Ireland = Love

This past weekend I went on my 2nd weekend trip out of Limerick, and I ended up coming back and truly feeling a sense of nostalgia and wanting to go back. I am in an incredibly beautiful country.

Katie, Liz, Amanda, and Erin and I booked another bus ticket. This time, after doing a decent amount of research, we landed on Cashel, a smaller town about 40 miles south of Limerick in Tipperary County. After the bus driver was a major jerk to us about booking our tickets online (because it's SO hard for him to look at our confirmation e-mail and then print us a ticket. Seriously. it takes like 30 extra seconds) our bus left Limerick at 9:30. Saturday it was quite foggy again, but hey, in Ireland, it's a blessing to just have a day with no rain sometimes! We had to get off in Cahir, another small town to switch buses on a different route. We had read that Cahir had a castle, and were hoping we'd have enough time to find it before our next bus came. Well, little did we know...the castle was right across the street from the bus stop!! We had about an hour to kill, so we hurried over to the castle, paid the 1 Euro it took to get in to the place (yay for student discounts!) and began exploring. The castle was beautiful, and a little sinister in a way, because it had a "murder hole" and places where prisoners were obviously kept. One area on the stairs was so dark and scary I kept expecting a skeleton or some creature pop out around the corner. Or even worse--A BAT. It was definitely one of the best ways I've ever killed time. I think the Cahir Castle Association (haha I just made that up) would do themselves and everyone else a great favor if they promoted that it's right across from the bus stop. We had a pretty good laugh at about how easy it was to find.

