Video from Czech Republic & Belgium!

Better late than never. :-)

Here's a video from our Czech Republic & Belgium trip!

Eat Fries Everyday

Turns out I have no greater pleasure in life than walking into a store and giving a cheerful, “Bonjour!!” as is the custom here. I feel like I’m about to break out into song from Beauty and the Beast.

I’m currently on the train heading to the airport. I’m trying to quick get all my thoughts out of my fingers now, because I know that history has proven I’m not likely to post anything (except maybe a video) once I’m home.

We’ve spent the last few days in Belgium. We’ve eaten fries everyday (no regrets), and had our fair share of waffles, chocolate, and beer. Fun fact: “French fries” are actually Belgian. Americans were first exposed to them in the French speaking part of Belgium during WWII, and so the name was acquired.

I’m not sure where to start, so I guess I’ll go chronologically.

YPRES

Our first day in Belgium, we took off for the Western side of the country. There is apparently an Abbey that brews the best beer in the world, and considering who I’m married to, this was not an opportunity we were going to pass up.  The only problem is, it’s an abbey rather in the middle of no where. . . with no public transportation. So we trained to the nearest town, rented bikes, and hit the (tiny) road! I really, really loved the bike ride through the back country. Little houses, hops fields (vineyards?), and lots of open fields. It was really lovely to be out there. We made a small detour to visit one of the WWI Flanders Fields cemeteries, which was a unique experience. War feels far removed in the United States – something that happens far away from home. But here there are reminders and remembrances and remnants of war around every corner (which you’ll see more throughout my post). I can’t help but think it influences the different ways we approach war now.

Eventually, we did make it to the abbey, and we were able to try the trappist beer that is only offered there. What is a trappist beer? Well, I’m glad you asked. A trappist beer is any beer that is 1) brewed within the abbey grounds, 2) by monks, 3) and the proceeds from which go only toward funding the needs of the abbey or charity.

As could be expected, the beer was delicious. We also had some (a lot) of abbey cheese, which was super yummy. And then we biked back to the town.

On our train ride back, we stopped off at the WWI museum for Flanders Fields. It was an interesting museum and taught me a lot about WWI I didn’t know.

Ken’s Thoughts: I really enjoyed our time here. The city is beautiful, as is the countryside. And the adventure of biking out in the Belgian country to the trappist restaurant was a ton of fun. The beer at the abbey was exceptional, and I see why everyone loves it so much - as was the trappist beer float (like a rootbeer float). Combining that with the great WWI museum, this day really was a highlight of the trip for me. That's all my thoughts. 

BRUSSELS

We spent the next day in the city of Brussels.  We had a tour in the morning, and it was fun to learn the history of the city. I had booked the tour via AirBnB, and apparently nobody else did, so we ended up with a private tour! Our host was knowledgeable and passionate about his city. The town square is beautiful – even Victor Hugo said it’s the most beautiful square in the world. After the tour, we went out for lunch (mussels & mussel pasta) and continued exploring the city (and eating chocolate).

Ken's Thoughts: The tour with our guide was a ton of fun, and extremely informative. I really think that the Grand Place (town square) in Brussels is one of the prettiest places I've ever been. I really enjoyed all the food in Brussels, but I really want to highlight the fries, the chocolate, and the beer. All amazing. I think that's all my thoughts.

BASTOGNE

Then two days ago, we trained then bussed our way out to Bastogne – where the WWII museum is and a monument to those who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Both of us had great uncles who fought in this battle, so it seemed worth the trek. Honestly, I think we were expecting to take the three hours to get out there, look around for a bit, then come back.

It turned out that the WWII museum there is INCREDIBLE. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a better museum. Maybe equal – but never better. And I don’t think I’ve ever been in a museum where I was as determined to read every word. Luckily, Ken felt the same way (othewise it would have been a frustrating trip for both of us). But we crept through the museum at a snail’s pace and ended up spending about five hours there. Because of my major, books I’ve read, etc. I know a lot about the concentration camp/”Final Solution” side of the WWII. However, I don’t think I fully appreciated how woefully ignorant I was about the rest of what was going on. What I  loved about this museum is that they stared their WWII museum with WWI, which is important to understand the political climate of what lead into the Germans electing Hitler and all that followed. It was also a super engaging museum – with audio and visual components, movies, and things to interact with.

The focus of the museum (if you can even say that – since they did such justice to the components surrounding it as well) was the Battle of the Bulge. I had heard about the battle, but I didn’t understand what it was or why it was important. I was so thankful to the museum for building out my knowledge.

