Day 2: Burrins Lahinch Irishman

I'll get some pictures up on this post this weekend, but for now I'm feeling lazy, so it's text only.

The B&B provided breakfast (duh!) and it was really good, but so far no black pudding or sausage. :^( Today we hit the Burrins - and entire set of plains and hills made of rock and stone. We got some nice group pictures and there were some fun climbing rocks that were razor sharp (managed to slice my palm a bit) and slimy and best of all were a cliff, at the base of which were more rocks and a pounding surf. Oh, I had fun!! Ran around a bit with Katie on my back and managed to scare Joyce. A successful start to the day! :^)

It's been so much fun to see everyone getting to know each other. Our tour guide, Colleen, has her son, Will, along with her to help with the tour and to spend time in Ireland. He's Australian and American, his heritage is Irish and he works in Missouri as the head chef instructor for Ruby Tuesday's. Because the English populated Australia with prisoners and the Irish were at odds with the English, a lot of Irish people got sent down under. He's very cool and comes to Ireland three or four times a year, so he's very comfortable and knowledgable. But he insisted that I have a "true Guiness, not one of those one in the States that comes from a can."

After the Burrins we went over to a little town some of the golfers might recognize: Lahinch! I didn't get to see the course, but a course that we did drive by looked like a nightmare for a newbie golfer. Some of the roughs looked like if you sliced the ball too far in, you wouldn't be able to get to the ball, much less swing! I think my score would be around 450 on that particular course. They also had a good beach at Lahinch with waves large enough for some small surfing. After taking a walk around the town with Charlessa and her parents, we watched the surfers and swimmers for a while. It looked pretty chilly at 18C, but at least most of them had wet suits on.

Again, a group of us stayed to listen to music, but this time it turned into more of a pub hopping time since all the pubs with live, traditional music were packed to standing room only. Along the way we ran into two hen parties (bachelorette parties). The bachelorette party with the bride-to-be wearing a chicken suit with a "Bradley Free Zone" sign around her next was my favorite!! ROTFLOL! The rest of the party was wearing leis and grass skirts. When they heard we were dancers they got Andrea to wear a grass skirt and a lei and do an impromptu clogging performance, and then "chicken girl" did an irish step demo that was very cool. We then found out that she was an Irish champion dancer!! We teased Andrea for the rest of the trip that she was out dancing in the street wearing a grass skirt and a lei. I found out just a couple days ago that the next morning, Will was talking to Charlessa's parents and said, "The tall lady put on a grass skirt and lei and was dancing." Thinking that he mean Charlessa they were certainly a bit startled!

The highlight of my evening, and the source of a running joke was when a group of (I suspect inebriated) girls at a table I was walking by yelled out, "Look, there's a real Irishman!" and as I turned to look I caught a big flash. I hate to imagine the dumb/surprised look on my face that they must have caught. I did the first couple steps of Dance Above The Rainbow (it has a faintly Irish-looking step) and they cheered. I didn't dare open my mouth and expose their mistake!!

First five pictures - us at the Burrins.
6) They had the TINIEST roads; our huge bus took an expert driver!
7) At Lahinch the beach had some great waves and the kids loved it. Its golf course is famous too, but at hundreds of euros to play a round, we decided to pass!
8) Instead, while in Lahinch Charlessa's family and I took a walking tour of the place!
9) Here's the B&B we stayed at. They were VERY nice and served some great breakfasts!
10, 11) They had a couple of interesting signs there in Ireland! There was also an official Matchmaker festival! I'm sure they had lots of crack at that festival!!!
12,13,14) Here's Dromoland Castle, now a 23 star hotel that is regularly graced by royalty and the insanely wealthy. WOW! No wonder! It's also supposed to have a really premier golf course.
15, 16) Bunratty Castle was way more than just the castle, it included a lot of recreated grounds around it. Including a sign that told how CORN was ground into OATMEAL at a mill!!! ROTFLOL!
17, 18) And these two REGAL looking kings.... ;^)