Next Stop: Zadar

 When we got up it was still cold and still raining, but the forecast for Zadar still said "low 70's and partly cloudy".  With optimism that we'd drive out of the rain, we headed south.  The scenery was lovely and after leaving the park we began to notice a plethora of little stands along the side of the road, in front of homes.  They were selling cheese and honey.  I finally decided to stop at one and buy my parents some honey.  A mom, her daughter, and her six-month old granddaughter were manning their small booth.  The daughter explained that some stands had sheep's milk cheese, but hers was from cows.  She then let me sample some of the honey options.  Since I'd never heard of "Pine Honey" before I decided to try that one.

We continued on and drove through several tunnels, one of which was over 2 miles long (good thing we weren't playing the hold-your-breath-in-a-tunnel game on that one!).  We made it to Hotel Kolovare with no issues and were once again able to check into our room early.  We stowed our stuff and started walking towards the Old Town.  We passed through the Land Gate and quickly decided gelato was in order. 

From there we wandered along past tons of tourist shops, cafés, and clothing boutiques.  The old Roman Forum, the largest in Croatia caught our interest, and the Church of St. Donatus was there as well.  We paid our 20 kunas to get in and see the inside - although not that much is left of the 9th Century church.  

The architecture of these old stone churches and buildings, the narrow stone pathways - we love it - a feast for the eyes.

We continued on to the water for a visit to the famous sea organ.  We enjoyed the somewhat random, but harmonic, sounds the Zadar Sea Organ on the city's waterfront.  It plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps.  By 3:30pm I decided we should get a late lunch (or early dinner, take your pick), so we wandered until we found a spot with food from the Dalmatian Coast that included people watching opportunities.  Skala Restaurant fit the bill perfectly and I enjoyed a tasty Dalmatian stew with gnocchi before we wandered back to our hotel.

We settled in by the pool for a bit, and since it is Sunday I listened to my church service back home on YouTube.  By 6:30pm we decided warmer clothes and a walk along the water were in order.  Too cloudy for an actual sunset, we still immensely enjoyed the views, and got some nice photos of the sun peaking through the clouds as it sunk below the horizon.

Croatian Roadtrip Beginnings

 Croatians drive on the right side of the road (literally, and figuratively, if you're American), and they have impeccable roads, so no real concerns with the remainder of our trip requiring me to drive from top to bottom of the country.  We picked up our rental car - a small Opel SUV/crossover - and headed for the national park.  

A missed direction trying to leave Zagreb was our only navigational issue, and with little traffic and little construction it was a nice drive to Hotel Jezero.  Since our hotel is one of only a handful inside the park, we had few options for food - but with a car we could easily cruise around to find what few, small restaurants were nearby.  After lunch we returned to the hotel, I bought my park entrance ticket and headed out for a quick hike (my aunt decided to stay and read a book since she was a bit stiff from all the walking the day before).  Photos do not do this park justice, it's a place you have to see for yourself.  I took the trail that led to Veliki Slap ("slap" means waterfall, so I'm assuming Veliki means "big" since this was the "Big Waterfall"), the tallest waterfall in Croatia.  It was a very warm afternoon, but the path was partly shaded in most places and the water in the lakes past which I was hiking was an incredibly shade of blue.

After my return and a shower, we took a short walk near the hotel and then had some coffee (decaf, of course) and dessert on the terrace to round out our day.

The Grand Balkan (That Wasn't To Be)

Since I've now heard a few times, in person and through the grapevine, about how my blogposts were missed I will attempt to give some glimpses into my trip.  Traveling on your own certainly affords more "downtime" to blog, but when you have a traveling companion the concentrated time required seems a bit rude.

