5. Ireland Day 3

Previous to this I have been breaking up my days into 2 seperate posts. I have decided to make one long one for Day three so I hope you stay for the whole ride. Sit back and enjoy, I hope. The day began with a car ride, destination, Cliffs of Moher. As I rode in the now famous Mini I tried to snap shots of the countryside. I feel this picture just about sums it up, green pastures filled with fluffy sheep and stone walls. Aw, can you smell the fresh air?

Of course EVERY road trip no matter what country your in must include atleast one potty break! We stopped at pretty much the only petrol station known to have a potty on the way, it was a Tesco station. I loved the snack counter. If you take a moment to enlarge the image it's like a "Where's Waldo". There is everything in here from Curlywurlys to Hunky Dorys!

On our trip you always get the munchies so as we were driving along Erynne asked David to find a little place to pull over and have our picnic. He spotted just the perfect pull off right infront of a castle, what could have been better? I was just so excited to be having a picinic infront of a castle. Did I mention I had lunch by a castle?

Come to find out, David is not only a fabulous Tour Guide but he's an out of this world "side of the road out of the boot of a Mini in freezing cold temps, sandwich maker"! What a sport, he made the best roadside sandwich ever while us girls ran around giddy with delight taking pictures of everything we could find., including eachother.

My first up close and personal look. Belly full of sandwich and camera in hand, Look Out World!

I just LOVE this picture of Erynne and I. The perspective David gets really makes you feel like you are there at the base feeling the weight of all that stone and history. We pranced around taking in the views. There was no sign that we could find for this castle so Erynne and David have dubbed it "Rachel's Castle".

After our lunch we continued on our journey and reach The Cliffs of Moher. The shear grandour will take your breath away. At this moment I really wished that Brian were with me as he loves nothing more than the open ocean. He loves water and would love to live on or near it.

Erynne stuck our her arm, and said "That way to Brian and America". I took a moment paused and then waved at him. He says that he saw me but I just wonder!

Typical me, trying to get a good shot, sheilding the camera from the low sun.

Don't worry, they've built walls so you can no longer walk to the edge and jump to your death.

Can you hear the wind, the gulls, the waves and my squeals of delight?

Long long long way down.

Before we left I took a moment to strike a pose and Erynne captured the moment. I think that this image goes a long way to sum up my giddy delight at being with such great friends on such a wonderful trip.

Now, here is where I take a moment to make a little interesting side note. Brian and I have our own Land Surveying company, we basically make maps. Also another little tid bit of info, when I was a little girl my father would hand me the map and say "Here is where we are and here is where we are going for vacation. Now, you study this map and plan the route". So basically what I am saying here is that I, Rachel Mohler know how to read a map. Well let me tell you, after we left The Cliffs of Moher we got a little lost as David's Garmin didn't have all the little roads programed into it (not David's fault :). He hands me a map and says "Find where we are and where we need to go". He gave me the name of our destination and as I search the map I find where we need to be headed but what's this? Um David my dear there are NO names on these roads!!!!! I know maps and this isn't a map. I mean a piece of paper with little dots for towns and squiggly little lines running between them (I can only assume those are roads) does not a map make! The directions to get to our destination pretty much went a little something like this "go South a tiny bit, turn West then go North a bit". Not really the sort of directions one would be used to giving or getting. It made for a very interesting trip as the sun was setting and we were using the last rays of light to get to our final destination. Would there be enough light to see and take pictures? Well you'll just have to read on to find out :)

The sun was indeed kissing the horizon but as you can see we did get some nice photos in before we had to say goodbye to our friend the Sun. This is the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. This dates back about 4,500 years and is located in The Burren in County Clare.

The landscape here is just spectacular.

The moon was out and all was quiet on The Burren.

Don't worry, I obey posted signs. One mustn't upset the 4,500 year old spirits. I adopt the "walk softly and carry a good camera" philosophy.

The landscape as much as the Tomb itself fascinated me.

As we walked back to our car a sort of silence befell upon us as our day was at an end. What a day it was. Time to head home and have some Guinness with friends.

This concludes Day 3 of our broadcast day. I hope you have enjoyed it and as always feel free to leave a comment here and let us know what you thought.

Next time on The Adventures of the Traveling Bean will Rachel get to watch her first Rugby game? Tune in next time to find out!

4. Ireland Day 2, Part 2...

Upon returning home we decided to go grab the early bird special at the Cill Aodain Hotel in downtown Kiltimagh. The inside has be renovated with a modern look. There is a low orange cast to the room that is very welcoming. David entertained us by telling us what it used to look like inside as Erynne had never seen it pre-renovation either. Here is the sign that hangs over Aodain Street on the front of the Hotel.

As I was reading over the menu I can across the vegetable soup. Now as you look at the picture above you will have a hard time understanding what I read on the menu. Let me explain. The menu read "Vegetable soup served with a creamed crouton". Just imagine what you would think if you didn't have this picture image in your head. I just giggled and looked up and asked Erynne and David what in the world a creamed crouton is. I mean in my head a crouton is a crunchy dry food item. How do you cream it? All sort of things were going in my head. Were they doing a fancy deconstruction of the crouton, soaking it and making it spongey? Well once she placed it in from of me I laughed out loud. Ah Ha, a creamed,(comma space pause) crouton! Now it makes sense. I know I know, a long post about a stupid crouton but hey it really made me laugh at the time.