After we crept through the museum (seriously – so slowly), we walked over to see the HUGE monument erected to the Americans who fought in the battle. All the states were listed, as well as all of the companies (as in military companies, not business companies) who contributed. I found my (great) Uncle Murray’s company. It’s strange to remember that this all what’s that this all wasn’t that long ago.

Ken’s Thoughts: Bastogne had one of the best museums, if no the best museum, I've ever been to. I've never read every panel in a museum, nor have I ever had the interest to, but I couldn't get enough of the information there. If you are ever in Belgium and have any interest in WWI or WWII history, I couldn't recommend a trip out to Bastogne higher. It was also really nice seeing how the local town still really appreciated the sacrifice of all the soldiers that fought to defend that area. I also thought that the monument erected there in honor of the soldiers that fought in the Battle of the Bulge was really tastefully done. It all really was beautiful, respectful, and informative. Also, the Ardennes forest was really beautiful - the surrounding countryside. I think that's all my thoughts. 

BRUGES

There’s not much to say about Bruges. We went yesterday, and it’s a lovely little medieval city with moats, canals, and beautiful old buildings. We were glad to have gone early, because before too long, it was full of tourists to an overwhelming degree (yes, I know we we’re tourists too). Once the town got too full, we headed home (to Brussels).

Ken’s Thoughts: Bruges is really quaint and pretty. It's lovely to just walk around there. I found a half day in Bruges to be the perfect amount, personally. Shout out to the delicious pasta on the go shop we stumbled across. I think that's all my thoughts.

ENDING THOUGHTS

And now – here we are. Now at the airport, ready to head home. Maybe not ready to head home, but waiting to head home nonetheless. I’m holding down the fort and watching our stuff right now while Ken goes off looking for something in the stores. Then we’ll swap, and I’ll forage for a book in English to read on the plane. That’s one of the things I love about travel – the chance to slow down and read. I’m nearly done with the one I’m reading, and by the time I’ve finished that, I will have read five novels since we left home. I feel like I’ve lived as many lives.

This has been a fantastic trip. I love any time I get to spend with Ken, and it’s especially fun when it’s in new territory. I could probably write more – more thoughts about where we went, or how thankful I am to not care about  my Instagram (it’s looks like an exhausting pressure while traveling!), or how I don’t feel brave to be traveling without a phone – as people called me. But instead, I think I’m going to call it good.

Ken's Thoughts: I loved all of this trip, but I was shocked at just how much I enjoyed Prague and the Czech Republic. I knew I would love Belgium, but I didn't know what to expect in Prague. I whole heartedly recommend visiting both of these places. I think that's all my thoughts. 

Thanks for reading!

Well, That Went Quickly

Well, that went quickly.

We’re back at the airport, wondering where the week went. Prague will soon be behind us, or below us, rather, as we take up for Brussels.

Prague in numbers:

1 brewery visited (Pilsner Urquell!)

2 castles explored (Prague & Cesky Krumlov)

3 “day trips” outside of the city

4 (x10,000) humans-worth of bones displayed in the Kunta Hora bone church

5 drinks we tried at the award winning cocktail bar Le Fleur (over multiple days – don’t worry)

6 days in the Czech Republic

We’ve really loved our time here. I don’t know where to start. . . do I just give chronologies of everything we’ve done? Organize it categorically? I don’t know. Maybe let’s go with categories and see how that goes.

THE CITY OF PRAGUE

The city of Prague is beautiful, and being here with Ken is magical. Some of you know that Ken and I almost came to Prague a few years ago – while we were still dating. Some things came up and we ended up canceling the trip just a few days before we were set to depart. Since then, I’ve always wanted to complete that story and explore this city with Ken. Being here with him now as my husband felt like a missing puzzle piece in my heart and in our story finally got settled into place. My highlight of the trip was just exploring the city hand in hand with him, especially at night when the city calms down and the lights come up to highlight the Charles Bride, castle, church, and clock. I really like (and love) that guy.

We did a lot in the city. Our first morning, we did a walking tour with a Prague local which was fantastic. Definitely top 2 walking tours I’ve ever done – maybe top 1. We got a good feel for the city, history, and culture, and had a lot of fun doing it. Everything we did in the city runs together – explored Prague Castle, saw the beautiful libraries in the monasteries (that would put the Beast’s libraries to shame), saw a concert of a string orchestra in a beautiful building, wandered endlessly throughout the streets, explored the Jewish Quarters (museums, beautiful synagogues, an ancient cemetery), ate beef tartar (raw beef) at a butcher shop, shopped for jewelry (eeee!), visited churches, watch the clock strike, visited bookstores, ate a lot, read a lot, and on and on. It is really a beautiful city. We stayed right outside of Old Town, so everything was walkable. I think I would have become a lot fitter during my time in Prague, were it not for all the potatoes/dumplings/goulash/bread/cheese I’ve been having. . . oh well.

