Ok ok I know it’s been a really long time. I guess I just am getting so wrapped up in what I do and next thing I know weeks have gone by. So here I am now trying to play a large game of catch up.
So if I remember correctly I left you all with me going dry suit diving in some wrecks up in Scotland. Way cool!!!
Sunday August 23
I met Kira and Russell for a good Scottish breakfast. The first one I had I thought was good, but after having this one I was much happier. This time the black pudding was way better. (I have to say I didn’t dislike black pudding but I don’t see myself going out of my way for it.)
So after we were all happily fed we tredged out into the hardcore winds and drove out to Skare Brea. This is an ancient, like 5000 year old village that was found when a high wind storm came alone and blew away a good portion of land. So there was a whole museum saying “Look at all the stuff we found” but really none of it had explanations as to what it was. But to give them the benefit of the doubt, how on earth are we to know what people 5000 years ago did.
Well, after the museum we got to walk through the mock village, or at least a home. It was TINY!!! It was hard to imagine a family of just 4 living in that room. It was a room about the size of a large bedroom. It had a fire, shelves, little pantries, and beds. So it leads us to believe that the whole family lived eat and slept in that one room. Then each room in the village was attached by tunnels. These tunnels were so amazingly short. I felt like I was a hobbit. (As I learned it is likely that Tolken used Skare Brea as an inspiration for hobbits. Also…Orkney….Orks…ya see it…?? Right, any ways)
So then after we got to see the village that was found. One really impressive thing about it was while walking out to it then have a time line going back to the 5000 years just to give you a perspective of how long ago 5000 years was. I mean this is way before Stonehenge. WOW!! The village looked really amazing, and just unbelievable how people used to live that way. It’s like a town for kids really.
Well, we decided we would walk out to the cliffs there to see if we could see the waves wearing away at the rocks. It was a bit of a steep walk out but so worth it. Kira was a little more afraid of the edge than Russell and I were so we walked out to the point where we could look down and see the waves crashing up into the cliffs. For out walk back we dodged all the cow pies because we just walked through a farmers yard. Which is not illegal in Scotland as long as you are not be destructive.
We enjoyed walking out to those cliffs so much that we decided to go to Yesnaby which are spectacular cliffs. We could see out to endless ocean and the waves were just so impressive. What made it so much better was the wind. It added a bit more to the adventure. Standing on the edge of really unfathomably tall cliffs with about Gal 2 force winds. Woah!!!
That night Kira wanted to take me to see a show. Well seeing as we were on an island with limited show access all that we had the choice to see was a cabaret. So we drove out to Strenness for dinner and a show. The show for being just one singer, two dancers and a performer who did this thing with cool glowing balls, it was a really great show. It had all types of music and we were all participating in the end. I have to say, “It was a blast!”
Monday August 24
Kira and I were going to do some activies together but when I got to her place with my stuff I found out that she was really ill. But, lucky for me Kira is the most organized person I know and she had everything I needed all spelled out for me. So I was hopping on a bus to Stomness to catch the ferry to the main land. I wasn’t catching this ferry to leave Orkney or just for the fun of riding a boat. I was taking it for one reason, and that was to see the Old Man of Hoy. This is a really tall unstable column cliff thing that has been eroded away from the main island. So it is stand alone. It’s so unstable they are saying that it might not last much longer. All the more reason to go see it while I can, plus, my dad really kept pushing for me to see it. The only way really TO see it is to take this ferry past it to the main land. I however was not planning on staying on main land Scotland at this time, so I got on the ferry enjoyed a nice ride past the Old Man of Hoy, enjoyed a cup of tea, got off the ferry in Scabster, turned around and got right back on. J They people on the boat even noticed this odd girl going in circles. It was a good relaxing, enjoyable day, and I got to see the old man TWICE!!
When I got back to Orkney I had to wait for the bus so I just took a stroll through Stomness which I have to say is possibly my favorite town. It was so small, and all of the buildings are up on hills, but close together, so you have to twist and wind through tiny little alleys. Once you get up the hills a little you can see over all the roof tops and see the sheer number of chimneys, all with the water in the backround. How perfect is that.