Mmmm, dessert. These are delicious, light not overly sweet, gorgeously presented Profiteroles (Thank you David for help on the spelling!).

We finished dinner off with coffee. Did you notice what the cup says on it? A cup just for me!

After dinner we went across the street to Ryan's pub. Here is a picture of me on the right and Mary on the left. She walked in took one look at me and said "You're Erynne's friend visiting from DC. Anthony (the man who served me my first ever Guinness the night before) told me you were in town". How cute. Literally in town for barely 24 hours and the word was out! Mary is a wonderful woman whom I really enjoyed meeting and seeing around town.

Now here is Bill. Let me give you a little background. Before my trip I told Erynne that I wanted to sit in a pub and talk to an older Irishman so he could tell me stories. "I've got just the guy for you" she said "That would be Bill". Well dear readers please meet Bill. He brought me to tears, literally. He sat and lovingly recited from memory William Wadsworth's poem Daffodils to me. Let me tell you that it being my second night, having met some lovely lovely heart warming people, sitting in a pub and having this lovely man recite poem after poem to me really did bring tears to my eyes. What a lovely man. Bill, I'm proud to have shared a Hot Whiskey with you.

Here is the group from that night, minus David who is behind the camera. From left to right is Bill, Erynne, Me, David (I forget his last name, David or Erynne a little help here) and Mary ( I don't remember her lastname either I'm sorry to report). Can't you just tell we are all having a wonderful time? Each and every person made me feel like I was home.

Erynne and I passing the time by arranging "Beer Mats". I think we annoyed the owner's wife a bit by demanding more beer mats so we could finish the puzzle, silly girls!

Yay, we finished it! I made sure I collected all the beer mats, stacked them back up and handed them back with a great big smile of thanks.

This ends Day 2 of my travels. I may take a day off to catch up on work before posting Day 3 so I hope you are enjoying the trip so far!

3. Ireland Day 2, Part 1...

My Second day began with a trip to Castlebar to go to the pet store to buy Erynne's snake Darwin a rat for his dinner. Sadly Darwin has been a little under the weather and has not wanted to eat since October. On our way back David took us to the National Museum of Ireland-Country Life. All museums in Ireland are free, imagine that. I always try to take pictures of signs so I can remember where I was. That's my shadow for proof that I was there in person and didn't just steal this picture!

Here is a picture of The Moylough Belt Shrine. It was found by a local man in the 1940's while he was out in the field cutting turf. Follow the link I've provided here to read more about it. Imagine, I was right there standing infront of it! What a privilage.

I love this chair. It's a three legged chair so that people could use it on the uneven floors of their houses. I think it would be great to put kids in time-out in the corner, what do you think?

Here is a look at one of the main rooms in the museum. The boat hanging on the wall with the wire man next to it was really neat. We sat and watched a video on how they made them. What a ton of work and skill went into those boats.

This fascinated me, see what looks like a clear plastic light shade hanging from the ceiling infront of the display? It's called a SoundTube. You stand under it and there is a speaker inside that projects sound down in a specific area so you can listen without disturbing the whole museum. How fun!

When we left the Museum we walked around the gardens and Erynne was soooo excited to show me a "Monkey Puzzle". It's so weird looking, and prickly. This is a really small one but I did see some very large one's in some people's yards while touring the countryside. Try to say Monkey Puzzle 3 times fast. Yeah that's what I thought. Does it come out something like Punkey Muzzle? David, that still makes me giggle :)

I am sorry to report that my only picture of a Thatch is of this model on the grounds of the Museum. I saw a few actual Thatch houses but as in Ireland there is no such thing as "pull over so I can take a picture" I didn't capture them on film (or memory card). I'll explain the small road conditions later in another post. But isn't it so cute? I totally want to live in one.

This is the Turlough Round Tower. Now before you see the rest of the pictures here is going to be a great example of the Irish weather. The time frame from this picture to the last is only about 15 minutes. The sun was out for this picture, it was really cold, but sunny. When you get to the last picture note the weather!

Click on any of my pictures to see them larger like this picture so that you can read it. I save myself lots of typing but doing this! It's interactive!

I love gates. Here is the gate we had to walk around. On the far side of the gate is a little turn style type device that you have to walk through. Keeps the animals out, or in depending.

I love the cemetaries in Ireland. The crosses are beautiful. The way the graves are laid out sort of reminds me of Nevada, don't you think mom? Now, see the clouds rolling in and how the sun is gone? Only a few minutes have passed. Fingers are numb and Erynne had a great time watching me literally running around trying to get as many pictures as I could before they froze and fell off.

Now here is the last picture to show you the weather. Full snow storm blowin in. Cool eh? I LOVE this picture. I was standing there by the round tower, in a cemetary, over looking local fields of sheep, can't get better than that! Well, if I could have felt my fingers, that would have helped.

