Just thought that I'd throw together a quick post about what I've been up to so far.
THE TRIP.
It was long. My butt hurt from all the sitting. I ate some extremely disgusting Mac N Cheese dinner at a restaurant in New York at the J.F.K. Airport. My boss (Nate) and I got re-routed twice while at J.F.K., which was pretty annoying. Apparently our plane was broken, so they sent us to a different Terminal, which was a good walk. Then, about an hour later of being delayed, they sent us back to the original Terminal again because apparently they fixed the first plane faster than they the mechanics thought they could, but had to re-issue all of us our boarding passes, as seating changed because we were now on a different plane. That was fun. Not a huge fan of J.F.K. Our flight from Utah left at 11:40am on Friday, in S.L.C., and we arrived in Shannon, Ireland @ 8:30am on Saturday.
SATURDAY
We were tired. Unfortunately, we still had a good 2 hour drive from Shannon to Cork, where our Hotel was. Nate took the honor of driving that day since I had not yet driven and was a little bit intimidated to say the least. Wrong side of the car, and wrong side of the road too. Everything is backwards, and it takes a little bit of getting used to. We got to the hotel and checked in, and went our separate ways around noon to get some much needed sleep. We agreed to meet up in the lobby at 7pm, and then go find something to eat. We ended up eating at this cool little restaurant that was just a short walk from our hotel called SoHo, which apparently is also a nightclub of sorts. Nate ordered steak that they cook on a volcanic rock that is heated to something like 350 degrees right in front of you, which was pretty cool. I had some delicious nachos, garlic bread, and a delicious Hurricane. Yum. Next, we walked around for a bit around Cork downtown, and then headed back to the hotel at River Lee, and called it a night.
SUNDAY
Met up with Nate in the lobby at 9am, after getting just a couple of hours of broken sleep. We were both still pretty tired. Nate decided that it was my turn to drive, and a trial by fire was the best way. By the time we got back to the Hotel, I think he may be opting to drive for the remainder of the trip though. Ha ha. The brake pedal was very touchy, for me at least, and more than once I almost put us in a ditch because I was too distracted by the scenery to drive in the tiny lanes.
First we went to check out the shops at Kinsale, but ended up just walking around and checking things out since most of them were closed on Sunday morning. We did find an old church, which was actually built by the Normans back in the 1600's. It is entirely possible that I may have been related to them, so I thought that was kind of cool.
Next, we went to check out the Historic Charles Fort site in Kinsale which is right on the coast. Took the tour, and got to explore and walk around the full 16 acres of the site. Very cool stuff. Lots of cool history here. Check out this link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort_%28Ireland%29
Around lunch time, we drove over to another Historic site, The Blarney Castle, which is home to The Blarney Stone. We spent a number of hours here, as there is much to see. Again, lots of really cool history here, so check out the following link for more info: http://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/history
I was lucky enough to kiss The Blarney Stone, and receive the gift of Eloquence, as the tradition goes. Check out this link for some brief history on The Blarney Stone: http://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/kiss-the-blarney-stone
We went to a local deli prior, and got some "picnic" supplies and had lunch in front of The Blarney House, which was amazing. In Ireland, there is grass everywhere. It just grows. It is also very green as well. There is a big variety of trees, some of which I've never seen before. Next, we were on to the amazing gardens of Blarney. There is a whole section dedicated to poisonous plants, which is pretty fascinating. What really struck me as interesting, was all of the Druid history and "Witch" folklore that exists there. I uploaded a bunch of pics from my phone of some of the sights there. By then, it was almost 5pm, so we decided to call it a day, and head back to the hotel again. It's only 8pm now, and then night is still young, so we'll see what kind of trouble I can get into tonight :) For starters, I am hungry....
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