Day 11, August 30th

Day 10th, August 29th, 2017

A bit more :)

Rose of Tralee, LOL

Non-Jerry

Galway to Tralee, Day 10th, August 29th

Ok, completely lazy on this one. Will fill in the details later.

Cliffs of Moher

 Dolmen













Limerick

Adare

Askeaton & its gopnicks

Tralee (vali) & its gourmet food

North-west & Galway, Day 9, August 28th

Feeling lazy for will keep this extra short. No a/c in our rooms so we were able to negotiate free breakfast for all. And they moved us to a larger room. Great Maldron hotel & very nice manager. That's us, after breakfast. We were impressed to see a large group from South America. Russian tourists have nothing on their style. The staff looked completely demoralized. 

We've started the day at on of the typical home/castles that potentially pre-dated larger castles that had a defensive wall and the castle inside. This design had a smaller/less defensible wall and a defensive castle complete with the murder holes and other fun contraptions. This one also had a secret lock room for the prisoners right next to the castle owner's bedroom. Pretty interesting. Keep your friends close but your enemies by your bedside, apparently. 

Polinka and I enjoyed our time at the castle, reviewing the different floors and reading the posters, while kids were running around. When we came out, kids were nowhere to be seen. So we figured they went to join dads at the parking lot and leisurely strolled 200 or so meters back to our car. When we got there, kids were not there - apparently they were left at the castle. So we turned back and went to get them. Shortly after Isabella's screams could be heard loud and clear all around. Poor kids went to the bathroom at the castle and we've missed them. Novichenok's were quietly waiting by the ticket office. Our kids were never "dropped off" before so they were ready for the full panic mode. Certainly gave everyone a nice shot of adrenaline.   

Kylemore Abbey. Best viewed from the vantage point of this picture. Absolutely not worth going inside. Last time because of the rain, we limited ourselves to the mediocre cafeteria. This time around we've extended experience with a giant garden that has long failed at trying to keep up with the grandiose plans of its creator and two rooms of the abbey that have the usual trappings of the similar establishment diluted somewhat by the monastic occupation. What a tourist trap. Felt pretty stupid. 

Back in Galway. We love everything about this city. Every street and almost every building seem to hide a secret. We enjoyed walking around the streets, magnificent cathedral, lovely Murphy's and a nice bar that Romik found. 

One gotcha - sampled the local beer at the bar downstairs. They need to keep trying. But it was a great day. 

To Galway, Day 8, August 27th

The day started fittingly in a “stolovka” like breakfast setting manned by un-characteristically (meaning out of character w. stolovka) friendly Lithuanian waiter. The food was nice and we got on our way. We wanted to make a few quick stops to pass the time before going to Loughrea Renaissance Fair, which was supposed to start at around 1pm.

The first stop was a church plus some friary ruins we saw from the road. Perhaps Romik remembers what it was called. The ruins had some very peculiar images of the passions of the Christ. The church, similarly, had images of passions – clearly medieval but somehow cartoonish looking. The priest really tried to get us engaged. First he took on the tour of the church, then took us to a separate room that smelled but a cosmic warehouse of naphthalene and made watch a video about the history of the church. I thought we will all go extinct from the smell and made everyone get out. The poor priest probably hoped we will stay for service too.

Next, we pulled over by the Pigeon Hole limestone caves. Polinka said they were hers top 3. It was really cool – after a short walk down the path through the word, we lined up to take wet and slippery stairs down into the cave. Below, the trusty flashlights of our cell phones showed a pretty expansive cave. We were completely alone – no ticketing office, no guides, or anything. Made visiting this place even more special.

Totally awesome Ross Errilly Friary next. The best-preserved friary in Ireland. Mecca for hide and seek. The thing I don’t like about these places are the recent graves. Dan explained that they may want to increase their chances of getting to heaven by situating their bones on the holy ground. May be a reflection of their activities during their lifetime. Oh, well. I guess everyone wants to get to heaven.

When we finally reached Loughrea it was so disappointing. A few interesting booths but overall a tiny event. I guess we are a bit spoiled with our Rt 17 event, and with LT Archeology days, and with the fair we went to while in Portugal that was held at the actual castle. After a brief round we went to Galway, our final stop of the way.

After getting a few drinks down from the road, we were ready to explore. This is our favorite city - street musicians fade one into another, the walls are incredible, and every side street hides a secret. This place has tons of character and loves and spoils its visitors – and they return the favor.

We’ve listened to the same 2-guy Russian band on the xylophone & vibraphone as last time. And this somehow tied another round of the spiral of our lives together.  

Portnoo to Westport, Day 7, August 26th

Beautiful day. Great amazing waiter at the white hotel started us well-nourished and well serviced. We took the final pictures of the beach and got on our way. The first stop was Donegal castle.

Very friendly guy at the reception gave us a flier for Loughrea Renaissance fair and gave kids stickers for finding everything they had to find at the castle. It is a small castle with a good history. We walked through town and made our way to the tourist information area where there was a food festival this weekend. 

The entry fee of 6 euro for adults alone was a bit much for such as small town and so only moms and kids went. It is interesting and different from other food fairs we’ve been too. Lots of muffins, sweets, & candies, followed by the different kinds of ciders, a little cheese, and next to no meat. Not your Lithuanian food fair. Boys made a wise choice.

He picks seaweed off the shore

We joined them and went to Donegal Craft Village – beautiful establishment outside town where several artists specializing in different mediums are working with their craft. Very impressive.

Net we saw the beautiful formations at Mullagmore, we’ve missed them last time and they are more than worth it. It makes sense to park in town and walk the loop around the outcrop, and maybe stop in for a swim. Because of the rocky outcrops that act as the natural wave breakers, the beach in town, though not the clearest the water is calm, the beach features incredible variety of shells, and locals in various stages of undress, dress, and over-dress.

We passed Drumcliff and Sligo, the latter seemed more up-beat than its yesterday’s counterpart but still downtrodden looking, and we decided to skip in favor of Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery. Aww, the best. Great hike, awesome sites. One of the passage graves had sank in. We stood on the stones and must have inadvertently disturbed a next of wild bees. They suddenly swarmed around us. We ran back down covering our faces with our rain jackets. Scary – and a bit of “Indiana-Jones” feel to it – bees decided to protect this grave and were pissed for us disturbing it.

Westport was our dinner stop. We so did not do it justice. One of the most charming cities we’ve seen. Now, this one had charm, and street musicians, and singing restaurant patrons, and flower basket from every bridge and window. Too bad most stores and coffee shops were already closed. We still had a great time. We landed at Lough Lannagh Lodge B&B at the Castlebar for the night.

We got “upgraded” to our own cottage w. Novichenoks. Felt a bit bad for the place –a large cottage built and furnished possibly in the 50s. One of them “sanatorium” looking ones. On one hand, nice to have so much room & all the ancient equipment looks really curious. On the other, that has not seen an upgrade in the last 50 years.

Kids spread out through the rooms. Adults stayed together and enjoyed each other’s company under accompaniment of Louis CK.