Bikes, walls and cliffs

Today we spent a total off four hours on various form of transportation in order to spent about five hours biking around a 9x3 mile island. We spent the afternoon on the largest of the Aran Islands called Inis more (pronounced inishmoore). It is hilly and has so many delicately balanced rock walls.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day, I started off with my typical four layers, scarf and hat but by the end of the day I'd shed down to two layers. The sun was out, hardly any clouds to be seen with the perfect breeze rolling in.

We biked along the 'low road' which in only wide enough for one at in most places, but that's fine since we only saw five cars or so during our visit. We passed cows, calves, goats and horses grazing in various sections of the miles and miles of walled land.

The highlight of our day for me was definitely the cliffs at Dun Aonghasa. So beautiful. It's crazy, it was a couple hundred foot drop to the sea with no guard rails. I, of course, walked right to the edge and sat down...I about have Jeremy a heart attack. It was amazing though. We spent some time, getting lots if photos, video and ate our lunch before heading back. Definitely worth the trip over from Dublin.

Jeremy rocking his hipster/bike pant

This cow was staring me down! Check out the walls though, no cement or anything....

I'm not sure how, but I managed to not only call this horse over to the fence but actually touch it....(I'm quite intimidated by horses, in fact I'm realizing now that I see this photo how small he was, in person he seemed massive....)

Yes, that is my foot hanging over, BUT that is a ledge just below me which at the time looked like a safety net...I later realized it was just a bit of stone jutting out and would never actually hold my weight...we aren't sure but estimate that it was +/- 2,000 feet down to that water....I loved it! Jeremy is about 20 feet from the edge going 'sara...sara....um....you're mom is going to kill me!' :)

Notice Jeremy's wide stance and intense look of concentration as he tries NOT to look down, also notice how far he is from the edge....Now notice my look of joy and relaxed nature....and the fact that I'm further out than Jeremy which means I'm close the edge on a piece that was jutting out a bit....we are such different people...

Social Burt

Burt made lots of new friends today, may be bringing one in particular along for the rest of the trip...we'll see....

Literally visited a postcard....

Saw so much beauty today, but way too tired to share details. Tomorrow we rise early, pack up and head for Galway. We'll share more details about today while on our bus ride tomorrow, but still wanted to share a taste of today (and let the moms know we're ok).

All mobile pics from the tour are already up on Flickr.

Bon voyage Billie

Today Billie shocked us all and dove right into the Irish Sea at the Forty Foot swimming hole stating that she was finally taking the bath she's been in dire need of for some time now. We tried to wait for her but the Wild Wicklow Tour is on a schedule and we couldn't be left behind, she insisted we go on without her wishing us, and especially Burt, well.

Burt is distraught about her decision but was already caught checking out a local gal...

We wish her well and expect a postcard from London in the near future...

Irish Pub's are cooler in Ireland

Stardate: 66786.4

Today was so much better seeing as I wasn't exhausted, exhaustion aside I'm already feeling more comfortable with traveling and navigating which is nice. The books at Chester Beatty were interesting, but my favorite part was the videos about how the books, illuminations and wood stamps were made. At Jameson I learned that the really expensive whiskey tastes pretty much like the stuff I can afford. The fish was good but it wasn't quite what I was expecting after all the fried fish I've always had...their ketchup was a little weird, we're still not sure if it was an Irish variation or just so old it had started to ferment.... I hugged a foreign man, it was weird, he barely spoke English so he's probably still very confused (as part of the street show)...for dinner I had bangers and mash, it was good but nothing to write home about (though I guess technically I am), I will say between Guinness and Jameson and dinner I've had more to drink in the last 24 hours than probably ever before in my life....

PS (Sara entered theist stardate due to my exhaustion, her error Mary ;) )

Random pics

Random sites from our day that caught our eye, some may need explanation but we're kind of curious to see what comments we get.

More randomness on Flickr too.

An Oasis and A Unicyclist

After whiskey tasting it was after 5pm and being Sunday sites were closing so we wandered a bit which led to the next post of random sightings, but in our wandering we found St Stephen's Green which was a beautiful oasis. So green and peaceful, they really designed it to feel like an escape.

As we left the park we found ourselves sucked into a street performance which turned out to be really fabulous. He was funny, entertaining and actually pulled off the difficult stunt of escaping from a straight jacket while on a unicycle. He got onto his unicycle with Jeremy's help. Yes, I got video :)

What a difference a day makes....

After 12 hours of sleep we're completely different people, no longer tired and grumpy, suddenly refreshed and ready for adventure. And for the record Jeremy no longer thinks of me as a torturess ^_-

Yesterday the weather was sunny and amazing, today a but gloomy and damp though the sun made several appearances. At one point it was sunny, no clouds overhead and sprinkling, it was the darnedest thing!

