Hello there U.S.! Today we are in Blarney, Ireland! We are staying at some beautiful and now WET campgrounds about 2 km from the Blarney Castle. I believe that I left off somewhere in Killarney so that is where I will continue. That morning after we had our first real Irish breakfast we decided to do some local hiking. Right down the road from us was the Torc waterfall (I'm sure I have the name completely wrong, I don't have any maps laying in front of me.) It was a little drizzly when we were hiking but it didn't seem to cause any problems, just some slippery parts in the hike. The waterfalls were pretty, nothing HUGE. We did the whole photo op and then proceeding to hike a little farther up the mountains for some views and fresh air. The altitude was killing both of us so we decided to call it quits and head down to the parking lot and try something else. That is when we decided to go see what the "Muckross Estate" hype was about. Nothing too special either, we decided to just look from the outside and walk along the trails that went down by the lake, gorgeous views down there. We decided to stop for lunch in their little café they had on sight. It actually wasn't that bad, or even expensive. We shared a shepards pie entrée and a éclairs (excuse the spelling). The cream in the éclair was sooo fresh and delicious! After leaving the Muckross area and Killarney National Park we decided to go hunt down our next hostel, Paddy's Palace Killarney. It was MUCH better than the one in Dingle, thank goodness!!! We had our own room, lock, bathroom,etc. It was similar to the one in Galway. When we checked in we took a 3 hour nap because we were still wiped out from the night before. We woke up around 7 or 8 and walked into town to look for some dinner. We ended up just grabbing more pizza (because it's cheap to share) right in the center of town. We thought Kelly was going to call us after her last dinner in Ireland but it came to be 9'oclock and she hadn't called yet so we headed back to watch one of our movies we had brought to watch on our laptop. Overall, a nice a relaxing day. Not too many attractions shoved in, just catching up on our sleep! Yesterday morning we woke up early and decided we wanted to tackle the Ring of Kerry. Our first stop however ended up being the Gap of Dunloe. This is an immense "valley" looking gap in between mountains that glaciers carved a pretty long time ago. It was certainly the road less traveled the one we decided to take. It was one of the narrowest, dirt roads we had encountered yet. The Gap was amazing! It was so pretty to just stand there and gaze at. We took a few pictures and decided that we should go THROUGH the tiny tiny road ahead which lead right through the gap. Along the way there were roaming, loose sheep everywhere!! Previously all the sheep had been behind fences and were not that easy to get close to. This place was a totally different story! We had to make a few stops just because they would not move out of the road for us. Billy was dying to jump out and hug one, surprise surprise. I somehow talked him out of it! Well we made it through and down to the other side safely, no harm done to us or the car. The fields we drove through and the winding roads were beyond words, the land is so peaceful! The road we traveled ended up spitting us by our original hotel oddly enough so we circled around and decided to start the Ring of Kerry for real this time. The drive was very nice; there were some gorgeous view points to pull over and take in the scenary. Of course we took advantage of those! There was one particular view point where we decided to climb this nearby rock hill/mountain. It was an excellent and exhilarating hike we did and totally worth the time it took us. You will see pictures from that mountain for sure! The Ring of Kerry took us about 3 hrs of driving time but probably 5 hrs including all the stops we made. We had picked up some bread, and PB and J at the store in Killarney just to keep in the car. That is what we ended up having for lunch that day and earlier that day too I'm sure. It came in handy to have it right in the back seat and to have a picnic at one of the viewpoints. We finally rolled into Cork/Blarney around 3 or 4 yesterday afternoon. It was pretty warm yesterday so setting up our tent ( with our new intricate tarp system Billy designed) wasn't a problem at all. We were excited to see laundry facilities, we took advantage of those right away seeing we hadn't done any yet and we had been wearing the same jeans and long sleeve shirts for quite some time. It was nice to have some fresh smelling clothes, no more eau de sheep crap. We decided to have a late lunch early dinner at the restaurant right down the street from the campgrounds. It was a nice little restaurant overlooking Blarney. We shared a pasta dish which was great and also a club sandwich of some sort. Strangely, they always put egg on all their sandwiches, even at lunch time. It actually tastes really good! Last night we decided to stay at our camp. We took HOT showers, YESSS. Probably one of the best showers I had yet, even though you have to keep hitting the k*** to keep it going but hey, it's warm water, that is all that matters. We sat by our site and played cards...guitar...ate more PB and J and called it a night. We were actually able to sleep in our tent all night, finally. There was some condensation but nothing soaking us so we were happy campers, literally! We woke up this morning at 630am from a call from Dane (thanks Dane, just kidding. I did it to Kelly last week). He thought it was sometime in the afternoon! That's ok though I had been started to freeze when I started to toss and turn this morning so we decided to wake up and make PB and trail mix sandwiches, tasty, tasty. Around 830 we decided to head to the Blarney Castle because it opened at 9am and we wanted to beat the tour busses. Great move on our part, we walked right in!! No crowds at all. It was a great castle to tour and climb through, the steps were pretty steep bringing us up to the Blarney Stone! We went right up....laid on our back (trying not to fall off the edge, being held by a worker)...and gave it a big SMOOCH. So hopefully we will have great luck or whatever that stone is suppose to bring. Our next stop, through getting lost a little bit was the Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery in a town on the other side of Cork. There was a small admission which we got discounts on for being young students (also at the Blarney Stone, forgot to mention) and we did the whole tour of the OLD Distillery. We thought it was great and truly interesting on how they used to make whiskey back in the day. At the end was a free tasting of their Whiskey that you can only buy there that has been aged for 12 years. I actually liked it! I didn't think I was a whiskey fan but it wasn't bad at all. I had mine in a coke while Billy had his over ice and a little water. On our way into that town we had noticed a Wild Life Park between Cork and Midelton and decided to try it out. Here, again, we got our student discount and proceeded into the park. For the money we paid it was an incredible zoo! The first animals we see were about a dozen huuuge giraffe, and a few zebra in this field that put you less than 6 feet away from them. It was amazing to see these animals this close! There were many animals roaming the walkways freely such as lammas, peacocks, and small kangaroo looking animals. There were awesome monkey exhibits, penguins, cheetahs, pandas, etc. It was a lot of craic (pronounced "crack", meaning fun in Gailec). Now that brings us here, back to our campsite, where we will probably be for the rest of the day and then headed out to Waterford tomorrow. We have a little campground right on the coast in a small seaside town called Tramore. They are known for their kayaking and surfing so maybe we can get some cool activity in! We are loving Ireland, but almost ready for some new countries and warmer weather with less rain! Two more days left and we will be in Paris on the 6th. We miss you back home! We are loving the emails and messages posted on the message board, they make us laugh every day! We send our Irish love! XOXOXOX!