This morning started off differently for lots of people than usual. From what we know, at least half of the group woke up late and had to rush. Made for a fast paced morning, but breakfast was delicious. Yogurts, bread, and fruit were the bulk of our selections. We all gobbled up the food and headed for our bus for an 8 o'clock departure.
The morning started off a bit slow, as we rode 2 hours to a restroom stop. We thought there might not be bathrooms at our first stop so we stopped at the loo just in case. We also followed regular tourist tradition, and raided the Subway for all of its cookies while we were at the restroom.
We hopped back on the bus to ride 30 minutes to Cahir Castle (pronounced "care"). We didn't get to go inside or really explore the grounds that much. The fifteen minutes for pictures and stretching our legs was greatly appreciated.
We hopped on the bus again for another hour and headed to Blarney Castle, home of the Blarney Stone. We got off and most of the group headed straight for the stone. For those of you who don't know why this is so important, according to legend, those who kiss the Blarney Stone will be granted with the gift of gab. Meaning their speech will be eloquent and it may increase the amount they talk. Mariah was so excited about kissing the Blarney stone, that even though she missed it by a foot, she feels she won't get mono like those who actually kissed the stone. Most of the group then headed out straight to lunch, but a few brave individuals actually went on a walk of the grounds, where Mariah got to see the lake, Robbie got to climb a tree, and Drew got chased by a car.
Most people headed to lunch though, and enjoyed the local cuisine. Nick Cannon said, "I tried to eat an Irish cow, topped with cheese and bacon with a side of fries, but it was just too big and I was unable to conquer the cow."
After lunch guess what we did? We got back on the bus and rode an hour to Cobh (pronounced Cove). Cobh wss a site where emigrants left the country during the potato famine and were subjected to grim situations while riding the boats. It was also the last port stop for the Titanic, and it was also the sinking place of the Lusitania. The exhibit consisted of lots of pictures, movies, and wax figurines. There were also these iron bars that our class decided would be fun to squeeze through. So one by one, we pushed through. Of course there was a gift shop at the end, and our group bought many souveneirs. At 4:45 our group did something very shocking...we got back on the bus.
We had a two hour busride to dinner and Killarney, which is where we are residing tonight. On the busride we had two epic events occur. We watched as much of Braveheart as we could, and the back of the bus decided that after 8 days we should get on a first name basis with the other school. We talked to them for the first 30 minutes and had a fun time getting to know them. Tomorrow will be fun touring with them.
Dinner was Irish Stew. It was lamb and 3 different kinds of potatoes. Lance Dutton had this to say about dinner, "It was tasty." Sammi Petro said her alternate choice, the vegetarian choice was "weird". Dessert was neopolitan ice cream and it was incredible. We have had cake or fruit for dessert all week, and the ice cream was a refresher.
The hotel we are at tonight is new, and there is an awesome layout area. Seth is taking a picture to upload at the moment. We also had something awesome happen tonight. We had two groups leave the hotel to look at the town for a little bit, and it was exciting. One group had a onion thrown at them at a very high speed. Lance said he was thankful they didn't play baseball. The other group also had something thrown at them, they had an orange thrown at them. It seems that the people of Killarney enjoy throwing fruits and veggies at tourists. Oh well, at least no one got hurt?
But we have an 11:30 curfew and leave for a tour of the Ring of Kerry tomorrow morning. But we get to stay in the same hotel!!! It's very exciting. Hope you all have an awesome night, and it's only 2 days till you will see us all again...
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What exactly is an Irish cow?? Sounds like you had a very exciting day!! Those Killarney folk sound interesting...throwing fruit at tourists....hmmm...sounds like they're in need of lives. Anyway, hope you took pictures of your lovely bus(wouldn't want to forget all that bonding time, would you?) Thank you for keeping us entertained and we can't wait to see you again!!
ReplyDeleteSammi's Mom