Killarney National Park

Well this morning after a few freezing cold showers we were off to start our day. On a side note it is very hard to wash your face in Ireland, because they have 2 spiket things on the sink...one for freezing cold and burning hot. The question is how to you rinse your face with out 3rd degree burns or frost bite in this town! Surprisingly we all did pretty well waking up this morning after the lack of sleep. The breakfast at the hostel was pretty darn bad....so bad that Kristin had to have Corn Flakes with whole milk, sick! Kalee and opted with the toast. Then we walked to the market to get some food for lunch. We went to the fruit market first and then the "grocery store". The grocery store charges you for plastic bags, so we decided to save the environment and carry our pb & j in our day packs. Ireland does not waste as much as the States. Then I discovered that I was pretty tired after all so we got a can of diet soda from the convenient store. They either have cans or huge pints....so I felt the can was more appropriate. The cans are a little different...the part that you drink out isn't as wide as the cans at home. I know, probably only a little thing that a Diet Coke drinker would observe.

We then walked to Killarney National Park which is not that far from town and headed towards Knockreer House and Gardens. There are so many types of trees and flowers, it was like the botanical gardens times ten. They have these trees with gorgeous blooming flowers of all different colors. Then we walked our way over to Ross Castle and sat down to eat our PB & J. Very tasty little picnic, except for thinking we were going to get attacked by ducks. We decided to take a tour of the castle (only 2.10 euros for students, sweet!). It was awesome, they had furniture dating back to the 14th century. It wwas so neat. It was a defense fortress so the tour guide went over all the defense mechanisms of the castle design. Different height doors to purposely cause harm to invaders..or tourists..geez and I thought the people were just shorter then, I guess not. There was also a hole above the main entrance where they would pour hot oil or boiling water on people...ouch! The spiral staircase was called the "stumbling stairs". The original stair were still in tact and they were all different heights...to say the least a few of the ladies on the tour were breathing VERY heavily after completing the stairs. I am glad we are somewhat in shape. It was such an educational experience, really.

The super nice tour guide then called a cab and we are off to the Torc waterfull......refer to Kristins entry for further details! :)

Ross Castle and Torc Mountain in Killarney National Park

I have never had a picnic in a more beautiful spot. It was amazing. And who knew PBJ could be so international? We decided that we should take the opportunity to tour the castle standing right in front of us, and for 2.10 euros (like $3), it was totally worth it. It was built in the 14th century, and all of the furniture was from the 14th to 17th centuries. So cool. I don't think I could have slept on 4 inches of twigs for padding and I know I would have definitely tripped over those stupid spiral stairs more than once had I grown up there. Thank goodness for carpeting, mattresses, and straight stairs.

We wanted to go see a waterfall, and there's a fairly big one, Torc Waterfall, at the other side of Killarney National Park. Well, during our tour, our tour guide mentions that the park is 30,000 acres. Suddenly, we weren't sure we could walk that far. turns out it would have been about a 3 hour walk. We called a taxi. We had already been walking since 9 AM! The waterfall was breathtaking, and the scenery is just amazing. I think between the three of us, we have enough pictures to pretty much publish a book. There were these rock stairs built into the mountain curving behind the waterfall, so we decided to see if we could see the waterfall from higher up. Yeah, OK. ONE HOUR later, we finally start going down hill. We most definitely climbed a mountain. And I'm not exaggerating for once. We totally climbed a mountain. My hip flexor is starting to throb now that I'm sitting. But hey, it happens. The pictures and sights were completely amazing up there though, and totally worth the effort. And hey, we DID run a half marathon last year. We had to pause halfway up to remove jackets, adjust shoes and socks, chug some water, etc. We decided, because we're dorks, to check our heartrates. With a range of 125-170 per minute, I think you could say we successfully had a cardio workout today.

After we climbed down the mountain, we used our handy-dandy deductive skills (aka: a map and the sun's position in the sky - you can call us Jacques Cousteau) and figured out that the Muckross House was just 1.6 km 'that' way. We think 1.6 km roughly equals a mile, but if anyone knows or can google that while not paying for the internet by the minute, let us know. This house was HUGE, reminding me a little of a southern plantation, and the gardens were incredible. Again, more pictures, which we'll post if we can ever figure out how to do that. We caught a taxi back here, which required the use of a pay phone and some crazy Irish phone numbers, but luckily we figured that out the first time too. So now here we are, catching you all up to speed, planning the rest of our evening. Dinner is defintiely in order soon since the PBJ has long worn off from all hiking, and we're going to do some souvenior shopping before we leave tomorrow.

Oh, we decided to start a trip tally, as in the number of times we almost trip while we're here. I have bets out that I will not only win the trip tally, but that I will completely wipe out at least once. Today's trip tally has Sandy at 1 (2 almost sprained ankles, only one was a tripping incident), Kalee at 0, and me at a whopping 3. Yep, I am toooootally going to win this one.

