Lovely Day for a Guinness!

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After the horror that was the ferry ride we were delighted to finally arrive in Ireland. Our first city was Cork. Cork is the European Capital of Culture for 2005 and the city reflected it. It was a very beautiful city but it lacked the edge that the other cities in Ireland had. On our first day we went to Blarney to visit the castle. We climbed the tower to the top of the castle and prepared ourselves to dangle upside down hundreds (well it felt like hundreds) of feet above the gardens to kiss the legendary Blarney Stone. Legend has it that those who kiss the Blarney Stone are forever blessed with the gift of gab. Since Andrea didn't get a good picture the first time Liz had to kiss the stone twice so she's feeling very verbal. The next day it rained all day long so we went to see The Interpreter. The next day we thought we had booked a hostel in Dingle Town, the largest town on the Dingle Peninsula. So we set off early, about half way there we realized that on the directions to the hostel they said that they were actually located "in the wee village of Annascaul about 10 miles east of Dingle" So we got off the bus in Annascaul. The town was approximately 1/2 a mile long, it had 1 conveniece store, 1 church, 20 houses and 8 pubs.... and 1 hostel. The biggest brightest eye sore in all of Ireland, we were embarrassed to walk up to it. We stood outside knocking on the door for about 20 minutes before we decided to go ask in the pub next door. The guy told us it wasn't open. Andrea asked what time it would be open and he responded, "next Saturday" Having no where else to go we begged him to call the hostel owners to find out what was going on. As it turned out they usually book rooms for groups only and had no idea we were coming. So we had the distinct pleasure of sleeping in the giant eye sore completely alone in the middle of nowhere. We went to Dingle Town and almost took the dolphin tour until Andrea noticed that the sign said "if the dolphin doesn't show you get your money back." We inquired at the linen store and found out that there was, in fact, only one dolphin... we skipped the tour. After that we went to Galway, our favorite city. We decided to take a day tour to see the Cliffs of Moher because there was no public transportation. Our tour guide was a cute little old Irish man named Desmond who told us all about the history of Ireland, and tricked us into looking for leprachauns. We went to the Burren, an area of Ireland filled with hills of limestone. We went to the yellow caves underneath the Burren and then finally on to our last stop, the cliffs. It was like looking at a painting, they were so beautiful. Despite Desmonds warnings (and knowing that our mothers would agree with him) we played on the cement ledge so we could take the best pictures. That night our hostel gave us tickets to go to a live show at a bar that plays alternative music. We didn't enjoy the main act but we really like the guy who opened for him. His name was Q, we ended up sitting at his table and talking to him and it turned out that he lived in Boulder and had a band that played at the Fox all the time! Our last stop in Ireland was Dublin. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Dublin Castle, and the Guinness factory. We got to learn all about the history and the making of Guinness and the best part was the free pint at the end! We also had no money left for the pubs so we went to see Wedding Date (two thumbs down) and Hotel Rwanda (two enthusiastic thumbs up!) Then we had to catch an 8:30 plane back to London Heathrow!

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Photos

Cliffs of Moher
Before we played on the ledge.

Take Two!
Liz was freaking out the first time, but the second was a breeze.

Blarney Stone
Was the legend true? You'll have to ask her yourself!

Randy Leprechaun
How cool would you feel walking into this place?