Blog Entry: Wednesday night/Thursday
We left Harlaxton at 6 on Wednesday night, arrived at the ferry at 2 in the morning, got on said ferry, tried to sleep for the four hours it took to cross the Irish Sea, then got back on the two coaches (which were ferried with us), went two blocks into Ireland, had a good breakfast, and got back on the bus to go to Blarney.
One thing you must know about Ireland-they have palm trees. I am so, so not kidding around here-they never have anything but rain; they never freeze, and so palm trees are a pretty common sight throughout Ireland.
That said, I did get a picture of one...
We went to Blarney Castle; basically a ruin. The stairs inside were narrow, wet, slippery, and misshapen. And uneven. I spent the entire time terrified that one slip would cause a domino effect on the people behind me. They also went on forever. The rooms were small and cramped and the floors were really uneven; several of us almost fell down because we weren’t watching where our feet were going.
At the top of all of this was the Blarney Stone. Yes, I kissed it. Almost went on my head down to the ground (I did see it at one point as I leaned over) but I did kiss it. So ha.
Laura, Bethany, and I went and drank tea in the teashop down the road (I had an Irish scone! Good stuff!) and then we went on to Killarney.
As would be expected, there were two hotels. As we suspected (and still can’t sort out why) the light switch for the bathroom in these hotels is on the outside of the room, meaning that if someone were in there with the door shut and you wanted vengeance it would be sickeningly easy to just FLICK the light off and leave them naked in the dark.
I suspect this was invented by nasty people who do such nasty things, but I can’t be sure.
We went to an Italian restaurant and got pizza. It was considerably cheaper than getting separate meals for everyone, and it was good, too.
Blog Entry: Friday
We did the Ring of Kerry today. Lots of stuff we saw; saw a mountain range that we approached yesterday known as the Mcgillicuddy Reeks.
Saw the Kerry Bog Village, where I thought the peat burning was pretty awful-smelling, but since Laura couldn’t finish her Irish coffee, I did. It was pretty good-I’ve never had whiskey before, so that was new.
We then went to Dingle Bay-really lovely views there. Got great photos.
Went to Waterville, where I walked on a purple beach, dipped my bare feet into the Irish side of the Atlantic (COLD!), picked up a couple of shells, got a picture of Charlie Chaplin’s statue, and got sprayed in the face with temperamental Irish weather.
On to Sneem, where I basically bought a lot of souvenirs for everybody, including me. I bought a necklace for myself that Bethany says has a real stone in it, and she thinks it’s either jade or jasper (her dad used to be a jeweler.) It’s gold plated and has this round sea-green stone in it, which has the gold come down over the top and twist into a Celtic knot right over it. I love it a lot; the green actually matches the color of the Irish Sea. Here's a picture:
Went next to Ladies View, where I got some amazing shots of lakes in a valley way, way below me, and then we went to the waterfall, where we almost left some people behind. The waterfall was a series of rapids that went on for about a quarter-mile down the trail; we were walking backwards to the flow of the water, so we encountered little rapids first and came to the big waterfall at the end of the trail.
We went out to a pub in Killarney and I, true to form, got a Coke. We heard real, honest-to-God Irish music. It was really great.
Blog Entry: Saturday
We’re traveling most of this day from Killarney to Dublin; we’ll get about three hours to see Dublin’s sights before A) everything closes or B) the sun goes down.
Decisions have been made between Bethany, Laura, Erin, and I, and the Book of Kells is going to get our first look; if we get to anything else tonight it’ll be a miracle (maybe we should go see the cathedral first and get one?)
Anyway, I bought another nice thing for Mom today, and a bottle of Irish herbal rub for my hands. They’re still a little sore; not as bad as yesterday but not as good as last week.
And for those who are asking, yes, the grass is very, very green here, and the mountains are really something. In the more mountainous areas, there are entire fields full of rocks and stones. The land there appears to only be good for sheep and cow farming; you couldn’t even hope to grow crops there with all those rocks in the ground.
We should be in Dublin soon; at least in the next couple of hours.
Ta,
Bec
Blog Entry: Sunday
We didn’t get much time in Dublin-most everything closed up at 5 and we got there at 3 thanks to road work and the resulting traffic jam. Saw the Book(S) of Kells (8th century Bibles and several other books) and it was really lovely; the colors were very vivid. We also saw a library upstairs that was very old (I geeked out) and some lovely bird drawings from the 1830’s.
After a slight disagreement concerning dinner, Bethany and I went to an Indian restaurant. I finally figured out the name of the flatbread I had at Sant’s house last year, and I ate some pretty good curry, had some tea, and a nice conversation.
This morning we got up sickeningly early. As I was lying in bed rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I yelped. Turns out the right hand is not as good as I thought it was, and even on what I consider to be pretty high doses of painkillers, all this typing is really, really hurting me. I’m noting the right wrist is looking a lot bigger than the left at the moment-this I consider a problem. I have skinny wrists-a little swelling goes a long way.
After four hours on the ferry, we got on the bus and traveled to “I’m Not Even Going To Try To Pronounce or Spell it-Ville," but I will cut and paste its name here.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
It MEANS: "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave."
It isn’t the longest town name in the world (Thailand’s got a longer one, apparently) but it was long enough for me to get a headache trying to take a picture of the bloody sign that had the name on it. I couldn’t seem to get both ends in the picture, and after 7 or 8 tries I finally got it right.
We were only there a little while, and then we came back here. I am distancing myself from everyone, trying to get a little peace and quiet after 5 days of being smashed in a bus with other 30 human beings. I love my friends; I love traveling, but hey, even I need a break!
I’m pretty tired tonight but I will write more tomorrow when I am able. My arm is still kind of sore and I’m debating going to the nurse tomorrow because (hee) I’m worrying a tad about it.
Ta,
Bec
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