Hey, it's good to be back home again...

London..as seen thru the London Eye





I'll be with you in just..a..second...

London Bridge ain't goin' nowhere...

Our last day was spent in London...we...are...exhausted. Well, I am exhausted, Patrick doesn't exhaust. We stayed in an area called Bayswater. I think the boys would call it "sketch". The hotel was nice but the surrounding area was a little "iffy". I admit it...I was spent and not really all that much fun so this blog may be influenced by that. We took a  double decker tour so that we could see as much of the city as possible in the short time we had there. I knew it was a big city but I guess I didn't realize it was THAT BIG. The humanity..OMG. Hoards and hoards and hoards of people. The history was amazing. Hard to wrap your head around buildings that were built THAT long ago. Patrick got another good scratch on his chronic history itch. We left Europe at noon the 23rd...pockets empty, eyes weary but with hearts filled completely  with joy and love and wonder for the ancestors that made everything happen so that I could meet and marry and love the most amazing Irishman the Emerald Isle has produced.

Bye, bye friends....

'Tis a sad, sad, day...

We must leave our new favorite place today :-(  All good things come to an end (at least in our world).  It has been truly spectacular and, fortunately for us, we're not quite done as we get to spend a full day in London tomorrow.  Also, to be quite honest, we're getting tired of being in our little red VW Polo every day. 

Side story:  ever since Killarney, Carrie's had the Bing Crosby version of "Christmas in Killarney" in her head and unable to get rid of it.  Just when she'd lost it, I whistled it so she could suffer some more.  Yeah, that's what I call fun.



Irish orneriness

We left our B&B near Kinsale (county Cork) and drove on Monday to Kilkenny.  It was (surprise) a lovely drive.  On the way, we explored the City of Cork, which was much larger than I expected.  We toured a very old jail.  It was pretty interesting and reinforced how harsh life was in the 1800's (many months of jail for stealing a piece of fabric for instance).

Then, we took the fast road (which is still pretty scenic) to Kilkenny, which turned out to be such a beautiful little town.  We stayed at a great hotel (Kilkenny River Court) which was right on the river and looked up at Kilkenny castle, which was amazing.



Our hotel on left + Kilkenny castle

We had time to walk around and explore this great town and that evening had the pub experience we'd always envisioned with singing and drinking and making new friends.  It was a spectacular evening at Tynan's pub (27th and last of our weeklong Irish pub crawl).

Liam and Patrick in full glory/plastered

Then, we had a nice Irish breakfast this morning and took the motorway to Dublin.  We'll be in London tonight and give you the 4-1-1 on that experience before we come home.

Things we've learned since we've been here

Whomever said Irish food was unimpressive was wrong.  My Dad has said many times:  "none of the top 10 chefs in the world are Irish".  We beg to differ.  We have had some of the most delicious meals in our lives since we've been here.  P.S., you know how important food is to me...  Examples:

• tonight, Carrie had crispy Lamb's neck braised in cinnamon... out of this world
• Shepherd's pie (amazing)
• fish and chips and mushy peas (unlike anything found in America)
• bangers and mash (c'mon - sausage and mashed taters - good stuff)
• Guinness stew w/ mashed potatoes (best meal Patrick has had... ever)
• Irish stew w/ lambs meat
• scones and delicious coffee
• cadbury's chocolate "giant" buttons (spectacular but giant they're not)
• not even to mention the tea at 4pm (with milk)

Public bathrooms are spotless no matter where they are (in the wood, national park, petrol station, you name it).  One caveat is that they have the weakest hand dryers on the earth (our cats' breath would be faster).  Oh, and a second oddity:  they often have two separate faucets for the hot and the cold water.  How do you work that to get warm water on both hands?

The boys here stink.  Literally.  They don't believe in deodorant or bathing daily it seems.  It doesn't seem so with the women.

The exterior of Irish homes are spotless.  They all look like they just got painted.  They are neat and orderly just like this German wants the world to be.  Inside, more true to the Irish spirit, a little messy and very minimalist.  Almost every Irish house has lace curtains, which Patrick says we cannot have when we move here.  He wants to stir things up and introduce paisley curtains.  Holla.

