Teletubbies Travelers Extraordinaire

Alright this is a post that shall span my entire semester. Back in January while volunteering with my mum at The Barn thrift store I bought the whole clan of teletubbies as plush key chains. It was going to be just a joke when I got home. Then I decided why not bring them around Europe with me? It would be fun right?


So they got packed away in my suitcase and flew off to Ireland with me. I promised my brothers I’d do my best to take them with me and take pictures all across Europe with them featuring in said photos.


The first time I pulled one out to take a picture a friend asks me what I was doing. I explained that I promised my brothers I’d take pictures with them. She smiled sweetly and asked how young my brothers were. I told her, 22 and 18. I suppose she was shocked since she probably thought I’d say they were 5 or something.


After a while though the Teletubbies became quite famous among my group. They went on every trip I did. The only place I didn’t have pictures with them was in Greece and that’s because I totally forgot about them. But alas I have plenty of photos to make up for it!


Now enjoy the epic adventures of the Teletubbies.

^Laa-Laa chilling at the top of Torc Mountain^

^Laa-Laa taking in the views from the top of Torc^

^Laa-Laa master spelunker of Aliwee Caves ^

^The whole clan in Galway^

^Tinky Winky being fed in Galway^

^Tinky Winky taking in the water view in Galway^

^Tinky Winky on the plane to London^

^Po on the bus to London City Centre^

^Po in a London trashcan^

^Po infront of Alfred's Memorial^

^The gang at Buckingham Palace^

^On the Millennium  bridge^

^By tower bridge the unofficial "London Bridge"^

^Po on the train to Glasgow with money and a ticket^

^Dipsy at the Guinness storehouse on St. Paddy's Day!^

^Tinky Wibky going to the Vatican Museum^

^Po being giant by the Colosseo^

^Dipsy and Leamenagh Castle chilling out^

^Dipsy hanging out by Poulnabrone Tomb^

^Dipsy...on some cliff... near Ballyvaughn^

^Tinky Winky at the Cliffs of Moher^

^Tinky Winky warning visitors that you could fall off the cliff^

^More tinky Winky at Moher^

^Teletubbies on a picnic at the Cliffs. Their last outing in Ireland^

Cheers,

Lets Burren These Cliffs

By the time the weekend rolled around I felt like we hadn’t done much. We’d gone to Bunratty, city centre, and the Milk Market on Saturday. Which means we really hadn’t left the area around my school. So I thought it’d be fun to take my mum to the Cliffs of Moher. It was super expensive to take Bus Errian plus entrance fee. So I looked for tours that went there and I found a great one with a small tour group called Barrett Tours.

Now earier in the semester if you remember I’d gone on another tour to the Cliffs and I’d thought that was fun. Now let me tell you that pales in comparison with Barrett. We went all through the Burren and saw al kinds of cool forts and stone things.

First stop was Leamenagh Castle. It was originally just a tower built in 1480, it’s the tower connected to the castle on the right in my picture. The name Leamenagh comes from the Gaelic "léim an éich" which means "the horse's leap". The manor house was erected in 1648 by Conor O'Brien and his wife, Máire ní Mahon.

After Leamenagh we were off to Caherconnell Stone Fort. Now Caherconnell is a typical ring fort. It would have been inhabited by the land owning family and in times of danger or need the peasants from the surrounding area would have come inside and been kept safe by the walls. Historians say that ring forts such as this were been inhabited from 400-1200A.D. Although it appears that Caherconnell was used up until the late medieval period because a historian found that the enterence to the gate was rebuilt in the 15th or 16th century.

^This is what it would have looked like^

From Caherconnell we left to Poulnabrone Tomb, which is a famous Dolmen in the Burren. Poll na mBrón in Gaelic meaning "hole of sorrows". The Tomb is from the Neolithic and dated between 4200 BC to 2900 BC. Here’s the low down on it. The capstone is 12 feet long and the portal stones (the stones holding up the capstone) are 6 feet high. Accodring to Wikipedia “A crack was discovered in the eastern portal stone in 1985. Following the resulting collapse, the dolmen was dismantled, and the cracked stone was replaced. Excavations during this time found that between 16 and 22 adults and 6 children were buried under the monument. Personal items buried with the dead included a polished stone axe, a bone pendant, quartz crystals, weapons and pottery. In the Bronze Age, around 1700BC, a newborn baby was buried in the portico, just outside the entrance. With its dominating presence on the limestone landscape of the Burren, the tomb was likely a centre for ceremony and ritual until well into the Celtic period or it may have served as a territorial marker in the Neolithic landscape” That’s pretty darn epic if you ask me.

We did lots of driving and picture taking after Poulnabrone. We drove through Ballyvaughen and along Galway Bay…

Photo Stop!!

