The Ring of Kerry

We woke up a little later on Sunday morning, ate a DELICIOUS breakfast with a spot o' tea and headed out to drive the Ring of Kerry.

Another amazing traditional Irish breakfast!

Our first stop was Rossbeigh Beach.  This was an actual beach where people were swimming and surfing!  Kara and I were bundled up in our jackets and scarves freezing our bums off and these people were out in the water!  It was nuts.

After the beach, we drove another hour or so to Cahersiveen for a snack and some lunch for Kara, then across the water to Ballycarbery Castle.  This might have been my favorite stop along the way because these old ruins were so incredibly beautiful and so cinematic.  I feel like we were on the set of Braveheart or...any other beautiful European movie.  Ha.

King of the castle.

After playing around in the castle and climbing rocky stairs and going through narrow passageways, we headed on down the road to the ferry to take us over to Valentia Island.  This island isn't part of the traditional "Ring of Kerry" but our B&B owners told us that many of their clients go there and love it.  We stopped at a Valentia ice cream shop where they make the ice cream on the farm right there, and then headed to the shale quarry, also known as The Grotto, below.  It was basically...a huge, pretty, impressive hole in the side of the mountain, with a statue of the Virgin Mary perched up on top.

Next, we headed over Geokaun Mountain to the Fogher Cliffs.  Evidently this is a miniature version of the Cliffs of Moher and it was stunning.  We were standing on a little tiny ledge over the cliffs and this picture doesn't do it justice!  Just like the rest of these pictures.

More beautiful views that you can hardly see.  But trust me, they're beautiful.

This is a video of a mountainous road and Drew driving.  "Smile!", I tell him, and he replies that he cannot.  You also might not be able to here but at the end of the video, Adele's "Someone Like You" comes on the radio and Drew says "Change it."  After I stop filming, he says "We are NOT going to die on this road with 'Someone Like You' playing in the background!"

By the time we navigated the ridiculously narrow, curving, winding roads and we finally got off the island, it was already late afternoon - and we'd only done half of the actual Ring.  Drew was tense and white-knuckling the steering wheel and I was carsick and Kara was just trying to keep her wits about her with both of us acting like kooks and we decided to try to drive on through, quickly, to Kenmare for dinner.  We missed a couple of forts and churches, and a beautiful house and national park, but we just couldn't handle it anymore.  However, the idea of driving quickly through the Ring was just silly and naive.  We came upon even NARROWER roads, and WINDIER roads, and must have driven through/around/over 10 other mountains before ever reaching civilization.  At the same time though, it was hard to complain too much because the sights and views were so breathtaking.  I'd say "I think I'm gonna throw up- Oooo!  Look over there!  Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?!" all in the same sentence.  It was an odd paradox.  

We FINALLY arrived in Kenmare and had a lovely dinner of Beef and Guinness Pie and Fish and Chips.  

We realllllly needed those drinks.

Upon our return to Friar's Glen, the owner's dog came up and greeted us right at our car door.  I played with her for a long time as I'm feeling dog deprived and any dog I see makes me want to burst into tears cause I miss my Murphy so much.  She was a cutie and loved me.

                          

It was a long day.  And it didn't help that I got food poisoning or lingering car sickness and got sick in the middle of the night.  But I wasn't going to let that ruin things!  We saw some INCREDIBLE views that I'll never forget, Drew did an amazing job of navigating us through the wilds of Ireland back into civilization, Kara was friendly and patient, and it hardly rained at all!  Though it was stressful at times, it was a lovely day and I'm glad we got to see it all!

Killarney: Day 1

Like I mentioned before, Drew and I decided to take a little getaway trip to Killarney (in southwest Ireland) this weekend, and Kara joined us!  We wanted to drive the Ring of Kerry, which is a tourist trail along the Iveragh Peninsula with tons of pretty views, sights, castles, bed and breakfasts, and other attractions.  

We stayed in Killarney, and on Sunday we basically drove counter-clockwise down to Valentia Island back around through Kenmare, and back to Killarney.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and hopped on a train, then another bus to get to our car rental place in Dun Laoghaire.  