The differences between the States and Ireland are amazing. For it being fairly American, it's still so different. Just a few little things: everything is on the left here, not the right - walking on the sidewalk, driving, light switches, everything. WE finally realized today that the reason people stare at us on the streets is not because we're great-looking American girls, but because we're on the wrong side of the sidewalk. Whoops! Although I'm sure it's partially because we're so good-looking. The openings in soda cans are so much smaller here than in the States, which is a small difference, but still noticeable. We keep hearing words like 'dodgy', 'cheers' instead of 'thanks', and strangely accented curse words. Not that we'd know what those are...

Nightlife in Killarney

After we arrived in Killarney yesterday, we found this great little Irish restaurant, and we each ordered something different so we could try each other's food. We ordered shepherd's pie, lasagne and stuffed ham/turkey. It was all really good, the lasagne had mashed potatoes in it, and we each got two sides of vegetables with our meals and potatoes too. These Irish people sure do like potatoes! Who knew? But anyway, all the food was really good. After dinner, we went out in search of some authentic Irish music, and ended up at a pub close to our hostel where an Irish band was playing. We ordered a guinness and a kilkenny, both really thick, dark beers, so we were proud of ourselves for branching out and trying the Irish beers. It started getting really crowded there, and some man from Iowa came up and started talking to us, so we decided it was time to move on. So, we saw a band playing at another pub down the road, and we went in. We were pleasantly surprised when we entered, mainly because it was mostly good looking young men. So, we pulled up a couple barstools and listened to the live band. Only after a few moments of observing did we realize that we were quite possibly in a gay bar. Not good. There was no sign outside saying it was, but there were some clear indications while we were sitting there that this was a gay bar. Haha, so that was quite the experience. We stayed for a little bit, because we didn't want to appear rude, and then we headed back to the hostel and went to sleep. The accomodations weren't too bad, except when the fire alarm went off two separate times in the middle of the night. That was special. Apparently the fire alarms are so sensitive that even the steam from the shower sets them off. Other than that, things have been going great so far! The other girls will tell you what else we've been up to. Cheers!

We had McDonald's... research purposes only!

I think Kalee wrote about our plane extravaganza. So here we sit, trying to figure out these strangely different keyboards. After the plane landed in Shannon, we figured out (using only skill, no luck at all) how to find the train stop to Limmerick, at which point we were going to have to transfer buses to get here to Killarney. We met this great couple at the bus stop in Shannon ('our grandparents') and they were super friendly, sharing all sorts of Irish knowledge with us. They moved to Chicago 50 years ago, but come back to Ireland for the summer months, so they were able to point out all the differences to us, and 'Grandma' was so worried about us switching buses in Limmerick. As we got off the bus, she made sure to point out that our bus was in space number 6. So Mom, I'm not sure how much you paid to get this older couple to help us out, but good work!

We got to Killarney around 2 PM Ireland time and we were STARVING. And there they were, just over the horizon, the Golden Arches. How terrible is it that the first place we ate in Europe was Mickey D's? I know, I know, pretty terrible. BUT, the portion sizes here are incredible! very nutrition conscious. They still serve their small fries in the little bags, and the large sodas are the sizes of the mediums in the US. PLUS, the happy meals come with a banana. How great is that? And they recycle the trash, which is so great. Except, Sandy of course didn't see the big sign saying 'RECYCLING' and chucked all our ketchup packets, leftover fries, and wrappers in the recycling can. You know us, the stupid Americans, ruining a perfectly good recycling effort. We feel like we did our dietitian duties by checking out fast food here. And we made a pact that we are not at all allowed to have American food here again. The fries taste the same though, just no salt. In case you were wondering.

My email isn't working at this internet cafe, so I'll be able to check that tomorrow hopefully. Just a heads up in case you emailed me something incredibly important. Riiiiight. We're off to fnid a pub for dinner, we'll catch you tomorrow!

We're Here!

We made it!!! We are officially in Killarney, currently at an internet cafe. Yay! We have now been awake and traveling for 24-32 hours between the three of us. We had a little issue with the plane, with the issue being that we sat on the runway for two hours and didn't get to leave until 9 PM. Apparently the plane ahead of us had the engine die and it was blocking the runway. So, we were on the plane for a total of 10 hours. Fun. We all slept a little, but it was hard to get comfortable, so we're a little tired right now, but we're still going strong. We walked around Killarney a little, and have checked into our hostel, so we're now going to find a good pub to eat dinner at. Okay, well I have sufficiently covered my topic, so I will write more later! I am so excited to be here! It is exactly as I imagined it would be......its magical!

