And we're home

Our flight back was ok, nothing too crazy. I watched 14 episodes of the show Bones, that was about it. Didn't sleep at all. We got in early but it was packed at customs so they wouldn't let us get off the plane. So we had to sit there. Then when we did get off it was just to wait in line forever. Then get our luggage and wait in another line! Eesh. Finally we got out of there and Audrey was there to pick us up. I'm so glad she picked us up, it was so fun to catch up.
We got home after 11pm and my parents were at the house with our dogs! They had driven down that afternoon to bring B-Bop and Rocksy home. I was so glad to see them! I MISSED ALL OF THEM! I passed out that night but kept getting woken up by Rocksy. Went to breakfast and hung out with my parents today. I'm pretty tired, just drained feeling. It's so weird to think we were just in Ireland. Back to life here, work tomorrow, need to do laundry and clean and get back into the groove. Probably go to bed pretty early. I'll upload all the Honeymoon pics to Kodak gallery in the next few days. When I get them all up I'll post the link here. Also got the CD of pics from Dan the photographer so I'll post those too.

Thanks for reading this everyone! Maybe i'll keep posting on here, just life stuff, we'll see :-)

Coolest thing in the antique shop

Connemara marble

So beautiful in person. The most amazing greens!

Not very good.

Picture from the Ennis antique shop

Farwell, Ireland

Alas our trip must come to an end. Yesterday we went to Galway and Ennis. Both were great cities. Galway is like the young peoples city, Allan said that 60% of the people living there are under 35. It's a cool mix of old and new, really cool city. Ennis is a smaller town but Really neat. Tiny little streets, super friendly people, lots of neat shops. We found an antique shop that was just literally top to bottom full of stuff. And we're not talking cheap stuff. I asked about a little figurine, maybe four or 5 inches tall and he said 600 Euro! Yipes. Uhm nevermind, thanks! Brendan and the owner talked about gold and stuff. We just walked around and saw stuff. This is a beautiful church in Galway. The inside has all this Connemara marble in the dome, it's gorgeous.

 This was some creepy abandoned building on the way from Galway to Ennis. It was a HUGE building, big wings on either side of this, windows broken, plants growing inside, CREEPY!

 This is the city centre in Ennis. Wish we would've gotten there earlier, lots of the shops were closed when we got there!

 And this is where we've called home all week. The upper window on the right is our bedroom. This place had two bedrooms and the couch was a bed too. Let's all come back!!

I'm so sad we're leaving. It's like 8:30am and it's the sunniest day we've had. I'm so bummed we didn't get to Cork or Donegal or Cashel. Or Northern Ireland. We've been here a week and barely scratched the surface of everything I want to see and do. I guess we'll just have to come back. :-)

Time to get going, goodbye Ireland, I love you. And I'll miss you. I hope to see you again soon.

1.5 hours to London then 11.5 hours to LAX. See you in a while!

I found my new home

We took another tour with Driver Allen today. He's so awesome. We went on the Connemara Tour. Started off EARLY. We got in late from our dinner and music last night and had to be up and ready by 8:30. We got on the bus and some obnoxious Washington DC ladies had taken the front seats and made a remark about how they stole our seats. So we sat behind them, but we were on a big bus on little windy roads and I started to feel sick. It sucked. We stopped for coffee and I got some pepermint tea which seemed to help. A nice Scottish couple asked Brendan if his wife was feeling ok and he said Who? haha guess we're not used to that tag yet.
ANYWAY, I didn't throw up and finally we go on some normal roads and we saw some pretty areas. We drove through Galway and stopped at a shop that sells jewelry from the Connemara mines. It's this BEAUTIFUL green marble. It's just GORGEOUS. Or as Allan says "Garjus". We got to see the guys polishing it. They don't make big stuff with it anymore as to conserve the mines but there's a building in Philadelphia I think that has a lot of it.

We drove on, Allan told us to watch the movie the Field. He said its the best movie to come out of Ireland. Also saw a bridge from a movie called Quiet Man. The bridge is the Quiet Man Bridge. I guess it would be cooler if we actually had seen or heard of the movie. Most of the older folks seemed to know it. 