Two ladies ready for adventure!

Testing out this whole driving-on-the-opposite-side thing.  Scary.

Feelin good!  We hope.

This is literally a picture of Kara saying a few Hail Marys before we pulled away.

A scenic and pleasant four hour drive later, we arrived!  We stayed at an ADORABLE bed and breakfast called Friar's Glen - the nicest people, lovliest (is that a word?) rooms, and the most delicious breakfasts you've ever had.

I should also note that Kara aspires to be an engagement photographer, so she took our fancy camera and went to town.  God love her.

Kara stayed in town, so we all got settled at our respective places and then headed over to Muckross House.  Muckross House is a beautiful mansion, built in 1843 for the Herbert family - Queen Victoria stayed here in 1861 which was evidently a huge deal.  It was later sold to Arthur Guinness, and then a wealthy Californian, and then was donated to Killarney National park.  We didn't pay for the tour inside, but walked around on the grounds outside.

It looks like it could be Pemberley, no?

The view from the lawn of the house.

There is a large, beautiful, well-known waterfall, that we were planning on driving to, but a couple who evidently had a tendency to exaggerate told us it was only "a 15-minute walk up the road".  They were liars but we are glad we were naive and believed them because we had a gorgeous hike up to the waterfall.

You walk through a wooded path, and then it opens into these beautiful fields full of cows, long grass, and mountains.  The sun also came out so we couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to hike!

Torc Waterfall.  It's much bigger than it looks in this picture.   Beautiful!

Past the waterfall, you could climb a thousand million stone steps in hopes of seeing another magnificent view of the waterfall.  At least that's what we told ourselves.  We took the steps a long ways up the mountain but didn't see the waterfall again.  But we DID see some amazing views of Killarney National Park and the lake and the greenery that made it all worth it.

Like many of the pictures I'll post, the camera doesn't do the actual view justice.  Sigh.

We came home, showered, got ready, and went to have some drinks and eat dinner in town.  Everyone in the area must have been out because there were live bands playing Irish music, activities for kids, and even a fake wrestling match going on in the streets!  Very bizarre but very fun.

We went home at a decent hour and prepared for our long day of driving and sight-seeing!  The first day was definitely a huge success.  More to come for the rest!

Back to Reality

Without realizing it, Drew and I have had house guests for the past two weeks.  Time flies when you're having fun and hosting people!  This means that after two very fun weeks, things will slowly go back to reality - even though it felt odd not telling someone in our living room "goodnight" last night.  Also without realizing it, Drew and I have also begun to feel a little more like roommates than husband and wife during this time - there just hasn't been much free time to talk to one another and we're up late and tired and go right to sleep and repeat it all the next day.  So now we can go back to being husband and wife, we'll put away the air mattress that's been out in our living room and get this place shaped up and maybe take some "after" pictures for you folks.  The rest of this week and weekend, we're looking forward to relaxing and being together again - no agenda and lots of meals at home!

We observed this past weekend that when you're on vacation with another person, you can't exactly be....yourself.  You can't argue or snap at each other, because that's just awkward and uncomfortable for the other person.  You also can't lean over and plant a wet smooch or have a make out session in front of them either, because that's ALSO incredibly uncomfortable.  So you basically have to be perfect and try to put on a good show for these people.

Which is impossible.  If it were just the two of us navigating these tiny, narrow, terrifying mountain roads, I would have told Drew he was driving way too close to the side of the mountain and that we'd fall off at any given moment.  Drew would snap back at me and tell me how stressed out he was and to shut up.  We'd snip at each other another minute, and then probably start laughing and apologize.  That's what we do.  When someone else is in the car with you, you can't do these things.  I might say "Drew.  You're VERY CLOSE to the side of the road right now." - slightly terse, full of panic/anger.  This would annoy him.  And then he might say "LAUREN.  I KNOW THAT - but there's a car ABOUT TO HIT US." - in a very calm but patronizing tone.  Which would then make me mad that he's patronizing me.  Can we express any of those things in front of our guest?  No way!  That tension-filled exchange was quite enough and she's already feeling a little awkward.  So we let it build and when Kara says "Ooooh!  Let's pull over here and take a picture!" we wait until her door shuts to air our grievances, quickly, before she gets back in the car.  Once she's back, we're all good and seemingly perfect again.  It's a bit exhausting trying to pretend you're in a 1 Corinthians 13 type of relationship allllll the time because I'm here to tell you...that's impossible.  Especially on these roads.  Sigh.  

