Oh no the squeeze! Wow. Wow.
Ohh good morning! Good morning!
Good morning, guys.
I’m feeling a lot better after a serious rest.
I took a shower last night right after I said goodbye to Marko and preceded to vomit everywhere.
Still feel a little bit weak but I do feel a lot better.
Maybe Marko is awake. Good morning!
Look at you in there!
I feel like a pea in a pod, man.
How nice are these things?
The pods are super cool.
Well I’ll leave you to it.
No! We need to go! Kayaking. We’re going to go harvest seaweed with a dude named Jim
Kennedy in a village named Skibbereen.
Okay well I’m going to try to get something to eat first because I’m on empty stomach.
Let’s do that and then let’s go.
[driving montage]
Right now we are following Jim and Marie from Atlantic Sea Kayaking and they are
going to take us out to one of their favorite little spots to show us how pretty this place
really is.
This place is super mellow. Really really quiet and the sound of the sea.
We are about to hop into one of these kayaks and go for a little exploration around the
coastline.
How does the weather look today?
Well it’s good. Warm-ish. No rain, which is a good thing in Ireland.
Where are we going?
We’re going to a place called Squince Beach out here and we’re going to look for seaweed
and see the wildlife.
This is a spectacular place. You’ll love it.
Just up here used to be a pagan graveyard and a leper colony and then a Spanish graveyard
during the invasion here.
A leprechaunally?
A leper colony.
I heard leprechaun, but hey maybe I’m just imagining things.
Leprechaun.
See ya!
So one of the reasons this part of Ireland is so productive is because it’s in the
Gulf Stream.
Very mild climate. Not tropical by any means, but temperature never really gets
down below freezing and it brings a lot of sea food and sea life to the coast.
Allows them to grow crops and raise these animals all year rounds.
But I mean seriously guys, how pretty is this place?
So tell us where is the place we are going right now.
Well we are in Squince Harbor, a little known and beautiful harbor. We’re heading out
to Rabbit Island, which is straight ahead of us.
And we’re going to take a right turn and head to two islands that are the High and
Low Islands.
Okay this is sea spaghetti.
Sea spaghetti?
Yeah. Late season sea spaghetti, so it tastes more like tagliatelle now
?????
Hmm, salt.
Yeah that’s the sea water. Not the seaweed.
Umami!
Yeah! There you go. The fifth taste.
The fifth taste that most people don’t understand. Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and then umami!
[kayak montage]
How was that?
That was so cool. What a gorgeous little piece of water to navigate.
So what sort of seaweed are we looking for?
Well, any seaweed is edible. So you’re not worried like you would be with mushrooms
with poisoning yourself.
They are really high in the tide lines so it’s a very easy seaweed to use.
It’s in the splash zone so it’s never covered by the tide and it’s highly nutritious
and very tasty.
So we’ll take some channel wrack today.
So do we have enough?
Yup. We have enough to put on our salad.
Cool. So we’re keeping it sustainable and taking what we need.
Absolutely. A little bit at a time.
Heading back to shore the scenic way.
Super relaxing. I think I might just take a nap. Is that all good?
Sounds good.
Hahaha!
We only need one paddle on this kayak. Guess who’s doing the work? And it’s not Alex.
And it’s certainly not his brother.
Jim, I’ve been telling you that I’ve been feeling this the whole time. Now I finally
feel like I…
Hey! I’m filming. Screw you guys. I’m going home!
How did you feel about that one, Jim?
Excellent. I felt my partner was incredible.
He motivated me so well all through the trip.
There were times where I felt I was just going to keel over.
Exhaustion but he kept me going. Yeah, he’s a natural coach. Natural motivator.
Hahaha!
Well that was very very chill. Super relaxing. Very mellow way to start the morning.
You can feel the serenity of this place.
Now we’re going to go to their daughter’s café. The Union Café.
