Got to Ennis finally just after 3pm, I followed my directions to get to the hostel was a nice walk through the small little village, very nice, lots of little shops and quite a few pubs.
street view of the village
Found it no problem, and this particular hostel was newly renovated and just reopened few weeks ago, very nice outside with a river right there and small bridge and inside, there are fireplaces in the lounge and t.v room, and a great kitchen with all new stainless steel.
I went up to my room, very spacious 3 bunk beds, unfortunately no lockers, but fine.
I met one roommate, she was from Germany and just on her way out to somewhere, so didn't get a name. I went down to the grocery store and got some staple items and food for dinner, and went back and cooked myself some steak and hummus, in the great kitchen. (guess I should have taken a pic of it since I keep telling you how great it is....was like a restaurant kitchen)
So, then I went up to my room, got comfortable, had free internet again...yahoo! So logged online and suddenly to my surprise, a man entered the room, this hostel is co-ed rooms, first one so far for me, but fine ... I was just startled as I didn't know. I also met a couple of other girls from another part of Ireland who were down this way doing some surfing....very cool, they of course had full wet suits, but I don't think that would be enough in this cold. Crazy girls! The other roommate from Germany returned a bit later and she had a girl with her that was also in our room and she was also from Germany and they just bumped into each other at a pub and oddly enough were staying in the same hostel and the same room. We chatted about places to go and see and then for the rest of the night I just did some researching online and then off to bed.
Day 13 Sun. May 3
Up early again today and had quick bite to eat and made my way down to the bus station to catch the bus down to the Cliffs of Moher .... very excited to go there, I have heard a lot about it from other people. The office was closed, so I decided to take a quick walk down to the tourist information office and well that was closed to. Made my way back to the bus station to wait and took a couple pics along the way.
This the Cathedral and I saw a pic in the cafeteria of this particular shot, so I decided to take the same one....very cool. And the other one is the Ennis Abbey which is right across the street from the hostel.
Got back to the bus station and there I saw my one roommate, Manuela, she was heading up to the Cliffs of Moher too. So we travelled together. The bus ride was only 50min and there we were at the Cliffs. It was very busy with lots of tourists of course and we started on the walk along the edge of it. It was chilly and I wasn't dressed the best but the scenery was breathtaking so it didn't matter. We ended up walking all the way to the very end and it took up about an hour and a half, a good trek, about 4.5 miles.
I could try to describe it but better for you to take a look at some of the pics and view the short video . Here is a couple of links too to get some info on them.
http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/TheCliffs.aspx
http://www.destination360.com/europe/ireland/cliffs-of-moher.php
So they run along the Atlantic Ocean, the tower at the start is O'Brien Tower and there is a Rune at the other end and that is where we walked to. As you walk along, it seems like your almost there and then you get around a bend and see there is still a ways to go. Before 2007, tourists could actually walk much closer to the edge and even sit on the edge rocks. It was very windy up there, so glad that there was a bit of a wall around it, you could still see a lot and look down a few times very close to the edge and like I said "breathtaking"
Here are a few of my pics, so many more, but couldn't add them all.
As you will see on the one, I marked it with a red dot to show where we walked to and when we made it there, I marked another one to show where we started....lol, Enjoy them and the video.
the view from the beginning and the red dot to our destination
if you look at the first one here, you can see the stone formation down on the ledge
so I did a close up of it....cool
the view in the other direction and just the view looking down
the rock formation in the water and the close up
The Rune tower at the end, and a view back to where we started.
and the video....hope it works
After that long trek of beautiful scenery, we sat back and had a bite to eat while we waited for the bus to pick us up. We got back to the hostel and we had a new roommate, the other 3 girls were gone and so now it was Manuela, the guy, myself and now Sabine. She is also from Germany, so while I was online, the 2 of them chatted in German. Then the 3 of us decided to go for a bit to eat and we got some vouchers from the reception and went to the restaurant. The meal was great, good portions, and we chatted away at dinner about our travels, and other places we have been and some politics. They voiced their opinions of Bush and Obama, it was interesting to hear peoples views from different countries. Although they are both from Germany, they each had very different accents, interesting. Sabine was in Ireland for about 3 weeks and just touring around some places she hasn't seen before as she has been to Ireland before, she offered me to tour around with her for the next couple of days as she rented a car. I thought that was very cool of her. Thanks again Sabine! Manuela was leaving tomorrow to go down to Limerick and then back to Dublin to fly home from there. She was just here on a short trip, catching up with some old colleagues. We left the restaurant and went down to one of the pubs for a drink and to see a classic small Irish band play.
the pub, and the girls Manuela on the left and Sabine, welcome to my blog!
the band
the band
Then back to the hostel we went and I got online and booked a flight to Glasgow from Belfast and checked some information for trains and buses and then off to bed.
Day 14 Mon. May 4
Irish Bank Holiday today.
I woke up to a bird in our room, forgot to mention that so far in England and Ireland, they don't have screens on the windows. I finally got him out and then Manuela, Sabine and I went down to breakfast. We got ready and headed out on the road in a fine Toyota Avensis, to Limerick. We arrived and Manuela went on her way to find a hostel for the night and Sabine and I went for a walk around a bit, took some pics and went into King John's Castle. Nice views from the top of the towers.
street view of Limerick
King john's Castle
views from the towers of the castle
We left there and headed down to a little village called Adare....it was very quaint. They have some cottages with straw roofs, and the one pic of the water is called the "washing pool", apparently many years ago, the woman would have to go down to this pool and do their laundry, it is located at the start of the small village, could never imagine that.
this is the church of Ireland ... and I am sure there is more then one of those.
this is the church of Ireland ... and I am sure there is more then one of those.