ANYWAY, this is not to say we didn't have a wonderful time with each other, and with Kara, and with the spectacular breathtaking scenery.  We really did and this situation only happened a handful of times.  And it's also not to say we don't love guests!  We do!  Anyone and everyone: COME VISIT US!  We just might not take you on a drive through the mountains on one-laned roads.  You'll thank us - just ask Kara.  

Now that these observations are off my chest, I'll now be posting pics and videos of the trip so stay tuned!

Week with Kara

It's been way too long since I've blogged for real and I'm sorry for that.  I'm probably losing readers and am boring people left and right.  Ugh. Truthfully though, it's slightly difficult to blog and keep up when you are simultaneously entertaining a guest.  When I'm alone, blogging and ironing and sewing on buttons is my full time job!  When I have guests, entertaining is.  It's a hard life.  First world problems.  

Where do I even start?  My study-abroad friend Kara got here on Wednesday morning bright and early and we had a busy week together.  We had a bank holiday on Monday and Drew and I had already planned a weekend in Killarney, so she joined us.  And we just got back tonight!  Whew.

Kara got off the bus on Wednesday morning and we hit the ground running!  I basically have a loop of all the touristy hot spots and showed her those - Merrion Square, St. Stephen's Green, lunch at Sheehan's Pub for some sandwiches and soup, Grafton Street, Temple Bar, a walk along the river past Drew's office, and then home for a nap!  I forgot that she'd just gotten in and probably wasn't ready for a marathon walking session yet.  Oops.  We had a low key night at home with wine and homemade Chicken Parmesan (I'll post pics another time) and were all in bed early.  Lovely.

Kara is currently trying to finish up her Masters (woohoo!) and had a final paper that she had to complete in Dublin before she felt like she could enjoy herself.  I lounged around on Thursday morning and she busted out her paper and finished!  Masters Degree, here we come!  (Her's.  Not me.)  We wandered over to Dublin Castle and the Chester Beatty Library (which I hadn't been to) to check that out.  It was all quite beautiful and am glad we went.  Dublin Castle was built in 1204AD and served as a defensive work after the Normans invaded Ireland.  Since then, it has served as the seat of the English, then the British government, then again with the Kingdom of Ireland, then the UK, and finally was handed over to the free Irish state in 1922 to serve as a government building.  It's evidently used as a conference center now with quite impressive apartments.  The Queen stayed there, of course.  And the Chester Beatty Library is all part of Dublin Castle - an art museum and library that has an amazing collection of manuscripts, paintings, prints, drawings, and books assembled by Chester himself.  The most impressive thing we saw there was a papyrus scroll with part of the gospel of Mark written on it from 150AD.  Can you believe that?  Geez louise.  It was really an amazing museum that sparked a lot of conversation afterwards.  I'd highly recommend it.  Pics below:

Dublin Castle.

Pretty swirly window outside of the Castle courtyard.

In the Castle courtyard, they were making giant sand sculpture.  We couldn't figure out what they were but they were cool nonetheless.

I believe the artist kept describing his work to a group of people as "ephemeral".  So naturally Kara and I joked about that/described everything as that the rest of the week.

The Castle and it's courtyards.

Kara had the amazing opportunity this summer to do the Camino de Santiago (or the Walk of St. James), which is a pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain), where evidently the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.  I had actually never heard about it before she told us she was doing it this summer, but since being in Europe, I have heard SO much about this amazing journey and actually want to research it more for myself.  She walked for 12 days from France through Spain, and will finish the rest of the walk next summer most likely.  All that to say...she met a beautiful, wonderful friend named Carrie, from Dublin, who we were able to hang out with on Thursday afternoon!

