Dev & Sean Abroad

Once again, I've got a lot to update you all on since my last post.

On Friday, the 27th, we did end up exploring the old tower/ early lighthouse that Sean was interested in. It was quite a walk up to the tower, but was well worth it. To get to the tower, you have to cross through a farmer's field which is full of sheep and some cows. It was really cool to be so close to the animals, although the cows did freak me out. The tower is called Eask tower, btw.

After exploring the tower, we headed back to town to grab some food and ice cream of course!

The following day, we hoped on the car ferry and headed towards Doolin for the night. We got to see the Cliffs of Moher, which are gorgeous but you have to pay to park, so that's gay. They'll do anything for your money! Inside the visitors center, there is a lot of cool dislplays showing how they formed and such.

After the Cliffs, we headed to our B&B, where we met Susan Daly, our hostess! Nicest lady in Ireland. She was really into talking to us and made us feel at home right away. Doolin, however, was sort of a let down for us. We just didn't really enjoy it for some reason. You can take a ferry to the Aran Islands from Doolin, but the weather was too chilly for us. The following day, we explored the Doolin Caves and the Burren instead. Those both were really enjoyable on our way to Galway.

Once at Galway, we checked into out hotel, The Clayton. We really didn't do much in Galway because most things were closed since we were there on Sunday and Monday. We did enjoy some lazy days there though, and I stocked up on Mint Kit Kats as well.

Tonight, it's the 31st of May and we're back in Dublin. We fly out to Paris tomorrow, and I'm ready to leave Ireland behind. The weather was crummy, but I heard that's the norm. It's supposed to be about 20 degrees warmer in France. Ireland was beautiful however, and the people were the most enjoyable part of Ireland besides the landscape. Hopefully, I'll be better about updating this thing! (:

Wow, I've got a lot of ground to cover since I last posted.
On the 22nd, We left Cork for Blarney Castle. It was a very short drive from the city, maybe 8 km. We were both excited because we actually were going into a Castle for once, not just taking pictures from the outside of it. I was also pretty pumped about kissing the Blarney Stone.

We climbed up tons of stairs, in a very cramped space. So if you don't like being in tight spaces, you might want to pass on kissing the stone at the top.

At the top, it's more open. It's very windy tho, so hold onto your hat if you're wearing one. They take professional pictures of you kissing the stone that you can buy at the gift shop, in case your camera misses the moment. I ended up buying mine ( 10 Euros, yikes ) because my camera acted up on Sean. But I have one of me right before that's on my computer I can show you.

After Blarney, we backtracked about an hour to Cashel to see the Rocks. It was beautiful, but I had expected it to be more of ruins than a church. I really hadn't looked into it though beforehand.

Sean found some other ruins in the distance, so we journeyed over there for a few minutes, before heading to Kenmare via the most nauseating roads ever. I've been taking Dramamine ever since then before car rides.

Once in Kenmare, we arrived at the Coachman's Hotel & Pub where we checked in, enjoyed a nice dinner, and watched some local Irish music.
There was wifi, but for some reason it wouldn't work. The next day was pretty lazy. We ran up to the local grocery store and stocked up on some snacks. I had my first mint kit kat. I'm officially addicted. We got some food from a hot dog stand for lunch, and then for dinner, we once again ate at the Coachman's and listened to music.

Our last full day in Kenmare was spent touring The Ring Of Kerry. It was very beautiful and the weather wasn't too bad.

The views of the Atlantic were breathtaking and crazy to drive so close to! There were some lovey beaches along the way and we stopped at a few of the landmarks on the drive. We didn't pay to enter anything though. It took about 4-5 hours, and we had a cheap dinner and prepared to leave for Dingle the next morning.

The drive to Dingle took about an hour and a half from Kenmare. The weather was super windy and it rained as well. Once there, we were pretty hungry so Sean grabbed some Fish and Chips (it was National Fish and Chips Day, :P ), and I had a warm bowl of vegatable soup! Then we set off to find our B&B. It was easy to find, and it's really lovely here. Our room overlooks the Dingle Bay here at Emlagh Lodge. We enjoyed a very delicious, and somewhat expensive, dinner at The Old Smokehouse.

Thursday morning, we woke up and enjoyed a nice breakfast here at the B&B. We set off at about 1pm to explore the Dingle Peninsula. It's a shortned version of the Ring of Kerry you could say. We enjoyed it a bit more than the Ring of Kerry because we found a few spots you could get out and explore.

Slea Head

A view from some rocks we climbed to the top of.

