Ireland Part 5

***WARNING - This blog is long. I just can't keep doing this! So bear with me! It will be the last about the trip and there are a lot of pictures. Next will just be the missing pictures. That is all.**



Looking back at the blog and then through the pictures I have yet to post I realized... we had not visited the Japanese flower gardens yet... they were just some regular ol' flower gardens. Still not in bloom and definitely not very Japanesey looking. When you see the pictures from the ACTUAL Japanese flower gardens you will be able to see the difference.

Moving on...

I saw Fashion this morning and she seemed positively irritated that I called out her navigational skills. Which means 1) Fashion has been reading my blog (HI FASHION!) and 2) I need to quit ripping on her abilities as a navigator. So let me just say that I am the last person on Earth that should be critical of anyone's sense of direction. Fashion did the best that she could in a foreign city and was completely on her own because I have no sense of where I am at any time. So even though we were lost and went the wrong way SEVERAL times...

she still did a great job and let me just say that she could get me to any point within the city of Knoxville without question. The End.

So where were we... Oh yes! This day, our last day of the CIE tour with Pat. Our last day as a group. A sad day indeed, for we knew that in the morning almost half of our group would be flying home and the rest of us had two more stops on the way back into Dublin and that would be that. Thank goodness for Facebook and email! So the events of this day would take us to the Cliffs of Moher and then to Bunratty where we would stay at the Bunratty Castle Hotel and go to a Medieval-type dinner, drink mead and then some of us would venture to a bar where we manufactured our own session... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First - the Cliffs of Moher. We had to put the bus on a Ferry and go across a body of water...

which body of water I have no idea, but it was a pretty one.

There was this crazy bird that rode the ferry with us and didn't seem to care how close we got to it to take it's picture... I did not zoom to get this picture
We found another Murphy's on our way...

Then off to the Cliffs of Moher where we were warned to not go past the boundaries as might see some other people doing because the ground could give way at any moment - there were signs to this affect, but I'm saving the signs... Ooohhh the signs!!! To special to scatter about the blog. They will get their own section at the end! Here are the MAGICAL cliffs


The castle near the cliffs... but I don't remember what it's significance was... In fact, I don't think I ever knew since we didn't go inside.

We thought it was hilarious that his jacket looked like it was warning us of his mood

More shots from the cliffs

Then it was back on the bus to head toward Bunratty. On the way we saw a guy fixing his roof... The traditional roof the houses would have had before insurance companies had to come in and ruin everything would be a thatched roof. Now they have to be tile... or... or... the... um... other kind, but I thought this guy fixing his roof was cool. Sorry for the glare off the bus window.
*note* in Ireland there is no point to a "th." "Th" is just pronounced "t." Sooo, when I put thatched roof, it is to be pronounced "tatched." This was particularly fun when getting Pat to say "thirty-three and a third." We're such juveniles.

She's so excited about HEAT!
Then we were in Bunratty - here's the Hotel. It was, like all our hotels, very nice!
Then we had the dinner - which really felt more English than Irish and was kind of campy and silly. They made two people the King and Queen and we had a mock dinner in the castle. The food was okay, but a bit generic. It was basically like going to Medieval Times without the jousting.
After having a glass of meade and a couple glasses of wine, I went against my declaration made that morning regarding drinking and how I would have nothing to do with it that evening. When Pat saw me that morning... dragging the way that I was he said, "And how's Liz feeling this morning?" I believe my response to him was, "Like I want to punch you in the face." Still, I couldn't miss out on our LAST NIGHT, right!? So we went to Durty Nelly's - which I took a picture of because my Mother-in-law is Nel.
When we got there Fashion and I were sitting on opposite sides of a HUGE wooden beam. The way we kept looking around it at each other was cracking us up, so we photographed it

Then we moved...

I am not hurting this woman! I was just trying to get her attention when we saw Fashion about to take our picture and we reacted this way... as though I'm electrocuting herWe did a little shooter called a baby Guinness. It was REALLLLY good. Of course, I'm always the first one to finish my shooter.
All the girls with Patrick - The girls totally dominated!
All the boys with Patrick
After we had a few beers we all gathered in a TEENY-TINY room and belted out every song we could think of! Everyone was coming up with songs like American Pie and Joy to the World and we all sang our little hearts out in a make-shift Irish session. The next day Pat announced that it was a great Craic House and we all chuckled... well I mostly squeaked as I'd had so much fun I'd lost my voice.

Our final events would take us to the Ireland Stud where the breed Thoroughbreds. Our guide, Tony, did a great job and was a lot of fun.

We got to see the brand new baby horses and their mommies as well as the Studs. Here are some pictures of the horses and the grounds



Then we were allowed to journey through the gift shop (where I again spent too much money) and the Japanese gardens. We were given a choice in the beginning... guess which one we went down?
WRONG! We totally took the Path of Life. You guys are jerks. How awesome is this sign, though? Here are some other shots I got from the gardens


Then I snapped a final shot of our bus for the sake of the memory
That night we were back in Dublin. We said goodbye to those leaving that day and got to spend one more evening with a small group. We shopped a little, went to dinner and then off to bed. Just a couple shots from Dublin
The Harp Bridge
Here we are with Future Us. You see it, don't you!? Weird, right? They're TOTALLY US.
The very last day for Fashion and I was a tour to New Grange to see a building built by the Stone Age peoples. To think this is the single oldest building that I will ever set foot in... amazing. They're unsure of it's purpose, but the doorway window was aligned with the horizon so that during the winter solstice (and 3 other days) the darkness inside would be broken by a brief moment of sunlight.
This building was built (without the staircases) before the invention of the wheel. The white stones were carried from a mountain range 70 km in one direction, the darker stones from a range 70 km in the opposite direction. There was something like 900 tons of stone built up into a dome like structure, but there is no way to know HOW they were able to move them. It was amazing. Here's what it looks like from a distance
Here I am taking a picture of something
Here's a shot of the bridge we took back to the visitor's center
And that was it for us. We went around O'Connel street during our last night and it was MAD! There was a HUGE Rugby match the next day between Ireland and Whales and the streets were full. We stopped at a little street side place and grabbed a piece of pizza and went back to the hotel for a beer
The next day we caught the shuttle to the airport with Betty and Kathy and then we parted in the airport. We happened to run into another tour buddy of ours - Trish - and grabbed a picture before we were on our way to our plane...
which had been delayed 2 hours, but we got on it... Saddened...
Then we got to O'Hare and found that our flight had been canceled, but they got us on another flight on United! Then that flight was delayed 3 hours. And the gate changed so many times! It was supposed to leave at 6, postponed until 9 and then left at 7:40 - without us on it! It was a hell of a day! We set up camp in gate F9 and slept until our next flight out at 6am. That one was on time and we were home by 9. I still miss it and I cannot WAIT until I get to go back!