Northern Ireland

And on to Belfast we go!!

Belfast...ahhhh....WTF, I mean seriously...why can't this city have a map or street sign that is accurate. I think we must have made at least 5 u-turns before we just pulled into a parking lot in hopes of gaining our bearings.

The confusing streets actually made us feel like we were on the Grizwald's European vacation with them as we passed the same clock tower at least 3x. Seriously...we almost named a statue of a girl holding a hoop because we saw her 3x as well. After being lost for about 30 minutes we finally found the hotel that the kiddo's were staying at.

Thank god our host for the next two nights, Patrick, decided to come meet us vs us trying to find his home. Now Patrick...how do I describe him. Lets just say he has a job my brother would love to fill. Patrick is the CEO for the Northern Ireland Football Association. Thats right, the head of the Northern Ireland national team et all.

Patrick decides to take us out to dinner at an American diner called Springsteen's so we can feel a bit at home. One of his team (executive staff, not actual footballers) meets us as his wife is from Florida & just recently moved to Ireland. Our group was split up into 2 dable as there was not nearly enough room for all 9 of us at one table. Table 1 consisted of Bettina, Joe, Kaylene, Kelly & Patrick. Table 2 was myself, Tracy & Patrick's friend & wife. All I know is that before we left for Ireland I had joked with Bettina that I was going to hit Patrick up for a job because...well A) he lives in Ireland & B) the job would be in Football!!

Well as I was peacefully sitting there eating my Truman (aka mushroom swiss burger). Bettina yells across to me that Patrick is hiring! In fact, he was really hiring, he was actually conducting interviews the entire next day. All I know is that I jumped up & immediately pointed out that he shouldn't waste his time running interviews when I was clearly the best candidate for the position. Patrick was nice enough to humor me & thus the joke about me working for him lasted the remainder of our trip to NI. No but seriously, I'd have totally taken the job....and still will if he calls or emails me :)

I did however score his NI Football pin right from his lapel.

Oh Bridge Where Art Thou

Carrakarick Rope Bridge

Before we left for Ireland, we had found out that in Northern Ireland, not far from the Giant's Causeway there was a rope bridge that we should try to see while we are there. Again going by the theory that we aren't in Ireland everyday we decided to take the trip to the bridge.

First of all, the view on the coastal route is arguably better than any coastal route I've been on in the States....on the left side you have breathtaking views of the Atlantic & miles of cliffs & shores & the other side you have rolling green hills speckled with sheep as far as the eye can see.....and the occasional castle sighting!!

Back to the bridge though. We arrive at the car park & walk up to the small booth to purchase our admission tickets. From the time it took to walk from the car to the ticket booth the fog rolled in. It was so thick that even though we were standing on the cliff we could only hear but not see the water & the crashing waves below. In my head I was wishing we could see the view of the ocean but also secretly hoping that I would hear a lone bag-piper in the distance.

Again I'm off on a tangent, I apologize. Thom, if you're reading this, you're welcome!

So, we have to walk from the ticket booth out to the actual rope bridge. What nobody tells you is that this bridge is about 1 1/2 miles and about half of that is uphill & down some steep uneven steps. It is however worth the hype. In our hike to the bridge, the fog drifted on and holy schneikes...the view. The water went from depths of deep blue/black water to that of cool nearly turquoise shades in the shallows.

We had to wait in a short line at the actual bridge as only 8 people at a time could cross it. When it was our turn I was the 2nd to cross (I think) and it was a bit shaky thanks to the wind but not bad at all, I was able to take a few shots from the bridge itself, we shall see if the photos turned out later. All I know is that behind me you would have thought Bettina had fallen thru the bridge. She did not care too much for the sway & vibrations of the rope bridge.

On the far side of the bridge however the efforts were rewarded even more. From this view we were able to look out on a small cove & what to our wondering eyes should appear but two small fins and some dolphins!! (sorry I couldn't think of anything that would rhyme with reindeer hahahah) But seriously, there were 2 dolphins out in the bay just having a good ol time. Awesome!

The crossing back over the bridge went smoother for Ms. Shaky legs Bettina & I was the last to cross back over to the far side. Tracy was the photog for this leg & she wanted me to slow down so she could catch some photos of me crossing. I obliged & actually took a surfer pose on the 1 foot wide board of the rope bridge.