When I did finally make it back to Kirkwall Kira was feeling much better. So as a treat she took me out to try my first try at Haggis. We got what we like to call, “A heart attack” It was a deep fried black pudding, deep fried haggis, and my favorite, a deep fried Mars Bar (which is a lot like a milky way) It was all a totally different experience, but I finally said I had tried it. The thing with the Mars bar is that everyone says people in Scotland with deep fry anything, even a Mars Bar. Well, they did. Though it was good, we really had to go for a walk after that. Ugh…
Since it was my last night Kira and Russell took me out to a very nice dinner followed by a drink at one of the cutest pubs. On our way back to their place to pick up my stuff so I could catch the ferry we ran into DANIEL MACBETH….Dun…Dun…Dun….(That was said it a deep booming voice) I would like to refer to Daniel Macbeth as…the town hooligan. Well as you can imagine was not in a very sober mindset, and kept making it very difficult for us to. By the time we did leave to get my stuff, my ferry left in 30mins. We were moving. After swerving past all the cars getting on the ferry Kira and I run in only to find that I was 15 mins too late to check in. We even tried to push for me to just hop in the car with someone driving on but that didn’t work. So…I missed my ferry…oops!
That night Kira and I were able to book me a flight and everything was just going to be great. I wasn’t concerned about it at all. Some how it would work out.
Tuesday August 25
I caught my taxi to the airport with no problem. I got checked in with no problem. I made it through security…with no problem. I got on the plane through the flight….with no problem. So see everything worked out just fine. I had little trouble trying to find the hostel but that was just because I couldn’t figure out the bus system so I walked the 2 miles, but I guess a little exercise never hurt. By the end of that walk though I was soooo ready to wash all my clothes. I can’t even think about the last time I washed ALL my clothes.
While I waited for the laundry I walked down to a shop I was told served the best fish n’ chips in the whole UK. I guess you could say they do, but I don’t really know. They didn’t knock me to the floor with their amazingness. So that evening, I was running around the hostel in just a dress that I had worn about 3 times on this trip, and my swim suit, just so I could wash everything. It was crazy, but I was also crazy about getting my clothes clean.
I know this day was not exciting AT ALL!!
Wednesday August 26
I caught the train back down to Edinburgh. I had no intentions of staying in Aberdeen and I don’t really know what there was to do there anyways, so I moved on to the city I more wanted, plus I wanted to get to the Fringe Fesitval which is a 3 week long performing arts event. There are shows of all kinds and over 2000 shows. It is crazy!!! Plus, there was the Tattoo (and it is not the body art) which is the Scottish military bag pipes and guests play in the court yard of the Castel grounds.
So as soon as I arrived in Edinburgh I ran… well as best you can run up a hill with 15 kilos of crap on you, to the hostel, set my stuff down and was out playing as soon as I could. Oh my goodness the fringe was so over whelming. I sat down and watched a street show then ran to a venue to watch a dance show, only to get there too late. So instead I watched an improv (Captain Improv) and was then well aware of what the fringe was all about. Basically if you could pay for a space you got a show slot….Which means not all that you’re going to see is going to be good. I thought I would make it up by seeing another show which was called “Celebrations” This was not so back. It was just a hard show to follow and even harder because they sat down the whole time, but there was some quality work in there.
After I was so over whelmed with all that I decided it was a good time to see about the Tattoo, so I went to the ticket office, only to find out that they were sold out. Crap….I kind of decided that I was not going to miss it so that evening I just walked the streets in front of the castle to see if anyone was selling their tickets. Lucky for me there was a group of French people selling a ticket. One of their spouses was sick and couldn’t make it, so I got to spend this event with them. Best thing that could have happened. They were the nicest people ever and wish I could have spent more time with them.
As for the Tattoo, IT WAS AMAZING!!! I have never seen anything like it before. There was a door way that all of the bag pipers came out of. They just kept pouring out and you think there is no way they could keep coming. So Crazy!!! Then the whole courtyard was just covered in bag pipers and drummers. Then also part of the Tattoo they have performances from around the world. They had drummers and dancers from Tanga. They had a horn, drum and dance show from China (Shay wa) They had singers come out and sing some Robert Burns (Scotlands poet) They performed a ghost story by means of Scottish dance. The Swiss army came out and played some spectacular stuff, my favorite were the Swiss “Top Secret” Drummers. They were just mind blowing. They also had the Scottish Air Force play. Then as tradition they played their evening ballad with the Lone Piper on top of the Castle, and ending the evening with Auld Langsyne.