We started our day by going to Dublin Castle only to find out this is the one in the years that Dublin is hosting the EU presidency and the castle is closed, BUT the Chester Beatty library was open and it has an amazing collection of illustrated books and literature, ridiculous detail! No photos allowed though.

Then we found the much anticipated Jameson Distillery. Very cool place, having worked for a whiskey company I the past I've seen my share of distillery tours and this was very well done. We enjoyed our first Fish & Chips and even samples the Jameson Distillery 12 yr Reserve, only found at the Distillery in Dublin. I found it to be more vanilla in flavor, Jeremy didn't taste much difference (good to know as it's about $60 US a bottle). Lots more pictures up on Flickr (there's a link to the left).

Now to wander and see what adventures we can find...

Exhaustion

Stardate: 4546.15

Too tired. To form. Sentences. My observations....Trip was fine. Flight was easy but no leg room.....Dublin is more like any other city than I expected. Way more fast food chains than I thought.....Things here are smaller, cars, driveways, shops......Guinness tastes better here. The factory was cool.....Don't ever let Sara tell you she isn't capable if torture, I am soooo tired....So, very, tired.

Abandoned fish

After a very long day of wandering, paying tourist and navigating crazy traffic patterns and poorly documented bus routes we finally made it to our room and are pleased to find it more than satisfactory. After lofty discussions of finding fish n chips for dinner we caved to the sleepiness and settled for a snack of crackers and fruit...now we sleep. Tomorrow we can find good food...

The photo is of the gardens at the Dublin Museum of Modern Art which we cut through on our way back from Kilmainham Gaol which was over booked by the time we hiked all the way down to it :) the gardens made it worth the walk though.

Christ, Vikings & Guinness

We set out on foot feeling much lighter without our big packs and already got our money's worth out if our DublinPasses which covered the cost if every stop we made today.

We started at Christ Church which was pretty but smallish to me. From there we went to Dublina and learned about the Vikings that originally lived on Ireland. Then we easily followed the signs to the Guinness Storehouse which I was really impressed by. It was huge and a masterful blend of shameless self promotion, history and beer education.

Unfortunately about half way through our 26 hours and counting without sleep (on top of a night with only 6hrs of sleep) caught up with Jeremy "exhaustion just hit me like a ton if bricks" we're his exact words. I know from experience that the best way to adjust to the big time change is to push through and not sleep until its night time locally so we pushed on and suffered through our free pints...

Drop a Pin

Jeremy when he saw 'The Spire' : "someone just dropped a SERIOUS pin in that spot..."

:)

Dublin!

The flight was a nonevent, other than the fact that Jeremy just couldn't sleep. Arrived in Dublin and found the bus no problem, but we already had our first American English to Irish English miscommunication. I asked the bus driver which way to Talbot St. he suggested we ride one more stop...turned out he heard me say Thomas St...a mile or so of back tracking and circles and we finally found out hostel, no room yet but they were super friendly and held our luggage. Now off to explore!

Not long Now

Researching our trip I came across beautiful photos of the places and it's so cool to know that I'll actually be there in just a few weeks to take pictures of my own...

Kylemore Abbey, Ireland

Cadiz, Spain

International Preparations

With Megan having moved to Spain I clearly must plan to visit her. I'm a travel-adict and my new Guy has never left the US, clearly I must take him on an adventure. Hence my plans to tour Central Ireland and Southern Spain with Jeremy.

It's starting to feel real since his passport arrived in the mail last week.

To help us get into the Irish spirit we went all out for St. Patty's day and even went and played 9 holes of golf.

Now we just need to book the plane tickets and find places to sleep....

Wrap Up

Mom and Dad made it back to Orlando, after a few hiccups they got first class the whole way.

The highlights of our combined pictures are up on Flickr here.

Videos are up on YouTube here.

This tour of Europe has come to a close, the next trip is closer to home. We'll be going to Tarpon Springs, Florida to celebrate my brother's graduation from FSU.

Europe Bound - Again

Friday we blast off for our next European adventure. Together with my parents we are going to fly to Prague, then take the train to Munich, then Hamburg, then a quick flight to Dublin and then back home.

It's funny, there are a lot of legs to this trip, lots of transporation and accomodations to book, and there are four of us going, but it feels very relaxed. We have booked what we can, planned what we can and the rest will just (hopefully) fall into place. I don't think any of us are going in with a set agenda or any high expectations, we're all ready to just go with the flow. The nice thing is that most of our reservations can be cancelled with no penalty, after Mom and I had to detour to Scotland on our way to Italy, that was a must.

My only worry, we had so much fun last year when we all went to Greece...I'm hoping we can all look at this as a different type of experience and not try to compare the two. If we do the comparison game we will likely be disappointed, that Greece trip will be really hard to beat.

Check back often for pictures and updates on our trip. Check out the calendar/agenda for our plans. Keep in mind that we are all traveling standby so anything could change at any time...