We got back in the car and started to make our way down the coastal route along the River Shannon, we drove through a few different villages all through counties Limerick and Kerry. We went down to one of the most southern villages in Ireland, Ballybunnion. Here was saw a couple nice beaches, very gorgeous, but rather chilly. It was a very overcast day and the breeze was piercing but nice scenery nevertheless, makes it all worth it.
Just a few pic along the route
this first beach was Beal Beach.....windsurfer, very brave!
Going further down the coast to Ballybunnion Beach
a herd of cows
The beach
chilled to the bone....
Once we finished admiring the ocean views, we went dow to Tarbert and decided to catch the car ferry over to Killmer and drove up the coastal road on the other side of the River Shannon back to the hostel. I made chicken wraps for dinner for the 2 of us and then we both got our labtops, I booked my hostel for Belfast and did the last entry of the blog. We sat in the t.v room and I tried to watch my show, but no go, even with satellite and there was tons of channels and nothing on. While in there I met a young couple from Saskatewan , they are also staying in our room, they have been traveling around for about 3mths and are nearing the end of it. They rented a car to tour around Ireland and then they were going to see Scotland and England. So far I have met fellow Canadians but no one from Ontario yet. It is pretty cool the people you meet along the way, but in hostels they seem to come and go so quickly, and sometimes you never even see who was in your room as they get in after you and/or leave before you get up.
So off to bed, tomorrow is check out day and Sabine and I are taking a tour through Co. Kerry down to Dingle Penninsula, and then staying in Killarney.
Day 15 Tues. May 5
Up to another clear day, getting lucky with those here in Ireland lately. We packed our stuff up and loaded up the car and took off again for another adventure. We drove through a few villages again and we took some scenic pics along the way, we went down the the southwest coast of the Atlantic Ocean. We went down to a couple more beaches and there was a few trailor parks along the way, as summer homes. The water down this way was much clearer and blue/green, but still rather chilly, but that didn't stop the surfers, we saw one guy parasurfing, and another one windsurfing again. The waves on the one side were very good for that, and we watched the one guy go back and forth a few times, couldn't believe he was out there....craziness!
the mountains you see here are the Slieve Mish Mountains, some of the highest mountains in Ireland, about 2700ft high, right up in the clouds, you can see them for quite a ways along the coastline, right down to the tip, and then you make a loop back and we ended up driving up there on the road that takes you down to Dingle, so the following pics are on the way there, up there and on the way down. It was very beautiful up there, and just so amazing. I am so happy I got the opportunity to drive around with Sabine, as these places we went to, I probably never would have gotten to otherwise. Very cool!
these are while we were up there, the road going up was very steep and very narrow, so it was a alittle scary right on the edge.
there were sheep grazing up there too, rolling hills of grass, and we were up in the clouds, so great! In the summer time it is full of colour with all these little flowers growing as ground cover.
that was the road we followed to get up to the highest point and then a little brook running through.....so beautiful!
and this was on the way down on the other side, you can faintly see the land across the Dingle Bay
So after a day of driving and sight seeing we finally got back on the National Road and went down to Killarney. Once we got in the village we went to the information center to find a hostel, great thing we found one right across the street from the bus station, convenient for me.
We checked in and we were in a 9 bed co-ed room, very tiny but all good. I was only staying one night and Sabine was staying for 2.
that is only half the room, there is 2 other bunkbeds on the other side, very tiny
We dropped our things off and went for a walk through town, and stopped to have indian dinner, and man it was delicious, so full after, but worth it.
town pics
We then returned to the hostel and took the car to go see a few things around Killarney, first we went down to Ross Castle, right on the lake. Killarney is known for it's parks and being surrounded by small lakes.
Ross Castle the view behind the castle
We then headed off to go see the Muckcross House, is a huge Manor with beautiful gardens all around it. We got to the National Park where it is, and it was getting late and dark, but we decided to make our way through the park as the house is suppose to be illuminated at night. So, crazy thing, 2 girls walked along in a dark park alone, not really sure where we were going, past some cows grazing, some horses, and then some latenight walkers, and we stopped them to get directions and thankfully after already walking a good 20mins or so, we were just around the bend from the house. And crappy, we get there and it is not as lite up as we needed it to be to get pics, neither of us got a good shot of it unfortunately.....but Sabine was going back in the morning and taking some pics that she is gonna email to me, so I can always show them later.
I took one pic of the dark park we were in....lol, was pretty scary but we survived and the walk was good as I needed it after that indian dinner. (was about a 3 mile walk)
So we finally found our way back to the car and went back to the hostel and I transfered my pics onto my puter and took a few from Sabine from the other day that my camera battery died, and then off to bed as I have a long day of travel tomorrow. Heading off to Belfast and it is gonna be an 8hr bus ride, a couple stops in between to switch buses but still.
So, I hope you enjoyed this posting, I know it was a long wait but it is a long one as well, and next will be my few days in Belfast........so stay tuned, will be on sooner this time.
Take Care all!
JJ
