On Sunday morning, Amanda and I got up earlier than normal, packed up, ate breakfast, and went out to the bus early to get a front seat. This was mainly because we were leaving Killarney for Galway, where Amanda spent the spring semester, and she was ecstatic to be going back to Galway one more time before returning to the U.S. (I'm not sure I have ever seen her quite so giddy!) I was a bit sad to leave Killarney, as it was one of my favorite places we had visited.Our first stop en route to Galway was Bunratty Castle (photo #1) which dates back to the year 1425. Bunratty is very different from Blarney, mainly because it has been restored to look similar to what it did when first built. There were several rooms, most of them furnished with period furniture, clothing, armor, etc. There were also several staircases that were extremely narrow, but the view from the top was really pretty (photo #2). I really enjoyed touring the castle, but I think I like Blarney better, simply because it is so rustic and original. After that tour was finished, we had lunch at the restaurant there. I ate the Seafood Chowder, which was amazing!! After lunch, we once again boarded our coach and took off for the Cliffs of Moher (pronounced mo-er). These cliffs make up a coastline of about 5 miles long, and they rise above the Atlantic Ocean at a staggering 700 feet. The view from these cliffs was absolutely breathtaking (photos #3 and #4)! Amanda had told me that the wind usually blows quite furiously at the top, but there was only a slight breeze that day. This was the first time I had ever been to any kind of cliffs before, and I loved it!We left the Cliffs of Moher to travel to Aillwee Cave (pronounced all-wee). This cave wasn't discovered until 1940 by a man named Jack McGann, and he didn't even tell anyone about it until 1973! We saw bear bones that date back about 1,200 years, a waterfall, stalactites, and stalagmites. I took a few pictures while in the cave, but none of them turned out very well. We left the Aillwee Cave to drive through The Burren, which is limestone region of Ireland. And even though the ground is very hard and rough, the wildflowers still manage to grow. To me, the Burren was very bleak, but also a very lovely part of Ireland (photo #5 is a view of the Burren from Aillwee Cave).We continued our travel through the countryside until we finally reached Galway. We had dinner at our hotel, and then Amanda took some of us down to the Crane Bar, one of her favorite spots in Galway. We had to take a cab, as our hotel was sort of out in the middle of nowhere (at least, it seemed like that). When we got into the cab, the little screen on the driver's side said something like "bunch of Americans"...nice :). When we got to the Crane Bar, we all ordered a drink and then sat and listened to some really good music. We stayed there until about midnight, and then took a cab back to the hotel where I promptly went to bed.
(I am sorry for the delay in my Ireland posts. I hope to finish up within the next week or so!)On Saturday, we awoke to a gloriously sunny day, which was perfect for our tour of the Ring of Kerry, Ireland's most popular scenic drive. We started in Killarney and went in an "anti-clockwise" (the British way to say "counter-clockwise") direction, ending up in the small village of Sneem. We made several stops along the way, mostly to gaze at and photograph the sheer beauty of Ireland. One place we stopped was the Kerry Bog Village (photo #1), where we toured actual dwellings of villagers from the early 1800s. It was here that some of us, including myself, went over to the Red Fox Inn to have some Bailey's Coffee :-). One of my favorite stops along the Ring of Kerry was to a sheep farm owned by an Irishman by the name of Brenden (photo #3). Brenden gave an amazing demonstration of how he and his two sheep dogs work together. Each dog has its own whistle commands, as well as verbal commands that they learn to follow. All Brenden has to do is give the commands, and the dogs know what to do. It's quite fascinating to see them work!I think that our last stop was a really cute little village called Sneem. Amanda and I walked around a little bit, and then went into a little shop to get a Bailey's ice cream cone...best ice cream ever! We left Sneem and headed back to Killarney to eat dinner at our hotel. After dinner, I went to Mass at Saint Marys with the Wahlmeiers and the rest of those in the group who are Catholic (which turned out to be pretty much everyone). That was the first time I had ever attended a Catholic service, and it was very interesting. The only thing they recited that I knew was the Lord's Prayer. I was going to say it with everyone, but the Irish talk so fast that they were half way done before I managed to say "Thy kingdom come"! After church, then some of us went to Danny Mann's again to hear music...and have a Bailey's (yes, that is the third time that word has appeared in this post!). The band that played that night was the Molly McGuires. They had a good sound, and sang some familiar songs, but their mics were sooo loud that it became a bit annoying by the time we left. 
