Paulo the fisherman was always whistling.......and like a bat out of hell!

      
                                                     No Bull.....Portugal is a great place.

                                            
                                                   Check out the cobble-like paving.

                                              .
                                                                   Portuguese souvenirs

 Small grottos

Algarve Coast is the southern most region of Portugal.

Paul and I managed to get ourselves to Cork Airport with it being about 30 minutes from Kinsale. The plane journey only took around 2 and a half hours and was all smooth flying. The seat numbers were 13A and B.....I thought they didn't use those lucky numbers in planes and hotels. When we did land at Faro most of the other tourists on the flight broke into a round of applause. Paul and I thought that this only happened on Garuda flights to Bali not Aer Lingus. We worked out that it was because they were showing their appreciation to all the crew on a safe journey and they were now on holidays.

Once we were granted our visa we went through to the arrival lounge where David was waiting to take us to Luz on the Algarve coast about 80k’s from Faro. Driving in Portugal is completely opposite to Oz and it took us a little while to get our heads around this. Paul who was usually the passenger in the front seat did try to sit on David's lap a couple of times. The road system and the standard of the highways were pretty good and the speed limit was 120 however most of the Portuguese wouldí drive around 150. It didn't take us long to settle into the Portuguese lifestyle as Yvonne and David were very generous hosts and made us feel very welcome. Lots of laughs about the good old days with just an odd drink or two of a night on their balcony looking at the beautiful vista.

David our tour guide took us on outings during the day and we managed to see some of the sights that surround this area. The cliffs near their house and other parts of the coastline are absolutely amazing. We did a boat cruise along the coast line and lucky for us it wasn’t too hot. Yvonne has a real handle on the Portuguese language and is really good at organising outings for us 'foreigners'.

One of the places we visited was Silves where we explored a Moorish Castle. The castle walls are made from a red sandstone and Silves was the capital during Moorish rule. We had a couple of visits to Lagos a larger town which is more of a maritime town. We all know from our school days that the Portuguese were great sailors and at another place named Sagres this was evident as Henry the Navigator used this as an important education centre for map and instrument making.

I would say that all of the towns and villages have narrow streets and are paved with a traditional cobble-like paving. Some of this paving is so worn that it is really slippery. A lot easier to walk on when you have been to Clive's bar and had a few cocktails. Clive who is the owner of Clive's is an Englishman who has been living in the area for around 30 years.

Most of the houses in Luz where we were staying are painted white or a light terracotta colour with the terracotta clay tiles on the roof, however, you do get the odd house that would be painted a salmon pink colour. Lots of shrubs and trees that are also found in Australian gardens like the Oleander, Plumbago, Bird of Paradise and a larger version of the Bird of Paradise. Groceries and alcohol are very cheap. The restaurants very good as we tried an Indian and an African. One of my favourite little treats were of course the little custard tarts - pasteis de natas, which went well with a coffee. David and Yve also created some very tasty meals and of course provided the perfect setting.

All great things must come to an end and before no time we were packing our bags and heading back to Faro. Yvonne had organised a lift for us back to the airport on a shuttle bus however it turned out to be a chauffeur driven car. The driver was very friendly and we were soon on the freeway heading to our destination. We were asked by the driver if we minded if he went a little bit faster and the answer I gave back was no. Cod Almighty was silently called on again, as I knew once I had uttered that tiny little word that it was the wrong answer. Paul's leg still bears the scars of where my fingernails were hooked into his leg. The driver was unlike most men I know as he could do more than one thing at a time, drive fast, talk on his mobile whilst driving fast and change lanes whilst driving very fast and talking on his mobile. Arriving at the airport with time to spare Yvonne sent me a text asking how the driver went. She relayed to me a story of when David and her took a chauffeur
driven car to the airport and the driver drove so fast that he scared the snot out of her. I never told Yve ( until now) that both Paul and I will never have to blow our noses again!

The mobile phone tower disguised as

a palm tree

Big Lego blocks

One of the many boats used to view the grottos

                                      The view of the cliffs at Luz from the Whyte's balcony.

                                                         A very windy day just like being in Gero

Paul pretending he is on a Portuguese potty.

                                                           Entrance to a pottery shop

A spot of windsurfing

Silves with the Moorish Castle. Thanks to Y & D

                                                                                   Silves

                                                                           Silves

You are either married or living in Kinsale

Another K town

We had been told by family and friends who had been to Kinsale how nice this place is. Paul and I would have to agree with them. Narrow winding streets with brightly painted houses and yachts in the harbour.  Lots of tourists when we called in for a few days however it suited the place. Trac had worked in Kinsale back in the 80’s at the Blue Haven so we thought we would book a room there. Paul taking the initiative rang and mentioned that his sister Mary –Attracta used to work there but it was a while ago. Maureen the manager had met Trac in Australia so small world. The Blue Haven was booked out however we moved into the Old Bank which was also managed by BH. Nice old Georgian Building.