Overall, the view & experience of the bridge I cannot pronounce was "Lovely"!

Giants Causeway

Giant's Causeway

What is the Giant's Causeway you ask. Well if you listen to the locals here you will find out that basically their giant, Finn, was in a fight with Scotland's giant. Finn however couldn't swim so he decided to walk to Scotland. In order to do so he built his path which is now known as the causeway.

It is on the northern shore of Ireland and it is made up of thousands of hexagonal stones & stone spires. When you see this amazing work of nature you can understand why the myth & lore of the giant exists. These stone pillars are of equal size & all symmetrical. If you were to look down on them from above I imagine it might look like a honey comb.

Since I'm in ireland every day I opted to take the "blue" path with everyone in our group. The blue path takes you down to the actual causeway itself vs. the other paths which give you a view from afar. Once down to the stones Tracy & I had a quick game of QBert....I think she may have won, though I don't know how to actually score points in our game...at any rate, I took off jumping from stone pillar to stone pillar until I reached the top of a hill on the coast. It was refreshing to have the wind blowing and to hear the waves crashing as I soaked in the awe inspiring beauty....it was at this point that I fell on my rear. Okay I didn't actually fall, but the wind was strong enough I thought I was going to.

The Causeway alone was worth the trip to Northern Ireland to see!

Now leaving Dublin..

On to Donegal!

First of all we were running a bit late to leave our rooms on day 3 of our expedition. Now I'm not blaming it on the late night in the Temple Bar District, but it could have been a factor. All I know is that when I got out of the shower and started to pack my bags Veep from downstairs called me and kindly advised me that we had missed their check out time. As a result I put out the alert to the troops that we had to get our bums in gear.

Joe immediately went downstairs and had Veep call us a taxi. What arrived was a "people mover" aka minivan. After loading all of our luggage we had to practically sit on each other's laps just to fit. It was worth it. The cabbie alone was worth the clown car ride to the rental car company. I can't remember all of the movies he advised that we watch, but he was kind enough to write down the list for us. He had us laughing the whole ride!

Skip forward to the actual rental car. We were entrusted to not one, but two Ford Focus Style cars. They are economy class cars. Joe's Focus is a diesel, mine is a petrol car. Either way you look at it, we are lucky that there are only 3 people to a car. If it weren't for that fact then our luggage would be an issue. As it is the "boot" is only large enough for 2 suitcases, the other luggage gets a seat where the 4th person would normally sit.

First challenge with the rental cars that we were worried about was driving manual transmission vehicles south paw'd. That however was not a problem in the least. As it turns out, caravanning was what we should be worried about. You see IRL loves their roundabouts and if one car makes the roundabout & the other has to yield, then quite possibly one might lose the other. This happened almost immediately. Luckily my car being the following car was able to stop and ask for some directions. Unfortunately what we never found the lead car, but we did find our way to Donegal. Upon arrival we checked in and about 10 minutes later our friends made it. Turns out that our car went one way at a detour & they went the other way.

Now before we went we read a lot about how the roads may be narrow etc, but what we were not prepared for is that "narrow" means that in some places in order for 2 cars to pass one of the cars has to dive for the non existent shoulder. When Joe's car arrived at the B&B it was black (the actual color of the car) & it had green pin-striping (the grass & shrubs stuck in his headlamps, fender & wheel wells). So far no major incidents with the cars and despite several heart attacks from passengers thinking that the driver's are about to hit walls all parties involved in the driving experience are doing well.

Our B&B is beautiful to say the least. It is a working sheep ranch. Our host informed us that in the morning her husband, Patsy, would be putting on an exhibition with their working ranch dogs. Sure enough, the next morning after a lovely traditional Irish breakfast we were treated to a show with the herding dogs. Aparently the B&B just recently agreed to a deal to put this exhibition on for the local tour buses in the area.

Now remember what I said earlier about narrow roads. I'd like you to please imagine a road that is so narrow 2 cars can barely pass. Now the tour coach is so large that it drives the center of the road & both sides of it hit the greenery on the side. I pity the fool who has to drive a mile in reverse just to get out of the coach's way.

Other than that, Donegal was a somewhat quiet day trip.

