Knock, Croagh Patrick, and More!

A small chapel that we came across while hiking in the Connemara National Park


This is in the chapel at Knock, it shows the apparition that the villagers of Knock actually saw!


A high cross at Clonmacnois


The starting point of our pilgrimage at Ballintubber Abbey

An ancient grove along the hike. The whole grove smelled like garlic because of the wild garlic that grows there!

Beginning our ascent up the mountain

The chapel at the top of Croagh Patrick

The long hike down

The statue of St. Patrick at the bottom of the mountain and the end of the pilgrimage

The mountain was covered in fog, so we thought this painting gives a better idea of what it looks like

The lake isle of Innisfree (Yeats anyone?)

Free Derry, where the Bloody Sunday massacre took place

The Giant's Causeway

The coastline of Northern Ireland

22 Miles and One Big Ol' Mountain Later...

Well, we made it through our 22 mile hike and it was quite an experience! We started in a church called Balllintubber Abbey, where St. Patrick used a local well to baptize the inhabitants of the town. We then began our pilgrimage, following the Tochar Phadraig (Patrick's Causeway), to the mountain with about 50 other people. The Tochar went through farmers fields, ancient groves, and along the stones of the ancient causeway. We started our hike at 9am and at noon we stopped at the small village of Aghagower to have lunch. We then continued our hike, in the company of a great new friend named Tony, all the way to the base of the mountain. We reached the back side of the mountain at about 4pm and began the ascent. At first, we hiked through the bogs that covered the bottom of the mountain. But then we reached the the "shoulder" of the mountain and joined the thousands of pilgrims who had come to climb the mountain and that was the hard part. The path was very steep and covered in scree type rock. It was hard going, but I can't imagine what it was like for the people who climbed the mountain barefoot! But after 45 minutes we made it to the top. We've been told that the view from the top of Croagh Patrick is amazing, but unfortunately we were enshrouded in fog for the last couple hours of our hike and so we couldn't see much from the top. But it still felt like an awesome accomplishment! We then began the hike down, and by about 6:30 pm we had made it down to the other side of the mountain to finish our pilgrimage. That night we then proceeded to go into the town of Castlebar where we stayed and order two extra large pizzas :) The next morning, our new friend Tony invited us to meet for coffee and sent us on our way with some great memories and an amazing Irish breakfast! We then drove north through Sligo, where W.B. Yeats was born and then made our way to the town of Bundoran where we stayed the night. The next day, we drove farther north, into County Donegal, and drove around some really pretty coastline and saw some cool cliffs and mountains. After that, we drove into Northern Ireland to the city of Derry (or Londonderry if you're a unionist). Derry was a really cool city and we could just feel the history of it as we were walking around. Derry is the town where Irish nationalists opposed British rule and where the Bloody Sunday massacre occurred. We walked through the area where the protesters were gunned down and it was a pretty powerful experience. We then went into the city proper and walked around the walls that surround the city. The next day we drove north to the coast and saw the Giant's Causeway. This is a formation of rocks that legend says the Irish giant, Finn McCool built all the way to Scotland. It doesn't quite stretch that far anymore but it is a really cool sight. We then drove along the Northern Ireland coast until we reached Belfast, which is where we're staying for a couple of nights. Today we're going to take a tour of the city and then tomorrow we're headed to Downpatrick, where the graves of St. Patrick and St. Brigid are located and then we'll be staying the night in the town of Drogheda for the night. Well, that's all for now, my next post will have all of the pictures from the past few days in it.

Pictures From the West of Ireland!

We have working internet today, so here are some more pictures!

This is Bunratty Castle, it looks even cooler inside because it's been fully restored!

Here's Casey in front of the Cliffs of Moher

Hiking in the Burren

A dolmen tomb in the Burren from thousands of years ago!

Checking out the cliffs on the Aran Islands

The view from the top of Diamond Hill in Connemara National Park

The scenery was amazing in Connemara!