Our bus to Cashel (population 2,936 according to wikipedia) came at 11:20. It only took another 15 minutes to get there. However, finding our way to the hot spots in Cashel (primarily the Rock of Cashel, another castle) was a bit of a challenge. We looked at a town map outside of the tourist office, and unfortunately the office itself was closed. We stopped and asked some people on the street, but they were Irish out-of-towners so they didn't know where it was. We called the hostel we were staying at, because that was where we wanted to go first to drop our stuff off, which is owned by an Irish couple, but Katie had a bit of a hard time understanding him. I'd like to quote the book "I never knew that about Ireland" that my sister Erica gave me for Christmas about Ireland. This is from the preface, and it's a fair warning:
"One warning: nothing in Ireland is straightforward. Every name has two or three different spellings and myriad pronunciations. Every story has different endings and every legend a different setting."
We definitely agree that nothing is straightforward! We then stopped in a Hallmark store and asked the lady working and she was able to get us where we needed to go. We found the Rock, which was located at the top of a hill. It was spectacular. We couldn't see it for as amazing as it is that day because it was foggy, but Sunday we went back because the fog lifted. While we waited for a short informational film to start in the "theatre" we chatted with a young married couple from Chicago. They had been in Ireland for the past week. They said they were going to spend the next 2 nights in Dublin and then fly out today, Monday. It sounded like they managed to go all over the island in that short amount of time! Hopefully I can say that..and I will have had 4 months! I think I'm doing pretty well so far. I've been farther north for Galway, and now farther south than Limerick. But anyway, after that We explored the graveyard outside of it. We then asked for directions to Hore Abbey, because Tom O'Brien (one of the owners of the Cashel Lodge where we stayed) called and said that should help us find the lodge. We ate lunch in a small pub (yummy chicken paninis and chips..which here means french fries) and the owner and waitress told us where to go. We took the Path of the Dead past the castle, which goes downhill and out to the countryside. Once we got to the road, it was only a few minutes before we found the lodge! It was so cute...a 200+ year old farmhouse that had been renovated. We stayed in a dormitory style room for only 20 euro. The O'Briens had a small dog named Holly who was really friendly, and as we set out to see the Hore Abbey (and yes we joked about the name, being the ignorant Americans that we are) she raced ahead of us, like she knew where we were going. The Hore Abbey was breathtaking. It was built in the 1200's...(?) if I remember correctly. It blows my mind that stuff that old is still standing today. I mean, it is basically ruins now, but it really makes you realize that what we think of as the "old days" like the 1700s, when America started, is not THAT old in the grand scheme of things. After we got done at the Abbey, we hung out at the lodge for a bit, and then walked back in to town (only about a 15 minute walk to the town center) and picked up a few groceries to make dinner in the lodge's kitchen. I made a can of minestrone soup I'd brought from Limerick. After that we did a little "pre-gaming" with 5 euro wine that Katie bought at Spar, a popular convenience store in Ireland. I had bought the same wine back in Limerick, but I'm not a wine expert, so to me it tasted alright, but Katie quickly informed me it was crap. I figured it was, considering it was only 5 euro, the cheapest in the store. We then headed to find a real Irish pub to go to. A guy working at the rock of cashel recommended Chief's. We walked in and the room was thick with cigarette smoke, and the guys who were there were SO quiet. So we left and went to Dowling's. There were a few older Irish men there watching a rugby game. It had a good enough atmosphere, so the 5 of us pulled up a chair at the bar. I got a bottle of Bulmer's, my beloved cider, Amanda had vodka with lemonade, Liz tried the Guinness, Erin also had Bulmer's, and Katie had Bailey's on the rocks. I still need to try Bailey's. I still didn't get what I am imagining to be the real Irish pub experience that I have built up in my head, but hey I still have time. We left Dowling's and went to SuperValu, a grocery store. We pitched in for some Bulmer's and Druid's, another type of cider and headed back to the lodge and played some drinking games well in to the night. We went bed around...gosh I don't even remember. I had packed my sweats and a long sleeve shirt but I woke up sweating in my bed. I ended up stripping down to my underwear and sleeping in that, which I was teased for the next day. :) The next morning we got up around 10:30 and were delighted to see the fog had lifted. We ate breakfast, showered, checked out of the Lodge, and headed back to the Abbey. I took a couple pictures without the fog, but I didn't mind it being somewhat foggy in most of my pictures. We took a stroll down the rest of the road, hoping to find a good Irish farm (Katie and Amanda both grew up living on dairy farms) but to no avail. We headed back to the rock, which we had a perfect view of from the Lodge. The place couldn't have been more conveniently located. Good find, Katie! We were walking back up the Path of the Dead when we noticed there was a gate to the hill at the bottom of the castle. We ventured out there and this was one of the first moments of my experience here so far that I was at a loss for words for a moment. You could see the Abbey from up above, you could see the roads going out of town, you could see the hills in the distance. You could see a herd of sheep in a field nearby. It was awesome. We hiked back up to the rock, took some pictures, and then ended up hiking around the other side. I felt like an amateur explorer. With 2 hours to kill before the bus still, we walked around the other side of town and stopped at a very old, very beautiful church. We talked to a priest and he gave us a brief history. We saw even more graves, and the oldest I found this weekend was from 1796. I couldn't believe I could even read it still. Some of the graves were just worn down and had no words on them. We went to another cathedral, but we couldn't get in. However, a very nice cat came over and let us pet him. We got back on the bus and stopped back in Cahir. We ended up eating a late lunch at Supermacs, which is like McDonald's but worse. Then we went to a gift shop, and I toyed with the idea buying a knock off of a Claddagh ring. The original is in Galway and they are 40 Euro. I want one, but I don't necessarily care if it's not an original. I just like the design. However, the bus came before I paid for it, and I just decided maybe another day. After the perfect weekend of breathtaking buildings and real Irish countryside, material possessions just didn't matter as much. We finally got back to Plassey about 5 PM and I was beat.

When I was back home, daydreaming of my experience in Ireland/Europe, I admit, I sometimes forgot I was actually going to Ireland and started envisioning all the other places in Europe. I mean, I was really excited for Ireland, but I figured I'd see some of it here and there, and that would be good. I was picturing Paris, Italy, Greece, London, places I've always wanted to see but never thought I'd have a chance to go to. But Amanda and I were talking one day about traveling around Europe, but she put it in to perspective for me, and I totally agree. While it would be awesome to see the other big cities like Paris, Rome, Athens, London, I'd rather actually EXPERIENCE Ireland and feel like it was as much of home as the USA. It seems obvious and I feel stupid for even saying that, but I think at the start I had travel fever and just wanted say "I want to go here, here, and here." But I definitely feel after Cashel that I am getting a good variety of the Emerald Isle. I've been to Limerick (obviously) and Galway, two of the bigger cities in Ireland, but I've also now stayed out at a lodge in the country side, right under a castle. Back home, I always got sick of living in the country because I felt there was nothing to do and I wasn't anywhere special, but the Irish countryside changed that.
And one other thing that has changed...walking is my new favorite way of getting around. That might be because if I did have a car here, I'd be terrified to drive because of all the roundabouts and being on the other side, but so far on our journeys-by-foot, we've always found our way.