Headed to the Connemara region on Saturday…

[mcscajun]

…if anyone has any special places I simply must see in the next week, I'd appreciate the hints

Woo-hoo! I'm finally getting to Ireland! Yippee!

:party: :party: :party:

[DaveinMD]

1. what an amazing place

We spent a few days in Clifden. Our favorite place in Ireland.

[dbt]

2. Congrats, mcscajun! You will never be the same.

At the risk of sounding like a tourist, ya gotta see the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. Bunratty Folk Park is pretty good, too. And you'll find the Irish concept of breakfast rather interesting, especially the bacon.

GET PICTURES!

:hi:
dbt

[Maeve]

3. Clifden is worth the trip

And the scenery getting there is worth it, again. Cong is a good place to visit--the old abbey with the little fishing hut on the lake and the new church built using the old wall as part of its structure, Ashford Castle, the whole "Quiet Man" related things and there is a stone circle in a field nearby, as well (wear good walking shoes and watch where you step). Between Clifden and Cong is Kylemore Abbey...

It depends on what you're interested in. I don't think there is a more "Irish" part of Ireland (altho I could be persuaded in future trips!). Find a good pub at least a couple of nights, some place with a sessiun and sit back and enjoy!

[DaveinMD]

4. also visit

Kylemore Abbey

[Maeve]

5. A bit of advice we wish we'd had

In 2003, we had trouble cashing the travellers checks we had in euros; we should have stuck to dollars. And the best exchange rate we got over there was by using a Visa card at the local ATM.

You might consider buying a phone card if you're going to call back here much. Some of the public phones charge higher than others and don't take the larger euro coins (most of the free-standing booths were fine, but the trouble was the phones in the pubs...and sometimes the free-standing ones get coins jammed or are full of an evening).

[RogueTrooper]

6. Good advice Maeve

The best exchange rate I have got ( between Sterling and Euros in my case ) was with my Visa card.

I am not sure what it is like in other parts of Ireland but in Dublin there are places you can go to make international phone calls ( they usually double as internet cafes ). There has been a lot of immigration into Ireland in the last couple of years ( mostly from Central and Eastern Eurpoe ) so these facilities may be found outside Dublin.

[mcscajun]

7. Thank you one and all! I'm off tomorrow! Yippee!

:)

[Maeve]

8. Slán leat agus slán abhaile!

Goodbye and safe home!

Go n-eiri an bothar leat...may the road rise to meet you (and we're all green here, this time with envy!)

[mcscajun]

9. My, oh my, oh My!

dbt -- You were right. I'll never be the same again. Visiting Ireland, even just one small region for a very short time, was simply transformational.

Breathless is the word for my reaction to the sight of the Twelve Bens lightly covered with new-fallen snow and glowing under a full moon. Wow!

Limerick, Galway, Clifden, the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher, Letterfrack, Dingle, and Doolin were the main points along our itinerary, but we were based in Roundstone. The Bens are an ever-present and beautiful sight from the front door of the house where we stayed, more luck to us! On edit: How did I leave out Renvyle!?! Omigod! That was a beautiful place! I Must Go Back There! The last sight that impressed me as much was the Grand Canyon.

Every day was another encounter with friendly, talkative and helpful people, even the children! I had the most marvelous solo encounter with a schoolful of Roundstone children at recess. They ran to the wall surrounding the school on my approach and peppered me with the questions about my trip, my family and the US, and my travels there, offered their names, recited a poem for me (en masse) and gave travel and shopping advice, and finally conned me out of a packet of mints I had in my daypack, before giving me a goodbye worthy of Dorothy leaving Munchkinland. :)

I also developed a brand-new habit (which can't possibly sustain itself here, thank goodness) which was having a Bailey's over ice at lunchtime and two or three pints of Bulmer's Cider in the evening. Yikes!

I have nearly a hundred pics in my digital camera to sort through and sigh over, memories and sounds and sights in my head, and an urgent desire to go back and see it all again, but also to see more of Ireland, especially the land my folks are from up in Cavan.

It was all I could do not to turn the plane right around when it landed at JFK.

[Maeve]

10. Welcome back!

What, ONLY 100 pictures? Hubby took over 700 plus six rolls of regular film... :eyes:

It sounds like you saw the best of the country (not knocking the rest, mind you!)...at least, you saw Ireland at her best.

If home is where you hang your heart, mine is forever in that land beside the Irish Sea. Welcome to the world of the elf-shot.

[mcscajun]

13. Yup, only 100.

We had pretty good weather (for the season) but I would imagine I'd take a whole lot more pictures in late Spring or Summer than I would in February.

Besides, there was all that pub-crawling to do! :toast:

I only took my digital camera, and its zooming capabilities are limited, at best. With my usual rig, I'd have taken more, for sure, but still not as many as in another season.

"Elf-shot" -- I like it. :)

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

11. When you were in Doolin,

did you go to Gussie O'Connor's pub?

I absolutely love that place.

[mcscajun]

12. Absolutely I was in O'Connor's!

Our last dinner was there. When we walked in, a gentleman was playing a traditional Irish air on the flute; it was marvelous. We ran into some Irishmen we'd met the night previous in Clifden.

Some had Fish and Chips, but I'd already gone that route another evening, so it was Irish Bacon and Cabbage for me. :)
Bulmer's Cider is a great drink, too. :toast:

We weren't the only tourists in the place, but we were certainly outnumbered by the locals. It's probably one of the best, if not the best pub we were in all week. :)

[dbt]

14. Welcome back, mcscajun!

I cried when the plane lifted off the runway at Shannon for our return to the States. Has there EVER been a place as hard to leave as Ireland? (speaking strictly for us Yanks, that is.)

[mcscajun]

15. You're so right — liftoff wasn't the kick it usually is.

I wanted to stay another week, or get bumped by the airline, or get snowed in — ANYthing to keep us all there. No dice. I was already thinking about coming back as soon as possible. There's such a surreal feeling of being Home there. That's one of the things I meant about 'transformational' in my earlier post.

More than once as I stood in a field or on a hill looking out on the landscape or toward the Atlantic, I had a sense of ancestors doing likewise; feeling the solitude, the pull of what's over the hill, what's across the ocean; but at the same time, the solid roots reaching to keep you there.

How hard the life was when times were hard, but how good it was when times were good, and how desperate one had to be to leave that ruggedly beautiful land.

Can I commence whining now? :) I wanna go back! Waaaaaah!

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

16. I know the feeling. Hopefully, I'll be going in May

for a very dear friend's wedding.

If you ever do go back, make sure you tour the North as well. There are some really beautiful spots in the Mourne Mountains, the Glens of Antrim are spectacular and of course Giant's Causeway outside of Ballycastle, Co. Antrim.

[mcscajun]

17. I have to get to the North — my father's people come from Cavan

Where exactly, I don't yet know.

But you're right — my friend who set up this trip has been to Giant's Causeway, and it's a MUST, he tells me.