May | 2017 | Clapp Radical Sabbatical

Monthly Archives: May 2017
- Tenerife Canary Islands
  
  Posted at 9:27 pm by maptheclapps, on May 24, 2017
  
  We took a break from the hustle and bustle of city and desert exploring to get some real R&R. Enter Tenerife. Tenerife is one of the Canary Islands off of the west coast of Africa and is owned by Spain. Apparently it is pretty popular among Europeans to vacation, especially Brits as we’ve noticed. We decided to go here for multiple reasons: 1) it was close to Morocco and Portugal (our next stop), 2) Drew could use his timeshare so lodging was already paid, and 3) it was convenient for my parents to join us for their anniversary.
  
  When we arrived at the hotel (El Marques Palace) in Puerto de Santiago, dad was already there and bearing flowers (good job, dad!). We got situated in our hotel and went to dinner up the street to celebrate their anniversary.
  
  Saturday was mostly a pool day, groceries, and rental car. We decided it would be cheaper and more convenient to rent a car to explore than to take several of the different types of tours offered. Sunday we set out to explore the island. We based our itinerary from one of the jeep tours we decided not to use. We stopped briefly in the town of Vilaflor which is the highest elevation town in Tenerife and also their local wine region. The view from the town was limited to the cloud cover surrounding the island.
  
  We continued to climb higher up the mountain and were impressed by the views. We stopped when we got to the edge of the Teide National Park to read the signs and take in the views of Mt. Teide. The different types of rock combinations from the volcanic activity were neat to see. We drove by the mountain and stopped at a place for lunch that had a bunch of lizards entertaining us (one was brave enough to climb on dad’s foot).
  
  On the way down the backside of the mountain we were given another visual treat with the mountain surrounded by a thick layer of clouds.
  
  Once at the bottom we stopped at the village of San Cristobal de la Laguna which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site to look around for a while.
  
  On Monday we took mom and dad to the airport and bought a new suitcase since my handle broke off. In the afternoon we went to Playa Los Guios which was a black sand beach from the volcanic rock and was very hot. The water had large rocks as well that we needed to maneuver over just to get in the water.
  
  Tuesday we took a jog along the coast and saw the other two beaches. All of them are pretty small for a resort town. We cooled off afterwards at the pool and went out for a nice dinner on the water later in the evening.
  
  Today was another pool day and started packing for our next destination.
  
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- Exploring Morocco
  
  Posted at 10:42 pm by maptheclapps, on May 22, 2017
  
  The next morning we woke up early to head out into the desert. On our way out we made our first journey through the Tizi-n-Tichka pass in the Atlas Mountains which go from lush forest to rocky mountains extremely quickly. Our first major stop was at Ait Benhaddou which is a Unesco World Heritage site where many movies have been filmed including Indiana Jones, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones. The old city is still very intact because people were living in it up until about 16 years ago. It was abandoned because electricity came to the new city.
  
  We drove through the Hollywood of Morocco where we saw at least 10 major movie studios and several were actually filming. We also drove through what they call the ‘valley of roses’ where in the middle of the desert there are hundreds of thousands of roses growing. The hotel we stayed at in the middle of the desert (Ouarzazate) was absolutely amazing – it had a beautiful pool, which felt freezing after the sweltering heat of the desert. It was also had tons of unique and interesting statues, carvings and other artwork from all over Africa.
  
  On our second day on the private guided tour we headed out further into the desert. Our first stop was Todra Gorge and that was my favorite stop along the tour. The massive cliffs on either side are daunting and there is a beautiful cool little river flowing through them. We also saw a man climbing the cliffs and it was terrifying just to look up at him.
  
  The Moroccans that are local to the desert are called the Berbers and we made a stop to try on some traditional Berber clothes and hold the Berber flag in some fun photographs before we headed to the staging area for our camel ride. We also stopped at some underground dry wells that formed a tunnel system to provide water back in the day.
  
  During the journey out to the Sahara my poor mom had food poisoning and as many of you know I had the same ailment when Andrew and I went to Peru and saw Machu Picchu, so Drew dubbed me Mucho Poopoo. My poor mom also had to suffer Andrew’s torture and received the nickname Madre Mucho. She was a trooper though and we made it out to our camp in the Sahara where she was rewarded with ‘glamping’ instead of ‘camping’ – our glamorous tent had a full bathroom complete with a porcelain toilet and shower, electricity and three comfortable beds.
  
