Jan Bono’s Blog

"Rabbits! Rabbits! Rabbits!" According to Irish folklore, if you say "Rabbits! Rabbits! Rabbits!" first thing after you wake up on the first of the month, you'll have good luck the whole month, and Day 8 of our tour was September first. But perhaps not enough of us...

Nope, that's not not a typo. The area we traveled through after the cliffs is the "Burren," still in County Clare, and although the photos might belie this statement, it is anything but "barren." The Burren is a 250 sq. mi. area which looks a lot like a lunar...

It's one of Ireland's most recognizable views, and it was well worth the physical effort it took to get there. (Code for: Holy Hiking Boots, Batman, there sure are a lot of steps to climb!) A five-mile stretch of the rugged west coast, with dramatic cliffs averaging...

This is the coach stop that really got to me, wrestled my heart to the ground, and stepped on it with both feet. And I truly didn't see it coming. The people at YMT didn't see it coming either, as it wasn't on the official itinerary. There were no bathrooms, so that...

As we motored from Killarney northward toward Galway, we stopped in several small towns whose only "claim to fame" might be the fact that they still used a few thatched roofs on their museum or gift shop. It became a bit of a joke that we were on the "ABC tour," which...

We used Killarney as our "jumping off place" for the next two nights. I was glad for a short reprieve to the daily directive of "Bags out at 7!" but breakfast and departure times stayed relatively the same. Our first morning, we were treated to a "jaunting car" ride...