Rosie

This past Wednesday, Kaetlyn and I decided to walk home from school taking the Burren Way. I've been hearing people taking it to and from school and how nice of a walk it is because it's not the main road. And they were right, it's a pretty nice walk and I must say it's really nice not having to really worry about cars hitting you. So we started walking and we came to this part of the walk where we weren't sure if we were to keep going straight or turn right. That's when Rosie showed up. Rosie is this adorable border collie who we see wandering around school every now and then. We stopped at the intersection to pet her and decided to go down that way. It turns out it was the right way, and we pretty much were lead the entire way back to our house by Rosie. She knew exactly which walls to climb over, and which way the trails go. She even followed us through the village and down our street right to our front door. We tried to get her to come inside, but she must of been trained to be an outdoors only dog because she stayed put outside. We then tried giving her water, but she wouldn't go near it. We kind of didn't know what to do at that point so we said our farewells and went inside in hopes she would find her way back. After a few minutes of just sitting outside she eventually left, and I assume made it back out. Border collies are smart dogs, and Rosie seems to know her way around pretty well. So in all it was probably the best walk back from school yet. It was nice having a companion with us. I also just love how there's so many dogs here and how they're allowed to just rome where they please. I've met some pretty adorable pups whilst being here. And a lot of them are border collies and I guess I have a soft spot for them as my dog growing up was part border collie.

When I went to take a photo of this cow we saw on our walk, it would just hide behind the wall. Cows are so shy!

This past weekend was this unofficial trad festival going on in all the pubs around Ballyvaughan. I guess it's been going on for 28 years or so, and it's basically a bunch of different musicians from Wales, Britian and Ireland coming together and playing music in all the pubs. I hear its a somewhat memorial for a fellow musician who was killed here a while back? But they more or less wander into pubs with their instruments and just start playing. It was pretty amazing to be honest. It was nice to hear some rich traditional music, just all the different instruments and singing, it was really an experience I'll never forget.

Friday night we ended up at Louges, which had some of the local musicians playing. We've seen them play before, but it was nice to hear them again.

Kaetlyn was even conned into playing the whistle for a few songs! I was really glad she did it, because she rarely plays in front of people.

This woman was so funny. Anytime she would take a sip of her drink, especially after the first sip, she would just have this look of disgust on her face. Yet she kept drinking it.

This is Mike, enjoying the wonderful sounds filling the pub.

This is Kaetlyn, also enjoying the sounds, so much so she isn't paying attention to me photographing her.

The second night we headed out a bit later than planned due to a (somewhat) failed attempt at making soda bread (by somewhat I mean it took 4 hours to make when it was supposed to be 1, and yet it still came out and it was all eaten that night.) We stopped into Greene's at first and stayed for a few songs but after a while the huge crowd in that tiny pub just got to much and we left. Shame though because the music was really beautiful there. There was even a harp! I couldn't get many pictures though, there were to many people to do so.

We left Greenes and heard some story telling and singing outside of O'Lochlains(?) and decided instead of fighting the crowd, as that pub is even smaller and we could see people standing against the doors, we stood outside and listened. We could hear them perfectly and it was a really lovely night, so we didn't mind.

But we eventually decided to go inside, and it was a good thing. Because the singing in that pub was just really captivating and it was just so much better actually seeing it and not just hearing it.

The last and final night we made sure to get out there early, even though we knew it wouldn't be as busy on a sunday night. We stopped at Greene's again and luckily most of the same musicians from the previous night were there so we got to hear them play again.

After a bit we decided to go to O'Lochlains again in hopes there would be more singing. And there was! Sad thing is my camera died, so I didn't get as many photo's as I'd like. But the experience was more than enough.

All the different music and knowing you could just walk into a pub and hear it that weekend was really a treat. I'm kind of sad that doesn't happen every weekend. It's this kind of culture I just love. The music and the togetherness it brings. It was sad though looking around and knowing we were the youngest in the pubs. It's a dying tradition and it's a shame.

My favorite thing about this country I think is that there is so much to explore. I feel like I've seen so much the month I've been here and yet I feel like there's just so much more to see. This past weekend Kaetlyn and I went on a little walk, like we usually do over the weekend it seems. I only have a few photo's as I took my holga with me and shot mostly with that. And I plan to post those whenever the film gets back to me, and I figure out how to scan them is as there is no medium format film holder for the scanners. Probably just have to free ball it.

