Forty Shades of Green

Before take-off from London for Ireland: a huge full rainbow!

We took it as a good sign ;)

Monday evening we arrived in Cork, Ireland where we were picked up by a taxi service provided by the hostel we'd picked.  Turns out that our friendly driver, Kevin, is the brother of Tracy, the woman who runs the hostel.  They are extremely hospitable and generous people and they really set the tone for the rest of our trip in Ireland.  Oh, and their accents were aaaamazing! I actually had quite a hard time understanding them if they spoke too quickly.  They also use some words differently over there.  For example, to say that something is "dear" is to say that it is expensive.  Also, the word "gorgeous" can be used to describe good food.  We went to a local burger place for dinner that night (...and the night after that, it was so good haha!) and then located a nice local pub to have our official first pints of Guinness.  The pub is called Mutton Lane Pub and we went there all three of the nights that we were in Cork.  We made friends with the bartender and sampled all of his recommendations.  A favorite for us was brandy and Bailey's.  Mmmmm! I also took a liking to hot whiskey and discovered that Murphy's is better than Guinness.  It's also a Cork beer, so I was certainly in the right place to take a liking to it!


On Tuesday we visited the Blarney Castle.  It was beautiful, and after a treacherous climb up a narrow spiral staircase, we made it to the top and kissed the Blarney Stone! It was a slightly acrobatic experience, but well worth the back-bend.

Blarney Castle

Kissing the Blarney Stone with the help of the man who has

probably been doing this job for at least 30 years.

I have now received the gift of eloquence!

The Wishing Steps.  According to Blarney legend, the Witch of Blarney

steals firewood from the castle to make her fire every night.  

In exchange for being able to steal the firewood, she is obligated to 

grant the wish of anyone who walks down and up these stairs with 

their eyes closed.  You have to think of your wish the whole time you're 

walking the steps, which is not all that easy considering that, after a while, 

you start to wonder when the steps are going to end!

Sitting above the Witch's Kitchen where the Blarney Witch 

lights her fire every night.  I can't remember exactly what she's 

warding off, but something is after her in the night.  During the day 

she is trapped in a stone that looks like a witch's face.

The Blarney House

This tree immediately struck my fancy :)

We ate in a pub across the road from Blarney Castle.

I had bacon and cabbage--a traditional and delicious 

Irish dish. After eating, I went up to the bartender to enquire 

after the bus schedule back to Cork.  Somehow I got into a 

conversation with a man that was sitting at the bar, 

and I asked him what he was drinking.  It was at that moment 

that I was introduced to Murphy's, and this very nice and fascinating 

poor farmer bought me a glass.  I. Love. Irish. People.

Wednesday was our last day in Ireland and we spent it on an amazing 100-mile tour of the Ring of Kerry.  The Ring of Kerry is a peninsula in County Kerry in the south west part of the island.  This was a wildly appropriate place for me to go since the next day was my sister, Kerry's, birthday! Everything about this day was fantastic.  The weather started out very foggy, but I wasn't expecting much different! By the end of the day it has cleared up considerably and we saw some beautiful views.  I ate Shepard's Pie for the first time and THE BEST apple pie and cream that I have EVER had in my life.  Ever.  Our tour guide was very informative and played traditional Irish music for us as we drove through the countryside.  We started and ended in the town of Killarney, which is about two hours west of Cork.  Along the way we stopped at key points for photos and visited the town of Waterville, where Charlie Chaplin frequently went fishing and where three of his daughters have summer homes now.  Near the end we stopped at Ladies View (named after Queen Victoria's ladies in waiting because they picked that spot for a picnic for Her Majesty when she visited Killarney) and drove through the gorgeous Killarney National Park.  My camera was out of memory that day, so all of the following photos are thanks to my friend Chrissy and her amazing camera and photography skills.

The Atlantic coast

Charlie Chaplin's statue in Waterville

The Alexander crest and the history of the name. 

Shepard's Pie

This guy was ba-ing at us pretty incessantly.  I tried a little Ba-Ram-Ewe

on him, but I don't think my accent was quite right.

Moll's Gap

The lovely photographer :)

Ladies View

Note the nice Irish wool sweater.

We of course explored Cork a bit too.  It's a very small city situated mainly on an island in the River Lee.  It's a colorful place and a wonderful location if you want to see other cool towns and sites that are in the south of Ireland.

The main street in Cork: St. Patrick Street

The official language of Ireland is actually Irish, which is 

a form of Gaelic.  All children learn it in school, but only a very 

small percentage of the population actually speaks it.  You must be 

fluent in Irish in order to have a civil service job though.

Ireland was absolutely beautiful, and I could have stayed there the entire week and been perfectly happy.  Of all the places that I have visited in Europe so far, I want the re-visit Ireland the most.  Second on that list (and a very close second) would be Germany.  There is so much more than Berlin, but I had such an amazing time while I was there, I just know I would enjoy myself anywhere in that county.  I also really like the German language a lot more than I expected to.

So, hopefully this is not the last time I will see beautiful Ireland with her forty shades of green, lovely people, castles on the side of the highway, plethora of sheep, and of course, rainbows!