A limerick for every season

We left Killarney this morning and had about an hour and a half to get to Cork.

During our bus ride, my seat mate Karla, her sister Marilyn and I started writing limericks about various things on our time here. Our tour director Cathal had told us earlier that we could enter limericks for a little contest among us. Once we got started, we hit our stride and we ended up writing seventeen by dinner. (And we have a few more to turn in tomorrow morning already! I'll let you know if we win. Haha) Either way, we had some good laughs. 

Arriving in Cork, we had a quick walking tour in the city center to get or bearings for later today. Then we headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove and formerly named Queenstown) which is known for Titanic's final stop before its start toward New York. Once there, we had lunch and toured the Cobh Heritage Centre that focused on the millions of immigrants that left Ireland from this city to head to America, Canada, Australia or elsewhere. We were each given a ticket with a real person's name on it and during our time looking at the exhibits, we got to find out who our person was and if they survived their voyage. My person was Winifred Hull, who was on the Lusitania when it was hit by a German torpedo in 1915. She survived and it is because of her letters, we know details of the Lusitania's sinking. 

Statue of Annie Moore and her two brothers. She was the first person to be processed at Ellis Island. There is a matching statue of her there as well. 

The cathedral in Cobh

After Cobh, we drove to Midleton, home of the Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery. There we got a group photo and had a guided tour of the facility. 

The microdistillery that just opened last year:  since whiskey has to be ages a minimum of three years, no product yet. 

Afterwards, we came back to Cork, checked in our hotel and headed back to city center for dinner. We ended up at Market Lane, which was absolutely delicious. I had beetroot risotto with melted Brie and onion tangles. Yum. And it was pink. :)

Then we found Oliver Plunket which was going to have live music from 10-midnight. A band called Drops of Green. We waited and only one guy from the band was there. The other three came in after 10:30 and the still had to set up and do a quick sound check. Late or not, the boys put on a good show and the locals and some of us (not me) even took a turn on the dance floor. So now it's late and we've got an early morning tomorrow to start our last full day in Ireland. 

The Ring, Sneem and ice cream

Today we traveled around the entire Ring of Kerry, which is the mountain range on the Kerry peninsula. We stopped every so often for scenic views or explore one of the little villages. But before leaving Killarney, we made a stop at St. Mary's cathedral here in town. It was very unique from other churches I have seen because of the way they used the stone. Most of the time, I'm used to giant stone blocks, not little rocks. Out in front of the church, there's a memorial to the mass grave of children that died from the potato famine. There's a tree planted there that was planted the same time as the church was built. 

We left Killarney and started our counter-clockwise tour around the Ring. Our first stop was at a peat bog museum. Again, set up kind of like Hale Farm. There were even chickens, a peat bog pony and two Irish wolfhounds. 

 

Other stops we made were a few side-of-the-road places, including one for lunch of shepherd's pie and Waterville. 

We also saw from a distance the Skellig islands where I've been told they're filming parts of the next Star Wars episode. 

Then after another hour or so we stopped in Sneem, which I had just heard about from a former student, Sara (merci, Noëlle!) and our bus driver, Tony, highly recommended the ice cream. So we taste-tested multiple flavors and they were pretty good. 

Then back on the road for our final leg of the Ring and back to Killarney. When we arrived back in town, our EF staff had a treat planned for us: a jaunting cart ride through the national park and a visit to the castle. 

(This isn't us... This is some of the our group in the cart behind us.). 

The castle: 

And I got a pic of Michael, our driver and Tom, the horse but Michael's eyes are half shut. Oops - here it is anyways (my apologies, Michael.)

Then we had free time for dinner and we tried to find good live music for a while but we fell a little flat so we walked back to the hotel and it's finally bedtime! Night!! 

A little Moher rain

So we had a bit of a late start this morning because our bus's battery needed jumped but hey, for anywhere to be stuck, let's be stuck at our five-star hotel. We got on our way about an hour later than planned. It took about two hours to get to Cliffs of Moher today including a short stop in Ballyvaughan for bathrooms and snacks. Today was our first rainy and cool day so it was the first time I had even touched my raincoat. The Cliffs of Moher were very pretty and I walked around with a couple in our group from Pennsylvania. We went up both the left and the right sides. 

Here's from the right side:

From the left side: 

Maybe because of our late start or whatnot, we didn't have much time there and some of us said we could have had more time there, at least another half hour or so. Nevertheless, we got back on the road to Bunratty Castle. It was raining but didn't last long. 

We toured a little of the castle and the rest of the place was set up like a Hale Farm, with reproductions of an old schoolhouse, a blacksmith's shop, a barn with a few animals, etc. Since I didn't get to eat lunch at the cliffs, I grabbed a sandwich here. Then back on the road. 

We headed south to Killarney for the night. After dinner at the hotel, there was a concert of a traditional Irish trio that we got into free because we were staying at the hotel. We were having a great time as a group since we have now all been together almost a week. The trio started singing and it was all traditional Irish songs that none of us knew. So I started to get tired fast. After a few songs, my roommate and I decided to call it a night and come up to our room. 

Day tripper

This morning, it was gorgeous when we left Glenlo Abbey for the day (we'll be back for one more night) and here's a panorama of the outside. 

