Bye bye Ireland

.... and thank you for a great time!

Castles

There are several hundred castles all across Ireland and we visited about a half dozen of them. They are in varying states of upkeep and many are ruins. At their height all had a primarily military purpose and each has a history lesson attached. Ireland has had a violent past - from waves of occupation (Vikings followed by Normans followed by the English), several cruel wars (such as Cromwell's war as a response to the Irish Rebellion which left 1/3 of the population dead) and natural disasters such as droughts and extreme cold which killed hundreds of thousands.

Many of the castles were built in the early Middle ages and changed shape and ownership often to reflect the changing military and political fortunes. It was moving to walk through them and learn about their history. The two pictures show Bunratty Castle and Kilkenny castle which are among the ones most well preserved and look back at an eventful past. Kilkenny castle has the most amazing green yard / meadow that I have ever stepped on - huge and soft :)

Bikes for rent in Dublin

Cool!

Seen in Dublin

Allegiance

There is a special place in the hearts of Irish men and women for

1) Their own history and identity (flag on the left is that of Kery)

2) The EU, which they are proud to be part of

3) The US - the Irish take interest in and are culturally close to the US in may ways since many Irish emigrated to the United Stated during the 18th and 19th century. The majority of the Irish we talked to had been in the US before and we saw many American tourists as well. Relationships between both countries seems strong.

Seen alongside the road (County Galway)

100 shades of green

The Irish countryside is colored all in green, and the many different variations make for an absolutely magnificent panorama throughout the country. My eyes could not get enough of it. I never thoughts that there could be so many different shades of green all all next to each other. But there are, at least 100 of them for sure! Especially amazing to see was the rapid color change right after rain fall or when the sun came out from behind the clouds.

This picture shows Ladies View in County Kerry (Ring of Kerry).

Irish weather

Two truth about the weather here

- it's unpredictable and always changing

- people love to talk about it

Since there isn't really a typical Irish weather day and the range of temperatures, sun shine intensity, windiness, rain fall, etc is ever-changing we prepared to be able to face almost any kind of climate (ok, snow not included). We got really lucky and had very mild weather and mostly sunshine the entire time here. Even got a little sun burnt. The few drizzles and showers came and went quickly, and it was nicely warm the whole time. We've been told this is unusual, and its been a pretty wet Irish summer so far.

Ring of Kerry

The southwest has some of Ireland's most beautiful landscapes all together in a small area - high mountains, rolling hills and sandy beaches. The Ring of Kerry is a scenic route with the Gap of Dunloe (in the picture) as one of the most picturesque spots.

Besides natural beauty, what Kerry is known for is highest quality farming. Have you heard of Kerry Gold butter?

Cliffs of Moher

The 600ft high Cliffs in County Claire, western ireland made for a magical sunset. And while we tried really hard, we could not see United States east cost.

Getting around

The best way to get around the Aran Islands is by bicycle, which even Emma enjoyed quite a bit. We enjoyed touring the largest island, Inis Mor, which is less than 10 km (6 miles) from one end to the other.

Dun Aonghasa Fort

The Aran Islands is a place where history is kept alive. People living on the island still speak Gaelic on a daily basis, cars are used on a very limited basis and everything feels like it used to be decades ago. There are a few sightseeing attractions to explore with this 3500 year old stone fortress overlooking the cliffs as the highlight.

Irelands western outpost

The Aran Islands are a group of 3 very small islands off the coast of western Ireland. We reached it by boat after a choppy 45 min ride from Galway county and enjoyed the serenity and tranquility of the place. The landscape is similar to the Burren - bare limestone, fields with livestock surrounded by high walls of stone that farmers dug out of the ground over the centuries.

Worlds apart

Damascus to Vienna in under 4 hours.

Chapel of St. Paul

This was one of my favorite places to visit in Damascus. The church was built at the place where according to the Bible early Christians lowered the apostle Paul from the City walls in a basket to save him from being captured and killed. Like so many of the cool places in Damascus, this one is also hidden behind a small and unsuspecting door in a dusty street. The place also houses a christian orphanage for kids who were well taken care of and seemed happy.

If streets could talk

Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, about 6000 years, and as a result the roads are narrow and never straight (except one which is fittingly called Straight Street). People, cars, goods and cats compete for space but coexist happily.

Surfing the net

While accessing the internet worked well (several places offered wifi), using it was more challenging. The Syrian government controls the internet tightly. Most websites that I access on a regular basis were blocked which made using the internet a bit of a treasure hunt. In contrast to the internet filtering that happens in places like China for instance, the filter seems to be based on whitelisted URLs, since a lot of the innocent websites that I tested as well as the majority of the links in Google's search result were blocked. But Google itself was accessible!