Ken’s Thoughts: I loved it. I think that it’s really special how the town itself feels old. It’s not like Rome where amongst the new buildings, there are a number of old things sticking out. It feels like the city of Prague itself is very old, but lived in my modern people. I loved the sites, and how around every corner, you didn’t know what treasure you’d find next. I enjoyed the emphasis on art and performing arts that the town seemed to have. And I loved trying out all the different aspects of Czech cuisine. I don’t understand how the carrots and the cabbage or so good. I also really enjoyed the beer. It was fun having extremely good Pilsners. I think I’ll miss the striking beauty of all the different parts of Old Town. I also think that Petr’s tour was the best tour. I think that’s all my thoughts.

DAY TRIPS

KUNTA HORA - We did three day trips outside the city. The first was to the city of Kunta Hora, which is a city about an hour-ish outside the city that is home to the the bone church. Essentially, after the plague passed through the area, there were more bodies than they had space to deal with (about 30,000). After the battle with the Hussites added 10,000 more, they started getting creative. The ultimate result was the bone church – a church “decorate” with 40,000 people worth of human bones.

There’s a chandelier that uses every bone in the human body. There’s a crest of arms. There are 4 pyramids 16 feet tall of bones. There are garlands of skulls. Being there.  . . strange, to say the least. The goal of the “art” (?) was to show that we are all equal in front of God, and the brevity of human life. I would say mission accomplished. It’s interesting – some sites you feel like you get your fill of. You can say, “okay, I’m content. I feel like I’ve seen this and have processed what I’m seeing.” Not so here. I think we could have stayed for hours and hours and never reached the point where we felt like we wrapped our mind around what we were seeing. This was my second time there, and it was no less eerie and beautiful and bizarre and harrowing. I don’t think anyone can ever feel content with the time they spend there. There is no way to comprehend it.

Ken’s Thoughts: It was striking and oddly beautiful at the same time. I felt like I could stare at it for hours or days and still feel like I wasn’t comprehending what I was looking at. I think it was one of the most unique things I’ve ever seen, and I’m really glad I saw it. That’s all my thoughts.

CESKY KRUMLOV – Cesky Krumlov is a small town in the south of Czeh that has somehow been untouched by time. Czech’s own Brigadoon (isn’t that what that play is about?). It has a giant castle and a little village, and even the “old time” videos they were playing in the museum looked like they could have been filmed yesterday. We spent a day there, wandering the cobbled streets, eating (a theme of this trip) and exploring. It was a wonderful, delightful, quiet day.

Ken’s Thoughts: I thought it was just a picturesque little town, and I really enjoyed exploring it. I don’t know if I have much else to say.

PILSNER URQUELL – The birthplace of the lager, apparently, and the pride & joy of Czech. We bussed to a town a bit west of Prague to go to this brewery. The brewery was huge and different from any brewery we had been to before – probably because it was the oldest brewery we had ever been to before, and they had to account for things like fluctuating weather before there was modern climate control (result: tunnels!). Cool tour, and we got to try unfiltered, unpasteurized beer.

Ken’s Thoughts: It was a lot of fun! It was the largest scale brewery tour I’d ever been on, and I actually learned a lot. It was fun tasting their unfiltered, unpasteurized beer fresh from the barrel. I think that’s all my thoughts.

OTHER THOUGHTS/THINGS I FORGOT

It started snowing as I was sitting in the airport writing this! I’ve enjoyed the (cold!) weather. This was the first sprinkling of snow, and we’ve had a few splashes of rain, but otherwise, it’s just been delightfully cold. I love being all bundled up (boots, jacket, scarf, hat/ear warmers, gloves!) and cozy outside in the cold weather. We’ve also discovered that every inside room is somehow the perfect temperature. Well done, Prague. Fun fact: my scarf is from here (thanks Ken!), my jacket & boots were gifted by my grandparents when we almost came here 6 years ago (thanks Poppy!), my ear warmer thing and favorite socks are from Ireland (thanks Ken!), and my beanie and gloves are from Yellowstone (thanks parents!).

Another fun thing – my cousin Nicko happens to be studying abroad in Prague right now! So we were able to meet up with him for dinner last night at a really amazing little hold in the wall restaurant (capacity: 20 . . . maybe) that was recommended to him. Delicious and fun to catch up! The last time we saw him, Ken and I had only been dating for a few months, and I think he was 13. It was great catching up!

Also, I forgot to mention we went to the public library to see the book tower. It was just as cool as it was on Facebook. Well done, Prague.

