Ive Been Here Just About All the Time...Except When I'm Someplace Else : Ireland

Thursday: We drove to Kinsale, a small harbor town near the city of Cork. It's so beautiful, and quaint. 

We stopped in at Charles Fort beforehand. This fort was crucial to the English for hundreds of years, who used it as protection from southern enemies. Later, upon Ireland's independence treaty from Britain, it became the stronghold of the anti-treaty movement (who later burned it to the ground to avoid letting their enemies use it).

The barracks of the fort slept 12 at a time, and if the men got married their wives were lucky enough to join the 12 men in the same room. The fort was cold and windy, and I can only imagine how harsh the conditions were.

We could see the town from the fort.

driving in

We stayed at an adorable B and B. It was actually an Irish family’s country house. They had incredible gardens surrounding the house.

We walked around the gorgeous town and the harbor. There were so many bright colors and, in the Irish style.. colored doors.

loved these pottery animals

We had dinner with a view of the harbor and tried a local craft cider!

I love this photo. I caught the seagull with his "catch of the day".. a mussel

sailboats

Afterwards we went to hear more Irish music at Blue Haven, a bar and night club. 

One of my favorite sights to see of the week was the Irish dancing. A girl and boy danced for several songs. It'll get your heart pounding!

Here's an example of a traditional Irish song that we've heard in just about every pub. What's amazing is that none of the Irish people seem to get tired of it! 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ruNdU6bGE5E

"Alive, alive, oh,

Alive, alive, oh,"

Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh".

The next morning we headed to the rock of Cashel en route to Dublin.

We took a tour of the whole The weather was the best it’d been all week. There was a chapel, a church, another private chapel, and the bishops private chambers. Apparently the church spared no expense in building this church, and then tore it down to build a more lavish one. We had the opportunity to see the ruins.

in two places at once!

up on the hillside

This is actually kind of an eerie photo... I took a picture of the little girl playing on a grave right behind the inscription

some ruins down the hill

Kinsale doors 

The Only Person an Irishman Will Tell a Lie to is His Wife : Ireland

We're going for a several-days-in-one summary special tonight. Somehow touring all day, then writing PA/grad school applications, before a full Irish dinner and a couple of Guinnesses makes one get a little behind....

Im writing this post in an Irish bar waiting for the traditional live music to come on. I LOVE how practically every bar has musicians all week long. I've noticed a great sense of patriotism here in addition to a great appreciation of music and history. 

Tuesday, we visited Killarney national park! We started out with a tour of the park in horse and Buggy. Our tour guide's name was Dennis and his horse Charlie. 

The park is spectacular: 20,000 acres of land and 5,000 of water. 

I asked our tour guide if he and Charlie are best friends. He said "Of course but we do have fallings out. I do have fallings out with the wife...but the making up is great." Irish men are hilarious. 

We saw the wild red deer which are protected. As Dennis put it:

"White tail are bulk in door, tag in hind in the red."

I'm not really sure what that means, but it sounded cool. 

We saw patches of a tall purple flower, foxglove, which makes the medicine Digitalis. to be completely nerdy, Digitalis is interesting to me because it is often used to medicate for congestive heart failure... it affects the Na/K ion concentrations across cardiac cell membranes, and their potential, which stimulates the heart to contract. Overall, it will increase the heart's output and efficiency. No more science after this I promise. 

 

Our guide informed us that the Killarney Lake is 300 feet deep in some parts. 

Fun fact: the term "Steeplechase" was coined because the jockeys would race towards the steeple, as they could see it from any direction. 

We saw Magpies. Apparently seeing just one is bad luck. As Dennis told us, you're supposed to then tell him to go home to his wife to get rid of bad luck (according to this old superstitious nursery rhyme) 

"One for sorrow, two for gold, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told."

They have been burying people in the Killarney graveyard since the 6th century and the Killarney island was used by the king.. He put people on it as a prison to let them "cool off a few days."

The first king of Ireland, Brian Barou, was educated in the ruins we could see in our tour... Ruins from the 6th century. We toured around the 15th century Ross castle.  

Oh, and I asked. Charlie's favorite snack is green grass. Dennis says that they both have to be careful because they "have a tendency to heap on the weight." 

We found a street singer who was exceptional after dinner and listened to him for almost two hours. He does comedy, American songs, and Irish ballads. The cherry on top for his performance this week was the brazenly drunk Irish fellow who could barely stand upright (at 9/10 pm). He stood next to the street performer for several hours while the crowd waited to see if he'd remain upright. 

He did, sort of.

 

The next morning we drove to the Gap of Dunloe to take a horse and trap ride through. I quickly fell in love with Katie, a horse that kept nuzzling me. Instead of taking the cart, I rode Katie! I was a little nervous because it'd been a while since I'd reached any sort of significant speed on a horse, but it all came back to me quickly. 

The Gap was gorgeous!!! It was formed by Glaciers millions of years ago. I could've stayed there all day.

 

Afterwords, we went to Kate Kearneys cottage. Kate Kearney was an innkeeper at the entrance to the Gap. She was known for her "poitin," which was so strong that it had to be watered down with 7X its volume in water. Her poitin was so strong it was outlawed! 

We returned to the town of Killarney and took a boat tour of the lake. 

We went out on innisfallen island and saw the 6th century ruins of an Abbey. The island was full of deer and flowers...human population zero.

 

We went out to dinner...Afterwords my family went to a bar for some music and beer. 

Irish Coffee at the restaurant

Afterwards they sang the national anthem in Gaelic. The whole room stood. Pretty cool!

Dad enjoying his favorite beer

While my dad was gone, a very drunk man came to speak with us and he......never really left. Here's a pic of my dad enduring.