In continuation with the ‘Sean and Jaime in Ireland Adventure Week,’ we arrived in Killarney by bus and  found our way to our hostel.  Killarney is considered a tourist town and is looked down upon by some of the Irish folk that we have met along the way, but I really liked Killarney.  It definitely did have its fair share of souvenir shops and tourist attractions, but I didn’t think that took away from the town at all.  I liked the winding cobblestone streets and pubs and cafes on every corner.  Our first day in Killarney we rented bicycles and rode to the Killarney National Park which, as was expected, was perfectly beautiful.   The park had its own mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and forest trails to be explored.  We discovered an old monastery within the park; an exploration which included waltzing about the open hall, and a brief game of hide and seek.  We also came upon the Muckross House, which is a grand and elegant manor.  We all approached the door to the house, and seeing that it was open we innocently walked in.  The rooms were perfectly composed of all the finest chandeliers, china, massive room-length dining tables, and anything you would envision royalty owning in the past.  We were in awe as we stumbled our way from room to room, and didn’t think anything was odd until we realized we were the only people we had seen since entering the house.  We then heard a tour beginning in the entrance hallway, which was when we came to the realization that we were not supposed to be in this house without a guide.  The rest of our time was like the scene in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, when the children are hiding in the giant house, trying not to be discovered by the tour.  We ducked into the next rooms as the tour group rounded the corners right by us, and ran upstairs to avoid being discovered.  We eventually found our way out.  Sean claimed someone on the tour looked back and saw us just as we were exiting, so it was a close call.  The whole thing was quite exciting, and as there were no signs and the door was open, I would argue- not our fault.   

The following day we walked the 7 km through The Gap of Dunloe, which was a very lovely walk among the mountains.  We stopped along the way and had our picnic lunch- baked beans directly from the can and cheese or apple slices and cheese on a baguette, and fig newtons.  I’m not even sure how many times we had this over the course of the week, but it became our signature meal.  We had it so many times, that this food combination is now forever going to remind me of Ireland.   From Killarney we took the bus to Cork, which is quite an industrial-looking city.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with the city-life, but it is not what I think of when I imagine Ireland, so it wasn’t my favorite Irish location.  We had a nice time walking around the streets, but we didn’t spend a lot of time right in Cork city.  Instead, we took a bus out to Blarney Castle, where we all kissed the Blarney Stone.  According to legend, as a result we have all now been bestowed the gift of blarney.  The whole affair is a rather unusual tradition, and I’m very curious now to learn how kissing the Blarney Stone came about.  First you have to climb to the top of Blarney Castle, then once at the top you lean backwards over a pretty extensive drop, and have the man working lower you upside-down a hole in the floor so you can kiss the stone, which is simply part of the wall.  A very curious tradition.  The rest of the grounds surrounding the Blarney Castle are quite lovely and picturesque as well, so we took a wood nymph/fairytale photoshoot.   

It was sad to see Sean and Jaime leave when it was time for them to go.  They could have stayed the entire time and I would have been fine with that.

The next week we spent in a town called Dunmanway with a woman named Phoebe and her horses.  Phoebe is a very sweet British woman who was very welcoming and watches a lot of British television with humor I can’t quite understand.  Chad and I stayed in an apartment outside of the main house, where we had to light a wood-burning stove to keep warm at night.  Our work at Phoebes included a lot of weeding, stacking wood, cleaning out horse stables, and repairing fences.  Chad forgot to add ‘do not touch electric fences while the charge is on’ to his ‘Things I Have Learned in Ireland List,’ because he got shocked and thrown to the ground at least four times.  What a ‘shocking’ experience.  Phoebe let us each ride one of her horses down the road one day.  The horse only walked, but it makes me wish I rode horses.  Chad was able to make his famous cornbread one night, which was delicious as always.  We think a leprechaun dropped off the cornmeal we needed to make it though.  We had been looking for cornmeal every time we went into a grocery store for a month so he could make his cornbread, but we have never been able to find it.  Phoebe even helped us search for it, but said she couldn’t find any.  Then out of nowhere cornmeal just appeared on her counter, and she claimed she didn’t know where it was from.  Magical Irish leprechaun magic.