My Life in Pictures

Still don't have a working computer, but I went ahead and bought a 'thumb drive' so I could take the pictures off my camera (my memory card has been full for awhile now!) and download them onto the thumb drive. So I will upload a few to show you what I've been doing since I dropped off the face of the Earth!

Katie (the bull) and Eoghan out the back farming

Oh! Look who came to visit!! Elizabeth about to see DINGLE!


Dingle

About to go down Connor's Pass- scariest drive ever (guide book describes it as a 'narrow, steep, hairaising road')

Elizabeth at Torc Waterfall, Killarney

Killarney National Park

Elizabeth just chatting with one of the many random sheep we encountered

Gap of Dunloe-- I will be back to bike you in a few weeks!

Representing ALABAMA in Ireland!

Youghal is pronounced 'Yall' here so we just had to take a picture with the sign!

Julia, Ashleigh, and Jenny hiking in Howth (outside Dublin)

Howth- BEAUTIFUL

Jenny, Julia, Ashleigh, and I

Murals in Derry- depicting the religious unsettlement in Northern Ireland and their hope for peace

The Giants Causeway

Julia, Ashleigh, Jenny, and I holding up our small stone souvenirs from the Giants Causeway. Our new friend Colin decided he wanted a bigger souvenir!

After signing the Peace Wall in Belfast- one of the many walls dividing the Catholics from the Protestants

Poulnabrone Tomb in the Burren

Jenny, Julia, Ashleigh, and I travelling through the 'Burren'

Ladies View.. AMAZING scenery but the challenging bike ride up to see it was just BARELY worth it!

Made it to Sneem after 40 miles of biking! If only this picture could capture the sound effects of Emily screaming!

Emily and I taking in what is known to be the 'most scenic view in Ireland'

The B&B owner in Waterville had 6 English Setter puppies!!

Emily and I are looking to marry a farmer along the Ring of Kerry with this view!

Glenbeigh Beach. So at peace with the world in this moment!

And BACK to the Gap of Dunloe, Killarney- last day of our tour!

Who says teaching a kid to cross their eyes is such a bad thing?

Katie 'Deere' in her John Deere suit

Look who got in the paint!

Fran, Emily, and I out on the town in Mallow!

Its so hard to believe I will be home three weeks from today! Unbelievable! Today I asked Eoghan 'What do you want me to bring you from 'Americamp' when I go home in a couple of weeks?' His only request: Taylor! Taylor will be coming back with me to finish out my time here. We will be leaving May 27th and returning to the US of A July 2nd. So, looks like Eoghan will be getting his wish after all!

Welcome to the World

Yesterday afternoon I was able to 'help' birth a calf! William called me to let me know a cow was about to give birth, so I headed over to the farm to witness it. It has made me decide I may never want to have kids (!!!) but was really, really interesting to watch.

You can tell a cow is in labor because its back tailbones droop down. The calf comes out front hooves-first (and with their tongues sticking out). William tied a rope on each hoof and then ties the opposite end of the ropes to a jack. He then has to crank the jack which pulls the ropes. Because this calf was so big (he estimated about 50 kilos- or 110 lbs), he said it was a lot harder to pull. I was very impressed with the momma cow- I honestly did not hear a PEEP out of her the entire time. Once the head of the calf gets past the tailbones, the calf really just 'slips out'.

The calf (a baby bull!) was absolutely exhausted when it slipped out onto the hay. He was panting and seemed very lifeless. William had to stick a piece of hay up it's nose and pour water in it's ears to wake him up. He also had to do physiotherapy on its legs to loosen them up some. I think you are supposed to do that with all of the calves, but especially this one because it was such a hard pull. Despite the stress that it put on the calf's legs, William said he'd be up and walking in 30 mins- unbelievable!

The thing that was the funniest to me about the whole thing was the mother's inability to control her bowel movements during the labor. The poor calf had quite the welcoming to the world as he was being pulled out!!!

