Ireland Part Two: Freckles everywhere!

Amanda says she feels right at home in Ireland because everyone has freckles!

Aran islands was a good get away from the city, and a good follow up to the cliffs of moher... once we got there! driving has been an experience in Ireland, with street names and direction signs either being hidden/and or non existent. somewhat stressful, i know KYLE's mother (hi mom!) would have a great time riding around with us! the good thing about roundabouts is you can go in as many circles as you want till you've decided what street it is you want to get lost on next. they have high speed limits for the narrow roads around the countryside.

so, aran islands. we wake up wayyy too early in the morning, look at the directions and then proceed to drive all over galway before finally getting out. we made it to the ferry in some town that starts with an R and ends with os a mhil, or something like that, and we didn't have to run to catch it! until, just kidding, Amanda remembered the sun roof was left open, and of course Kyle was the lucky one who got to runnnnn to close it before the ferry left.

Amanda passed out and lightly snored (she never believes it when Kyle says she does) for the 40 minute ferry ride over. once we got there, we were bombarded with offers to rent bikes, so we picked the first place we saw. ate some lunch, and headed away on our journey. we went to the biggest of the islands, which is something like 8 miles long and 3 miles wide, so not much. we picked a road to follow, and it ended up being the the one we wanted in the first place, so the map gods must've been feeling some pity on us. we started riding up a nice sized hill, and ended up walking, especially since Amanda thought it would be hilarious to push Kyle off the bike, and then he couldn't get back on. There was ruins of a lighthouse at the top, and you could see a lot of the island. we walked around for a bit and climbed on as much as we could find and then hid in a shed while the rain passed over. Kyle has been hitting his head on everything in europe due to the short people everywhere so amanda got her first taste of hitting her head on the shed, she is now more sympathetic to me when it happens. it's amazing how many walls built from stone there were, they literally covered the whole island. from there we took a little single track trail that led us through the maze of walls to a cliff edge where we couldn't see another soul. we actually saw very few people the whole time, and it was nice to ride around. Amanda learned how to ride on rocks, and Kyle felt like his bike was going to fall apart on him the whole time, even if it looked brand new. he may have bent the wheel a little bit trying to jump it.... take a look at the pictures when they get up!

The ride back seemed to be more wavey (is that the right term Josh?) so we both took the opportunity to close our eyes and sleep. Once back we made our way to Limerick where we planned to stay the night. On our way we passed a rainbow that was headed right to the road in front of us. Unfortunately we got out and searched for gold or €uro but no luck there. Boo. Once we arrived in Limerick we ate at our hotel and watched a world cup qualifying soccer game and then crashed early. The next day we walked around the town and bought an umbrella for the freak rain storms. The town was very easy to walk around with a lot of shopping stores for all the money we have to spend.

We are currently in Cork Ireland which is on the East side of the Island about an hour or so below Dublin. When we arrived we just missed the world championship street performers which was two days prior. So we were bummed we missed out on that, the good news was there is another music festival here at the pubs around town so we have spent our nights listening to artists sing and enjoying the people around. Everyone have been very friendly too us asking us about our trip and suggesting places for us to go. We are staying at a hostel on top of this hill so the hike after the pubs can get tiring. Amanda decided the first night it was a good idea to sprint up the hill to get it over with....she hasnt done that since.

We got to see Blarney Castle and kiss the stone yesterday, Kyle decided to head butt the stone and has a mark on the forehead...we arent sure if that is good luck or bad. When you kiss it they make you lay down, grab some poles, and then lean your head into a hole so its not as simple as we thought. The castle and grounds were gorgeous. We took the lake walk after we toured the castle and saw some beautiful landscape and got to see how extensive the property was. We left and went to a supermarket and got some food so that we could make dinner back at the hostel. We were craving food that wasnt from a restaurant so dinner was delicious. We will post pictures when we get to a computer that allows us to do so.

The weather today is beautiful so I imagine we will go find something to do around town. Hope life is treating everyone well in the States.

Goodnight!

More Pictures!!!

Ireland Part Two