Day 122 - 126
Kerry and Cork Counties
SOUTH IRELAND
********************************
Happy Birthday gorgeous Cazadazawaza for Tuesday!! Hope you had the most wonderful birthday...i had a 'baby guinness' for you!! Couldn't get a whole pint down!)
********************************
Hi Guys,
It's been almost a week since i've been on here and it seems like a lot longer! We ended up leaving the gorgeous Kilkenny last Sunday (arrived to watch the Diana memorial concert on telly..which went for 8 hours!!) and headed for Dublin to stay the night before we headed up down the south of Ireland on a tour down south..and west...
And that was fun! The Irish are so hilarious and our bus drivers were even more so..i just love the Irish humour. We had two drivers, Gabe and Erik. Both crazy i tell ya! Most of the bus was full of aussies, kiwis and yanks! All ready for a party!!!
Wasn't all fun at first though. At first, when we got to our first accomodation in Galway i was ready to crack a major tantrum. Staying in a room with 7 unisexed others..or 5 others or even 2 others just wasn't my cup of Irish Tea!
So we upgraded to a 3 bed room and paid the difference in the end..and for the rest of the trip got a B&B.
As did all the other 'oldies'! There were about 6 of us over 40's and the rest were in their 20's....
I'm definately feeling 'over' this hostel dorm style sleeping. Especially because i had a cold and thought i'd keep everyone awake with my coughing (by the way, echinacea is the magic cureall for a cold, i took this and was fully over it 2 days later!) And also, showers down the hall with everyone clogging up the showers..and the basins just doesn't 'do it' for me.
I must be getting old and crabby. Or sick of not having my OWN bed and shower!?
So that was that...accomodation sorted. NICE comfy double bed..with our own shower!
It cost extra, but it was good for the soul. And our relationship!
And what did we see?
Well, a few irish pubs that's for sure. Being that we were with the 'party group'. The live traditional music is something else, i just love it. And that's not just Gabe singing irish jingles and telling poems! We experienced the guinness beer...You have to be in it don't you..or as they say, 'when in rome' so i did try it..and don't like it at all!!!
So we had baby guinness...which is half tiamiaria and half baileys....yummy! The other's were trying this drink called, 'car bombs' (we were told not to ask for this in Belfast!!) which is a half pint of guinness with a shot of baileys and jamiesons whiskey plonked in the drink..then sculled (or chucked as the americans say)....which the others tried....i thought it looked gross the way it curdled in the glass..but well...we were on a tour with party animals! It was all a bit of an education! (Is this what it's like on the con tiki tours??)
We looked at the cliffs of Moher and went to Blarney which is where Grandad's family is from. I found a card in the shop there in Blarney with names of the local families. And looked for Grandad's name. But nothing. Not in Irish. His name is English and not irish.
And there's a story to that.
Apparently................
The English came to Ireland...by the way of Oliver Cromwell, and just about wiped out all the Irish people! He inforced british taxes and british rule upon Ireland (and Scotland) in a brutal and cruel way.
About 4 million people died...2 million due to Cromwell killing all the men, women and children in his British bid to take over..and the rest died in the Potato famine when all the potato crops got fungus in them and poisened and starved everyone.
The rest died trying to emigrate to Australian and America on the emigration ships because they literally starved to death.
And there were even English that insisted on sleeping with the wives of the newlyweds just to keep the english name..one being O'Brien who even put a statue of himself up in Kilrush. The locals call it the Horny Corny Erection!
At least they have a sense of humour. Or is this why they DO have a sense of humour? They also have a lot of singing going on..and a lot of the singing are ballads that tell of the potato famine and how they will never give up. Quite sad some of the songs. The Irish are certainly a passionate bunch!
I won't go into ALL the specifics..but generally..it's why the Irish have a deep hatred for the English..
Even the irish kids have an inbuilt subtle hatred of the English that i was never aware of until i came here. One day we were sitting in a little burger place and i heard an irish boy talking to his little mate about a teacher he had at school who was calling him 'norty'..with an English accent. He mimmicked the accent. The other kid said..'That's because he's English!' and other one said, 'Yeah and we know you're racist about the English!'