When I booked our Grand Balkan adventure in October of 2019 I was anticipating getting 4 passport stamps and visiting an area of the world of which I knew very little.  Touted as a "13-day odyssey through Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Macedonia" that would give us a look at the region's most impressive sights, it sounded perfect. One of the things I enjoy about Group Tours is that the tour guides are a wealth of information - from culture, to history, to personal stories and experiences, they are a huge asset when visiting another country (if you came to learn, that is).  As many of you know, the pandemic was blamed time-and-again for the cancelation of our tour.  They would postpone and I would buy another set of plane tickets, then they would do it again.  I have refused to add up all the money I have spent on a tour that never materialized, it would have been far too depressing.  When they cancelled again in March of 2022, my aunt and I had both decided we were done.  They continued to refuse to return our money and they would only offer travel vouchers, but since our plane tickets were still valid we were stuck.  When I saw that they had a self-driving tour of Croatia (only Croatia, not the Balkans), we concurred that this was our best option at this stage of their little game.  We had to pay more money, which was nearly unthinkable, but we felt desparate to get out of their clutches so we did it anyway and had them book our rental car and hotels for us.  

After many delays and email exchanges we finally got all of our vouchers with less than a week before our departure (can you tell how incredibly disgusted I was with them by this point?).  It was then that I realized the company with which I'd booked our tour is more of a travel broker.  The vouchers were from a completely different company (in Slovenia), so the tour wasn't their tour, hence they had no control over whether it operated or not!  But enough about our travel woes, we had a plan and we were packed and ready on May 23rd for whatever the trip might bring.  The bright spot was that the week before our trip Croatia decided to waive all Covid Restrictions!  No testing or vaccincations required, no masks, just live your life.  Since we transited through Germany there were Covid restrictions on the journey to and from (the U.S. didn't remove their testing-to-return requirements until the week after we returned), but once there it was smooth sailing.

A Drive Down State Highway 43

While visiting the Church of the Good Shepherd, on my Wild Kiwi tour, I met a gentleman whose name I have since forgotten but his suggestions I did not.  In conversation I mentioned that I would be house sitting near New Plymouth.  He then proceeded to tell me of a "lost" highway which takes you through a town (at the time I couldn't understand the name he said) which has declared itself a separate nation from New Zealand.  I was even more intrigued when he told me that it is the only place in the island nation where you will find a road sign "welcoming" you to New Zealand.  I took note of his advice for later, and when I saw a sunny weather forecast for this Saturday I decided to put the dog in the car and head out on a little road trip.

Known as the "Forgotten World Highway" the entire drive is 3 hours, but I only did maybe a quarter of the 155km trail, which is New Zealand's oldest heritage trail.  According to the brochure it "follows ancient Maori trade routes and pioneering farm tracks through ambitious historic settlements, untamed native bush, and stunning natural scenery."  It was such a beautiful, sunny day for a drive and the scenery was top-notch.  As I headed out of Hawera, towards Stratford (the starting town for Highway 43), I had a perfect view of Mount Taranaki.  She's often covered in clouds, or partially hidden behind the clouds, but not this morning!

At Strathmore Saddle lookout, traditionally considered the start of the "back country", I could still see Mt. Taranaki in the distance.  According to the signs, east of there "the dairy farming of the volcanic ring plain and rolling hills and valleys changes to mainly sheep and beef cattle farming" and there had apparently been several plans to tunnel under this "saddle", but they never eventuated.

Strathmore Saddle, with Mt. Taranaki in the background;
the little white dots on the hillside are sheep.

With photo stops at the Pohokura and Whangamomona Saddles I was nearly to my destination.  The further I traveled the more the road seemed to curve and the tighter the curves became.  On one blind curve I saw a camper van coming around the corner, over the line and in my lane.  Because of the sharp bends I wasn't going very fast and I slammed on the brake pedal.  Had the other driver done the same I might have been able to back up far enough to prevent what happened next, but the driver didn't stop.  Time seemed to slow for a moment as I watched him finish coming around the bend, ever closer to the front of the car.  As I realized the vehicles would indeed meet I squeezed my eyes shut, as if not watching would make it not happen.  The woman in the car behind me stopped to assure me that there was nothing I could have done, "you stopped, but he was already in your lane".  My first car accident and it wasn't my car and wasn't my country.  Sam and I were fine, the damage was slight, and thecar was able to be driven.  I can't imagine how much a tow truck out of there would have cost so I had much for which to be thankful.  We exchanged information and headed our separate ways.

