Kerre (A)

Since our trip to Kerry with Matt’s parents we lived life pretty quite for a while. As much as it was great it was pretty exhausting.

Matt’s team made the final in his Tag Rugby competition. The team they played in the semi-final were pretty rough/psycho. One of the other team girls actually chest-bumped one of our players and said ‘Come on then!’ She also had a good go at trying to foot trip a fair few of our players. Apparently she must be a Knacker (see previous posts). Unfortunately Matt’s team got second in the final to the only team that beat them in pool play. The final was an exciting day for me though…

…it was the day that Kerre, one of my best friends from Munich, arrived to visit on her way home to good old Montana. Matt was a bit appalled that we were too cheap to pay €5 to leave her bags at the bus stop – she had three of them, so they all came with us to one of the nicer bars in Galway. We just hid them in the corner. Actually getting them into the pub wasn’t so bad, but by the time we left around 1am they place was packed and getting them out was a bit of a nightmare.


Now that looks like an Irish castle ...

On Friday I left Kerre to her own devices exploring the place while I went and earnt some more Euros. That night we did some shopping then came home, made a pretty fantastic meal and drank a few bottles of wine. We had an earlyish night for a reason – the next day we had a mission.

I left Kerre in charge of deciding what she wanted to see while she was here, well which day trip to do. As the bus trips to the Burren had caves on the itinery she fell in love with the idea of doing that. But, she was given some dodgy instructions from the information centre as to which bus to get on. So off we go, and then he started talking about the itinerary - we will go past the caves he said but not to them. Poor Kerre looked a bit distraught; we waved to the caves as we passed them.

The bus driver was a friendly fellow telling us all about the place. A lot of the stuff we saw was similar to the stuff we saw with Matt’s parents, this time though Kerre and I went into the visitors centre at Kilmorgan and it was really good, unfortunately we took too long eating our lunch before that so we didn’t get to see it all – one day I will. From there we headed on to a nice enough beach. We really wanted to eat ice-cream there but we couldn’t find any Ben & Jerry’s tubs. We were going to gorge on one of those for old time’s sakes, in Munich ice-cream is pretty expensive in the scoop form so we would go to the store and buy a 500/700 mL tub and gorge ourselves. As we couldn’t find one we went for a walk on the beach and decided to wait till we got to the Cliffs of Moher for our treat.


Abby and Kerre

About 10minutes after leaving the beach a French guy goes up to the bus driver and tells him that he left his bag with all his and his parent’s documents on the beach. Bearing in mind these three people had held the bus up everywhere and half a dozen people on the bus had a train to catch I think that the driver reacted fairly calmly. In saying that though I still though he might have just kicked him off the bus and left him there.

Our first mission at the Cliff’s of Moher was ice-cream hunting, an activity very dear to my heart. Much to our dismay the Tub ice-cream selection there was also average, and as we are by nature cheap we went for generic single serve ice-creams.

It was quite foggy at the Cliffs, but we could still just make out the Aran Islands. Kerre was particularly impressed with the Hobbit house design of the visitors centre. Unfortunately we didn’t see any hobbits there though.


Kerre and the Moher visitor centre, or "Hobbit House"

On the way home we were educated about the ‘Erratics’ that are found along the Burren. These big round rocks were carried by the glaciers in the last ice-age and just dumped here and there. A local theory is that they are the footballs of giants. Finn McCool from the Giant’s Causeway must have a pretty good boot on him if that is that case. The bus driver also pointed out a face in the rock which we thought was not something you see everyday.


The girls pummeling an Erratic boulder with their elbows.


A face in the rocks. Sometimes I reckon the Irish drink too much...

We had big plans of partying the night away that evening, but actually we went to the supermarket, then went home made dinner and went to bed.

From the 16th to the 30th of July is the Galway Arts Festival. Performers come from all over the world to do all sorts of things. A lot of people asked me if I went to see the Australians, I don’t think that some people realise we are different countries.

On Sunday was the Festival parade. The weather was typically Irish changing between sunny and hot, then raining, then cloudy over and over again. The parade was pretty cool and there was obviously a lot of work gone into it. The only bad part was the tall foreigners that came and stood in front of us just before it started and wouldn’t move over when we asked them too. After a year in Germany we are both now assertive enough to tell strangers how it is. Shame they knew about ignoring things they don’t want to hear.


A couple of shots from the parade



After the parade Kerre and I went to a Traditional Pub and had a pint of Guinness each. Kerre bought the drinks, shame she forgot to take her ID to the bar so had to go back and get it and start the process over again. Don’t worry Kerre one day you will look 18! We both agreed that it actually tasted not bad. Kerre left early Monday morning to go ‘Couch Surfing’ in Dublin. It was so great to see her again, and I can’t wait until we next see each other.

Anyway.... On Monday night Matt and I had to get some passport sized photos taken to put on our Olympic Tickets application form thing. After taking two of the worst photos ever seen by man or beast, we decided to take the bike (his motorbike, not my speed machine) for a wee spin.
Our spin took us to Annaghdown just out of Galway, where our Great-grand person (I can't remember ma/dad) came from. Being the dumb arse that I am I didn't take my camera with me. But, trust me, the place is beautiful. It is on the edge of Lough (lake) Corrib, and they do a lot of fishing there. There is a big stone ruin in the town which I can only assume is an old monastery, and a 17/18th century castle tower thing still standing. The weather when we went was perfect, that is not something that can be said often here. The sky was filled with every colour of blue/grey/pink pastel that you can imagine, and the Lough was perfectly still and reflecting every thing around it. There are quite a few little islands on the lake. There was a big boating tragedy on the lake in the mid 19th century but I didn't see any family names. It was pretty much all written in Gaelic so I couldn't understand much of it anyway.