These people love their football (soccer), rugby and Gaelic football.  We have passed car after car and house after house sporting the flag of their favorite team(s).  We've sat in many a pub watching them watch their games.  It's huge.

Because of the treacherous terrain, there are many Tyre (tire) stores.  I mean every little town, no matter how small, has a tyre store.  And here's what we can't figure out, they pride themselves in selling car boots.  And we have no flippin' idea what a car boot is.  Nanette?  Allison?  Googled answers not accepted, only personal knowledge allowed.

The Irish people are the nicest people on earth.  They are sweet, proper, helpful, and genuinely interested in you.  One thing we've learned:  all you have to do is ask and you will get an answer and ten other things you didn't know but thankful you learned.  They go out of their way, sometimes WAY out, to help you.  And with nearly every conversation, tea is offered.  They are, as we're now fond of saying, quite lovely.

A brief glossary of Irish terms we've learned (okay, some we knew already but most are new):

• take away = carry out food
• biscuits = cookies
• cream = milk
• brown sauce = some amazing stuff they put on everything
• brown scone = plain scone
• bangers = sausage
• bacon = some ham/bacon hybrid
• chips = fries
• ready salted crisps = regular potato chips
• boxties = potato cakes
• traffic calming = means you need to slow down / town is coming up
• go moll = see above
• 100 kph = yeah, right, if you're Mario Andretti you can do it on THIS narrow winding road
• jaunty = horse carriage
• off license = liquor store?  we still don't understand this one
• whipped ice cream = soft serve
• half eight = 8:30
• We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

There is nothing as precious as listening to a small child speak with an Irish accent.  Just sweet and delightful.

More, more, more.

welcome to our castle

We don't have computer access all the time so we'll have to play a little catch-up with you...let's see..we left Donegal and arrived in Galway on day Friday. It is very nice, full of young people because it is a college town. we went to a pub or two..met an old Irishman (Michael) who's sister lives in Topeka and a very drunk Irishman (Henry) who told us he was in construction before he "took on the drink" and now he doesn't work. We had an incredible meal at McSwiggan's and listenened to a a small, young band play some unbelievable music. We stayed in the center of town and our hotel room window looked out over a very busy and VERY noisy street. We heard a couple fight at about 3am and it sounded like they were sitting on our bed. No sleep that night. The next day we went to Killarney but on the way we stopped to see the Cliffs of Moher. Just unbelievable. Words cannot describe how beautiful they were.

Cliffs of Moher

Killarney was lovely ( our favorite word that we can't seem to get away from when describing anything we see in Ireland). Up early this morning to see the Ring of Kerry, which isn't a "thing" but a trip around the tip of the southeastern peninsula of Ireland. Again...unbeleivable.

Ring of Kerry - impossible to capture

Each town was so sweet and cute and clean..all the people so, SO nice. We saw mountains and the sea and beaches and valleys and and mist and rain and castles and so much that we were just in awe most of the day. The roads were scary in some parts but Patrick's got that part down by now. Tonite we are staying in a beautiful country B&B outside of Kinsale. We aren't really B&B people...like staying at someone's house that you don't know but they are very sweet and we felt like we had to give it a go..

Glen Country House - feels like home (someone else's)

Day 3: O'Donnell search hits paydirt!

As we mentioned yesterday, our historical and scenic scavenger hunt launched by our new friend Peter got sidetracked, but for an awesome reason.  We were planning on trying to find Patrick's ancestral home or relatives even (like that could possibly happen) and all we really had was the name of the townland called Cashleenan where greatgrandfather John O'Donnell had left in 1889 to come to Kansas with his young bride Bridgid.  I mean, Cashleenan is so small (maybe 20 residents now) that it shows up on no maps.  Google gives you one hit - a school list from nearby Kilmacrennan (not too big in its own right).  So, we took the amazingly gorgeous drive from Bundoran up across Donegal to Letterkenny (pretty big town) where we stopped at the visitor's center and got some great directions from Amanda, who had been prepped by our good friend Jerry O'Donnell, proprietor of our hotel in Bonduran.  Keep in mind that the O'Donnell name is like the Smith of Donegal.

