the more the betta.

yo ho, yo ho, an irish life for me!
we had a wonderful day today. wonderfully beautiful too. it was fantastic. 
an early wake up call again, breakfast at 7:45 and departing the luxurious hotel at 8:30. 
on our bus ride from killarney from dublin we had planned to stop at some castles on the way.
we had an appointment at Blarney Castle and 10 am. 
it was so beautiful! i can't believe that these castles were actually built in the 1400's, if not earlier. they are so elaborate and there were no cranes or anything used like we use today! unbelievable. 
the main attraction at this castle is to kiss the blarney stone. why it is so significant, i couldn't tell you. none of us really know. but we had to do it! the stone is in such an awkward and scary place. some people were a little weezy at its location. 
blarney castle is my favorite castle so far. 

me and hilary in the little cove at the front.

as awkward as this picture is, the stone was on the side of this little open area. it was so weird. 

p.s. i'm sure this creeper of a guy loves his job! he gets to tell people to lay down and literally hold on to their body while they go to kiss the stone. needless to say, it was very awkward.

this castle also had the coolest poisonous garden. it was full of plants that were poisonous and had their names and descriptions.

this green color is all natural. it's amazing! 

next stop was the Rock of Cashel Cathedral. another place from years and years ago. it is going through some renovations to keep up its status so there were some scaffolding things set up. the microclimate inside of it also adds a lot to the erosion inside. it gets wet and stays damp because of all the shade so there was green moss everywhere! outside the cathedral were quite a few ancient tombstones. 

this was my tombstone.

we only had about an hour at the cathedral before another 2 hours to drive to dublin. it's about 4 hours from dingle to dublin but it was nice to split it up!

we are staying in our first hostel, dublin youth hostel. look it up if you'd like. man, were we spoiled in the b&b in killarney. this is interesting and i will have to admit, i'm not the biggest fan. 

there are 10 girls to a room with bunk beds. two rooms for showers with two showers each i think. and some small bathrooms. there are quite a few rooms here on our all girls floor so i don't know how it's going to work in the morning with at least 40+ girls needing to get ready. but we will see wont we?

we are here for 4 nights and have three full days in dublin to do things. all of us are going together to see the riverdance on tuesday night. that will be so awesome! can't get more original than that!

there are museums to see. churches, streets to shop, and more places to visit. it will be a fun few days. we were instructed to stay in at least a set of two girls at all times, and i see why! we walked around still earlier in the evening and it was a little creepy. but that's what you get. (in a hostel area too).

some of the girls in our little little room.

bunks.

dublin youth hostel.

dublin streets have the coolest doors!

yummy thai in central dublin.

miss you all! i'll have fun for you!