  The luxurious accommodations were very much appreciated after enduring a fun and adventures but extremely smelly camel ride. I was the last rider and Andrew’s camel (the one in front of me) seemed to suffer from the same ailment as Madre Mucho. Nevertheless Andrew and our tour guide got some excellent pictures of our trek.
  
  After arriving at camp we made our way up to one of the sand dunes and watched the sunset before dinner. After dinner we listened to the guides play songs on their drums and sang ‘Mama Africa’ together around a campfire. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
  
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- Marrakech – a World Away
  
  Posted at 11:31 am by maptheclapps, on May 20, 2017
  
  Marrakech is a completely different world from Europe even though it was only a little over an hour flight from Madrid. On our first day we walked through the souk including the fruit market, the spices, the metals and other housewares and the clothing. We also walked over to the main or largest mosque in Marrakech. The tower is the tallest in the city and can be seen from pretty much everywhere. There are smaller mosques on almost every corner as well.
  
  We went to dinner around 7:30 local time so Drew could see a football match. It was a Sunday and on our way home the streets were flooded with people trying to purchase shoes or fake Lacoste shirts. It was both amazing and unnerving trying to weave our way through the streets. In fact Andrew tried to get a picture of the snake charmers and when they started walking towards him with a snake I bolted to the other side of the market and Drew was worried because he couldn’t find me at first.
  
  Our Riad feels like a little oasis in the madness and poverty of Marrakech. Riads are not hotels but private residences that have rented out rooms. Most of them have beautiful and relaxing courtyards and ours had two turtles basking in the sun. We were greeted with local desserts and mint tea.
  
  Our first full day we decided to venture outside of the Medina (or old city) and we went to Jardin Majorelle. It is a private garden that is now a tourist site, museum and café. They have lots of local plants but also plants from all over the world including agave. It was relaxing and surprisingly cool in the garden. We ate lunch in the café and enjoyed some local juices.
  
  Afterwards we went to the Saadian tombs. They were quite remarkable and were discovered in the 1920s. The detail of the carvings and decoration are absolutely amazing and similar to what currently exists in the local mosques today (we were able to see inside one as we walked by).
  
  In the evening Andrew went and picked my mom up from the airport and we had a traditional Moroccan dinner at our Riad – complete with chicken tajine.
  
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- Finally this feels like Vacation
  
  Posted at 9:10 am by maptheclapps, on May 15, 2017
  
  This post is entitled ‘finally this feels like vacation’ because although it has been a fun and grand adventure it definitely hasn’t been the most relaxing vacation – between constantly being on the move, planning the next steps while we are trying to see everything a city has to offer and keeping up with posts it can be quite tiring. I know you don’t feel sorry for us 😉
  
  Today however we really got to relax. We went to Hammam Al Andalus which is one of four Arab baths here in Spain. It is kind of like a spa – it has 3 large baths (or pools) one hot, one cold, and one medium temperature and a steam room. They also provide two traditional treatments – we tried 15 minutes of each. The first is like a body scrub, basically they pour hot water over you while you lay on a stone table, put a fine scrub on you, then take a soapy pouch like cloth thing and squeeze soapy bubbles all over you and then scrub you. When it’s all complete they rinse you off. The second is more like a traditional massage with a scented oil (you get to choose from four scents in the beginning). Although the treatments we had only lasted 30 minutes total we got to enjoy the baths and steam room for another hour and I almost fell asleep floating in the warm bath!
  
  Since photos were not allowed, to describe the ambiance there was a very dark, stone corridor with candles and a small amount of natural light coming through covered windows in the bath ceilings. The first thing you have is the steam room on the left, then you have the hot bath and warm bath on the left further down the hall which are very shallow pools. There are multiple entrances into the baths from the hallway by arched doorways. The baths are separated by stone dividers and the walls are a dark red stone. Across from those baths was a small stone tub of cold water. At the end of the hall was a relaxation room with various scents to smell and tea. Finally across the hall from that is the room with the stone massage tables.
  
