You know the song by Robert Earl Keen "You Keep a Swervin in My Lane"? It goes a little like this (
listen to it):
You keep a swervin' in my lane and it's causing' lots of danger
I'm a honkin' on my horn, I'm a shooting you the finger
I keep a switchin' on my bright lights, but your just too dim to know
When your swervin' on life's highway, your running someone off the road
Ya, well that's us driving along the road in Ireland, causing lots of danger. It took two of us to drive around this country, Ryan as driver and me as the constant reminder to STAY LEFT, but not SO FAR left as to scrape the wall! Needless to say, "we" did improve greatly over the course of the week, driving many hundred of kilometers around the south and western parts of this green lush wet island. Of course, Ryan gets most of the credit as he was the one actually driving the thing. At least, once again, our trusty TomTom was there for us....
Ireland is just beautiful. It's a really charming country full of green rolling hills dotted with black and white cows, and herds of sheep. The people are sweet and unassuming. It's efficient and clean, and they love their round-abouts, almost too much. It reminded me a bit of Texas. I kept telling Ryan that if the countryside of Texas were a little greener, a little colder, and a little rainier......and if you dotted it with tumble-down castles every 10 miles or so, it'd be just like Ireland. Even the towns we passed through reminded me of small town Texas....well with much more charm and pubs, but you get the point. We felt so much at home. The farmhouses were gorgeous and huge, and it really made me want to buy a piece of land and run a B&B!
We got a very late start out of the Dublin airport and arrived to our cute little farmhouse apartment at about 10 p.m. We awoke to a beautiful piece of property situated just outside of Fermoy, north of Cork. It was an 18th century farm house smack dab in the middle of a working cow farm... the black and white spotted cows dotted the fields by the hundreds.
Our apartment was located in the basement floor of the main house, super cute and cozy and perfect for relaxing evenings playing monopoly with Chance. He's really taken to that game.
SUNDAY APRIL 5
Kinsale was first on our list, a sleepy little town on the coast south of Cork.
I didn't think it had much to offer but that could have been cause we were there on a Sunday and most things were closed. We did have some great fish and chips though.
Just outside of the town was one of the best preserved 17th century star shaped forts, called Charles Fort. It had really nice views of the harbor dotted with sailboats and Chance had lots of fun running around the ruins as usual.
MONDAY APRIL 6
We awoke to rain and had doubts about how it would effect our day but we waited patiently enough and then sun eventually came out. We first went in to town and bought some steaks from the local meat guy, excited to purchase meat that didn't cost the price of a days salary for a family of 2.5. We'd be eating that for dinner later in our cute little apartment. Later after the sun started to poke through, Cork was our town of the day, about 30 minutes south of our place. It is supposed to be the Little Dublin, very modern nice little town located along a riverway. There wasn't too many touristy things to do there except walk around and look at all the variety of stores that we dont have in Zurich. As soon as I think I am getting used to the lack of shopping and lack of decent food in Zurich, I am then reminded of how the rest of the world is when I step out in to it. We had lunch overlooking the English Food Market of Cork, in a cute little restaurant. We were shocked when we were seated to a pitcher of ICE water on the table and bread and BUTTER.
WOAH. I forgot that these kind of things even happened in restaurants. In Zurich you can't get tap water, you pay $10 for a liter of it and butter is just unheard of, much less bread on the table before your meal. It was a small taste of home hospitality and it was great. Ryan decided to order some oysters fresh from the market below, luckily just 3 of them, cause the look on his face before eating them was not so great. Personally I've never tried one, and actually never plan to (unless large sums of money are involved). I just don't get the point of eating something that tastes so gross you dont want to keep it in your mouth, but instead you want to swallow it whole without chewing it.....point here is??? not to mention it looks like intestines. Chance tried it and the thing ended back up on his plate.
After lunch we ventured over to the Cork City Gaol "Jail" where we toured an 19th century jail to indulge in my intrigue of jails. I just love visiting jails but this one would have been much cooler had it a dungeon. Chance got to see what it would be like if he was really naughty!
In the evening we knocked on the door of the owner and asked if he'd take us to see his baby cows. Chance loved the little brave cow that came up to him and licked his
hand.
