Lahinch Trip - Co Clare

An American, a South African and an Irishman are sitting around a fire...

sound a bit like a joke?
Well it wasn't... it was our trip to Lahinch to visit my buddy Dave and his fiance at his folks' place in Co Clare, not far from the Cliffs of Moher.

Twas a pretty good time - even though we only got there after 7pm - Cath and Courtney had driven down from Dublin to Cork to pick me up (4hr plus drive), and then had to drive the extra 3hrs from Cork to the cottage in Clare. I suppose a bit like driving from Cape Town to Bloemfontein for a braai!

We were planning on camping, but truth be told, when they offered us the lounge floor (we had a blow-up matress), we decided on that instead. Courtney opted for the couch so me dreams of sleeping inbetween the two girls failed to materialise.

Dave was keen on a sing-song that night, so sitting around the bonfire, even though the girls had gone to bed, a few of us sat around and drank and sang - even after Sinead, Dave's fiance, came and closed the door on us. She cut us deep Shrek, she cut us real deep.

At about 4:30 I headed in and they came soon after.
Then we were up at 10 for some brekkie - sausages and eggs. We wanted to head for a surf but I needed to head back to Cork as I was working and the girls needed to get to Dublin to return the rental.

Twas a good time.




PS - even though the Cliffs were only a few kilometres away, Cath's so sick of them now that we didn't even bother heading past them!

Married two years - bloody hell!

CAMPING IN WATERFORD:

Seeing as Cath and I take it in turns to organise our anniversary, 2007 saw it was her turn - seeing as I did it last year.

She hired the car, she drove me around - I knew we were going camping as we had the stuff in the car, but where - no clue.

How cool though, Waterford - a county we hadn't been to (well, we'd been THROUGH it - but it doesn't count unless you've stayed a night in a place). We stayed two - and got a bit damp during the nights - but fortunately, the rain stayed away during the day, allowing us to braai in peace.

We had a cool time and ate like kings. As witnessed by this picture of our food.

We also drove around a bit and visited some cool, scenic beaches. Cool being a bit of an ambiguous word there - twas chilly and that's no lie. But I told Cath that seeing as she's been moaning to me about not having seen the sun since December (apart from a day or two here and there - when she gets home from work) - that she had better at least PRETEND to suntan while we were at the beach - so here's a pic of Cath suntanning on the beach - Ireland style. I think it was quite chilly lying on those rocks cos as she made her way back up to me - she looked like she was about to attack me. I survived, but I wouldn't want anyone to meet my wife in a dark alley at night when she has THAT expression on her face. grrrrr!





THE WATERFORD FACTORY:

We also got to visit the Waterford Crystal factory - and did the tour which alowed us to see how they make all the larny stuff that one sees around the world. Seeing as 'm into my sport, I noted with interest that they made the tennis Masters Series trophies, The Ashes (new) cricket trophy, a few Formula 1 trophies and several other bits and bobs.

Oh ja - what blog post would be complete without giving my wife a hard time - a 2 year anniversary is also known as the cotton anniversary - so i got Cath a few cotton items, etc, etc.
It's now the October 20 and I'm still waiting for my gift...

Japan baby! Part 6 of tour: back in Tokyo

Back in Tokyo baby!

We went out doing the touristy must-do's - and had a cool walk around a temple trail, pretty much in the dark.
This big lantern was photo-worthy and was at one of the bigger temples we came across.

Then the next day, our last main day in Tokyo, we went looking for the lights, the people, the action.



There's a suburb where all the weirdly dressed youth go to show off their (lack of) styles. We needed to catch some on camera to relive the moment but capturing an oddly dressed Japan youth is harder than you'd think. we stole this photie.



For those that don't know, one of Cath's nicknames is 'The little Mermaid'. So when we saw this shop, we had to snap it, sigh...

Now... for those of you that consider yourself prudish or who don't enjoy the 'too much information' type moments, skip ahead three photies and explanations... Got your curiosity piqued now haven't I?

A love hotel is something very japanese. We read about it in the guide books and decided 'when in Japan, do as the Japanese do...'
Basically, love hotels atre hotels specifically for ... well, a bit of nooky would be one way of saying it ... you go in, look at a wall of photos of various rooms. If they're lit up, they're available. You push a button, go to a 'teller' type person, get the key and go on up. Hotel la Passion seemed too good too turn down.

Room chosen...

Multi-lit bath an added bonus.

And that's enough about that...

FISH MARKET

The next morning we were heading back, but we had to go to the craziest fish market in the world, and Cath wanted to see Ling-Ling, the giant Panda at Tokyo zoo. So up at about 5am to head off on the first train to the market...

There were some interesting things around...



but people weren't so keen on us being around I think. Probably thinking 'Stoopid foreigners!'



These (above) are what Tuna look like. Funny how they always come in the lil cans but are actually bloody huge.

Cath checking out the live eel.

ZOO
So we got our Ling-Ling shot, as well as running around for a look at some brown bears and other various animals.

Oh, and not forgetting the polar bears - never seen those before!

polar bears

Took a mini-train ride inside the zoo.

And headed back to Dublin! Japan was soooooo cool!

Japan baby! Part 5 of tour: Hiroshima & Miyajima

WE spent a fair amount of time on Shinkansen trains, so we had to get a photie on one.
I tell you - they are so swanky... they are armchair style seats and if you're travelling in a group of four and you don't want to stare at the back of two of your buddies' haeds, you can hit a switch and the chairs in front rotate around, also allowing silly foreigners to put their feet up on the seats if they so wish. Not us of course.

This photie was taken on the way to Hiroshima, which we headed for after Mount Koya.

