Gustavo's Visit to Ireland

Hi - it is Christmas Eve and so far we are having a very good holiday! Last Sunday Gustavo and his girlfriend Marina, arrived. They only stayed two nights, but we made good use of the time! We went to a Christmas Program at Siamsa Tire (Shimsa Teeruh in Gaelic), the traditional Irish theatre in Tralee Town Centre. It was various performances by students and faculty of the Kerry School of Music, some of whom were excellent. It was called Mistletoe and Wine (for you Arkansans, I used it as a substitute for Cocoa and Carols!). Monday we went to Ballybunion, the beach and cliffs we have shown on this blog previously. The pictures are MFE and Dana with the Bill Clinton statue in Ballybunion Town Centre (these pics are from summer, but we forgot to put them on and feel you must see them!). Then (as usual for my blog, in reverse order!) Gustavo, Marina, MFE and Dana in Parker Pub in Kilflyyn (the village where we first lived), and all of us on the cliffs at Ballybunion. We left here early Tuesday morning to take them to the Cork airport - a new experience, as we had not been that far east before. We left at 6:00 am, pitch dark and pea soup fog. It was a harrowing 2 hour drive, but we got there on time, checked them in, and we returned to Killarney for therapy. We found out later that their plane was cancelled and they spent the night in Cork! Oh, well.

Last night (December 23) we drove to Asdee, a village north of Ballybunion, for Christmas dinner with Joan, Donie, and Anna O'Keeffe. Donie is president of DS Kerry, and has been one of our main friends and helpers. We had a great dinner with them and Donie's mother and father who live next door - with the ocean across the road - a very beautiful location! It was a great holiday dinner for us. We will have a quiet Xmas day, then are going to Gerard and Dominique's for St. Stephen's Day (Dec. 26, a holiday here) dinner. Then, as you know, off to Barcelona on Thursday - so there should be good pictures coming in the New Year!

As we say in Ireland - Happy Christmas and a Joyous and Peaceful New Year (I like this better than the shorter version!). MFE and Dana

Thanksgiving Weekend - Killarney & Galway

Thanksgiving was not a significant day here - a regular workday. We were able to have a good (and long because it was a 1/2 day morning for MFE) lunch - pheasant, which was given to us by our landlord and was a good stand-in for turkey.

The real fun began on Friday. After a regular therapy day in Cahersiveen, we drove to Killareny for the Kerry Down Syndrome AGM (Annual General Meeting) and dinner. The good parts were one, we didn't have to go to the meeting 2. The dinner was good and fun and 3. DSK very generously paid for a night for us in the very nice hotel where we met - the Cahernane. This is the same place the welcome dinner was held in June. It is really nice, and our room was luxurious. Note the first 5 pictures above - the claw foot tub (which did wonders for MFE's bad back), the fluffy robes provided, and one of the beautiful sitting rooms. You'll also see her MFE, Dominque and Gerard on the front steps.


After this very nice night, Dana and MFE drove to Galway for the weekend, preliminary to MFE attending a workshop on Monday. Galway is the 3rd biggest city in Ireland and is very nice. It has a great downtown, most of which is a pedestrian area. The pictures show the beach area, which is wild and beautiful, the traditional Irish music pub (which was going really strong at noon on Sunday!), the open air international market place, the oldest building (Lynch's Castle, which now houses the Bank of Ireland, dating form 14th century), and the Spanish Arch (where Christopher Columbus visited) across from Claddagh fishing village, one of the very oldest villages in Ireland. Our B&B (pictured) was nice - not fancy, but a great location, within walking distance of everything. We had 2 nice dinners, and took a long walk along the promenade to Salthill, a beach side resort that is a part of Galway. It was a bit stormy off and on, and the sea air was "brisk" - thus the Eskimo attire in one pic! The workshop was pretty good and I met lots of Speech Therapists, which was the best part. We drove back on Monday evening - decided to go to Tarbert and take the ferry. We got a tiny bit lost and made the last ferry with 10 minutes to spare - no sweat! All in all it was a very good trip.