Belfast

At first we thought Belfast was kinda burning. Not a lot of shops.. we got a nap in. Then we went out for Thai food (sticky rise desdert!) and found a club of young people dancing and drinking..we kept looking cause the club scene is not really my thing. Pop music.. meh. We found a little club called "the royal"

it looked closed from the outside,but once we pushed through the doors, disco lights and lounge music blaring, or was a while different place. We ordered drinks at the bar,but the bartender understood me a lot better than Morgan,for whatever reason.then people started to say things like..been here before? And grin. turns out it waa a super local bar and evetyone knew everyone. They were all impressed with Morgan's height and we manage lots of friends. We say down at a table and just kept making friend.they wanted to give us the thumbs up,know where we were from,tell us they had been to Vegas, and hills peter hams meaningfully. All of them.. haha. Them the music changed to karaoke. Again, ALL country and oldies. Amazing. Then this guy who looked like a mob don waved us over and garbled at us.he was taking our hands and thumb-upping us so we kept smiling. And nodding. Colin bought us a don't of whiskey each, and was Berri friendly. Edmond was very drunk but very friendly, and Alex "hurricane" Higgins, the people champ of pool was all over the walls. On our way out,we couldn't leave because the owner insisted on buying us more whisky. What the heck, why not? He apparently loves Vegas, bud light line in alUMInum cans, and Americans. Everyone was great and I spent the whole time laughing and smiling. Also! I met a lovely may in the bathroom. 40s ? Mini dress and tights . She was ruling the extra risk of time paper around get hand in case there wasn't amount in the stalls . (seemed like a smart idea to me.. I followed suit)she smiled at me, then started to Bang on the door and yell. "hurry up girls"!! At the two stalls.then she started to dance a little and banged and yelled again "hey! Get the fuck out of there ! I can't hold it anymore !"Bang bang bang. She ended up knowing both girls, or being drunk enough to smack them on the shoulders. When I came out, she had her door open, while in full view , and said "jaysus you're fast! I'm still going." I told her I was afraid to keep anyone waiting! It wad awesome. The cabby we rode home with ended up being a best mate of the son of the guy who owned the pub. He showed us pics of his three month old son. It was a fantastic evening. Morgan's Irish accent gets stronger when he's been drinking, by the way. Haha.. goodnight!

Giants causeway

Was absolutely my favorite scenic location so far.

We tried to go to bushmills, but we were5 Minn to late. They wouldn't even let us in the gift shop. Sad face

Or GPS system shut down down though as Doon as we cruised over into modern Ireland, so that was... Fun? Ahem. We found out hotel.. and our room was really  lavender!  But very comfy. Actually it was pretty. The hotel was very nice. food was good too, and they had a photo album of the hotel being built up from this old derelict..

They let us sneak behind the bar to take the short cut to our room. One thing I have noticed here is that a lot of the shower heads are up really tall, so Morgan thinks he isn't going to have to duck to get his head wet, but then sneakily, some of the bath tubs are way taller on the inside, so you get fooled.
Ballyrobin country hotel did have a raised tub, but the shower was still the highest so far.. the Irish must be used to the feeling of rain!

In the morning, we got up early and headed to Belfast. We both think so far, that the towns are not as care and the people not as friendly as the south. It send a but gloomy over here in the uk. But, maybe its just 'cause we got up early..
We are checked in and about to take a nap, shop maybe that will give us a fresh perspective. :)

Galway squared

2 days in Galway! At the Eyre Square
Hotel. It wad am okay hotel.. like many of the places we stayed, it had a double bed and a twin. Galway is similar to Dublin. One way streets.  So we spent a good chunk of time searching for the parking lot.. of our hotel.. it was separate. Then we got some food. And passed out. It was a nice little place with terrific sea chowder.
The next day, we backtracked to the cliffs of moher. Beautiful!! Morgan convinced me to go over the "danger you will die fence" and we got some fantastic views.  I was waiting to be arrested, but sure enough no one came. But I did fall of a cliff and die. Superman saved me though.
On the way home despite the signs that said *food all day*, we couldn't any. We ended up at the Irish arms. Good food With a very charming host. He even did his best to make me a white russian . I've been able to get a few  of those, though when I once tried to order a whiskey sour, I got the strangest look. Like I was psychotic. Ha. After that we caught a showingg of real steel. The movie was okay. Hugh jackman  was hot . Fun fight scenes. Then back to our room to sleep. All that hiking and falling off cliffs makes you tired I guess.

Sligo!

Today! Horseback riding over beaches, bogs, and freeways! ! It was so great, then we checked in to the beautiful castle Markree.

It is PHENOMENAL. Just to get to reception we had to go through hallways and archways and up two flight of stairs. They was a lift, but then you would have missed the chandeliers and animal heads on the wall. Our room had champagne and strawberries waiting. (I planned ahead) and a view of the garden and fountains.

