Made Breakfast Today

Tuesday, the 1^st of Feb.

I don’t mean to imply that I actually prepared breakfast, rather I was present for breakfast.  And I am DEFINITELY glad I didn’t miss it because breakfast was real, legit, HOT CROSS BUNS!  Wahoo!  And they were darn good.

After breakfast Seth and I left to do our daily sightseeing.  We drove to Lismore which is a village nearby.  It is home of Lismore Castle, the estate of Lord Burlington.  It’s actually his summer home.  Believe it or not, his family owns the rights to the entire river by virtue of royal deed.  That means his family makes piles of money and does literally nothing.  Wow.  I had no idea this kind of stuff wasn’t relegated to the history books.  (Then again, I do come from the country of Paris Hilton…)  Anyways, Lismore Castle was un.REAL. 

It’s huge and right on the shore of the Black Water River which runs all the way from Lismore (and even further north) down to the coast and Youghal.  This is actually the summer home of Lord Burlington.  I would love to have that for my summer home.  Cool bit of history: it’s the former home of Sir Walter Raleigh and Robert Boyle (of Boyle’s Law fame).  Though you can’t tell from the pictures the castle is built in a hollow square with a massive courtyard in the middle.  Apparently it was remodeled sometime “recently” and the lord in charge of it wanted a “quasi-feudal, ultra regal” design.  I think he got it.

Next we venture over to The Towers, or The Follies as the locals call ‘em.  Apparently this woman was so jealous of her sister-in-law’s house that she nagged her husband to build a huge and very impressive home.  So grand were her dreams that only the gates and entrance way were actually completed. The actual gate complex had a ton of rooms and working iron gates that still swung open and shut.

This is the gate.

And here's the entrance way.

The entrance way was built over a river, but it wasn’t enough that they built huge structures that would pass for castles.  They had to pave the river.  So the river bed under the entrance way for about 15 meters downstream is cobblestoned.  It’s actually quite pretty and makes the rushing of the waters sound even more sublime. 

However, all that just sits there in the middle of the woods with no house and it just goes to show you that 200 years later, we don’t remember what a cool house they had, only that they were greedy idiots.  Incidentally, the Potato Famine was one of the big reasons they never finished it.  They were so determined to finish it that they refused to work with their tenant-farmers as the crops failed and instead booted them off the land for sheep instead.  As a result the tenants tried to kill him.  Contrast that with the landlord next door who cut the rents and did everything he could to help his tenants avoid starvation.  I really hope that I’m that kind of person.

After The Follies we drove to see The Vee which is between Waterford and Tippary.  The drive itself was gorgeous!  Narrow hedges at times and rugged mountains at others.

By the time we arrived, I was already over-whelmed with the beauty of the country.  Once we did arrive it was easy to see where The Vee got its name [DSCF9483].  The local legend is that the lake on the side of the Vee has no bottom.  I want to go back with modern scuba gear to test that theory.

We didn’t actually even stop at The Vee itself because Seth said the better view was down the road. 

Boy was he right!  It was incredibly gorgeous.  Breathtaking actually.  We sat there for a while and just enjoyed the view in silence.  One interesting thing is that you can’t see a single road in that entire picture.  That’s because the roads are between the high hedges/fences you can see a couple pictures up.  It makes for extremely picturesque countryside but Seth swears the driving is more dangerous because your visibility is limited.  Oh well, since I’m a tourist I’ll take the views.

On the drive home we saw some sheep in the road and the coolest road markings ever.  At the top of a steep hill it read “Caution” then “Slow” with another “Slow” for emphasis and then in case you didn’t get it came this beauty:

Yes, that’s right.  It does say “SLOWER”.  Haha the Irish don’t take traffic laws very seriously (despite their ridiculously tough drivers license exam).  For example, they have three markings that mean “no parking.”  One means “please don’t park here,” another means “don’t park here,” and the third means “Ok, seriously, we really mean it, do NOT park here.”  Haha isn’t that great?  They just need to hire the tow truck companies from Auburn and bam, problem solved.

We ate lunch at home and hung out with the kids until school was out.  We picked up Viki and Ilyas from school and then Seth, Ilyas and I went to tour the Ballyantray Estate to celebrate Ilyas’ birthday which was the day before.  This was one heck of an estate.  It had a Knights Templar Preceptory on it.  The Knights Templar were probably the first international corporation (sort of a precursor to the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company or East India Trading Company) and they are credited with inventing modern banking (don’t be confused with the Medici’s who invented the modern system of accounting used in banking, the good ole debits and credits).  The Templars would let you deposit your money at any one of their Precptories and in exchange they would give you a letter of credit you could take to any other and retrieve your money.  How cool is that? 

I couldn’t get any pictures that did justice to the massive fortress built hundreds and hundreds of years ago but here are a couple to give a hint:

The complex was massive and sprawling.  The main tower itself is easily over a hundred feet tall.  I got a few levels up into it before I decided it wasn’t too safe to continue in hiking boots.  It used to have a circular staircase that went all the way up but most of the stones have fallen out now.  I think it’s easily climbable because there’s still basically a stairway but now it’s just a small lip around the wall so you’d have to shimmy your way up.  The tower, or keep, was where the entire complex of buildings would retreat when danger threatened.  I would definitely hesitate to attack it.

You could see the actual Ballyantray home across the river.

Sorry for the oversize, but that was the only way to actually be able to see the house.

From the Precptory we hiked over to Molana Abbey which was fairly close to the Ballyantray home.  The Abbey was founded in 501 AD, that’s stinking old.  The buildings we saw were probably constructed significantly later than that, likely around 1500.  Still, that’s really old.

Seth being goofy.

Still being goofy.

My turn to be goofy.

Strike a pose!

Here’s the heart of the old Abbey.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like to worship here when the roof was still intact.

We were leaving as the sun was setting over the marshes and it was stunning.
We saw some ring-necked pheasants and a river otter but I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to capture them.

Jessica had prepared a birthday feast for Ilyas when we arrived home.  It was amazing, complete with napkins in the goblets.  Everyone laughed at me when I poured myself a full glass of Mi Wadi and took a sip.  Apparently it’s a “blackberry currant squash” with the “squash” being the key part.  “Squash” means “concentrate” and you’re supposed to dilute it a LOT and I was drinking it straight.  Finding out I was supposed to dilute it was a big relief because straight it tasted like kool-aid on crack.   Viki especially thought it was funny that this grown man didn’t know how to fix his own drink.

After dinner we left for Bible study at the Mulvay’s in the neighboring village of Ardmore.  The Bible study was on giving and it was really good.  Seth did a good job of reminding us that we give because Christ has given so much to us.  Simon and Paul had some really great insights as well and I enjoyed listening to the discussion as a visitor from “across the pond.”  After the study we sat around and talked cars with Mr. Mulvay for a long while.  I think he knows every mechanic in County Cork.  It was awesome.

We finally made it home around 10:30 and hit the hay.  I have no idea how Seth keeps up this pace on a regular basis.