Not to be deterred we motored on along and finally saw the sign welcoming us to the Republic of Whangamomona.  The 'wh' in Maori is usually pronounced as an English 'f' sound.  The village was once a bustling frontier town with nearly 300 residents, but by the 1960's the numbers declined to around 20.  In 1989, after a dispute about the redrawing of regional council boundaries, the townspeople declared themselves a republic in protest.  They hold elections for president, but the eligibility rules are rather lenient; Billy Gumboot the Goat, Tai the Poodle, and perhaps the most famous: Murt "Murtle the Turtle" Kennard, have all served as president of the republic.  According to Wikipedia, "the local garage owner fought off strong competition from former president Kjestrup {human}and a cross-dresser called 'Miriam' to become the 4th President. He was re-elected in 2009 by one vote. He was re-elected again in 2011 by a landslide."

My brochure had another interesting fact for me to pass on: "Rugby fans might be keen to know that Whangamomona is the only club in NZ that is allowed to wear an all-black strip - as they had it well before NZ's All Blacks."  I stopped in the hotel for a coffee, and to browse the old photos and town history, before taking Sam for a walk along the train tracks to let him stretch his legs.  The drive back was just as beautiful, but thankfully didn't involve a run-in with a camper van.

Hawera Tiki Tour

I was introduced to the New Zealand term "tiki tour" by my Kiwi tour guide, Jed.  He used the phrase quite often and I gathered that the meaning meant had something to do with not set destination, just a general browse of an area.  Thanks to the internet, now I know its exact meaning: noun,
"NZ a scenic tour of an area".  It's also number nine on this list from the NZ Herald of 15 Kiwi Slang Words.  All that just to explain my blog title, but hey, you never know when that little factoid might prove useful in your life ;)

Val, a friend of Gill and James (for whom I'm house-pet sitting), invited me to her home last evening for a little get together.  She's a retired chef from Auckland, immigrated from the UK (Liverpool, I believe) years ago, and moved to Hawera around the same time as Gill.  At the party I met several people and one of the couples was Allan and Carol.  I had meant to be leaving the party, but got stuck talking to Allan in the kitchen.  I literally mean stuck, he is rather chatty and I couldn't find a decent break in the conversation to politely make my departure.  Anyway, he was born and raised here but has traveled quite extensively around the world (40 countries was the count he gave me), so at least we were talking about a subject I enjoyed.  Shortly before his wife decided it was time to head home he invited to me to go on his school bus route in the morning to see what he has nicknamed "The Green Canyon".  He claimed the landscape variety within the drive was spectacular and unlike anything you normally see.  It seemed impolite to say no, and besides, it's not like I really had anything else to do and would most likely never go to this area on my own anyway.

At 7:25 am this morning I met him at his house and we climbed in the van and headed off.  As we headed out of Hawera (population about 11,000 according to Allan) we were in dairy country - very flat, as you can see in the below photo.

One of the major employers in this area is Fonterra Dairy Co-operative, Allan even has a story about a time he was in China and told people he was from NZ and their response was "Fonterra!".   As we drove, the landscape changed considerably once we headed east.  The roads were now incredibly windy and with the sun coming up over the clouds and hills it was quite a beautiful morning.  He was able to quickly stop for a moment (we had kids to pick up and a schedule to keep) at Mangaminigi Saddle so I could get a photo; it was an amazing view.  I found this video online of some drone footage that gives you a look at some of what I saw (and the road I was on): Taranaki Mangamingi.

He picks up 3 elementary children who live on farms way out "in the sticks" as we would say, or as the Kiwis say: "in the wop wops". They mostly raise sheep in this area, but of course there are some cattle as well.  We even drove past the area where they hold the NZ Dog Trials for Taranaki.  The family of one of the girls he picks up helps with the trials and she told me they had 30 entrants this year and it was a 2-day event.  It was an interesting way to spend a morning and Allan certainly had plenty of facts and things of interest to point out along the way.

