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Published: September 20th 2008
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Killarney
Rainbow leading to the pot of gold! It's hard to believe but we've been in Ireland for a month. I'm amazed at how fast the time has gone. Even though we've covered a lot of ground, there's still so much to see. I guess I'll just have to come back some day and continue exploring this little green island.
The last one and a half weeks have been pretty action packed. We've covered a lot of distance to get to Dublin so we could have time to explore before Conor flies out. After our very exciting hitch hike ride we arrived in Killarney where we stayed for three nights. Killarny is situated right on th edge of a giant national park of green mountains, lakes, waterfalls, woodlands, and castles. We rented bikes and cruised through the park circling aournd two lakes and meandering through abanded churches and graveyards. The path along the lake was beautiful, surrounded by a lush woodland where a leprechaun would feel right at home. In fact, the day before we spotted a rainbow over the park so i'm sure there's got to be at least one leprechaun in there guarding his pot of gold!
After Killarney we caught the bus to Cork where we
stayed for three nights. The first night we went to the pubs with a big group from our hostel. The following night a few of us set out to find the french gypsie band i had seen a flyer for. Well, we didn't have very good directions so we ended up walking all round town: over rivers, up hills, down hills, through parks, until finally we hear some music playing at a pub. We decided that any music was better than none, so in we went! During our days in Cork we did a tiny bit of sight seeing but mainly went on daytrips out of town. One day we went to the Jameson Distillery where we toured the grounds and Conor became an 'Official Jameson whiskey taster.' Not only did he get the free serving of whickey at the end, he got to taste test Jameson with two other whiskeys. We ended up having a great time!! The next day we went to Blarney Castle where we explored the castle then got to kiss the Blarney Stone. The castle was by far the most impressive one we visited yet. It was still fairly intact, so we were able to
explore the mutliple levels and gaze out at the small town of Blarney from the castle top.
After Cork we set off for Tramore, a small beach town just south of Waterford. On this day there happened to be the big hurling championship between Waterford and Kilkenny. The best way I can describe hurling is a cross between lacrosse and rugby. Since this was the all Ireland finals, all the people of Waterford and surrounding towns were decked out in their jersey with faces painted ready to root on their team. All the towns in the county had massive amounts of flags and decorations up. While we were waiting for the bus in Waterford, I wandered around town a bit and found the sunday farmers market where they had set up a giant screen for the game. Our intentions was to drop our bags off at our hostel in Tramore then come back to watch the game on the big screen, but it didn't quite work out that way. It took us a bit longer to get to Tramore so instead we just went to a pub there with an aussie from out hostel. The pub was PACKED! Everyone was
wearing their white and blue and the place was crowded with men, women, children, and even grandparents! It was fantastic!!! Unfortunately the other team completed blasted Waterford out of the water, so people were a little disappointed.
We spent two nights in Tramore, which reminded me of a small australian beach town. There was a quirky charm to this town, perhaps it was from the amusement park right on the beach and the desserted arcades? We spent a day walking along the coast and discovered some really interesting swimming areas. One of them had a stairway down a rocky cliff to the water where there was a big cement platform with a diving board. It was a bit odd cause this place was out of town and there wasn't really anywhere to swim to. No nice beach to lay out on or anything of that sort!?! After Tramore we headed north to Kilkenny, a large town with a medieval feel to it. We checked out the multiple churches, old graveyards, tiny alleyways and even toured a modern day castle. It was amazing how many sights there were to see in such a compact area. We spent a couple days here
Jameson Tour
Impatiently waiting for the tour to start.... just wandering around town enjoying the small town feel before we moved onto Dublin...the big city!
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