Ireland Part 2

My apologies for taking forever to complete the rest of my Ireland trip. I really have no excuse other than ive been taking more trips and have thousands of more pictures and many more stories to share. --> Off the subject for a moment, if you look at the bottom of the screen you will notice a link area. Those links are of my friends blogs here in Aix so if your ever bored feel free to check them out, they are quite interesting. <--
Anyways back to Ireland. After renting the car we headed south, our destination being Cork for the big Jazz festival. It's funny that our intial plan was to do all of Ireland, including the north, in 4 days. Let me just say, no matter how small Ireland looks, the roads make is difficult to travel efficiently. They are being improved but they definitly slow you down and Ireland is really not that small :)
The most exciting part of our first day on the road was our stop at Cashel Castle. This is where St. Pattrick babtized the King of Munster. I personally found this very interesting especially after having read "The Princes of ireland", a book i would highly recommend. Below our some pictures from this castle.






Arriving in Cork, with anticipation of partaking in the Jazz festival, we were highly dissapointed. After driving around for an hour we finally found a place to park and we were starved. We ended up spending too much money on some food that was just not that great and couldn't really find where the festival was. We decided to call it an early night, you would be surprised how much driving takes out of you. You would all be jealous, we had the most beautiful place to sleep. Right on the edge of the water with a view out the window that was to die for. In fact this wonderful place was our Ford Focus. Yup that is right, sleeping in the car! Here are some pictures from our hotel room :)







Our next destination entailed a journey through the Ring of Kerry. It was during this 4 hour drive that i was able to take in the essence of Ireland. The few pictures I have of this beautiful scenery do not even begin to capture the incredible colors, moslty green, that radiate from the ground, slowly pulling you into a trance. I spent most of that day in a world of my own. One moment freaking out becasue i was in Ireland, and the next in a dream that i did not want to wake up from. Here is a slideshow from the Ring of Kerry!

The next part of our voyage consisted of the Cliffs of Moher. "They are located in the parish of Liscannor at the south-western edge of The Burren area near Doolin." They are spectcular! There is a slideshow of them below. These cliffs are also interesting because the O'Brian watchtower is locate there. (There is a photo of it below)

"The O'Brien's Tower is a round stone tower at the approximate midpoint of the cliffs. It was built by Sir Cornellius O'Brien, a descendant of Ireland's High King Brian Boru, in 1835, as an observation tower for the hundreds of tourists that frequented the cliffs even at that date. From atop that watchtower, one can view the Aran Islands and Galway Bay, the Maum Turk Mountains and the Twelve Pins to the north in Connemara, and Loop Head to the south."
There is another tower that was built during the time of Napolean but i dont have any pictures of it.

One of our last nights was spent in Galway. This was a really cool place, probably one of my favorite cities in Ireland. We went to a bar, where i enjoyed my first Irish Coffee and listened to traditional Irish music. It was a blast and we met some really cool people. In fact, we ended up going to eat with one of the guys in the band.





The conculision of our trip was spent touring the Birr Castle which is actually one of the few castles left in Ireland where the family still resides. It was beautiful, they even had a mot :) Also connecting to the castle is a world renown Garden. It is huge and beautiful. It also contains the world's largest telescope.

Ireland...Oh Ireland

My roommate, one of our friends, and Myself decided we should rent a car and drive through Ireland, a place i have always dreamed of going. So we booked our flights, packed our bags and left. Our plans were that we wanted an advenure and we would go with the flow. No real itenerary, just a car, three girls, and peanut butter!

This is the perfect time to explain couch surfing. It's a website where people all over the world make profiles in which they either offer up their couch for a night or two, offer to meet for a coffee when you are visiting their hometown, or even offer to even show you around. My roommates and i all have accounts and have actually had people stay with us. It's a great idea especially when you are a poor college student trying to travel te world.

We arrived in Dublin on Friday and walked around the city in which we took a tram and ate lunch at Temple Bar (a popular square where everyone visits) We did get to see Croke park which is popular for Galeic Football (an interesting sport) and we did see Trinity college though i did not take any pictures of it. But the highlight of our day was the Guinness Factory. It is absoulety huge! i dont remember how many acers it is, but it was a lot. It took us 20 minutes of walking around it to actually find the Storehouse. The Storehouse is 6 floors plus the top gravity bar & sky bar where you can see a beautiful view of Dublin and get a complimentary drink. Walking through we learned how Guinness was made. The four major ingrediants being Barley, Hops, Water, and yeast! Yup doesn't it sound delicious.

After the Storehouse expereince we went and met up with a potential couch surfer. His name was Rory and he is called "Dublinguy"becasue he has hosted hundreds of people from all over the world in his home. It turned out that he had 8 people staying with him that night so he offered a place with one of his friends. The cool thing about couch surfing is that it is community orriented. All the couch surfers know each other and usually monthly or weekly get together. So anyways after meeting some cool people from Scotland, Israel, Greece, and Italy we headed off to Anthony's house. When we ot there, there were about 10 people circled around a dinner table waiting for us. 2 girls from Australlia, a girl from Portuagal, two from france, a guy from Brazil, and 3 from Ireland. It was such a neat expereince to eat dnner with so many people from all over the world. This was one of the highlights of my trip. Anyways after dinner we met up with all the couch surfers and went to a fun Pub. The general energy of the pub was really cool. People were having a good time, some even dressed up. We left the next day and rented the car. The first time driving on the LEft side. IT was quite and expereince!!! Here are some pictures of Dublin!

Marsielles, Avignon, Port Du Gard and Danny and Kat's visit!

Danny and Kat came to visit me for four days and we had a blast. It's the first time that i have actually ate amazing, expensive cheese. I mean the kind that just melts in your mouth. All weekend we ate cheese, bread and wine. Yes i know so cliche!!! I really wish that i had words to explain it, but i don't. It was just that good! The first day we took them to Marseilles and walked around. That night we went to this wine bar that was fantastic. I had the best wine i have ever had with cheese and this absolutely terrific salmon dish.





The next day we went to Avignon and the Port du Gard bridge. Avignon is one of the most visited areas in France. It is where the Pope lived after he was kicked out of Italy. The first picture below is the palace that he and 5 popes proceeding him lived. It was so cold that day because the winds were really harsh, but the town was very hip and it was a lot of fun. After we went to the Port du Gard bridge which was built by the Romans. It was kind of creepy because we sat on the very edge and ate granola. It was such a surreal feeling standing on something so old.













The last day they were here we went hiking on Mount Saint Victoire. It was a 30 minute bus ride though the countryside and it was gorgeous, but freezing! We hiked up and ate some bread and cheese at the top. We actually were going to drink wine too, but we forgott a bottle oppener. So anyways here are some fun pictures from their visit. hope you enjoy.