As we left the B & B, the B & B owner told us she was impressed that we flew in, did not nap and stayed out until 10:30 pm. As we left, she said, "I'm not worried about you three, I can tell you girls know how to have fun." We were very proud of ourselves.
Let's take a moment to discuss driving in Ireland. First of all, they drive on the left hand side. In order to keep that in mind, whenever we started out in the car or made a turn or hit a round-about, we would chant "left, left, left." This was not only helpful, but a lot of fun. Secondly, the roads are extremely narrow and the native drivers do not slow down which can be intimidating. After about the fifth, "Ahhh." shrieked by my passengers (this time because there was a rock wall right on the side of the road that for some reason they thought I was going to hit), I explained to them, that when they shriek, it scares me and I jerk the steering wheel, usually towards the side of the road. So by shrieking at the rock wall, they might actually make me hit it. I thought this might stop the shrieking altogether, but alas, they decided to use "eek" for the side of the road and "ahh" for on-coming traffic. Wonderful.
There were also some pretty interesting road signs.
We stopped at Connemara National Park to do some hiking. At a spot with a glorious view, we pulled out our lunches and three cans of cider. We were trying to be circumspect with the cider, not knowing how the Irish felt about drinking in their parks. Foolish of us. Along came six Irish hikers, proudly carrying cans of beer and cider, drinking as they hiked. I love Ireland!
As we were eating our lunch, two park workers came by and started chatting with us. They were Sean and Jon. Sean did most of the talking while Jon sat on a rock, a broken piece of piping in his hand. The following is typical of how the conversation went:
That Jon, what a conversationalist!
Next it was onto the Ballynahinch Castle where we were staying for the next two nights. On our way, we ducked into Kilmore Abbey to take a couple snapshots and check it off our sites to see list. "Check."
The castle grounds were beautiful. We went for a before dinner hike then off to dinner. A nice meal (mmmm, fresh spring lamb!) and two bottles of wine later, we sat in the lounge with after dinner drinks, playing Basara and talking until 1:30 am. Did I mention I love Ireland?