Thursday August 27
I got up early to try to get some of the sights of Edinburgh in before I tried to tackel the Fringe Festival again. So I went up to St. Giles Cathedral which was a little bit of a let down because they were restoring it so It wasn’t as spectacular as it could have been, but I got the idea. The Thistle Chapel was the more amazing part. This is a chapel for all the top notch Duke/Earl/Queen ranking people. There are only some 20 seats. So yeah. After that I just wandered down to the Childhood Museum where I thought they would have more things from my childhood, but it was more like stuff from my grandparents childhood. Yeah, so I didn’t relate as much, but it was still really fascinating to see.
At 11:00 I met up with one of the guys I met in my room, Steve. He had been in Edinburgh since just about the beginning of the Fringe and he knew what he was doing. So I tagged along with him and his friend Sam. They were more into Comedy acts, but I was learning that that was more of what I was going to see.
So first stop, the artic… Well, ok it was really Helen Keen but her subject was about the artic. She was funny because she was telling us the 10 steps you would have to take to survive in the artic. Things like, “you need to be willing to eat anything” because you never know when you are going to run out of food. My favorite survival technique is to always celebrate Christmas. What a happy thing to remember.
This time I was not going to miss the dance I wanted to go to the day before, so they walked me over to the theatre and I watched “Stranded” while they went to another comedy act. This dance was much better than the two shows I had seen the day before. It was a modern dance but I guess slowly I’m growing to like it.
I met Sam and Steve at the Underbelly, which was one of the venues. We went to watch Sammy J who is an Aussie comedian. His show was about his life in 1999 as a huge geek. It was done by comedy and song. Soooo funny. He even had a tamagatchi. J His show was so fantastic!!
We quick ran to get some food then were right back at the Underbelly to watch “Barry and Stuart Powered by Demons” Which was a very dark magic show. They were so good. They were funny, and sick, and twisted, but extremely entertaining. I was afraid it would be a lot of gore but it really was only at the beginning. After that it was a very different magic show that kept you thinking.
We had one more show for the evening but we still had to fill the time, so to do so we went to the “Crow Bar” where a guy would play music tunes and everyone would sing along. Man I felt so out of my league. These people knew every word to every song. Some of the songs I didn’t even know where they came from. It was crazy, but at least it entertained us till the comedy show at 1:00am.
Yep, we went to what is called “Late n’ Live” This is a comedy act that you go to for the experience more than anything else. The audience will boo and cheer where ever they want. People have had thing thrown at them if the audience didn’t like them. It’s just that crazy. Lucky for us the audience was tame, but I guess that killed part of the experience then.
Friday August 28
The plan was to meet for breakfast, then Sam ran off to get the tickets for the day. Steve and I met up with Sam at the Utter belly (another venue owned by the same group as the Underbelly) to watch “Private Peaceful” This was a one man show about his life leading up to WWII. It has to be some of the best acting I have seen. It was so spectacular. It always good to see great acting but even better when it is a one man show.
After that we ran across a few streets to watch “School for Scandel” This had me falling out of my seat from laughter. It was a scripted show with a lot of comedy written into it, but there was totally a lot of improv. They would even flat out say, “That wasn’t in the script” or “You don’t even remember the next line.” My favorite was they guy who said something that didn’t make sense then said, “I don’t know, everyone else is just saying whatever they want.” Teehee.
The next two shows I went on my own. The first was a show that is actually coming to concert hall this year. It is TAO. They are samurai warrior drummers. Oh man they were just mind blowing. I cannot get over how so amazing they were. It’s also nice that I have gotten to see them so when they do come to the hall I don’t feel like I’m missing out by watching everything from back stage. The second show was “Merrily We Roll Along” which is a Stephen Sondhim. Thought it was performed by a college group it was still really good.
