Dublin

Our last day in Ireland. We had to get up early…7:30…and head to Dublin to drop off the rental car and get to the hotel. We said goodbye to our hosts and our house. What a great time we had at that house. Sitting by the fire every night writing my blog. Now I’m in a Holiday Inn Express. Little different.

We spent the afternoon in Dublin. Taking in all the sights. What a city!

So many people! Dublin is busy on Saturdays, but was especially so today. County Cork and County Clare were having the championship hurley game today. Hurley is Ireland’s sport. Kind of like baseball is what they are telling me. I haven’t actually watched any yet, but I did see a hurley stick and ball in the store. Everyone was coming to Dublin to watch the game and celebrate. Red and white versus blue and yellow. The colours were everywhere! So exciting! Made me wish I cared so that I could party too!

We walked down Henry street that is a shopping street. No cars allowed. We saw a brass band playing on the street. They were amazing. Dancing and playing at the same time.

Debbie bought a CD from a guy playing on the street. Bolivian music…go figure…in Ireland. Next trip is Bolivia and she will buy Irish music there.

Cheryl leaned up against the post because she’s wild and crazy like that. Tried to keep her reigned in a little this trip. We told her to stand by the post and behave.

After Henry street we passed the Ha Penny bridge. (Half Penny – cause that’s what it used to cost to get across it) We were to lazy to walk over it so we just took pictures. It was cute.


We headed for Trinity College (it is a university) to have a look at it. It was founded in 1592 and is Ireland’s oldest university. What a big and beautiful place!

Saw this guy in front of it. I cut off the horses heads, but I’ll be happy with that since there were cars and people everywhere and I was lucky to get a picture with nothing else in it!

We went to Grafton Street after that…a must see in Ireland. Entertainers everywhere! So alive! I took a video so we could “hear” our pictures. It was so loud and had so much going on. We ate dinner near Grafton Street. Great Irish restaurant – had to go in the alley to find it.

Irish cooking. Delicious. I had Irish stew. I wanted to have that before I left Ireland. Lamb and veggies in the stew served with Irish soda bread.

It was so good and very filling. Still had room for dessert though;) Sticky toffee pudding – which is actually a cake. I heard this was Kate Middleton’s favourite food and I have been wanting to try it. Even went so far as to get the recipe. BUT we know how well I do with recipes. So, when I saw it on the menu I knew I had to have it. It was amazing.

We headed back to our hotel after that. We took the bus. No idea what we were doing. Took the bus to the end of the route, realized we had missed our stop and had to plead with the driver to drop us off on his way back into the city. He was from Toronto so we bonded and he was more than happy to help us out.

We walked by these beautiful swans near our hotel. I had to stop and take a picture. Why not!

We drove over 2,000 kms, took about 1,000 pictures, got lost at least 50 times, had lots of laughs, ate all different kinds of Irish food, saw everything from castles to animals hogging the road to prison cells and filled every day as full as we could! What a great trip!

I do have to thank these 2 very special ladies for sharing this trip with me. This has been a dream of mine for a lot of years and it was so exciting to share this adventure with them. They are a ton of fun and even though I did pick on them a little bit I love them dearly. It was better than I ever imagined it could be! Thank you both so much!!!

Thanks to all of you who read my blog. Hope you enjoyed the stories as much as we did. Next blog won’t be anywhere near as exciting and those organizing blogs just don’t happen as frequently;)

Cows, Cork and Cobh

Our last day at the house in Inistioge. (we did learn how to say that name …finally…Inishtigue…the Irish can’t say it, but we can;)) Of course we had another full day ahead of us. We got off to a great start. We had to stop for diesel. Fuel pumps are right on the sidewalk. No regulations here!

We headed to Cork today. It was a 2 hour drive. We took off with our directions punched in the GPS. We spent the first 45 minutes on the narrow Irish roads. We still can’t get used to how narrow these are or how beautiful they are. We have backed up, pulled into ditches, folded in the mirrors, waited for a sheep to cross, and shut our eyes as we passed cars, BUT we had a new experience today.

