The first day of rain!

Ramblings - Two things to share: I have never seen as many dead birds in all my life as I have seen on this trip. Everyday I see at least 3 dead birds - sometimes smooshed, sometimes whole, but dead. Very strange. As for food, I have some very sad news to share - I am taking a sebatical from my veganism while here. :( I kept it up for a few days, but since we are just buying food from markets to eat along the way, I started to worry about protein and nutrients. I am still not eating cheese, milk or eggs - but I am eating a yogurt for breakfast every morning. Every morning I eat yogurt, banana, and a bread. Every lunch is a mini baguette with either pb/jelly or nutella and an apple. Sometimes carrots if I can find them. And then dinner changes. If we are at a hostel, usually pasta and vegis. If not, then some quick heat soup or more bread. And some chocolate for dessert. Pretty boring really, but quite tasty all the same.

June 28

Thank god! We are finally done cycling the Ring of Beara - after another 36 miles today in the rain and gale force winds the whole way. After the day before, both Ron and I decided to keep it easy today and shorten the mileage. We had a noon time start today after sleeping in to 9:30 this morning and didn't really stop along the way. I'm sure the scenary was as a beautiful as the day before, but we couldn't see anything in the wind and fog and rain, so I can't say that for certain. So here we are now, in the town of Kenmare, ready to tackle not one but two mountain passes tomorrow on the way to Killarney.


Our new cycling friend, John, from Australia. He has been cycling for 2 years and plans to do another 2 more.


Our campground from the night before, in Ron's favorite town Eyeries.

June 27

We left Glengarriff and headed off to tackle the Ring of Beara, which we knew would be mountainous. However, nothing prepared us for the mountains we tackled all day long. The weather was great, I managed to suffer another burn, and the views were amazing all day long, but my quads were screaming all day too. Even though less mileage, today took us a few extra hours and by the time we had ridden 53 miles I was done done done. We ended up in the cutest, friendliest town of Eyeries where the local pub let us pitch our tent out back in a field behind the bar. The best part was, they had live music that night too, and stumbling home was no such problem. (I only had one pint, the stumbling was really more a result of sore legs. lol)


Again, along the never ending Ring of Beara.


The road on the way along the Ring of Berea


Ron and I getting ready for our picnic lunch during The Ring of Beara.


June 26

I didn't include any photos of today, but we basically spent the whole day, 63 plus miles, biking from Cork to Glengarriff. This was actually my favorite day of riding, with the scenery and the small towns, some of which only had signs in Gaelic. We ended up pitching our tent in this sweet old man Paddy's yard for only 10 Euros. (Campgrounds charge us about 16+ Euros.) We spent the night enjoying live traditional music, in one of the local pubs right across from the ocean. 63 miles of cycling today.


June 25

Thanks to my superb inner clock, I was able to wake Ron and I up in-time to catch the 7 am bus to Cork - our next destination. The bus driver was hilarious - giving people discounts for the bus and calling girls dodgy looking. Too much fun! We got into Cork by 10 ish, checked into a hostel, and biked off to see Blarney Castle and of course the stone. We actually waited in line for over an hour, just to kiss the stone, which I then assured everyone then I was free of oral Herpes, well at least was before I kissed that stone. Eeehhhwwww. We spent the rest of the day walking around Cork and exploring the famous market there. Loads of dead animals and only 13 miles of cycling.


Me smooching the Blarney Stone


Blarney Castle

June 24

Ron and I decided to spend the day exploring the medieval town of Kilkenny since we didn't arrive in enough time the day before. We started the day with a tour of Kilkenny Castle, and eventually made our way to St. Canice's Cathedral were we climbed the tower. Great day to wear a dress - I assure you. We walked for hours and ran into all sorts of fun folk - one who told us about the motorcycle road races in Athea - close to Limerick. Ireland and the Isle of Mann are the only places left where they still allow moto road racing - so we started planning on how to make it work. 0 miles cycling.




Climbing the tower at St. Canice's Cathedral - thankfully no one is beneath me.


St. Canice's Cathedral


Kilkenny Castle

Catching Up

June 23

So today Ron and I spent the whole day biking from Rathdrum to Kilkenny - about 65 miles total. The view was amazing the whole way and of course we passed thru countless cute villages. In fact, one gentleman came outside to shake our hands since we were the first people he had ever met from CA. And in Tullow, while waiting for Ron, a friendly bar owner came out to hand me a glass of juice. The people in Ireland are all beyond friendly and everyone boasts about how friendly their small town is. LOL

My famous last words today were: "Please, I don't need sunscreen! That Irish sun can't touch my California skin." Needless to say I am now red as a lobster and in tons of pain - whoops. At least the weather here has been gorgeous!



My view for most of today!


