This past weekend a few of my friends and I took a little trip to Killarney, a little town considered to be Ireland's biggest 'Touristy' destination. It was my first hostel experience and although I was a little nervous at first it turned out to be no big deal. I think it helped that we were all in the same room and didn't have any strangers with us! We got to Killarney on Friday afternoon after about a 2 hour bus ride from Cork City. We then wandered through the town and found some food and a couple of pubs with live music. Saturday morning I got up and went horseback riding in the national park while the others rented bikes and toured the park by bike. The horseback riding trip was breathtaking! We were gone for a little over 2 hours and saw a lot in the park. There were lakes, mountains, and castles. It was certainly the kind of images of Ireland that I have been imagining. I was alone on the trek with only a guide who turned out to be my age and we had a lot of fun. I will have to say that riding over here was an experience--they kind of just get on and go. We were flying through the fields and forests, through rivers and across busy roadways, it was quite incredible. I do have a couple of battle wounds from getting branches to the face or getting a little to close to trees as we passed by but oh well. Saturday afternoon (after a nap) I went back into town to look around at all the neat shops and meet up with the rest of the gang. We again found some food and hit the pubs. We even found a Bruce Springsteen tribute pub where they played all Bruce all the time--needless to say we stayed there for quite sometime :) Sunday morning I got up and went to church which was also a very different experience. The church was a beautiful building and I was excited to go to an Irish mass. The service literally took 32 minutes from start to finish. There was no music, no prayerful pauses and barely any time for responses. The priest just flew through the process. It was a little weird and felt very rushed but oh well. Hopefully I will be able to find a church that is a little more like our masses but perhaps that is just how they do it here. We then hopped back on the bus and got into Cork around 1:30. The weather has started to be more like I had anticipated--rainy, cloudy, chilly--but I am still enjoying it. Actually we've been in a period of drought since I've got here and it has only rained one day. This week's forecast looks a little different though with rain everyday--good thing I brought the rain boots! My class is going well and this weekend we are going on our second field trip to Inisheer--one of the Aran Islands-I'm really excited for that. I then only have one more week before actual classes begin. I can't believe I've already been here for over two weeks! I guess its time to get into school mode--something I'm not sure I'm ready to do! Well here's a few pictures I managed to snap on my ride and throughout the weekend.
What is a Bulmers?
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