Overall, I loved my time in Czech, and it was made all the better by having a wonderful man by my side. I feel like these blogs used to be filled with adventure and daring, and now they’re just sappy sonnets gushing over my wonderful husband. I knew I was in for it when we were dating and I realized I liked him more than travel, which if you know me, is a lot. I guess that’s reflected in my blogs now. Sorry for the gushing. . .  but he’s really great, so it can’t be helped.

Ken’s Thoughts: How did I forget about the bar? I think the main thing about Czech Republic is it shattered my expectations in great ways. The people were always nice, the public transportation was always on time, the food was great, and it was just as pretty as people say. I wholeheartedly recommend visiting Prague. And I also agree with the local sentiment that a week there is about the right amount of time. Closing thought, since I forgot to mention earlier, the mixology bar that we went to was hands down the best bar I’ve ever been to, and had the best cocktails I’ve ever had. I learned a ton just talking with the bar tenders, and they were extremely friendly  - and generous. The presentation was remarkable, the flavors were perfect, and the people were really nice. I really enjoyed talking with the bartenders – their stories of winning Best Cocktail and Best Bartender in worldwide competitions. If anyone ever goes to Prague, to go Le Fleur. Best cocktails you’ll ever have, for about $12USD. I love Prague. It was great. I think that’s all my thoughts.

We’re now on the plane, and Ken is cracking open our Belgium Lonely Planet. Bring on the waffles!

(P.S. Sorry for the low quality photos! I - now posting from Belgium - reduced the resolution a lot so that they'd upload quickly and I could go eat some fries. Thanks for understanding.)

Here We Go Again!

I think I've mentioned it before, but every time we set off on a new adventure, it's with that treadmill song from OK Go from a few (10?!?!) years back playing in my head like a theme song - here it goes again! (...except in my head, it's here WE go again. . .)

So, here we go again!

We left Monday morning, and a walk, light rail, 2 barts, 3 planes, a bus, and a taxi later, we arrived at our AirBnB in PRAGUE!

Slept like rocks last night. Now it's Wednesday, and we're excited to go explore the city.

Just wanted to put up a quick post to let you (Mom) know that we're safe and here.

Love you all!

Skyline to Sea Hike

Ken and I hiked from Saratoga to the ocean! It was fantastic. I really couldn't recommend it enough - the perfect "intro to backpacking" hike. Including detours, our hike was about 30 miles. We did it in three days and camped out two nights.

Turns out you can't put videos with songs from the Beatles on YouTube - whoops. So here's our trip, uploaded directly to the blog. I hope it plays okay for you!

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

. . . Aaaaand, I've learned my lesson about Beatles songs on the internet. :-/

Ireland Video!!

Thank you SO much Harris family for letting us stay with you! You're always invited to California.

The dancer at the end (and in the middle) is five time world champ David Geaney, so that's crazy/awesome. But you've already heard me rave about that in my Dingle post. :-) But truly - such a cool thing to see for someone who grew up rewatching Riverdancing. :-) I was glad for the opportunity to stick a bunch of it at the end of the video. :-)

The music is Ed Sheeran's Galway Girl. I think I forgot to mention in the posts - but we accidentally followed his tour schedule for a lot of our trip. We were often in the same town he was performing in either on that night or the night before or after. So it felt appropriate to use his song. Plus at the same Dingle pup that David Geaney performed, someone sang the original Galway Girl, and it was hilarious. So all signs pointed to using this song. :-)

SUCH an amazing trip. Ireland will be a lifelong project. I can't wait to go back!!!

Gold at the End of the Rainbow

Lila, why are you posting twice in one day? (I'm assuming that's what you're asking.)

Because I know me! And I know that despite what I've thought or even promised, I'm not going to post anything else to this blog after we touch down in SF. Or really after we take off from Iceland. Because, let's be real, it's not like I can post in the plane. I'm not paying for internet. What do you think I am, made of money?

I think we got off track. In the past I've thought that once I get home, I'll do a round up post, or go back and add pictures, or do a summary of highlights, or something. And that has literally never happened. Check out the right hand side where it has all the categories - I've blogged a lot from a lot of different places. And never once have a done a post-trip post. (Outside of posting whatever video I make months later). So, I'm just being real. This is probably the last post.

. . . unless I post again from Iceland.

Because right now, we're still in the Ireland airport (we got here really early, remember? We've had plenty of time). We've now had breakfast and coffee and are waiting at our gate. We'll begin boarding in probably about a half hour. . . maybe. Apparently the pilot is excited to leave, so maybe we'll leave early. Can you do that? 

Anyways, picking up where I left off: the middle of nowhere.

It was around 4:30 that we decided, "Ya, okay. I'm about ready to get dinner and find a B&B in this area."