Sorry we haven't written anything in a while, places with internet access have been few and far between. But anyways, after Limerick we headed to Glenstal Abbey for mass and I have to say that (besides Easter Vigil and Triduum) it was one of the coolest masses that I've ever been to. It was so cool to hear all of the chants and see some of the old school traditions that you don't really see anymore in the States. After that, we drove west to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, which was very cool. It showed how people throughout Ireland's history would have lived and the castle itself was fully restored and looked amazing! After Bunratty, we kept heading west until we hit the Cliffs of Moher, which were spectacular! We were gonna hang our legs off of the cliff and take a picture but we decided that that was probably a bad idea... After that, we headed to the small town of Lisdoonvarna which is on the outskirts of the Burren National Park. The next day we drove out into the middle of the park and did some hiking. The scenery was really cool, the park is covered with slabs of granite and in between the rocks grow a ton of different plants; even orchids! There were also some really cool ancient ruins there, from churches that were hundreds of years old to tombs that were thousands of years old! Once we were done hiking we headed north to the city of Galway. It was raining that evening (of course) so we didn't get to explore the town very much until the next day but it was a really cool city! While we were out and about we both got Claddagh rings in the village of Claddagh, which has kind of been engulfed by Galway city. Once we were done exploring town, we hopped on a ferry and headed out to Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands. I think we probably had the best time of our trip so far while we were there! On the first day, we rented bikes and biked across the island to a place called Dun Aengusa, which is a large cliffside fort. It was ringed by two separate walls that were built completely without mortar and on one side went right up to the side of the cliff! That evening, we were hanging out in the tv room when the manager of the hostel came in and invited us to have dinner with him and the staff. We ended up making some good friends with the staff members who were from all over (Australia, California, Ohio, and Ireland) and we went out to the pub together that night. The next day we tried to go on a fishing trip but realized once we had gotten to the beach that the crank for our one fishing pole was missing! Nevertheless, we still had a great time hanging out with our friends outside of the hostel and just relaxing. That same day, we headed back to the mainland and drove through the Connemara National Park to our next hostel near the town of Leenanne, north of the park. We spent the next couple of days hiking in the park and enjoying some of the best scenery (and weather) that we had seen in all of Ireland! Today, we finished our stay in Connemara and drove north to the city of Westport, which is right next to the mountain called Croagh (pronounced "croke") Patrick. It was on top of this mountain where St. Patrick, after having fasted for 40 days and nights, rang his bell and banished all of the snakes from Ireland! One Sunday, thousands of pilgrims (us among them) will hike to the top of mountain in memory of the way that St. Patrick himself took. Until then, we plan on going to the small town of Knock tomorrow, where the Virgin Mary appeared to multiple townspeople and then into the middle of Ireland to see the ruins of Clonmacnois, an ancient monastery. Unfortunately, our internet is pretty bad today so we can't post any pictures, but we will as soon as possible!

No Dancing After 11pm

Sooo, we recently stayed at a Bed and Breakfast and as the owner was showing us the room she informed us that there was no "dancing" after 11pm. However, when we signed in and she found out that we were brothers she seemed really relieved; I guess we should've seen that coming since we're two guys traveling together in Europe :P But anyways... we spent the last couple of days exploring the Dingle Peninsula and it was awesome! We saw some amazing scenery and had a good hike around parts of the area (despite the near flash flood that we got caught in). The night life in Dingle town was a lot of fun too, we had an amazing seafood dinner that had been caught that morning and we saw a couple of really good bands. Today, we drove from Dingle, down along the River Shannon and on to Limerick. Tomorrow we're headed to Glenstal Abbey for mass with some monks who have recorded some famous CDs and then we're going to the Cliffs of Moher and are going to hike in the Burren National Park. We also took a few pictures in the past few days, so here they are...

Here's the Torc Waterfall in Killarney National Park

Here are some cliffs along the Dingle Peninsula

Apparently you're not supposed to get too close to the cliff...

Vibram magazine, here we come!

Casey enjoying his new pipe on the Dingle Peninsula

Larkin's Pub in Milltown outside of Tralee!

That's all for now, we hope everyone's doing well back home!

More Pictures!

I have internet access again, so here are a few more pictures!

We took this picture at the Rock of Cashel, a 600 year-old cathedral that had some awesome architecture!

This shows some of the carvings along one of the altars at the Rock of Cashel

This is one of the craftsmen at the Waterford Crystal factory after taking the glass out of the furnace and making it into a vase


Here's me kissing the Blarney Stone!

Casey chilling on the Sacrificial Altar in the Blarney Castle grounds (he does what he wants)

Some amazing scenery along the southern coast

A two-lane road along the Ring of Kerry!