Carrie, Kara, and myself

Carrie is a student at Trinity College so she took us to the Book of Kells and the Library/Long Room for free!  Woohooo.  We then sat on the cricket field at Trinity for a couple of hours, lounging in the grass and the sun, before we headed back to meet Drew for some pizza.  Lovely.

Friday...Kara decided she wanted to take a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher, so that left me to get things done around the house.  More housewifery.  And guess what??  I successfully sewed two buttons on Drew's shirt and pants!  VICTORY!  It's the little things in life.  I felt so accomplished.  And I guess it wasn't that difficult - although the mess of thread on the back of the button would suggest otherwise.  But no one has to see that.  I did some other laundry and made some phone calls and got things situated and then Drew and I went to meet up with our peeps at the Shelbourne Hotel for drinks!  I'd been wanting to go there so that worked out pretty damn well.  We had a late night dinner at Bear (Kara included after I picked her up) with everyone - DELISH - and then headed home to prepare for our trip to Killarney!

Actual COCKTAILS at the Shelbourne!  Not beer!  I couldn't believe it.

Menu and wine at Bear.

My new gals: Autumn, Missy, Kara, and me.

I have 20 more posts about our long, stressful, beautiful, and eventful weekend alone but I will post tomorrow after my guest leaves and I have more time.  And hopefully my blogs will begin to have more content than this boring day to day business - "first we did this, then we did that, and then we went here, and then we went there."  I'm boring myself.  Ah well.  Love you all.

Absence

I haven't blogged in almost a week and I'm sorry! I think every post I write I say I'll get better and I WILL! As God as my witness! I think I've said that before too.

We've been hanging out with Kara and traveling in Killarney for our 3 day weekend. I plan on posting lots of posts and even more pics tonight when I get my wireless Internet back. Stay tuned. Cheers!

Conflicted

I'm feeling very conflicted: I'm tired of being a housewife but I don't want to work.  It's very complicated.


Evan left early Monday morning, so my task was to spend two days to myself, recovering from one guest and preparing for another, while also doing a multitude of things that need to be done around the house/for our family.


I haven't written about it yet, but one of my great friends that I studied abroad with in Spain, Kara, is coming to stay with us for a week on Wednesday!  I haven't mentioned it because it was literally finalized a week and a half ago.  Her mom works for United and she is a world traveler and had a week off between grad school and real school (she's a teacher) and thought Dublin would be fun!  Fine with us!  I will take anyone and everyone who wants to come visit.  Drew and I were planning a weekend getaway to Killarney for the bank holiday Monday (which means a much needed LONG weekend) and Kara is going to come along.  It oughta be a great time!


So like I was saying...I need to recover from my last guest and prepare for my new one.  This means doing copious amounts of laundry that take 3 hours per load.  And then I have to pick out the things from that load that need ironing and set them aside.  I also need to call our cable/internet/phone company to confirm some things, speak with our electricity company, as well as our piece-of-shit bank about our online account that has taken weeks and weeks to get.  I also need to go the hardware store because the "chandelier" in our apartment isn't working, mail in my application to the American Women's Club, hand in my Frequent Shopper card information at various stores, and learn to sew on some freaking buttons on Drew's shirts and pants.