So my last show of the Fringe was with Sam and Steven again. We went to Ali Mcgregor, who is yet another Aussie and she does a comedy cabaret kind of thing. She has an assistant who is a grumpy man who does a very bizzar dance. She herself sings, and let me tell you, she can SING. But then she has guests. She had a comedian who did impressions, a comedian who did the strangest dance known to man, a hula hoop performer who stripped naked (strange I must say) and an ompa band play Bohemian Rhapsody. I think it was a perfect end to my Fringe experience.
Saturday August 29
This morning I caught the haggis bus tour to go around and see Scotland. Our driver was Dan, and he knew so much about all of Scotland. I really liked how he did his tours because not only would he tell us stuff but he would play audio clippings and music to go with his stories. It makes it more memorable.
Our first stop was in Sterling to climb up to see the William Wallace statue. It was such a huge thing. Along with that Dan told us about the main first battle that William Wallace lead the Scots into. It was basically the Scot deciding they didn’t want to be ruled by the brits. Basically that’s what it was all about. We then stopped for a quick photo stop at Castel Doune which was used in the filming of Monty Python, then on to see a very hairy friend, Hammish. He was an adorable orange highland cow.
That evening we stopped in Oban for the night. Before dinner a few of us walked up to McCraigs Tower. While up there, I managed to slip in the mud and slid down the hill. So annoying when you only have a limited supply of clothes and no way to really wash it. Plus, the best part, I managed to destroy my camara. That would be camera number 2 for this trip. It still work but only till I got back to Edinburgh and could do something about it.
That evening, after getting all washed up we went to a traditional Scottish music and dance event. This was really good amazing. They played the bagpipes, and sang in Gaelic. There was highland dancing and they even got us up and doing Keelee dancing. It was really awesome. There was so much I learned about the Scottish music culture at that.
Sunday August 30
Our goal was to drive out to the Harry Potter bridge before the train went by. We made it in time. This is the shot they use in one of the Harry Potter films with the train going over a stone bridge. Well, I guess for tourists they now have the steam engine train go over every day at the same time. There we all were ready to go.
We were then given the choice of going to a whisky distillery of to the place where 40% of BraveHeart was filmed. Someone pushed for Brave Heart. I wanted the distillery but the drive through Glen Nevis ended up actually being a really spectacular drive. The mountains are just so green and high, and of course the heather is in full bloom so everything is a perfect shade of purple. I don’t know how you couldn’t fall in love with it all.
After lunch we drove out to a sight were we could see Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in Scotland. It was really kind of hard to see since the top was all up in the clouds. I guess that just made it seem that much more grand.
After a short detour up to see the 5 sisters, which is just 5 hills, we went to Eilean Donnan Castle, the most famous castle in Scotland. It was used in Highland, and I hear most recently Maid of Honor. It was rebuilt by a man who had a dream about what he thought it originally looked like. Then they found the plans only to find out that he was 90% correct. Now that’s crazy.
Monday August 31
Today was probably the first crummy weather day I had up until this point. Not bad for, how many months…? It would have been nice because we spent the day driving around Isle of Skye, which is one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland, and once at the top of the mountains you could see for miles. That’s a bit hard in the rain and fog.
First of all we learned that Isle of Skye was very fairy based. So of course the first story we learned was of this old couple who, every Sunday would climb up to the top of this hill and just catch up on the town news. Finally, the woman had decided she had gotten too old and this would be her last climb, so she told her husband this. Soon after they heard this noise and went to see what it was. What they found were a whole bunch of faires crying. Well, the saying goes, if you see a fairy you are granted a wish, but you need to be careful with fairies because they are tricky little buggers. They don’t usually just give you what you want, in stead they will take something in return. Well the old couple wished that they could keep coming up the mountain. The fairies, wanting the same thing, (see that’s why they were crying) granted them the wish. As the couple decended the mountain they began to slow down. They slowed down so much so that eventually they turned into stone. So then on the top of the mountain you can still see Old Man Starr, but the Woman has fallen down.
The next story we learned about was the story of how the giants cause was formed (the one in Northern Ireland, but there is remnints of one in Scotland also, but I don’t know where) We learned about it because there was a cliff they call Kilt Rock, and it’s called that because it looks like it has a giant kilt on it. The story says that the giants in Scotland took his kilt off and put it on the cliff to try and confuse the giant from Ireland. (That’s a whole story I won’t get into now. I couldn’t do it justice.)
