Ireland 2019

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When planning my trip to Ireland I didn't want to just go to Dublin, I wanted to visit a small town in Ireland so after some research I stumbled across a town called Killarney. Now that I knew where I was going it was time to look for a hotel to stay at. It was my mom and I going so we needed a places for both of us to stay. We came across the Park Place Apartments. It was about $80 USD a night for a two bedroom apartment, so this is the place we decided to stay at. We didn't know which airport we would fly into yet, since it's space available so we looked into how to get to Killarney from either airport, Shannon or Dublin. Shannon was closer but there was not a train you would have to take multiple buses to get there as where Dublin there was a train you took to get to Killarney. We were going in October so we knew the weather would be a little more cold and it would probably rain. so we packed accordinly. We left my town on a flight to Denver, then we would catch a flight to Newark. We got a hotel in Newark for the night, because our flight was the next day. We ended up deciding to fly into Dublin as there were plenty of seats and that flight left sooner. We flew on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and we were upgraded to Premium Plus! The flight took about 6.5 hours. The food on the plane was actually very good! We landed in Dublin airport and found our way to customs, then on to baggage claim. After grabbing our bags it was time to find how to catch the train, and this was an adventure in its self. After asking a few people we were able to find out where we were going. We had to train the public bus from the airport to the Husten Station which from there is where we caught the train that would take us to Killarney! The train ride was very nice, about a 3 hour trip, through the Irish countryside. After three hours we finally made it to Killarney. From the train station it was about a ten minute walk to our hotel. The hotel was in the middle of town at the end of the main street! You could see the whole main street from our window. When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by the front desk person, and she got us checked in. When she brought us to our apartment she said that they upgraded us to the penthouse suite. When we walked it it was beautiful; there was the hallway which you walked into and if you went to the left there was the kitchen and the sitting room area, with a high balcony are that went all around the whole apartment. When you went back into the hallway and went to the right there was the bathroom, and the two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms had a single bed and the other had a double bed. Because I am a great daughter I gave my mom the room with the double bed and I took the room with the single bed. After we settled and put our bags in our rooms we decided we should clean up and shower after the long journey to get there. We both took showered and got dressed and wanted to walk around the town. We wanted to grab something quick to eat so we went to the Burger King right down the street. It was sunny when we got there and wasn't to cold so it was a nice little walk. We walked around for awhile and went into some of the shops to see what they had to offer. After walking around for awhile we grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel for some sleep! The next day we wake up and got ready and wanted to walk and see all the churches in the town. We went to three of them and they were in a kind of triangle around the city so that made it easy to walk around to them. We grabbed some lunch and went to more shops, as well as going to the market to get some snacks to bring back to the hotel for the night. Everything closed early in town so we were back to our hotel by 8pm, but the town it pretty to walk around at night. When we got back to the hotel we looked up things to do for the next day and we found this on and off tour bus that took you to the things outside of the city like the Ross Castle, the Torc Waterfall, the Muckross House and the Muckross Abbey, which was about 12 euro per adult! the first stop on the tour was the Ross castle, you had two options here, you could stay for two hours and do the tour of the house or you could just walk to the castle take a pick and get back on the bus, which is what we did. The next stop was the Torc Waterfall, which again you could stay and hike for a few hours or go and take a photo and get back on the bus which is what we did again. From where there the bus parked to the waterfall it was about a 3 or 4 minute walk, so it did't take very long. The last stop on the trip was the Muckross house and Abbey. The bus dropped you off in front of the gift shop and cafeteria building and the Muckross house was right behind that. The abbey was about a mile away from the house which you either had to walk to or you could pay and take the horse and carriage. We walked, and honestly it was a nice walk. When you get the abbey it kind of had a creepy feel to it. Its more like ruins, but you can still go inside and there are still rooms and stairs. In the center of the abbey there is a large courtyard which this huge tree that grows through it, and creepy as it was it was also beautiful. The outside of the abbey was a graveyard full of headstones. We stayed and walked around the abbey for about an hour, then we made our way back to the Muckross house. It was raining pretty hard on our walk back so it wasn't as enjoyable as the walk there. When we got back to the main area we wanted some lunch so we went to the cafeteria. They had a lot of options for food and I got the lasagna, and honestly it was very good. After lunch we went to the gift shop and looked around for awhile. We decided not to do the tour of the Muckross house, as we didn't think we would have enough time to do that because the bus would be coming back soon. Once the bus came back we got on and headed back into town. It was a long day and we had to get up early to head to the airport to catch our flight home. so wr made our way back to the hotel to pack and get some rest. Killarney really was a treasure and I would recomened anyone to visit if you get the chance. I for sure would love to go back and see what else the area has to offer.

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Photos

Muckross Abbey
The front of the Muckross Abbey

Ross Castle
The Ross Castle

Killarney
The view from our hotel window.