West Coast Roadtrip

A point that I failed to mention about my time in Western Australia, is that I crossed something off my bucket list!  Well, 2 things really, but only one is listed on my blog bucket list.  I have now been in the Indian Ocean!  I only have the Arctic Ocean left on my list, and to be honest I'm not that keen to cross it off; although, I hear there have been some amazing technological advancements in wet suits.  And yes, some of you might be wondering why I left out the Southern Ocean.  To be honest, I have no idea.  Although, in researching this topic I found out that some Australian "cartographical authorities define the Southern Ocean as including the entire body of water between Antarctica and the south coasts of Australia and New Zealand".  So, if I go by that delineation I still only have the Arctic Ocean left to check off my list!

On Sunday, we drove 820km (about 509 miles) from Exmouth down to Kalbarri.  We arrived at our hostel around 4pm and I headed to the pool to cool off.  Ann and I chatted for a bit and then decided we'd head to the beach to watch the sunset.  We were early so Terry, Ann, and I walked down to the pier to see what was happening.  To be honest, calling it a pier might be too generous; it seemed to me to be more of a large dock.  The setting was quite idyllic with two young families fishing and having fun.  We made it back to our starting point in just the right amount of time.

We took some photos, in-between swatting flies, and then headed back to get ready for dinner.  I realize  now that I'd failed to mention in previous posts about the flies.  From a bit south of Kalbarri to just south of Coral Bay there are flies, lots and lots of flies (despite that fact that there is a near constant wind)! I'd been warned about the flies before my trip to Uluru a couple years ago, but had thankfully not encountered them (due to my visiting in winter). The prevalence of flies has led to the common use of flynets in many parts of Australia:

If you'd like one of your own you can purchase one here - they ship to the U.S.

I had certainly enjoyed my reprieve while further north, and the decrease in fly activity.  Anyway, back to the facts.  This was our last night together and we enjoyed a phenomenal buffet dinner at a local hotel just a short walk across town.

Our first stop, on our last day of the tour, was at a lookout over the coastal cliffs; a spot called Pot Alley.  From there we headed to a pink lake.  It's not the famous Pink Lake, but it was fascinating none-the-less.  No-one really knows why the lake is pink. Scientists speculate that the colour comes from a dye created by bacteria that lives in the salt crusts.  Most of the lake was empty since a local company extracts the bacteria and uses it in health & nutrition products.

On to Greenough, to visit a Wildlife Park owned and operated by a woman named Michelle.

 We got to feed the animals that she's rescued, including a camel, a horse, kangaroos, goats, and sheep.  We were also able to hold a joey (baby kangaroo) named Rosie - she was incredibly adorable!  Our last stop of the day was at Lancelin to visit the sand dunes.  Several in our group tried sand-boarding (no connection to water-boarding), but I'd done it before and don't like the end result, so I declined.

And so, our trip had come to an end - I got dropped at the train station in Perth and quickly caught the train to Freemantle. Demi had mistakenly told me that the YHA was just across the street from the station in Freo and I for some reason had no map that listed my hostel!  A rookie mistake.  I had a map, but it didn't extend far enough to show the area where my hostel was located.  In addition, everything in Australia (except in perhaps Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane) shuts down after 5pm, especially on a Monday.  The first gentleman I asked had no idea where it was located, but God sent me a lovely lady on try number two.  She looked it up on her phone and after a few minutes of trying to figure out how to direct me she just walked with me!  When Google maps proved to be no help she called the front desk; unfortunately that gentleman was just as un-helpful.  I was staying at the Freemantle Prison YHA (which had seemed like a great idea until I was lost in a strange city, at night looking for a prison), so she got me as close to the old prison as possible (we were standing along the old walls) and said that if I walked along the walls I should eventually find the part that housed the hostel.  Long story short, I did eventually found it and despite their desperate lack of signage guiding you to their location it was a nice place, for an old convict prison.

