Bye Crystal :(

Crystal left this morning.  We had an amazing time.  I'm so glad that her and I could do this together.  There were too many laughs, stories, and embarrassing moments to even remember.  I'm going to miss her a lot.  
This is the Newgrange tomb at Bru Na Boinne.  It's somewhere around 5,000 years old and pretty incredible to see.  We walked inside the passage to the center which is 20ft long where we were surrounded by about 200,000 tonnes of rock.  It was cramped and narrow and then the tour guide turned off the light to show how on the 3 shortest days in December the sun enters the chamber and lights the tombs.  After she was done I got out of there pretty quick.  But I'm glad I saw it.  There was neolithic art all over the inside of the tomb and the rock me and Crystal are standing behind was probably the best example of it.

WICKLOW!

I love these trees.  Moss was growing all over them almost to the end of the branches.
This cemetery was amazing.  
It was raining pretty bad that day.  I'm glad Crystal brought those raincoats.
This orange was gross.
Wicklow National Park.  It looked like a deserted wasteland.  

More Powerscourt and a Drive to Wicklow

It made me laugh that this was the "Forest Car Park"
I love Crystal.
This was the pet cemetery at Powerscourt.  I thought the name on this one was funny.

Attempting Photography

This picture took awhile to get right.

Jacopo: "I bid you good afternoon, sir. I am here to purchase your lovely home."

These were taken at Powerscourt where part of the Count of Monte Cristo was filmed.  It was absolutely beautiful here.  We had fun with the fountains.
The Japanese garden.

More Rock of Cashel and an Abbey

This was taken at the abbey below Rock of Cashel where the monks lived.  It's hard to imagine what the place looked like when people lived here.
I was trying to impersonate the face on the side of the castle.
These were fun.

Rock of Cashel and a Random Graveyard

I loved this place.  It's an old castle built on a hill of rocks.  Absolutely beautiful architecture and design.

This was the inside of an old building we found at a graveyard.  It's hard to imagine that people used to use this building for something.  Probably to house dead bodies before they were buried.  I felt like I was in a fairytale here.
The graveyard.
Crystal hopping the wall to get in.

More Dingle...

I sat in poop.  Gross.

In some places the streams run right into the road.  I love it here.
The roads are terrifying.  They are so narrow and this one literally had a drop on the other side of it.

But the view is totally worth driving on those roads.

We Nicknamed Him "Humpy"

Minard Castle

We met up with the Galvins in Dingle and Pam showed us around this castle that had been attacked hundreds of years ago.  Apparently everyone inside was killed.  There was a "danger" sign at the front of it but we passed on through.  The structure of the building was still there, but you could see where the walls had been hit by canons.  We walked all through the inside, it was amazing.  It made you want to know who lived there, how they lived, if they enjoyed the view the way we do, etc.

DINGLE!

This is a fairy well.  People used to think fairies live here, I suppose some still believe that.

Me crawling out of the beehive hut.  Some of these things are 4,000 years old.
The hut.  A monk used to live in this one.
The westernmost part of Ireland.  It wasn't the best day weather wise but it was still beautiful.

Cliffs of Moher

So you can meet anything and everything on the roads here.  Tractors, buses, cows, sheep, etc.
This sign made me laugh.
The red van kind of ruined this picture.
Cliffs of Moher.  They were absolutely beautiful.

A Night at O'Flaherty's

So this was fun.  Mazz, a music store owner in town, told us to go to her brother's bar for some music.  There were about ten people sitting around with 15 instruments between them.  They would switch between guitar, washer, accordian, or drum.  They sang too, which was fantastic.  One would start and then the rest would join in on the chorus.  There were only a few people there at first, then more came in.  There were even a few other tourists there.  The atmosphere was so casual and relaxed, we could have stayed there all night listening to them play.

On to the West!

Oh, this was fun.  Me and Crystal found a castle but it was closed for the day.  So we hopped the fence.  It was straight out of Lord of the Rings.  So amazing.