Around Black Head…

To more Galway Bay and The Aran Islands were visable.

^Aran Islands in the bay^

Then it was through Ballyryan and on to Doolin for lunch. After that we took the back way into the Cliffs. Since we were on a small bus we would go up the super steep hill and make a stop at this tower built by the O’Brians. I forget the name…

Then it was off to the Cliffs. I’ll save you from rambling on as I already did a post on the Cliffs already. So check that out for facts. And enjoy more pictures here!!
 

Cheers,

Bunratty

I got back from spring break and it hit me. I’ve got a week till exams and then I leave in less then a month. Naturally this made me a little depressed. But before my depression could form into something more then thoughts my mum came to visit. She landed in Shannon 3 days after I got back from spring break.



I was a little scared to have my mum come visit. First because I was having a hard time coming up with things for us to see and do that was cheap. We had wanted to see the Dingle Peninsula, but that was a bit expensive. Second I wasn’t too sure she’d like my cooking. Also most of my housemates weren’t nice enough to clean up after themselves so the kitchen tended to be horribly dirty, even if I’d just cleaned it.


So I got up early to meet my mum at the airport. After 3 and a half months of seeing her only on skype it was nice to see her in person. I pretty much talked her ear off the whole bus ride back to limerick.


We stuck to Limerick and Campus the first 2 days my mum was in Ireland. Then I decided it was time to travel and see fun stuff. I decided to take my mum to Bunratty Castle and folk park.


Now I’d passed Bunratty at least a dozen times throughout the semester going to or from Shannon airport. It was also the first castle I saw in Ireland. Yet I hadn’t gone. So my mum and I were up early and took the bus to Bunratty Castle.


There was so much to see and do there! We walked around the Folk park. This info is all from the guide to the park, I'm just copying it right off it.
1) The Loop Head House - The house of a fishing- farming famiy in West Care. The thatch is roped down to protect it against the Atlantic gales.

2) Cashen Fisherman’s house - A simple two-bedroom house of a North Kerry salmon fisherman. Much of the timber would have been salvaged from the sea. The floor is of rammed clay.

3)Mountain Farmhouse - A poor farmer’s house of a type found on the borders of Limerick and Kerry. It has a loft for extra sleeping space

4) Weaver’s Shed - A wooden outbuilding for housing the loom of the weaver

5) Shannon Farmhouse - This was the first farmhouse to be reconstructed in the Folk Park. It originally stood on the site of the main runway at Shannon Airport

6) Bothan Scó ir - One roomed dwelling of a poor landless labourer who worked for the local landlord. Many of these houses and the occupants were lost during the Great irish Femine.

7) Golden Vale Farmhouse. The home of a farmer from the rich lands in the Golden Vale Counties of Limerick and Tipperary. It has stables/byres and a corn barn.

8)The School House - From Belvoir In East Clare. It would have accommodated up to eighty children

 9) The Village Street -  The village and shops have been chosen from many different areas to form a collection of typica 19th century urban Irish buildings.

10)The Doctor’s House - The Parlour is used as both dispensary and surgery.

11) Brown’s Pawnbroker - These shops were often an important part of the local economy

 12) Traveller Wagons - The Horse drawn wagon was the main type of transport used un the past by the Irish ethnic group known as Travellers 

^And there was a goat!!!^

13) Hazelbrook House - Built in 1898, this was home to the Hughes Brothers who started a dairy industry in the 1800’s and later produced HB Ice Cream which became a household ice cream brand in Ireland

14) Regency Walled Garden - Built close to Bunratty House and is part of the original much larger garden which existed. Views overlook the Owenogarney river and Shannon river.

 15) Ardcroney Church - The church was moved stone by stone from Ardcroney in County Tipperary to Bunratty Folk Park

 

 

 16) Vertical Mill - A classical example of a rural undershot watermill

 

17) Byre Dwelling - An example from County Mayo of a dwelling occupied by both the family and their milking cows.

^AND THERE WERE PIGGIES!!!!!!!!^
 

Now part of the walk around the park was obviously the castle. It looks really small from the outside but when you’re walking around and climbing all those stairs to get around you realize it’s actually quite huge.


Before I get to the pictures I’ll give ye a bit of castle background straight from the Shannon Heritage site. “The Castle is the most complete and authentic medieval fortress in Ireland. Built in 1425 it was restored in 1954 to its former medieval splendour and now contains mainly 15th and 16th century furnishings, tapestries, and works of art which capture the mood of those times.”


So my mum and I hiked around in the castle and I had to take a lot of pictures because that’s what I do.

After we left Bunratty we got lunch at the Creamery Pub across the street before we caught the bus back to Limerick.

Cheers,