DaNcin' in the R@in: great craic at the emerald isle

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

great craic at the emerald isle - southern ireland

20 May 2009

our southern rocker tour had begun! it felt weird at first, with all the strangers around. but slowly, we got to be more aquainted with them and they felt like.. family. haha.. kononnya, if we've taken a picture together, we're family.;p but i digress. back to our stops.

first stop was a short one at some castle.

next we went to mitchelstown cave. it was really interesting to see the stalagmites and stalagtites, all like hundreds or thousands of years old. even the caves and tunnels were so intrigueing. and with all the electric lights out, you couldn't even see your fingers ahead of you. it makes me wonder, the kids in enid blyton's stories must have been so brave. it's not as easy as it seems to clamber around rocks and wiggle into tunnels or caves. it makes me see adventure stories in a new light, as in if they were real la. haha..

our last stop was blarney castle, known for its magical rock which after you kissed it would be bestowed the gift of the gab. kissing it is no easy feat though. you just wait.

and as if we didn't have enough of aerobics in lake district, here we were thrown onto steep winding stairs all the way up to blarney's rock. it was so steep and narrow i basically had to pull myself up the stairs using the rope in the middle for support. for the first time, i had a slight taste of what claustrophobic people feel like.

our first night was at killarney's. and food, as usual, was good. haha.. ball is coming and we're all eating like pigs. sigh.

after dinner, we went for pa's one-man theatre about pub stories. hmm.. as what our tour guide sean said, he really is quite a character. i've never seen anyone drink down half a pint of guiness as fast. throughout his show (or whilst we were still there anyway), he drank 4 pints of guiness and 1 shot of whisky. the guiness there was very unique though. it had a 'chop' of the shamrock on top of the white foamy layer. so cute. there was etiquette in drinking guiness there too. first, the bartender would pour out like 3/4 cup full, and you had to wait for it to settle (or turn black), then the fella would top it up and you had to wait for it to settle, then only drink it. if not, you would be labelled as a tourist. interesting right.

30 May 2009

breakfast! i discovered my latest favourite - toast with butter and sugar. yum yum.

we headed to the killarney national park to get a glimpse of the breathtaking view. we even saw a helicopter land, but the 'celebrity' inside wouldn't get out until we all left. wonder who it was. the other tourists jokingly asked our bus driver peter to turn back suddenly for a peek.

it was so cool.. how many times in your life do you see a helicopter land in front of you? it was like in the movies. Lolz.

that morning we drove along the coast, stopping occasionally to take some shots of the magnificent view. we also stopped for lunch at the town hosting fungi the friendly dolphin who was dead, or so yi lyn was lamenting.

bridge over troubled waters (which was running over the bridge rather than under it)

best ice cream eva~ see all the awards it has won on the wall

fungi~ maybe it really is dead..

after that we took a ferry, kononnya luxurious, but seemed like the penang ferry to me. haha.. it was nice to feel the sea wind blowing through my hair though. it was so hot!

surfers

finally, our last stop was at the cliffs of moher.

opposite the cliffs was a small castle too, where the lord or sth used to bring back different women every night. i don't see why they were so impressed anyway, it's such a small thing.

shops built into the hill so as not to taint its natural beauty

dinner was at doolin, where we again had some splendid food.

we took our time having our drinks (lemonade is so expensive in pubs) while waiting for the live irish music to begin. some british ah pak by the name of phillip seemed friendly (at first) then plain freaky. he was clearly drunk, and couldn't get it into his head why us 4 gals who were of age would choose not to drink. our aussie friend seemed quite worried for us. we managed to get to know more of our tour mates, the aussie guy and also 2 english literature teachers. they seemed sweet.

31 May 2009

that morning we left doolin and headed towards a rockier part of ireland.

our hostel

first group photo

we had a short lunch break at the sexy super saver to grab some lunch. others were grabbing stuff like hot paninis and sandwiches. us? pringles rule.;p

we stopped for a while at some rocky place. was it some burial ground? i have forgotten completely, only remembering vaguely something bout it having to do with the giant and his 'wife'.

after lunch, we went to a monastry and had some fun there. it was so hot and peaceful. some of our tour friends just lay there on the grass amongst the tombs (hmm.. i guess their cemetery is the peacefu kind) and just basked in the sun.

the next ANTMs.. haha..

the whispering arch - designed so that sick people won't pass on their sickness to the priests during confession before they died in the olden days.

texas guy

our last stop was a whisky distillery where they showed us how they used to make whisky in the old days. i found it rather boring actually, since i couldn't really hear or understand what she was saying. but anyways, give me a camera and give me objects, and i'll be happily snapping away regardless of whether i understand or not. haha..

parting photo - all together, even with the toy in front of us and the driver at the side.

our tour guide sean

and hence our tour ended in a whirl. on our own, we made our way to the temple bar area for dinner, as well as taking a relaxing stroll around that area, which was the happening part of dublin anyway.

1 June 2009

we stayed in dublin for one more day after our tour ended, just to get a little more taste of dublin city. the souvenir prices are crazy. different everywhere. until now, i can't remember what prices i bought my bookmarks with, since they were different in each place.