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Update From Limerick

So I haven’t posted nearly as often as I wanted to. Internet cafes are a bit hard to come by when you’re staying in campsites, and jaunting around the country-side looking at every castle, church, or ruin that comes our way.

It’s been a blast so far, and I’ll try to go thru a quick recap (and add links and photos in when I get back).

Day 1: Dublin

Aer Lingus (or United, according to them) lost Chris’ clothes bag, and said they’d deliver it to our hostel later. That never happened, and last we heard they had no idea where the bag was. The rental car was way more expensive than we originally thought it was going to be (insurance is something like 27 euro per day, which credit cards don’t cover when you’re in Ireland like they do when you’re in the States).

So we drove downtown, parked in a garage near the hostel, and set out to see Trinity College and the Book of Kells. Then we hit the National Museum of Ireland, walked a bunch more around town, then back to the hostel at around 3-4pm and everyone fell asleep.

Day 2: Dublin

Saw The Spire, which was part of the Milennium project. Walked by Temple Bar, then visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Amazing building. Then it was off to see Dublin Castle, and then down to the Guinness Brewery. Great trip thru there, lovely view from the top (the inside of the brewery is shaped like a pint glass, but it’s hard to explain). Then we saw the Dublin City wall and gates (from 1240ad) and headed back to the car and drove down to Wicklow.

Day 3: Wicklow

Powerscourt Gardens & Waterfall (very nice), then thru Sally Gap, Glenmacnass Waterfall, Glendalough Abbey (supposedly “romantic ruins” really weren’t), then to Fethard-on-sea for our campsite.

Day 4: New Ross

Saw a reproduction of a boat that took people from Ireland during the Potato Famine, then Jerpointe Abbey, the Waterford Crystal Factory, then bought the best strawberries evar from the side of the road, then Lismore Castle, then our campsite for the night at Blackwater Valley in Fermoy (best campsite evar!). We finally ate at a pub that night; Charlie Brown’s!

Day 5: Cahir Castle

Drove back to Lismore Castle (the lighting had been bad for photos the prior afternoon), then to Cahir Castle (which was awesome), and then the Rock of Cashel (also awesome), and finally Mitchelstown Caverns, before driving back thru Fermoy into Cork to stay at Jasmine Villas Caravan park.

Day 6: Sunday

I guess everyone is in church on Sunday morning, or nursing hangovers, because everything was closed until 11am in Cork! We managed to find breakfast, then drive to Fota Wildlife Park (lots of cheetahs!), then to Blarney Castle, but I was the only one who kissed the stone (everyone else was grossed out), then we met up with friend-of-a-friend Peter for pints at the Franciscan Well (an out-of-the-way pub that brewed their own beer, good stuff). Then we grabbed some Dominos Pizza, and headed to the campsite.

Day 7: Cork Peninsula

Mizen Head lighthouse, and then thru Healy Pass (where we stopped at least twice to climb the hills on the side of the road), then down a dodgey road on the Beara Peninsula (at some point we had to pull over to let a herd of cattle pass by us on the road). We stopped at some sea cave/tunnels, where Chris N. jumped into the (freezing) North Atlantic. We ended up at the Dursey Island cable car, which was making it’s last trip back for the day, and I tried to get trampled by a herd of sheep being chased by a sheepdog. That night we stayed at Hungry Hill, and ate (and drank) at the pub attached to the campsite (or vice-versa).

Day 8: Kilarnee

Headed BACK over Healy Pass for some more photos (and to let me drive the fun and windy road), then north to Kilarnee National Park, where we rode in a jaunting car (Irish Draft Horses are big), saw lots of butterflies, and I made everyone go on a long hike around the lake there (the signs lied about the distance, but we read somewhere that it was around an 8 mile hike, even tho the signs said it was only 11km). Saw an old weir bridge, Torc waterfall, and shopped at the gift shop. Then we drove to Kerry and stayed at Anchor Caravan Park.

Day 9: Limerick

Which brings us to today. We’re in Limerick to visit the ATMs and get Internet access. From here we head up to the Cliffs of Moer, and stay on the south side of Galway Bay. Tomorrow we’re supposed to try to meet up with Nohea and Dawn’s parents, but we’ll see.

Till next time, cheers!

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