We came around the corner and there they were! There was nothing we could do. Just sat in the car and watched the cows approach us.

They started squeezing their way around our car. Pushing and shoving each other. One ran into our side mirror and knocked it and one turned his head at me as he walked by…I screamed.


We were all hanging out the windows taking pictures like crazy and all of a sudden there was the farmer. We couldn’t see him because of all the cows, but he was following behind on his 4 wheeler. He started smiling as soon as he saw us. For sure he thought we were crazy. We tried to pull ourselves back into the car but it was too late. He pulled up to the window and I quickly explained that we had never seen that before and we were going home tomorrow and we thought it was the neatest thing. He looked at us with the biggest smile on his face and said, “What. You’ve never seen a cow before?” All three of us at the same time started explaining that we’d seen cows, but never crossing the road…we mean blocking the road…ohhh…you know what we mean! He just smiled bigger. He told us he was glad he’d made our day. He did. We could’ve gone home right then and there and been completely satisfied. We all had hopes of seeing that in Ireland, but you can’t buy a ticket for that. It just happens.

Next stop was the Cork City Gaol (Jail).

This was Cheryl’s “must see” in Ireland. I know, hard to believe. We spent a couple of hours there touring the whole place. First prisoners arrived in 1824. The jailers lived there with their families and they weren’t much better than the prisoners. Everything in the jail was focused on making sure the prisoners didn’t escape. We were in and out of cells and even spent some time in the stocks. I almost left them there.


We finally left…before Cheryl and Debbie got telling too many stories.

We went to Cobh next. Formerly name Queenstown.

This was the last stop the Titanic made before heading for New York. We took the Titanic tour as if we were passengers boarding the ship. Very cool. I was Mary Kelly, Cheryl was Nellie O’Dwyer and Debbie was Nora Hegarty. We “boarded” the ship exactly where the passengers would have over 100 years ago. We were in the White Star Line ticket office. Here is the view of where the ship would’ve docked.


Once we completed the tour we found out if we lived or died. I was a single girl who joined two other single girls that I met on the train. We shared a cabin on the ship as new friends. All 3 of us made it onto a lifeboat and survived. Cheryl was on her way back to New York after visiting her parents in Ireland. She survived. Debbie was on her way to Chicago to become a nun. She did not survive.

We went to Youghal (sounds like Y’all) next to see a beautiful seaside town. We spent lots of time along the water. This made me think of another PS I Love You moment. 3 girls out on the water in the mist with their raincoats on. Use your imagination and you can almost picture us at that moment. Raincoats, boat, water, laughing out loud! Cheryl didn’t have a hood (may have been worried about her hair) so here we are.



Kind of close;) It was so beautiful by the water. Once we had spent some time down there in the wind and mist Cheryl FINALLY gave up! She was fighting with her hair all week and she decided it does not like Irish weather. Here she is saying “I don’t care anymore!” Took 6 days, but she finally gave up!

So freeing!

Last stop of the night was Circle of Friends for a final piece of chocolate cake. Some of you have been asking to see it. Here it is!

Waterford Crystal

I HATE spiders and I LOVE crystal…both in one day.
Woke up this morning to find these in the sink. Guess they make them big in Irish buildings. The house we are staying in is quite castle like, so I call them castle spiders. I hope I don’t bring any home in my suitcase.

We stopped in our “hometown” Inistioge before we headed off to Waterford for the day. Here are the pictures of “our” restaurant Circle of Friends and the view from the window. This is where I buy my chocolate cake;)


Waterford is the oldest city in Ireland. What a great place. We toured some museums where I found a Waterford crystal chandelier that I must have in my next house.

Finally we ended up at the Waterford Crystal factory. This has to be the most beautiful place in the world. Crystal everywhere!!! We took a tour of the factory first. Waterford Crystal has a quote they operate by: “If it’s not perfect, it is smashed, unworthy to bear the name Waterford.” They smash about 20% of the crystal they produce. Devastating!

