RockBeef

Sham and Rock in Ireland

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Once upon a time... there were four friends who decided to go to Ireland. Living in Brittany (France), they had to take a boat to Cork, in Ireland. Wow, that ferry was huge ^^

It was Ameth's second (I think) and my first boat trip ever and it lasted about ... 13 hours! Didn't even get sick :oP

Once disembarked, we had to drive... on the left side of the road XD.

Well, when I say "we", it's rather our friend and his car... all Ameth and I could do was stare at the road with flying-saucer eyes and above all SHUT UP (never say anything to a nervous driving guy even if he is about to make closer acquaintance with a truck X3)

After a few hours driving, we finally got to the cottage, in Knightstown, on Valentia Island...

Don't look for me on the picture I was behind the camera XD

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The morning after, we decided to visit Valentia... We first went to Bray Head, at the south west of the Island...

there was still a looooooooooong way to go up to the Fort...

During the afternoon, we went northward... this is us on our way to the Tetrapod Trackway: the oldest prints in all the the northern hemisphere!!!!

NOW, let's play a game! can you see the track?

Tee hee, they might be the oldest but they consequently are... barely distinguishable from little chisel marks XD

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The day after, we went Tralee (northward)... We had to buy some milk so we dropped in at a SuperValu, yay! the thing is... there was that huge iron barrier separating the Cellar from the rest of the shop... and it suddenly.... fell upon us! I was lucky, my huge boots stopped the foot of the barrier up my calf so I only ended up with a pretty bruise ^^ BUT Ameth was hit by one of the sharp points at the top of the barrier... It torn up her coat, her jeans and finally...her thigh:

yummy...

And guess what we fell upon in Tralee?

O_o a FRENCH MARKET, with Breton food and all!!! (you can see the flag of Brittany on the pic) we go to Ireland and we come across a French market with French products and French people *growls* that's insane!

That day we drove a lot across the Dingle Peninsula...

We went to see prehistoric huts:

Oh look! Sheep!!!

Here are the huts! "moving" according to our guidebook O_o ... stony if you ask me XD (though I LOVE stones!!)

That evening we went up to Knighstown on foot; here's the view we had:

We went to the pub and had some...

...orange juice XD (yeah that pint was that of Ameth's boyfriend ^^)

We were kind of exhausted by the end of the day... *pants*

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Starting a new day! this time, we went southward towards Ballinskellig Bay.

Us above Portmagee (you can see Valentia Island in the distance).

Ameth messing around in the car X3 A ruin in Ballinskellig Bay *glomps ruins*

Us, up in the tower:

Upper in the tower!!!

We then had a picnic not far from a statue of Charlie Chaplin in Waterville:

It was really nice but definitly too windy, our fingers got frozen holding our sandwiches ^^ Then we went back to the car and Ameth posed before the lens...

XD

... while I was playing it cool... X3

As we went on eastward, well, we kinda... got lost XD, not really but we were looking for a place that didn't seem to exist O_o We ended up in a small seemingly private fishing area with many little boats:

*sings* Row row row your boat gently down the streeeam, merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dreeeeeam!!

On the road back home, we stopped at several beautiful viewpoints... Ameth was tired so I first went alone:

Beautiful, eh?! (Me, not the viewpoint XD) I'd say the islands behind are probably Scariff and Deenish Islands...

Still Ballinskellig Bay...

... and a proof that there are other things than sheep in Ireland: COWS XD

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The day after we had a long way to go up to Killarney, so we started off pretty early. Ameth had bought Celtic music CDs so we listened to one of them during the drive (to the utmost joy of the guys ^^). Look at our happy faces!

Bagpipe rules XD

We wanted to visit a little part of the huge National Park around Killarney. Once we got there, it was lunch tiiiiime!! so we had a picnic at the foot of a very big tree and were soon surrounded by ravens X3 We kept taking photos of them throughout the meal but they finally moved toward other picnickers ^^ Here's a good example of what our picnics generally looked like:

*sings* God save the Pringles (yummy!) We ate tons of those ^^ *huggles Salt and Vinegar Pringles* MINE!

Then we went on foot to Muckross Abbey (sort of ruin again ^^)

...very nice indeed!...

When then got up to have a better view of the cemetery and its beautiful Celtic crosses...

but... AAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!!!!!!! That ghost almost got us!!.......

...but we fled to Ross Castle!!...

...and hid ourselves pretending to be a doorknob X3

^^

woahhh, HUGE!!

On the way back home, we took a little break:

...Further right (so basically off picture XD) we could se the highest mountain in all Ireland (I think)

Rural pose X3 :

*breathes in* AAAAAAAAATCHAAARFFF *kills allergies*

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The following day we took a break and stayed on Valentia Island, near the lighthouse, where we sunbathed and climbed on the rocks ^^

Eh look! We captured rocks!!!

XD

( Eh I look taller than Ameth there, w00t! XD )

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For our second to last day in Ireland we went to Limerick (one of the biggest Irish cities), that

was pretty far away but here, we met that lovely hairy teddybear named Lucky!

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But this had to end one day... the ferry boat awaited us... :'o(

We had our last meal in Ireland on board... it consisted basically of leftovers of the week, that is, hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, cheese , chocolate bars and crisps (I think we had no Pringles left at that point :'o(

Can you tell I love cheese to death?

XD This is pretty much the last sight we had of the Irish coasts.... Can you see the sadness in our eyes?

To put it in a nutshell, the images we have brought back from there are...

... sheep ... (we've gone all baaaaaah baaaah ^^)

... and ruins ... (beautiful ruins!!)

But Ireland beware!...

... WE'LL BE BACK!!!