Ireland trip day six

Thursday, day six, 6/3/10

Today we woke up very excited because we had booked a boat trip to Skellig Michael, or Great Skellig (islands 8 miles off shore) where there was an old Monastery dating back to early the 400s. I rolled out of bed early and went to take a shower. The first thing I noticed was that the back of my leg was itching. I went to scratch it and i felt a bump. I looked at my leg and saw a big fat tick!!! After I screamed for Michael and tried to remain calm, he extricated the bug with no complications. I feel fine but am a little creeped out that I had a foreign bug sucking my blood.

We were directed to call ahead for the boat trip as sea conditions change rapidly and we may need to reschedule. Sure enough, today's conditions were not conducive to visiting. We rescheduled for tomorrow and regrouped with our plans. We decided to visit a different island called Garinish Island, off the coast of Glengariff,County Cork. This was a formerly barren island that a private investor bought just before the "great war". He filled the island with gardens designed by a Spanish creator and had a summer cottage on the premises. The owner's son took over and ran the island and its many gardens until his death in the 1970s. It then became a public park. We rode a ferry over and were treated to seeing many seals on the smaller islands jutting out into the bay. We also saw a school of jelly fish and many many birds. The gardens were beautiful and slightly tropical. The climate in Ireland lends itself to being able to house many species of plants. We really enjoyed the gardens but didn't enjoy the double charge. You have to pay to ride the ferry and then you also have to pay to enter the gardens. Tricky.

To get to the island, we thought we knew the way. So we popped in the GPS and started out. Michael said that he thought we should go left even though the
GPS said right and there began our adventurous journey to Garinish Island. Everything was fine and we were following the road but neither of us recognized any of the landmarks. We had traveled this way just three days before and we thought we knew where we were. All of a sudden the road turns and heads up a mountain! I wasn't sure but I was pretty certain that we were no longer on the right path. As long as we didn't drive off the mountain I was ok with an alternate path. Turns out we should've rented the off roading package. This was essentially a dirt road that had twists and turns and 30 degree climbs. It was a heroic 30 minute drive that should've taken ten minutes on the highway. Michael, I think, secretly enjoyed putting the car through its paces. He was like a giggly little boy when we got on the main road. I half expected him to say "Let's do it again!" Needless to say we got hooked back up on the main road and made it safely to our destination. On the way back we took the road more traveled, not the heart attack trail.

The rest of the day we spent shopping and looking around the small towns on our way. We had more "take away" fish and chips because they were so good and we couldn't stop thinking about them.

There is no evening entertainment here unless you go to a pub. We already did that once and it can get expensive so we have been reading. I finished "The Help" and Michael is still working on "The Stand" and since we brought our Kindles I can go start on another new book. We could watch TV but there is only a few channels and all they do is talk about football-not the American kind.

So I am off to read more. Have a blessed evening and thanks for reading my blog. Stay tuned and hope for good weather tomorrow!