We made one last drive on Isle of Skye up to the top point to look over the island then we headed down for lunch. After lunch we had a very long drive ahead of us. At one of the pit stops people were so fed up with sitting on the bus, they turned the toilet stop into a whole half hour stop. It was really kind of funny how everyone just made up their own minds like that.
That evening was magical. Dan had us all close our eyes and told us story, then when we opened our eyes we were looking at a castle. This Carbisdale Castle, we were staying in for the night. So cool!!! It’s one of the only castle accomidations that has not been completely altered. So it has still original paintings, and rooms. It was huge. So all of the common areas were still common areas and there was no doubt that you were in a castle/palace. We explored every bit of that castle that we could. AMAZING!!!
That even we had to walk the long dark walk to town to go to the pub. The walk down wasn’t so bad, it was the walk back. It was much darker, plus there was a metal bridge that didn’t seem the safest but it seemed even more unsafe when it’s total darkness underneath.
Tuesday September 1`
While in Scotland I had learned a lot about Cairns. Cairns here are burial stone mounds. There were some at Stonehenge, and quite a few up in Orkney. Today was the first time that we got out and saw some up close. We went to the Clava Cairns, which are 5 cairns and they say they were lined up in the line of the winter solstic. Amazing, how these people were even aware of this kind of stuff. I mean I don’t even know where the winter solcstis runs and I have the technology to know this. It’s really just amazing how all these people 1000’s of years ago were able to determine these kind of things.
We then stopped at the battlefield of Cullodeen where the Scotts were defeated by the English and the English changed everything about the Scottish culture. It was then that tartans were not to be worn anymore; bagpipes could no longer be played, even though they were the first instruments to be declare instruments of war. I’m not exactly sure when all of this was allowed again, but the change in life style was just mind blowing.
For lunch we bought supplies for a BBQ and took it to the shores of Loch Ness. That was cool, how many people can say they had a BBQ on the shores of Loch Ness? Despite the wind, it was a perfect day for a BBQ. Infact, I was a bit disappointed. I expected Loch Ness to be green and for there to be an eerie feel with fog every where. Where was all that?? The water was a deep blue, and the sun shone down relecting off the water. Surely this could not be Loch Ness. Well, it was and we enjoyed a wonderful lunch beside.
As something, I think just for kicks for Dan, he took us to the visitor center and out to the water. There he told us some story about his family always going out there to call on Nessy. They would do it by this song and dance. So Dan taught us this song and dance and said that everyone believed it then Nessy would show. We did it (while a boat passed so they saw the whole thing) and yet no Nessy. I guess someone just didn’t believe. I was looking forward to seeing Nessy…
That night we went to this guy Dan calls Sexy Ken. There we sat in an originally designed house that the Scottish would have lived in hundreds of years ago. It wasn’t that large, but it turns out that about 20 people would live in it and at night they would bring all their animals in out of the cold. That could get very smelly. Part of the demo he also showed us the proper way to put on a tartan, and that clans different tartans is on within the last couple hundred years. Everyone used to just wear the same pattern. We also learned how women wore their clothes. That was really really cool. He even showed us most of the weapons they would have used, and how they would have used them. Wow, I have to say I would never want to piss off a Scotts man.
That evening there was a one man performer, Donald, in the pub attached to the hostel. He was playing guitar, harmonica, drums, and tamborien, all at the same time. He might as well have been Burt from Mary Poppins. He also could play any song you threw at him. One of the guys on our bus was really into music and was throwing out some crazy songs for him to play, and he played them.
Wednesday September 2
Today was mostly about driving us back to Edinburgh but along the way we made a few stops. We drove along the south side of Loch Ness which Dan had never even done himself. It was an amazingly gorgeous drive. We then made a stop at Coire Cas which is a ski resort in amongst the Blue Mountains and you can see Loch Skiresart. And our final stop was at Dunkeld Cathedral. This was gorgeous. It is a cathedral right on the river, and inside there was someone playing the hand bells, so it just added to the whole experience.
After the long drive, a few of us decided to do an Underground Ghost Tour. These are tours that take you to the original city. Edinburgh ran out of space so they just built up on themselves. I was hopping for a bit more history with the ghost stories but it was still really good. We walked along the streets of Edinburgh both above ground, through alleys, and underground.
