Tin Whistle Maestros

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

so we'd all bought tin whistles in doolin, inspired by all that music there. we decided to figure out how to play them. not too hard, but still takes practice... the wind never helped either.

another time, we were playing at this beach with a seal colony on it. we'd hoped to see seals, but the seals were not around. so we decided to practice our whistles instead. we were all playing different songs at once, and all off-key, and a tour bus pulled up and a bunch of tourists got out. the tour guide told his tour that we were playing for the seals, and that the seals like music. and the tourists believed it! now, what we were playing was only music under the loosest definition of the word, but sure enough some seals started poking their heads up! we should have asked the tourists for a round for bringing the seals for them. or they should have thought of it themselves.

rocky beach (still Inis Mor)

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

we stopped at this beach to chill for a while, and practice of course =)

more inis mor

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

we biked all over Inis Mor. the hardest part was remembering to stay on the left. which was simple, compared to in killarney national park when the hardest part was getting up the massive hill.

a couch with a view

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

this was at Dun Aengus fort on Inis Mor. the fort was on a big cliff, and made with stones in big rings. kp found this cool place to sit and look out at forever. and at the atlantic ocean. even though these cliffs were a third to a half the size of the Cliffs of Moher, they felt way higher somehow; maybe because we could see the water way down below better or something.

a tree. in a church.

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

so i'd just realized i had no economic safety net (read: credit card), and i had little money. and we were on inis mor (there are accents over some vowels, but i don't know how to put them in here), where i intended to get wicked expensive gifts for my family. so after i also realized i couldn't get in touch with my parents, KPd took us to this old old church she'd found a year earlier, that's no longer in use but is just in the middle of a cow pasture. so we went over, and climbed in a window. and there was a tree growing right up in the middle of it, since the missing roof let in sun and all. it was so chill. yay.

stonewalled

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

so this is on inis ir, the smallest of the aran islands. there are rock walls everywhere, out of lack of anything better to do with the rocks. then there's a castle up at the top of the hill. this was something better to do with the rocks, only after it was done there were still many more rocks. the whole area is pretty rocktastic. and rawktastic. well, this island actually didn't have much besides the walls and the castle, but the one we stayed on (inis mor) was great. oh except for the weird passive-aggressive kiwi hostel staff. maybe new zealand kicked them out; they reflect pretty poorly on a mighty friendly country.

doolin also had great trad

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

this is the bodhran player KPd had a crush on. he was really good at playing. this is in one of the 3 pubs in the town. if it looks like this picture was taken from the floor, that's because it was. the pub was packed, so the only place to sit was on the floor. but hey, front row! then this girl did a dance with a broom--like, a traditional broom dance--just because she wanted to. so cool.

more moonscape

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

ok, this part of the trek was less moonscapey and more cliffy. that rock wall in the foreground is there to keep the cows in. or because there are a lot of rocks and they had to do something with them. but there was evidence of cows too. we hoped not the kind that charged and mauled people. but we didn't see any anyhoo.

i wish i was here now

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

this is a moonscape in the burren, near doolin.
doolin was one of my favorite places in ireland.
it had the best hostel, and the best trad, ever.
then we went on an adventure up the moonscape coast through wet air and across jagged rock, and leaping crevasses, and dodging bulls, and jumping brambles, and climbing over stone walls and metal fences, and running from bees, and getting lost, and searching for castles, and falling down, and getting up again, and then finally making it home.

carl: what did i tell you?
us: stay close to the water...

the view

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Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

... from the previous picture (see below). it's hard to capture the height in a picture. actually, looking down it's pretty damn hard to get a sense of the depth of it too. but it's really high.