The land of the little people

Mom, Janelle, and I got back from Ireland this past Wednesday, and we were all a little disappointed not to see any leprechauns, but it was a good trip nevertheless. One of mom's main concerns was keeping/working the international blackberry that we rented. We had lessons every day...sometimes the same lesson...sometimes multiple times a day...but she got better. ;)

We flew into Dublin after being awake for for e ver and headed to our hotel. We checked in and decided to get some lunch....

Before eating my first Irish Stew. Delicious.

We took one of the tour busses around the city and got off at the Kilmainham Gaol. It was a good tour..a little long for our tired bones, but good.

We got up the next morning and took a bus to Ennis. The trip started off well with a good breakfast.....

but quickly went downhill after Patches decided he/she didn't much like taking public transportation. What a snob. Janelle managed to throw up in the above pictured bag, but it burst as she stood up to leave. Pretty gross....pretty funny. I mean...that's a lot of throw up.

Ennis was pretty small, but it had this ruined abbey that was neat.

Here we are in front of our hostel in Ennis. I had accidentally booked a 4 person mixed dorm, and the guys were SO nice when we checked in. They blocked the 4th bed so we didn't have a strange man sleeping in there with us.

This was our only day of TERRIBLE weather. We took a bus to the Cliffs of Moher which were unbelievable, but we had a hard time enjoying them because of the driving wind and rain pelting us. Janelle got some

Cashel was our next stop and my favorite town. We had to change busses in Cahir, and Cahir Castle was right in front of the stop, so we got to look at it while we waited.

Our hostel in Cashel was situated in between Hore Abbey (I know...great name for a bunch of nuns, right?) and the Rock of Cashel which was my favorite thing that we saw. That's Hore Abbey behind us.

And the Rock of Cashel...a ruined monestary.....So NEAT!

The legend is that if you can get your arms all the way around this thing and have them touch on the other side, you'll never have any dental problems. I fell way short. Good thing there are a lot of dentists in the family.

That little white building is our hostel. GREAT location and GREAT owners.

We went to a traditional Irish music/dance show and it was WONDERFUL!

After Cashel, we headed back to Dublin and took day tours from there to a couple of places. The first was Glendalough, a monastic settlement in a valley that had some georgeous lakes.

We didn't quite make it up to this waterfall due to time constraints, but we did wonder what it might look like.

We saw Riverdance one night in this theatre.

Our 2nd day trip form Dublin was to see Newgrange, a passage tomb...about 500 years older than the Pyramids. Janelle had climbed atop one of the mounds here and is about to break into a traditional Irish jig.

not a Hobbit Hole

The tour was also supposed to go to Trim Castle...used in Braveheart, but it only stopped outside of it...we didnt' actually get to go in .

Our last night, we strolled the Temple Bar area where is apparently where all the night life happens. We just wanted to people watch, and this was PERFECT for it. These performers were pretty amazing....and equally amazing where the homeless ladies who danced to a beat that only they could hear.

This homeless lady looked quite cheerful despite the fact that she's surrounded by garbage.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip with lots of laughing....mostly at our stupidity, and GREAT memories with my mom and sister.