Onward we went toward an Abbey. We turned the corner and there it was. Kylemore Abbey. The castle was built by a man, Henry I believe was his name. He built the house and raised his family there. His wife Margaret I think got sick and he took her to Egypt to see if the change in weather improved her condition but she got dysentery and died within 6 weeks. So he had an awesome mini cathedral built on his property for her. Once it was finished he had her bodied moved from Egypt to Ireland. Inside the mini cathedral was beautiful. It has all this light tan sandstone inside and columns made of all the different marble in Ireland, white, black, green and red. 

One of Henrys children also died at Kylemore and he decided it was cursed and sold it. After changing hands multiple times, it ended up being bought by the Benedictine nuns. They still live there now. They opened a finishing school that just had it's last class last spring. So it's no longer a castle, but an abbey. They're reconstructing all the rooms and hope to have it finished in four years. It's also known for a massive Victorian walled garden. It was beautiful and they actually use a lot of the fruit and veggies grown there in the cafe food. Brendan and I had some fresh peppermint tea from the garden. Here's some pics and more info can be found here

Let's see what else have I forgotten? Oh we went to the weavers in Tuamgraney, the German wife wasn't very pleasant but the husband was awesome. He stopped working and chatted with us for a long while, asking where we were from telling us about his life. We told him we'd been to Dublin and that we went to the College and he laughed and said that was for old people, we could come back when we were old for that stuff. He wanted to know what pubs we went to and when we told him we'd gone to the Brazen Head he said that was wear he'd met his wife! He was telling us that in Dublin he had a friend who was the youngest of 23 (in Irish speak that's twenty tree). TWENTY THREE KIDS!??!?!??!?!  madness.
I'm bummed bc I thought I had my text blogging set up and had been sending these little messages but I just realized it hasn't been working! If i can fix it I'll post some of those old pics.
Tomorrow Brendan and I are going to explore Galway on our last day here. Then Saturday we pack up and leave :-( I'm heartbroken. I can't wait to see my dogs, my bed, and my loved ones, but I'm really really going to miss this place. If you haven't been to Ireland, go. It's amazing. The culture, the people, it's so so amazing. If you want some reading, try Morgan Lewellyn. Brian Boru and all that. I honestly would move here if we could, it's breathtaking and I feel so comfortable here!
Back to the real world in a couple days, but until then I'm going to enjoy this beautiful country!

Castles and Abbey's

I don't have much time to write as we're going on a tour of Galway and Conemara today but I wanted to post a couple pics from yesterday. We went exploring, just driving around. Went to a realy cool Abbey in Quin. You could walk around around almost anywhere, upstairs, downstairs, all over. It was really cool and kind of spooky! Then we found another castle that we couldn't figure out how to get into but we found their walled garden and walked around that.

That jump picture is for your, Audrey. We went to dinner at Peppers, they had live music. Today we're crazy tired bc we got in late and had to wake up early and now we're getting ready to leave on our tour. Here's a pic Brendan took, it's a panarama that he stitched together. He likes to take these:

Cliffs of Moher

This was so amazing. We were driving along, seeing all these awesome little spots and we pull up to a parking lot thing when Allen jumps out to get our tickets (discount!). We get our tickets and walk towards the cliffs. There's an old man playing a tin whistle for coins, setting the most perfect ambiance and then you see them. Just the most beautiful breath taking cliffs. You're standing on a walkway of these really neat stones that have squiggles in them, made by worms millions of years ago when that stone was still just sediment. And the blue ocean, green grass, the wind. All of it just embodies Ireland. Standing on the edge you can imagine being hundreds of years in the past, traveling along, stopping at O'Briens tower.