After the drive, we picked up our clothes from a laundry place and grabbed some dinner. The rest of the day was spent relaxing together in our room and watching some TV.

Today it's Friday and we're not sure what we'll be doing. We just had some breakfast and will probably sleep another hour or so. There's an old rock lighthouse across the bay that Sean has been dying to go explore.. so we'll most likely see that and then enjoy some Irish music tonight. I'll update you all later.

Today we were in Cork the entire day. It rained the whole time we were out. Thankfully the jacket I brought had a hood, but it wasn't much protection since the jacket is entirely cotton. It worked out okay however. We didn't take any pictures because I didn't want the camera getting wet. We didn't do anything to really take pictures of anyway. We woke up and enjoyed the breakfast here at the B&B. Then, we decided to have a lazy day and slept in til about 2. We still haven't completely adjusted to the time here. We then headed to town and just walked along the roads looking for an umbrella and some food. Tomorrow we leave Cork for good. We are going to visit Blarney Castle and kiss the stone! Then we'll backtrack to the Rock of Cashel since we missed it because of the Queen. After that, it's off to Kenmare for three days! We're using it as a basis point for exploring the Ring of Kerry. Being in the car is pretty stressful here, mainly because it's a rental and the deductible is 1000 Euros.. and also because of the tiny roads and driving on the opposite side. Hopefully, we can see past all that and enjoy the beautiful Ring of Kerry in the next few days! I'm hoping it won't rain that much. We're excited because for once, our hotel in kenmare is in the heart of the city center. We won't have to walk so far to get to see places AND there's a pub on the bottom floor with traditional Irish music! We've been in Ireland for 5 days and have yet to go to a pub! We're looking forward to that for sure. We might have to pay for internet there though, so if it's too expensive, we won't be getting on for a few days. We'll keep you posted. Miss everyone back home.

The queen is gone, hooray!
No disrespect to her, but she's really been screwing up our travel plans. We couldn't visit the Rock of Cashel today because she was there. So I suppose we'll go back and visit that either tomorrow (well really today because it's nearly 2 am here) or Sunday. We're currently in Cork, and it's gorgeous! It has a big shopping center in the city center and hills everywhere. Lots of walking = bad on my hurt foot, but I did go out and buy some actual tennis shoes today. Maybe that'll help. I threw the grey ones I brought away. So long crap shoes with NO arch support whatsoever. Anyways, here's some pictures of what we got to drive through today.

Jealouss? We're going to Blarney Castle in the next day or two to kiss the stone! I'm excited. Oh and today the world is supposed to end. :P Goodbye cruel world!

What. A. Day.
To start off, we got totally lost on our way to the rental car location this morning! What was meant to be a 20 minute walk, turned into a 45 minute walk. I expected that however. Then, to make matters even worseee.. somewhere along the way to the rental car place we set down our bag.. which had my hard rock shotglasses, shirts, our umbrella, my sweatpants, and my Guiness shotglass all inside. So for someone in Dublin, Christmas came early. It's not that bad I guess.. since we'll be coming back to Dublin on our last day in Ireland. But still, wtf. On the brightside, we didn't have to pay the young driver's fee for our car! The guy caught it at the last second and said not to worry about it because we had already paid. Bam. Saved that 150 Euros. Here's a look at our car ! Isn't it adorable?

The queen interfered with our travel once again! It's almost as if she's going the exact same way we are. Today we could barely get to Kilkenny because most roads were blocked off. Took us an extra two hours to get there. Once we did arrive, we walked around the town for a few hours. It's very medieval looking. I really love the cottage look of the houses here. They are gorgeous! My foot has been giving me a lot of trouble today tho. The bottom part of it hurts to walk on, so I've been limping around. Sexyy! Tomorrow we're off to Cork. I think the queen is headed that way too, joy!

Because the Queen is in town, a lot of things were closed in Dublin today. Firstly, the hop on hop off bus tours were closed. We spent most of our time walking around getting lost, but that was fun. The castle was also closed, so we're going to try to see that on our last day in Ireland. What's most noticable here is the wind and amount of tourists. I've heard about every language possible in the span of today! We also got to see the Queen drive by us. That was unexpected, but fun nonetheless. Here's some pictures of the day!

We started off towards the Hard Rock Cafe. That's what's most important afterall! :P

Then we went to Dublinia's Viking World. It was fun and interesting!

We wandered around and made a visit to the Guiness Storehouse.

We ended the day with a nap and some McDonald's.
Tomorrow we pick up the car and head to Kilkenny!