  In the evening we again took advantage of the fact that the Reina Sofia museum is free from 7 – 9 pm. The main attraction there are the vast number of Picasso works they have including the Guernica. And although Guernica was quite impressive after spending a couple of hours viewing cubism, modern and abstract art I can definitively say it’s not my thing. Andrew and I both preferred the Prado museum. We ended the evening with a stop by a carnicera for some patatas bravas with prosciutto and then went to a restaurant called Brutal for a beet and raspberry gazpacho that was amazing and grilled meat which was the best we’d had so far and we even got a free dessert! The dessert isn’t normally free, it was ordered by Oompa Loompa’s bachelor party and they left before receiving them.
  
  The next day we again took an organized tour to two more Unesco World Heritage sites – Salamanca and Avila. Salamanca is pretty far from Madrid in fact it’s only 80 km away from Portugal. Salamanca is interesting because it has the oldest university in Spain and it was where the Queen gave Christopher Columbus the funds to go to America after all the academics told him it was a stupid plan. It also has a incredibly large cathedral which is actually the combination of two cathedrals (the old and the new). We only got a glimpse inside the new cathedral because they were holding services to celebrate the cathedral’s anniversary which was pretty neat to see too.
  
  Avila is a very small city and it was built primarily as a defensive city to defend the Catholic or Christian frontline. It was pretty much abandoned after Spain was made completely Catholic because it was no longer needed to defend them and their water supply ran dry. This ended up being a great things for us because it means that the entire wall of the city was preserved and it is quite amazing to see. Even their cathedral is built into the city wall and looks like a fortress.
  
  We were dropped back off in Madrid at the Plaza de Toros where a bull fight was going on. After reading about it on Wikipedia and watching a YouTube video we had decided not to go to one but it was still interesting to see the atmosphere and revelry around it.
  
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- The other Capital of Spain – Toledo
  
  Posted at 8:16 pm by maptheclapps, on May 13, 2017
  
  On our second full day in Espana we took a tour to Toledo and Segovia. If you go look at organized tours from Madrid to these two cities you’d probably be surprised to see that they are a little out of our daily budget and you’d wonder why we decided to do a paid tour when Toledo is easily accessible by train from Madrid. The reasons we decided to book a tour is 1. when you are doing this much traveling it is sometimes nice to have someone else worry about getting you from place to place 2. it would have been really hard for us to see both of these cities in one day without a tour and 3. I really enjoy the information about the cities that the tour guide provides (Drew doesn’t care though he just wants cool looking pictures – so don’t forget to checkout the pictures page).
  
  Toledo was interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that it was the capital of not only Spain but the Holy Roman Empire before the capital was moved to Madrid. Due to the fact that it was the capital and then abandoned there are some quite remarkable buildings there that were well preserved including the cathedral and the residence of the bishop. The thing I was most intrigued about though was that for hundreds of years (before the King Fernando and Queen Ysabell united Spain under Catholicism) Jewish, Muslim and Catholic communities lived very peacefully in the small little city – something it seems we still can’t do today. This led to some really interesting buildings as well – for instance we saw a Jewish Synagogue that looked more like a Mosque from the outside
  
  Although Toledo was very interesting Andrew and I both agree that Segovia was more picturesque. The first thing that you are amazed by when you arrive at in Segovia is the Roman Aqueduct that still exists and provides water from several miles away to this little city. The stones in the aqueduct have no mortar in between them they are held together by tension and compression which is incredibly impressive since they were built almost 2000 years ago. The next spectacular thing we saw was the Segovia Cathedral which is unlike any cathedral we have ever seen (and trust me we have seen A LOT of cathedrals). The finale of the city was the Alcazar which is a palace that is now owned by the royal college of artillery (for a long time they actually tested gun powder recipes in it). We were able to tour a large part of the castle and it was wonderfully restored and absolutely beautiful – it definitely rivals Neuschwanstein and looks like was Disney fairytales are made of.
  
  The next day we took it easier and stayed in Madrid. We went to Plaza de Cibeles which has the Madrid City Hall that currently has a “Refugees Welcome’ sign hanging from it and explains the large mixture of cultures Spain has. Next we walked around Parque Del Buen Retiro which is a beautiful park and we would have loved to do a picnic lunch there but it was rainy so we were just happy to watch the ducks, black swans and copious turtles swim around. This park also houses an absolutely amazing rose garden and a quite striking Palacio de Crystal which typically has exhibits from the museum but was currently getting some new glass installed.
  
