Aside from the noisy children, who were noisy until 11:00pm by the way, Stanley and I both slept soundly and great last night. We woke at our scheduled 7:00am and had a delightful Irish Breakfast of cereal, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon(ham), tomatoes, white & black pudding(blood sausage), tea and toast (yes, this is what they feed us for breakfast every morning at the B&B’s and it’s FANTASTIC!). After we checked out, we walked up the street to the town of Donegal and took some pictures of the castle and cathedral there, which didn’t open until 10:00am and we didn’t want to wait around to see the inside. On the road we go with our goal of making the Cliffs of Moher by the evening. Along the way, several cool stops. First was in Yeats Country where W.B. Yeats (the poet) lived and is buried. We happened across the tiny church and cemetery where he is buried and stopped to take some pictures. When we got out of the car I immediately noticed that all the barren trees surrounding the area were filled with at least 150 crows and nests. Ugh… can we say CREEPY!?! The crows were cawing and flying around and swooping (not at us, but flying low and it made me nervous) and as we walked around I couldn’t help but imagine some horrible and terrifying scenario from Hitchcock meets Poe. So, while Stanley was happily taking pictures of celtic crosses and the grave stone of Yeats, I was filming the birds and trying to stay clear of any potential crow poopies that may have found their way onto my body. I was glad to get back into the car and be done with Yeats Country. I should note here that today was extremely cold and extremely windy everywhere that we went. After our crow infested Yeats adventure, we drove way out into the country to see the Carrowkeel Passage Tomb which is an ancient celtic tomb made on the top of a hill near a beautiful lake called Lough Arrow. We drove a long way to get there and followed the signs which pointed us onto some farmers land… literally, we had to open a road gate and then close it behind us so his livestock wouldn’t get out. Up the dirt and gravel farm roads we go, dodging sheep that were in the road and made our way to the top where the road ended and a muddy dirt path began. Then, a medium sized hike up a very steep hill, in 50-60 mph wind gusts and misty showery rain to see the tomb. Stanley appreciated the moment much more that I did and the video we took accurately shows it. Take note when watching the video how funny my blue hood on my coat looks full of wind… I look like a giant blue mushroom head!!! Whew – that was fun! Let’s get on our way, shall we? Back down the mountain, we get back on the main road and drive to Rosscommon where we find a very cool ruined castle that we could just walk into freely without fees or whatnot. We took a lot of pictures here and we both thought this place was pretty cool. Next stop, Galway. We arrive just at dinner time and enjoyed a super fantastic and delicious seafood dinner of mussels, salmon and seafood chowder. The mussels were I think the best we’ve both eaten, ever! After enjoying our meal, we decided to try and make it to the Cliffs of Moher. They are a fair jaunt from Galway along the coast and we only had about an hour of daylight left which would have been great except that traffic leaving Galway was horrible and slow. So, we drove as far as we could and ended up finding the most delightful B&B called “Drumcreehy” just outside of Kinvara… I think this is the nicest one we’ve stayed in thus far. Tomorrow is Good Friday and much to our dismay, we’ve discovered that a great many of the attractions we were hoping to see tomorrow will be closed. Damn! So, instead of exploring the Lower Shannon tomorrow as planned, we’ve made some adjustments. The plan tomorrow is to see the Cliffs of Moher, then drive south to the Rock of Cashel, then to Cahil Castle, and down to Cork where we’ll see Blarney Castle, and then make our way as far as we can toward Waterford. Deleted from the plan tomorrow is Bunratty Castle, King James Castle in Limerick, and Knappogur Castle, however, if we happen to pass any of them on along the way, we’ll stop briefly for some outside pictures, even if we cant see the inside. Some things I want to mention. Ireland is filled with happy, white, fluffy, soft looking, healthy looking sheep grazing in enormous pastures everywhere you look and right now, at this time of year, there are thousands of incredibly cute, tiny, playful and happy lambs running around, leaping and frolicking and playing, or snuggling and napping and just being too damn cute for words. Seeing this has been one of my favorite parts of this whole trip. The entire West of Ireland along with The Lower Shannon (the two parts we’ve visited today) are filled with crows. They live by the thousands in the treetops above and occasionally decide to fly in giant swarms as you drive around beneath them. It’s creepy and cool at the same time. This is crowlandia. The west side of Ireland is significantly windier and colder than the northern and eastern parts of the island. And the wind is cold and cuts down to your bones. If you come in March, bring waterproof jacket that is wind resistant. You’ll be glad you did, I know I am!!! –Michele
Talking Points (supplemental to Michele’s excellent synopses)
-Ah, yes, the crows. Beware, the crows… A fine murder of crows (look it up).
-After Carrowkeel (Michele was such a trooper, mushroom head hat and all) we drove through endless Irish country side looking for a place to warm our soggy bones. We found little village pub off the beaten track. The open fireplace presented a fire burning very hot and clean with what I think was anthracite (like regular coal but, cleaner?) very warm and dry, hot and non-smoky. This place was all the way local as my height and our accents were a real diversion to the clientele, nice chaps, farmers (loads of family farmers here). We dried our clothes (but not our throats ;) and moved along toward Galway.
-After Galway (damn fine mussels) and hideous traffic we were back out in the rural landscape passing Kinvarra Castle into Kinvarra Village, a small fishing (faaasshin’) village on the Galway (Gal wee) Bay, bopping in for a pint we chatted with the pub owner. Lovely.
-Rural Roads in Ireland are NARROW! Its takes nerves of steel and a very steady eye to tool along as though you haven’t a care in the world. Picture a massive stone wall (or sheer drop-off) with no shoulder on one side and a ghastly wide delivery truck or tour bus barreling at you on the other… Embrace the madness! BY ORDER ~SEA
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