Getting there

“Ya left dis at da front desk miss.” said the polite flight attendant just before take off. It was the black zippered folder holding all of our reservation information for flights and car rentals. (not to mention all receipts thus far)  OUCH!!   It would have been ugly without that thing. Not sure if the efforts to get it back to me were from the airline or the handful of people who run the very small Cardiff international airport. Either way we were grateful, and that incident is good evidence of the brainpower the two of us were using this day. 

Up at 3:30 am for the 2.5 hour (longer if you miss your exit on the roundabouts) drive to Cardiff for our flight to Dublin. Car return. Done. Check into flight. Done.  Board plane. Yes.  etc. Etc. 

In Dublin R waited patiently while I negotiated an upgrade to our car. We plugged in Betsy the wayward SATNAV and off we went. Things went fairly well until Cork where we hoped to stop at a Tesco for food shopping. First Betsy began telling us to turn left when her map directions were pointing right, then the painful drive to find this Tesco ensued. Some feathers were ruffled but not removed and we eventually found ourselves in a Cork sort of shopping mall. 

If ONLY one of us had taken our camera in.  It was a cultural awakening. A whole level set aside for a “toilet” sort of complex complete with a “toilet lift”  (elevator) since the whole compound was up several flights of stairs. A lingerie store right next to a butcher cutting up a side of lamb in his store. There were actually two butchers in this mall thrown in among shoe and clothing stores, phone shops, pharmacy etc. Anyway…food purchased and back on the road to the Beara peninsula where our first house is in Ireland.  

Yes so far the non expressway roads are narrow compared to those in the U.S… but compared to Wales… bring it on! I could fly down these “narrow” curves after my Cymru training. So far what I’ve seen of Ireland looks much like Wales if Wales had been ironed out just a bit. Longer vistas.  Long views over the hedges.. and even many breaks in the hedges. Lovely. 

After 15hrs in transit we finally made it to our charming house. The view was lovely. I devoured half a chicken, showered and currently am without plans. 

Arrived to our house "Tir Na Nog" greeted with this view.  Ahhhhh