Wicklow to Kerry (Clear Your Schedule - This Is a Novel)

Okay, I’m doing it! A catch-up blog!

But before I start, here are a few non-chronological thoughts:

• The green here is unreal! It looks like a novice to Photoshop oversaturated the world. When I try to take photos on “Auto” it actually dulls the color. It’s insane. Absolutely gorgeous.
• I like traveling with Ken because it increased my wardrobe. For example, right now I’m wearing his gym shorts over my leggings and his socks. Marriage has good perks.
• I love potatoes.
•  I love it here.

Okay, now to backtrack a bit.

. . . Let’s see if I actually get caught up.

To keep things organized, I’ll go by day. . . ish.

Ah, man. I hate to reduce everything we’ve done to bullet points, but allas. . .

Wednesday: Introduction to Ireland

·         Landed

·         Guinness Storehouse

·         Time with my cousins

·         (You know about these things)

Thursday: County Wicklow Part 1

• Spent time going with cousins at gardens, jails, and seeing Sammy the Seal (you also know about this)
• Walked down to the beach from my cousins’ house! This happens to be where they’re shooting the obscenely violent Vikings show, which is cool if you’re into that kind of thing.

Friday: County Wicklow Part 2

Spent the morning going up to cousins’ farm so we could see a real Irish farm. Super cool! They had beautiful black sheep, lots of land, a Shetland pony, and a cute dog named Muffin – to name a few. They were extremely generous with their time and let us walk all around. Ken’s Thoughts: I really liked it there, and I was shocked how much I really enjoyed having sheep around. Plus Muffin was the coolest Pomeranian I’ve ever hung out with. 

• Ken and I departed from the cousins and went to check out Glendelauch! (That’s probably spelled wrong). It’s an old monastic site that was raided by the Vikings. Amazing to walk around, and we walked up to the Upper Lake, which was gorgeous.
  
  
  
• Powers Court was our next stop! Think a Downton Abbey house in the middle or Versaille’s gardens – except, honestly, I liked these gardens better. We had lunch in their Avoca café and then walked the big loop around all the grounds. Amazing gardens! Lots of different types – Japanese gardens, redwood groves, rose gardens, everything! AND a small castle that the owner had built for his kids. Pretty dang cool. Ken’s Thoughts: It was stunning. I couldn’t believe the size of it or the scope of it, and I don’t understand why more of the locals weren’t as taken aback by it as we were.
  
  
  
• Back home to the cousins’ for a BBQ!
• Walked to the house where my family generations back grew up! A cousin (Peter Valentine) is still living there, and he and his wife Mary were insanely generous in letting us drop in, then giving us homemade ice cream and caramel, and then showing us around the property. Amazing to see!
  
  
  
  

Saturday: Training Wheels Removal

• Started the day with a Farmer’s Market with Kim (cousin), Amon (sp?), and their kids Sam & Daisy. Super cute little craft shops and food stands! We definitely got lost on the way,  but we eventually made it and enjoyed soaking up the sun and chatting with them.
  
  
  
• We removed our cousins-training-wheels and set off on our own!
• Stopped in Waterford, the oldest city in Ireland! And we. . .

o   Went to a Viking VR (virtual reality) experience, which sounds super corny (and it was a bit),  but it was also totally engaging and educational and interesting.  It was awesome because you start in a Viking-ish hut  in real life, then you put on the VR headset and it looks like you’re in the same hut. I felt like Harry Potter in my invisibility cloak, looking down and seeing the seat I was sitting on but not my body.

o   Lunch at a pub

o   The Waterford Crystal factory! Mom – all our Waterford Crystal COMES FROM HERE! Did you have any idea it was Irish? Me neither! The tour was amazing. We actually got to see the people making real cut crystal (by hand! All by hand!) and ask a lot of questions and look around the shop. Very cool!

o   Ken’s Thoughts: Both tours were really neat and both exceeded my expectations quite a bit. I didn’t know how far back the history of Ireland went. And I really enjoyed learning about the first Viking settlers there. Also, the Waterford Crystal Master Craftsmen were unbelievable in their skill. It made me appreciate cut crystal all the more.

• Ended in Ardmore – the lazy beach town where I wrote the previous short post before getting seduced into comfort by my inviting bed. Cute lazy beach town! Dinner at a small, underground (literally) pup with people whose accents I had a very hard time understanding. This town is actually where Christianity came to the country, which is pretty cool.