The problem was that there was literally nothing. Just spots of houses, and "towns" that had a bar and Chinese food, but not anything that looks like we wanted to stop for. 

We were choosing our path by loosely aiming toward Tayto Park (more on that later), and aiming increasingly at larger towns in hopes of finding a B&B or food. "Larger" town is obviously a relative term. But we figured - larger the town, more chance of food and a B&B!

Along the way, we stopped in a town called Fore. We had diverted in this direction because there was someone on the map called "Seven Wonders", and we were curious. I have no idea what it was referring to, but what we ended up finding was a old, broken down castle!

Just in case you're curious, there were signs and stuff - so it was meant to be visited. We weren't just trespassing on someone's castle. . . Not that I'm sure that would have stopped us. . . We climbed around in it for a long time. What a great way to stretch your legs. We found two gates that were probably supposed to be locked like all the others, but by some stroke of luck weren't, so we climbed super sketchy stairs to get to the top of the highest tower. It was awesome! 

On our way back, Ken the animal whisperer pet a bull. It was something he had been hoping to do nearly the whole trip, but up until this moment, most of the cows/bulls hadn't been close enough. So this was a happy moment. :-)

There was one dead-end B&B sign in Fore, so we continued on.

Around the time that we were getting restless and ready to be settled somewhere (maybe around 7:30 - we started looking for a B&B around 4:30, remember?), a BEAUTIFUL rainbow appeared! I have literally NEVER seen a rainbow this perfect. It kinda felt like God was saying, "I got you!" . . .  and also, "Hey, look! A distraction!" Disclaimer: none of these pictures will do the rainbow justice.

Shortly after the rainbow appeared, we found an awesome B&B . . . and there was no room.

But there was a B&B! The first one in literally 3-4 hours! If there's one, there must be more! (I know that's usually said about cockroaches, but we were hopeful it applied to B&Bs as well). 

We went through the town of Kells - nothing. But the rainbow was still going strong! Like a friendly reminder that God's got a plan, and also a welcome distraction from our now-grumbling stomachs. :-)

We found two more B&Bs, neither of which had room. 

I forget if it was after or between those two (I think after), but we went on their weird side road and were surprised to find a field full of rapeseed. Rapeseed has brilliantly yellow flowers. Like, blindingly yellow flowers. And the rainbow landed in the middle of the field: the gold at the end of the rainbow!!!

Very shortly after we found our gold at the end of the rainbow, we found a B&B that had room for us. It was a little house on a big sheep farm. Just perfect for our last night "out" in Ireland. 

After settling our stuff into the B&B, we drove into the town of Navan. It was a little deader than we expected. All we wanted was a pub: somewhere where we could get a beer and food. And not spend and arm and a leg doing it. All we found for a long time were divey bars (no food) or fancy restaurants (too much $$). 

Eventually, we resigned ourselves to going back to a burger place that we had seen as we walked into town. It didn't have drinks, but whatever. We'd survive. So we walked into the burger place - and it was connected to a bar through a secret inside door! We could bring our burgers into the bar! Perfect! 

The burgers ended up being a little bit life changing. Not really - but they were delicious. The bar had good drinks and enjoyable live music. To top the night off, we shared a shot of the Middleton Very Rare Whiskey. 

It's so funny looking back on that day. So much went wrong (no ferry, couldn't find a B&B, no food, etc.), but it ended up being such a great day! 

• Road sheep!
• Ken pet a cow!
• We explored a castle!
• Life changing burgers!
• Middleton Very Rare!
• Fun surprise-pup!
• B&B on sheep farm!

Truly, it ended up being a great day. Despite the bit of hunger and hangriness. :-)

Okay, now to talk about yesterday. Our last day in Ireland.

We woke up and headed to Tayto Park. My cousin Kim had recommended, and her husband Amon had discouraged it, which honestly made us want to go all the more. It sounded corny and hilarious and just up our alley.

What we expected was a potato themed amusement park. What we got a was a amusement park founded by a potato chip company - so pretty close! Definitely had some potato themes!

It ended up being a pretty cool little park! Fun rides, a zoo (whaat??), a petting zoo, and some other cool stuff. We got there right when it opened and rode the roller coaster three times in a row. It's the biggest wooden roller coaster in Europe, and easily the best wooden roller coaster I've ever rode! (But Big Dipper, you'll always be my favorite). 

From there, we moseyed on down south of Dublin toward my cousins' house. We stopped at Powerscourt to go to their shop and pick up a cheesecake. It was insanely crowded, and we realized (yet again!) how lucky we've been with our trip. The exact same place was nearly empty when we were there only a few days earlier. 

So we picked up our cheesecake and arrived at Brian & Jeanne's. 