I think that Friday was one of my favorite days in Ireland. We left our hotel that morning in Blarney and traveled to the 15th century Blarney Castle (photo #1). We arrived at the parking lot, went through the little gate where they collect your money, and then continued on to the castle. At that point, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, since Dublin castle hadn't been the most exciting place to visit, and most of the original castle is now gone (don't get me wrong, I liked it). When Blarney Castle came into view, I was almost ecstatic! That was really the fist castle I had ever seen, and I loved it immediately. We continued on to the base of the castle, where we entered through a door and began the ascent to the top. The stairways were so narrow, and there were many times when we would meet people going down as we were going up! When we reached the battlements at the top, we got in line to kiss the infamous Blarney Stone. This was so much fun! In order to kiss the stone, I had to lay on my back and then sort of bend over backwards while holding on to a rail (photo #2) They also have a guy up their who holds on to your legs so you don't fall...it's a straight drop down to the ground! I am usually pretty scared of heights, but I figured that I may only have this opportunity once, so I did it. The legend is that he/she who kisses the stone will be blessed (or cursed, however you want to look at it) with the "gift of gab", or eloquent and flattering speech. When someone has this kind of "gift", they are said to be "full of the Blarney". I have yet to figure out if it worked on me ;) After touring the castle, we ate lunch and did a lot of shopping at the Blarney Woolen Mills.We left Blarney Castle and journeyed to Killarney in County Kerry. We arrived at the Rivermere Hotel, took our bags to our rooms, and then went back outside to take a "jaunt ride" (photo #3). Kevin was our "jarvie", or driver, and we decided that he was definitely "full of the Blarney"! He had us rolling with laughter the whole time. Our jaunt ride took us through the beautiful Killarney National Park (photo #4), which covers 25,000 acres of Irish countryside (we did not tour the whole 25,000 acres). The ride was very peaceful and the weather was perfect. At the end of our ride, Kevin dropped us of at Ross Castle (photo #5), where we boarded a boat and took a ride on the Lower Lake, which is called Lough Leane (pronounced Lock Leen). The water looked black instead of blue, and the captain of the boat told us that was because the lake was 1/2 water and 1/2 Guinness :). When our tour of the lake and park was finished, we headed back to our hotel for a little bit of res before dinner. Again, dinner was mediocre, but I was hungry enough to eat it! After dinner, some of us walked down to Danny Mann's Pub to hear some really great traditional Irish music. Then, it was off to bed for another full day.
We left Dublin on Thursday morning to travel to Blarney with a few stops along the way. Our first stop was the Irish National Stud in Kildare, home to some of Ireland finest thoroughbreds. I really wasn't sure how interesting this would be to me, since I see horses quite often here in the States. But I was pleasantly surprised! These stallions were once champions on the race tracks, and they have also produced champion offspring (which is what determines the kind of fee that someone will pay to have their mare bred by a one of the stallions). If my memory serves me right, about 3,000 mares are brought to the farm every year to mate with the stallions. Our favorite "stallion", actually a pony, was Tommy the Teaser (photo #1). Tommy's has somewhat of a rotten job: he is there to help determine which of the mares are ready to mate. If he is placed next to a mare that responds to him, he is then taken (or rather dragged) back to his stall. Poor Tommy! But Dee, our wonderful guide at the farm, told us that they do bring ponies in for Tommy to play with :-) Also there at the Irish National Stud was a beautiful Japanese Garden that we walked through (photo #3).Our next stop was Cashel in County Tipperary to see the Rock of Cashel, which is a very old monastery that looks like a castle (photo #4). We didn't have much time here, so I wasn't able to walk all the way up to the site, but it was beautiful place. While we were there we ate lunch at a wonderful little place called The Rock Cafe where I had a Tuna and Sweet corn melt on Irish soda bread. It was absolutely delicious, and was one of the best meals I had on the whole trip.After lunch, we once again boarded the coach to continue our journey to Blarney, and made one more stop at a little port town called Cobh (pronounced "Cove"). Cobh was once known as Queenstown, but after Ireland gained independence from England in 1922, the Irish changed it back to it's original name. While in Cobh we toured the Queenstown Story, which is a museum that tells the history of Irish immigration to Canada, the U.S., and Australia. Just outside the museum entrance was a statue of Annie Moore (photo #5) an Irish girl who was the first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island, New York, at the age of 14. There was a really great display about the Titanic, which made a stop there before heading to New York; and there was also a display about the Lusitania, which sank near Cobh in 1915 after being struck by a German torpedo. There was a really nice little cafe in the museum, so many of us sat down to afternoon tea once we finished the tour.We left Cobh and finally reached our final destination, Blarney Golf Resort. This was the nicest place we stayed in Ireland, and I was sad that we only stayed one night! Once we arrived, we had about 2 hours before dinner would be served in our hotel, so we were able to just hang out in our rooms and rest. Our dinner was a bit more fancy than the previous nights, but there was no dessert there...I guess you either get a mediocre dinner with dessert, or a fancy dinner with no dessert! After dinner, Amanda, Sarah, Manda D. and I stayed down in the hotel bar for several hours, just talking and hanging out. After retiring to our rooms for the night, Amanda and I stayed up til about 2:30 am...not a smart thing to do, considering we had to be up by 7:00am! 