I look at these pics and honestly they don't do it justice at all. I mean you can't even imagine the scale and the beauty.  It's such a shame! Brendan took some pretty cool panomanics. I don't know where he puts them so  I'll post those another time maybe.
Can I just say English TV is FRAKING AWESOME!? Uhm The X Factor is like a thousand times better here than home. Even their cheezy shows are funnier because they're all done in an accent. ha And man they play James Bond like All Day Long. Is he like a national hero or what? Jeez! Guess they don't have many hero's. Doesn't anyone remember Captain Britain, Capt. America's counterpart? Probably not and I doubt they're making a cool movie about him. And can Sean Bean ever just play a good guy? Not a bad guy turned good, just a plain ol' good guy? I like the guy! Even on Game of Thrones, he was good, but freaking died in the first season. and now he just died in Golden Eye. Oi, I'm off topic.
Tomorrow Brendan and I are going to go exploring. We want to visit a shop it Tumgraney (that's toom grainy) and visit Quin to see their Abbey and a pub that's supposed to be awesome. I must say, this country is PROUD of their Guinness, but I still think it's pretty gross. Blech. Did you know Arthurs Day is coming? It's a worldwide Guinness celebration day. So everyone should get to their local pub/bar on Sept. 22 and check out more about it here! I'm sure it'll be a big day here in Ireland!
As I said, I'm growing more in love with this place, so you're all welcoem to visit when we move here haha
Oh, Amber, you would LOVE all the farms here. Tiny little farms with their sheep and cattle and donkeys, making Amazing cheese and stuff. It's so awesome
OH I forgot we ate lunch in Dooin, and made friends with a donkey there. He was a nice fella. Here's a pic Brendan took

That's all for tonight! Until tomorrow :-)

Cliffs of Moher sneak peek.

When Brendan gets off the laptop, I'll post more!

The Burren

Ohhhh FANTASTIC!!!! We took a Tour today that was offered through our time share place. It was a tour of the Burren which is just a really odd piece of land. The Burren used to be a sea floor that like millions of years ago was pushed up. So there's these huge fields that are just full of what looks like cement slabs. Our driver Allan called it pavement. There's a lot of plants growing in it now, like blackberries and hazelnuts. People are allowed to pick whatever they want. I thought that was pretty neat. Allan took us to a cave, but it cost like 8Euro each and I'm not a huge fan of caves. Dark and scary, no thanks. So we climed around the burren and took pictures

 We got closer to the coast and took some more burren pictures there. It was CRAZY windy, but it was so beautiful. Allan kept pointing out old famine houses and homes from what it was like to grow up in Ireland in the 70's and 80's before the Celtic Tiger, which was basically the economic boom in the late 90s through 2005ish. He Ireland used to be more like a 3rd world country, where 8 people used to live in a 2 bedroom house. After the Celtic Tiger it was 2 people living in an 8 bedroom house. Just like in the US, people were greedy and bought too much. Anyway, here's some coast pictures:

Stay tuned for some more pics this evening. Got to get something to eat, STARVING. Brendan is over Irish food, but I want MORE! I haven't even had much corned beef yet, JEEZ. Anyway, next up you'll see some Cliffs of Moher pics up soon!

The more we see, the more I want to stay! The Cliffs were breathtaking! Comings soon!