In other news, the weather here has been BEAUTIFUL. Evident in Eoghan's beet red face, we have spent the past two days outside entirely. And I love it! After daylight savings time, days here are so much longer here than at home. The sun rises around 6:30 AM and doesn't go down until 9 PM. Its so bizarre to me because their winter days seem so much shorter than ours (sun up at 8 AM, sundown at 5ish).

Eoghan asked me today what I wanted to be when I grew up. (wish I knew!) I asked him the same question and he said, 'A shephard. First, I want to be a shephard and then I'll be a pirate.' Glad to know he dreams big!

The Ring of Kerry

We made it! All 110 miles!

Emily and I started early Thursday morning by catching the 7 AM train to Killarney. Once we arrived, we had a high protein breakfast and then picked up our bikes. We got a kick out of the guy renting a bike in front of us. Here we were thinking about our daunting 110 mile, 4 day bike ahead of us and when the foreign guy in front of us rented his bike, the salesman asked where he was biking to. He casually said, 'The Ring of Kerry'. The salesman said, 'Thats 110 miles. You would have had to have trained for months to be able to do that in a day. And you only rented the bike for the day- we close at 6 PM!' Off the guy went (in his jeans) and said 'Amateurs!' (We later found out that he returned at 3:30 that afternoon and said 'I did it!'... no telling where he actually went!)

The first day was tough. We biked 40 miles- Killarney to Kenmare to Sneem. There was one huge hill called 'Moll's Gap' pretty early on. I told Emily, this is where I started to regret my decision! My bike was in its absolute lowest gears and I wasn't getting anywhere very fast. After four hours, we made it to Sneem- exhausted! A man outside a restaurant said to us, 'I'm glad to see you two made it. You looked like you were struggling up Moll's Gap!' (Yes, yes, we were!) We stayed at the nicest B&B in Sneem owned by the sweetest lady. Right away she offered us tea and 'biscuits' (cookies) and really was extremely hospitable.

Getting back on the bike the next morning was TOUGH. Our bottoms were not happy! We had a short day and biked on to Waterville. We passed the most gorgeous views along the way. Most of this trek was along a coastal road so we could see the beautiful blue water as we were biking. After playing with our B&B owner's puppies for about 2 hours, we crashed and took a 2 hour nap! This brought us to dinner time. Emily decided we should dress down to go out to eat since we had packed so few clothes. I ended up wearing the same outfit to dinner as I did to bed as I did the next day. Don't judge me!!

Saturday we biked a long trek from Waterville to Glenbeigh. We joked that this was our 'uphill' day because looking at a map, we were going mostly north (thus it looked like we'd be going all uphill). It really wasn't so bad though. At one point, we decided to follow signs off our route to the Beach of Kells. We started about a two mile STRAIGHT downhill descent and quickly started regretting our decision (we would have to eventually climb back up those hills!!) Our time on the beach was worth the tough climb out. It was undescribably beautiful. I'm lucky I can't post pictures in a way because they really wouldn't do it justice. All along the rest of our trip, Emily was saying how she needed to find a single farmer to marry for his scenic view! Between the green grass, the blue sky, and the mountains in the distance, its really the perfect combination.

This morning was one of our toughest days. After biking Glenbeigh back to Killarney, we decided to also try the Gap of Dunloe. This added about 20 miles onto our other 110 miles. It was worth it in the end, but the Gap of Dunloe has hills in it that I guarantee would challenge and possibly defeat Lance Armstrong. We were completely maxed out. By the time we cycled into Killarney to turn in our bikes, we were EXHAUSTED. I don't know if I will be able to move tomorrow, but the experience was totally worth it. I kept thinking to myself 'this just can't be real'. God sure did bless the country of Ireland!

Around the land of Eire

I met up with Ashleigh and her two friends Jenny and Julia last Wednesday and just parted with them this afternoon. We really had the best time together! It was hard to see them go!

