So far...

Ed has done all the blogging until now. I did quite a bit of research and prepared some useful notes, but three hours before leaving I was going to print them out and email them to me, but they became lost in the "cloud" and haven't been seen since. So we have been wandering through Ireland.

It is quite an interesting country. Some beautiful country side, large cities and small villages, all and all it is very diverse from one region to another. But I find myself wondering, who is Ireland? It seems as if each area of the county is starved for the tourist dollar and each claims to have the most beautiful or oldest or most famous building or monument. So many tour buses, stopping and paying the admission  price for each attraction, as Ed and I try to keep to a quieter path dodging them.

Our first ten days we have spent time in hostels, sometimes in public rooms and sometime in private rooms. The hostels are full of American, German, and French people. We met people from Mooresville in the Dingle hostel and at the Cliffs of Moher, a fellow from Charlotte. 

Some thoughts and observations:

-Glendalough is beautiful, but one only needs a long day to see it and have a great hike around the larger lake.

-Cashel and Cahir are some nice small villages with castles that are worth touring.

-There is some great hiking on the Dingle peninsula, but don't visit during marathon weekend:-(   You can't get a room

-The hike from Doolin past the Cliffs of Moher to Hag's Head is a much better way to see the cliffs.

-The bus is working ok, but doesn't always get us where we want to go, so we have to walk or hitch a ride.

-Our last two nights have been at B&B's and it is good to see another side of Ireland.

-The roads are very narrow, did I say narrow? The roads are NARROW.

- The food is very good. We have also tried some new foods.

Today we leave on a three day hike along the Western Way, which is in the Connemara on the western side if Ireland. We hope the hike takes us off road. Many of the marked trails are along road and not so good, but when we get off the road the landscape is wonderful and it is very peaceful.

Doolin to Ballyvaghan

Well, we again had a poor nights sleep at a hostel due to late night Guiness drinkers waking us up in the middle of the night. So, we cut short our stay in Doolin and decided to head toward our next destination (although unsure what that is!) hopefully seeing some of the ruins and things in the famous Burren. We couldn't find many of the things we hoped to see but we did have quite a walk (25-30 km) and we did actually see some interesting things. We hitched a ride for the last 7-8 km. We landed at a nice B&B in Ballyvaghan. Recharging our batteries here. Looking forward to a quiet nights sleep. On to Galway tomorrow!

Doolin/Cliffs of Moher

Made it to Doolin. Quaint little town but has a big tourist draw in the Cliffs. Staying in meager accomodations. Today we walked along the rocky coast to the Cliffs. About a 20k journey. Spectacular views at the Cliffs of Moher but much like the Grand Canyon.....a short view is quite enough. The walk along the way was just as interesting, if not moreso.  Stopped at a small bistro when we got back to town. I had an amazing fish dish. So fresh! The weather has been amazingly cooperative. Very little rain. One more day here and then we will head farther north. Meeting many interesting characters along the way. 

Dingle - Day 2

The picture above is an ancient round fort. We actually took shelter in this when it started to rain this morning. We took a bus to the Gallarus Oratory which is an extremely old stone worship building from the tenth century. This was the starting point of our hike today. We followed what is known as the Cosan na Naomh or Saint's Path and saw a number of ruins. We also climbed a steep mountain (evidently Ireland doesn't believe in switchbacks) near Mt. Brendan. When we finally got back to the main roads we did something that we were told is fairly safe in Ireland but is not recommended in the U.S........we hitched a ride back to Dingle!  This gave us extra time to explore before we caught the bus to leave town.  Ate some great food at a small outdoor market and relaxed over coffee at a quiet cafe. Because we saved some time by thumbing a ride, we took an earlier bus to Tralee where we are spending the night before we head to Doolin tomorrow. 

Dingle - Day 1

Trying to cram as much hiking into two days is tough but we came up with a plan. Today we decided to take a bus to the far end of the peninsula to a town called Dunquin. From there we would walk back to Dingle. It was about a 28-30 km walk along what's known as the Dingle Way.  It's quite a beautiful and breathtaking journey along the coast with the cliffs, stone walls, ruins and the rolling hills. Oh, but let us not forget our friends the sheep. They were like our escorts for most of the way.  They also coated the bottom of our shoes with their immense droppings.  We stopped along the way at a very quaint and basic cafe that overlooked the Dunquin bay.  Spectacular view with a small pot of French press coffee and a slice of homemade pie. As they say here, "Brilliant!" Upon arriving back at our hostel we met a family from.......Mooresville, NC!  The father is here to run the marathon. Crazy.  

Cashel/Travel Day

Tuesday was a relaxed day of exploring Cashel and preparing for the next leg of our journey. We went to the Hore Abbey and to the famous Rock of Cashel castle. Very interesting stuff but we enjoyed the castle in Cahir much more. Wednesday was spent on buses trying to get to the Dingle peninsula. One leg of the trip was a bit agonizing (no air....and it was hot!). We survived and made it to Dingle where we were greeted with our first real encounter with rain. We were able to find our hostel and procure some provisions. We have encountered one problem as there is a marathon being run Saturday so the town is fully booked this weekend and we could not get a room. So we will be leaving Friday afternoon, heading north towards our next destination. In the meantime, we will spend the next two days exploring this peninsula.

Cashel/Cahir

Sunday was pretty much a travel day as we took a bus from Glendalough to Dublin and then on to Cashel. We would have loved to have gone straight from Glendalough to Cashel but, as the old saying goes, "you can't get there from here".  We were scheduled to stay at a hostel but ended up securing a room at the adjacent B&B (same owner) for just a few Euro more (although the breakfast cost extra....lol). We scoped out the town on foot and then procured some provisions at a local market for our next few meals. Today (Monday) we headed out to walk part of the St. Declan's Way path from Cashel to Cahir. It was about 25 kilometers or so.  We met some interesting, friendly and informative people along the way. We even took a detour to view some ruins via directions from one of our acquaintances and ended up trespassing through a farm. The lady said the farmer wouldn't mind. But we never did find the ruins.  In Cahir we explored the most amazing castle (see above photo).  After a wonderful meal we grabbed a bus back to Cashel to our "home base" to regroup and plan our next adventure.