Welcome to the Ireland 07 trip album...thing. Flickr sucked so I ended up here. Praise Google, I support its imminent takeover of the planet.
Pre-trip, Griffin and I stopped in the JFK's Chili's to enjoy some American Guinness. If that is possible. This picture and the next make a great animation.
Yummy.
You can't really tell from this picture, but there was a pigeon that somehow managed to get to one of the gates.
Views from the plane
Presenting Griffin in Fuzz-o-vision!
Mmmm, sunrise. This picture doesn't do it justice.
Aha! The first view of Ireland!
And the second, which was breathtaking. It was just so...so GREEN!
So if our plane crashed, this would be why. Electronic devices on during landing...tsktsk.
Driving on the left side of the road took some getting used to. By the end of the trip it felt so natural I was worried about driving on the right hand side.
Welcome to Ireland!
Cows. Seriously, this country was made for me. Cows, donkeys, horses and sheep every hundred feet.
Fuzz-o-cows!
This is where Griffin's mother and aunt stayed. Not a very good view of it, but it was a pretty shot.
An Irish license plate! Griffin taught me that the first 2 numbers are the year of the car and the second two are the country.
The castle.
Griffin and his mother.
Unlike his mother & co, we stayed in a B&B. This was a cozy little place right outside of Ennis. This was the dining room/sitting area.
Ennis downtown.
Right before my camera died and we switched to using his cellphone for a day (silly different outlets...) This was a neat pub we had dinner in.
Cute sign.
Castle O'brien on the Cliffs of Moher.
Beautiful shot of the Cliffs and the ocean.
Moo.
More cliffs. It was obscenely foggy when we went. By the end of the trip there, you couldn't see past the cliff you were on.
Castle O'brien again.
Where we stayed on the second day (Barna).
Griffin peeking out. He was kind of hiding. See, the primary reason for the trip was as a surprise party for his cousin Ryan's 30th birthday. First it was just the two of us and Ryan's mother and sisters. By the end, it was that, his aunt and her son and Griffin's mother.
Cute shot. Everything is better in Ireland. We even photograph better!
Zzzzzz. Sleepy boy.
Is this coming out as a video? I'm not sure. If it does, this was pretty neat. First they did the news in English, then in Irish, then in sign language.
All dressed for the surprise.
Fuzz-o-Jess!
A cool statue in the lobby of the place we met Ryan.
From left to right, Griffin's mother (Donna), Ryan and Gerilyn. Whose name I probably misspelled. Sorry.
Champagne!
Griffin and his mum.
Griffin and his other best girl.
Jack, Gerilyn's son.
Jack, being strangled by his mother.
Ryan and a camerashy Jack.
Guinness! Ryan's dog!
Pretty view that was ruined by a dying camera.
Ah, Griffin is that way. And in Irish.
BLUE!
Donna's donkey! (It kept her up all night braying.)
A beautiful view. Get used to this. There are a million pictures of views.
On the ferry to the Arran Islands.
Guinness came! :)
Rose, Ryan's wife.
Kerry (Ryan's sister) and Jack on the Ferry.
Totally worth it, but my hair was a total knot by the end of this ride.
A view of the Arran Islands.
On the deck below us, there were a bunch of guys getting completely wasted. Loud, drunk and totally fun to watch.
Video from the boat.
Cathy (Griffin's aunt, Ryan's mother)
Mrs. Grant. And me apparently, trying to escape the shot.
Counter clockwise. Donna, Me, Griffin, Cathy, Megan (Ryan's other sister), Kerry's arm.
SUPERMAC'S!...We never got to go. :( It's the Irish fast food chain. In front of it is a 99er, this awesome ice cream thing.
So in Ireland, they call them Frosties. Oh no, I just realized my picture of our collection of chocolate and crisps isn't on here! They had so many weird varieties. The shot of our collection had: Scampi, bacon (which was pretty good), BBQ beef, chicken, buffalo, cheese and onion (so good!), an Aero bar (if anyone goes back to Ireland before I do, I humbly request you bring me back $50 worth of them. Delicious bubbly mint chocolate), more mint stuff, white chocolate...oh man, it's a miracle we didn't die from the crap we ate.
Just an Irish sign...
A display of fairies. Between winged things and cow things (whether living or things to buy), I was in heaven.
HORSIE!
After an unfortunate chain ripping on Kinga Ka at Six Flags, I lost my Claddaugh. :( I found the exact same one I had in a store on the Arran Islands and had to buy it.
I need to make a macro out of this. YOUR VAGINA IS NOT A CLOWN CAR!! Seriously, there were 8 of them and they were all siblings.
On our way to the middle of nowhere where Ryan lives. (Ballydangan)
Seriously the middle of nowhere. Tiny one lane dirt roads, 3 houses in a mile...I loved it.
Our B&B for the night. I was so excited. Look how low the ceiling is!
AHH IT'S FALLING!
Yes. I am easily amused. I turned Griffin into a Pringle piece of artwork.
The view from our room.
This is Sheefra (Shifra?), Ryans sister in law's daughter. She looks so much like Griffin's niece Lily.
Grandpa's little girl. And Jack. :)
Sheefra being a pool shark.
We were at Ryan's sister in law's new house for a housewarming party/double birthday party.
Ah, this was an amazing moment. We walked down the dirt road a little bit. You could see so many stars in the sky and the only sound was our feet hitting the ground. Silent and beautiful. Then we walked to the beach area (we couldn't really see it, it was too dark). It was gorgeous.
