Adventures In The Great Wide Somewhere: Day 2--Killarney, Ireland

April 20th, 2012

Irish Countryside

First day of the Shamrocker Tour! Woot woo! 13 girls and 1 guy, so the girls are runnin' the world on this one, thanks Beyonce. Thank goodness T and I condensed the weekend's luggage to a backpack adn duffel, my Mama is gonna be so proud of my conservative packing...if she ever believes it...

So our first stop was Abbey Leix. We had a 30 minute stop where we got a coffee and sat in the cafe. So adorable. Savour's was the name and I did exactly that with my caramel latte. So. Good. And we already made friends with two lovely ladies from Australia ("AUSTRALIA!!!!"--ANTM) named Lucy and Claire. If not aren't the two most adorable names, I don't know what are. So friendly and nice. I love Australians. In fact, most of our group is Australian, the accents are amazing, openly obsessed.

Cashel Castle

Anyways, after that little town we headed to Cashel castle where Queen Elizabeth visited recently. I guess it was the first time since 1901 that a ruling monarch visited Ireland. Fun fact of the day. Castle was beautiful. Rested on a hill overlooking the town. Love. I want a castle. *sigh*

Then we went to Blarney Castle!! The grounds were beautiful. They have a poison garden where right before we walked through I said to Teresa, 'Is this where they grow the Mandrakes?' which was a joke...oh, but wait a second, not 15 feet away under a metal cage is the sign explaining the Mandrake plant. How awesome am I? And the sign mentioned Harry Potter...double awesome! Next to that was Rue! What up, Hunger Games and Harry Potter!? Oh but hold on, there's more! Down a little farther was Wolfsbane...um, I didn't think that was real. Turns out it is. Holla!

The castle itself is epic. The stone entrances, the extremely narrow, spiral stone staircases were more than difficult, not to mention slightly scary, to walk up. They have a rope attached to the center to help you up and a metal railing to help you down. What the hell did these people do when the castle was actually inhabited?! There had to be mass casualties due to falling down stairs. I bet a lot of murder plots, too. Push your enemy down the stairs, oops they tripped! JK, I bet that only happened in Tudor England a la Robert Dudley's wife...poor Amy...

Blarney Castle

Anyways, when we got to the top, of course it was raining...eff. Oh well, our trip to the Blarney Stone was even better then. We had true Irish rain mixed with a little danger. But I did it! I kissed the Blarney Stone! *MUAH* and let me tell you, you really have to lean down and back, it is quite a ways to lean and suck face. Exhilarating, for sure! Quick lunch of fish and chips, go figure, and we were off to Killarney where we'll spend the night.

Oh yeah, forgot the other random fun fact. Blarney castle is in the town of Cork where actor Cillian Murphy is from! Random fun fact! Brilliant actor from this small little town? So cool.

So yeah, Killarney. Hostel is Neptunes. Super cute rooms. Got the top bunk, holla!...not... Reminds me of my Oshkosh days...can't say I miss it. Boo hiss to lofts and top bunks. So we settle in and then go for a walk to the National Park. Beautiful. Pictures cannot do this place it's justice. The scenery and landscape is gorgeous. This is what I pictured Ireland to be. Lush green hills and the countryside most definitely is just that. The sights we drove by were amazing! Walked around to town after that. Very cute, but every store closed at 6. Don't know what's up with that. There's a store called Blackthorn house I'll need to get a picture of in honor of the future Dark Artifaces Shadowhunter series...And I forgot...Eff.

So after a quick rest, we went to see Pa for good ole' fashioned Irish story telling...yeah, I could have done without that. He yelled randomly for no reason, I didn't understand what he was talking about half the time. Incoherent babbling. Not amused.

However, the bar afterwards, The Grand, made up for it ten-fold. Half was life music, the other half was a legit club. Bright strobe lights, pounding bass music and writhing bodies on the dance floor. Hell. Period. Yeah. Period. I felt like J-Woww comin' home to Karma. This was what I pictured when I said I wanted to party in every country we go to. After a few shots of baby Guinness' (thank you for telling us about that amazingness, tour guides) T, Lucy, Claire and myself lit up that dance floor. First song played...Call Me Maybe. To say T and I were excited is an understatement. Overall, they played good music. Niggas in Paris was also a fabulous highlight. Hell yes. We danced all night, so much fun! I felt bad for everyone in our group who wasn't there. Seriously. And standard, creepers gonna creep. We were stalked by the French Borat and some aggressive Irishmen, but besides that the night was a success with meeting a cute native who gave us each a kiss on the cheek. Parrying in Ireland-Check! Kiss from a local Irish boy-Check!