Katie's Irish Experience

Midterm Break

Mike Driving on the left handside of the road. The roads were barely wide enough to fit two vehicles on them!!!

After leaving Shannon Airport we went to Bunratty Castle, it was a castle from the 1100's. The castle was beautifully renovated to look exactly like it had when it was first built. At the grounds of the castle was also a village that was built to look like it would have when the original castle was built. Inside the houses they were burning a substance that was used to keep the place warm. The substance was turf, it seemed to do a great job heating the houses but it created a lot of smoke and a horrible smell. But if that is the only source of heat available I am sure that I would have used turf as well.

Houses in the Bunratty Village

The castle was really cool because it had stairs going throughout the walls of the castle. These stairs were extremely narrow and circular. The lady that was dressed up in medieval attire said that this was a defense tactic. Irelands biggest opposition at this time was the Vikings, they were said to be a larger population and with these small staircases the Vikings had a hard time getting in and out of the castle. So the Irish could defend their castle and rooms much better.

Bunratty Castle

After visiting the castle, my family was very tired from their long travels so we found a bed and breakfast and some dinner and we went to bed. In the morning we went up to Ennis, a small town North of Shannon, this is where the beautiful Cliffs of Moher are. They are amazing, how straight down the cliffs are and how close one could get to the edge. But don't worry, my mom put a stop to any daredevil antics.

Adam and I at the Cliffs of Moher

After the Cliffs of Moher we drove around the country side and saw a lot of cool scenery, it is amazing how the terrain of one country can change so quickly. We drove along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, it would have been beautiful, but it was kind of a cloudy and dreary day. Not too much to see, but still very beautiful. After driving on the coast for a while we toured a cave that had been recently discovered. It has the second largest stalactite in the world. The Irish seem to be a bit bitter about the largest stalactite in the world, which was found after their stalactite in Brazil and is only a foot or two larger than the one in Ireland. Either way the cave was breathtaking. It was discovered in 1952 by two college students who stumbled upon the cave by accident. They had to crawl through a space that was barely big enough for one person to fit through, they were not able to turn around even if they had wanted to. The cave was amazing, it just opened up to tourists in June of 2006, so we were one of the first people to see this spectacular cave.

The boys walking through the cave

The great stalactite: it is about 21 feet long and still growing

Ennis and its scenery were beautiful but then we started heading south to more woodland and moutainous regions. During our travels we also visited Cork, Cobh (pronounced Cove, the h in Ireland produces a 'v' sound), the Jameson Distillary in Midleton, The Ring of Kerry, Killarney and Dingle Penninsula. We also tried to golf while my parents were here but that did not work out because as of November 1 most of the tourist offices and tourist attractions shut down for the season. Many places in Ireland are not open year round because the number of tourists is so low by the end of October.

Steve sampling the different types of Irish whiskey's

Mom and Mike at the Torc Waterfall in County Kerry

Golfing in Ireland is huge, but for those people who enjoy golfing but do not feel like golfing for 4 hours, Ireland has what are called Pitch and Putt's. These are miniature golf courses, not miniature golf like we have in the U.S., but golf courses that are about half the size of regular golf courses and take about half the time to complete. Since we were only here in Ireland for a week we decided to try a Pitch and Putt, but like I said they were all closed for the season so we were not able to. Hopefully some day I will be able to come back to Ireland and try golfing here during the summer season.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful scenery that we got to see during our travels.

A completey calm lake, on a beautiful Irish Day.

posted by Katie @ 7:06 AM