Thursday, September 30, 2010

Greetings from Galway

Just like last time I updated, I've seen a lot and taken tons of photos in the last few days!

I'll begin this post with a few pictures from Blarney (just north of Cork), which is famous for its castle and the Blarney Stone.

I didn't realize that the famous stone is actually at the top of the castle, and you have to wind your way up spiral stairs to get to it.

Once at the top, you bend over backwards in order to kiss the legendary stone--to receive the gift of gab.

Kissing the stone. (So if this post ends up being wordy--but I doubt it will, since I'm tired--it might be because I kissed the magical stone, haha.)

Kissing Jarlath. :) (Behind us at the top is the Blarney Stone.)

We walked around the castle grounds and came to a "wee magical place"...

I expected to see a leprechaun or fairy at any moment.

We drove back into Cork and went to the English Market for lunch.

From Cork, we drove south around the coast through Skibbereen, which is known as the town that was most severely affected by the Great Famine in the mid 1800s.

On Wednesday, we started driving north-bound to Killarney, first stopping in quaint wee town called Kenmare...


At an outdoor market, I saw this book about a famous Irish singer named Dana! (pronouced like "Donna.")

Ahh, too many signs!! And not a single one of them was for the road we wanted. HA.

A few magical photos from the drive to Killarney...



We walked through the Killarney National Park and saw Ross Castle...

...and lots and lots of boats...

And this morning we took a 3-hour bike ride through parts of the park that we didn't see yesterday evening...

...such as Muckross House and gardens...

...and Torc Waterfall...

From Killarney, we continued traveling north, and took the ferry to cross the Shannon Bay.

This was a first for me--pretty cool! (Actually, it was cold!)

On our way here to Galway, we stopped at the Cliffs of Moher...

This view looked familiar to me, but I didn't know why. I just looked it up, and learned that the movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was filmed here, as was Princess Bride.

Well, that's all for now. I'll have to post the other photos I've taken on Facebook...some other time. :) Have a Happy First Day of October!

1 comment:

Japan-a-lana said...

WOW. Ireland truly is magical. It real does look like magical creatures will pop out at any moment. I really wanna visit now...and I want to borrow Jarleth as my tour guide!