 2 days, 1,000 miles, and one prison stay - not bad for a road trip :)

Exmouth to Perth

For a little perspective :)

Roadtrip to New Milford, PA

Grandma is always right.  Despite my Grandma having traveled quite a bit overseas, she has told me many times that I don’t need to go overseas because we have beautiful, amazing places right here in the U.S.  I always smile and tell her that once I’m retired I’ll travel the U.S. I know she’s right about one thing though, there are also beautiful, amazing places on my home soil.  It was a packed weekend.  Not only a holiday weekend, but a quick road-trip-to-a-wedding weekend as well!  My younger brother was originally to go with me (we love a good road trip), but due to a change in employment he ended up having to work.  Thankfully, my sister convinced her husband to let her join me.  It was really quite perfect, because her and the bride had actually gone to college together and she even spent some time at our house on college breaks.  Our families have known each other for years – our parents actually share their wedding date, July 26th – and despite rarely seeing them we’ve known them since I was about 6 years old.  I can’t quite remember how our parents met or what exactly created their bond, but I, for one, and quite glad they became friends.  

I attribute my love of traveling – or perhaps my realization that I love to travel – with my first trip to Japan. Coincidentally, it was also my first trip overseas; for this reason, I always refer to Japan as my “first love”.  I don’t know what it was exactly, I can’t really pin-point any specific moment of that trip, but the exotic language and local, even the culture that was so completely opposite of the United States, all collided to create the perfect soil for the seed planted in me to grow.  You might be wondering at this point, and rightly so, what in the world a trip to Japan has to do with a road trip to New Milford.  So boil it down, and to save time, here’s the condensed version.  God called the bride’s parents to be missionaries to Japan. If our parents had never become friends, my family would have never gone to Japan the first time in 2004.  We also would never have gone in 2006.  They wouldn’t have visited us on furloughs (the bride had an unfortunate horse-riding accident at our house one time, now that I think about it) and probably would not have asked me to live and minister with them in 2008.  Admittedly, my sister and the bride might have still gone to the same college, but I think you get the point by now. As they say, everything happens for a reason.

Anyway, back to the roadtrip….

A bit of time has passed since my sister and I were on a trip together, or any trip for that matter - she's now got a husband and a baby!!  It was great to have so much time together to chat, catch-up, and create some new memories.  We started out Saturday morning with the GPS and my co-pilot offering conflicting directions.  We soon decided a quick call to our father was in order.  He confirmed that although both were correct ("all roads lead to Rome" sort of thing), my co-pilot had chosen what he deemed to be the better route.  Seven years later and she still knew how to get to Clarks Summit :)  I doubt I could say the same thing if the roles were reversed.  

In preparation for our trip I'd done some internet surfing to try and find any interesting stops along our route and found a great little place called Dr. Doolittle's Roadside Cafe & Creamery.  Nothing like an ice-cream stop on a road trip!  We decided not to take the time out of our day so far from our destination (we'd been warned of possible traffic on 81), and unfortunately, on our way home when we stopped they didn't open for another half-hour.  It will definitely be on our list of stops to make if we ever have to drive out that way again - home made ice cream has to be delicious, right!?  The scenery along 80 (and 81 for that matter) was beautiful, but taking photos out the window is a bit tricky: all the ones we took turned out blurry or showing a reflection in the window...

Our hotel in Gibson/New Milford was very nice despite its odd location.  Situated in the back of  a large field and right next to Spectacular Fireworks USA which claims to be PA's largest fireworks superstore.  Granted, on an Independence Day weekend that shouldn't seem so odd, but it did.  I missed the turn onto the road that leads back to the hotel twice (not very well labeled) so we did a U-ie (or is it U-ey?) by cutting through the fireworks warehouse parking lot.  The co-pilot thought some of the characters stocking up on fireworks looked a bit shady, and I can't say that I didn't agree with her.  Anyway, back to the hotel: free cookies in the lobby and free coffee and hot chocolate in the dining area 24/7!! Our room also had a mini Keurig, fridge, and a microwave plus some wonderfully fragranced body lotion in the bathroom.  Anyway we arrived at our hotel with just enough time to freshen up and change before hopping back in the car and hoping we could find the wedding location.  

