in a nutshell, ireland was green, wet, and had lots of cool castles.

 

 

 

the famous blarney castle... i am not sure why its so famous, its not even the coolest one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

pretty common site in ireland, a castle in the local town.

 

 

 

 

 

up close you realize how formidable castles are on foot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

local town. seen one, seen them all. they all had (gasp) a pub.

 

 

 

 

 

this was the coolest castle. i really liked the castles but i wont bore you with more pictures of them.

 

 

 

 

 

my friend sammy jennings. sammy is nadine's cousin who i met at bryan and nadines wedding. sammy invited me to ireland but i dont think he thought i would actually show up.

 

 

 

 

my friend fergal. fergal and i had just gotten back from picking up his new ford focus. he is a brave lad because he insisted i test drive it on the way home. its a challenge driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting on the wrong side of car, and shifting with your left hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

playing twister. the rules are the same as here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is in northern ireland. because of the odd formation of these rocks this is one of the wonders of the world. pretty interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

this took me by surprise. we were driving through this town and i saw a U.S. army ranger memorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i had heard of darby's rangers in world war II before but i wasnt aware that they were formed at a camp in ireland as they prepared for hitler. a great piece of history that i stumbled upon. there was a ranger musuem also.

"rangers lead the way"

 

 

 

 

 

they take political whining and moaning to a new level in northern ireland. supposedly this wall represents some of the political opposition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

they have this crazy "holiday" where they burn piles of pallets and tires. this was a town preparing for their holiday burn fest. this scene played out in all of the towns in northern ireland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

they even burned cars in the streets. i dont think a club would help you here.