Day 5 August 6th

 Today was driving to Galway and going to the Cliffs of Moher. Below are pictures from all spots of it. They are some cool cliffs and the views were beautiful. 

This area a scene from Harry Potter was filmed. 

They had little shops and they were all built into the mountain. Looked like a Hobbit place to me. 

Some more pictures from the cliffs. Here starts the bad Kilie selfies. This day was cold. I put on a hoodie and my rain jacket. By the end it warmed up, but first off it was so cold. 

Had our first 99 here. I just wanted a few bites and shared with Rhett. It was totally worth it. 

We made it to Galway. The city, in some spots, was kind of dirty but the house was nice. There was a mix up, we thought we rented 2 places but rented one place two times. Airbnb messed up, but helped us find a second place where Mom, Dad and I stayed. Next to Belfast, this was my favorite place. 

Day 4- August 5th

Today we went to Blarney Castle. We were going to go the day before but with travel, we didn't have time.  This day was my 39th birthday. It was weird to be away from the family. It's the first one in 20 years I have not been with Brad on my birthday. It was hard but he sent a card and each kid wrote a note too. I totally didn't read them in the bathroom crying. I loved it so much. 

This castle was a military base. The stone at the top has a lot of lore to it, but apparently if you kiss it upside down, you will be given the gift of gab. I was scared once we got to the top and just hit it with my forehead. 

You walked through the castle and climbed to the top and yes, it was really high. 

Map of the castle.

This was the murder hole and all the castles we went to had them. It was just at the opening and it allowed the guards to pour hot tar or shoot arrows at intruders if they tried to enter the castle.  

These are all the walking up. The width was so small and the stairs were so narrow and not really great. The circle all the way up was hard too. Different parts lead to other rooms, so those were cool to see. It would have been interesting to see how they were really set up. No room was that big. It's crazy how these castles were built with the limited machines, tools or materials they had to make them with. 

This was their bathroom. I didn't go in to see where it dropped to, but there is no was this didn't smell. 

Almost at the top. Good view but very high.

Kegan is tall, but also these door were so small. This was how you entered the stairs to start going up. 

This was next to the spot you kissed the rock. Very very high up.

But the view is beautiful. It did allow for them to see people coming from far away. 

Okay so I didn't kiss kiss it, but I hit it with my forehead. It was freaky to do for one and for two, not into kissing something millions have also. Still a cool experience. 

More countryside. It really never got old looking at. 

My dad warned the roads were small, and the side roads were small. They barely fit one car, let alone 2 way traffic. If both cars were small you could pull to the far side and let people pass. We came up on a big semi that took up the whole road. We had to back up 4 or 5 cars to a lane, let that guy and others pass, then we could continue on. I don't know how people do it daily, but for a few little times, it was pretty cool. And a reason I was glad I didn't end up driving. 

We went to a store to get breakfast and lunch things. They had an American food section. 

The drink selection was not that great here. I did find Dr Pepper finally, but it was so bad. I don't know if it was because of the cane sugar or what, but I missed American Dr. Pepper. 

After dinner we walked Kenmar. Again, I love how the buildings look here. 

Brad also had the kids sing me happy birthday. It came through as we were driving back from Blarney Castle. Had to hold back tears while I watched it. While a different birthday, it was a good one. 

Day 3- August 4th

 The next day we went back to the airport and picked up our rental cars. It was cheaper to get them this day, and the bus system made it not too bad to do. Initially we were going to get 3 cars and I was going to be a driver. We found out just before that the cars were manual. I was worried but ready to take it on. When we got to rent them, we asked if there were bigger cars we could get and we ended with 2 big cars. While I think I could have driven and been fine, I am very glad I didn't have to. 

Car one was stuffed to the brim. Car 2 was the same. 

Weird seeing the driver and the traffic on the wrong side of the road. 

The country side is beautiful. Once we got the cars we drove toward Kenmar. On the way we stopped in Waterford and went to tour the Waterford Crystal factory. 

Such a cool tour. The pieces are beautiful and it was cool to see how it was done. It was a working factory so we were able to see them making them as we were there. 

The molds for some of the pieces.

This is the first part. Making some vases today. These fires are 1400 degrees and can't be turned off. If they cool down it takes a few days to warm back up. 

After they were made it had to go to a storage area to slowly cool down. 

This next area was shaving off some rough parts and checking for imperfections. 

They would break the imperfect ones and melt them down to start again. 

Next they go to be marked if they need to. Some of the machines in this room were there since it opened. 

Then someone hand cuts them. It was crazy to watch how precise they were with cutting. 

This machine was for a few cuts, but majority are done by hand. 

A few one off pieces. 

Each department is training on the spot. It takes about 5 years for most, one area takes 8 years. If you wanted to learn all of the areas it would take you 36 years of training. The end products are so pretty. I didn't get anything here but loved to look at them. 

We stopped at an Aldi to get some lunch. I got knock off Gatorade or Raptoraid, and cool ranch Doritos or Deltas. Both were not good. No drink was that great here. 

That night we went to a bar and ate dinner. We had to split up the 13 of us. 

I got a cottage pie that was 300 degrees. It was really hot, but good once it cooled down. 

The view from our house.