Waterville and Other Escapades

Sometime in the last week or two: we decided to take a day trip to Waterville - a lovely seaside town. It’s known for being the holiday hot spot for Charlie Chaplin, back in the day - we took many photos with the statue of him. My favourite part of the day was: we were on the way and stopped at a beach we thought was in Waterville (see photo above). It was a lovely sandy beach with a castle ruin next to the water. We spent some time there -- Miriam and I tried to boulder on some big rocks. Miriam loves to climb! And she's great at it. I’ve lost some of my skill though, due to my wrist fractures.

<- Hillary with Charlie Chaplin

At a random beach ->

A couple of days after Waterville we decided to go to another beach we had seen coming back from Waterville. It had a California feel to it - mainly because there was a surfing sign. Surfing in Ireland? Who knew? We got there and sure enough, there were a few surfers out in the water. It wasn’t that warm of a day, but I suppose when the waves are calling you, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!

Here we were on the beach - Jane and I playing soccer, and Miriam and Hillary flicking sand at a dog who would jump at it (apparently his favourite game in the world). I decided to get a little mischievous ... I stopped the soccer fun and went over to where Hillary and Miriam were preparing to put their feet in the water. Miriam was slightly in front of Hillary, but I thought maybe my plan would work. I then sunk my foot into the sand and flicked it out, which flung chunks of sand straight into the side of Hillary’s face - IT WAS AWESOME (perf).

So, of course it became an all out sand fight, which then turned into a water fight. Jane completely took me out into the water - Hillary, Miriam and I, in turn, ganged up on Jane ... but somehow Hill and I still found ourselves completely drenched in the sea water. To my defense, I did successfully get both Hillary and Jane covered in sand. It was fun, yet slightly cold...

We went back to the car, decided we needed a photo, so I asked this dude who was just chillin’ in his car.

Me - “Hi, could you take a picture of the four of us please?”

Dude - “Uh, sure...”

Me - “Sweet - thanks, you’re a champ.”

Dude - “Uh ... okay. Heh.”

<- The aftermath ... you can't see the ocean and sand on us, but it was!

Now, the girls make fun of me for calling a complete stranger a champ and how I tend to talk to every stranger we pass by (I just like to strike up conversation, okay. Plus, that way you meet people!)

THEN, we stopped by a coffee shop - hoping beyond all hopes that they would let us order some coffee/hot chocolate despite our wet and sandy attire. I pulled up, got out and saw a man that looked like an owner of a coffee shop.

“Hello! Do you work here?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Oh, great! As you can see, we’re completely wet - we decided to jump into the ocean today.”

“Well, that was silly!” (he said this with a smile in his eyes and laughter in his voice - PS)

“Haha, yes, but it was fun and not too cold.”

“Okay, right.”

“Well, we were wondering if it’s possible to get some coffee drinks to go. We don’t want to get your furniture all wet and sandy.”

“Oh, right. Yes - of course!”

What a delightful man! We ended up stopping by the place a few days later to have a picnic behind his house/cafe where some cliffs can be seen by the public. Met the man’s wife, Mary, and his name is John - They were so interested in what we were doing in Ireland. I told them about WOOFing and how they could set something like that up. (They leave their home sometimes after the Summer season, and need someone to watch it for them - maybe I will do that after Alaska!)

<- Our picnic by the cliffs (we eat well!)

The next day we went to town! Why were we excited? Because the ferry finally started! A nice Spaniard, Mariano, collects the money and another man sails the thing. We were the only ones on it going to Cahirsiveen; however, on the way back we had the company of two other cars - Not that you have time to converse... It takes a total of seven minutes to cross to the other side.

While in town, we visited the French Patisserie. I finally got a cappuccino to drink and Jane ordered delicious goodies for us in French (much to her embarrassment - why was she embarrassed to speak her first language to another french woman? We’ll never understand...) We also stopped by this random discount store to look for blank CDs and ask about a guitar - here we met a nice guy called Tommy. He asked if we’d been around more of Ireland. We told him we’d love to and are planning on it; and we’d especially love to go to Dingle. Well, it just so happens that he is from there and is going there this Friday. He offered us a lift! We'll see if that happens...

Ta ta for now!

<- The owner of the cafe let me take a mug of coffee + baileys to the cliffs with me