May 21st

We caught a morning train to Cork City in County Cork in the south of Ireland. We got off the train and had no clue where we were so we asked a liquor store guy where a good place to stay was and he directed us to Bru Bar and Hostel so we went there and saw the room and booked it for only 18 euro a night each. The water was finally warm and constant - THANK GOODNESS! It was a really nice place, with a great kitchen and had wonderful security. We stayed in a 4 bed ensuite and finally got some laundry done. We talked to the hostess downstairs and found out how to get to the bus station and took a bus to Midelton. Ryan's dad gave us two tickets from his Midleton boxes which got us free admission into the Midleton Jameson Distillery which was super cool. It was very beautiful there and I learned that Jameson goes surprisingly well with cranberry juice (apparently how it's taken in Dublin). Ryan was the first of 8 volunteers for the whiskey tasting in which he got to sample Johnny Walker black label scotch, american whiskey (Jack Daniels) and of course Jameson irish whiskey. Ryan finally got to correct the tour lady who for the entire tour was mixing up bourbon vs. whiskey. Ryan even got a certificate saying he was an official whiskey taster - hahaha. We came back from Midleton and walked around town for a little. We were hanging out in the room later in the night when some random older guy came in (used the key card so not so random), stripped down to his boxers and started talking to himself VERY loudly until he finally laid in bed and after having a full out conversation with himself, fell asleep. Later, another guy came in and apologized for his friend (the scary guy) who was just very very drunk, not schizophrenic. That was a relief - I guess?!?! We just went to bed and luckily he left in the morning.

May 22nd

Home 6:35pm

Cork 11:35pm

We checked out of the hostel and walked to the Killarney Guest House, a sort of bed and breakfast hotel that we found for only 50 euro a night online. It's a little more expensive than a hostel, but not too bad and we were certainly ready for some luxury and no random roommates, poor showers and loud noises. We dropped off our bags with a super proper older lady in a room where a lot of french people were taking tea and it is a super nice place! We went back to the bus station and got a bus to Kinsale, a little coastal town in County Cork. It was BEAUTIFUL there!!!! We walked out to Charles Fort and then back around to the other end of the peninsula to James Fort (we estimate that this walking was about 10 miles and our feet were hurting very very very badly by the time we got back to the hotel.) Charles Fort is a very large star-shaped fort and is amazing. We paid 4 euro and got a cool tour and then wandered around it taking pictures and enjoying the view of the ocean and harbor and all the sailboats in it. James Fort is very small, and you can't get in it, but in the park with it are some other ruins and fantastic huge fields with lovely views. We didn't have enough time to enjoy the town, but were really happy we went to both forts. We caught the bus back and limped back to our hotel since our feet were so so so painful. We've been relaxing in our nice hotel after long hot showers and are letting our feet rest. :) We're doing great!

I just got pictures uploaded to the following website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sara.e.thurston/

I'll be putting more albums on it too so stay tuned!!

- Sara