Temple Bar District

Our first night of true debauchery! That would otherwise be known as day two in Dublin, Temple Bar District. I have no idea the name of the pub we went to as it was in Gaelic but holy Guinness did we have a good time.

It starts out with us finding a table in the back of the place. To our left was a table full of Frenchmen & to our right was a table full of Spanish girls. Things started innocently enough, a few Guinness flowed and a live band of 2 men with acoustic guitars were playing. Now they weren't playing traditional Irish music, rather they were playing some more modern choices. It was all good, half the time we were singing along.

I should have noted that things were going to get a bit crazier when 2 of our group...and by 2 I mean 3-4 people decided to get some Jameson along with the Guinness. Next thing I know, 2 cute Irish boys thought they'd have some fun with me. I found myself being serenaded by a boy we now call Ambercrombie thanks to the shirt he was wearing.

Now I can't go into all the details here, suffice to say that at one point the 2 boys thought they'd give it a go to pick up the chair I was occupying. Luckily I was quick & agile like the puma I am & avoided being dropped to the floor.

I don't think I have laughed so much in such a short period of time than I did that night. Thank you Dublin...thank you.

Day 2

Dublin, Part Deaux

So day 2 begins.

We head out on foot as we decided not to pick up a rental car until we leave tomorrow. After a quick coffee and breakfast sandwich at the local shop downstairs we walked for a bit to Trinity College. This is home to the famous Book of Kells.

The line to get into the old library & the Book of Kells was a long one, we had to queue up outside. At this point you should probably know that it was raining...not a heavy downfall, more of a light sprinkle to mist. From what the locals tell us it has been unseasonably rainy even for them). As we waited outside in the rain I noticed that the Death Star from Star Wars was on display.

 Okay it wasn't really the death star, it was a rotating sculpture/artwork outside. If you look at the pictures you will totally see what I mean.

Back to the library & the Kells. Oh my gosh, this was so totally worth it. The library alone reminded me of something you might see in Harry Potter. The smell....I can't describe it, but it even smelled like I imagine it would in the HP movie. I was only disappointed to realize that no book was going to magically float up to put itself away. The Book of Kells was just as amazing. Seeing it in person & seeing how it came to be and the hours, days and months of hand scribing that went into it was just impressive.

From Trinity College we headed on & came across Dublin Castle. We were going to tour it, but we would have had to wait an hour or so until the next tour went on so we just took a lot of pictures and walked on.

In so doing we moved on to see St. Patrick's Cathedral. Holy goodness this place was truly inspiring. I was impressed that something so beautiful & grand could have been built when it was. Upon entering the church I actually felt more peaceful. Each of the rows where one would traditionally find pews were individual wooden chairs. What was cool was that each chair had its own seat cushion that someone had created needlepoint works of art with. Each cushion was different and represented something different. Amazing. The history on display truly makes one sit in awe that society is where it is today. I sat for a bit one one of the chairs and had a moment to take everything in & to say a few words with my mom. She would have loved this Cathedral. After my lil cry I thought it best to wrap up my visit. I needed no souvenir from St. Patricks as I felt it is something that will be in my heart for the remainder of my time.

From St. Patrick's we walked on some more & found ourselves at the Guinness Storeroom. Now I have heard mixed reviews on the place but we decided that you are only in Dublin once if you're lucky so we took the tour. Now it is not a working brewery anymore but thats alright. It explains the history & the steps that go into making the drink. On one of the floors I became a master. Thats right I learned to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I even have a certificate that says it!

After the Guinness Storeroom we walked along the waterfront & found a good place to finally sit down for a bit of dinner. Following dinner we walked some more and found ourselves at the Temple Bar District...but that my friends is a whole different blog post...

Day 1 of the adventure...

Day one:

Woke up early.

Went to the airport.

Took some long flights.

Arrived in IRELAND!!!!!!!!!

