Saturday May 28

Like I said earlier it was yet another early morning. Last night was a ton of fun at all the Irish pubs. It was the most fun I have had in a night since I have been in Europe. Lots of funny stories and memories from the night :) The group was pretty slow moving this morning. Most of us made it to breakfast but not everyone. A few of the guys missed putting their luggage on the bus before heading to the national park, so they had to lug it around until we met up with the bus later.

Horse carriages picked us up at the hotel this morning at 8:30 and we took an hour carriage ride through Killarney National Park. We saw lakes and mountains and castles and deer. It was really chilly out but we got blankets and got to all keep warm. The scenery was beautiful like everything in Ireland. We stopped at a costle on a lake before heading back to the hotel to jump on the bus.

Today we spent a lot of time on the bus. We headed to Blarney Castle which took a couple of hours to get to. It never feels like a long ride when you can just stick your ipod in and watch the scenery out the window. The scenery never gets old. Time goes by really fast. We arrived at Blarney Castle and walked around the gardens and in the castle. We went to the top to kiss the Blarney stone for good luck! A guy holds you upside down while you kiss the rock, its pretty funny to watch everyone do it. We ate lunch outside at a little café at the foot of Blarney Castle. We then boarded the bus again.

Our next stop was the Rock of Dunamase that was fort ruins from way back in the day. At the very top it has a beautiful 360 degree view of the countryside. We climbed around on the rocks and the ruins for a while before yet again hopping on the bus. We then started our journey back to Dublin for the rest of the weekend until our flight on Monday morning.

The ride to Dublin seemed to go fast, I was so tired today. We arrived back at our original hotel we stayed at in Dublin at 5:00 and had to be in the lobby to head to dinner. Dinner was downtown Dublin at a very nice steakhouse called FXB. I tried duck liver which I thought was going to come right back up but I managed to keep it down. It was absolutely disgusting. I had a Caesar salad and Ribeye (I miss steak!) Michelle had calamari which was really good and a steak. We sat around after dinner and had a glass of wine before a few of us decided to walk back to the hotel. We stopped at a few shops downtown and finally made it back.

There is a major Rugby game on TV tonight and it’s a HUGE deal to these people. You cannot even get into bars tonight because they are al over capacity. Our hotel backs up to a courtyard that bars surround and it is filled with stadium seating and a big screen TV. It is packed with people and really entertaining to sit in the window and watch. We are hanging out at the hotel tonight, having a few drinks at the bar here and calling in an earlier night. We are going to do the Pub crawl for out last night here tomorrow night. I can’t believe Ireland is almost over, it is an awesome place and we still have a day trip to Belfast, Ireland all day tomorrow to see the Drogheda Cathedral, the shipyard where Titanic was built, a tour of the Protestant/Catholic district and the Monasterboice Monastery (ancient Celtic crosses). Hope all is well with everyone back at home. We will update the pictures from today later tonight!