  After the park we took advantage of the fact that the Museo de Prado is free from 6 – 8 pm and viewed a lot of the exhibits. Our favorites were the works of Ruben which we’ve come to enjoy after visiting his home in Antwerp, Belgium several years ago. We completed the evening with a Flamenco show. If you are like me when you hear Flamenco you think of a woman in a long ruffly dress dancing with her arms above her head which the show did have. So understandingly, Drew was excited to get a seat right next to the stage. However, the majority of the show was men and the only way I can describe it is really fast tap dancing. The result was Drew had men in tight pants shaking their behind uncomfortably close to his face. It was hilarious. I enjoyed it and I’m glad we went though I don’t think I’d go to another one unless maybe it was world renowned Flamenco dancers or something like that.
  
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- Madrid Tapas and More
  
  Posted at 11:52 am by maptheclapps, on May 11, 2017
  
  Between dropping off our rental car, a 3 hour flight and losing an hour we spent the majority of the day getting to Madrid but we were rewarded with beautiful sunshine and finally some warm weather! We had dinner in Plaza Santa Ana and reveled in an enjoyable summer evening. The next day we of course had to start our journey in Madrid with another free walking tour which started in Puerto del Sol which is a huge square where many demonstrations are held and which has some interesting statues including the famous Bear with the Strawberry Tree (although strawberries don’t grow on trees) and the point where all major streets converge to in Spain.
  
  Our tour guide showed us the oldest hotel in Spain and how you can tell whether a business has been in Madrid for longer than 100 years (it has a plaque in the street outside) but the coolest old business she showed us was the oldest restaurant in the world, Casa Botin which opened in 1725. Hemmingway, Dickens and even Nancy Reagan have all eaten there. The best part was that we were able to go inside the restaurant which has three levels of dining and a super creepy old wine cellar.
  
  We also went to Plaza Mayor which is celebrating it’s 400th year this year so they were setting up for a large concert/festival as one of ways to celebrate the anniversary. We of course also had to view the Madrid Cathedral which is extremely new for a European capital cathedral at only 24 years old (there were some problems with funding and issues with the arch bishop of Toledo when the capital was moved to Madrid so it took a long time to build). The cathedral is right across from the palace so we also got a good view of the outside.
  
  Our tour guide told us ‘in Spain we live to eat’ so in the afternoon we tried to experience that as much as possible. We started by going to a very local bar which is loved by many (our tour guide told us that you can tell a place is good and local if the average age of the clientele is over 60 and there are lots of napkins and toothpicks on the floor). There we had the tapa special which was fried cod and their Vino Tinto. Next we went over to Mercado San Miguel which is a little more touristy but we were able to try tons of tapas by easily walking around the little market. We had olives with cheese, meat, and sun-dried tomatoes, red sangria, shrimp with fruit, caba, burrata with bread and prosciutto, vegetable paella and passion fruit yogurt. To top it all off we walked over to the famous churro and hot chocolate place San Gines and split the delicious dessert. Afterwards we had to participate in another old Spanish tradition – the siesta.
  
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- Blarney Stone and Cliffs of Moher
  
  Posted at 9:04 pm by maptheclapps, on May 8, 2017
  
  Our second day in Limerick we took a side trip to Cork. On our way there we went to Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney Stone. The stone is at the top of the castle and so we wound up the tight stairways, toured the empty rooms, and eventually made it to the top. Drew went first. You sit down in front of the stone and lean backwards holding onto two metal poles. There is a guide there to help spot you as you lean all the way back and kiss the stone which is at the bottom of the outer wall. My fear of heights started to kick in but I pulled threw. Drew has yet to experience the “eloquence” the stone was supposed to bring :-). We also hoped that bottle of disinfectant sitting next to the guide was used regularly.
  
  The castle area also had some gardens including the Poison Garden which contained many varieties of poisonous plants and described what they were and which parts of them were poisonous. Some of the plants they had growing included nightshade, wormwood, opium poppy and cannabis. Other attractions included a small waterfall and druid caves which were pretty neat. They say if you walk up these stairs with your eyes closed and think of a wish you will be granted it by the witch of Blarney Castle – so far I just got a bump on my head where the cave above the stairs got particularly low.
  