Aaaaaaaand, we're boarding! 

. . .  Aaaaaaand, we're in Iceland!

. . . Aaaaaand, we're being called to board for SF. Wow, that was fast. 

Never mind. At the gate we were told that Ken was selected for a random TSA security check - which means I was selected for additional blog time. :-)

Brian & Jeanne's felt like home. We didn't tell them we were coming back, but they said that they suspected that they would. It was a perfect ending to a perfect trip to spend the afternoon and evening with them. Brian spoiled us with drinks of all sorts, we went out to dinner at their local pup, Andrew (Jeanne's brother) came over and I got to meet him, Amon (Kim's husband) came over, and everyone hung out and talked late into the night. I don't know if it's because they are family or if it's just because of the kind of people they are (I'm guessing the later), but it felt totally like family. I can't say enough good things about the whole lot of them (partially because I know they're reading this!). I wish I could say more about our time with them, but I think what was so absolutely delightful about it was how unremarkable it was - meaning truly, nothing eventful to remark on. Just comfortable and delightful. 

But truly, spending the day and night there was the best possible way to end our trip.

And now we're in Iceland. And the country is holding up to its name, it's quite icy outside. 

In 9ish hours, we'll be home. (Mom & Dad - we'll come pick up Gimli tomorrow!)

What a fantastic trip this has been!!

If anybody talks to me tomorrow, please remind me to pay our Dublin tolls. 

Until next time!! :-)

Bonus Feature: Photos Uploaded While Waiting For Kenny to Get Back from TSA Screening So He Can Give Me His Thoughts (. . . I'm starting to worry. . .but if you see thoughts from Ken below, that means it all worked out!)

Kenny's Thoughts: 

Overall, I'd say that inland Ireland paled in comparison to the amazing coastline that we had spent so much time on. I loved the random ruins that we stumbled across and the fields of green with livestock, but there wasn't quite the same luster driving through as there was at nearly every other place we had spent time. That being said, I enjoyed trekking across the country and seeing all the diversity in the cities and the people. I enjoyed getting a chance to explore a fairly large castle, as well as pet the cows outside of it. What wasn't a disappointment in any way was Tayto Park. I was half expecting a cheesy but really fun experience, but it turned out to actually be a really enjoyable amusement park with the best wooden roller coaster I've ever been on. I felt like a kid running in the doors to the park when it opened to the roller coaster - then jumping back in line three times in a row. Afterwords, I loved wrapping the trip up really well by spending more time with Jeanne and Brian and their family. They really are loving people and incredibly hospitable. I'm really excited to be visiting Ireland sometime in the (hopefully) not too distant future. Overall, Ireland was phenominal and exceeded my expectations in so many ways. I really did love it here. I think that's all my thoughts. 

Kylemore Abbey & Other Stuff

Back at the airport. Dublin airport this time – homeward bound! I say that with an exclamation point as if I am excited (and a part of me is), but let’s be real. If I had an opportunity to stay here another month or more, I would do so in a heartbeat.

But since we are going home, I’m excited to go home. :-)

Speaking of going home, we're in a bit of a funny position right now. We're at the airport too early. Has that ever happened? Our drive to the airport coincided with rush-hour traffic, so we gave ourselves plenty of time. And accidentally ended up here about 1.5 hours before our check-in counter opens. So we're here plenty early, but haven't even gone through security. Still, no complaints hee. I'd much rather be early. No stress. We're just chilling. Kenny so much that I think he'll be asleep within a few minutes. Aaaaand, yep. He's asleep. I'm staying up to keep watch for when our check-in counter opens. I can sleep on the plane - at least the first one.We're going to try to stay awake on the second one in order to reset our clocks and go to sleep at the right time tonight. So sorry to the Noffsingers who are picking us up - you may be picking up two sleep zombies!

But since I am just waiting here, I thought I might as well be writing. :-)

Outside of my little ode to my brother in picture form, I think I last left off after the Dingle Peninsula. Is that right? Ah, not quite. I guess I last wrote in Doolin, which is north of Dinlge and close to the Cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs of Moher were kind of our last thing on our "itinerary", which would be a very generous term for the lose to non-existent plans that we had coming into the trip. There was a lot more we wanted to do, but most of it was quite a bit north and probably best saved for a better trip. There wasn't anything that we particularly wanted to do that we believed that we could do at a leisurely pace. Except I did find out that Kylemore Abbey was nearby. . . and by "nearby" I mean a couple hours - but what's a couple hours when you've driven as far as we had by that point?

