The Irish Coast

After our pig farming extravaganza, Amy and I decided to rent a car in Galway and drive up the Irish coast within the county of Donegal (where apparently my moms side of the family came from).




Galway was a cute town.

We got a tiny little hyundai, automatic because the combination of driving a manual and driving on the wrong side of the road would probably have been too much to deal with, and set off.


Everthing is backwards!

Our first stop was Bundoran where we were scheduled to couchsurf. On our way there we stopped in Mullaghmore, took some pictures of the local castle, and spent some time enjoying the coast (even though it was cold and rainy).


You couldn't get very close to the castle unfortunately.













Our first hosts were from Slovakia (Liva and Martin) and welcomed us into their home with a slice of apple pie and tea! They're place was beautiful and literally a stones throw from the ocean.


Us and Liva


Us and Martin

The next day, rested and showered, we headed north along the coast, making a pit stop in Killybegs for some fish and chips (a recommendation from our workaway hosts).


Mmmmmm...

Martin recommended that we stop at Slieve League cliffs. We had to drive through some very rural Irish countryside (the signs were all in Gaelic!) until we finally arrived. The cliffs were beautiful (said to rival the cliffs of Moher) as well as the area surrounding them.







Eventually we had to mozy on over to our next couch surfer's house in London Derry (or just Derry to the people of Ireland. Calling it London Derry may get you a mouth full of fist).


On the way we ran into a bit of a road block. The farmers paint the sheep for some reason that eludes us.

We stayed with a guy named John, a very successful sports gambler (its what he does for a living), and he made us a delicious dinner and treated us to a drink at the local pub.

The next morning John took us to the "Free Derry Wall" where there are some pretty amazing murals painted on the sides of buildings depicting scenes from the bloody struggle Ireland went through to end British oppression.






John still hung over from the night before.

We then left Derry and headed towards the Giants Causeway. We had expected to get to Giants Causeway fairly early in the day but there were some pretty cool places along the way that we couldn't pass by.

The first was an old stone estate called the Hezlett House that sat right on the coast. The interior of the building was transformed over time into a well trimmed lawn. At the back of the estate, through some cool turrets, there was a long path down to a domed library that sat on the edge of the coastal cliff.









Our next sidetrack was Dunluce Castle, a 16th century coastal stronghold that is now in ruins. We didn't feel like paying 8 pounds per person ($24 total) to get in so we did the perimeter of the castle instead which was pretty amazing in itself.






There is a cave beneath the castle (called Mermaid's cave) connecting to the ocean that was used as a hidden port.



Finally! We arrived at the causeway. The causeway is a grouping of hexagonal basalt stones that were naturally formed by an ancient lava flow. The tallest one is 30 feet high!













Close by was the Carrick rope bridge. The bridge extends from the mainland across a coastal gap to a nearby island that fisherman frequent.

We bought only 1 ticket to cross the bridge (5 pounds!) and headed down. When we reached the bridge Amy started to cross it. I told the attendant that I was afraid of heights (not really) and he told me if I could make it down the ladder to the bridge, he would take me across. Free ticket! I happily agreed and headed across.









We left the bridge and headed into bushmills to try to do a tour of the whiskey distillery. Unfortunately it was closed :( so we met up with our couchsurfer David. David was a carpenter and teacher and welcomed us in with a home cooked dinner and a nice bed. He even made us a traditional Irish breakfast the next morning (sausages, eggs, potato and soda bread, mmmm).

Our couchsurfing hosts were perfect examples of how the people in Ireland are extremely welcoming. All we could really hope for was a couch to crash on, but everyone we stayed with gave us our own rooms and cooked for us!


We left fairly early to catch our ferry to Scotland and thus concluded our Irish Adventure.

Bacon looks just as tasty when it has legs.

My first true introduction to pig farming began with a jarful of olive oil in hand (natural KY) and an eyeful of Alfie sticking the artificial insemination rod into the unsuspecting swine. A couple of squeezes of the sperm bag later and the deed was done. All work, no romance.

Our workaway hosts Alfie and Margaret managed a herd of 13 pigs (7 adults and 6 babies), 8 chickens, 4 ducks, and 2 dogs on their lovely 5 acre estate.
The pigs were farm razed free-range for the table (mmmmm) and lived a pretty luxurious life. Apart from me wrangling a few of them (see the pics below) to move them from one pasture to another, they spent their days sleeping in their straw lined houses, grazing on the pasture, or eating some of the yummy treats the family provided. Some of the treats included a variety of perfectly edible vegetables that the local produce farmer couldn't sell (because of "defects") as well as some pretty delicious Gouda cheeses that had to be tossed because the rind had split.




Piggies!






These little guys were strong.




The veggies were perfectly fine and we took our pick of them for lunch and dinner.


The cheese was great! Regular and aged Gouda. Amy and I took a chunk of the aged gouda for the road because it was so delicious.


The chickens never laid an egg so the ducks had to fill in. They must have laid a dozen eggs or so while we were there.


The two guard dogs. So ferocious!

Alfie and I went over to the neighbors house to milk the cows one night. We got through 16 of them before we relized the gate wasn't closed. The cows were wondering down tbe road. Luckily we were able to get them back.





The apron kept the cow pee and poop off of my chest but didn't do much for my hands.

We spent the rest of our time around the area visiting some of the old castles, towns, and ruins.













At the end of our stay, and sad to go, we rented a car in Galway to take a few days to drive up the western and northern coasts before departing the island for Scotland.