road to Cashleenan

By the way, our only guidance on the house itself is an amazingly grainy picture which could be of a small cottage or maybe even a skyscraper (hard to tell).  We eventually found what we believed to be Cashleenan (no signs or anything like that believe me) and drove through it and literally knocked on doors of farmhouses but unfortunately after four or five found nobody home (or they were hiding inside afraid of the big american man at their door).  Then, good fortune struck and we talked to a lady walking through the rain and she said there was a Daniel O'Donnell down the road and so we stopped at his house.  Again, nobody home.  Carrie and I took some pictures and were literally a minute from leaving Cashleenan feeling like we'd certainly gotten close, when...  Daniel and his son drive up and were initially concerned with who could be blocking their driveway with the little red car.  Well, next thing you know we're inside having tea and he's calling his friend Jim Nesbit who "knows it all about the O'Donnells in Cashleenan".  A few minutes later, we're meeting Jim at the top of a driveway down to a home, which turns out to be THE home we're trying to find.  In fact, Jim is married to Tricia (born O'Donnell) and her grandfather Bernard was John's brother.  So, we're like 2nd cousins once removed or something.  Anyway, it felt awesome.  Well, Jim and Tricia invited us to spend the night at the O'Donnell cottage, their vacation home.  They've done a ton of work to renovate the home and it is really sweet (as are they).




O'Donnell ancestral home



Tricia O'Donnell Nesbit



O'Donnell reunion

Day 2: Across the green to the west

Sorry we didn't get a chance to post on Wednesday, but things were a blur.  Let us summarize day 2 (Wednesday) as follows:  great drive from Dublin to Bonduran, Donegal, and we thought Ballyshannon and Donegal Town were very pretty and interesting.  We had our first taste of the one lane, shrub bordered highways we've heard about.  They're actually fun.  Okay, in all honesty, Carrie's palpitations were audible. 

Irish "highway"



Irish "lovers"


Our hotel in Bundoron was awesome but the town has lost some of it's luster over the years, I'd guess.  It was great to see the ocean and our room had a great view.  A consistent theme in our trip seems to be if you talk to people you get amazing amounts of help and friendship in return.  Barry, our bartender/manager at the Dublin hotel connected us with his dad (Peter) who lives near Ballyshannon, and he was amazing.  We met with him and he drew us a basic treasure map of exploration in NorthWest Donegal.  Even involved knocking on a farmer's door and borrowing his rowboat to go out on his lake and see "an anchient mystery as amazing and old as the Pyramids".  Now, that being said, we never got to follow his guidance as we had the most amazing diversion (but we'll leave you hanging on that until tomorrow).  Here's a picture of Donegal Castle in Donegal Town (FYI, the DON in Donegal comes from O'Donnell which is our Irish family ancestry).  It was very pretty and I had a Red Hugh (O'Donnell) beer at the pub next door.  Since we are O'Donnell descendents, we're a pretty big deal around here ;)

Real Irish Castle (of the O'Donnell clan)

We made it!

First view of the Emerald Isle

Slept 'nary a wink on the planes during our journey to the Emerald Isle, but we did reach our beloved destination on time and in one piece (well, two pieces).  I'm not sure Carrie will ever recover her nerves from our drive into the central city of Dublin (swears I almost clipped a bus on our left side - I'm pretty sure there were a couple of centimeters of clearance).  P.S., I'm all European now, using the metric system and everything.  But, we made it to our Hotel/Pub, Farrington's of Temple Bar, had two Guinness' and a V&T for my baby, then took a 2 hour nap.



I can do it!



We got up just in time to clean up and go take the Guinness tour - we highly recommend this.  The view from the Gravity Bar is quite amazing.  We went back to Temple Bar, had an amazing dinner (my Guiness stew and Boxtie Cakes will remain in my flavor memory for some time).  We finished up the evening with visits to the actual Temple Bar (see photo of bar - that's it) and a couple of others whose name now escapes me but were awesome.  Now, on to the motherland of Donegal today - more later!

Gravity Bar - Guinness Storehouse

THE Temple Bar (what a classic pub)

My first Guinness on the Island