  We went to the English Market for lunch which was very impressive. We wish we had a market like that in San Diego where you could buy all kinds of fresh pastries, meats, fish, olives, desserts, etc. all in one spot. We killed time by walking around the outdoor shops as well. Drew really wanted to buy a flat cap or old man cap as I refer to them to fit in with the locals but his good sense prevailed.
  
  5 years ago 15 (yes 15) Irish people moved into the apartment next to me in PB – they were frequently raucous in the evenings and I always threatened that I would one day go to Ireland and keep them all up on weekday evenings. Well that didn’t happen but we were able to meet up with Eamonn and Aoife who were incredibly good hosts. They cooked us dinner and we went out to some local pubs where we had some grand drink, a little Irish dancing and loads of craic (or fun as us Americans would say). We had a great time and it was nice to experience a small town (Mallow) that was not as touristy as Dublin. We crashed there and in the morning we went to see Mallow Castle (yes, another castle!) which also had a fenced in herd of white deer which was neat to see. Drew apologizes to the motorists of Mallow for the Saturday morning traffic jam he created trying to leave the town center. Thanks for the grand time guys!
  
  Next we drove to Galway which is a quaint little seaside town and also the town referenced in Ed Sheeran’s hit “Galway Girl” which we heard a million times on the road. We walked passed the Spanish Arch, through the busy latin quarter, and stopped for a nice lunch. On the way back we walked by the Galway Cathedral and along the river path.
  
  From Galway, we had a 1.5 hour drive to see the Cliffs of Moher (otherwise known as the “Cliffs of Insanity” in the movie The Princess Bride). The drive was very picturesque but also very stressful for Drew. Driving around the winding roads with stone lined walls as shoulders was fun until the large tour busses started their return trips. They did not fit in their lanes and we had to drive uncomfortably close to the walls and even stopped a couple of times to pull over. They really shouldn’t be allowed on that route. Anyway, once we arrived the view was breathtaking. This is one of those rare places on earth that is special to witness. We walked in both directions from the visitor center to get views from both ends of the cliffs. You can go further than we did in either direction but I don’t believe the views got better past our stopping point. We tried to see the puffins perched on the side of the mountain, it was difficult given how far away they were, and Drew wants to me to add even more difficult while I had the telescope reversed : P
  
  The drive back we took a different route that was less stressful and we were hoping to get back in time to catch the Munster rugby match down the street from our b&b in Limerick. By the time we got back the game was over and we also were spent from our long day.
  
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- The Emerald Isle
  
  Posted at 8:49 pm by maptheclapps, on May 7, 2017
  
  For our last day in Dublin we took it easy but we still got to take in a few wonderful sites. Our first stop was the Trinity College Old Library, the home of the Book of Kells, which is over 1000 years old (older than most of our countries as tour guide reminded us). It contains four books from the New Testament created by monks and is lavishly decorated with tons of beautiful colors including tons of bright gold. We were able to see two original pages (they flip the page once a day) and lots of reprints – it was pretty amazing to imagine the patience it must have taken to create the intricate designs by hand. The second floor of the library houses thousands of books over hundreds of years – it literally looks like the library out of Harry Potter (because Harry Potter was filmed at Oxford which has an almost identical library). It also houses Ireland’s oldest harp – which is what the Guinness logo was modeled after and Ireland’s national instrument.
  
  Our second stop was the Chester Beatty Library which we were happy to hear was free but we were also amazed by the collection. Alfred Chester Beatty was born in the U.S. but he fell in love with Ireland and left his entire collection to the people of Ireland. He was very interested in other countries and especially religion. The collection consists of paintings, statues, silk artwork, and books from various religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. It was incredibly interesting and informative.
  
  Of course we had to make a stop by Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and since a little bit of sun was shining through the clouds there were tons of people out enjoying it in St. Patrick’s park. Our last stop in Dublin was by the Molly Malone statue which was created in memory of the song – you’ve heard it:
  
  ‘In Dublin’s fair city,
  
  Where the girls are so pretty,
  
  I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
  
  As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
  
  Through streets broad and narrow,
  
  Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”
  
  “Alive, alive, oh,
  
  Alive, alive, oh,”‘
  
  The next day we picked up our rental car (Drew got a Ford Focus, not a Mercedes, ha!) and headed out of Dublin to Limerick. On our trip over we stopped at Birr Castle. Unfortunately we were not able to visit inside the castle itself because it is a private residence but we were able to walk all around the gardens which were absolutely amazing. The tenants of Birr Castle were engineers and extremely interested in the sciences and Birr Castle was the location of the largest telescope for over 70 years when it was constructed in 1840 and it is still on the grounds.
  