I've probably pinned Kylemore Abbey (formerly called Kylemore Castle) a dozen times on Pinterest. It's one of those places that you secretly kinda think only exists on the internet, but  you can't actually go there. I figured it was Oprah's Ireland Getaway or something. I'd drooled over it for a long time (I think there's even a picture of it on my wall?), but never even thought to look up where in the world it was. I had NO IDEA it was in Ireland until we saw a picture of it on our map.

So we looked it up, and we went, and it was totally awesome. Absolutely beautiful. Every bit as beautiful as it was on the internet, if not more so. I love it when that happens. :-)

/this is a picture of our memory - use the internet to find better pics of the abbey :-)

After the Kylemore Abbey, though, we literally had no idea where to go. We got in the car and were like, "So . . .  do you have any ideas?"

So we looked at the map, and I don't for the life of me remember how we decided which direction to go (ended up going North), and we started going. I think we had a vague idea of where we wanted to end up that evening. . . but even saying that might be giving us too much credit.

We ended up on a beautiful drive (which I truly think you could say about any drive in Ireland). This drive was along Ireland's only fjord. Granted, I don't technically know what a fjord was, but I think Ireland only has one - and we were on it! It was pretty in a way that I didn't know existed in Ireland - desolate and harsh. Not nearly as green as other places had been - in some places, not green at all.

Beautiful drive! And we ended up in the town that we were aiming for: Westport. Now that I've heard about how much everyone loves Westport, I feel a little guilty and embarrassed that we nicknamed it "Worstport". Sorry, Ireland! But you have to understand, at the time we entered into town, we had been driving for awhile, we were hungry, and we didn't want to put up with traffic. Maybe it was rush hour or something else was going on, and the city wasn't greatly laid out for traffic, so it felt congested and overcrowded. Which is a bit of a shock to the system after driving for a few hours on open roads! So. . . not a great first impression. So we decided to blow through and not stop. Parking, turning around, anything sounded hard and like we didn't want to do it, so we didn't.

We blew through town and ended up finding a delightful B&B in the middle of nowhere about 20 minutes East of Westport. And they recommended dinner in - you guessed it! - Westport. We didn't have a lot of options, so we went back into town, passed all the way through town, and had dinner on the other side of town over looking the. . . lake? harbor? fjord? Whatever it was, it was beautiful, and we were greeted with a giant rainbow just to confirm we were in the right place.

We stayed at our B&B (where Ken got to pet a horse and a dog - happy days!), and the next day hit the road again! We were thinking of checking out Clare Island (because we didn't know what else to do), and so we drove through - you guessed it! - Westport. We were laughing that this town that we had decided not to like, we had now passed through 4 times. Probably more than any other town.

This was the start of two days ago. I should warn you that if I write what happened two days ago, it will probably seem like a bit of a miss-adventure. But I hope you know that we had a great time and even though things went a little skewy, I'm not complaining! We still had a great time. :-)

So it started out with us driving to the port to catch the ferry to the island . . .  which we missed by a few minutes. No worries! We weren't sure we wanted to go anyways. Plus, there were a bunch of signs for a bike race in the area, and we wanted to get out of the area before that started. So we charted a new course on some side streets to lead us over to what looked like would be a pretty drive. And we got pretty dang lost on the roads. Well, lost is a relative term. It's not like we knew where we were trying to be, exactly, so we weren't worried. AND in the middle of absolutely nowhere on a road that isn't labeled in real life and wasn't even on our map, I got one of the things I had been hoping for! Road sheep! Literally farmers (shepherds?) moving their herd from one place to another, using the road. The road was COVERED in sheep, and they all ran right by us. It was hilarious and loud and awesome and funny enough, probably a highlight of the trip for me. I'd show you a picture, but it's they're on the black camera, and that's int he black & green bag, which I'm a little bit fearful we'll never close again if we open it before we get home. (Because it's so full, not because we broke your bag, Marshall. Don't worry!). So, no pics. But it was very, very cool. Certainly not something you'd get in the tourist parts of the country!

So from those weird back-roads, we eventually popped out onto a bigger (relative statement) road - right in the middle of the bike race we were trying to avoid!!

So we and about a million bikers took a very beautiful road for a very long time.

We eventually ended up in Cong (I don't know where the bikers went). Cong is where the shot the movie The Quite Man, which is apparently a great movie.

And then from Cong, we headed inland, moseying our way back to the Dublin area. I kind of thought that we find all of these secret treasures that weren't mentioned in the guidebooks, but it turns out that there's nothing in guidebooks about inland Ireland because there's nothing in inland Ireland. Like, really. No B&Bs, no pups, no points of interest. Mostly nothing. 

We ended up finding one pretty cool thing, though!!! And we found some gold at the end of a rainbow. But those things will need to wait, because our check-in stand just opened, and I have a sleeping handsome to wake up.

As always, thanks for reading!!