Thursday was one of my favorite days of the trip. We took the train from Dublin to Hoth and went hiking along the trails. It was not only a gorgeous day, but the scenery was unbelievable. Its one of the prettiest hikes I have ever done- the trails took us over rolling hills right along the coast. I can't post pictures because my computer is still out of comission, but I will try to post them soon!

Friday morning we woke up early to catch the Paddywagon tour to Northern Ireland. Crossing over into Northern Ireland, you could immediately notice the change in the road signs. We got a kick out of one sign that just said 'Blind People'... still not sure what it was really referring to but maybe blind people tend to cross right at that intersection? It was entertaining to see though.

Friday afternoon we made it to Derry (or LONDONderry to the Protestants). It was amazing to hear about the religious divisions that still exist up there to this day. I had a real current events lesson. There is a wall dividing the Catholics from the Protestants. The Protestant community flies the flag of Great Britain, while you can only see the Irish flag flying in Catholic communities. Its really sad because they are so divided- none of the areas were flying the flag of NORTHERN IRELAND!

On Saturday we drove up to the top of the Emerald Isle and visited the Giant's Causeway. This was one of the most unbelievable sights I have ever seen. Right along the water, there are millions of hexagon shaped rocks. Some are piled into pillars, while others are just spread around. They think it was created through plate tectonics, but there is no real proof. The Irish have of course created fairy tales involving giants to explain the rare landscape.

After the Giants Causeway, we stopped in Carrick-a-Rede to cross on the rope bridge. It really wasn't scary at all.. they have it secured enough so that we had no trouble crossing it. A friend we made on the trip Colin decided to jump up and down on it as we were crossing, so that added a little bit of a challenge..

From there, we headed onto Belfast. In Belfast (birthplace of the Titanic!), we took a Black Taxi tour to learn more about the troubles between the Catholics and the Protestants. There are 48 walls separating the two communities in this city and the gates between the two will close at 11 PM and not open again until 6 AM. Its so sad to see. Being in the heart of this city made me really interested in the battle thats going on. I had no idea that there was still so much controversy between the religions. It seems somewhat hypocritical to me that there is war in the name of religions that are supposed to be centered around love, but I guess no one asked me!

Once we were back in the Republic of Ireland, we ventured west towards Galway. After asking for directions about 18 times, we made it to our B&B. It was 10 PM and we still hadn't had dinner, but we found a cute little pub that served food. They had been closed for food for two hours but the bartender offered to make us cold plates since we hadn't eaten. And to be honest, it was one of the best meals I had all week!

The next morning we woke up and drove through the Burren (GORGEOUS coastal roads, cliffs, and rock covered fields) to the Cliffs of Moher. I had already been to the Cliffs with the other crew when they were here in January, but it was just as pretty the second time. It was also fun to see it again through Ashleigh, Jenny, and Julia's eyes. They LOVED it.

We ventured on down the coast and made it back to Cork that night. We had an interesting experience booking into a hotel (lets just say we paid to change the dirty sheets, make our beds, take out the trash, etc.- we will NOT be staying there again!!) but at least found a place to stay.

After kissing the Blarney stone yesterday morning, Ashleigh, Jenny, and I dropped Julia off at the airport and then had a nice, relaxing day. We went to lunch and a movie and then headed back to Killavullen. We met up with William and Paddy so the girls could see their baby sheep. They were PRECIOUS. If I could chose a souvenir to bring back to America, I think I'd pick a lamb!

Tomorrow morning I am waking up and catching the train with my friend Emily to go bike the Ring of Kerry. We're hoping to get on the road as soon as we can, so we're taking the 7 AM train from Mallow to Killarney. We are splitting the 110 miles up over 4 days. Emily has contacted B&Bs along the way that are giving us cheaper rates for being au pairs- which is really considerate of them. We are planning on making stops in Sneem, Glengariff, and Waterville. We will be alternating long day- short day- long day- short day, so we can have some recovery time on our short days. I'm really looking forward to it (just praying I'll still be able to walk come Sunday!!)