9hrs on a bus. Awesome. Actually it is awesome because as I have discovered through my travels, I develop narcolepsy on busses. I don't even know that I have fallen asleep until the bus stops for a pit stop at a local petrol station or when we hit a bump and I am rudely jarred awake.
We were on a very interesting tour of Ireland with one of the most disorganized tour companies around - Paddywagon Tours... I do NOT recommend these guys!
When we arrived at the Holyhead Ferry station we were lucky to make it on the last ferry of the day. The rest of the ferries were cancelled due to storm conditions and rough waters. My only questions was... if the ferry that leaves 1 hour from now has been cancelled due to rough water... what are the chances that the water is smooth sailing for our voyage across to Ireland? Well let's just say the waters were about as smooth as corrogated cardboard! We stumbled around the ferry wondering if it was possible to be drunk without actually drinking any kind of alcohol at all, finally deciding that sitting was our best bet... gratefully my stomach decided to be my friend on this voyage (unlike my trip to Belgium). The winds were so strong that when you went out on the deck you felt like a super hero moving so fast your clothing flapped out behind you! I never felt winds so strong!
We got to our hostel and found that in order for our group of 7 to stay together we had to go to the sister hostel, which was fine... until we set foot into the hostel... let's just say I am still telling myself "mind over matter".
Our first night in Dublin was a dry one. Good Friday is a religious holiday in Ireland that the Irish take seriously... way more seriously than we thought! But we wandered around and saw some sights, the city looks awesome all lit up at night. We walked along the River Liffey - where by the way Paddywagon tours was supposed to hold a party for us!!
After much walking and picture taking we all worked up an appetite. Because we were aimlessly wandering we really didn't know where we were nor could we find somewhere to eat. Needless to say we stumbled in to the first restaraunt we could find... which happened to be a Chinese restraunt which doesn't exactly scream Ireland!
The next day we boarded our Paddywagon coach and met our tour guide Trish (who by the way saved our very disorganized trip!) As we drove through Dublin Trish pointed out some highlights: The Millenium Spear (also known as the Stiletto in the Ghetto), River Liffey, and Thomas Street where you can find drugs and should not venture down at night if you're a tourist.... I'll give you ONE guess what street the Chinese restaurant we ate at was on (hint: it rhymes with Fomas) ha ha.
So we made our way towards TreLee - a change in the itinerary we were not informed of. Apparently there were too many people on the tour so 1/2 of the tour went the way the itinerary said and the other 1/2 (us) went the opposite direction AND to a different town than Kilarney.
NONETHELESS: We arrived at Blarney Castle first. We hiked straight up to the top and kissed that Blarney Stone. No rumours of locals urinating on that blarney stone was stopping me! This was a trip of "mind over matter" and I probably had the hantivirus already from the hostel we stayed in the night before, what's a little herpes simplex or otherwise? There was a small queue to the stone and as it came to my turn the Irish man turned to me and said "Alright love lay here and hold on to the bars beside your head" (I am still describing the kissing of the Blarney stone for those of you that let your minds wander on that one!).
What happens is there is a 2 foot gap between the pavement (where you lay on your back) and the wall where the Blarney Stone is. You lean back over the edge so from your shoulder blades up is dangling over the edge... meanwhile you hold on to some metal bars (wearing mittens does not provide optimal grip) and the Irish guy has a feeble grasp of you around your waist. Then upside down and stretched out you kiss the Blarney Stone... Only I couldn't reach! I wasn't close enough. Of course I yelled this only for the Irish guy to reply "Don't hate the Blarney Stone Love, Give 'er a kiss!" So I shimmied closer and planted one on it. I already felt lucky! haha.
We did a little shopping, Neil stocked up for his gift shop (he literally could start his own tourist gift shop with the amount he has bought!) I think he should name it "Neil's shop of crap". And we enjoyed a pint in the local pub waiting to head on to our next destination.
Our bus then drove through Kilarney where Trish told us we would be returning to in the morning for the famous Jaunting carts. We arrived at our TreLee hostel... which worked out well for us, not so good for the rest of the group. One girl had what I called an orthopedic bed... it was bent in the middle... A LOT! The other group had a room with a water feature that came from the roof... very fancy.
