It's green,it's beautiful, the house in which are staying (a home exchange) - is amazing.
More to come - been travelling in the same clothes for too long!
So ... next day and a hot shower later, we stocked up on groceries - Irish butter, cheese (hard goats milk the best), milk, sweet and juicy raspberries as well as some excellent French rose wine to supplement the delicious local produce which our home exchange partners had left us - smoked salmon, home made bread, local jam and fruit cake.
Our early morning walk - well 9am is early when you have only gone to bed at 2 am - took us past spectacular scenery and some funny sights.... a horse that must have thought it was a cow as it was sleeping in the clover tucked up with the rest of the herd, friendly locals who filled us in on 19th century history and some awe-inspiring cliffs battered by centuries of powerful waves which have created blow holes, caves and dramatic drops into the ocean. Nary a fence in sight, besides those to protect the livestock from throwing themselves off the cliffs on a dark and stormy night, or when feeling depressed from finding out after all that they are a horse and not a cow.
We also visited a cemetery, and stomped carefully amongst the gravestones looking for the Lynch family (dead ones) and found quite a few, even John's name was there which was weird seeing that he was walking some way from me on the other side ...(of the cemetery that is).
After an afternoon of battling with internet we eventually gave up and had dinner overlooking the rising tide and setting sun, which finally sank into the sea at 10.30pm.
Oh yes, we also found the house down the road where Richard Harris lived - much loved by the locals apparently and affectionately known as Dickie. There's also a monument built in his memory although if it's life size he must have been pretty short.
It's that sort of town, is Kilkee.
John also returned the international adaptor which was kindly loaned to him by a friendly shop assistant. She realised she had none to sell him but did have one at home, so she trotted off home to fetch it - much to John's amusement. The shopkeeper's son also seemed to have the habit of lifting his vertically challenged mother up by the elbows and moving her away from the till when he needed to register a sale. A speciality of Syros island in Greece, some very expensive nougat, was handed to the shop assistant today as a thank you gift, but John said she looked a bit embarrased - he was not sure if it was from the gift or the horns he has grown on his forehead as a result of applying too much radium weed to his sunspots.
Another interesting day in Kilkee.
We have also decided the Irish are rather mad - swimming in the Atlantic ocean and smiling while they do it! If the warm weather continues, we have promised to do this as well, although I can't guarantee we will smile through it, and just might have to retire to rhe pub afterwards for some warming Guinness -(which I have rather grown to like.)
It has taken me almost a week to get used to going to bed in the daylight... yesterday was the longest day so the sun only set close to 11pm and rose again at about 4am. At first, I sat up until 2 or 3 am as my circadian rhythm adjusted daylight hours. It is beautiful nodding off at night watching darkness descend over the ocean. The curtains have to remain open for this to happen but at 4 am its hard to avoid the bright light than burns into one's eyesockets - even when you squeeze them shut really tight.
