Dingle, Cork, Blarney, Nenagh

Mon, Apr. 13- Dingle Peninsula
This morning, I woke up early, walked down into the city, and picked up the car we’re going to be renting till Thursday. It is a lovely 4-door Toyota Yaris, which I immediately nicknamed “the silver hornet.” It took a little while to get used to driving on the left side of the road, and also, shifting gears with my left hand, but so far, no accidents or problems. I have the girls remind me at intersections to make wide right turns, just so I don’t forget! We drove down to the Dingle peninsula, arriving in the town of Dingle around 1pm, and then drove down to the point. There is a road along the head of the peninsula that reminds me very much of driving through the Italian alps (queue: music from the opening of the original Italian job.) Karen and Emily and I stopped as often as we could to take pictures of the amazing scenery and cliffs along the head of the peninsula, and still managed not to get into any wrecks, even though the road was barely a lane wide, and it was two-way traffic!! Thank god the silver hornet is tiny!! We made our way back out to Tralee, a town inland from the peninsula, and found a hostel to crash at there. The hostel was this really cool old Victorian house, with giant rooms, and we passed out early, me from exhaustion after driving for 8 hours, the girls, exhausted from napping while I drove… my phone ran out of minutes.

Tues, Apr. 14- Blarney, Cork, Nenagh
Woke up relatively early this morning. (I had to coax Karen out of bed with the whisper: “free breakfast!” ,which helped a lot!) After that, we headed down the wrong side of the road towards Cork and Blarney. We arrived around noon, after navigating the often difficult and windy roads, and made our way towards the Blarney castle, and got to kiss the blarney stone! Thankfully, the man at the top of the castle had disinfectant spray right next to where he was sitting, so I hope I didn’t catch lip crabs or something! After that, we had a quick lunch on the road, (read: Sean spilling his lunch all over himself) and arrived in Cork at 1:03. I know it was 1:03 because the tourist office closes from 1-2, and we missed it by only 3 minutes. Being that none of us had any clue what there was to do in Cork, we meandered around for 45 mins, trying to find a parking spot, before finding a garage to park in. Then, we wandered around towards the info office, got a map, and then wandered around downtown for about two hours. When we had had enough aimless wandering, we got back into TSH, and headed up towards Nenagh, which took some navigating through Cork traffic, and impossible road signs that direct you in circles! (thanks cork, you suck!) Now, to further complicate this issue, my UK cell phone, which I bought in Scotland, had run out of minutes the previous evening. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem to “top up” my phone anywhere, being that this is a civilized country, but it turns out that no, T-Mobile does not exist at all in Ireland. In fact, they have never even heard of it. As I asked around, I got stared at like I was mentally deficient, before finally coming to grips with the fact that the only way I had of contacting the people we’re sleeping with tonight was: 1) out of minutes, and 2) out of battery power. Lovely. Thankfully, I also have 2 OTHER cell phones with me, so we got in touch with Caoimhe, and met up with her in Nenagh. Her mom made us an amazing dinner, and then we went out with most of the other girls from the Yacht Club last summer. It seems like so long ago, but really only yesterday that we all hung out, but we got to catch up, exchange stories, and share laughs over a few pints at one of their favorite local hangouts.

There is a plan for tomorrow, but I have no idea what it is! now, its bedtime!
ps, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGAN!!! you're old now!! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!! you're old now too.