Montague Portlaoise

... man in the room has to come give you a birthday kiss on the cheek! It was so embarassing, but I have the interesting tale of being kissed my about 15-20 men old enough to be my grandfather. ha Anyways on my birthday I went to classes and David gave me a pretty gold chain because I had broken one my necklaces when I was over here. Then after class the girls helped me get ready and David took me out for a nice supper. It was good to eat ...

... a rocky hill.

We arrived at Glendalough, St. Kevin’s monastic site, and decided to stop and tour a bit. We had been there five years ago, and it’s a very special and beautiful place. We walked through the monastic city after viewing a film at the visitor center. There are two lakes, upper and lower, and we drove up to the car park near the upper lake. There we found Poulanass Waterfall, and climbed up to get a good view. We walked to the ruin of the Reefert ...

Founded in 1620 - best known for the family's contribution to astronomy. In 1845, the world's largest telescope at the time was built here. The 56 ft wooden tube is supported by two walls.

In the gardens, they apparently also have the world's largest hedge-row.

... Thursday night and come back Sunday evening. It is the National Oyster Festival and sounds like the weekend is going to be a lot of fun. We are going one day trip to a couple castles, caves, and the Cliffs of Moher which will be beautiful. We also will take a day trip to the Aran Islands so next week I should have lots of more beautiful pictures for you. Alright well back to my nursing homework.:)

... The music was beautiful and fun and there were even a few sets where one of the people would sing. Even a guy in the audience sang a song once. It was such a wonderful homey and community feeling there, we can't wait to go back. Kaitlyn and I also made friends with one of the men in the band who was very jolly and probably drunk, when we went up to the bar. He was encouraging her to order her drink by herself and with confidence. It was really funny. :) We stayed until ...

... and plates. Nothing, in Ireland was served in/on paper or plastic.
We took our drinks on our stroll down to the water's edge. We found the water to be very cold. Everyone in swimming had a wet suit on, even the children. Two vans with surfing schools advertised on the side had surfboards and wet suits to rent. They also offered surfing lessons. Inch Beach was a very popular place for the locals. We enjoyed our short stop there.

... for a Graveside Mass, something completely foreign to us. It was an amazing experience however standing on the gravesite of AJ's grandparents having a RC mass. There were approximately 15,000 to 20,000 people at the graveside mass. People of all ages and lots of families came together to pray for the souls of their lost ones. Many families travel to Portlaoise for the Graveside Mass especially because it is on ...

... the shop assistants like we did in Wicklow " oh the tourists have started". It is obvious that Ireland is not used to people trapsing all over their land, that is if it is not the main tourist spots. Today has been quite chilly and we have finally seen a little bit of the wet stuff - that is rain for those that do not know what we are referring to back there in OZ. We are having a crac of a time!

... So she says, "If you do what I tell you, you won't die of TB". "And what's that?" he asked. "When you go home get two goats that are milking well and drink the milk every way you can, only don't drink any other milk only the goat's milk". Now don't ask me whether he did it for two or three years, but he was the only one of the family of 13 who didn't get TB. Can you believe that now? It was the goat's milk. My mother was born in this ...

... teams outside of Co Dublin. I will be coming back every second weekend to play in Portlaoise in the wind and rain. I'm looking forward to it. I stayed three years in Ireland and during each summer of my three season with Laois Cricket Club I was down at Coolbanagher almost every weekend. I still remember catching the bus from outside Abracabara's restaurant in Dublin to go to Laois on a Friday night after work. There's not much in the county I haven't seen.