Outta the mouth of babes...It took me aback abit. But you could almost hear their mum's and dad's talking. They were only about 10 years old!
And i'm wondering how Grandad's family came into the way of life in Blarney...being that his name was English? And they obviously came from England to Ireland before emigrating to Australia.
Gawd..with Grandma's scottish name been associated with a history of robbers and pillagers and mcdonald slaughterers..and Grandad's name being associated with the English who tried to wipe out the Irish...our history is not looking too good is it!!
But it could be that in a bid for a new life our ancestors emigrated because they were NICE people and wanted to get away from the scallywags of their home countries!
I guess i'd better not do any research into Grandma's history ... seeing she has the Captain Bligh connection..
Where does that term, 'bad blood' come from! hahahahaha
Don't ya love it!
Talking about terms. We've been told this in many of the Scottish and Irish stories. In the days gone by...they were taxed based on how many windows they had in a house..or in a castle. So many of the buildings (Kilkenny Castle for one, and National Bank of Ireland in Dublin, for another) blocked their windows so they didn't have to pay taxes!!!!
And..apparently, that's where the term, 'Daylight Robbery' came from!
Always good to know a bit of trivia isn't it!
OK.
While in Blarney...
Kiss the Blarney Stone!!!!
We went to the Blarney Castle where all the real blarney began! It was built about 6 hundred years ago by on eof Irelands greatest cheiftans, Cormac McCarthy and is the second most popular tourist spot in Ireland! (after the Guinness factory in Dublin!)
We went in..decided to get the gift of the gab..as apprently if you kiss the Blarney Stone, which the Irish also call the stone of eloquence, you will have that gift of eloquence forever!!!!!
Something all Toastmaster's should go and get! haha...I know Sophy did it..so watch out Toastmaster's! there'll be three of us with the gift of the gab when we get back!
KISSING the Blarney Stone...wasn't as scary as i thought but it was 163 steps up into the castle to do it..and some people didn't make it. We knew we were definately getting fit when we realised we could do it and some of the younger ones couldn't! Or were they hungover??
What else did we do on the tour (apart from the pubs each day and night!)
We saw the Bog of Allen (where the peat runs the powerstation) and partied in Killarney...and Galway...
About Galway...after having our dinner at Busker Browns we went to Tis Coits and we met this amazing guy called, wait for it, Tom Murphy....at typical irish guy with the most typical irish name! He was a local Galway lad, born and bred within 20 miles and was standing in the corner of the pub. We struck up a conversation (about irish music!!!) and that was that....he was ordering us guinness and wine and he became our new best friend! So many stories..fascinating guy. A lecturer in the town (it's a university town) and it really made our night to meet this man.
Meeting the locals are just the best thing...that's the highlight.
Apparently Galway has a virus in it's water system at the moment...so thank god we didn't drink the water.....crikey. If anyone drinks it, they die!
The tour was good...getting to see Cork and Kerry county in a few days!
And even just looking out the window as we were travelling along is interesting....Ireland seems to have all flat buildings...and no gardens....at least from what we saw anyway. The gardens all seem to be cement or bitumen..and then the green is the countryside...just weird.
While we were in Killarney, on our way to The Granery for dinner, there was the Killarney festival on and we saw these two commedian buskers in High Street, doing a airline hostess, juggling, hoop act which was fantastic. Their names are Stacey and Tracey..and they were really good!
Later at McSoreleys we heard other's saw them and thought they were terrific too. Good on the aussie airline girls!
They'd do well in Aus. Like Kath and Kim. Apparently they're touring around the world with their busking act and their accomodation gets sponsered, while relying on donations from the audience for their food..I reckon their in for a bit of a career with their excellent act. We'll have to watch out for them!
We survived the tour with the drunken mob..and our tour down the south and west of Ireland!
And we reckon we've gotten to know a bit more of how the Irish tick after spending time with Gabe and Erik and some of the pub locals too...
What else could you ask for!