Once we got there, we saw some statues and cath became preoccupied with her boobs for some reason - I, of course, had nothing to do with making her do this.

This was Hiroshima castle, which we didn't go into, but which was also pretty impressive.

This is what's called 'The A bomb dome'. A picture taken of the area in 1945, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, showed pretty much the entire area for miles and miles absolutely flattened. When i say flattened, i mean flattened though. The A-bomb dome was pretty much the only building left standing (apparently because it was almost directly underneath the explosion) - but even it was pretty much wiped out, left with only a wall and a half. they kept it up as a reminder.



This was in a nearby park and is called the Peace Memorial. there's a flame nearby that remains lit until all nuclear weapons in the world are destroyed. Don't hold your breath.

This, just so you know, is what many of the restaurants do... they put examples of their dishes in the window, which is quite helpful if you don't speak the language. Many a time we went into a place, pulled the waitress outside and said 'that one' pointing at it, and showed her two fingers (in a polite way), indicating how many plates we wanted.

We stayed in Hiroshima for a night - and ate at a funky lil restaurant where we had Okinamayaki - a kind of omlettey-noodle dish - very yummy. After not eating much because most things were fish and rice, the portion we got could probably have fed four. I wolfed it down.

Anyhoo, we headed off to Miyajima - an island just south of Hiroshima. We took the ferry across and as we were waiting for the hotel to send a car for us (larny huh?) - a few deer came up to us looking for snacks.
cath got this photie.



Miyajima is famous for the massive red Torii gate in the sea. We saw it as we were coming across and our hotel had a view of it too, which was cool. We went down to it at about sunset.

This was our hotel...



That gate again...

As we were walking around, looking for a place to eat that didn't cost an arm and a leg, we came across the world's biggest rice-server. Hey, why not have a photo with it...



And we came across this too...

The next day we visited the main 'floating shrine' before heading back. It is built up on stilts over the sand and when the tide comes in, it appears that it's floating. Cool.

Just like I was 'cleansing myself' with smoke at one of the temples in Nagano, you're also supposed to cleanse yourself with water before you go into the temples. We did it each time after Madz showed us how - there's an intricate procedure of pouring water over each hand and eventually sipping some.



There were a few good photie opportunities on the floating temple... or maybe I just caught Nicole fever and started snapping away at my hot wife...

Then we jumped on a Shinkansen and headed back to Tokyo.

Japan baby! Part 4 of tour: Staying in a temple and Kyoto

Kyoto baby!

Well this is Kinkakuji - or, golden temple as it would be called in English. So named because it's.... made of gold, very good! Yep, it's pretty stunning and it was just as well it was overcast while we were checking it out otherwise the light shining off this baby would have been blinding!

Okay, so we liked it so much I've put in two photies of it.


And you have to admit, my little girl here is pretty damn cute with her brolly! Actually, we were walking along the streets of Tokyo when some lil old lady saw us getting a bit wet, called Cath over and with no English, indicated that she wanted to give us her umbrella to keep us dry. How sweet! Well, we think she gave it to us - she might have been saying, just hold this funny white people, i'm going upstairs but i'll be back soon. Anyway, a free umbrella.



This one is one of the suggested modern wonders of the world, or more precisely, the view from the other side of it is, but it looks more impressive from here so we took this one. Consider yourselves lucky - not many people get to see three wonders of the world in 1 photograph!

And while you're in Kyoto, you have to go to a Geisha show... at Gion corner normally. So we did, and here I am.

And here are the Geisha's themselves... showing us how to make tea, sew and other skills vital to the 'modern' woman!

Just to prove that we adapted to the lifestyle... a bit... Cath bought some suchi at a shop as a takeaway snack, and we ate it outside the theatre. This one had crabs' legs inside.

Getting to Mt Koya...



And so we headed off to Mount Koya, where we had heard that we would be able to overnight in a temple. To get up there we had to catch a few trains and a cable-car or two but once we got there, it was soooo worth it. There were only a few people around and most of those buggered off by 5pm, leaving cath and I alone with a village of monks and locals. It was rural japan - real Japan, away from the big city-life and we loved it - walking along the streets at night past temple after temple, was stunning - and quite romantic too.

This was our temple - but I can't remember its name. Forgive me - there were about 50 temples up at Mount Koya - and all of them were stunning!

This was us in our room at our temple. The beds haven't been put down yet as they only do that when we're eating supper. But they had set up everything for us to have tea, which we had while we chatted to 'our monk'.



this was supper - or was it breakfast? Well they were both pretty much the same. We knew what the rice was - but as for the other 12 things we ate - no clue! I think there was some carrot though...

This was a prayer room where we ate supper and later did some meditating and reflection, led by 'our monk'.



This was me being all arty at one of the temples.

And this was us at one of the doors to a temple at night



Before we left, we had to get a photie of us with one of the monks, but 'our monk' wasn't around so I asked one of the others (who didn't speak any English. Actually, 'our monk' was the only one who DID speak any English, hence the reason he was 'our monk'.
Anyhoo, this oke thought we wanted him to TAKE our photo and seemed quite surprised that I would want a photo WITH him. Still, it had to be done...



One of the different things about Japan is that drinking on the streets is legal, seeing as they don't have a booze problem, like other island countries (no names mentioned). So after a humid day of walking around, when i stumbled upon a vending machine at the side of the road selling one litre cans for a few euro, I was very tempted...
... Catherine wouldn't let me though. Bah humbug!

This was at the main gateway to the Koyasan village, where there was a mirror for cars at the bend in the road nearby. We got arty again and used the mirror for our shot of it.