The Adventures of the Restless

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Blarney Castle 09-23

This morning, we knew we had a lot of driving ahead of us to make it back to Dublin, so we only got to see a couple things. Our first stop was Barney Castle, followed by the mother ship of the Waterford Crystal world.

Blarney Castle was the most expensive tourist attraction yet – 12 Euros per person. This enabled us to walk the grounds of the castle, explore the dungeons and interior of the castle, and kiss the Barney Kissing Stone. While I have decided I want a castle of my own one day, it will surely be more spacious ;) All of the castles here have very, very small rooms, scary steep staircases, and short doors. I know this is because of the time they were built – but I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live there. Keeping this one short and simple because I’m behind a couple days – so here are the pics:

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The Flight of South Western Ireland - 09-22

Yesterday we were scheduled to be at the Ashford Castle School of Falconry at 15:00. Due to a mishap with timing – we didn’t make it. With our hopes up, we decided that we would venture there first thing in the morning to see if they had any appointments before our scheduled departure to see The Burren and Cliffs of Moher. When we figured out how to navigate the castle grounds and found the Falconry School – we were really disappointed when they told us that they didn’t have anything available until the afternoon, by which time we would be far to the south. Deflated, we took a walk around the grounds to look at the owls, hawks, and falcons before we leaving. As we were on our way out the gate, a girl named Laura ran out to us and said that she may have to cut it a little short, but if we had time now, she had time to take us through the class.

We were so happy that she stopped us when she did, and took us through the course. She first told us about the different birds, and some of their traits that allowed for high speed, hunting, and quick stops. Laura then told us about the science behind the food limits for the birds, and that as little as ¼ ounce of too much food would stop the birds from flying optimally, as well as ¼ too little would make them feel starved. The birds are weighed in everyday to ensure they are at optimal weight, and in doing so – the lifespan of the birds in their captivity are nearly doubled that of the birds in the wild. While their instincts enable the birds to maintain their optimal weight, being in captivity (and spoiled) does the hard work for them to ensure a longer life.

After the overview of the birds, Laura handed Angie a female hawk named Lima – and me a male hawk named Andes. She walked us around the castle grounds and forest, showing us how to launch the birds to encourage flight, and how to call them back to perch on our arms. Working with the birds was really such a cool experience. Being social birds, they flew together and stayed close to us – knowing we had food for them. Andes was quite on queue at all times to return to our arms when called, while Lima was quite the sassy girl. Being only 6 months old (both birds) they hadn’t quite learned 100% the difference between food and other objects while hunting. Lima kept picking up sticks and fanning her wings around them, as a means to guard it so no one could get it. At one point, Laura went to pick her up, and while remaining in a shield like state, Lima tried to waddle away and protect her stick. It was quite funny to watch. Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos from this Falconry adventure:

The Flight of the Hawks:

The bridge to Ashford Castle

Ashford Castle

Laura showing us the Owl

The weights and scale - the very top weight shown is 1/4 ounce

The weight and optimal weight chart for the birds

Angie & Lima, Me & Andes

Slowing for perch

Andes and I getting ready for launch

Landing

Perching

Matt - taking a stroll

Charlie being perched by both birds

Mid-launch

Posing for the camera

In flight

After Falconry, we headed to The Burren. We had heard that The Burren was a beautiful place with natural, strange rock formations. He hiked for about an hour, and while the view was beautiful the whole way, we didn’t actually see anything. Perhaps we missed a turn, but we were pressed for time and had to turn around. Below are just a few pictures from the hike:

The Burren:

Our final stop for the day before heading to a bed and breakfast – The Cliffs of Moher. This is the number 1 tourist attraction in Ireland, and we had heard about how amazing it was. Take a look on Google. It is literally massive cliffs, staggered in a beautiful formation. I don’t really know what much there is to say about the cliffs, that cannot be shown through photos, so I’ll just put those in below. Near the cliffs, there was also a tower that we stopped for some photos:

Monday, September 23, 2013

North West Ireland

I finally have internet again!!! It's only been a couple days, but we haven't had free wifi where we have been staying - so I'll keep the next couple updates short. We have a plane to catch in the morning to Edinburgh, and it's 11:00pm here...

Anyway, 09/21 was a day that we are the go, go, go. See, we started our trip and Dublin, and planned out things we wanted to see in a full loop around Ireland - meaning that each day, we would be driving to make progress on seeing the entire coast line of Ireland. Today, we had to get up early and set out for Dunluce Castle and Mermaid Cave in order to get enough time to make our way to Falconeering. (We later learned that the drive to the School of Faconeering in Ashford Castle was 5 hours away, and did not make our appointment in time). However, we stumbled upon the old Bushmills Distillery - the oldest distillery in the world. Can anyone say whiskey? A couple photos below :)

Bushmills Distillery:

Matt and Charlie

Angie with a cute little Irish cat

Barrels o'Boos

Dunluce castle was the first castle in Ireland that we were actually able to stop at and revel in it's glory. I've posted some photos below. The castle was mainly intact, with a lot of repair work and visible decay - so to speak. But it was a sight standing mighty on the cliffs edge, overlooking the shores. It is easy to see why the castle would have been hard to take over looking at the towers, weak points, and vantage points.

Dunluce Castle: just a couple photos- time constraint here

Beautiful

Angie, Matt, Me, and Charlie

"let me see you growl" Angie said, and everyone walking by laughed :)

Don't worry, we did get up close and personal, but - in a hurry

Mermaid Cave was something from photos we saw on Ireland. It was supposedly a cave of legend in which men would be pulled into the sea by mermaids - near a castle. See the crossroads in the path of the first image of the castle I posted, and yellow sign? That yellow sign warns not to go into the cave. We didn't know before we got the Dunluce, but Mermaid Cave was directly below the castle.

Okay, I know it said not to go in.... But it was an awesome photo op we couldn't pass up. Honestly, I was really hesitant about breaking the rules, but the rest of the group was at the bottom already... so I took the opportunity as well.

Mermaid Cave:

Charlie and I near the entrance to the cave

Charlie at the bottom, watching the waves crash

Love me some silhouette photos! Angie and Matt

Matt and Charlie

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous

Today was also a day of stumbles. By some dumb-luck, we stumbled upon several abandoned churches/abbeys by making some wrong turns - and ended up seeing some the coolest history that just cannot be seen in the US. This abbey we found (later pictures, not the top ones) have graves in it that date back to 1726 (from what I remember the date being), and that was just on the headstone that was readable - who knows how far back they really went. One thing about Ireland, there are so many tower, abbey, and other ruins all over the place here - it is really a beautiful site.

Abandoned Abbey: Not the top one. Not nearly as many as I wanted to post, but I'll put the rest on Facebook later.