Workaway #2: Pig Farming

We headed off to Birr by way of a discount bus service and got picked up by our next workaway host. Margaret and Alfie made us feel right at home from the very beginning: the food, the wine and the company were all fantastic. This was the start of our week as Irish pig farmers!

The farm (known as OldFarm) is a small holding, about 5 acres. They have amazing fruit trees and gardens (plus hens, ducks and pigs) and almost every one of the meals that we ate was made from stuff that was grown on their land.


The lovely old farm house that has been renovated.

Alfie and Margaret both love to cook (they even offer cooking classes!) so for the whole week we were completely spoiled with beautiful meals made from beautiful organically grown ingredients.

Margaret and I spent a ton of time in the kitchen trying to keep up with all of the fruits and veggies we were harvesting. Here are a few of the things we harvested over the week: apples, pears, tomatoes, strange yellow cucumbers, peppers (hot and sweet), quince, squash, string beans and peas! We had our work cut out for us trying to come up with recipes that used up the harvest ingredients, but to add to it, we also had all of the amazing veg that came in on the "magic trailer" (see the next blog post for more details!).

We preserved, we baked, we cooked. Then most importantly we ate!


Just a few of the preserves we made!

At the local pub... I guess all pubs in Ireland are Irish pubs!

Homemade soup with Alfie's delicious homemade bread.

The ladies weren't the only ones working away in the kitchen!

Yum.

Kurtis' fave.

Alfie cutting the pork he cooked up on the Big Green Egg

Yummy Beetroot! Made by Alfie.

Funny mural in Moneygall, where president Obama visited when he came to Ireland... his great-great grandmother was born there. There were American and Irish flags going up and down the streets.

Dublin, Ireland

We took a Ryan air flight from a tiny airport outside Munich (thanks for the ride Tobi!) to Dublin and arrived in Ireland around 6pm. We gathered our luggage and hopped on a bus downtown to meet up with our couchsurfers. We met in front of the giant spire (apparently the worlds tallest sculpture) in the middle of town and then went out for a nice dinner together (where I had to enjoy a Guinness, of course). We were exhausted from the day of traveling so we went back to the apartment and got to bed after a long chat with our hosts.


The Spire


Our Gracious Couchsurfing Hosts

The next morning our hosts left for class, so Amy and I headed downtown to catch a free walking tour. These free walking tours are awesome. Not only are they around 3 hours long and extremely infomative, but because they are tip based, they are about 4 times cheaper than the standard tours.

The tour left near Dublin Castle, which was built in 1204 by the British and stood as their headquarters during the period of Irish occupation.



Dublin gets its name from an old harbor that is now a grassy park. The harbor water was very dark, and was given the Gaelic name Dubh Lin (pronounce dove lin) meaning "black pool". The name was eventually anglo-sized to Dublin.


The grassy area behind the castle which use to be the Dublin harbor. The brick paths represent the eels that used to be in the water, but they also show a celtic design from the air.  This also happens to be the helicopter landing pad for when important people visit Dublin.

On the backside stands a tower that is one of the oldest structures in Dublin. The tower use to be a dungeon in the ol' days and only one person ever escaped. The story goes that an Irish man (who was a high ranking rebellion member) was walking along the river when he came upon a group of English soldiers unloading wine. The Irish man asked if he could buy some of the wine. The English said that the wine was meant for the king but that the Irish man could come aboard their ship and have some drinks with them. The Irish man kindly accepted, indulged in the wine, and found himself awake with a terrible hangover in the dungeon. Apparently the English had been kidnapping important members of the rebellion recently to be used as political bargaining chips. The man sat in prison for sometime when some fellow clan members decided to bust him out. They dressed up as British soldiers, snuck into the dungeon, freed the prisoner, and made their way down to the basement of the dungeon. The dungeon was heavily guarded above which prevented their escape via the standard route. Their plan was to dig down, once in the basement, until they reached an underground river that was known to run from below the dungeon to an outlet far from the reaches of the British. So they dug their way out to freedom.


The tower walls were 4 meters thick!

Our next stop was the Christ Church Cathedral. This church was a beautiful gothic structure built in 1030 and is suppose to house one of the largest crypts in Europe.



After a rant from our very knowledgable, but perhaps overly political Irish tour guide we headed over to Trinity college. The campus was beautiful, although small, and houses the library used in a Harry Potter movie and in Star Wars Episode II (the jedi library).



Our tour ended in Merrion Square with another political rant from our guide. We then headed back to the national museum to look at the bog bodies (bodies found in the Irish bogs that are extremely well preserved and date back at least 1000 years). Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures.

After our gruesome detour we wandered past St. Patricks cathedral and popped our heads into a few very expensive antique shops.


St. Patrick's Cathedral and grounds.

The next morning we had a bit of time to explore the city before catching our bus so we headed to the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced Jail) prison. There we haggled with the ticket holder for a student priced ticket (saved 8 euro) and toured the prison. The place was eerie and housed children, women, men, and political prisoners who committed crimes ranging from stealing food to murder. By the way, the punishment for an 8 year old boy stealing a loaf of bread was six weeks in jail with daily whippings. Not a very nice place.


View looking into a cell from the cell door porthole.


One of the cell doors with an all seeing eye (peep hole).


The main prison atrium. The prison was designed to give the illusion that one was being watched at all times. The guards above could see everything happening below but the prisoners could not see the guards. (Oh hey photo kids look at the panopticon, thanks GFR)

The prison was our final tourist sight. We headed back to say goodbye to our hosts and collect our things and caught our bus to our next workaway in the Metropolis that is Lorrha!