I felt really peaceful there, and really like I was meant to be there. Which admittedly is probably just psychological as I know that that where we are from. I will go back with Mum and Dad and take some photos; hopefully the weather will be ok then, i.e. not raining. Too much.

But that is what has been happening. Matt will fill you in on the bike dramas. We are off to Europe this week so that should lead to a few more adventures.

Kerry (M)

It’s been a while now since we’ve posted. That’s basically because not much has happened lately. We went for one more weekend excursion with my parents and have spent the last two weeks and weekends not doing a lot. Well, I’ve done a fair bit of work on my bike and Abby’s almost been run off the road biking to work, twice. But apart from that, not much. We’ve got big plans for next month though, I’m riding my bike through Europe for two weeks and Abby’s heading over to Munich to catch up with friends from last year.

I s’pose I’d better tell ye a bit about the trip we took down south the last weekend my parents were here. We started off after work on Friday and shot down towards Limerick. We didn’t go to Limerick though, instead taking the ferry across the lower portion of the Shannon at Killimer.


The Killimer Ferry.

Now, after our trip up north we had wizened up a bit and had pre-booked accommodation for the weekend. Our first night’s stay was a bed and breakfast outside of Tralee, just before Dingle. It wasn’t too hard to find, although relinquishing my position as navigator to Mum meant we went round Tralee a couple of times.

A word about Bed and Breakfasts over here; there are very few Motels in Ireland, cheap rooms off the road. Instead there are B&Bs everywhere. And unlike the ones back in NZ, which are normally some of the more expensive places to stay, they are cheap and come with breakfast. Make sure you go for the Irish breakfast though, “Continental” toast and cereal isn’t really what Irish B&B’s do well.

The next morning we did a loop around the Dingle peninsula. We drove up and across Conor Pass, a narrow little road with good views from the top. It was a seriously narrow road, and required some backing up every time a tourist came the other way. After Conor Pass we did a loop back to Tralee, right back to the B&B where we stayed the last night. This was because I remembered that I’d left our shoes in the wardrobe and forgotten to pick them up. No problems though, and once we’d got them we headed around the Kerry Peninsula.


Conor Pass...


... and the view out to Dingle.

We didn’t do the standard Kerry Peninsula loop though, the famous “Ring of Kerry”. Too many tourist buses full of tourists. So, instead, after we went through Killorglin we turned off and headed up and over Ballaghbeama Gap. This was a good little road, single lane tar with grass growing down the middle. It’s quite common for this to be the case in Ireland, a small country road in the middle of nowhere and also going to nowhere will be tarred. I don’t think I’ve seen a decent gravel road yet.


A couple of big goats. The King Puck thing is a local tradition where they proclaim a goat king for the week and have a bit of a shindig, any excuse really...


Admiring the countryside, or a little lost.


Ballaghbeama Gap. Know where we are now, there's a big sign.

From the Gap we went down through Killarney National Park, and past Muckross House. The Park was scenic, but not on the same scale as Kiwiland I thought. Dad saw a couple of deer on the road through the park, and then Abby managed to find them again as he drove past for a closer look. Deer are a bit of a novelty over here, they were native once but they all kind of died out so now they’re trying to re-establish them in the park, with great expense and effort. It’s funny when compared to NZ Department of Conversation’s efforts to do exactly the opposite, trying to eradicate them from our parks. Anyways, totally irrelevant for the deer we saw as they were Sika and native to Japan, not Ireland.


Killarney National Park.


Sika Deer! Centre of photo.


... and a closer shot.


Muckross House

From Killarney we headed over towards the South Coast. We stayed the night just past Fermoy, at another B&B and the next morning arrived in Waterford. I have cousins on my Mother’s side in Waterford. We’re not sure exactly how distant we are, in fact it’s never been established for sure that we are cousins but John Dawn shares the same name as my Mother (Dwan being my Mum’s maiden name), there’s a family resemblance and he’s a bit of a character so that’s good enough for me.

He met us out at Rossclare, where the parents dropped off the little rental car. We then drove the scenic route back to Waterford, taking a small ferry across the Suir River. Interesting fact. The lighthouse on the Northern side of the Suir is at Hook, and the little town on the Southern side of the Suir is called Crook. Now, Lord Cromwell (Old Ironsides), in his invasion of Ireland, is supposed to have said “I’ll take Waterford, by Hook or by Crook” meaning he would land at one of those two places. And that’s where that saying comes from, at least that’s what John told us.


The beach at Rossclare. Abby didn't think they had beaches like this in Ireland, well they don't in the West.

We had lunch with John, and then before long it was time for Abby and I to get back on the train to Galway. We left my parents with John, where they stayed for a week before starting the trip home via London and Shanghai. Our train trip was fairly uneventful and we were back in Galway before midnight.

So, that’s it for now. Work’s been good, weather’s been crap, my bike is getting closer to going again, Abby’s got a friend calling in this weekend on the way back to America from Munich and we’re headed over to Europe for a bit in August. Which is only three weeks away. Which means I’ve only got two weekends now to get my bike going again. Good thing Abby’s got a friend to play with this weekend…


Parts painted and ready to be assembled.


And new parts as well.