I awoke Wednesday morning to the sound of a ferocious wind howling outside of our hotel room. Really, I thought the trees were just going to fall over any second! After getting a nice shower, Amanda and I went down to have breakfast, which consisted of cereal, rolls with jam, coffee or tea, and juice. I had been in great anticipation of a rather hearty Irish breakfast, so the cereal was a bit disappointing. We then left our hotel to travel to downtown Dublin, where we met Sally, a local tour guide who took us on a "driving tour" of historic downtown Dublin. Some of the sights we saw included: lots of great Georgian architecture; the Ha'Penny Bridge that crosses the River Liffey (people used to pay a half penny to walk across it); a gigantic cross built for Pope John Paul II when he came to Dublin to say mass for over 1 million people in Phoenix Park in 1979 ; the location where Handel's Messiah was first performed in 1742; St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral; and the Guinness Brewery. My favorite place we visited Dublin was Trinity College. Trinity college was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. It is here that the famous Book of Kells kept in the Trinity College Library, which is the oldest research library in Ireland. The Book of Kells was written by Celtic monks around the year 800, and contains beautiful transcriptions of the Four Gospels. When I walked into the Library, it almost took my breath away! This library is lined floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves containing massive amounts of books. There are also ladders at each shelf that move back and forth on a track (just like "Beauty and the Beast!). It was the most spectacular library I have ever seen.After Trinity, our large group of 39 split up into smaller groups to go explore the city. It was lunchtime, and so Amanda took our small group to Leo Burdock's, a little fish and chips take out place. To borrow Amanda's expression, "The fish and chips combo is the size of a small child!" And she was right! After finishing lunch, we took a tour of Christ Church Cathedral, and we were able to go down into the crypt, which was really cool! We also toured Dublin Castle, which was a really neat place, and we got to see the room where the President of Ireland is inaugurated.After touring the city for a while, we got back on our coach to go eat dinner at a little Pub called Porto Bello, where the Irish were gearing up for a football (soccer) match between Manchester United and Barcelona. We had reserved seating for our group, and there were lots of Irish who were hovering over our tables, waiting for us to leave. I think we could have auctioned off our tables and made a lot of money!After dinner, we went back to our hotel for the night. Amanda, Manda D., and I went downstairs to the pub in our hotel to have a drink and watch the football fans go crazy while watching the game on t.v. It was sooo loud in there, we could hardly hear each other talk. I talked to a really nice Irish girl who was giving me tips on fun things to do in the different places we were going to be that week. We also met an obnoxious and quite drunk Irish guy who kept trying to get us to go down the street to the karaoke bar...we said no, of course. 
After about 9 hours of flying in various airplanes, I arrived in Dublin, Ireland, on Tuesday, May 26 at 10:30am. After going through customs and all that, I was greeted almost immediately by Amanda and Jane, my Kansas friends. I was delighted to see them! Most of the group had already arrived, but we were still waiting for one family, and they arrived about an hour after I did. We were then introduced to David, our lovely English tour guide (who turned out to be a most hilarious man!), and we headed straight outside to board the private coach that was to take us through Ireland for the next several days. We boarded the coach, and headed to a 5th century monastery called Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock). This was the first time I had ever seen the ruins of such an ancient place, and I was amazed that parts of it were still standing. There was also an amazing cemetery there, where thousands of people are buried beneath beautiful Celtic crosses. After walking through the cemetery and the other buildings of the monastery, we took a short little hike down to a beautiful lake, which was a great opportunity for pictures!
After our tour of Glendalough, we again boarded the coach and drove back into Dublin to the Abberly Court Hotel to get settled into our rooms and have dinner. I went to bed around 8:30 that night...the jet lag was beginning to take over, I think. That night, the wind picked up considerably, and I began to think we were in a hurricane...:) Enjoy the pictures, and stay tuned for Part 2!
In about an hour, I will be heading to the airport to leave on my 9 day trip to Ireland. What excitement! I spent most of yesterday evening packing, though I had done a good bit of packing all throughout the week. I was able to get everything in one bag (which is all I am allowed to take), and I am hoping it does not exceed the 50 lb. limit. My carry-on bag/purse consists of 2 books, my little Bible , my journal, a pen, some necessary toiletries (in case my luggage is lost), a change of clothes, a neck pillow, a jacket, my iPod, money, and my camera. I know I'll take plenty of pictures! I plan to journal the events of each day, and then blog each of those journal entries in 9 consecutive posts when I return (rather than try to fit everything into one gigantic post). Please pray for safe travels for all in our group, as many of us are arriving in Dublin from different parts of the U.S. To my family and friends...I will miss all of you and will be so glad to see you when I come home!