A traditional Irish breakfast, sans tomato. Oh man. That big puffy stuff on the left? Bacon. I don't know if I can ever eat American bacon again, this was delicious. And the sausage? You've never eaten sausage if you haven't had it in Ireland. It's NOTHING the same. Simply delicious. I guess it is because the animals are like...5 feet away from the place they cook it.
Gypsies! Or as they are called there, Travelers.
Leaving Galway.
Griffin looks pained as I got him midshot, right before my battery died on my camera.
A thatched roof.
I may be pushing it, but I see eye heart U in the clouds. (an eyeball, a heart and the letter u). By the time I took the picture the U and the eye had shifted a bit.
Ah, a 99er or a flake. Delicious ice cream that is almost more heavy cream than ice cream with a chocolate flake in it. Yummy.
Hehe. Emo gas.
Man, the views...so breathtaking.
I never got a good shot of the windmill. This'll have to do.
When we were in Dingle, we went into SuperValu (the main supermarket out there) and I bought candies. Behold, Griffin and I with our fake teeth!
A cool chess set in the hotel/B&B we stayed in.
I had a bubble bath! I can't remember the last time I did this.
Dingle, supposedly one of the most beautiful places in the world. And I wouldn't be surprised by that title at all. These pictures don't do it justice. This was the view from our window.
Our room. It would have been all clean but we napped first before I took the picture.
Low tide.
Imagine this picture, only everything is bluer and greener and the water positively GLISTENS.
The pier at Dingle.
I found this amusing. This was a sign on a TOURIST shot from an article about how tourism is ruining Ireland. Riiight....
Arrr, a seadog.
Um...
A cool building.
:( Leaving Dingle. I could have stayed and just stared at its beauty for hours.
The something something mountain range. I forgot the name and I don't want to go find a map.
Cool church.
The beginning of the Ring of Kerry. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong. But after Dingle? Well it was almost a letdown. Pretty but nothing can compare.
Sheep!
Our beloved GPS. Oh how I love you. And miss you.
Still the ring of Kerry, in case you forgot. :)
A gorgeous view. Griffin and his mother.
Purple mountain.
On our way around we FINALLY found cows close enough to the road. Kind of. Sadly, there was a barbed wire fence so we didn't go closer. Griffin had told me he would get me close enough to pet a cow. No such luck. Anyway, after walking back to the field the cows were in, we were chatting about names for our cow. Dinner, leather and Well done came up. This is our cow, Shoe.
Shoe grazing.
I think this one is video. If it doesn't show up, it was just a half second clip of a "moo."
More pretty views. Man, how many places have every pretty natural landmass in the same shot? We've got ocean, mountains, green and cows here. Yes, cows are a natural formation.
Some island.
A neat tree made tunnel.
This and the next one are views of where we stopped for lunch.
The place where we stopped for lunch had some nifty flowers.
Sheep crossing!
More sheep crossing.
An abandoned castle.
Where we stayed that night (In Killarney)
It had a canopy thing!
More candy from the Dingle Supervalue. Griffin and Jessica, dolphin killers!
Pretty flowers.
Neat cross.
SCRUFFY'S!...if you don't watch Futurama, you wouldn't appreciate Scruffy's night club.
We ate dinner in the one of the only Burger Kings in the country. I don't think I'm exaggerating considering there are only like...4 McDonald's in all of Ireland.
The roof in the next 3 pictures was like a shot from Birds. There were SO many crows.
Donna ordered an Irish coffee. She got a neat little sugar clover on top.
Mmm, my Bulmers. Potentially the most delicious hard cider ever. They have Magners in America which is supposedly the same thing. But it isn't. At all. *sniffle* I want to go back to Ireland for Bulmers alone.
The pub we went into had live Irish music. I recorded about 25 seconds worth. Quite pretty.
Griffin and his mother in the pub.
A video clip of the live Irish music. Totally pretty. Sorry for the shaky camera, I was kind of tipsy and not paying attention to the video, just hoping to get some sound in.
Mrs. Grant insisted on getting a picture with the guy in the pub.
A neat fountain inside our B&B/hotel.
Ross Castle.
Duckies~
Beds in Ireland are hard. If you have spoken to me at all lately, you should know Griffin and I have the world's most comfortable bed EVER. So the transition between super comfy bed and rock slab was hard. Thus: Sleepy us.
Ah, Ross castle. Full of history. Currently being serviced by Eirecom.
A quick view of Killarney National park.
Another small Ferry ride to explore one of the Killarney lakes.
Mmm. Torc waterfall near the bottom. Now keep in mind, everything here was bluer, greener and prettier. These pictures were good, but the waterfall was amazing.
A neat tree.
Torc Waterfall.
Aww, I like this picture. :)
Video of the Torc waterfall.
Warning: No breaking people's windshields and running away.
I was used to the whole driving on the left and the driver's side being the right by this point. But seeing a dog from that window threw me off completely. Doggie driver!
Our last B&B apparently put you in a committed relationship with the bathroom when you locked the door.
Our last place in Newmarket on Fergus, by the airplane.
Sunrise on the way to Shannon.
Shannon airport.
I bought a hat! I like it.
We were sad to leave. Griffin proves this with his pouty face.
Goodbye Ireland!
Goodbye cows that are 500 feet from the runway!
Aryan flight attendant Barbie wishes you a safe flight and hopes to see you again soon!