Master craftsmen work on the crystal. These men have gone through 5 years of schooling and apprenticing and then they have to make the apprentice bowl. This bowl has every kind of cut and they get 3 attempts at the bowl and if they can’t make it they don’t pass. They can either switch trades or start the 5 years of schooling over again. Once they complete the bowl they then have 3 years of training to become a master.

Every piece of crystal is handmade starting with the shaping. The crystal is melted in a kiln at 1450 degrees. The furnace is never turned off as it takes about 2-3 weeks to get it to that temperature. Master craftsmen shape it by blowing it and using wooden tools. These wooded tools are soaked in water for at least 36 hours and last 7-8 days and are then ruined because the crystal is so hot.


Every piece of crystal is “eyed” to be sure it is perfect.

The crystal goes through quite a 6 step quality control process. They will smash a piece right at the very end if it is not perfect. This factory produced 160,000 pieces of handmade crystal last year.

Aoife is the design made exclusively at Waterford, Ireland. Stunning!
I was so excited about this name. I actually knew how to say Aoife (E-fah). My cousin and his wife named their baby girl Aoife. What a beautiful Irish name.

Debbie and Cheryl finally pulled me out of the crystal factory and we went on to see more of Waterford. There is so much history there! We went to Reginald’s Tower which was the beginning of Waterford. If you look closely at the top left of the tower you will see a canon ball still in the wall from one of the attacks.

What a climb! Cheryl didn’t care much for the stairs but still had a big smile on her face when she reached the top!

We stopped at Munster’s Bar for lunch. Debbie found us some good Irish cooking!

It was delicious! Sausage and colcannon for me.

We found some rain as were getting ready to leave the Waterford harbour. Finally had to use my umbrella.


What a glorious day! I’ll be dreaming about crystal all night!

Glendalough

Well, today we had a little taste of Irish weather. We have been spoiled so far;) It was rainy and foggy for most of the day. We still did not have to open our umbrellas though! The rain seems to come while we drive and stop when we arrive. It was kind of misty and my hair went frizzy so that was quite enjoyable…lol!
Today we took a drive through Wicklow County. Very mountainous area. We got annoyed with the GPS for taking us on main roads but it was probably a good idea today. Very foggy driving.
Our main stop for the day was Glendalough.

It is renowned for its Early Medieval monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. He died in about 618 but the monastery flourished for many centuries after due to his fame. The buildings we saw were from the 10th-12th century.

What a beautiful quiet spot. Mind you when we showed up there was a very loud dance class performing beside the parking lot. Did not suit the atmosphere.
Nevertheless once we were inside the park it was amazing. So mysterious with the fog settled over everything. Made for some interesting pictures.

Of course Cheryl got going with her crazy stories and then Debbie would join in and make them even crazier. By the time we had walked around the property we had gone from Vikings fighting in the hills to 100 black ravens hiding in the trees watching us. No more trips in the fog with them!


We finally pulled ourselves out of Glendalough and went on for some lunch. We ended up in a town called Enniskerry for lunch and ate at Poppies Family Restaurant. We had the biggest portions ever! The lady asked us if we wanted everything on our salad so we all said yes. Everything on your salad meant every KIND of salad! We had lettuce salad, potato salad, coleslaw, red cabbage salad and a few other kinds. When we were done eating it looked like we hadn’t started!

After the restaurant we did some more touring around to see if we could discover anything else. We ended up at Powerscourts Gardens, but it was so foggy we didn’t bother going in as we wouldn’t have seen anything – I would’ve posted some nice white pictures!
Here is a part of the castle we could see – it has been turned into a shopping centre.

From there we headed home for another dinner at the Circle of Friends restaurant. I got another piece of chocolate cake. This is my new favourite thing!!

It’s no “bodder”

Today was a cool overcast day with a tour through Wexford County. We had a detour before we started at the wool factory that we missed before. We bought some wool. I thought about buying it in a ball, but decided it wasn’t going to knit itself, so I bought a blanket. After that we headed for Wexford where we did some shopping on a quiet street with no cars allowed. We also had an all American lunch at a cowboy restaurant. Just wasn’t the same seeing the cowboys/girls with an Irish accent.

