I woke up at 6, I showered and got ready, and went to breakfast at 9am. I ordered the mini Irish breakfast because, lets be honest, I can't eat a whole one alone. It wasn't that mini though. It had a sausage link (uneaten), a sunny-side up egg (ew - scrambled is the only good way to eat them), the black pudding (enough said)... but what I DID eat was: white pudding, toast, ham, and some sort of strange thing... I don't know what it was but it's probably better that way. It was like... hmmm maybe an Irish pancake?? It was in the shape of a piece of pizza though and I liked it. I also had orange juice, and get this, tea!! I had to try it even though I'm not a tea fan. I put so much milk in it though that you couldn't really taste the tea.
After I ate I brushed my teeth, grabbed my zip-up hoodie, and I was out!
(An older couple rode down on the elevator with me and commented to me how nice the weather was. It's about 50 and the sun is shining! If it stays like this it will be great. It can rain Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. That's it, please.)
First I headed to the end of the road (about half a block) and took a couple pictures. My plan was to go down one side then back up the other. Turns out the road isn't that long... When I was just about out of sidewalk there was this side road. There were three horses in a pasture a little ways down so I thought I'd jet up that way for a bit and see what else there was. (This is the point I decided to check the road out.)
A little ways turned into an hour and a half walk. It was so nice! Everything was green. The road was quiet. Only a few cars passed by and a coule other walkers, who were friendly. One woman had two dogs and stopped to say hello. There were cows and some crows, which I swear were evil. Then finally I found it ... a field full of SHEEP!!! My excitment was too much for such a thing but it's Ireland... you expect to see sheep farms!
This particular farm was at the end of that road I took (a very very long road might I add) which Y-ed at the end. In the middle of the Y was sheep. Lots of them. They were painted with different colors right behind their heads too... strange. Some were red and some were blue. Check out the nice close up I got:
Okay, moving away from the exciting sheep. Dogs. They're everywhere and they're not on leashes. They wander aimlessly and pay you no mind. I don't know how I feel about that... well, as long as they're nice, whatever, haha.
On my way back I ran into a man with (probably) his grandson. They were egg hunting! The old man said 'the Easter bunny stopped by last night' lol. It was cute. Apparently there was an egg hunt in Tang and the little boy had some eggs in his hand. Oh, he also had a dog with him. A little Jack Russell. Cute cute.
Before I turned around for home though I found something totally awesome!
I saw a break in the wall on both sides of the road... when I got up to it there was a dirt road following a little river. To the right there was a bridge further down and to the left, this:
I was so tempted to go check it out but I didn't know if it was private property. I looked around. No one else was walking there. There were no houses. Heck, I was in the middle of no where! God's county! Even more of a wilderness that the wilderness! ( :P ) I made my way down this dirt path nonchalantly, camera in hand.
When I got closer the only thing I could think was 'whoa'.
Perhaps it was a house, or two? A barn maybe? In either case, at one point there were two buildings there right next to each other. Now it's just walls where windows and doors used to be. Vines had overgrown it so much that it looks like a tree. One of the buildings has graffiti, but the other didn't. Ahh, so cool!
Moving on... on the way back I stopped at the SuperValue market and bought a bottle of water, some Kelloggs Nutri-Grain Ginger bars, and a bottle of Lucozade, so I didn't have to go buy dinner everytime I was a little hungry. Now this Lucozade stuff... everywhere I went I saw it so I wanted to try it. My recommendation : don't. Yuck. Carbonated nastiness. And on the back of the bottle it says 'Lucozade is not appropriate for replacing the fluid lost during diarrhoea.' Ahuh, okay then.
I went down and asked about how to get to Mullingar tomorrow. A nice worker lady helped me out. She gave me a list of numbers for taxis but then said it was probably going to be about 40 euros so she tried to find me a cheaper way. She said to go down the road to The County Store Gala (Daybreak) for a timetable of buses.
(Oh yea, there's a bus that goes to Ballymahon... 27 euros for a taxi wasted! I wonder how much a bus will be...)
So I go down the road and the girl gives me a time table for Ballymahon to Athlone, where I will need to get another bus to Mullingar. I also took a picture of the sign below the bus stop sign that gave times. (While I was out I picked up the Longford newspaper for Poppy.)
Here's tomorrows plan:
Go down for breakfast around 8:30-8:45.
Catch a bus from Ballymahon to Longford at 9:30am. Arrive at Longford at 10:05.
Catch a bus from Longford to Mullingar at 11:05. Arrive at Mullingar at 11:45.
From there, I was told Belvedere House is about 5 minutes, so I'll be taking a cab.
Belvedere House is supposed to take about 3 hours, so I figure from 12-3, then I'll look around the town of Mullingar until my bus back to Longford.
When I went down for dinner tonight (chicken with curry and rice) the really nice guy was working. He lived in Boston for a couple years. He said I should go back down at 10pm for the music. There's another band playing, and the 1st floor (really the 2nd but they number floors differently, like Europe does) is a night club. (Surprised me too.) Not my cup of tea really... bars either, but a bar is more my speed and I have nothing else to do, so I thought, what the heck.
Well, the woman singing (traditonal Irish stuff) is actually one of the final 3 people on a tv show (kind of like American Idol I guess but on the Irish Language Channel).
I was introduced to his wife and her friend. I stayed until 1am talking with them. I was introduced to lots of people and they were all super nice.
All in all - great day! Now I'll go to sleep and wake up at 7am to start my day.