We traveled just about an hour to catch a ferry to Inish Mor, the largest of the three Aran Islands. We had a little bit of rain on the boat but by the time we arrived, more sun and less clouds. We had a little bit of time to wait for our bus to take us to another part of the island. Our driver, Martin, was quite entertaining; he sang us songs, made us laugh with his witty jokes and showed us the island. 

 After we arrived at the entrance to the hike up to the fortress, he dropped us off and we got lunch. Then at our own pace, we hiked up to the fortress overlooking the cliffs and the water. The first 2/3 of the way up was mostly gravel and maybe some grass. The last part was made up of uneven (and sometimes slippery) limestone rocks that make up the whole island. It was like a puzzle to figure out when to step next. Arriving up to the fortress, the views were wonderful. We could see the whole end and layout of that end of the island. 

Here's the cliffs from the fortress. 

We carefully made our way back down to the meeting point and Martin took us back down to our starting point. With just a few minutes to spare, we caught the 4:00 ferry back over to the mainland. On the way back, there was a group of French students in front of me. I finally started talking to the one boy and it was fun to finally use my French. Once we got back to the mainland, the bus driver took us back to Galway for a few hours of free time including dinner. We were recommended by a New Yorker to eat at an Italian restaurant around the corner and the beef lasagna was really tasty. We walked around town a little bit more before it was time to meet the bus back to the hotel. And now it's my last night in this posh room so I've got to enjoy it while I can. Night!

Galway and Glenlo

This morning, we left Sligo to go a short distance to Carrowmore, which is an area known for megaliths and dolmens (think Stonehenge) so we had a short guided tour of some of the rocks left from the Neolithic era. 

When we got up to the top of the ridge, I was tempted to dance and sing in the hills like Fraulein Maria. Absolutely breath-taking ... This is the Ireland that I imagined! 

So then we had a few hours of bus time while transferring to Galway, the largest city in western Ireland. We had some free time for lunch and shopping and boy, was is getting hot, which is totally uncommon for Ireland. Then we had a short walking tour on our way to an Irish step-dancing class. At first, we had a few demonstrations from for dancers. Then they taught us how to do some. So sweating our guts out, we tried to stay on the right foot, to go the right direction and not make total fools of ourselves. 

Galway city center: 

Then, we had an excellent dinner and after, a short drive to our five-star hotel, Glenlo Abbey. Wow, seriously... Check out their website. I feel like I'm in Downton Abbey or maybe a Jane Austen novel. We weren't even allowed to get our suitcases and bring them to our rooms. They portered them to us. Robes, slippers...  I mean, they have a helipad, for crying out loud. I could get used to this! ;) 

My room: 

On the trail of giants

We started out this morning with a brief seminar with our EF staff where we brainstormed ideas and offered feedback. Then at 11:30am, we left Belfast to head about two hours north to the coast to the UNESCO heritage site, the Giant's Causeway which is on northeast corner of the island of Ireland. Officially, it is a unique formation of basalt rocks that formed in hexagon and other shapes with the help of volcanic activity. But it's much more exciting to hear about the legend of Finn McCool, the giant, who formed the causeway to get across to Scotland. By the way, at the closest point, Ireland is only 22 miles from the nearest Scottish island. 

Giant's Causeway:

During our time at Giant's Causeway, we grabbed lunch and then headed in to the other side of Ireland, through (London)Derry, Donegal and finally to Sligo. During our drive we passed Ben Bulben mountain, a table mountain formed by glaciers way back when. Poet W.B. Yeats, who was born in Sligo, wanted to be buried at the foot of the mountain and so he is. 

Ben Bulben:

We had dinner at our hotel in Sligo, took a quick stroll around part of central Sligo and now it's bedtime. 

Making a run for the border

This morning, we left the Republic of Ireland and crossed the border into Northern Ireland which is officially part of the U.K.  So they don't use the Euro; they use the pound. And not very many green, white and orange flags but Union Jacks. So we took about two hours to get here with a half-way break. We met our local guide for a bus tour and she showed us the highlights of Belfast: City Hall, Queen's University, various famous addresses and most importantly sites having to do with the Titanic. We saw the dry dock where it was built, which is now next to the Titanic Experience (which we went back and did later) and Titanic Studios which used to be partly owned by Tom Hanks and is currently where they film the interior shots of Game of Thrones. She showed us the parts of the city which had been the areas most affected by the fighting between those that wanted to stay with the United Kingdom and those that wanted to reunite Ireland. Lots of bombings and violence in this city's history. 

Queen's University: 

Europa Hotel - the most bombed hotel during The Troubles. 

So after the tour, we had a lunch break and then headed over to the Titanic Experience, where we got to explore the population boom and the building of the Titanic and other White Star luxury liners. We went step-by-step through the building, furnishing and launch of the famous ocean liner and then ended with its fateful night, aftermath and rediscovery.  Outside, we walked in the dry dock where it was built. The tall poles are as high as the first deck was and the building is as high as the ship.

So after Titanic, we checked into our hotel and walked across the street to the Crown for dinner. After dinner, a few of us headed off to a pub to join the locals for some live music. We made it just in time for the last set which included the musicians singing songs by Adele, Mumford and Sons, Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Aloe Blacc, Walk the Moon and everyone's favorite, "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond. 

So now we have a short seminar in the morning before heading to the north coast and then back into Ireland.