Thursday September 3
Well if you remember correctly, I had said that my camera was dead. So I was on a mission to find a place that could do something. I also had plans to see some of the city before I caught my bus mid day. So I did a really fast walk to the other end of town. Had to get another camera because mine died in his hands as soon as he tried to turn it on. Then I power walked back up the hill to Edinburgh Castle in hopes that Michelle (one of the people I met on the haggis tour) was still waiting for me. She was even though I was much later than I said I would be.
At the castle we wandered into a few towers. Some used for dungeons, so for battles. We saw the crown jewles, not quite the same as Tower of London’s but still just amazing to see. There was also a stone that had been Scotlands and was taken and placed at the feet where for the past couple hundred years kings and queens have placed their feet to be corinated. It has now finally been returned to Scotland by Queen Elizabeth II. They are kind of proud to have that back. We also saw a military memorial which was a little gut wrenching, because it had books with all the names a people who have died in war since WWI. It was a lot. The last thing we saw was the dungeoun for the prisoners of war. I had no idea how many prisoners of war from our revolutionary war were held there. And it turns out it was only after that war did they continue to hold onto the prisoners. How rude!!
Eventually I needed to catch my bus. I was going to take my bus to Stranrea then catch the ferry the next morning for Ireland, but when I got on the bus I found out that my ticket was good all the way to Ireland. Ok, I guess I’ll go over now. So that was what I did. Eventually, I was able to get a hold of David, since we were meeting up in Ireland, and he just flew in that day, and we figured out the two of us could meet. That night we stayed in a hostel right in the heart of Belfast Ireland.
Friday September 4
Once we finally got moving we went out to the car to find a flat tire. Oops!! David quickly changed to our spare and we then took a wander around the city. I was little paranoid because I had been told all these things about not taking photos of stuff and definatly don’t take photos of people. Well, to get around that we found a sightseeing tour bus that took us to all the political sights, drove us through the protestant and catholic sides of town, it showed us a bunch of the murals, we saw the sight were titanic was being built, and we drove out to the sight of Parliament. For just a small cost, we saw a lot. Possibly too much, because I can’t remember much about what we saw but enh.
We then decided we needed to do something about our tire. So we went on a wild goose chase looking for an auto repair store so we could get some fix a flat stuff. I didn’t know what we were doing but David did at least.
Once we finally got ourselves out of town we got distracted right away by a castle. We saw the Belfast Castle sitting up on a hill. So we found it on the amazing map we bought and we were off, on our first of many many many wild goose chases. We did find the castle and it was mostly amazing because we could see the whole city of Belfast from up there. Soo cool!
We didn’t plan to stay in Belfast so we worked our way a little north up to Larne, which is where I would have come into if I had taken the ferry that day. Good thing, because it turns out David would have had no idea how to get there since he had no map, a dying phone and didn’t know how to go about getting information. Oh boy….
For our accomadations I stayed in my first B&B. It was above a Guiness Pub, so how apropriate.
Saturday September 5
After a pleasant cup of tea with Chris, the owner of the B&B and a good Irish breakfast we headed along the Causeway Coastal Road. Along the way we saw something about a detour to climb Slimish Mountain. We drove off the beaten path onto two lane roads not even the size of one lane and worked our way around to find the visitor center for the mountain. It was more of a center with some info boards. Despite the mist we clambored up to the top. It was like in Scotland. It could have been an amazing view if there had not been rain, but it was still really spectacular. The coolest part was when we looked off in the distance and saw what we thought were birds on to have them come closer and realize they were fighter jets. It was so totally wicked.
After getting back in the main road we soon took another detour. We drove down the Glen Ariff road. It drove us into the mountains then through some woods and along a valley. The views were just breath taking.
As we worked our way up to the Giants Causeway we stopped at Torr Head which had a great view but also an abandoned house. For some reason the house was really quite fascinating. Down the road from there was Murlough Bay where we could see Scotland across the water, then finally into Ballycastle. We only stopped there long enough to eat because we were on a mission to get to the Causeway for sunset. We did make it there in time however it was so cloudy it didn’t change anything. The causeway, though was out of this world. It is mind boggling to think that something like that is totally natural. I would almost believe the giants story first.