15 minutes to dinner,and I'm pretty excited for hot food. the riding was over really beautiful scenery of course.. You can't beat climbing up hills and running down them on horseback. Over sand and rocks and in the water, I loved it but it sure was cold!! ..and 2 hours long. By the time we were done, I could barely feel my feet!

Back at the castle we warmed up by crawling over every inch we could find. They told us that the castle was our castle for the night and we took them at their word. hidden stair cases, rooms under stairs, secret churches. We opened every unlocked door we found, and climb every set of stairs in the place.. And we even talked the front desk/barman/cook into letting us borrow the key to the very top attic room. Number 32. so we could take a look.
It was super fun!

Delicious dinner,then a pint in the hotel best when we met some guess from London three to film Irish hotspots for a promotional video. They filled us in on the hotel ghost stories.

Apparently in the room next to ours someone jumped out a single with his daughter in his arms, or.. killed his 6 kids? This castle was the kind to make you unsure whether or not you believe in ghost stories.. haha.

But we lived through the night, and are headed for northen Ireland. So, we will have to switch from euros to pounds! A couple in a restaurant told us how they didn't know about the change over, and they couldn't find any where to eat because no one would  take cards or euros! So to gain pounds, we will have to gain pounds?

Put a Cork in it!

We went to Cork right after Cahir..

And, Blarney castle was amazing! I could have taken a million pictures! In fact, I might've ! Haha.
It was so tall, and had all these amazing stair wells, and it had a murder hole!
I am pretending to pee down it.
There were signs posted every where to tell what the room wad for,and who stayed there, and it wad self guided. I love finding funny holes in the mal that you can barely see that turn out to be passageways. Found one of those at Cahir too that led to another hidden prison cell. You don't want to be in the cell that it's a down a good passage!
We got to the castle very shortly before closing, so we had to scamper around quickly. I was snapping pictures like mad when a tiny little man from 2 or 3 floors up yelled down that we'd better hurry up and get up there! So we ran up the stairs and up and up. There was another couple up there and the lady was saying that she was really too afraid of heights and she just couldn't hang up side down over the edge of the castle and kiss the stone. She thought maybe if she saw someone else do it first. So I jumped up. The old man cradled me in his arms and slid me over the edge. There were rails to hold on to, so I really wasn't scared.. and afterward looking down, they have an iron cage now. you couldn't fall off if you wanted to. Morgans turn! The old man held him too. He didn't seem nervous at all. Who's afraid of heights? Not us. (The lady ended up doing it too.) The top of the castle was amazing..you could see down several floors (since the roof was missing in the middle), and the view
Of the landscape was so many shades of green!!
We had to go, but on the way out, we stopped at the poison garden!

 No eating, touching, or smelling! Then to Darby o'gills hotel. We had some internet in the bar, along with a pint or two, and listened to the locals burst out acapella. To country music . That's all they played on the jukebox too . It was great. Very entertaining. :D Next stop galway!

Going, going, Galway!

Today, we had a three  hour drive...

Or  it might have been if we hadn't stopped off a million times. 
Also the weather was nutty. In the morning it was sunny when we look out, but by the time we got to the door, it was hailing, then rain, sun, rain, sun, windwindwind.. I bought water proof shoes today! My other 2 pairs were water logged.

We went to a to grocery store  for jam and bread, and cheese and salami.
Road trip food.

 Then! We went to the burren! I saw some horses.. they walked over like they were going to come right to me and stay Hiiii... But they stopped short. Cheaters.


It was gorgeous. What else can I say? You are going to get tired of hearing it.
I said to Morgan today, why are we going to a specific scenic place? The whole place is scenic!! 
But it was worth it.

 We did this crazy winding one lane road that had a speed limit of 80 km per hour. The shrubs were so high on either side, it wad like Google was taking us out to be killed. It just kept going! It was a fun little adventure.

   

Crazy rocks, and lakes everywhere. Check out his panoramas.
When we did get back on the road, I saw some kind of graveyard churchy looking thing.
So we pulled over.

We hopped over some fences and found rapunzels tower! It had no way in! Unless you had a 20 foot ladder.

Turns out it was for monks, to defend against invaders. There was a very touching grave yard, dating back to 1100s. It was well kept with flowers and decorations. Some of the graves were so old, they no longer said anything.








 

We saw a sign that said we could see the caretaker to get the key to get into the Abby for 5 euros. So we wandered across the street, and knocked on someone's door.. a tiny lady just gave us this key to borrow!

The inside wasn't as cool as the outside, but I did discover that the arch I posed in was apparently for pooping on.. 

 








one hour later we were in the bustling one way streets of Galway. Who puts their parking lot down the block from the hotel??