TUESDAY
Another year older, ain't it great? I told Ryan for my birthday I got to choose where the next wrinkle should go...then I changed my mind and fantasized instead about choosing which wrinkles I would eventually botox off once I no longer have something living inside me. Skies were clear and we set off to drive the famous "Ring of Kerry" along the southwest coast. It was about 100 km to get to the starting town, then about 150 km more of winding skinny roads taking you along the coast line for sweeping views along the Atlantic. I pictured cliff lines flattened with lush green pastures like you see in the movies. I was strangely met with and arid climate, mostly brown and not as lush as I had imagined.
It started raining as soon as we made it to the starting point, so my hopes of getting out at every town to do exciting little sightseeing things was squelched, and we were forced to spend the entire day driving in the rain and not seeing much cause of the low visibility. Ryan's driving did improve drastically this day.....unfortunately for him we were too cheap to add me as an additional driver so he had to push on all day long, winding thru the raods and avoiding being hit by the oncoming tour buses. We were very amused by the 100km per hour speed limit signs on the tiny windy roads, usually posted right next to a big warning sign for a super sharp turn ahead.......we could barely go 50 km/hour without feeling like we'd run off the road. No wonder there are so many deaths on these roads! We made it back home in one piece with only one driving incident.....we had pulled out on to the road and Ryan subconsciously pulls in to the right lane as I am screaming LEFT LEFT LEFT....LINKS FAHREN LINKS FAHREN....LARGE BUS ONCOMING.......we were almost taken out by the bus. Phew! That night we went out for birthday dinner at a hotel restaurant, the small town of Fermoy didn't have too many choices but it was really nice and made for rounding out a great day.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 8
Chance informed us that driving all day was "Miserable" and that he wanted a "Chance Day", and so it was. We awoke to blue skies again and decided to take a break from driving and sightseeing and do as the locals do. We visited the local playground and later went to see Aliens vs Monsters on the big screen in 3D. All a kid could hope for and more! For lunch we found a place that was just like Bennigans and indulged in the real American type burgers I have been craving for so long! In the evening we finished our game of monopoly.....I've gotta say I took the boys to the bank and boy did they get cranky about it!
Chance enjoyed taking pictures with his new camera, I love getting in a few of just me and Ryan here and there!
THURSDAY APRIL 9
I guess it wouldn't be Ireland without buckets of RAIN, and more RAIN. Today "rain" doesn't really describe the down pour and high winds we experienced as we trompsed through the town of Kilkenny and it's grand castle there. Too bad that it was pouring so much Ryan couldn't get out the camera to take any pictures of the castle. We did eat at a very cool place, an old Inn from the 1400's in which the owner was accused of being a witch.
FRIDAY APRIL 10
Ireland redeems itself (the weather that is!) and the sun shined the whole day! My dreams of boating up to the Cliffs of Moher were realized. We headed out early in the morning to drive through the Burren National Park, where limestone blankets the countryside. I'd heard of the Poulnabrone Dolmen as one of the most touristed places in Ireland, and seen great pictures of it....we drove and drove to it to see that the pictures make it look so much bigger than it really is! Ryan said that if that wa Ireland's "stone henge", he doesnt want to see the real thing.....perhaps Ireland hypes up its tourist sites a little much!
Nonetheless it was beautiful countryside....the only place in the world where Artic, Alpine and Mediterranean flora grow in one place together.
Then we took a 3 p.m. boat ride out to the Cliffs of Moher, they were amazing and I am glad we took the day to explore this region.
Chance loved the boat ride, but was so tired by the end he passed out right on board!
The beautiful day was rounded out with 2 amazingly huge rainbows on our way home. This was Chance's first time to see a rainbow and he said "God really DOES put rainbows in the sky. We must have done something to make him really happy to put a rainbow in the sky".
SATURDAY APRIL 10
Onward to Dublin, goodbye little Fermoy farmhouse. After we got jacked around and screwed over by Budget Rental Car, "claiming" we chipped the window and punctured the tire.....which NEVER happened, we were in less than great moods to venture on in to Dublin. But we did anyways, had a nice lunch at a pub to finish off our week of eating great food. I had a HUGE juicy Irish beef burger......ah, so great. We walked around, took in the culture of Dublin and then called it quits a couple hours later to retire exhausted from a weeks worth of fun and sightseeing. We relaxed in the hotel lobby, playing Farkle, drinking a last pint of beer and prepared to go home!
See lots more pictures in the right hand column!!