Sunday September 6
We were going to walk from the Hostel to Carrick-a-rede Bridge but seeing as it was raining when we got up we decided we didn’t have enough clothes to waist getting wet. So we just drove down there. This is a suspension bridge that goes from the main land to a tiny tiny island. There is nothing special about the island except that you get a fantastic view.
We also stopped on Dunluce Castle. This was the first of many castles we see in Ireland. They had a view talking about how it was really made what it became by I think the Cambell family from Scotland. It became huge, but over time and soon neglect it became rubble. They were able to explain what some of the rooms would have been and what they would have been used for. They also had an archery demo going on, so that was pretty cool to learn about.
On our mission all the way to Sligo (if you look at a map that a a ridiculous about of ground to cover) we stopped at a place called Down hill house. It was an old Bishops place, but also there was a Mussendon Temple. It was more about how random it was then what it really was.
So before we got to Sligo, I had to Skype home. It was my dad birthday a few days before and they were throwing him a surprise party, and I was in on it. So in a mad search for Wifi in Londonderry we saw a lot of round abouts. We saw even more on our way out. By the time we were leaving Londonderry it was just before 10:00 and we still had almost 2 hours drive to Sligo to go…
Well, we made it thank goodness, but we were tired. I wished we hadn’t been so tired because I feel that would have been a great hostel to enjoy.
Monday September 7
Outside of Sligo we were able to find our first Cairn of Ireland. We climbed up a huge hill to Maebh’s Cairn. This has to be the largest cairn ever. It was just humongous. Across the way from it was Carrowmore Megalith cemetery, where we actually go to learn a bit more about cairns in general. The Cairn is the pile of stones, but the important part is the tomb inside it. One of the best preserved ones was of course in a cow field. I wasn’t so concerned about the cows until they began to follow me….
On our way to Galway, we decided I could try driving. We totally chose the wrong road to do that on. For one I’m not used to driving a manuel plus then I had to get used to being on the wrong side of the car and judge the size of my car while on a very narrow road. The only part that was easy for me was being on the left side of the road. 4 months of living that way it becomes natural. Let’s just say, I didn’t do too well.
Our last stop before pushing on (we were pushing because I got how many days left wrong and we thought we were running out of time) we stopped at Ceide Fields. Now this could have been quite cool if we had had time to watch the video but we had no idea what we were looking at. Oops!
We started to push on for Galway when we decided there was no need. So we stopped off in Westport for the night. It’s a good thing too.
So I’m kind of running out of time so I’ll just mention some of the highlights since then.
We climbed Craugh Patrick which is a huge mountain that people will climb as a pilgrimage. At the top is a chapel for St. Patrick and that is also where he buried.
We wandered the streets of Galway were we saw the original shop that makes Claddaugh rings.
We watched the sunset on the Cliffs of Moher, and I went out to Inisheer (one of the Aran Islands, also the sight for the TV show Fr. Ted) while David took a lesson in surfing.
We went to Bunratty Castle which is one of the best preserved castles in Ireland plus it has a little village attached to it.
We wandered around Limerick which didn’t end up being all that exciting.
We made a mad dash across the country to catch a Hurling Match in Dublin by mid-afternoon. It was the U-21 finals of Clare vs. Kilkenny. The U-21 is kind of like the minor league team of all the players under the age of 21. This was the first time in U-21 history of any sport that Co. Clare won. So we saw history.
We went to Waterford Crystal factory only to find that everyone has been laid off since they had all their money invested in US banks. So we didn’t get to see how everything was made but we saw a lot of stuff that is way more worth my life.
We wandered around a massive Abbey that is just rubble now but we spent along time there because there was so much to explore.
Lastley we stopped at the Rock of Cashel which was a place that ST. Patrick preached, there was a chapel, Kings tower, and a cathedral all mixed into one massive building.
Now we are in Cork getting ready to go to Blarney Castle to kiss the stone.
I really really miss every single one of you and cannot wait to be home to tell you all about everything. Well maybe not everything because that could take months. For anyone who is wondering when I get home it is the 25th of September, so just in a few days.
Sending lots of love from Ireland!!!
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