 Now we are safe and warm in the hotel room, all full from a very nice dinner.. talking about when to set a wedding date..! 

Kilkenny, Clogheen (not Tipperary), & Cahir.

 Kilkenny was a nice little town.

When we got into town, we found a McDonald's (that was like no Mickey D's I've ever seen, it was really arty inside, and hip.. not the regular colors inside at all.) Our b & b was about 2 or 3 blocks away. Of course, we couldn't get in, cause the was this huge gate,and no buzzer or any thing. Or phone still didn't work so we couldn't call. T Mobile was lagging. We tried to see if there was another way in, around the back,or over the gate,but not really. Eventually,we went down to the corner pub, and the bartender called the number for us. The sleepy voice on the phone said, "the gate is closed, is it? Oh dear."
 So we got in,  to this gate..

then went back to that bar to show our thanks by buying a few pints..




Our B&B:

The next morning,we wandered around the shops and looked for the castle, but couldn't find it. We found a candy shop though.. and they had all kinds of special candies.. like a full set of upper teeth.. and these..

you may be thinking.. is it a rocket? a turd? a phallic shape for kids? But no, it's a toffee mouse, covered in chocolate.

There were a lot of Mice shaped candies, because the plague is awesome?
 haha.. no flea shapes though.

Eventually we found a road down to a scenic river. When we turned around,they over the trees, castle spires!
 

We made our way and soon found Kilkenny castle home to the Butlers. So named because they used to butle for the king! Haha.. actually they used to taste the wine for poison.and got paid a 10%tax on all wine, which was a sweet pay check. The place was huge, and easy to get turned around in.. you'd need to leave a trail of bread crumbs not to get lost.. maybe that was the servants job?

The Butler family was pretty well liked.  During the plague people were starving ,and the butlers helped to dress the poor, and in fact, Kilkenny was one of the least affected areas of Ireland. And right now, they are looking for an heir, the last one recently died, so if you know any Butlers, get to searching those family trees. Gerard, I'm looking at you. even If you are Scottish.


On the way out of town, we did the Smithwicks tour, which had a lot of info about the process of brewing, and the history of the family.. by the way, one of the Butlers from the castle eventually married in.. I think it was a Catherine or Cathleen.. also the Smithwick family joined up with a rival brewery during the famine, and created a soup kitchen. Again this area fared a lot better than other places in Ireland

After lunch (the subject of potato famine makes one hungry) and much tea and coffee, we went to Clogheen. Well, actually we went to Tipperary..then we turned around, and drove to county Tipperary,where Clogheen actually is.














Here is a pretty bridge along the way..that was covered in pitch that I got on my arm and sweater.. haha














Here is another bridge..



We stayed at the Hermitage inn, and had a breakfast consisting of hot tomatos,sausages, back and white puddings, ham and egg, and toast! Yes there was blood in the pudding, yes, it was tasty!







After that, we went to the best castle so far! Cahir!








We passed it at first and ended up at the swiss cottage,

 a sort of getaway from the castle, where they would dress as peasants and entertain their friends. They bought the best furniture and had it sanded down or painted to look more rustic because it was in style.

 It was very nature themed, so nothing was symmetrical, because nature isn't. No two Windows matched, there were unusual angles and points everywhere and I LOVED it.




sadly no pictures of the inside were allowed. But it was very neat. There was a very small daybed that apparently slept two, facing each other from either end of the bed because they slept sitting up. They found it easier to breathe that way because of consumption and whatnot. Though, I guess they never actually slept there.. just rested.. it was in the backyard of their castle after all.

After that, We found yet another scenic bridge that led around the back of said castle, plus ducks and swans!

Happily there was a whole bunch of bread crumbs left on the banks, so we got them to come in pretty close.

We wandered around the side, peeping in keyholes and climbing on stuff. It was so much fun, and there were lots of trees and a little lake. So pretty!

Peephole!

 

                                                            Climb that wall Eli!

All the doors around here are too small!

There was also a crooked little bench, that Morgan took my picture on, then he got down on one knee and proposed! I said yes. He proposed with my missing ring from back home in the box of the new ring he got me in Dublin. The actual engagement ring though, is still in LA waiting to be picked up!! There was a fair amount of kissing and crying. :D












The castle itself was super neat because you could climb on just about everything.

 We got to walk on the battlements with no rails, climb windy towers peek in cells, sit on cannons and squeeze into unlit passageways.

We had the best time..









                                           Thinking of Danielle!

Trap doors!

Though, it's possible being engaged made a difference..















Stair cases were built to give right handed swordsmen the advantage over invades trying to come up!

  

Morgan shooting a child with a cannon.







I told him not to.








Oh, also, the Butlers owned the castle and the Swiss cottage. 

Those Butlers got around!

Next stop Blarney Castle!