Ireland....lots of pictures!

My sister and I had such a blast in Ireland...we couldn't get over the green and castle ruins that dotted the landscape.

Here is a bridge that we loved.

Moss and flowers growing on a stone wall.

Bunratty Castle

Miss Marci in Swords (a small town outside of Dublin)

And me...we loved this alleyway...we found an internet cafe in it!

Some countryside

Dingle Peninsula...breathtaking, although we took our lives in our hands driving along the coastal road. It was roughly one lane wide, although two-way traffic occupied it! And there are no shoulders on most roads in Ireland, just nice stone walls, hedges or cliffs! In this case, it was a stone wall on one side and mountain on the other! And remember, I was driving on the left side of the road with a stick shift!! So fun!

I took a billion pictures of this pony, people probably thought we were nuts if they saw us! We had to be in the middle of the road and listened for coming traffic zipping around the curves...and when we did, we'd make a run for the safety of a pull-out in the road!

Gallarus Oratory...roughly 9th-12th century and built entirely of dry stone...no mortar! And it is still almost completely dry inside! They built it so perfectly that everything lines up and is symmetrical straight! Amazing!

Me and my lovely scarf courtesy of Glendalough (pronounced Glen-duh-lock) Woolen Mills!

Posing outside Kilkenny Castle

The castle itself...don't be fooled, it looks like it's in the middle of nowhere, but on the other side is a crazy, bustling city, that scared me half to death to drive through! I'm pretty sure we almost died!

A beautiful waterfall in Killarney Forest. We took a jaunting cart ride around some of the main sites courtesy of our guide, Patrick O'Sullivan (and I am not kidding, that was really his name!)

Our lovely jaunting cart pulled by the lovely Judy!

A celtic cross on a grave stone.

Sheep were everywhere, hence the Woolen Mills that were everywhere!

Glendalough! It was so beautiful to drop down into this valley on a hazy, drizzly morning....again, death-defying to drive down the windy, narrow, crazy roads, but so worth it!

There were amazing, ancient graveyards everywhere, this is just one...at Glendalough.

Arches at Glendalough.

Blarney Castle...and the little white space of open air in the top of the tower is where we laid across to kiss the Blarney Stone..we had to wind our way up some very old, extremely narrow and winding Medieval stairs to get to the top.

And me kissin' the stone. It's supposed to give the gift of eloquent speech to all who kiss it...hmmmm we'll see~ see the little piece of green, that's the ground, waaaaaaay below (hence the bars and the guy holding on to me...we tipped him!) My husband asked if I sanitized it first, but we didn't even think of that...there was too much adrenaline going on!