globlog: Ireland part Deux

Tracy and I are currently in the process of packing up her apartment, cleaning and staging the place so that she can try to get rid of it, so I thought that I would use this blog as an excuse to be lazy and take a break.

The rest of Ireland was a whole mishmosh of crazy drunk Irish people (and a few crazy drunk Americans, if you can believe that), and enough beautiful countryside to convince Tracy and I that we have to live in Ireland for a little while. The draught bulmers might have something to do with it, too. But more so the incredible views, I promise.

Of course, as always is the case with Ireland, the pictures won't do it justice, but we'll throw a few at you anyways.

First stop after the rock of Cashel was Glengarriff, a teeny tiny town in the Beara Peninsula, which, due to the fact that everything shuts down by 10PM, meant that we exposed the ladies to their first ever hostel and stayed in for a night of cards and wine (the night in which we discovered that Ann might be a little crazy, but of course the photo I have proves that I might be too):

Then we had a full two days in Killarney, where we went horseback riding and drove the Ring of Kerry, enjoying the views of Killarney National Park:

In Killarney we proved why Tracy and I typically didn't go out for dinner, when at a nice Indian restaurant we demonstrated our mating techniques:

On our way out of Killarney, we stopped at my favorite castle (you know, because everyone has to have a favorite castle in their lives), Ross Castle:

Then up to Lahinch, stopping for lunch in the town in which Ann's family live. She was concerned that she would be recognized and yelled at for not telling people she was coming, so I gave her a disguise:

We went to Lahinch with the original intention of learning to surf from our friend Eddie that we met in New Zealand, but after deciding that surfing in that weather might actually prove that we're mentally unstable, we bailed on that and instead spent the time getting to know some of the locals:

In the above is Eddie and Norman, who is NOT a leprochaun (as he told us many, many times). He did become quite fond of Ann, and insisted she send an email to herself on her blackberry from him:

----- Original Message -----
From: Ann
To: Ann
Sent: Fri Mar 28 23:10:12 2008
Subject: Norman Cleary

I think u r cute. Annie. It was very nice meeting you.

Thus resulting in the second funniest thing to appear on Ann's blackberry.

The next morning we got up to check out the dramatic Cliffs of Moher:

Then a drive through the gorgeous Burren, where we only had one traffic jam:

And stopped at Poulnabroune Dolmen, an ancient wedge tomb:

We had one night in Galway, and then had to say goodbye to Lisa, Laura and Lauren. Ann, Amy, Tracy and I jumped on a boat out to Inismor, the largest of the Aran Islands, and went back to losing our minds in order to view the waves crashing below Dun Angus:

We also stopped by Norman's house, but he wasn't home:

Just kidding, Norman! All Irish men are not leprochauns!

Then had the weirdest night out ever in Ennis, in which a girl almost convinced us to change our flight and stay in Ireland for another week. I think she might have had a few drinks in her.

Definitely want to thank Ann, Amy, Lisa, Laura and Lauren for flying in to meet us, it was an incredible week and so much fun having you all with us: