Ireland baby!

Well. After an AWESOME ferry ride over (more on THAT later - too little time to type the awesomeness...let's just say it involves a free pint of Guiness, a group of old Irish men, and a songbook) we pulled into COrk. Needless to say, we were exhausted so the day there was pretty low key, walked around and chilled at the hostel. Yesterday we picked up our rental car and headed out to Blarney. That castle kicked my ASS - I hit my head on a doorpost then AGAIN on the stone itself and have a badass bump on my face. We all kissed the stone and I even got to learn about zombies from Peter and Annie in the queue. THen we hopped in the car again and headed out to Gougane Barra - my ancestral home, where my great-grandmother lived. It was incredibly beautiful. It was raining and misty, which gave the whole thing an ethereal quality - we walked in the woods and everything was so damp and mossy - I see how it's easy to believe in faires here. There were also waterfalls running down the mountains over the lake - breathtaking.

We found a campsite near Bantry, in Ballylickey, and spent a cold night there after some good pizza in Bantry. THis mornig we were up early and drove around the Beara peninsula - lovely, great views - took a little walk and now we're in Killarney. Again, we're TIRED so taking it easy. We're off for some dinner shortly...