gallery. Eric got dive-bombed by a kamakaze pigeon! Apparently the pigeons don't care if you're in their airspace!



After looking around at the Square, we took a stroll up the Mall toward Buckingham Palace. The palace was bigger than I thought it would be. It was fun to see all the funny guards marching around and getting their pictures taken. I'd hate that job!

We also walked along Victoria Embankment and saw Parliment and Big Ben. I even got a video of Big Ben ringing in noon! (SO COOL!!)

Westminster Abbey is right there so we walked all the way around it too. We didn't take the tour because it was Sunday and they weren't open for tours. We decided against attending as worshippers because we had other things we wanted to get to.

Westminster Abbey

Once you figure out the Tube system, it's not that bad. It's pretty efficient and amazing how extensive it is. The voice with the english accent that says, "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform." never gets old! Although, we are easy to entertain...

We ended our evening by walking along Victoria Embankment again and getting nightime shots of the Tower Bridge and some of the other sights that are lit up at nighttime.

Tower Bridge

My feet hurt so bad by the time we got back to our hotel that I could barely walk. It was worth every blister though!

Landing in London

Travel day one: complete. WHEW!

It's blog time!!!

Our departure from PDX was sad, but easy comparatively speaking. We flew in a little tiny prop plane which wasn't good. I tend to get motion sickness on little planes. I should have known to just take the Dramamine, but I thought it would be okay. It was fine, but I was left with a yucky feeling in my stomach and a wicked headache.

The Vancouver airport is really pretty! Very nicely laid out, very clean and lots of shops and restaraunts to explore. Our flight was delayed nearly 3 hours because of thunder storms in Asia, so instead of having a 2 hour layover it was almost 5 hours.

Eric waiting at YVR.

The flight from Vancouver to London was the longest flight of my life! I sat next to a very nice South African man who lives in southern England. He had some helpful tips on how to navigate the hugeness that is London.

After disembarking in London we waited for an hour in the customs line. We got our baggage and exchanged some currency. It took a while to figure out the Undergroud, but we did it and were on our way to our hotel.

I want you to keep in mind that I'm extremely tired, hungry and thirsty at this point. We've been eating nothing but airplane food and fast food so I'm not feeling very well either. We were standing on the underground chuckling at the "mind the gap" reminders when this little family gets on the train. Eric moved aside so the man could push the stroller into the car. After about one stop the man steps up and puts his face about 2 inches from Eric's and just stares at him. When Eric asked if he could help him and what he wanted, the mand didn't respond. He was just trying to intimidate him or something. It was way creepy and I was thankful that we only had a few more stops.

When we got off the train, I lost it. We found a sopt to stand where we could organize our stuff and I broke down in tears. I was shaking from the creepiness of the nasty dude. We discovered that you have to tap your Oyster card on your way out of the underground too. The guard chased us down and explained it to us. By the time we got out into the street I was a wreck. We stood on the curb while Eric tried to hail a cab and I just cried.

The cab driver was great. He said in his 10 years of driving cabs he'd never taken anyone out "so far" to their hotel. Whatever. It wasn't that far... at least I don't feel like it was. He was helpful in calming me down and reassuring that the creepy dude was a "whack job". I think I tipped him too much, but whatever.

Our ghetto "hotel" room.

Our "hotel" is very ghetto. It's more like a hostel than a hotel. It has a kitchen down the hall equipped with everything we'll need including a washer and dryer! The bathroom is also down the hall which is a complete bummer.

We walked to a grocery store for some basic food stuffs. I made a lame attempt at dinner by cooking some pasta and adding a prepackaged sauce. Thankfully I found peppermint tea, which should soothe my stomach.

We'll have to do quite a bit of walking tomorrow to get where we want to be, but I don't really care about that at this point. We're here and I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bed (regardless of how small and ghetto it is).





I'm sure this isn't a very well organized blog post and that my grammar isn't very good. For that, I appologize. Hopefully after a good night's sleep I'll be more cheerful and organized about writing. I'm going to take a shower and wash the stench of this day off me!

T-minus...

2 days, 15 hours and 42 minutes

That's how much time I have until our plane takes off for London.

Did you catch that?

LONDON! We're actually going to Europe!

Our long planned, long awaited trip is finally here! The guide books are read, dog-eared and reread. The tickets are purchased, the reservations made and the luggage is out, waiting to be packed. All I have to do is clean the house, do the laundry and pack.

This trip is a big deal. It's not just a big deal because it's our first trip overseas or because it's the longest vacation we've ever taken or even because we've never been away from our children this long. It's a big deal because we came from near financial ruin to being able to save enough money to go on an extended vacation like this.

It was a lot of work and through our consistency, determination and God's provision we have met our goal! That's an awesome feeling!

So do you want to know where we're going? (As if you don't already know!)

We will be spending 3 days in London.

Then we fly to Dublin and spend another 3 days there.

After that we rent a car and drive around the rest of Ireland for 11 more days.

Our last two nights in Ireland will be spent in a 14th century castle!! We figured we should end the trip with a bang.

I'll post as often as I can along the way. I'm really excited about the photo opportunities I'll have and can't wait to share what I shoot!