Light day - Killarney to Galway

Today we took it easy.

And by easy I mean,

We re-drove some parts of the Ring of Kerry because,

YOU GUESSED IT,

it was a B

E

A

U-TIFUL

day.

Just stunning. Light clouds, sunshine, brisk temperature.

It was plain insulting how nice of a day it was.

But whatever!

We actually started the day by walking around town a bit more before heading back to our hotel for a little spa sesh we had booked the day prior. (Extra? How dare you insinuate, that

I ,

EMILY PITTMAN,

COMEDIC GENIUS AND ALL AROUND MAGNIFICENT PERSON,

IS EXTRA? )

It was just.

Haaaahhhhhhhhh......

It was just supposed to be a 30 minute massage, but it came with an hour of pool time (technically unused because well, time.) and a little post massage drink under mood lighting with a fuzzy blanket.

The worst thing about the spa was leaving it.

But Galway beckoned, so off we went!

Except, as I'm sure you recall from less than 30 seconds ago when I told you we re-drove through Killarney National Park, we stopped by Killarney National Park.

Turns out it's even prettier in the sun, so we were very happy with our restructuring of our plans.

See, we had planned to just have breakfast and head to Galway, stopping by the Cliffs of Moher on our way up, but then we got confirmed for the spa, and then it had been rainy on our Ring of Kerry day so, changes were made.

This is why it's awesome to rent your own car. You can do what you want. (for the most part. Depends on if you have appointments you'd like to keep.)

And the Killarney National Park has this part we had totally missed yesterday which was this manor like place not even 30 minutes from town. It was seated next to beautiful grounds butted up against a lake that was framed by mountains, and as it was 1-ish, the sun was low enough to cast golden beams from behind the mountain peaks.

Kinda like this.

And the manor house looked like this.

And I saw some birds that were just....well one flew right next to me and popped down into a bush.

I literally could have live the maxim, a bird in the hand....(is worth two in the bush) IF I HAD GRABBED IT

But here's a photo of it looking into your soul instead.

He knows what you did.

And the second bird because of course I had a second one to reference.

He's not mad--

just disappointed.

We also saw a waterfall. Very popular area, it was disgustingly muddy from all the people who wandered down into the pools and then trekked back onto the trail. (I would have done the same if we weren't a little behind schedule. Yeah, we can do what we want, but we also need to make it to Galway to check into our B&B)

Once we realized we really had to be on our way (for real this time!)

We started on our way to Galway.

WE SAW A RAINBOW

WE HAD A CAR SCARE (It was low pressure, so no biggie!)

WE saw some more animals and stuff.

I fell asleep like, 4 times.

(How did I ever drive myself to college? How did I not die from lethargy?)

And now we're at our B&B. It's not in Galway proper- but we are on Galway Bay. So we're not getting the 'city' experience but, we've had that. Our room overlooks the bay so I'm looking forward to waking up.

And we had dinner in the town of Salthill and swung by a place called O'Connors for a nightcap and music. Tomorrow night we won't get to visit a pub so we had to tonight.

You get it.

And we walked there and back-all 50 minutes roundtrip. (+ the hours of eating and drinking).

The walk is on the shore--cold but it wasn't bad over there. However, as we began walking back, Sarah says we should, "take it slow" to enjoy the evening. I'm all, "hmmmmph" cause it's cold. And lo and behold Sarah summoned rain with her comment of, "it's a nice evening." I think we were about 15 minutes away when it started. We ran through it--literally ran through it.

We booked it and when eventually my poor lungs collapsed (I'm not shy to admit I'm out of shape) I realized that the rain had stopped. Or, it wasn't where we were. I think we literally ran past the patch of rain.

And we arrived at the B&B.

And as we turned to go upstairs to bed, we tried to lock the door.

We tried to lock the door.

Locked the door.

Jesu-LOCKED. the door.

We could not get this fricking lock to lock! We worried at it, and eventually I thought I had it.

"I'm a genius." I whisper to Sarah as I turn away triumphantly.

But, I hesitate because I'm secretly paranoid. (it's not a secret.)

And I try the door again.

it isn't locked.

*sigh*

I go for it again-Sarah even steps outside to see if maybe it's locked on the outside but we can't tell.

Eventually I DID figure it out.

You have to lift UP on the door handle to get it to lock.

How did I figure this out??

Surprisingly---the Ring of Kerry.

When I went to the bathroom.

Taboo, (I know) but what happened was, the bathroom had a sign that said, "Lift handle to lock." I thought it was weird at the time, but ultimately it's peculiar mechanism fluttered out of my mind as the day wore on and the Ring of Kerry enamored us with it's views.

But today, as I stared at the goddamn front door that refused to lock, this little flash of a sign that said, "Lift up to lock" flitted itself before my eyes and I tried it here.

"I'm a genius" I whispered again as the lock DEFINITELY locked this time and the door refused to budge.

Then getting back into our room (which uses old timey like keys) Sarah struggled and I got in!

So I'm now the keymaster.

And now, we head to bed. We ARE visiting the cliffs tomorrow before we hit our final resting place-Dromoland Castle where I'll get to do falconry!!

I'm so excited.

It sucks that we have really one more day of things left. The 5th is a lot of rushing to Dublin airport from where we are in the South West coast of Ireland.

So, while it's bittersweet thinking that our time is drawing to a close, I'm excited that there's still more in store for us.