Bunratty/Killarney/Waterford in 3 days? you bet!

Well hello!  It's been awhile since I've posted so this one could be a bit long!  but enjoy!

Wednesday night, a bunch of us went back to An Spailpin Fanac, the pub with traditional music and enjoyed the night once again!  It was great!  Then, the weekend started:

On Thursday, our class took a trip to Bunratty castle and folk park!  It was great to see what we have somewhat learned in class in action!  The castle was pretty astounding.  Full of getting to know some more people, seeing some crazy things in the castle, and being thankful for my home today!  There was one older woman in an old shop along the "reconstructed" market street that basically summed up our class up to that point in her life!  haha...she talked about growing up on a farm in Ireland in the late 30s and 40s.  She talked about her brothers and sisters getting on a ship to go to New York when they were 13, her mom and dad making "matches" for her and her sisters, and living with no electricity and all that good stuff!  The one comment she made that really stuck was this simple statement: "We were poor, but we didn't know it! So we loved life"  She was soo high on life and smiled constantly!  It was a great day that was topped off with a very nice meal paid for by our teacher (well technically we paid for it but you know..) at a nice restaurant!  We were all very hungry and it tasted amazing!! All in all a great day!

Pretty sure the early Irish were very short!

Kitty

Friday was quite amazing as well!  My friend Elena and I headed off to Killarney National Park at about 9 in the morning!  It was great getting to know her even more.  She is a very down to earth neat person who shares my love for service and God in general!  We decided at the end of the day that we are very glad to be friends!  We arrived in Killarney at about 11 and then we had to figure out exactly where we were.  We eventually figured out that we were a good 2 miles away from the national park so we started walking!  It was a long walk but we were so pumped and motivated seeing the mountains in the background!  Once we got to the park, we kept walking on the trails and it was gorgeous.  The amount of diversity in the trees and landscape in general was ridiculously gorgeous!  The trail poked itself out to the lakeside every once in awhile so we took advantage of those views! 

After about another mile or two of walking and climbing trees, we reached Muckross house!  An absolute mansion of a place right on the lake viewing the mountains.  SOOO beautiful! 

Then, we continued on to Torc Waterfall - even more magnificent - the pictures simply don't do it justice!

After that, we decided to continue around the lake to Dinnish cottage.  Little did we know how far it was!  Along the way, there was literally maybe two other people!  Once we got there, we got some much needed food and water and truly lucked out!  There was a boat service back across the lake to the Muckross house!  Woohoooo, we were soo happy because otherwise it would have been an extremely long walk back.  That at least cut it in half! 

Foooooood!

Boat ride back! ahhh relaxing!

After we got back to town, we walked around some more just to see the city a bit and got some ice cream!  It was an absolutely wonderful day!

Naughton's have a B&B in Killarney apparently!

Now, for yesterday:  Waterford = the oldest city in Ireland!

The travel group this time was a bit bigger but great!  There were about 8 of us I think!  The day consisted of: checking out Reginald's tower, one of the remaining city wall towers from the 9th century.  Most of the city walls are still in place too! 

Then, we checked out the Waterford crystal museum which was pretty amazing.  It was very neat going through the tour and seeing how they make the crystal! 

pocket change?

On our way back to the bus, we went to "Ireland's #1 historical museum".  It was a very neat museum that went through the city's entire history.  I learned a lot about the Vikings and the kings and queens.  However, we probably would have liked it more if we weren't soo extremely tired.  But all in all another great day!

Last night actually turned out to be a tough night after doing fantasy football with the fam!  I just got extremely homesick and still am a bit today...so im trying to figure out why and work on changing that! :)  But, went to church again this morning at St. Vincent's and there was a bit more of singing from a choir today.  And, I got lured into playing piano next Sunday I believe! haha...the normal choir directors are out of town for a few weeks so they need some help.  I'm supposed to call this one woman about what night would work best to practice this week soo yeah we will see how that goes.  Today has been slow - just putting up pictures, getting groceries, and now about to skype some friends!  I'm ready to go back to class tomorrow!  Alright more to come soon! sorry for the length of this post!  peace!