We’re going to prepare a little seaweed salad I think and we’re going to have some
lunch.
So we’ve just gotten to the village of Union Hall and we’re at the lovely little coffee
shop here.
Called The Coffee Shop.
We have our seaweed and we’re going to make a tonic for me,
because I’m still a little bit under the weather and then a seaweed salad.
You see seaweed in Japanese cuisine and we had a seaweed bath earlier, so we’ve
been doing a lot with seaweed this whole trip and I’m excited to eat it.
Try it in new and innovative ways.
This is the before color and when we boil it…
So it’s the iodine coming out and the chlorophyll staying in?
Exactly.
It smells so good!
Very much of like al dente pasta.
But very palatable, super tasty, great little marinade, and supposedly really healthy.
I can see this being a new fad in Los Angeles at health food stores.
It really is a flavor enhancer and it brings out the flavors of everything else with it,
so umami!
Thanks so much!
You’re welcome.
We’ll see you next time we come to West Cork!
Great!
Take care of the seaweed for us.
I have to save up and buy Alex a paddle.
Yes! One day!
Well that was a lovely lunch and the day is off to just the nicest start and you’re
feeling better.
A little bit yeah. Good enough now to sample some cheese, so we’re going to head over
to Gubbeen. Right?
We’re going to make a cheese maker named Fingal Ferguson, who might just have the coolest
name in the world.
Say that five times fast.
Fingal Ferguson, Fingal Ferguson, Fingal Ferguson, and Gubbean Cheese. See you soon.
[travel montage]
Smells like cheese.
Where’s the cheese? Where’s the cheese? Where’s the goat cheese?
Give me the cheese. Give me the cheese.
The cheese industry really took off here in the 1970s’ when there was an influx of
foreigners from cheese making countries from England, France, the Netherlands.
A lot of them were hippies trying to escape the rat race, others wanted to be sustainable
and buy a cheap farm house.
But the result was that the Irish cheese making industry took off and their cheeses
are some of the best in the world, so we’re going to meet with Fingal Ferguson and learn more
Hi! I’m Fingal.
Marko. Nice to meet you man.
Hi. Alex.
Alex, nice to meet you.
My name is Fingal Ferguson and I’m the fifth generation of the farm. We’re in Gubbeen,
which is in West Cork.
We make the Gubbeen, which is a semi-soft rind wash cheese and we also make a smoked
cheese.
My childhood, I grew up with my parents who were in the cheese making in the farm here,
so it was an exciting time in West Cork,
where so many people came and settled in West Cork bringing with them their passions and
interests.
I suppose that led to a lot of creativity and farmer’s cheeses, salmon smokers, growers,
bread makers.
It was just an exciting time in the 70s for people to produce food.
Little piggies!
This chicken right here has bell bottoms on. Look at this.
You get that sort of lactic smell.
You can smell that earthy, mushroomy, nuttiness that kind of comes through.
Chorizo.
That brings our time in West Cork to an end. Kind of a bummer.
I have really enjoyed every moment here.
It’s been so pretty and the people are so friendly. Food is amazing.
I really..I wish..I don’t like to pick favorites, but this has been the top super cool place.
I’m looking forward to coming back. I hope we really do.
In the meantime we have a four hour drive to Dublin and two more days exploring there.
Alright guys we just…
Such a long drive.
It was! We just got to Dublin and we’re here.
We’re going to grab some dinner and then go to bed. Tomorrow we start exploring.
So if you guys enjoyed that video, which we hope you did.
Make you sure you give it a thumbs up, share it with you friends, and subscribe to the
Vagabrothes for new travel videos every week.
Yeah and we got two more episodes of us exploring Dublin.
In the meantime keep exploring, stay curious, and we’ll see you guys on the road.
Peace!
It's smells like chorizo like crazy dude!
But it smells fantastic!
There's so much chorizo here, it's nuts!
Imagine! A room full of chorizo, only here in Ireland!