Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time....

Dublin --> Kilkenny --> Cork --> Galway.

So we left Dublin on the bus for Kilkenny, arrived around 3PM. Wandered the town a while looking for a hostel, since we hadn't booked in advance. I liked Kilkenny better, smaller Irish town, more welcoming, cleaner. We stayed in the "Kilkenny Tourish Hostel," cooked our own dinner of eggs with cheese, bread, and salsa, and had an identical breakfast the next morning before setting out to see some of the sites. We didn't make it to Dunmore caves, still haven't remembered to pick up a travel alarm, so we settled for a tour of Kilkenny Castle (the picture in the last post) and wandered the church for which the town was named. The church is also home to the tombs of a few of the castles previous owners, the Butler family. Interestingly, one of the Butler lords is shown on the carving over his tomb (think Egyptian sarcophagus style) with his dog at his feet. The castle grounds were beautiful, having been developed about two hundred years ago by the lord and his son, using his daughter-in-law's riches to plant imported trees.

We left Kilkenny for Cork to see Blarney Castle (the home of the Blarney stone), again by bus. Stayed at a hostel there called Kinlay House, and took a bus to Blarney Castle the next day. Blarney was beautiful, not only the castle but the grounds around it. The castle itself is one of the younger ones we've seen, only 560 years old, and thus in better shape than many of them. You can actually climb the very narrow winding staircase to the top, where the Blarney stone itself has become a tourist attraction akin to a roller coaster ride, complete with photographer and pictures to be purchased at the gift shop. I was a bit depressed by this, and the apparently common and overwhelming need for man to make himself immortal by carving AB + CD on every inch of reachable wall. But the rest of the scenery more than made up for it, including this shot from the top of the castle. Ireland, in general, is so green, but this shot was exceptional.

From Cork we planned to take the latest bus possible and sleep on it, getting to Galway in the morning and saving the cost of a Hostel. However, the latest bus left Cork at 6PM and arrived in Galway around 10PM. We wandered a bit, vaguely considering getting a hostel, but the night was nice, and we had multiple layers of clothing. Eventually we did check a few hostels, but all were booked, and we resorted to spending the evening in the park, drinking hot drinks from the late night convienience shops. We managed to seek shelter inside a small late night restaurant for a couple hours, but most of the night was spent walking, or sitting and talking in the park. Even with the cost of warm drinks, we still saved probably $30 we'd have spent on the hostel for only a few hours of sleep. We took a day bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher the next morning, where the "cliffs of insanity" scene of Princess Bride was filmed, walked through one of the only caves open to the public, and were given a beautiful view of the coast on the ride back.

We returned from the cliffs just in time to catch the last bus from Galway back to Dublin, a four hour ride, arriving at the airport around 11PM. Our flight to London, however, didn't leave until 6:25AM this morning. So after a few restless hours in the airport, we passed out cold for the hour flight to London, then continued our trend of having to walk aimlessly trying to find our hostel. We wandered the wrong way multiple times, though London is far easier to navigate than Ireland, I blame it on the weariness. Ireland the streets are rarely labeled, and each street is only about 3 blocks long, numbered 1-99, then the next street. So you can't navigate by cross streets. We checked into the hostel around 2 and have been playing catch up, badly needed showers, naps, food (chicken curry), and internet time to email and plan the next step. We have bus tickets for the chunnel to Amsterdam on Wednesday night, arriving on Thursday morning. So far, so good. No major problems, though we're both looking to get a bit warmer clothes, maybe a real coat, and possibly sleeping bags, though we are heading south soon and hopefully into warmer nights in case we end up spending a night outside again. If we'd had bags already, I'd have loved to have just skipped the return ride from the cliffs and slept there. But alas.