Navigating Through the Countryside

This past weekend I took my first trip out of Limerick with Laura, Michelle, and Katrina (an awesome mix of Boston and Canada). We took a bus out Saturday morning, and the adventure began there.

Random aside that the above picture reminded me of: almost everything official in Ireland (like road signs) is written in two languages: English and Irish (Gaelic). Irish is the official national language, and it is compulsory for students to take it for twelve years in school. I haven't met many people who are completely fluent though since only certain regions speak Irish as the primary language.

So, back to the trip: driving through Ireland is much different than in the US. Towns are very distinct; you know when you leave one town and enter another, and the area in between is only lightly populated. Being on a tour bus is a really strange experience. Since most of the buildings are quite small compared to US standards, I quite literally felt like an invader each time we entered a new town. About half way through the ride, an older woman sat behind Laura and I and started talking to us. And asking us questions. And then talking about her family in the US. And then asking us more questions. And then telling us more about her family. And then asking if we had boyfriends. And then asking some of the questions she started with. She was nice, but it went on for a really long time.

Once we got into Killarney, we found our hostel with some help from a University of Limerick alum we happened upon, and then set out to explore the town a bit.

It's brightly colored and a bit touristy, but it was quaint and picturesque as a result. We walked to the edge of town to explore Ross Castle, which is right inside Killarney National Park. It is literally a castle on a lake in a well-cared for forest with mountains in the background. We had some fun taking lots of pictures that will never do justice to seeing it in person.

One really nice thing about traveling with friends: they don't mind taking pictures of you:

But other people usually don't mind either:

We went back into town for dinner and tea, and then went out to a pub that we thought was going to have live music. We didn't get a chance to hear much music because not too long after we settled in, some middle-aged Irish men (who had already had already consumed an undetermined amount of drink) became much more friendly than we were comfortable with. When one of them proposed to Laura, we quickly finished our pints and high-tailed it back to the hostel.

Sunday we all went to Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, which is an awe-inspiring Gothic building.

It was fun to people-watch: there were lots of older women in tweed skirts and sensible heels and very few young people, so we stuck out more than...I can't think of a good analogy (mild sleep deprivation does that to a person). Anyway, the only major difference between Mass here and in the US is that everyone said the prayers really, really quickly. And not really in unison either, which almost made me laugh a couple times, but I resisted.

So after that we went out the Muckross House, an amazing estate that is beautifully decorated since Queen Victoria stayed there for two days.

The owners of the house prepared for six years for a two day visit. I'm warning any potential visitors right now: I will not spend six years redecorating my (hypothetical) house/apartment in preparation for a visit from any of you. Sorry.

The view from the house was stunning, and we had a beautiful, sunny day:

Since the house is part of Killarney National Park, we spent some time walking through some nature trails to find a waterfall. We almost turned back since we were afraid of going too far, but luckily we didn't! The view was beautiful, and is probably my favorite natural scenery that I've seen so far in Ireland (which is saying a lot because most everything here is beautiful).

We then spent an hour (yes, a full hour) walking back into town (to save the taxi fare). We picked up our bags from the hostel, grabbed some lunch, and jumped on the bus back to Limerick. It was such a good weekend that as soon as we got home, we planned our next two: first Galway, then London!