I went for a walk to the Temple Bar district for some first impressions of real Irish music in a bar, then to the Viking district -
Leaving first thing Monday morning our first stop was in Drogheda to look at Oliver Plunkett's unpreserved, undecomposed head at St Peter's Church. It was quite black which I found surprising but I suppose it is 326 years old. I found this on the road... It is a Water Service Control access point. I thought it was really pretty for a boring services lid!
From there we headed for Derry (or Londonderry depending on who you talk to). That night I went to the local pub for some craic and some traditional Irish music - wonderful!Next stop was the Giant's Causeway, a volcanically produced set of square rocks all naturally produced.
And then a short stop to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge just down the road.
I had my first hot whiskey at lunch that day - it was really nice - hot and sugary and lemony with cloves - it really warmed me up!
We arrived in Belfast early enough to take a Taxi ride to the housing areas of Belfast so we could see the murals of the Republicans and the Loyalists alike and see the way they live. They are so vividly drawn. It was quite disturbing for the views to be so current in their way of thinking.
For the rest of the afternoon I went for a lovely walk in Belfast and found Queen's University, it is very beautiful. I also found a Starbucks near the university :P
We didn't have time or much else other than dinner and more drinking and music - yay! I even tried some Irish dancing - a very cute Irish girl tried to teach me but not very successfully!!
From Dublin it was to Galway - the University young people's town. We stopped at Sloga for lunch which was quite a big town. Each day there was not much time for doing much else so again we dined and this time after the music I went clubbing with another two girls to see what the scene was like... well everyone was extremely drunk before going in and the guys were very sleazy as they too were drunk! Ha! Oh well!
The Glencar Waterfall -
The Cliffs of Moher -
We stopped at the Stone of Fertility on the Dingle Penninsula, where most of the girls wriggled their behinds on the stone! Here is the group of girls -
We saw a lot of cemetaries with celtic crosses. The extra circle of the Celtic Cross is the symbol of eternity.
Murphy's Pub in Kerry, Cork onthe Dingle penninsula where we stopped for lunch. There is a dolphin called Fungie, living there by choice, he keeps coming back!
While in Killarney we took a horse and carriage ride to the Killarney National Park, it is really huge - 25,000 acres! And very beautiful but we only saw a little bit.
We stopped at Blarney Castle in Cork and most people kissed the Blarney stone in an attempt to achieve the gift of eloquence. I, for one, did not kiss the Blarney Stone!
A Blarney Castle doorway, my they were short back in 1446!
And lastly a short visit to the Guinness Brewery, and the best part was the free pint at the end! :)
We spent the final night in Dublin with a few people from the tour as it had officially ended. A pedestrian bridge over the River Liffey at night -