I don't really like doing this housewife thing.  I hate cleaning.  I made Drew sweep yesterday when he got home, which I felt bad about, but I HATE sweeping and I hate the MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF BODY HAIR that accumulate in our apartment!  When we were newly weds, freshly married, the two major things I had to get used to were sharing a bank account (no more justifying buying a cocktail dress and deciding not to eat for the month) and the ridiculous amounts of body hair that came off of Drew's body.  It was and still is pretty unbelievable.  And the hair on Drew's head looks like the hair on the rest of his body so I never know where it comes from!  Which is gross!  And it's on our bathroom floor and in the shower and on the rim of the sink and the toilet and every other nook and cranny it can fit itself into!  And that upsets me a great deal.  Which is why I made him sweep and mop.  (This post probably isn't going to sell people on coming to our apartment to stay with us, is it?)  I shed too, don't get me wrong.  But if you see a long blonde hair, you know where it came from.  You know what it is and it's not as gross!!  Ugh.  All that to say, however, Drew needs me to sew buttons onto some of his clothing.  I have no clue what the F I'm doing.  I don't know how to sew a button on and I never learned and I've attempted to watch the YouTube videos explaining it and attempted to read the detailed instructions my mom sent but can't seem to make sense of any of it.  And when Drew asks me to do something during the day, I have absolutely no excuse to NOT get it done because...what the hell else am I doing?  Reading?  Drinking wine?  Walking around in a park?  Exactly.  So I HAVE to get these things done but I don't WANT TO DO THEM.  And I suck at doing them.  Case in point:


Lauren: I talked to the bank and we get our online banking TODAY!  And our change of address went through, FINALLY!
Drew: Oh awesome!  Did you check how much money we had in our account?
Lauren: No...
Drew.  Oh.  Well that's ok, maybe you can do it next time.


OR


Lauren: Ok, I spoke with the electricity company and we're set up with our bank and our account and we'll be billed on the 20th!
Drew:  Nice work!  Did you ask if we have to manually do anything online to remove the funds from our bank?
Lauren: No...
Drew:  Oh.  Well that's ok, maybe you can do it next time.


OR


Lauren: I spoke with the phone company and we're good to go on our cell phones for another month!
Drew:  Great!  Did you pick which plan we want?
Lauren: No...I thought it just carried over...
Drew: It doesn't.  You have to pick.  Maybe you could call and ask them again.


I always F-ing forget something and feel like a worthless piece of shit, even when I AM trying to get things done, and even though Drew is nice, I generally want to crawl under my bed or hide in the water heater and not come out.   Which leads me to my next point.


I've applied for a few jobs and will continue doing so, but really...I don't want to work.  I enjoy my life of leisure.  Although I remain conflicted because this "life of leisure" comes with sewing buttons, running stupid errands, walking around the city in the rain, IRONING 3 times a week, doing laundry all day for hours at a time, calling multiple organizations and failing to ask the right questions, etc.  But the days I'm NOT doing those things, I get to read.  I get to walk around Merrion Square and sit in the sun.  I get to sleep in.  I get to run along the river if I so choose.  I get to blog.  I get to do what I want!  And work will hinder that.  I've been Funemployed for 2 months now and working seems so far away to me.  But at the same time...work will give us things that I love and need.  Like someone to help clean my house.  Like dinner at restaurants.  Like more travel without a husband who is stressed about money.  Like all kinds of other things that money can provide.  I know money can't provide happiness...but it sure can help.


Thus, my conflict.  I know how I sound.  I sound like a primadonna baby snobface who doesn't want to do anything except lay in bed an eat bonbons.  But that's not necssarily true!  And I've been wondering why I feel this way here, and why I didn't feel this way in the States.  I think part of it has to do with the fact that laundry was easier, and I didn't have to iron.  Dry cleaning was affordable.  We had someone clean our apartment once or twice a month for a minimal fee.  Drew and I shared responsibilities because we were both working.  Things were just easier and different.  And while I feel that I need to justify my statements, I won't. This is my blog, it's me being honest, and I feel like honesty is usually what makes good blogs.  Unless they're your friends and family and they turn against you because you're a lazy bitch who only thinks of herself.  Oh brother.


Anyway, that's how I'm feeling at the moment.  I need an attitude check about so many things and that is what I'm going to start praying about!  I am still having a great time, feeling good about things, not feeling homesick or lonely, but I just need a 'tude check.  So that will be good...when it comes.


Side note: I wrote this post after walking home in the rain, trying to change some lightbulbs I can't reach, loading another load of laundry, ironing 6 shirts, and making dinner for someone who won't get home til 9:30, so...I'm a little testy.  I'm not always this way.  Don't hate me.  I love you all.  Bye.