We did a historical walk of the town with our guide Dermott who mentioned that the Irish always backs the losers and one of the examples of this was when the Spanish came to help them against the English. Both the Spanish and Irish were defeated and all the Catholics booted out of the place. Lots of fun and lots of history to this town. We also did a harbour cruise and a ghost walk/tour. With the ghost tour we had to turn up to the Tap an old hotel owned by a Mary O’Neill. Her son Bryan did the tours with the assistance of his mate Sebastian. Talk about laugh and being scared at the same time. Sebastian would dress up and pop up somewhere in the graveyard, out of a wheelie bin and other places you weren’t expecting a ghost to be. One child of about 10 was really peed off and was wanting to know when we were going to see the real ghosts! The best story is the one of the “White Lady” where on the eve of her wedding night the Commander’s daughter asked her husband to go and pick her some flowers growing down by the water. The groom not wanting to get wet asked a soldier to do it and the groom took over the soldier’s sentry duty. Unfortunately for the groom he fell asleep and the commander doing his rounds noticed that the soldier was sleeping instead of guarding the fort. To teach the soldier a lesson he shot him not knowing that this was his son in law. The daughter discovering what has occurred flings herself from the cliffs killing herself on the rocks below. The father not being able to live with what he had done also shoots himself. The ghost of the white lady is often sighted around Charles fort.

Another place we visited was Cobh (pronounced Cove) Cobh is a port from where 2.5 million people immigrated to escape starvation in the 1800’s. For many years Cobh was the port of Cork with a strong connection to Atlantic crossings being Titanic’s last stop in 1912. I would say more like the second last stop before it parked up into an iceberg. Another event which involved the Lusitania was when this ship was torpedoed off the coast of Kinsale in1915 and it was here at Cobh that many of the survivors were brought and the dead buried. It was also home to the world’s first yacht club founded in 1720 but now operates from a new site at Crosshaven. We visited the Cobh Heritage Centre housed in the old Railway Station which demonstrated the plight of the immigrants leaving Ireland.

We booked another night in Kinsale on our return from Portugal. Portugal was going to be our holiday from our holiday.

Paul with the big ears

Charles Fort

Kinsale buildings

Lovely little shops and narrow streets.

Another drinking session by Paul and Sue

The hospital inside the fort used by the army. Charles Fort

was razed to the ground by the locals and has only recently

been partly restored after all the hippies were kicked out.

Cobh street scape

Another laugh

Different view of the fort

Kinsale Harbour

Entry to the fort

My new business

Don't forget Dingle

Seeing that we missed out on the Kerry Ring we decided to drive ourselves around the Dingle Ring. Since we are talking about rings, the song that we have heard the most in the pubs has been "Ring of Fire! So many different versions. We didn't realise it was so popular here.

Inch was one of the first places we stopped as it had a surf beach with plenty of wind and a cute kite. Inch was also the location for the movie "Ryans Daughter". Paul found a kombi driver who was happy to talk about his left hand drive kombi that he imported from the USA.

Dingle is where the ocean dominates the scenery rather than the cliffs, as in the ring of Kerry. Lots of seafood restaurants and shops near the water. Not far along we stopped for a bite to eat and noticed that across the road was the Dunbeg Fort which is an Iron Age fort which sits upon a sea cliff.  The fort has a number of outer walls made from stone and the remains of a house and a beehive hut. I am sure most farmers discover these little gems when moving livestock and then place a kiosk for us tourists to pay and visit. I guess it is a good way to help top up your cash income. Sometimes you wonder if some of the stones and monuments have been placed in fields by the entrepreneur gentry.

The Connor Pass which is Ireland's highest mountain pass was an absolutely thrilling butt clenching drive. I did take a little movie of this however on playing it back it is not fit for publication due to me saying feck too many times. Some of the feck'n was due to the amount of sheep on the road and wondering how the hell they got there in the first place, other drivers being just stupid and me praising Paul as he was doing a great job at the wheel looking at the road rather than the scenery.
Sheer relief when we reached the flat road again.

We decided to call into Tralee as everyone had been talking about the "Rose of Tralee" at various stages of our journey. We did a loop into the town centre when I noticed about 4 lovely looking young ladies dressed in red gowns hop into a mini van taxi. Another old local guy who also noticed them started  yelling to everyone around  about them being the roses and wishing them all the luck in the world. Paul decides in a split second to follow the cab. Yes, he did do this much to my disbelief.

Beehive huts known as famine houses

A donkey shelter

Bus shelter in Dingle

One of the amazing views around the Dingle Peninsula

Paul loves a kombi

Stockings and garter kite at Inch

Fort Dunbeg

Blennerville windmill outside Tralee

Driver of the year.

Reserve your parking outside your house in Tralee.

Might try this in Gregory Street.

Roses of Tralee.....follow that taxi!

One of the many holy pit stops on the side of the road.

Surfs up at Inch. My interpretation on how long an inch is.

Same, same but different.

Kilarney...... Susan you are going nowhere and Paul becomes a groupie.

