Tuesday, September 29, 2009

250th Guinness Anniversary, Killarney, and Ring of Kerry


The tunnel to the waterfalls


The beautiful waterfalls in the National Park


Whew, we biked a couple miles to the National Park where Muckross House was!


Muckross House on the outside....we weren't allowed pictures on the inside


My first "Hostel Experience"  It was great!  Who can complain at 6 Euros a night?


Me at Ladies View...this is where Queen Victoria's Ladies in Waiting decided the best view in Ireland was.  


We visited Sneem!!!  They won the Tidy Towns Competition in 1987...too bad there were two Heineken bottles next to the sign:)



Adorable family at the beach...the water was about 40F


A round fort



Daniel O'Connell's old place, he's the liberator of Ireland


Me in front of the Atlantic!  Twas a gorgeous day:)


My first Irish Coffee



Downtown Killarney







Sorry, here's my first blog in over a week!!!  I've been so bogged down with readings and group projects and, of course, traveling!!!  

So last Thursday was the 250th Anniversary of Guinness.  It's the celebration of the day when Arthur Guinness put the 9,000 year lease down on the brewery for not very much money...great deal!

Friday my roommates and I took a 6 hour bus journey to Killarney.  It was a magical town!  We at dinner in a cute pub and the food was excellent.  Then we found our hostel and had a good night's sleep.  Saturday morning we set out on our bus tour of the Ring of Kerry!  It's a peninsula on the southwest part of Ireland.  In total we saw Killarney, Killorglin, Glenheigh, Kells, Cahersiveen, Waterville, Caherdaniel, Sneem, Moll's Gap, and Ladies View.  It was such a beautiful day with great weather!!!  We basically rode the bus around the whole day and stopped in these places for pictures and shopping.  

On Sunday we rented bikes in town and rode out to the National Park near Killarney.  I was really worried because I seriously haven't ridden a bike since my accident in 2nd grade...there were scabs in my school picture that year.  Granted, my roommate, Mariel, has more reason to be terrified of bicycles because she has braved three accidents in total.  As she described them to me I felt like my one accident on that gravel rode was so insignificant compared to her experiences.  But the old saying about stuff coming back to you prevailed and I escaped the day with one minor scourge:  I was standing beside my bike and it fell over on my foot.  We biked to the waterfalls in the park to take pictures.  Then we took a tour of Muckross House.  It was an amazing old Victorian home.  It has had three different owners including a couple from California.  They ended up giving the house to their daughter when she married an Irish man.  I would love to get a house for a present!  It was sad we weren't allowed to take pictures in the house, so I have none to show you.  There was a Waterford crystal chandelier in every major room downstairs!  The library has a great collection of books ranging from Encyclopedia Britannica to Charles Dickens.  Queen Victoria even visited the occupants of Muckross in her time.  They had a special part of the house for her including her bedroom, bathroom, and sitting area.  We didn't have time, but you could have also toured the farm and gardens of this estate.  All in all it was a very enjoyable first weekend away from Dublin.  It felt good to get out of the city and visit the country.  The people really are different there, very nice.  We'll see what Cork brings this coming weekend!  

No comments:

Post a Comment