Cork and Kerry tour

Ok, I'm going to try something different. I'm going to post 3 different posts - this one, just writing, one of just pix and one of just video, as I figure it will take a while to post at least the video one.

I was a traveler this weekend. Bright and early I woke up Saturday morning, grabbed the bus and headed out to meet LeeAnn. We then took the Luas on the north side of Dublin to the train station. Our train took us to Cork. The ride was a little under 3 hours - not bad to get across a country.

When we got to Cork, we had to walk a few blocks to get to the bus station. We wanted to head to the town of Blarney. The next bus to Blarney was about an hour so we found a taxi who drove us out. LeeAnn wanted to stop at The Good Shepherd Convent, which was on the way, so we got out and she took a couple of pictures. Then we headed on to Blarney. It was like we had our very own tour guide, as the taxi driver told us lots of stories. I'm putting more and more pieces together, from my Theatre class and from Irish guides. It was interesting as he was talking about the famine and how there wasnt less food, but that the English who were persecuting the Irish citizens were sending all the food off to the English soldiers, and there was plenty of wheat but the English used it for the beer. Nice huh?

We landed in Blarney and went to the Blarney Castle. The past two times we've visited this castle neither Sean nor I actually kissed the stone. We just pretended. An air kiss. So that was the plan this time. But the man told me it wasnt good enough and made me do it again. My chin kissed the stone, instead.

Then we walked up to Blarney Woollen Mills - THE Blarney Woollen Mills, and Kerry did some SHOPPING, let me tell you what! I even had some of it shipped home to SC, thank goodness cuz what was left filled their largest bag and I still had another full day to walk around with lots of stuff. Eventually LeeAnn pulled me outta the store and we found the bus stop that takes us back to Cork. Once we got to Cork we got another bus tix to go to Killarney in Co. Kerry. That took another hour and half. By the time we arrived it was about 8. We got off and didnt know where we were, so I found a cab and we had the cab take us to The Best Western International. Yes sir, we stayed in a Best Western! It was quite lovely! We settled in and decided to look for a place to eat, but as we realized that there was about 30 mins to everything stopped serving, so we opted to eat in the restaurant in the hotel. By far that was the BEST food I've had in Ireland so far!! I had roasted duckling stuffed with peach and orange stuffing that had this orange glaze - wow, so good! Then we shared a piece of delish chocolate cake and hot tea. While we sat and talked, we could hear the musicians in the pub singing like how Tom sings in pubs, when he's not entertaining the tourists. They sang traditional irish songs but also sang The Eagles, and other country songs. But it was a fun place. Adults of all ages were there.

We got up early on Sunday morning and had a nice traditional Irish breakfast, full of bacon (which is similar to Canadian bacon), eggs, toast, grilled tomatoes, and white and black pudding. The white is ok, but I'm not a fan of the black pudding. And it's black because there's so much blood still in it. It's got an odd after taste to me.

Then we headed on to a tour of the Ring of Kerry. It started at 10:30 and we arrived back in 5pm. We stopped at the Red Fox Inn where they have houses that you would find during the pre famine and famine times. They also have the world's largest dogs. We had several photo stops and I took video when we were on the bus so you can hear the Killarney tour guide talking.

When we arrived back in Killarney, we made our way to the train station. We went 3 or 4 stops til we had to switch trains. Then we had another 2.5 hours to Dublin. Back in Dublin, we got on the Luas, after standing near an incredibly drunk woman. She was trashed. We kept our distance! From the Luas we walked back to campus, I found my bus stop, and eventually made it back to my apartment.

It was a fun weekend, but long. Not much sleep. I'm very ready for bed now, but I'm going to try to post pix and videos quickly so you can see what I saw.

:-)