P.S. This post was supposed to be published awhile ago, but it apparently didn't go through. Oops.

P.P.S. Kenny and I are at breakfast in the airport now! Now that he's mostly awake, here are his thoughts.

Kenny's Thoughts: I was sad to say goodbye to Doolin, I really liked that little town. . . of like eight buildings. The whole drive was really pretty and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Kylemore Abbey was really pretty. And I don't know why it wasn't more talked up, but I thought it was a really nice part of the trip to stop there. And I loved our drive from Westport through the mountains to Cong. It was just beautiful, rugged landscape that I didn't expect to see in Ireland. It was quite lovely. It was also fun having our car surrounded with sheep. I think that's all my thoughts. 

For My Brother Kerry

To my brother Kerry, who has gone 30 years without stores having things with his name on them.

Kerry, I give you. . . IRELAND:

Love you, brother!

We Like Sheep

There's a verse that I think well represents our sentiment toward Ireland:

"We like sheep" Isaiah 53:6

Because Ken and I have become incredibly big fans of sheep. We like sheep, just like the Bible says. We went to the Dingle Peninsula, and in addition to seeing obviously gorgeous views, we also did as many sheep things as we could. We held a baby lamb(!!!), we fed adult sheep, we watched a sheep herding demonstration, and we happened upon what Ken keeps referring to as "fresh sheep" - two little lambs who we assume had literally just been born. Still all wet, umbilical cords attached, taking their first wobbly steps. I happened to see them from the side of the road, I gasped, Ken pulled over, and we watched them for awhile. We've even talked about if we could have sheep back home someday. I don't know why we like them so much, but they're been a surprising and humorous highlight.

And before you comment about it, yes, I know the verse is "We like sheep have gone astray" and it's not actually about liking sheep. Just let me have my Bible humor.

Also - you may have noticed that this blog is taking a different format than the previous one. I'm going back to just writing whatever I feel like. Maybe I'll end it with bullets of things we've done since the last post, but the previous post I wrote about every single thing we did (complete with pictures!) was too long - not fun to write and probably not fun to read. So. . . we're not doing that anymore. I like having a chronology of our vacation, but not at the expense of enjoying it. This babbling about sheep is totally enjoyable.

Right now, I'm writing from a sitting room in a B&B with an absurdly beautiful view. We're in Doolin, if you want to look it up. From the window I can see a sea of green spotted with cows and cottages, ending in the cliffs, and then the actual sea. Right behind us on the opposite side of this window is a little caste. About 5 minutes South of us are the Cliffs of Moher. I had felt like I needed a bit of a break (ha! Isn't that funny - a break during a vacation), and Ken indulged me by letting us stay here two nights. It's been nice to go at a bit of a slower pace. We've dawdled throughout our full trip, which has been nice, but there's a certain luxury in not needing to pack up in the morning. Two nights feels just right - especially somewhere as perfectly refreshing as where we are.

A few other things we've done that deserve mentioning(in the order that I think of them):

• SEE A 5X WORLD CHAMP IRISH DANCER "PERFORM"!!!!!!!!!! I say "perform" because it wasn't a formal show. He happened to be home, his dad owns a pub, we were at that pub, and he danced there. As someone who grew up watching River Dancing on VHS, IT WAS FREAKING AMAZING!!!!! I'd write more, but I'm trying to keep this post shorter for your sanity and mine. :-) 
• Bike ALL THE WAY AROUND Muckross Lake - and be reminded that I have a horrible estimate for how long a kilometers are.
• Explore Kilarney National Park
• Hike (. . .okay, leisurely walk) to a waterfall
• Drive around the stunning Dingle Peninsula
• Go to a chocolate factory, where I fell in love with a Plum & Chocolate Chutney and bought the cookbook that included it
• Ate at a cliff-side cafe on the Dingle Peninsula where Ken pet the doggies
• Visited the giant Cliffs of Moher (where Voldermort hid the locket horcrux)
• Went to a perfumery
• Explored the Muckross House & Gardens
• Tried to beg a chef into giving us a recipe for a deep fried mashed potato miracle. No luck. 

Kenny's Thoughts: What do I want to say. . . I didn't know that I needed a sheep fix and a lamb fix, but I really did. Feeding the sheep and petting the lambs was so fun. And watching the sheep dogs herding was really fun and interesting as well. And not surprisingly, everywhere has been unbelievably beautiful, just with how green everything is. I'm loving our B&B out in Doolin. It's really relaxing and has the most spectacular view. And not to mention the best breakfast we've had all trip. I'm also excited that I'm about to finish the book that I've been reading for many months. Ya, I think that's all my thoughts. 

The Cliffs of Moher were a little windy