On our own
When we left the Allens we had 3 days to explore on our own
.. With nothing particular to go on except recognizing the name
because of our Irish connections in Canada, we headed for
Enniskillen in county Fermanagh. Our car rental agreement didn't
allow travel outside Northern Ireland -- and this part of Ireland
borders the Irish republic so -- we were just testing our borders!!
Decided to do a tour of the pubs here in
search of genuine Irish music .. didn't works so well as we
were in the middle of the week and the Irish music nigh was
on Mondays they said ... but we had a great time anyways.
Decided to drive around a big lake that
reaches to the Republic .. and on the way took a little side
trip to check out a castle ruins we'd read about.
Beautiful -- beautiful--
Monea Castel ruins ... someones 'abandoned
dreams' I supposed.
This is Loche Erne -- a large lake in the
center of Ireland
This bridge isn't so interesting except we
made a wrong turn here and a few minutes later saw a highway
sign "Welcome to Northern Ireland" which we never new we had
left!! Don't tell the car rental company we breached
our contract here!!
What can I say.
This is castle Coole just out of Enniskillen
... Imagine our joy when we got a Facebook message from
Yulia Hamilton (on the right) suggesting that we meet them
here. They had noticed on Facebook we were in Enniskillen
and gave us the oppurtunity to meet them and their children
here for tea ... a most wonderful afternoon. Yulia is
originally from Bellarus .. and it turned out that she
thought she had met my neice Annett there a number of years
ago. It is a small world!
Spent a good while arround this table .. the
kids were amazing and had lots of room to play.
Annabel has an very rare and very admirable talent of
very explicit "life description" (as well as the most
beautiful Irish accent)...It is her daughter Hazel beside
Mireille ... Yulias Max and Robert are the other two
children)
Amazing how a group of people who never have met before can
have so much in common to talk about.
Thanks to both of you for taking the time and effort to meet
us here!!
Decide to stay at a farm Bed and Breakfast
place our last night in Ireland ... found this place just
out of Cookstown and it was perfect for us ... made us feel
a part of their family.
This was our hosts for the night .. and what
a wonderful breakfast she made for us in the morning before
we left.
I didn't get a pix --- but this last night in
Ireland we decided to go into Cookstown and check an Irish
pub one last time. Not many people in this particular country
pub on a Thursday evening ... but there as a soccer game on,
and a few where sitting quietly watching it .. We noticed that in the
background of this soccer game there was some very nice
music being played --- so I asked the bartender what it was.
He said -- Oh that is for old (whatever his name was) and
pointed out an old. old, 'not so sober' man
totering on a barstool looking out the window .. "He just
loves Isla Grant and we try to get her music in as well as
the soccer match. Hope you don't mind!
When we left left we stopped beside him and thanked him for
his music choice .. He shone up, shook our hands, thanked us and said
"Shes the best"!!
Here are links to a couple of her songs -- an
Irish singer!
