DAY TWO – KILKENNY IRELAND

We woke this morning after a decent nights sleep to birds singing and a chill in the air. The weather here is beautiful, averaging in the 60’s during the day with some cloud coverage (though no rain) and the smell of fall in the air.

After we showered and dressed, we went downstairs for our first “Irish breakfast”. There was so much delicious food, it was unbelievable! Coffee, Tea, Juice, Bread with butter, cheese, yogurt, fruit, nuts, cereals, eggs, bacon, sausage, black pudding (not your everyday Jello pudding, blah!!), mushrooms, tomatoes and toast. Seriously, after eating a bit of everything (minus the black pudding) we were good until dinner time.

In the dining room after breakfast

We shared a table with a sweet young couple from Germany. We exchanged stories about our home countries, currency exchange rates, politics (minus the animosity as when talking politics back home) and our experiences in Ireland thus far. We so enjoyed their company and were sad to hear they were moving on to another county that morning. It would have been lovely to speak with them some more.

----side note--- Our lovely friend Kelly is the owner of “Otto” the monkey. Kelly sends Otto on vacation with her friends and had asked if we could bring him to Ireland. Otto has been to Burning Man several times and just recently got back from Dragon Con. Here are a couple of pictures of Otto chilling in our room. We are delighted he has joined us :-)

After breakfast Ty and I set off on a walk into town in search of an electronics adaptor. Our electronic devices are 110 and in Ireland they are 220. I tried to purchase one in the U.S. before we left, but the lady at Radio Shack sold me the wrong thing.

I could not use my laptop and I desperately wanted to e-mail my mom to let her know we made it safely. Val and Tom (our B & B hosts), had different suggestions of where to go to get one.

Our walk took us to Kilkenny center. Neither of their suggested stores had what we needed, but we still had a pleasant experience trying to find one.

The Irish are funny people, always with a story to tell and eager to help. They interrupt, skip around to various subjects and come back again… all during a single conversation. Their sense of time is always “ish” – for example breakfast is served at 9-ish. (“Sharon, I will be to work at 9-ish sharp!”)

Ty says he now knows I get these traits honestly and that I am not ADHD, just Irish. HA!! They all say Ty is quite the "jokster" too. Hmmm - all this time I just thought he was sarcastic. LOL

Irelands version of the Dollar Store (downtown Kilkenny):

We finally found a store with the correct adaptor and then decided to just mill around and take in the sights…

Kilkenny center:

Beautiful flowers on all the streets:

Ruins along the River:

Stairs leading down the path to Kilkenny castle:

Kilkenny Castle:

Hope in front of Kilkenny Castle

Ty in front of Kilkenny Castle

---SIDE NOTE: wanted to give a shout out to my friend Josh O’Brien (aka Sketch):

Hope’s shout out:

Ty’s shout out (yes, it is part of a tomb stone... you know from Ty the Jokster):

We decided to take a tour of the “craft circle” upon Val’s suggestions (plus we were tired of walking). So we hopped in the car and took off, destination, craft circle. Of course we got lost, because the roads are not well marked. Seriously, driving here is scary – cars fly down the road at ridiculous speeds and the roads are so narrow and winding. More about that later…

We popped into a candle shop where they pour their own wax. Then a pottery store where we could watch them spin clay to make pottery. It was cool to see the whole process, even the hand painting. I desperately wanted to go by the glass shop to watch the glass blowing. It was off the main road and so we once again got lost.

Bonus though, as we came across this really cool church and ancient grave yard :

We also saw some beautiful landscape and some SHEEP!!! (Autumn is obsessed with us walking with the sheep in Ireland.) We didn’t get to walk with them as they were confined to somebody’s land. We took a picture though.

We then came across another old cemetery and had to stop and look around again:

FINALLY, we arrived at the glass shop. They had finished with the glass blowing demonstrations for the day, but we enjoyed the shop anyway. I purchased a lovely item for my favorite girl and we headed back to the B&B.