  When we arrived in Limerick we took a short walk down to the river where we had a great view of King John’s Castle and had a fantastic dinner – Drew finally had some oysters. At dinner we also made a very important decision – if we ever buy a castle it will have to have a moat! To the right is the only castle Drew said he’d buy me.
  
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- Dublin the wee capital of Ireland
  
  Posted at 9:51 pm by maptheclapps, on May 3, 2017
  
  We had a quick 1 hour flight from Inverness to Dublin and arrived at our hotel around 1 pm. However our first day in Dublin was quite uneventful. We checked into the hotel (the first hotel we’ve stayed at on our journey), had lunch and then promptly took a nap. As our friend Wilcy said, ‘that’s part of the sabbatical anyway – rest and recharging’ but it doesn’t make for a very good blog post!
  
  Thankfully we made up for it on our second day in Dublin. We started the day off with a free walking tour that was about 2 1/2 hours long on the South side of Dublin. The River Liffey divides Dublin into the North and South and the North side has a reputation of being the seedy side although we were told that the crime rate on either side is incredibly low. On the tour we got to hear a ton about Irish history and we saw the Dublin Castle which is interesting because it is comprised of several different styles of architecture including medieval, gothic, Georgian, and even modern (our tour guide described this part of the building as looking like the Google headquarters).
  
  Another interesting part of the tour was the stories behind Christ Church Cathedral. Apparently after Henry the VIII declared that all of Britain would change religions from the Catholic to the Church of England the Irish people were incredibly upset (rightfully so) to be told they had to change religions. So when Henry VIII converted this cathedral to the new religion the people revolted by making it more of a market than a cathedral and even opened a bar and distillery in the basement. Eventually it was decided this was disrespectful and the cathedral was converted back and is now the cathedral of the United Diocese of Dublin.
  
  The guide took us through Temple Bar which is an area of Dublin that is parallel to the Liffey and is known for it’s night life – our hotel is located in this area. He also told us about the ‘Monument of Light’ which was originally commissioned to mark the millennium however it wasn’t finished until 2003 and it cost 4 million euro which is an incredible amount given that it’s just a giant needle with no functionality. Apparently the locals lovingly refer to the monument as the ‘stiffy by the Liffey’ and it would be rare to find a local that knows its actual name.
  
  The tour ended at Trinity College where we got to see the buildings of ‘heaven’ (the school church) and ‘hell’ (the exam hall). And although Trinity College was built at the same time as Oxford and Cambridge it is much more affordable – Irish residents can attend for around 500 Euro a year! It is probably good that it’s quite cheap since students will need to save their money for beer – Dublin apparently is one of the most expensive cities in Europe to drink in.
  
  In the afternoon we decided to take a trip to the Guinness store house. The building is on the location where the original Guinness fermentation room was however that closed in 1988 and it has since been a visitor center. There are seven floors which walk you through the process of brewing, the history of Guinness (including its 9,000 year lease) and the advertising strategies over the years. It even has a tasting room (where we got the smallest glasses of Guinness I’ve ever seen), a learn to pour the perfect Guinness course, and what they call the ‘Gravity Bar’ which has beautiful panoramic views of Dublin. We chose to enjoy our pint of Guinness with the beautiful views.
  
  One of the things Dublin is most known for is its night life, especially in Temple Bar, so we decided to experience this by going on an organized pub crawl. We were a little hesitant at first, I thought we might be too old for one, but it ended up being a great time. The reasons I enjoyed it were: 1. we got to meet and talk with lots of new people (when you are staying mostly in Airbnbs interactions outside of each other are very limited) 2. we got to visit several different bars that we wouldn’t have found on our own and about half of them had really good live music 3. we got to see Irish dancers perform. We ended the night by asking the tour leader what Irish ‘drunk food’ is – he pointed us to a gyro shop where we got a gyro with a cabbage mixture and chips in it – definitely an interesting twist on a Mediterranean classic and it was a delicious way to end our experience.
  
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