Killarney

On Sunday, we caught the 10:30 bus to Killarney from Cork.

Killarney is a beautiful city in the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. The real attraction in Killarney is the national park, Ross Castle, and the lakes. It was raining on Sunday, so we dropped off our bags at the hostel and were planning on seeing a movie until we could check into our rooms. We had an hour and a half to kill before the movie started, and we took a carriage ride to Ross Castle.

The castle sits by the "Lake of Learning," so called because in the middle of the lake is an island where monks wrote important manuscripts (names of which are escaping my mind at the moment). Anyway, it is such glorious countryside--shimmering blue lake, and green everything else. The carriage driver was a funny little man who told us all about how awful the nuns were when he was in school (b/c I told him I was a teacher). He also tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me some phrases in Gaelic.

After the castle, we went to see The Princes of Persia. I know, I know, seeing an American movie while in Ireland seems like a waste of money, but it was wet, and we were tired, and our rooms weren't ready.

That concludes our first night in Killarney.