Museum of Welsh Life

Today I finally got to see the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagan's. I have actually tried to get there a few times. The cloest I got to the door was when I parked there in the summer but got distracted by a luncheon invitation and so drove off again. The Museum of Welsh Life is in St Fagan's, Cardiff. Its an open air museum showing how the people of Wales lived, worked and spent their leisure time over the last five hundred years and a must for all visitors to Britain.

Fran and I got to look in old toilet sheds in the garden, looked around a tannery, went inside a chapel that had compartments that looked like sheep pens, hugged trees, bought fudge and welsh rock, had a tea and welsh cake, stood in a prefab and then we both stood in a red telephone box just because :) By the way, it now costs 30p minimum to make a phone call!

Go Mall!!!

Jo is an angel, she really is. She asks me when we are waking up the next day and doesn't flinch when I say 7.30 :) From Spiddel we drove through villages where the signs were in Gaelic only. The best we could do was match up letters to the signs and learn the caution signs. By the way, Go Mall means slow down in Gaelic. That or it means incredibly bumpy road, I couldn't tell you how bumpy the road is in Galway but next time I drive there, I'm wearing a sports bra.

So off we were, driving along empty roads through stunning scenery of mountains and bog lands with Jo as my PA, taking pics, taking dictation for my travel diaries, giving me drinks, map reading and chief Gaelic translator. One thing that really confused us is the traffic lights, they are upside down! Red at the bottom, green at the top. This did result in us going through roadworks on a red light, oopps.

I cannot describe the journey but imagine mountains on one side, Atlantic on the left, a narrow road, a radio programme on fiddle playing and a rainbow going into the beach. One thing that did concern me in Ireland is that everything is in km instead of miles. Along the roads the limit was 100!

565km from leaving Shannon, we were back after a fantastic trip which will be repeated again and again. Shannon airport was bizarre, it was invaded with the US army that took over the whole bar, all 200+ of them with their nice short hair, muscles and tan ;) It was quite confusing sat waiting for the plane surrounded by the army, in front of us was the US border and customs and then above us was christmas decorations. Where were we????

I have to share the following information becuase I was bored on the plane. In an emergency and you land in water, you have to take off your glasses, earings and dentures! Also, you don't need a passport to get into England but you do to get in to Ireland!

We will be back to Ireland again and again and again.

Come to the parties!!!!!

The day started with a breakie cooked by the weary Pat and me getting completely confused as to open a jar of canderel. Why make these things complicated for us simple folk! We drive into Ennis before the city was awake. A quaint village with a high street, covent, friary and riverside walk. After Ennis we drove to the Southernmost point of Clare to Loop head. We padded Kilkee on the way, twinned with Uzbekistan. Imagine a tiny irish village twined with a whole country as big as uzbekistan.

Loop end was a stunning drive in the perfect blue sky, rugged cliffs, birds and stacks. A geographists paradise. The cliffs of Moher was our next stop. We met tourists! We hadn't seen any all day so it came as quite a surprise. We had lunch of soup and a scone (a real sweet scone, not savory) and even though I'm italian by blood, I can't mix scone with soup, it doesn't go. I also tried some Killeny Cheese. The cliffs are stunning but why is it that everybody always walks in the opposite direction to us? There were stupid people standing on the edge of the cliffs in gale force winds but Jo and I soon found the wind tunnels and amused outselfs greatly but playing in them. Hey, we have known each other since toddler group.

After the cliffs we drove to Doolin, home of traditional irish music where we were staying but we still had 2 hours of sun left so we drove on to Galway through the Burren, a karst landscape. We ended up driving around Galway for a good 45 minutes of seeing the Raddison hotel 3 times, the park hotel 3 times before deciding that a big city wasn't for us so we drove on to Spiddel.

Spiddel is in the heart of Gaelic country, no English signs, no English chatting. Jo dashed in to ask the B&B owner if they had any room in the inn, very Mary and Joseph but luckily they had one double left. The B&B owner invited us to a birthday party and then to the party of an Irish writer that had died so off we went to join in on the party. Four doors up was a seafood restaurant, I had spinach cannelloni, the first pub was next door and the 2^nd party was around the corner where we tried out first Guinness of the trip. I thought it was nectar, Jo had a less than appreciative view of Guinness and swiftly ordered a shandy. A enlightening fact in the pub, it was non smoking!

Spontaneity Shannon

I love spontaneity when it comes to travelling. One cold winters day I was surfing the next and found a flight for 1p and then 1 hour later, Jo and I were booked to go to Shannon for 3 days. We flew with Ryanair where cheapness screams out. The safety card is not in the back of the seat, I could barely fit my legs in the seat and no sick bags! But for 1p I would sit on the floor. Our flight was 45 mins long and we were 35 mins early, pretty good going. By the way, if you hire a car you ended to pick up the keys first. Don't follow the instructions they give you and have to walk back in the rain to get the key.

Our first issue was how to start the car. A good 15 minutes passed of looking through the manuals, looking for buttons, cards but no that’s not it…you have to put your foot on the break to start the car! So after a little kangeroo-ing, we were off on the Irish road to Ennis.
We stayed overnight with Anne and Pat, it was a bit like staying at grandma's. We had chintz, a dolly toilet roll cover, patterned bubbly walls, carpet and curtains, china sets and many many wedding pictures. One shocking thing, they had Christmas decorations up in January! Little did we know that this was a feature of the whole trip.

So we slept without a drop of Guinness running through our veins.

Happy New Year!!!!

Here we are, another New Years Eve, another fresh start. Our family become very reflective on New Years eve, 2005 was no different. The big difference is that I was in Bristol with my family! We celebrated the New Year at a city centre hotel and Bootleg Abba! At 11pm we celebrating Hungarian new year by kissing each other on both cheeks (right cheek first of course), and then it was our turn, I cried, as per usual and then it was 2006 and mobile meltdown! You would have thought that the mobile phone companies would be able to cope by now, it's not as though it never happens!

One thing I've been wondering today, why are New Years Eve party goers called revellers? We use the term so infrequently and only for new years eve and people who go to Glastonbury.

Here are some piccies of the evening. Happy New Year to all from a very hungover MsKeela.