Kaetlyn is probably one of my favorite people to photograph. She just photographs so well despite what she thinks.

The water here is so incredibly clear. It's unbelievable really. It's kind of sad that I'm just so used to the gross trash filled waters of the US. Like the canal and the river back home are just this gross green or brown color that's completely impossible to see through.

Cliffs of Moher

These images are what I'm submitting to this "Cliffs of Moher" thing our school here is participating in. I'm not sure really how I feel about them, but here they are. I'm printing them tomorrow, and then adhering it somehow to this board we all were given. I really have no choice to make it better since the deadline was today but oh well. I guess it could be worse.

Weekend adventures with Kaetlyn.

I am a terrible blogger. These images were from last week, and I just got around to editing/uploading them. Procrastination at its finest right here.

Anyway, over a week ago Kaetlyn went on this little hike of her own down this side road. She was doing it for a project, and met some pretty interesting folk I guess but also came across what seemed to be an abandoned village. Granted it was only a few houses but still, I wanted to check it out. So last Sunday she showed me the way.

Apparently the route we were walking was part of the "National Walking Loop" We basically followed that until it became too late and we turned back.

This was out first stop. It was an old house completely overgrow with vines and trees. It was too much for us to go inside unfortunately.

This house was nearly impossible to get to. There were just bushed and prickers surrounding the place, and we almost just didn't want to try. However we covered the thorns with some sticks and just hacked our way through. And it was a good thing because this place was such a treasure. It had to of been recently abandoned because it was still full of stuff, where as most of the other old houses are empty. There was a mixture of new and old things too, including a 2000 calendar. It was really amazing to just rummage through all the stuff and learn about whoever lived there.

I believe it was a woman named Mary and maybe her family? She was definitely a religious woman as there were plenty of things from the church and missionary papers laying around. She also had a dog and was definitely an Irish woman, as there was a picture of the pope inside. (No Irish home is complete without the pope!)

This was our final abandoned house for the day. As you can see there's no roof and most of the walls are crumbling. This is how most of the old houses are around here.

The vines growing in and out of the stones of the walls.

We ended up near the Ailwee Caves and decided to check it out. Honestly, the caves themselves were pretty dull and not really worth it. But the Birds of Prey was definitely awesome.

We got there just in time to see the end of the flying show, and I got to see an owl fly! It was so awesome. I love owls. It was funny though because this owl was supposed to fly to this little boys arm to get some food, but he was just sitting there on his post not even looking at the instructor for a good while. It was kinda funny.

He looked right at me for this photo. We definitely had a moment.

Next he brought out some falcons. They were pretty adorable with their hoods on. They need them because falcon's eyes are pretty superior to human eyes. They can see UV light that we can't see, and if he brought him out without the hood he would just take off. Eventually he took the hood off and had the bird try and catch this little fake bird on a string. The bird would just dive over our heads and just come out of no where. It was pretty incredible how fast these things can go. Especially when food is involved.

After the flying show, we walked around and looked at the collection of birds they have. SO MANY OWLS. It was SO awesome seeing all the different kinds! They were all just so cute.

The Barn Owl is definitely my favorite. They're so pretty with their little heart shaped faces and big black eyes!

He puffed up just as I was taking the picture.

The vulture was so big. Just sitting there lurking at everyone as the passed by. I picture vultures as the grumpy old men who just wants their dinner of the bird community.

This owl was inside of some room, behind glass instead of a cage like the others. Not to sure why. But he was so cute. I guess they puff up to try and be intimidating. I didn't see it puff up, but I can't picture it being intimidating because he's just so dang cute.

After the birds, we went to wait for the tour of the caves. Unfortunately it was Kaetlyn and I as well as 2 other busses full of people. So it was a pretty big group, and everyone had to stop and take pictures of EVERYTHING. It made the tour really irritating. Not to mention the caves themselves were just...caves. It would of been cool if the tour guide didn't just ramble off stuff you could of just looked up on the internet. But oh well. After the caves, we were debating continuing the loop, but it was already pretty late and we weren't sure how much longer the loop was. So we just turned back and walked home. That was until we ran into Martina, who works in the cafe at school and she offered us a lift. Which was really nice of her. Pretty convenient she lived on the road we were walking down. All in all it was a really good day.