Upon our arrival in Ireland we encountered the longest line in the history of lines...Customs. Apparently while tourism makes up about 80-90% of the country's economy they are still in the early 1800's with their customs. You see there was exactly 2 customs booths open for non EU residents. My friends and I were in the back of the plane, therefore by the time we de-planed we ended up in the back of the customs line. I am not kidding you when I tell you that the line stretched from the custom booths, almost all the way back to where we had just stepped off our plane! It was nearly an hour before we were able to actually get our official stamps :)

Once in the arrivals terminal we collected our respective bags and discovered that our 6th travel friend had already arrived. Actually I should clarify...his plane arrived. It would seem that Kelly's adventure to Ireland had a twist or two on his final layover in London. Now you have to also realize that we have no phones and no way to contact him to find out what the heck happened so what do you think we did? If you guessed that we walked to the one and only pub in the terminal to have our inaugural pint of Guinness then you my friend are correct! After finding out that the airline cannot tell us if Kelly missed his plane or if he is on any other flight in, we decided that at least 3 of us should go to our Townhouse to check in. So it was that Bettina, Tracy & myself found our way to a taxi and the Fitzwilliam Townhouse in Dublin.

Our rooms were just big enough to fit 1 Double size & 1 Twin size bed + a small desk. In order to open the door to exit the room one has to stand to the side so the door can clear the dresser.

 The bathroom though....oooh the bathroom. I'm sorry its not a "bathroom" here. If you ask for one you will get strange looks from the locals. As I was in formed "the toilet is to the back, but you'll no find a bath in there". I am sidetracked though. So our bathroom....what you should do at this moment is stand up, stretch your arms out to the sides as if you are a plane. If you are somewhere that you can do this & you haven't touched anything with either hand, then you are somewhere bigger than the "toilet" in our rooms. Quite literally the toilet sits next to the shower & you can just about shower while going to the can. I shared the photos to prove this with some friends & my dad's reply was that the Irish are just efficient, one person can go to the bathroom & scrub the back the other one who is showering!!

At any rate, the 3 of us take a 2 hour nap, upon waking we find that our other 3 friend have still not made it from the airport. We log into our ipad & try to "Facetime" with Kaylene who also has an ipad with her. There is no answer. We look on FB only to find that Kelly arrived but into a different terminal & he could not find us. We were getting ready to go back to the airport ourselves when low & behold the other great travelers appear at the front stoop.

B, T & I decide to go for a walk to allow the other 3 some time to take a nap as well (we had all been traveling just about 24 hrs by this time). We head out and find St James Green. It is Dublin's version of Central Park. To say it was lush, green and breathtakingly gorgeous would be an understatement. There is a pond, swans, greens and countless statues within the park.

 I think I could have spent an entire day just soaking up the scenery in the park alone. Upon exiting the park we found ourselves on the famous Grafton street...the shopping district. We walked ourselves around and saw some cute little shops, some major named stores, but most of all we found ourselves immersed among a diverse and entertaining people. Somewhere along the line of gazing at the beauty we found ourselves in and the stores and the people we failed to make note of where we were going and thus our real 1st adventure began. We were lost. It must have taken us about an hour or more to find our way back to the hotel. All of the buildings looked like they came straight out of the movie set for the Bourne Identity.

When we got back to the hotel, I Skyped with my dad & let him know we made it alright. Everyone woke up and got showered so that we could go out and find ourselves some dinner. The hotelier, Veep, was very helpful and sent us to a place called McGratton's for dinner

. This place appeared to be what we in the states imagine as a stereotypical Irish pub. I had the fish & chips, probably the best I have ever had (and I am not saying that just because I got it in IRL). I had my 2nd Guinness and then my 3rd :) After a lovely dinner we headed out to another Pub just up the street. We were told to go there & when we did the place was totally packed. Why....because there was a live jam session taking place and it was awesome!! After a short bit of not being able to turn around we made our way to the Pub's outdoor patio. Now by this time I may have had my 4th Guinness of the day...maybe ;) Bettina was busy trying to snap photos what seemed to be every 4-5 seconds and we were all giving her a difficult time about it. As we were doing so I looked over to find 2 local gents teasing us as well about us teasing our friend. What do you do in that kind of situation...well if you are me you strike up a conversation & invite them over to our table. Turns out the one gent's name is Flor (pronounced floor). As he explained it his name was like "1 tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila ME".

We finished our drinks just in time for closing and we meandered our way back to our hotel. Flor was disappointed that we didn't find the next place & continue drinking, but all of us decided that it had been an incredibly long day & we were all exhausted.

Day 1 was done, we had traveled from 10 AM Arizona time & partied to 1AM Dublin time.