Dublin

Sunday Brendan and I went to a little meeting here at the time share, where they talked about tours and things to do in the area. We signed up for two tours and decided to drive to Dublin and spend the night. We got there early afternoon. I've been driving fine on back roads and freeways, but driving in Dublin put my crazy wrong side of the road skills to the test. People drive a little crazy (like in any big city) but we made it in and out in one piece. Once checked in we decided to go to the Guiness factory. My boss Dennis had told me to take the tour and be sure to go to the very top, so we did. It was pretty interesting, a really cool old building and lots of infomation. I'll be honest though, I'm not a big fan of Guinness. It's too...... beer-y. But the very top of the building has a 360 view of Dublin and points out different points of interest. It was really neat!After that we walked around for a bit and wandered Dublin. It was Sunday so lots of the shops were closed but there was still a lot to see. Our hotel was across from an amazing huge church. It's the spot everyone goes to to celebrate New Years Eve in Dublin. While we were there Dublin won the all Ireland rugby match so everyone was in High spirits! We decided to get dinner and made our way to the Brazen Head. It's the oldest pub in Ireland, a pub has been on the spot since like 1198 I think. It was pretty awesome. The bartender was very nice, talked to us a bit. There's a ton of dollar bills taped to the walls and when we asked about it he said Americans like to give them money haha. There was some pretty cool stuff up there. Like on the Canadian money. The guy who's signature is on it, he came in a couple weeks ago and signed a bill to put up there! We got dinner and then made our way into another room to watch some musicians. It was so fun, everyone was singing, the musicians were just sitting in a booth hanging out. A funny older Irish lady sat in front of us and was trying to be a matchmaker for a Norwegian man and a German lady. Turns our the German lady was married. oops haha. When we told her we were on our honeymoon she was so sweet, saying oh bless you! and telling us things we should see and do. After the music was over, we were pretty tired so went back to our hotel.
Woke up early-ish and made our way out. I really wanted to go to the Trinity College library so we took the tour. They have this REALLY old book called the Book of Kells there that is just amazing. They have stuff on how it was made and what stuff in it means. It was all well and good but then we walked upstairs and I almost died. The library is seriously one of the most beautiful things I have EVER seen. It honestly brought tears to my eyes is was so amazing. Sadly, we werent allowed to take any pictures, but you can see some pics here
After that we just walked around a bit and I made a doggie friend. His name was Louie F. Vuitton. He was SO sweet! i was in love:We then just walked and explored the city. Found a little shopping district and saw some really amazing buildings. Sadly our Dublin tour had to come to an end so we made our way back to our car and started the couple hours back home. Along the way we stopped for gas and took a back way home. We were driving along when I suddenly saw a cemetery! We stopped to check it out. It was just on the side of the road, by houses, kind of over looking a lake area. It was FANTASTIC. Brendan took some pictures then I begged to use his camera and took some more. I could've spent hours there taking pics. Here's a few we took:
And now we're back home. We have tickets for a dinner and a concert tonight. It's a local folk singer and band and a dancer. Brendan is feeling a little under the weather. Seems his bangers and mash from last night didn't sit well with him. Poor guy. OH i forgot, while we were in Dublin we went to the "chemist" aka the pharmacy to get some medicine. You have to talk to a chemist/pharmacist just to get over the counter medicine. You tell him whats wrong and he picks out whats best for you. Good thing because NONE of it is the same as here. I got some Day Nurse medicine :-)
Off to get ready for our dinner show!

At the Guinness factory!

Ireland At Last!

We've arrived!!!! It's so wonderful, amazing.
The flight from London SUCKED, the old man next to me doused himself in cologne, and I had a headache so the whole ride I felt like throwing up. We landed at the Shannon airport, got out of the plane, walked onto the tarmac and we see a rainbow. It was like Ireland was saying "Hello, Thielmans! Welcome!" haha
We got our car after a little confusion, it's a tiny little Nissan something or other. We put our luggage in and Brendan tried to get in on the driver side. Brendan doesn't know how to drive stick so I got nominated to drive :-) I don't mind, it's kind of cool. Just remember to stay on the left. The driver is supposed to be close to the center line, just like in America, but on the opposite side. So far I've done pretty ok!
We went to Scariff to find food and it's like something out of a movie. Tiny little town , skinny little roads, everything is brick with green moss and stuff. Green hills EVERYWHERE, cows, old stone walls, ferns. Pubs everywhere. We found a Centra, which is a grocery store. It's basically the size of a small 7-11 but apparently that's the only one they've got. We got some oatmeal, coffee and tea for breakfasts. Then we went to Supermac which may or may not be a McDonalds rip off. But it was darn good.
We passed our time share and had to back track but finally found it and it's awesome. It's like a little cottage, upstairs and downstairs, kitchen, laundry, TV etc. It's like a fairy tale! I want to live here! It's raining now, I love it. We're going to go to the Cliffs of Moher on Tuesday and this time share has a thing where they take you to a pub with live music a couple nights. We're looking forward to that. We're also planning a trip to Dublin and over all just going exploring. It's like just amazing buildings and things to see on the side of the road. It's so freaking beautiful.
So if we don't come back, don't worry, just send B-Bop and Rocksy over and maybe some of our wedding presents haha.
Despite my cold, we are loving Ireland and can't wait to go exploring :-) More pics soon!