Johnstown Castle and Gardens in Murntown was the highlight of our day. This is how I got the title to this blog. We had seen Johnstown Castle on the map and we were determined to see this castle. We put the town into the GPS and arrived in good time at the town to find the castle was no longer there. We found someone who could point us in the right direction and we got the usual helpful directions that the Irish like to give. “Go down this road until you get to the turn and go right. Then at your first roundabout take a right and then at your second roundabout go straight through and you’ll see the castle.” Sounds easy. First roundabout…perfect…2nd roundabout…there wasn’t one. So we ended up down some narrow Irish road with not a castle in sight. Luckily we did see a man outside who could possible help us with new directions. Pulled the car over ran up the driveway and started off with “We’re lost!” He took pity on us right away. He was working in the yard with another guy and somehow between the 2 of them they decided that the one would lead us to the castle. I said “You don’t have to do that!” (knowing full well that if he didn’t we’d never find it but trying to be polite nevertheless) He quickly said “It’s no bodder! Follow me!” Off we went. We would not have found that castle if he hadn’t led us. What a beautiful spot!

It has 20 hectacres of wood and gardens and 2 man made lakes with the castle overlooking one of the lakes. Peacocks still “guard” the “house” even after 200 years.

Before taking a walk around the gardens and castle we first took a tour of the Irish Agricultural Museum and Famine Exhibition. How interesting to see the tools and household items they used. It was also quite sad to read about the Potato Famine. What a devastating time for the Irish. Potatoes were an important part of the Irish diet with a woman eating just over 5kgs per day.

Potatoes did return to Ireland after a few years but in the meantime 2 million of the 8 million population had left Ireland. Many of them came to Canada.

We had a wonderful time walking around the gardens and castle. Cheryl found a large stump and she sat on it for a while thinking of Tom.

Debbie had a great pose in front of the castle.

I just hung out in a tower.

After the castle we headed back home. We stopped at Clodiagh Church on our way home.

The 2nd oldest church in Ireland. What a quiet spot. It had a bell tower and I decided it was a good idea to ring the bell. It was. It sounded beautiful. We took off down the road behind the church and found an even quieter spot. Here we go!

The Cliffs of Moher

Oh, how I’ve been waiting for this day!! This was number 1 on my list of places to see in Ireland. I was really excited about seeing the Cliffs. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive from where we were staying, so that meant we had to set our alarms…ugh…setting an alarm on vacation. We were on the road by 9:00. We won’t talk any more about that. It was a great drive – the sky kept changing and we couldn’t figure out what the weather would be like when we arrived. I prayed that it would be clear when we got there. It was so beautiful when we arrived. I had to thank the Lord for such a blessing. 22 degrees and sunny. It was incredibly windy, so we took our jackets, but we didn’t need them. We had to park and do some hiking. I call it hiking most would not. We walked up a big hill and some stairs. Yep, definitely hiking. What a view!

We climbed some more stairs and eventually came to a path that was really narrow and had no guard along the edge. I won’t say it was scary, but let’s say I stayed far from the edge (and I wasn’t the only one). I did pretend that I was super adventurous and had my picture taken while sitting on the grass beside the path (it was still a long way to the edge)!

Cheryl opted to not go any further at this point but Debbie and I continued on to see what views we could find. Here is another one.

We went to the end of the path and hung out there for a while with all the cool people who were sitting at the edge of the cliffs. We didn’t. (although we did take some pretty cool pics that makes it appear like we were…lol)

I mentioned earlier that it was really windy…we had no idea how windy until we saw Cheryl’s hair when we came back. Flat on top and squished in the back.

She tried so hard…

We left the Cliffs after a few hours and headed back towards “home.” We stopped at Bunratty Castle which was right along the way.