We walked to town for dinner and ate at a pub called “The Playwright”. I had French onion soup and Shepard’s Pie. Ty had French onion soup and Beef Stew. Once again we drank a pint of Guinness and took these silly pictures as requested by our friend Henry:

We arrived back at the bed and breakfast sore and tired from all the walking. We were extremely happy though and really enjoyed our day. Our bed and breakfast is so relaxing, that arriving here each night is like a home away from home.

~~Hope

DAY ONE KILKENNY, IRELAND (PLUS FLIGHT)

We left for Jacksonville Int’l airport on Monday evening. Our spirits were high and we were beyond excited. Once we got in line to board our airplane to Atlanta, we were hit with bad news. Atlanta had horrible storms with rain and severe flooding the last several days. The flights to Atlanta were backed up and it looked as if our flight would be delayed at least 7 hours. Many people were being rescheduled for the next day and I began to get very nervous. We waited in line to speak with the people at Delta to see what our options were. Our layover in Atlanta was only supposed to be for three hours before catching our plane to Dublin.

After standing in line for some time and speaking to everyone around us (including a Delta staff member) it looked as though we were not going to make it to Atlanta that evening as we were the fourth flight in que to leave (once flights were again permitted to travel to Atlanta).

I was, to say the least very panicked. I had waited so long for this day and it really looked as though our trip was going to be delayed. Once we reached the service desk we explained our situation. The woman at the ticket counter told us there were a couple of seats left on the first flight in que to Atlanta and she would put us on that plane instead.

She has no guarantee when we would leave and if we would catch our connecting flight, but it was our best chance.

Luckily it only took about 45 more minutes and we then boarded the plane to Atlanta.

I was still very stressed wondering if the bad weather would be too dangerous to fly in or if it would keep our plane headed to Dubling from leaving.

Once we took off I looked out the window and noticed the double rainbow. I knew at that very moment that everything was going to be OK… and I would make it to Ireland safely and on time.

The rest of the flight went smooth and we left for Dublin, from Atlanta, right on schedule.

We did not sleep well on the overnight flight as it was horribly uncomfortable. When we got close to Ireland I momentarily forgot my fatigue as I could not contain my excitement.

We flew over Ireland and circled around off the east coast to land in Dublin. My first sight of Ireland was Lambay Island just off the coast.

I then saw Ireland and my first thought was “WOW, it really IS very green!!”. It was such a beautiful sight, pictures can't do it justice.

We landed at 9:45 am (Ireland time) and our plan was to hang around Dublin for awhile before heading to Kilkenny. We were due to check in to the bed and breakfast at 4pm… so we had plenty of time.

By the time we got our rental car, picked up our luggage and withdrew our Euros, our lack of sleep hit us like a ton of bricks. We tried finding our way around Dublin… then decided to just get OUT of Dublin and head to Kilkenny.

Ty was having a hard time acclimating to driving in the right side of the car on the left side of the road. We also had a manual which he has to shift left handed.

Dublin street signs were very confusing and there are “roundabouts” every other corner. It was very stressful and we just wanted to get out of the big city.

SIDE NOTE----We did see this store which was very amusing… only in Ireland

Needless to say we took the wrong road out of Dublin and ended up very lost. No sleep combined with being in an unfamiliar country made for a very tense situation. Ty and I had always said if we were in another country, we would not eat at American food places. We are all about experiencing the culture… however, being so lost – we came across a beautiful sight. There, like a beacon in the night, was MCDONALDS!!!!

We went inside and were instantly comforted by the familiarity (though it really looked like a McDonalds of the 80’s). OH, and BTW… the big and tasty had some weird sauce on it and was not so tasty. ANYWAY, we asked for the manager who was soooooo friendly and drew us a map with directions to Kilkenny.

So, we arrived at the B & B an hour before our check in time. Tom and Val (the owners) were very sweet and let us go ahead and check in. We were so wiped out that we decided to nap and shower before anything else.

Our nap was a life saver and we woke up a couple of hours later refreshed and ready to actually ENJOY being in Ireland.

Our B & B is comfy and charming and our host and hostess are amazing.