After all our little detours along the way it was around 6pm before we arrived into Killarney. Somehow I knew we were not going to fluke a bed here at a little B and B. IT was madness with heaps of tourists like ourselves gathering in the centre of the town. Finding a car park we decided to walk the streets looking for a bed. After a lot of disappointments we walked into Tatler Jack's, a pub with lots of people drinking and eating which was a good sign for being a popular place. The price of the rooms were very cheap and I should have known by this it was going to be budget accommodation. All I can say is the sheets were clean, the bedspread was covered in cigarette burns, and I think a bird or two at times had taken shelter here when the window had been left over. All worked out well as we spent very little time in the room as we were too busy occupied by other things that happened on our first night.

Off to the tourist office to book a tour for the Ring of Kerry the next day, and Paul found out where the famous Liam O'Connor was performing as this was a must do on his list. If you know who Liam O'Connor is skip down to the next paragraph. I sure didn't know who this guy was however we were off and running to the venue he was playing at. Purchased the tickets, front row seats on the side of the stage, lights out, video of Maureen O'Hara introducing Liam to the audience, around of applause and then a figure in a black leather jacket with Celtic designs, velvet black pants and playing an accordion steps onto the stage. The crowd goes wild, whistling and calling out. I turn to my right and it's Paul happy to be seeing the Guinness Record holder who has the fastest key stroke in the world playing just for him. I didn't realise then but when I look back Paul was showing the first signs of becoming a Groupie. The show was very entertaining with Irish Dancers (with one being Liam's daughter) a solo  singer and the band which consisted of a keyboard, guitar, fiddler and a drummer (Liam's 15year old son). After the show Paul says he wants to hang around and meet Liam (groupie trait) and let him know that he came all the way from Australia to see him. The long and the short of it was complimentary tickets for the next show. The groupie was pretty pleased with himself and I was pretty pleased that he was pleased.

After all this excitement we decided to grab our overnight bag from the boot. I had tucked my passport into my case in the boot as I didn't want to carry it around with me at different times. Anyway I thought this was a good time for me to retrieve it from my case and pop it back into my little satchel that I wear over my shoulder. In between asking Paul to hold my passport and him giving it back to me it wasn't until we got into our room I noticed that I didn't have it. We went back to the car unpacked my case searched through the boot retraced our steps but to no avail. Went back to the hotel room searched through our overnight bag, went back to the car repeated what we had already done and came to the conclusion that my passport had disappeared into thin air. All I could think about was that there would be no trip to Portugal. Maybe I would be stuck in Ireland...... I could live with that.

We found the Garda headquarters and to our surprise the front door was open, however, we could hear lots of screaming and carrying on coming from an office in the back. We worked out that the officers were keeping an eye on the school leavers by way of CCTV as tonight was the night that all the leavers had received their results and were celebrating in downtown Killarney. Eventually an officer came to the desk and took down a brief statement from me and said that I would need to go to the Australian Embassy in Dublin. Paul and I walked out the door resigned to the fact that our Ring of Kerry tour was off and that we would be having tea and scones with the Australian Consulate in Dublin.  I imagined for a split second that I heard my name being called out by the Garda but continued on down the steps. "Susan Connolly, Susan Connolly we have found your passport" whispered the wind, turning I noticed that the Garda was indeed chasing us holding up my missing black crocheted bag. "See how efficient we Irish are. Your bag had been handed to a security guard at Scott's Hotel". There are very few occasions that I get down on my knees and look to the heavens and thank the Cod Almighty - but this was one of them. To help ease the relief we continued to party at Tatler Jack's to the wee small hours of the morning.

The anticipation of being on the bus touring the Ring of Kerry didn't last long as the rain was there to greet us first thing the next day. The Paddy Wagon tour was Paul and I, along with 50 other tourists looking out the bus window and seeing absolutely nothing but grey wet windows. The funniest comments were from the bus driver who kept saying "Take my word for it there is a nice view of a lake over there, or a nice little beach down there". The back of my eyelids won out in the end and I resigned myself to the fact it was probably going to be wet and miserable most of the tour. First wet day in 6 weeks and I thought that this was a fair enough trade off for getting my passport back.

One of the first towns on the ring depending which way you go is Killorglin where they have a Puck Fair Festival at the beginning of August. This fair dates back to the early 1600's where a Billy goat, poe or puck is made King for the duration of the event. He is apparently hoisted up on a pedestal with his horns ordained with ribbons. The horns are engraved to enable another puck to be chosen the following year, sharing it around from one goat to the next. I think the mall in Geraldton could do with a little festival like this and we could all nominate a "two legged" puck to sit up on a pedestal. Maybe this could be incorporated into the Sunshine Festival. Tour concluded, we were off to see the man with the fastest fingers in the world again. Definition of a Groupie = Paul Connolly.

The streets of Killarney on Leavers night.

Lynn and John from Limerick celebrating with me

on getting my passport back.

Paddy Wagon tour of the Ring of Kerry with me

looking at the back of my eyelids most of the day.

Groupie in the rain....I didn't take this photo!

Ring of Kerry.

King Puck

thank you