We had some very generic directions and an address of a nearby church - thankfully we didn't have a too much trouble.  An insufficient number of signs pointing the way (and the general size of the signs) were our biggest hindrances, but we did locate it and we weren't late (we decided that was a win).  It was a beautiful location back-dropped by the large, private lake.  It was a very sweet ceremony and very God-honoring.  Although neither of us knew many of the people there we ended up sitting next to two members of another family that serve in Japan with the bride's family.  They are home for college and barely remembered us from our 2006 trip, but we had enough in common to carry on some conversation for a bit after the ceremony.  We recognized another couple (and ended up sitting next to them at the reception), we were finally able to deduce that we'd met in Japan in 2006 as well!  They're now missionaries in the Seattle area working with Iranians, which I thought was very cool. We had a nice, but too short, chat with bride and her family as well, of course.  The food was delicious and even the cupcakes (I'm not a cupcake fan) were fantastic. For those readers who are native Western Pennsylvanians: the reception, to our dismay, did not contain a cookie table.  We really must spread that tradition to the rest of the state.  

We didn't stay too long at the reception before deciding to head back to our hotel.  Our only real disappointment with our stay was that there was no hot tub or Jacuzzi.  While we appreciated that they had a heated swimming pool, when we got in the water we quickly realized that what we both wanted was a hot tub; tepid pool water just wasn't what we were seeking at 8pm on a Saturday night.  We determined that (decaf) coffee and some free cookies from the lobby, consumed while each of us enjoyed a large Queen bed to ourselves, was a better option.  With 4 pillows for every bed (2 soft and 2 firm) we were quite comfy.  A plethora of breakfast choices greeted us in the dining room the next morning and we were soon on our way back home.

wedding (noun)

1. the act or ceremony of marrying; marriage; nuptials.

2.  the anniversary of a marriage, or its celebration

3.  the act or an instance of blending or joining, especially opposite or contrasting elements

wedding (adjective)

1.  of or relating to a wedding

By Car & By Boat

We had a delightful breakfast at The Maze Eatery on Wednesday morning.  Well, that might be overselling it a wee bit, but it was nice to go out for breakfast.  I had found a site, similar to Groupon, that had a 2 for 1 deal on a "Traditional Irish Breakfast" (which meant Heather only ate maybe 2 things on her plate.  I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try it out since our hotel didn't provide breakfast for us.

 An Irish breakfast generally consists of the following: ham, beans, eggs, hashbrowns, sausages, blood pudding & white pudding.  I will admit that the "pudding" threw me off because it is not of a pudding consistency at all - more like a potato patty!  I tried the white pudding,  but it was not tasty at all so I didn't bother with the blood pudding because I just couldn't imagine it tasting any better.  As I'm sure Heather will tell you later - Irish coffee was not our favorite part of the trip: it was always too bitter for our tastes.

Anyway, we headed out and had a lovely walk along the River Shannon, heading towards King John's Castle.  We didn't have time to visit the castle however, because we had booked a boat tour in Killarney and needed to be there by noon.  We were soon back on the road heading towards Killarney and Ross Castle. Our Killarney Lake Tour left from behind the castle, so although we were right there we decided not to pay to go inside, it was too small.  Heather mentioned, in passing that there was no way we'd find someone we knew here, I quickly informed her that, on the contrary, we were quite likely to find someone from our "neck of the woods".  That's just the nature of travel, and as the song goes, "It's a small world, after all."

Although the boat tour was not quite what I had in mind, it was half-price (I love a good deal) and was also a nice break from driving. Our captain was the quintessential Irish man, and I loved listening to him talk.

  As we left the boat, I asked him if there was a good fish n' chips shop in town (he'd told us he'd lived in town his whole life so I knew he'd know the best spot and I really wanted some good fish n' chips).  He said that indeed there was an excellent one, located on High Street, called Quinlins.  And with that we set off to see if we could find it.  The streets were packed and we couldn't find a spot to park, and hadn't noticed it while driving trying to find a spot either.  We decided we'd just start along the Ring of Kerry, since it was already after 1:30pm, and find somewhere to eat along the way.  Naturally, we set off in the wrong direction around the ring, so we had to go back through Killarney anyway.  We checked again, and ended up deciding a picnic would be the perfect choice; we'd find a little spot along our scenic route and enjoy our meal then.  Murphy's Law would dictate that after buying our picnic lunch we would find Quinlins.  While that wasn't exactly true, we did find all the parking lots that we missed the first few drives around town!

