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Published: July 20th 2015
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Well, sad start of the day lol. I had shuttle bus issues (i.e. I was impatient... and I misjudged how long to wait not knowing if it was the right stop... etc etc.) So instead of the 10h45 bus, I had to wait until noon. Ended up working out well though. I met a couple from San Fran, who both happen to be teachers, so lots of discussion there.
And once again the driver was great - they're just so much fun here haha everything becomes a joke. Someone had parked in the clearly marked bus loading zone... so... our bus driver parked the bus anyway and blocked the car in. Since we weren't scheduled to go for another 10 min or so, he waited until the car driver came back, said 'sorry you shouldn't be there' and then went for a coffee and took his keys, leaving us with a great show as the car driver screamed after him and ended up having to try and drive along the sidewalk to get out.
The drive to Muckross wasn't very far, but we saw a field of red deer. So pretty. The driver was telling us how they're reintroducing
eagles to the area, so the crow is no longer big man on the hill. This led into the comparison of crows to city folk = they both live on burgers and chips lol. Also apparently learned local slang - "that's savage" = "that's brilliant".
Muckross was quite nice. Originally I wasn't too gung-ho to visit inside (I hate paying to see inside a house. It's a house. And by in large once you've seen in one old house... they're all pretty much the same.) But, everyone I ran into from Cork to here in Killarney told me I had to go... so I did. Like I said, inside was nice. There were some unique pieces and I will admit this house was different enough that it was worth admission. I did quite enjoy that you could see the difference in the downstairs/upstairs as well - oh, the thoughts of Downton Abbey. And most of the pieces in the house were the actual originals rather than replicas - so that was fascinating to hear about. Also interesting to hear about how the estate was donated to the Gov't with the caveat that it become a national park, and interesting
to see the rooms where Queen Victoria stayed during her visit way back when.
Afterwards I went for a walk around the gardens which were ok. If anything, I loved their giant tall trees more than the flowers. It was also interesting to see some more giant rhubarb - it truly is enormous, well over 3 ft. Next I went down for a walk along Muckross lake - same lake I cruised yesterday. It looked a lot more sombre today - a lot more cloud cover so the water wasn't as blue and the greens weren't as crisp.
I misjudged the temperature today which is a stupid mistake after the amount of time I've spent in Ireland and the UK, ahem, so I was quite a bit chilled walking along the lake. I didn't go quite as far as I normally would have simply because I was already cold and I knew if (ha, when*) it started to rain I'd be an icicle. Sure enough just as I got back into Killarney it started to rain.
On my way back to the shuttle I saw an interesting sign - they have a list of 10 breeds of
dog that were only allowed in the park if they are muzzled, on a short leash and are being walked by someone over the age of 16. Very strange.
Tomorrow I'm off to my next stop. We'll see how the weather is up there because I'm planning more hiking. Fingers crossed but not too hopeful 😉
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