Friday, September 14, 2007

Ireland

Billy Says:

Libby and I ended up our months of travelling with a week in ireland with my mom, and her partner, alex. It was a bit of a whirlwind tour, looping around the island in a rented car, and cruising down the narrow, winding roads of ireland. We had lots of silly time, a ton of beautiful views, some super touristic moments, a dose of AA, and a smaller dose of visiting family. All around, a nice finale to a wonderful trip.

Let's start with the beautiful places.

On our first day in the country, we went to Howth Peninsula, near Dublin.


There's a cool lighthouse and harbor:


An awesome rock formation in the sea:


And an area where you can walk along the cliffs:


We spent a day on the Aran islands, off the coast of Galway:

"Have you ever seen so many rocks in one place?"

We all had fun playing in the ruins of seven old churches clustered together:


I in particular had fun trying to take strikingly "artsy" photographs:

and making particularly artsy poses for others to capture on film:


We also went to a really cool old fort, in a crescent shape along a huge cliff:


and, while we were soaking in beautiful sites, we had a nice restful night at a vegetarian friendly hostel (that gave their guests awesome bathrobes to wear):


We went to the famous Cliffs of Moher, on the west coast, south of Galway. You start your tour of the cliffs at a walled off area, safe and sound, looking at the views (see if you can spot mr. bear and windman):


From there you can either go to the left (a sanctioned, wide path with railing to protect you from falling) or to the right (totally not sanctioned or protected).

We ended up going down the path on the right, past the barbed wire fences, and down along a super narrow path, till we reached those flat rock cliffs you can see in the background, laid down and took in the amazing view, and wind (to learn more about the physics of that area, check here).


On our last day in Ireland, we drove along the Beara Peninsula, in the southwest of the island, west of Cork. The landscape there is absolutely breathtaking (I posed special for you, so you could tell):

We also visited my cousins, and my cousins children (nephews? wow!). We had a big meal with my cousins Daniel, and Jessica, and her sons, Jackson and Evan:


Here's my nephew, Jackson (he's a really big wingman fan). His mama, Jessica, is in the background:


My cousin Emily had her birthday while we were in town, so we took her out to a fancy meal, and went to lengths to go over the top with happy birthday celebrations, like getting the staff to sing over her cake:


and her brother, Sean, is a chef at the restaurant we went to:


We also spent a day in Belfast, trying to get a sense of some of the political and social history of "the north," and also going to a couple of AA meetings (which were, by the way, way more welcoming and friendly than any i'd ever been to elsewhere).

We only ended up getting photos of the Loyalist areas on our camera (so if you want to see the beautiful and inspiring ones from the Republican neighborhoods, you'll have to talk with my mom). But the hilarious offensive nature of these shots should give you some sense of what it's like to be there:


huh? a big bloody hand as an inspiring symbol for a community, and a politics?

a thousand british flags? Ireland and England are islands, so there's no chance that people are simply lost and confused (at least not in the literal geographic sense).

Oh, but the Queen!!?? What a joke...

While the descendents of British settlers keep hammering away at a Colonialist fairy tale of never-ending domination by the Crown, the "Celtic Tiger" charges forward. Ireland is a beautiful place, and it's changing fast. A man on the ferry told us, "We're losing our souls. We've simply got too much money. We've got more helicopters per capita than any other country in the world. Things are getting worse and really fast." Funny to have gone through so much degradation, and finally come out of it, only to be caught up in the whirlwind of globalization, american technology, etc...

Onward we walk, hopefully towards something more beautiful than where we are now...



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