The Time When We Skipped a Day

Yes, it's true. We've reached the point in the trip when I no longer know what day it is. Thank goodness my watch is keeping good time, because it's basically become the only reliable source for date, day and time. We've also reached the point on the trip where I'd pay $100 for a clean pair of pants and a new sweatshirt (the laundry isn't done in our hotel on Sunday, otherwise I'd pay whatever they charge to launder some stuff. In fact, it's too cold right now but I'm wearing a skirt because it's not a dirty pair of jeans.) I'd also pay $100 for a plate of $3 Sushi Mac sushi.

BUT ENOUGH WHINING. We are having an amazing trip.

Here's a parting shot of Dingle.

After our ring-a-ling-a-dingle day, we had to pack up and leave our lovely hosts at the Milton House in Dingle, and head over to Lisdoonvarna. Lisdoonvarna is famous for having an entire month of match making each year, where single people pour into town to try to fall in love. Unfortunately, it's the month of September, so Jake did not hook up with any single, toothy Irish lasses.

Instead of taking the land route, we took a ferry to Shannon. It's a car ferry and only took about 20 minutes. The weather was gross, but it was a quick trip. Here's the beautiful sea.


On our drive over we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher, where everyone was freezing. It's WINDY there, to say the least. Basically, we got out the car, swore, shivered and put on two sweatshirts each (I wore my pink one and one of Tim's, and he wore his UCLA hoodie and one of his dad's shirts. Sad and shivering.) The view is worth the cold though - it was absolutely beautiful.


Check me, I'm a fashion plate!



When we got to Lisdoonvarna we had possibly the worst meal ever (thumbs up to the Irish coffee and the fries, thumbs down to just about everything else, including the service. Note to fellow travlers: the Ritz in Lisdoonvarna is not as good as the Ritz in other places.) We went back to our B&B and I basically passed out for a nap. Sorry we didn't post yesterday - the internet was down in the hotel, despite Tim's best efforts to hack it.

The hotel owner recommended a restaurant at an inn down the street, the Wild Honey Inn. We headed over there and had a really fabulous meal. One of the things that I find interesting is almost every restaurant - including the dumpy pubs - lists where their meat, fish and veg come from. Usually in the states, you only see that in really fancy restaurants, or restaurants that tout their committment to sustainable farming. Here, everything has been really fresh and delicious (except for lunch at the Ritz, obviously.) From there, we went to a little pub and heard some traditional music. It was just two dudes, one with a fiddle and one with a flute, playing to suit themselves. We had a drink and listened for awhile before bed. There was another party going on in the town square, but they had a drum machine and were blasting 80s hits. We were worried that Jake would get led astray by a drunk, hard-looking Irish girl with a cig hanging out of her mouth. That's who seemed to be out there singing along when we walked by on our way home.

Here's the cute little town.

Poor Jacob.

Funny - last night around 3:30 we got to hear some of our fellow travelers arrive home. One girl was just BAWLING and yelling - something about how she got bad directions and it had taken her forever to find the B&B. And when I say bawling, I mean, crying so hard that you'd think someone she loved dearly had just died. She sobbed loudly for about a half hour while her friends told her to quiet down. They were in the room across from Jake's, and did not come down to breakfast this morning, surprisingly. I stomped around a little outside of their room when we checked out this morning at 9. They sounded American, so they win the Ugly American Award for October 3rd.

So today was our long day of driving. Along the way, we got to chase cows with the car. Funny - Don slams on the brakes and comes to a dead stop when he sees another car coming the opposite way on a narrow lane. But if there is an animal ahead of us, or a human being on a pedal bike, he totally guns it towards their back end. It's pretty amusing.

We made it to the Boyne Valley in the north of Ireland (but not North Ireland) around 3pm, and went over to see Newgrange. It's a monument built by Neolithic people, approximately 5,000 years ago. It's this huge mound with a doorway for people and then an opening above that lets sun shine through to the back of the tomb on the shortest day of each year. The chamber is made of huge stones, which were quarried in from miles away, and placed without mortar. The chamber has been mostly untouched since it was built, 2,000 years before Christ, and the entire chamber is covered with more than 200,000 tons of earth and stone. It's one of several burial mounds in the Boyne Valley, but this is the only one where the sunlight comes through its own opening. We were able to walk all the way to the inside of the chamber, and then they turn out all of the lights and show what it would be like when the sun comes in. It was a really amazing place to visit, and we had a great guide who obviously loves explaining the story of the monument to visitors. Francis had recommended we visit it, and I'm so glad she did. It would have been a pity to miss.

Here's the mound. They reglued all of those stones there - the mound was abandoned for thousands of years.

The space above that rock is where the sun shines through. The walk down the passageway is a leetle narrow and the ceilings are low. But I could still walk without ducking through most of it.

Here's the beautiful Boyne Valley. We had FANASTIC weather today for our drive across the land. See that little hill in the middle of the field? It's an unexcavated mound. It's a little baby one that they hope to someday open up when technology is better and funding abounds.

Tonight we are staying in Drogheda, which is a big city compared to some of the places we've been as of late. Tomorrow we're off to see Grandpa Fitzpatrick's farm, and then we're off to Belfast.

Lastly, a funny from dinner. As you may know, Jacob is a terrible Irish descendant and does not eat potatoes (except fries.) Tonight at dinner Don got boiled potatoes with his meal. Eileen goes, "do you want a boiled potato Jacob?" and he goes, "yeah, die." THAT IS NOT NICE. Eileen ate a boiled potato in honor of her ancestors, she will have you know.

Hopefully, more tomorrow.