Wednesday June 10, 2009

We were all packed with overnight gear at 9am since we though we were staying overnight in Enniskillen in a youth hostel, but when Mindi called to confirm our stay they didn't have our reservation down because the day we made reservations the person she spoke to quit and never put in our reservations, so we were all sort of relieved, but we also had a lot of driving ahead of us.  Our first stop was the Trone Crystal factory.  We saw the whole process of how crystal is made up close in the factory and were all really impressed.  It takes the apprentices between 5-7 years to be able to be full-fledged crystal makers.  We also saw commissioned pieces that are sold for over 1500 pounds like a pistol for John Wayne's son, trophies, an old-school microphone for Dolly Parton.  They can literally do anything so if you are interested...  They had pieces for sale that had small imperfections so they were half-price, but still quite expensive.  We then drove to Enniskillen and while turning into a parking lot our big bus got a flat tire, the tire was completely busted.  We kind of just left it and went down to the dock to catch our ferry to Devenish Island.  Over on the island was a round tower which are really famous and there are not many left.  They are religious towers used for protection as well as to show wealth.  There were ruins on the island of a church and other buildings used by the parishioners.   Ruins are so cool, plus it was an island so that made it really really cool.  We waited for over an hour for someone to come and put on a new tire, we tried to do it ourselves, but the bolts were rusted on.  Luckily the rental insurance covered the new tire.  Since we weren't staying in a hostel we were able to go to a nice restaurant for dinner.  We went to the Saddleback Bistro above the Horseshoe Bar.  The food was incredible and we ate so much it was like a feast.  We passed around appetizers and during dinner there were six different kinds of potatoes along with vegetables that we could eat.  I ordered Kangaroo from Australia- it was good, it tasted more like beef, but was nice and tender.  We had then been in four counties of Ulster.  I am not sure that I mentioned this, but in Ireland they drive on the left side of the road.  At first this seemed very foreign, but now I'm getting used to it.