Sunday:  Travel Day with Fun Detours

• From Ardmore we drove West, choosing the longer/scenic routes whenever possible
• The drive was laughably beautiful
• We stopped in Middleton at the Jameson Distillery for their tour, which is the best distillery tour I’ve been on! Our guide was fantastic and went in depth into each step of the process and was able to answer all of our questions. We opted to do a tasting at the end, and of course, my favorite was the Middleton Rare (Ken says it’s ~$240/bottle). It’s funny how I have consistently expensive taste, regardless of the category. Obviously we didn’t buy a bottle, so no, I can’t share any with you. But it WAS fun to try. I liked a lot of the other ones as well, which surprised me! Going into it, I felt like it was something we were doing as “Kenny’s thing”, but I learned a lot and really enjoyed it! We had a delicious lunch there as well. I basically had a brie grilled cheese sandwich, which I didn’t realize was allowed. So good. Ken’s Thoughts: I really loved it. I’ve been to a bunch of distillery tours and this was hands down my favorite. I really liked learning about why a distiller performs each step as opposed to just what steps the take. I also really enjoyed the side-by-side tasting comparison between Scotch, American Whiskey, and Irish Whiskey. I still think my favorite part was the private tasting we did some of the best Jameson varieties. I really liked them all. Overall, I think that tour was a highlight of the trip for me. I honestly think I liked it better than the Guinness Tour.
  
• Next stop was Cork, which was crawling with girls getting ready for the Ed Sheeran concert that night. We (eventually) parked near the city center, got coffee, walked around, and each got a new book (since we’ve both finished the ones we came with).  A super fun, bustling city! Reminded me a bit of Berkeley in the young-ness of it. The streets were once just canals, so they’re all super narrow and kind of cool. Feel like a maze of alleys instead of actual streets. Totally fun to walk around in and spend some time there. Kenny’s Thoughts: Even though I wasn’t that impressed while driving through Cork, I really enjoyed spending time in it. It’s a city you can’t drive through to appreciate – you have to walk through the little old side-streets that used to be canals to enjoy the hustle and bustle of people running between shops. Even though we only got coffee and books there, it left a really good impression on me.
• Drove a super pretty back roads way to Kenmare. Absurdly beautiful. How-is-this-possible-beautiful.
• Knocked on a bunch of B&Bs until we found an affordable one with room. Ended up in a castle-ish one that I’m sitting in now!
• Went into town for dinner. Ended up at a pup with some of the best food I’ve ever eaten that started with live, impromptu music and ended with a drag show for charity run by fake nuns. It was bizarre. We stayed to watch two contestants, then came home to sleep.

Monday: Ring of Kerry!!

We got an early start on the day today (early meaning in the car at 9, which is not that early after all) to drive the ring of Kerry. The weather was apparently rubbish according to what everyone else said, but we absolutely loved it! I feel like the fog added to the mysterious beauty of the place. And sure, we couldn’t see what are now widely called the “Star Wars Islands” (where a scene in a recent Star Wars movie what shot), but we weren’t too fussed about it. What we DID do was awesome!

• ·         See (. . .and climb on) a fort that was ~2000 years old built simply by stacking stones – no mortar.
  
• ·         See (. . . and climb on) some monastery ruins and a castle-y thing
  
• ·         Drive on insanely beautiful roads
• ·         Go to a chocolate factory
• ·         Climb to (and pay for!) the view of Kerry's Most Spectacular Cliffs. Ha!
  
  
  
• ·          Bought a sheep at craft fair
• ·         Saw other Ring-of-Kerry views

On the way home, I took a nap. But Kenny woke me up (I asked him to) so I could be awake for the portion of the drive when we drove through Kilarney National Park. It was so beautiful that we’re changing our plans for tomorrow! Instead of trying to bomb it up to the Dingle Peninsula to see it tomorrow,  we’re going to mosey up through the park – taking as much time as we want to hike and explore. Absolutely beautiful!

Man – if you actually read all this, you deserve an award! Let me know if you did (maybe comment?), and if any of the chocolate we bought actually gets home without us eating it, some if it definitely has your name on it! J

Thanks for following along!!

Now to cuddle in with my honey, each of us with our books from Cork. We’re on a couch in the common room of a B&B. The big window looks over a giant, glassy lake. The sun just recently set, and even though I can’t see the lake, I like knowing that it’s there. Life is good.

P.S. This took an absurdly long time to write and get pics for. I'm probably never going to do a catch-up blog like this again. Maybe just pics? Or lists? But this is a limited edition blog post. There probably won't be another one like it. So I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for reading. :-)