That night we had our first true Irish Guiness pints... well I had a pint. Mel had a quarter pint and Katie had a half pint! We then proceeded to drink for the rest of the night. After much standing and scanning the bar, typical Katie started getting bored. I decided to challenge Katherine (a girl we took under our wing after she got separated from her friends on the tour) and Heather to name any kind of object or animal and I would make a dance move for it. The result was the Whale and the Penguin... which I can only demonstrate because no words can describe the beauty of these moves. The result from this pure talent was a dance off.
Out of no where an Irish guy in a blue sweater booty shakes his way infront of me and says "can you do this?" I counter his move and add a little more. He laughs and his friends start cheering. From there on I did a move and he had to copy, he did a move and I had to copy. The result from his friends the judges: Katie is victorious and clearly the best dancer TreLee has ever seen! He even tried to bring his friend in for a double whammy move that I thought I could not top due to my lack of willing side-kicks, when like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day Mel shows up and has witnessed the challenge. We proceeded to copy thier lame simulatneous side to side jump and dip and claim victory once again. This was clearly the highlight of the bar scene on this trip!
When we finally make it back to our room we find Jeff (who had to tap out early due to over exuberence and excitement of being able to drink) passed out and bridged across 2 bunk beds. How he didn't fold up like a book and hit the floor is beyond me.
The next morning we headed back to Kilarney for our Jaunting cart ride through the park. (fancy name for horse and cart ride). The park was very nice in the morning, although it was a little chilly so I was more than happy to share the horse-hair filled blanket with Kevin and his precious legs (which is how he described them, not me). We went past the Lake of Learning, truly fitting seeing that 4 of us were teachers, where I truly felt wiser once we passed it. Our driver was Martin and he was very kind to tell us what each of the sites were. We also confirmed on this outing Katie's inability to close her mouth for 2 minutes. We literally timed her... it didn't happen. It was a dog's white tail that broke the silence. Apparently this was important information that all needed to know: I know that I will forever think of Ireland whenever I see a dog with a white tail (note the extreme sarcasm in this statement).
A magpie then managed to spook our horse and send us careening towards a cement wall and jump a curb. Apparently Mel, Katie and I do not have good luck on horse and carriage rides (note our near crash in Africa). But as you can see, I lived to tell the story...So I am alive.
From Kilarney we voyaged to the Shannon Breeze - which is a body of water not a porn star, sorry boys - and took a ferry across to the Cliffs of Moher. I loved the cliffs, the water was gorgeous and such a viberant colour of blue. Watching the water splash up the side of the cliffs was mesmerizing, I loved it (which is clear by the amount of pictures I took in this area - a little over done).
We then drove to Galway where we spent the night. It was in Galway that we finally got a break with our hostel. Kinlay house is the nicest hostel I have stayed in yet. It was clean and actually a classy looking joint. I would recommend this hostel to anyone. In our room there was a fellow Canadian from EDMONTON ALBERTA! Her and her clan came and joined us at the pub in Galway. And yes, at the pub in Galway we introduced shakeface to Ireland! Jeff got to experience his first shakeface, a little more practice he'll be pro in no time! I have to say, Martin takes the title of shakeface, I have never seen shakeface like that!
The next morning we left for Clonmachnoise where historic Celtic Crosses dating back to the 1500's are found. This place was the most serene and reflective place we visited in Ireland. I loved Clonmachnoise for this. Even though to some it was an old church and graveyard, the serenity and peacefulness that it offered was overwhealming. I really felt like I was introduced to Ireland here. The small farm and marsh nearby combined with the history really put where I was into perspective.
(note: I was a little creeped out with the fact that I was standing on a bunch of dead people... I hope I didn't anger any of them by standing on their faces)
Last was the commercialism of the Guiness Factory. Yes it's cool to say I've been there... but I'm going to be honest here... beer is beer. Barley, water, yeast and hops - this Guiness displayed as if it were a world wide secret that they discovered. I can't even drink more than one pint of Guiness. It's as Neil describes it "a meal replacement". Martin got to take on the responsibility of polishing off me, Mel and Katie's free pints of Guiness... How he drank those after our night of drinking the night before is beyond me... but he did it !! It was excititng to say I went to Ireland's famous brewing factory and I mean it is booze... but definitely was not the highlight of my trip!
We spent a couple of hours in Dublin before we made our 9 hour trek back home. My narcolepsy kicked in the second we got on the bus, which made the 7am arrival in London not so bad at all.
I fell in love with Ireland. It's green landscape, the Irish Sea and all the hills and small farms. In a weird way it felt a little bit like home (minus the whole huge body of water thing)!
Follow the dream...
|  | 
|
