Cardiff and Ireland (Cork and the Ring of Kerry)

Today we were going to see Cardiff – after getting up after Alun (Pronounced Alan)  we had a chat to his parents who had come over to fix a window and then we took off to see the Museum of Welsh Life museum (free entry) which aim was to show you how people from the 1800’s lived in Wales. The exhibits included a tannery, a water wheel, a bunch of old farm machinery, and then a series of houses which to be honest got a little boring after a while. The most interesting things was that there were houses that had exactly the same furnishings and fittings as what my nan’s house had. We spent about 2.30 minutes there – but I think it lacked information – although they did have a lot of staff there to inform you about things if you asked them.

We then went to walk around the docks in Cardiff – popped into the Norwegian church where Roald Dahl the author was baptised. Then into the city and walked past the Cardiff Castle – which was nice, but we didn’t go in (13 Pounds) and we had seen too many castles in the past few days. So we walked on around the city, saw the stadium which is right in the CBD, great location. By this time it was 5 so we went back – bought some dinner on the way, cooked it up (Some snags and pasta if you were wondering J )and then went to bed after chatting to Alun for awhile, watching some rugby shows as the whole country is obsessed with rugby. (no problem it is sport – we get along fine)

The next morning I woke up early to go for a run in the freezing cold, it was like wales was in another climate compared with England, but a nice run was had next to the stream. (funny looks were received from people walking their dogs with large jackets and beanies while I was wearing shorts and T-shirt!)
We were then off to Ireland, having booked our ferry at the outrageous price of 180 Pounds, we left at about 11 (after I watched some of the great escape – thoroughly enjoying it, but we had to leave before it was finished – I was surprised that I hadn’t seen it before). So we drove through Wales – the scenery wasn’t much different to southern England I thought. (but I wouldn’t say that to a Welshman!) We arrived a tad late but with no problems, we then arrived to the most strict searching I have ever been subjected to by customs officers. We drove into the customs shed – there was about 7 officers there waiting for us, and they swarmed all over us like a pack of hyenas. They searched my backpack, turned our car inside out searching it for drugs, and other things – picked up our Stanley knife and pocket knives and threatened to take them off us! Geez…. We also got personally searched and we all had our wallets searched. Ridiculous. SO it took us about 30 minutes to clear customs. But once on the boat, we had internet again which was good (for 180 pounds we had better of) and had dinner and a nice trip over.

We arrived in Ireland to no customs to be seen, just drove straight off the boat. That was amusing, and a little annoying. But we drove about 2 hours from Rosslare to Cork that night to meet Patrick (our new couch surfing host)  He was a little short of money which was no problem, but he let us stay in his spare rooms. He cooked us a nice pasta stew the first night we were there, and then we went to bed. I had my own room which was nice, and it was the first time in a long time that I was so nice and warm in the morning that I didn’t want to get out of bed. (I think we all know that feeling). Nothing like a good quilt!

The city of Cork was our next day, and we basically wasted the day. Tarks misread the dates of the festival that he wanted to see, so we ended up doing a mini walking tour and then having afternoon dinner at the pub. We bought some things from the shop in the town, and then went to buy dinner to cook. We cooked dinner that night, (pasta bake with cream sauce)  and then went to bed. Sometimes when you can go and visit places for the sake of saying that you went to a place, rather than actually going to a place because there is something you want to do or experience in the town.

The next day we had organised to go sailing with Patrick in really small sailing boats – as an alternative to paying 35 Euro on a whale and Dolphin sightseeing cruise. We didn’t know the chances of seeing one, I thought that they only like warm water, and it was cold  - I read some reviews, and found out that people in the past few months had seen nothing, so we organised that he would take us out to the spot that the tour goes anyway.

Sailing was funish, the boats were extremely tippy, we almost capsized once, but it wasn’t as fun as the boat filled up with water as the seals on the boat weren’t very tight, and our feet got really wet and consequently cold. It was fun to be out on the water, but we didn’t really want to fall in, and we weren’t really given a huge amount of freedom to make mistakes. So we were out there for about maybe 40 minutes, and then we got taken around in his dingy to see if we could spot some animals. We got 1 seal. The annoying thing was that he asked for 20 euro each after we had finished. Sure he was a sailing instructor and that was what he did, and we don’t mind paying for things, but couchsurfing is not about using it as a advertising range, and the fact that he didn’t ask us before we went out! We would have still gone and happily paid him, but it felt a little dirty him asking us afterwards. Communication is the cause of 95% of conflicts. Oh well, we then went and had lunch/dinner at the local pub and then went home to plan our next day,

Our next day was horse riding, the 1 of 5 things that I really wanted to do in Ireland, and very glad I did, although there were a few drawbacks. We drove from Cork to Glenbiegh to Burke’s Horse trekking. It cost 80 euro for 3 hours on horseback, it was expensive, but I’m glad I did it; My first 20 minutes on the horse was very frustrating – when I learnt that I couldn’t ride a horse! Trotting was very painful! And then we tried cantering!! Finally got the hang of it, and then it was ok, cantering along the windswept beach with mountains alongside was awesome – a pity I couldn’t ride better and wasn’t so conscious of actually holding on to enjoy the scenery more. The other thing that was very frustrating is that our horses were trail horses, they just followed the other horses, which was specifically what I asked not to have. So I was constantly annoying my horse by turning him away from the horse in front and slowing him down so he was 10m behind the other horse, not right behind it. We all enjoyed it, I will put some photos up. The boys legs were quite sore by about halfway through  - mine were ok for some reason. We finished up and headed back to Cork. That night we didn’t do a lot – just bought dinner (I went to bed for a few hours (1/69) and then went to bed properly. (Note – smoking hallway).

The next morning we had to get up early and go – I woke up early but couldn’t be bothered waking them up, so I let them sleep in again. Couldn’t be bothered dealing with grumpy morning people so I just packed my bags and then jumped on the internet. We headed off through pouring rain along the southern coast of Ireland – making our way to the ring of Beara (don’t know if that is spelt right). We had approximately 8 hours driving to do. The southern coast was a bit well – coasty. Nothing special, just some hills, the odd beach and a bit more green then what is in Australia. So we gave up and headed towards the first ring. (Annoyingly we had to skip something due to time constraints). Along the way the rain finally eased off and then somehow the sun came out? The forecast for many days had said that it was going to pour rain on the west coast, and we were fully prepared not to see anything. What we did see was really great, rocky craggy mountains, with full hills with multiple shades of green – there is a reason the they call Ireland the green country (and it isn’t because of their energy production!). We drove al the way down to the cable car – to island durry I think it was called. We didn’t go on the cable car and walk around the island as we were again out of time – but I think it was for the best in a way. That morning when waking up I felt like I had been hit by a bus – but just in my lower back – the cause – obviously horse riding for 3 hours the day before. Getting in and out of the car was difficult. Amusing…  We then headed off towards the ring of Kerry.The sun was slowly setting as we arrived at Staigue fort which was pretty cool, 6 meters high in some places and 4m thick, it was also made completely without mortar.
On the way out we saw a nice waterfall, and then continued out drive around the ring of Kerry – the southeast side was the best – I will only put a few photos up though – they are pretty much all the same.

A long drive back and we are now staying in limerick at a hostel here. A long drive today – but a nice day.