Itinerary

Since so many people have been asking, I decided to make a list of all the places we are going, just in case you were wondering where we are headed next: Killarney, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; London, England; Paris, France; Lyon, France; Nice, France; Rome, Italy; Florence, Italy; Venice, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Prague, Czech Republic; Munich, Germany; Brussels/Brugge, Belgium; Amsterdam, Netherlands. Takeoff is in 23 1/2 hours. This is too exciting for words. Stay posted.

I think I have ADD

No, seriously. I'm having problems focusing on anything. I woke up at approximately 4:38 this morning and it's been touch and go since then. I keep trying not to think about how excited I am, but it's just not working. I mean, I almost couldn't eat breakfast this morning, because I'm just too excited. And come on, you all know how important eating every few hours is to me. Things are getting OOC (out of control)! Now I'M starting to have heart palpitations. I hope there's a doctor on our flight because there may be a cardiac arrest in the near future for at least one of us.

Tomorrow at this time, Kalee will be arriving in Highland and we will be getting ready to start our trek up to Chicago. So that's a four hour drive here for her, plus another four hour drive for us (courtesy of Mom and Dad... thanks!) up to the airport where we'll meet up with Sandy. And then a nine hour plane ride to Shannon, followed by a four hour bus ride to Killarney. We obviously didn't have a clue what we were doing when we decided to stay in Killarney our first two nights. And until earlier this week, we weren't even sure how to get from Shannon to Killarney. Turns out it's a four hour bus ride. Awesome! Great planning by us geniuses! I'm hoping for some beautiful Irish countryside scenery though. And hey, maybe we'll make some new friends or get some good travel tips from fellow bus-riders. You just never know...

I think I've packed and repacked my backpack roughly six times this week. I washed absolutely every item of clothing I'm taking with me, so it all smells Downy-fresh for at least the first wear. I have surprisingly way more room in the backpack than I expected, and despite my normal overpacking tendencies, I'm actually leaving room for souveniors (and European-purchased clothes of course)!

I feel like I might need a sedative soon... it's going to be a loooooooong 24 hours!

129 1/2 Hours Until Takeoff.......not that I'm counting or anything

Okay, so we are leaving soon. Rrrrrreally soon. I still haven't resolved any of my heart palpitation issues, but thats okay. I am using that as my cardio workout for the day, that way I don't have to do real exercise. I mean, as long as my heart rate is up, that's all that matters, right? I thought so. I haven't allowed myself to pack yet, because then I will be way too excited, and not have anything to do on Sunday before we leave. It's weird to think we will be in another country at this time next week! It's crazy! And, of course, very exciting (in case I didn't mention that before).

1 week to go!

1 week from right now, we'll be on a plane, on our way to Ireland! Between the three of us, I envision some heart palpitations, some excessive leg twitching, and probably some granola bar munching. I'm not naming any names or anything...

1 more week!

But who's counting?

Ready to go

Today I traveled to STA travel to pick up all the Eurorail and Hostel passes. The agent gave me tons of information, almost too much for one graduate to remember so I quickly called Kalee and Wessel to inform them of what I learned. I bought some travel supplies today and am not allowing myself to go to Target for more supplies till next week. Otherwise I will be just to excited, however probably not as much as Kalee. Trust me, I can sleep through excitement. I also printed out a currency exchange list cheat sheet. I have enough trouble counting american dollars, let alone euro's..thank goodness for the internet. So I have all the important papers now that make our journey complete and I already have them stationed by the back door of my house so I won't forget them. Oh yes, Kalee I thought I was learning French...do you doubt my abilities. Well I am sure I will be fluent before we go, however I have yet to find my little French book in all my boxes from moving home. Maybe it is not a bad idea that you start studying up on that. Well, I am off to read the DaVinci Code. Bye Bye!

15 days!

We're down to 15 days now. Which is just soooooo much closer than 16 was yesterday.

While Kalee is suffering from heart palpitations, I'm starting to wonder if it'll be possible for me to hire someone in Europe to carry around another bag for me. That backpack is looking smaller and smaller every time I look at it. I've never worn inside-out socks before, but there's a first time for everything, and I have a sneaking sensation that the first time for inside-out socks will occur sometime mid-June.

T minus 16 days

We graduated today, which means the next time we'll all see each other will be at the airport bound for Shannon, Ireland. We are leaving in 16 days. I am trying not to think about it, because then I get so excited that my heart starts beating rapidly and I can't sleep at night. I'm a little concerned about how excited I will be on the plane.........I think an ambulance may need to be on standby just in case my heart gets worn out from all the excitement. I also came to the realization that I am supposed to know "travel" french by the time we leave, and I have yet to study any french at all. So I guess I will add that to my list of things to do in the next 16 days. That list is growing every second. Okay, I need to stop writing or I won't be able to sleep tonight from all the excitement. In case you can't tell, I'm rrrrrreally excited.