Cute planters!


Ron and I at the meeting of the waters - immortalized by the poet Thomas Moore.





June 22

It's pretty easy to talk us into doing things, since we don't have any plans, so for Monday we got talked into staying at the campground for one more night, leaving our gear behind, and heading off to explore the 2nd most visited site in Ireland - Glendalough and the bogs around it. The roads were amazing and quiet and endlessly up hill - well at least to the top of Sally Gap. On the way up we passed the original house of the Guiness family and saw amazing bogs - some of where Braveheart was filmed. Before heading back to the campground, we hiked around the Monastic City and cemetery in Glandalough - now just a bunch of impressive looking ruins. The real highlight of the day though, was while picnicing in the park for dinner - there was a group of local boys launching their bicycles and themselves into this small, yet deep, lake in the middle of the park. It was better than TV! Hilarious. 46 miles today.



At the Monastic City at Glendalough.

At the top of Sally Gap - what a lot of climbing!




Cute house and yard on our way up to Sally Gap.




June 21

Now I know everyone told me to practice riding my fully loaded bike first, but I decided it would be much more exciting if I didn't practice riding until I was in the busy city of Dublin where I could easily be hit by a car from one wrong mistake! And I feel my plan worked out successfully as I quickly learned how to be a capable bike tour rider! As you can clearly see, Ron's bike made it to Dublin and we set off around noon depsite the slight drizzle. We headed down the coast passing thru all sorts of cute small towns and then turned inland where we eventually found a campsite in the town of Rathmund. We biked about 45 miles, but with all the weight we definitely move at a slower pace. That and we stop all along the way!



At out first camp ground - Hidden Valley.



Ron and I at a pier in Don Laughlin.



Ron and I infront of our Dublin hostel Avalon House, getting ready to head out for my first time ever riding the fully loaded bike.







June 20th

Ron and I were planning on spending the day walking around Dublin, but we didn't get out of Merrian Square. Luck behold - we stumbled upon the 2009 Street Performers Wolrd Championship! And what fun! We spent the entire day watching free street performers from Betty Braun - the world's strongest lady to magicians to break dancers to comedians and more! The performers came from all over the world and put on multiple shows at different times and through out the sqaure. By the time we left it was 8 at night, and of course still totally light out, so we headed back to the hostel to see if Ron's bike had arrived and to make dinner.




Ron and I at St. Stephan's Green in Dublin - the only other place we visited other than the Street Fair. lol





Here's Ron and I drinking tea at the Street Performer's World Championship 2009.

Safe and Sound

Trinity College


Ron's new friend.




Ron and I outside of Temple Bar - best live Irish music around. And good pints too!





Check out the nice condition of my box. I'm looking for a new one for the return trip.








I love Dublin already!!!! Ron and I arrived yesterday in the afternoon and have been nonstop busy ever since. His bike hasn't arrived yet - but the airline says it should be here today. Phew! We spent yesterday walking around town and Trinity College and last night in Temple Bar listening to live Irish music. After more strolling today we are off to several festivals in the main squares around town today. We are still hoping to ride out of town tomorrow, assuming of course his bike makes it it one piece, which is really a guessing game after seeing the condition of my bike box! Thankfully the bike was fine.

Still Practicing

My last weekend was as busy as ever. Just when I was starting to think I was a decent cyclist, I got my butt (and pride) handed to me on Saturday trying to ride with the A group on a 45 mile ride with Cycle Path in Pleasanton. I spent Saturday afternoon celebrating a birthday and a house warming party in Santa Cruz, complete with a rum-infused watermelon. On Sunday Summer and I went diving at Monastery in Carmel, which has apparently been renamed by the local newspaper as Mortuary Beach. That sounds way cooler! The dives were awesome: clear conditions and tons of sea life. My favorite creature was the pencil fish (not the official name) we saw while Summer said her favorite moment was when I bit through seaweed like Mike Tyson to save her life. That's right all - I'm a hero. I'm visiting the folks today for a little R&R and trying to allow myself as little time as possible for packing and preparing the bike - just to keep things exciting.

Other than boring you all with stories of my weekend, I am trying to figure out how to upload a picture from the web. Let's see if this works:

hmmm . . . failure.

Testing Testing 1 2 3

I may be blogging now, but I still refuse to join Myspace or Face Book or any other silly online social networking site - so there! I hope everyone likes the name of my blog! My roomie James and I picked it out. I feel the broad, general heading gives me the option to continue this blog, post bicycle touring trip. I certainly have lots of adventures going on - and maybe you . . . or you . . . or even you . . . want to keep reading about them. Ooooohhh.


For good measure (and practice) I am going to attempt to add a picture. Here last weekend's adventure: Tony and I getting dirty!