This particular castle had a folk park – a replica 18th century village. We missed the last admission and we were told we had to leave. Time for some negotiating. Us: “But, here’s the thing…we are from far away and we drove 3 hours to see this and we won’t be able to come back. Is there any way we can just go through it really quickly. You can still charge us full price.” Lady: “Oh, just stick to the left and go in and don’t say anything to anyone.” Us: “Ok, we won’t…thank you SO much!” We had a great time viewing all the buildings;)…for free.

We ended up at Durty Nelly’s (Debbie picked this – Cheryl and I did not want to eat there but we can’t control her) for an amazing dinner…cabbage and bacon. How could we not eat at a restaurant with that name! No. 1 restaurant in Bunratty according to Lonely Planet. Good call.

Last exciting event for the day was when we were almost home. I figured we would end up going around some roundabouts more than once, but we nailed every one all day. So, I decided we needed to go around one, so I surprised the girls and we went around 3 full times before exiting. I can’t tell you how much fun it was!!!

P.S. I Love You

Ever since I saw the movie P.S I Love You I wanted to have P.S. I Love You moment. This particular moment was when Hilary Swank was walking down the road in Ireland and came across Gerard Butler (you’re all drooling now) and they talked and walked together. I really wanted that to happen to me. Today I had my moment (it’s as close as I think I’m gonna get so here you go). We were driving through the mountains (we would call them hills) and we were on an incredibly narrow road. I had to back up twice to let cars by. I saw a man walking toward us so I rolled down the window and he stopped and chatted. We had a little chat and he finally said …”Ok, well, goodbye luv.” I had to capture the moment. I jumped out of the car, threw my camera at Cheryl and told her to get my picture in that spot! Then I took his picture (from far away-you might as well know that he didn’t look so great up close). So he was no Gerard, but it was still a moment! I was pretty excited about it!


(you can see the man in blue far away in the picture)

We did other things today too, but they pale in comparison. I’ll tell you a bit about them anyway.

We took a driving tour today. We headed for a small town with a woollen (that’s how they spell it in Ireland) factory and glass factory. They were both closed so will have to head back there again. We did see some pretty places while we were there. We took off from there and headed to another small town where we stopped for lunch. I had lamb – the other 2 were wimpy and went for steak – they need to be more adventurous! Oh, we had to stop and use a bathroom – the only one was in the pub. We finally got Cheryl out.

Most of the time we have no idea where we are going. We just get on roads and drive and then tell the GPS to take us home at the end of the day. Today we were determined to take this drive through the hills. No directions to be found anywhere. We eventually came across a sign that hinted that we were close. We stopped and asked for directions. Here is what we were told. “Go past the hotel and there will be a road on your left. Take it and drive on it for a while. After about 4 miles you will take another left turn. It will be obvious because the road will get narrower. You will know when you are on the road.” So, we headed for the hotel. Believe it or not, we found the road – hence the PS I Love You moment. It was a beautiful drive. What views! We saw sheep, cows and horses. Once we saw a sheep crossing the road. It was so exciting! We almost got run over as we stopped the car in the middle of the road to take pictures. We survived. Debbie was happy as that was her moment of the trip.

St Mullins was our final stop of the day. This place was in the middle of nowhere. What an adventure getting there! Met another nice man on the road who had to stand sideways and suck in his belly so we could get by. This was our narrowest road yet. St Mullins Monastery is from 11th century and it has a celtic cross from the 9th or 10th century. It was amazing. What history. Cheryl was freaked out by the whole thing. Big black birds flew over us and were quite noisy. This did her in. She will most likely have nightmares tonight. That was her moment.

We all had an exciting moment today!!

Kilkenny, Ireland

First full day in Ireland. We all slept in and tried to recover from the no sleep the night before (Cheryl was 3 nights as she left everything to the end – that is why she is reading this blog). Debbie made us Irish eggs and soda bread for breakfast…it was yummy. We have a beautiful house here – very Irish. Here it is…

We took off in our sporty Volkswagen Golf. Driving has been quite an experience. I walked to the wrong side of the car for the first 5 times, Debbie tells me when the wrong way is clear when I’m pulling into traffic, and Cheryl said “Debbie, you’re driving?!?!?!” when Debbie was getting into the passenger seat. We did go around and around a round-about while trying to figure where to get out – it was fun;) We did get out. All in all it is going well. (I even parallel parked!)