Our room:

upstairs hallway:

B&B sign:

front entrance:
side of B&B (love the red ivy, it is everywhere here):
Back garden (note the clothes line. they dry linens here)

With suggestions from Val, we headed out by foot to have dinner in the town of Kilkenny. We were walking along the path and it finally struck me that I was HERE in Ireland. I found myself getting a bit weepy and my heart swelled. I was doing that laughing-crying-at-the-same time thing...

As promised, Ty took a picture of me with my first real reaction to being in Ireland. Our dear friend, Josh, requested this picture. Though not too flattering, here is said pictures in all their/my emotional glory:

The walk into Kilkenny town is amazing, with a nice view of some ruins, the river and Kilkenny castle
This is like a post card. A picture you see and say, “Oh I wish I was there”. We could not believe we actually WERE standing there

The grass is so unbelievably green, pictures do not do it justice

A side street of houses, just before the center of town:

As we neared the restaurant, we passed this beautiful church and cemetery sitting on the corner:

Our first Irish restaurant, Langton’s, where the food was amazing. Ty ate Braised Lamb and I had an Irish Lamb Stew. They had live Irish music and I drank my first Guinness. I normally detest Guinness, but had heard it was different in Ireland and I was determined to at least have one. It really was a lot smoother and enjoyable.

We then walked back to the B & B and retired for the night, surrounded by the smell of lavender in our room.

~~Hope

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow... you're only a day away!

We have finished the last of our packing! I only have one quick errand to run in the morning, but other than that - we are ready to go.
I dropped Autumn-Bug off at my parents a few hours ago and am about to spend some time with Matthew. I miss the kids already!
I think we have all of our ducks in a row and I am praying all will go smooth regarding our flight. We fly into Atlanta tomorrow afternoon and from Atlanta, an overnight flight to Dublin.

I just checked Dublin's weather for Tuesday and they are predicting 60 F for the high and 50 F for the low. Much different than the warm Florida weather we will be leaving behind.

I doubt I will be blogging tomorrow as we will be preparing to leave. I am hoping to update again Tuesday evening at the end of our first day. Hoping we will not have issues with access to wireless internet connections ;-)

Next post from Kilkenny Ireland!!
~~Hope

We Leave In Two Days!

PROLOGUE:
I have wanted to go to Ireland ever since I knew there was an Ireland. My husband Ty and I have spoke of traveling since we met ten years ago. Ireland was first on the list of places we "had" to go as it was my greatest dream.
I jokingly call Ireland my "Mother" land, but in all seriousness, it is not far from the truth. Ireland calls to me - it feels like home.
Ty and I made the decision around New Years that there was no time like the present to make our dreams of traveling a reality. We booked our trip to Ireland back in February and the countdown began. We decided this trip would be just the two of us, since we have never had a get away and the trip falls just before our wedding anniversary. (We do plan in the future to travel with our teenage children, Matt and Autumn.)

TRIP DETAILS:
After many months of research I decided to book our trip through Irishtourism.com. I was impressed with their customer service, reviews and self drive tour packages. We chose the self-drive tour option as we wanted to be able to go at our own pace and not feel the pressure of a schedule.
The tour we are taking is called the 3 Centre Tour (http://www.irishtourism.com/self-drive-tours-ireland/10-night-tours-self-drives.htm) and we will be staying 10 nights.
This package appealed to us as we likes the idea of staying several nights at only three different "base" locations, as opposed to changing locations every night. This way we can take day trips and explore the other counties surrounding our base locations at our leisure.
We felt we would be better rested and truly wanted to take the time to experience the Irish culture.

We will be flying into Dublin and staying:
3 nights in Kilkenny (bed and breakfast)
3 nights in Killarney (B&B)
4 nights in Galway (1 night in a castle the other 3 in a B&B)
Fly out of Shannon


The plan is to blog our experiences and upload pictures of our journey daily. I want to savor every moment - I don't want to forget a thing! There are no words to describe how excited Ty and I are. We want to thank our family and friends for helping out with the kids, taking care of the cats, house sitting, allowing leave from work, all of their support and well wishes. We hope you will all enjoy the blog of our journey.
~~Hope