The drive was lovely, we started out in the section through Killarney national Park, and we eventually found a fantastic lunch spot.  I'm not sure if the next turn of events qualifies as Murphy's Law, I'll leave that up to your judgement, but it was certainly timely.  We were looking for a good spot to sit when a gentleman asked if we'd like our picture taken.  There was a lovely view (it seemed to be a regular stop for all the tour buses), and we certainly couldn't pass up the opportunity, so we told him that would be lovely.  He asked where we were from and we told him Pennsylvania.  Moments after he walked away another man came over and asked where exactly in PA we were from, since he'd over-heard us telling his driver our home state.  As it turns out, his son had graduated in April from the same school as Heather!  Not only that, but the driver had apparently driven the Rooney family around and was a huge Steeler's fan.  It truly is a small world.

Although we didn't have enough time to drive the entire Ring of Kerry (it's 179km or about 111 miles), the portion we did drive was beautiful.  The road is extremely narrow - tour buses are required to all travel in a counter-clockwise direction - so you definitely had to be alert, so as not to get run over by one coming around a blind corner.  We also had some near run-ins with some sheep - but all-in-all it was great.

Heather did mention at one point that I drive like Paul Walker around all the curves, but I think that was just the difference between being a driver and being a passenger.  After visiting some tiny little towns with names like "Sneem" and "Castlecove" we turned around and headed back to Killarney for the evening.

Killarney

After some souvenir shopping we topped off our evening with some amazing "Gaelic Gelato".
And that my friends, is how you end a day of vacation.

Read about Day 5 here.

Meeting Sioban

On our third day in the country we met up with our representative from Dan Dooley and went over everything on our car (which we decided to name Sioban), and then we were off.  Our first stop out of Galway was at Dunguaire Castle; although not very big it has a nice view.

 We were driving right past and decided we might as well stop before continuing on our way to the Cliffs of Mohr.  We were incredibly lucky, it was an amazing day for a visit to the cliffs: bright & clear.  We had lunch at the Puffin's Nest Cafe and then headed out to see the cliffs.  They have 2 "paths" you can choose, one has a rock wall protecting you from falling over the edge, and then you can also walk on the other side with nothing keeping you from the edge.  Heather definitely did not like the unfettered path, but it didn't bother me - the view was intoxicating.

I can definitely understand why they nick-named them the "Cliffs of Insanity" in "The Princess Bride" movie.  And to our credit, we did not use the term "inconceivable" at all during our visit.

From there we headed south-east for a visit to Bunratty Castle & Folk Park.  This was definitely my favorite castle, so far.  The Folk Park was similar to a replica village, they even had actors pretending they lived there and you could ask them questions and interact with them, so in a way it was a bit like visiting Williamsburg, PA.  According to their brochure, "Bunratty Folk Park is a living reconstruction of the homes and environment of Ireland over a century ago.  Rural farmhouses, a village street complete with shops, and Bunratty House with its formal regency gardens are recreated and furnished as they would have appeared at the time."

The present castle, the last of a series on the same site, was built around 1425.  It was furnished with mainly 15th & 16th century furnishings in the style of the period of the Great Earl (not entirely sure who he is though).  The village street was adorable, and the little church was extremely picturesque -

After we finished up at Bunratty, we got back in the car and headed to Limerick.  Our plan was to tour St. John's Castle (which is quite large and sits right on the water), but we couldn't find anywhere to park (their parking lot closed at 5:30pm, even thought the Castle didn't close until 7pm).  We decided we'd just check into our hotel (our only hotel stay of the trip) and relax.  Overall, it was a really great day.  I found the driving to be quite easy actually.  We did go on a couple really narrow roads (if we'd have come across another car, one of us would have simply had to back up to the end of the road) which would have been tricky regardless of the side of the car you were driving on at the time.

Read about Day 4 here.