The last few days have been interesting to say the least. The most challenging has been trying to get connected to WIFI! After hours of screwing up my laptop to figure it out I finally did it! Persistence and a bunch of cuss words finally paid off.
I still need to figure out how to get all of the pictures I took on my Ipad onto the laptop and then download the amazing video I took today. I went to the ruins of Carrickabraghy Castle this morning in the rain. We then ventured to the Doagh Famine Village. When we went in it was raining when we came out the sun was shinning!
Since the sun was shining we went to Malin Head the northern most tip of Ireland. It was the most beautiful location. I will be uploading the pictures to Instagram and the videos to You Tube over the next few days.
We then did some driving around to various locations connected to Sheila's family. By this time we were into torrential down pours.
I am so glad we decided to make the trip over 14 days. The first two days were just travel related. Normally it is a good thing when your plane gets in an hour a head of schedule. In Vegas that is a great thing, in Ireland not so much ,if you arrive in at 5AM. Even with customs, getting your luggage and rental car you might be pushing 6:30.
Well an interesting thing about Ireland accommodations, check in times are generally absolute, which means no early check-in. We had decided to stay in Bunratty our first night and not do the 5 hour drive to Clonmany.
Check in time at the B&B was 11AM. I asked the rental car agent if there was any early check in and he said no. But he said we could go to the Bunratty Castle car park and catch a few hours sleep In our car.
With no other choice that is what we did. We did our best to try and sleep but really didn't have much luck. Other cars were pulling in as the Castle tours opened, I can only imagine what they thought about these two old disheveled broads, sleeping in their car.
At about 10:50 we headed up the road to the B&B. We got there 5 minutes early and it was pointed out to us that check in was not until 11. Don't get me wrong the innkeeper and his wife were amazing and kind but they do like their schedules.
We did our best to stay up as long as we could, by 4Pm we were fast approaching 24 hours with no sleep. Word to the wise, it is never a good idea to start drinking wine if you haven't slept in 24 hours. After a few glasses of wine I was snookered! I was like I don't care what time it is I need to go to bed before I pass out here.
I slept like a log, we woke up the next morning and made the 5 hour journey to Clonmany. Actually Sheila took to the driving like a pro, I was the navigator. The GPS we had was acting up and me being the most technical we didn't trade off driving. I couldn't use the GO-Pro as I had to keep my focus on the dam GPS. Honestly, the roads were actually great. I was Sheila's other set of eyes, reminding her to look to the right, checking the cross traffic and navigating her through the round abouts. It does take team work when you are first driving in Ireland. I have to say, I am sorry there are no funny videos of us getting stuck on a round about but it was pretty easy as long as the two of us worked together.
So again, long drive, slightly hungover we stayed in last night, ordering pizza and watching movies.
Tomorrow I will post my adventures from today and tomorrow as there is one hell of a storm going on outside and we keep losing the internet.
All I can say is Ireland is amazing!