A view of Lough Leane and the MacGillicuddy Reeks from Lady's View in Killarney

Exploring a fort that's over 3000 years old!

Well, that's all the pictures for now! Over the past few days, as you can see, we've been to Blarney Castle and we then drove along the southern coastline of Ireland until we made it to Killarney. We spent a few days in Killarney, driving the Ring of Kerry, checking out the town, and hiking in the Killarney National Park. Tonight we're staying at the town of Tralee and tomorrow we're heading to the Dingle Peninsula to do some hiking and see some more amazing scenery!

Finally Some Pictures!!!

I was finally able to find a new power chord for my laptop, so here are some pictures!

The one above this is a couple of the famous "Doors of Dublin".

Here's a picture of our first room in Dublin.

And here's Casey and I sharing a Guinness at the top of the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin! Disclaimer: If any of Casey's future employers are reading this blog, Casey is currently 18 and in Ireland, where the legal drinking age is 18 :)

I took this picture in the valley of Glendalough where we visited an old monastery founded by St. Kevin.

This was a really fun night! We were in Kilkenny and went out with a couple of people from the hostel, Brianna (in the picture) and Phil (the guy who took the pic).

As you can see, we had a good time :) I wanted to post a video of the band that was playing but it's taking a long time to upload and the internet's acting up so that's all for now. I'll post more as soon as possible!

Laptop Down

Well, we've been having a few issues here but we're still making it through. Unfortunately, the power chord for my laptop has stopped working and the battery died so I don't really have a good way to put up pictures at the moment, but hopefully I'll be able to find a replacement sometime soon. In the meantime, I'll only be able to post stuff every few days when we somehow have access to a computer. But anyways, after we left Wicklow town it started to rain and it didn't stop for three days! When we heard that it rains all of the time in Ireland, we thought that it was just an exaggeration, but we were wrong! We were still able to see some pretty awesome stuff though. The drive down the eastern coast was beautiful and we stopped in a couple small villages on the way down. We eventually stopped in Waterford, trying to find the Waterford Crystal Factory. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find it and since we were absolutely soaked, we didn't feel like walking around too much to look for it. After Waterford, we headed inland to the city of Kilkenny to stay the night. That evening we made some friends at the hostel and headed out to a local pub together and ended up having a great time! There was a traditional Irish band playing and they were awesome (I hope to post some videos as soon as my laptop is working). The next day, we headed west, to the town of Cashel. At the town there is a huge 900 year old cathedral called the Rock of Cashel, and that was amazing! We stayed the night again in Kilkenny and then today we went back to Waterford and this time we found the Crystal Factory! We took a tour through the factory and it was really cool seeing how all of the different pieces are made! We then made our way along the southern coast, which included lots of cliffs and hairpin turns, to the city of Cork, where we're staying the night. We watched the Munster Hurling Championship while we were here which was very cool (FYI, hurling is an Irish sport similar to lacrosse but played with more of a field hockey-type stick). We also watched the World Cup game at one of the local pubs. Tomorrow we're going to check out Blarney Castle and then make our way over to Killarney! Hopefully I'll get a new chord for my laptop soon and I'll be able to post more often!

Our First Few Days

Hey everyone! We're at an internet cafe right now so I don't have time to post much but I just thought I'd put up a little update to let everyone know we're still alive! We flew into Dublin a few days ago and spent the morning walking around, seeing the Book of Kells and checking out the National Museum. Then, after a much needed nap, we went to the Guinness Storehouse and had a couple pints of Guinness at the highest point in Dublin! The next day we picked up our car and headed south to the Wicklow Mountains. We spent the day driving around the mountains while getting used to driving on the left side of the road. We only had one or two near-death experiences, so I think that, all in all, we did a pretty good job :). That spent that night in a hostel in a small town called Rathdrum and then yesterday we went back into the mountains to an old monastic site called Glendalough. There were some beautiful ruins there that we explored and we also went hiking around the site for the day. While we were hiking we even saw some Peregrine Falcons! After that, we drove over to the town of Wicklow on the east coast and spent the night in a really nice Bed and Breakfast. Today we're headed down the coastline to Wexford, Waterford, and Kilkenny. Hopefully next time we're online we'll have time to put up some pictures soon so you can all see some of the awesome stuff that we've been doing!