I snuck a picture of inside by hanging my arm through a window. I love the texture, the shapes, the history. Really makes you humble.

After this we drove home to Kiltimagh to regroup and figure out what was for dinner. We were all very hungry. So my next post will cover dinner and then perhaps some Poetry? You betcha. Stay tuned for the next installment of The Adventures of the Traveling Bean!

2. Ireland, Day 1, Part 2...

Day one Ireland, Dublin tour continues. This installment of "The Traveling Bean" will take you from interesting places and sites in Dublin to my very first ever Guinness in the wee hours of the morning! And We're off... Here is the busty statue of lovely Molly Malone. She's sometimes refered to as The Tart with the Cart. You can go HERE to listen to the song of Molly Malone or also known as Cockles and Mussels.

Of course if you spend your time looking up you'll no doubt miss all the little things on the ground!

This is the "Interesting Sign and Store Names" section. The name "Chinese Ma Ma's Restaurant" made me giggle!

Okay, I know that my mother and other family members will be reading this but I couldn't resist posting this picture. I mean, here in the States a place called "The Eager Beaver" would require the cover of night, and a wallet full of ones! But this is a Ladies and Gents Quality Next-To-New Clothing store!

Once you get the hang of how to say the name of this store you can't help but use a Ted Kennedy accent!

This is their Exit sign. This sign was actually the first sign that I saw when I stepped off the plane in Ireland. It really made me laugh out loud. I mean it's a person fleeing for it's life from some sort of disaster as far as I can tell. It made me look around and wonder what sort of attack was eminent!

You didn't think that I could go to Ireland without looking for a box of Lucky Charms did you? Of course not. While wandering the streets of Dublin we wandered into an American Shop to find some items for Erynne that she can't find anywhere else. Ok, this is the only place you can find Lucky Charms and they are 8.75 Euros for one box. With the exchange rate that's WAY expensive for marshmallow clovers! Also the Jiff is interesting because in Ireland their peanut butter normally comes in a tin can.

Here are some other cereals to check out. Notice the packaging, it's all different.

Here I am as we are returning to the car in the "Car Park" aka parking garage of a mall in Dublin. That's David in the background paying the parking fee. We couldn't resist taking a picture of the really low ceiling. I'm 5'4" and I could touch it! That's short.

As we were leaving the city I got to ride in the mini! I couldn't resist snapping a photo of me on the wrong side of the car! That's my lap on the left and David driving on the right. I can't even begin to tell you what crazy drivers they all are over there. I would totally LOVE to live there and get to drive like an Irishman! I've been told that my driving style is similar to that of a "Getaway Driver" so I think I would TOTALLY fit in! First step, learn to drive stick!

No trip through Dublin would be complete without seeing the Guinness Factory!

At this point in my life I still had never had a Guinness.

We arrived at our home base destination of Kiltimagh in County Mayo. That is Where Erynne and David live and would be home base of operations for my most of my trip. We stopped at the local grocery store and I just had to have a picture taken of me with this little bear. Now, quick sidebar for a moment. In Ireland "chips" are not chips, they are "crisps". This is a bag of bear shaped crisps with a fun bear mask that comes free on the bag! Kinda creepy kinda cute. Another interesting note is that they don't really have large bags of "crisps". they all come in small single serving snack size bags. The larger bags are just bages of several smaller bags inside. It's great! No American mentality of eating the whole huge bag!

Here is photographic proof that my very first Guinness ever was in Ireland. Sorta like saving yourself for marriage. Why would I want Guinness anywhere else? Now, my glass looks different because I am a complete light weight when it comes to beer so I always drank a "Glass" of Guinnes instead of a "Pint" like Erynne and David are sporting in this picture. I could drink one glass in the time it took them to drink a pint. Erynne was very good at making sure the locals didn't over load me with pints or glasses of Guinness during my trip. I was determined to remember every detail of this trip clearly and not through a Guinness haze! Mom, you'd be so proud of me!

I love the sign! Guinness is good for you, gives you strength. I must say that it tastes lovely and you wake up in the morning and feel good. No swollen fingers in the morning or ache in your head. It goes down so lovely smooth. I think I miss it already!

This is the last picture from my first day in Ireland. We went to the local Chinese place to get some food in the belly. I had heard about this place and the lovely girl that works behind the counter from Erynne so I was interested to meet her. She was so nice, she even signed my "Take Away" menu for me to remember her by. Oh yeah, they don't have "Carry Out" it's called "Take Away".

By the time we arrived home, ate our food, chatted some and I settled into bed I had been up for over 36 hours straight. Wow, what a whirl wind of a day that turned out to be. I was so excited to be there, to pal around with my best friend and see all the things she had been telling me about for the last 4 years. I truly had made it, and was soaking it all in. I layed in bed, took a deep relaxing breath and with a smile on my face fell into a deep sleep for the next 12 hours!

Ireland, Day 2 soon to come. As always, speak up and let me know what you think!