As written in the third to last blog post “Let’s get started”, we viewed new houses and flats a week after we moved into the holiday apartment in Ireland. With lots of luck and by not letting go, we were also able to view a cottage that was nowhere to be found online and was only to view through word of mouth. This house wasn’t in our favorite town, but at least by the next village. Except for direct sea view it has everything, we had wished for and still fits in our budget! It’s not only located fairly central to all the local attractions (such as the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren and Doolin), to the sea or the beach, but also central to all of Ireland. From here you can easily reach all the counties, because it’s not far from a motorway and is located also in the middle of Ireland (considered from north to south).
We’ve been living in our little (Well, actually it’s not really small – it has at least 4 bedrooms!) Irish cottage, whose old stone walls are almost half a meter thick, for three months already. We had to fire the small stove every evening in the spring months, because otherwise it was too cool in the large sitting room. We were constantly cold and expected to get a cold every now and then. But that didn’t happen. Instead, we quickly got used to the prevailing damp and cold climate, both outside and inside. In addition, we were properly warmed by hot bubble baths (Yes, finally an own bath tub!) and our electric blanket (which can be found in every bed under the bed sheets here), if the stove wasn’t enough.
Meanwhile it’s already summer here and what a summer! Not only in Germany, but also here in Ireland, we experience the summer of the century! Well, maybe not of the century, but we were told that after all, since 1995, it hasn’t been that consistently warm here. Otherwise you probably only experience a single day in the year with more than 25 degrees. This year we already had at least 3 weeks at a piece of pure sun, little rain and more than 25 degrees. So, we did everything right! 🙂
As I write this, I’m sitting in our spacious garden overlooking the green hills where the neighbors’ cows and goats are grazing. Our lawn is covered with shamrocks, marsh marigold and many daisies. We don’t have many neighbors, so it’s mostly very quiet. You can only hear the birds chirping and sometimes a cow or a goat mowing. What an idyll! And such a strong contrast to our home in Berlin, where every three to five minutes an aircraft flies just a few hundred meters above us to land or to takeoff with deafening noisiness. Honestly, we have no idea how to bear up with this when we’re back…
But I’m wandering from the subject! Certainly some of you are already very curious now, what our cottage looks like. A few little insights should not be withheld from you…
Additionally we don’t want to hide some impressions of our surroundings from you. As already described, we live very rural here. When we walk around a bit, we encounter diverse grazing animals – cows, goats and horses en masse. Within 15 minutes you can reach a village church, which is quite large and impressive nevertheless. Thanks to its location on a higher hill (the terrain here is actually just smaller and larger hills), you have a fantastic view of the area from here – as to be seen in the panorama.
And anyone who thought that it only rains in Ireland, doesn’t know the whole truth: you get to see impressive rainbows (or even double rainbows!), which appear just when the sunrays mystically break through the cloud cover and immerse the entire scenery in a magical light, here quite often. Yes, Ireland is really the land of a thousand rainbows! We tried to capture it, but you just have to see it yourself.
In addition, spectacular sunsets are always on our doorstep – you don’t even have to drive to a special place. But have a look yourself…