We went to Kilkenny for the day. What a beautiful day it was! 19 degrees and sunny – we weren’t ready for that! We had our raincoats and umbrellas, but praise the Lord they stayed in the car! We went to Kilkenny Castle first. It was amazing! Right in the middle of town. We walked all over town taking pictures and some shopping. Not too much shopping as we don’t really care for it…lol. We also went to the Black Abbey – beautiful building with tombs outside of it.

Picture from inside the abbey.

We took a picture of the 3 of us this trip…

And here’s our picture when we come back in 10 years…(Cheryl, Krista, Debbie)

We stopped on the way home for some pictures at the bridge over River Nore. This was our favourite stop of the day. It was so quiet and serene and very Irish…right down to the sheep!

We went for dinner at the Circle of Friends in Inistioge where we are staying. We all had fish and chips. Perfect Irish dinner!
What a great day…we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Vacation Time

Another vacation is here…yay! I do love to travel and I am particularly excited about this trip! I had a dream of going to Ireland when I turned 30, but much to my dismay that didn’t happen. BUT, here we are 3 years later and I’m leaving for Ireland in less than 48 hours. I’m excited! I’m even more excited now that I am packed;)
Packing is one of those things that I just hate to do. I have a travel bin and a travel drawer where I keep everything ready to go. Travel size shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc. I try to keep everything full so when it is time to travel I am ready! I did have to replace my toothbrush holder this year – 50 cents at the dollar store!
Here is a picture of the “bathroom stuff.”

1 bag is for shower stuff, 1 bag is hair and teeth, 1 is for makeup and 1 is for everything else. You never know what you may need…bandaids, lotion, tylenol, are just a few of the random things.

What to wear! (or maybe what NOT to wear) This is the most challenging part. I started with my shoes as these are the MOST important part of the outfit! Unfortunately no high heels on this trip;( Comfy shoes it is. The blue sparkly ones are Sperrys which my sister says are the most comfortable shoes ever. The not so pretty ones are my tried and true totally comfortable shoes. I am taking both – just in case my feet don’t like Sperrys.

Next I picked my skirts – 3 for this trip. Lastly…the tops. I packed a top for every day and then added a few sweaters that could mix and match. I had to throw in a few accessories;) A couple of scarves that tied in with all the outfits and a necklace and bracelet for some extra bling.

I am trying a new travel outfit this trip. I normally like to travel in a t-shirt dress but that isn’t always the greatest for when the weather is cool. For this trip I got a long knit skirt to wear with a t-shirt and sweater. I added a scarf to use while on the plane and add some excitement to my totally comfortable travel outfit.

I do have to take an adapter for this trip – I actually have a friend who takes 2 when she travels…I didn’t know anyone did that! I also have a travel straightener and an umbrella for this trip – although if I need the umbrella I probably shouldn’t use the straightener!

Now for my favourite part…the carry on! I did get a rolling carry-on a couple of years ago…best thing ever! Anyone who has travelled with me knows that I pack that thing with lots of treats…salty, chocolate, chewy and m&ms (gotta have those). It might seem like a lot of treats, but I do share.
I have headphones, some reading, puzzles, a pillow and socks. Entertainment, eating and comfort … the only way to survive the plane trip!

Lastly I have my cross body purse that I love for travelling and of course my camera! Hope to take some amazing pictures on this trip.

The most important part of this trip is our prayer that the Lord will bless it and keep us safe. I want the Lord’s hand in this vacation. Only He can direct our steps and provide us peace and safety throughout this trip. No matter where we go or what we experience God is always with us and watching over us. What a wonderful blessing it is to know we have the Lord with us!