.: The Gift of the Gab

Last week Ben and I had a beautiful week off in Ireland, where Ben served his mission.

The theme for the week has to be taken from this wonderful graffiti that was scrawled into the Howth harbour wall:

I can't say that I got "mad knowledge" of myself on our trip but it was a beautiful place to go and reflect and have some time away from work.

I don't hate work. I like work. I see a point to productivity and always have. It gives people self-belief and teaches you discipline and it's motivating to achieve. People benefit from being employed. But however much I was excited to go to school in a morning, I was most definitely one of those kids who was sitting in their chair wearing their coat at 15:10 watching the last five minutes tick away. I was too much of a stickler for the rules to have moved before 15:15 but I wanted to be out of the door the second that minute hand moved to the quarter and not a second after. Going home didn't always mean play time, but it meant I could go at my own pace and work how and when I wanted to and I like that sense of freedom.

Ireland is a wonderful place to go to feel free! We were incredibly lucky to have wonderful weather (no rain) the whole time we were there.

Our flight was from Birmingham airport and was with Aer Lingus (operated by Stobart). We took one 20kg bag and the cabin crew member who checked us in was kind enough to let us reshuffle some of the packing to ensure we didn't have to pay as we'd gone over the weight. I wore walking boots, a jacket and my waterproof on the flight as a result, on top of leaving some of the toiletries with my Dad who dropped us off at the airport. What a champ!

Soon enough, we were in Cork!

Ben had the opportunity of educating me in Irish-lingo. There are three main regions of the country with specific suffixes.

"Cork, so!"

"Dublin, like!"

"Belfast, so it is!"

Apparently, that was all I needed to know and I was set!

I had been to Ireland before, but (as I mentioned, making the Cork locals agree whole-heartedly) I had only seen Dublin which is like saying you've been to England and only going to London. So, I'll mention Dublin first.

Ben and I spent one night in Dublin - but it was a pretty eventful night.

I had booked for us to stay in Russell Court Hotel as I'd found what I thought was a steal. £26 for the night! What could possibly go wrong? Please check out the pictures on the website and know that the hotel we stayed in looked NOTHING like this. We walked in and were greeted at the reception by a man that Ben dubbed "Igor". He had a thick eastern-European accent and was our first taste of the creepiness of the hotel. Next came the lift. Which barely fit the two of us and our bags.

When we had eventually rattled our way to our floor, dragged our bags to the very end room and pushed open a huge, creaky door, we saw our room.

The ceiling was 20ft high with two enormous mirrors on the two interior walls whose purpose was rendered completely redundant by the fact that they started about half way up the wall, climbing skyward rather than maintaining a position of utility. The exterior wall, directly in front of us as we entered, had three windows that reached from the floor to the ceiling with dark, foreboding curtains bent on shutting out the light making it impossible to capture the room in a photograph. Built-in cabinets with rough glass windows were on our left and to the right was the pitiful furniture. Two large, green-leather arm chairs obscured a small table from our view, arranged in such a way that you could imagine we had interrupted a duo of ghosts playing cards. Between two of the windows, an old-fashioned letter-writing desk with a broken cover. The bathroom was a ghoulish nightmare. The four-poster bed looked sad and bare without the curtains that evidently once hung there. I was just glad the curtains weren't there so I could see what was going on in every inch of the room at all times. Oh yes, and did I mention? A tram line passing our window every 20 minutes. And a nightclub in the building underneath us. They robbed us of that £26.

Near Dublin

I'm happy to report that we survived the night and went (bleary-eyed) into Dublin the following day.

Other attractions we saw include Eddie Rocket's (Ed's Dinner, Ireland style):

Ben also told me we had to go and climb inside a big rock-hill. I was not altogether convinced but then we got to Newgrange.

Newgrange is a passage-tomb, built (it's believed) around 5000 years ago and excavated and returned to its former glory by archaeologists. Going inside it is amazing, especially when they demonstrate the way the light would have come through the window-box at the top of the door at Winter solstice, pointing at a point on the floor up the passageway. It's really incredible to have that Indiana-Jones feeling of walking into a corridor that people used 5000 years ago and speculating on the reasons and purpose of the monument is fascinating.

The rest of our time was spent in Cork and the south-west of Ireland -we'll go back one day and explore Northern Ireland and the North-east.

Kinsale

We walked around James Fort which overlooks Kinsale, a pretty village with a beautiful little harbour. James Fort overlooks the sea.

Cork

Cork surrounds the River Lee. The thing I was most excited to do in Cork was ringing the Shandon Bells. Ben and I climbed the St Anne's bell tower and rang the bells which was lovely. Then we climbed up further through the bells and pigeon excrement (not so lovely) to see views over the city. We had to wear protective headgear so if any other bell-ringers became too enthusiastic while we were right next to the bells, we would retain our ability to hear.

Cobh

If Ben was going to live in Ireland, he would want to live in Cobh. It was the last place the Titanic stopped to pick up passengers before it headed off to the unfortunate disaster. It has pretty colours, a beautiful cathedral and one of the biggest natural harbours in the world.

The Ring of Kerry

I'm not sure I've ever seen anything more beautiful that some of the views from the Ring of Kerry. Though Ben had told me I'd be impressed with the majesty of this place, I was still overwhelmed. Plus, I think I might have found my favourite place ever in a little beach off the Ring of Skellig.

Then there are colours like this seen from Valentia Island:

And, coming away from the coastline, it all culminates in Killarney National Park:

Blarney

Blarney Castle was our last stop. We couldn't possibly have left Ireland without scaling the heights of Blarney Castle and receiving the Gift of the Gab by kissing the Blarney Stone.

See that little patch of light at the top of the tower? That's where you lean to kiss the Blarney Stone. Good job I'm not afraid of heights... oh... wait, I am! But I managed it and so did Ben! Hurray!