Failte is basically "welcome" in Irish Gaelic. I figure I should welcome people since it has been awhile since we have posted. There was no better time to post than to share pictures about my trip to Ireland. I will go ahead and get the two most common questions I've heard out of the way.
1. Did you go with Chris? No, I went with my book club.
2. Did you read a book about Ireland? No, we didn't read a book about Ireland. We just went for fun.
My friends and I spent a week in Ireland making stops in Dublin, Galway, Cong, Doolin, and Killarney. My favorite parts were seeing the beautiful coast and countryside of Ireland and staying in a castle.
A fun fact is that there are about 4.5 million people in Ireland, but there are 7 million sheep. If you go outside the cities you will definitely see a lot of sheep and since we traveled in the spring we saw a lot of baby lambs running around. We even had to wait on a road for a herd of cows to pass on the road (wasn't quick enough to get a picture). I was amazed at the different kinds of scenery I saw while I was there: rolling hills, cliffs, beaches with surfers and mountains. Also, there are just ruins of towers and castles about every 25 kilometers. You'll see a picture of on the side of the road with a castle in the background. We were just driving and saw a castle and pulled over. It's not a tourist spot or anything...just there.
Speaking of castles, we stayed at Ashford Castle near the town of Cong. We went during off-peak times for Ireland, so we got a really great deal on our rooms for this luxury hotel. Pierce Brosnan was married there and President Ronald Reagan stayed there (among other celebrities). The grounds were beautiful and they had activities like biking, horse back riding and falconry. It was in the middle of our stay and it was nice and relaxing part of the trip.
I left the gals for a day and took a bus tour of the Dingle Peninsula. It reminded me a bit of the drive around Monterey in California. If I remember my tour guide correctly this is where Christianity started in Ireland. Christians settled in monastic beehive huts in the area. It is a great tour, but I definitely recommend going by bus like me. The roads are so narrow and windy that it can be pretty scary to drive.
Our last day we drove to Cork and stopped by the oldest indoor market in Ireland. It was a great market that also had a great spot for lunch called Farmgate Cafe. After a nice lunch, someone had the bright idea to end our trip with typical book club fare of cured meats, cheese and wine to celebrate at our hotel. Over this grand meal, I did tell people about the book I read while on the trip--so it could be a book club meeting after all.
