The long road home

Wow! I can't believe I've been home in Minnesota for 3 days. Quite a whirlwind.

My mom and I didn't have internet the last couple days of our trip, but it wouldn't have mattered much anyway since we packed our days full of exploring.

After we left Bunratty on Tuesday, we drove through Cashel, visited the "Rock of Cashel", and eventually ended up in the town of Kilkenny. Kilkenny is, in my opinion, a perfect sized town to visit and/or live in or close to. It was small enough to become familiar with quickly, but large enough to be able to find new quirks about it. Twas the right size town where you may walk out on the streets and know a few faces, or you may not happen to run into anyone that day. During our stay, we visited the Kilkenny castle, which was strange as it was COMPLETELY finished and decorated with similar pieces to what would have been there in its day. I suppose the only castles I've toured in Ireland are ruins, so I wasn't really expecting something so grand. Anyway, as my mother said it was interesting to think that people had such luxurious living environments on the East side of the island after seeing so many wee thatched roof cottages and ancient famine villages in the west. Yay England.

We stayed at a nice hotel in the heart of Kilkenny called the "Pembroke Hotel". 72 Euro a night for a gorgeous, modern, clean, room with breakfast included. We decided we'd definitely stay there again if the opportunity presented itself. The rest of the time, we walked around town, explored, and eventually settled down for a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant. The night in Kilkenny ended with the absolute loveliest Irish coffees either of us have ever had.

Our last day of the "roadtrip", we took a scenic drive from Kilkenny through the Wicklow Mountains. Thanks to our best friend the GPS, we navigated our way through the quaint town of Avoca, spent loads of time in the famous woolen mill there, visited the ancient glacial valley and medieval monastic city of Glendalough, which means "glen of two lakes".





and at last were in awe of the ruggedness of the Sally Gap. Mom enjoyed it quite a bit, I daresay:



We THOUGHT we were just a few minutes from the hotel for our last night when we exited the Sally Gap to see Dublin sprawled beneath us, but we're going to go ahead and blame Conor Mcgrath for typing in "Swords Street" into the GPS rather than "Swords Road". You'd think we would have learned by the end to double check where Ms. Brit Posh was taking us, but we didn't this time. Hence, we spent about three hours winding our way through Dublin, getting frustrated, almost getting into accidents, and wanting to cry when we arrived at Swords Street and realized how far away from our hotel we actually were. At least it's funny now...it wasn't so much at the time. Despite that blip, it turned out to be one of my favourite days of the trip. Also aided by the fact a wee Irish lad who we were a bit frustrated by earlier in the day drove down to Dublin from Newry unannounced for a final goodbye :)



Our flight home could not have been smoother. We were a little anxious as Mr. Volcano has been having a few more mood swings, but everything went perfectly on time and I was asleep in my bed in Maple Grove by 11:00 PM on Thursday evening. We didn't realize how lucky we really were until I got word from another American friend in Ireland who was supposed to depart Saturday that the soonest she can leave is now Tuesday. Gosh, Eyjafjallajokull! Enough already.

All in all, it's great to be home. I have a couple weeks off before I start work again and I plan on relaxing, sleeping, reuniting with friends, and doing a few projects I've conjured up in my mind...ta ha


Ta!! Cheers
Karen