a NOLA girl in a Big world

Oh Maggie! The owner of maggie O’s certainly loved us! She was certainly a talker and genuinely loved running a B&B. Our first full day in Killarney and we had a hike planned! If I could talk to 22 year old Lindsey and tell her I loved hiking and I chose to go hiking on my honeymoon rather than relax on a beach, she would laugh at me!! But I’m so glad that we chose to come to Ireland! This trip has been everything we dreamed of and more! 

We made our way to Muckross House to start our hike. There was a tour we could have taken but we were so anxious to get on our hike we opted to skip the indoor tour and Wikipedia about it later (silly Americans). Our hike was about 7 1/2 miles and it was the perfect day! It was 55 degrees with sunshine! I truly wish everyday was felt like perfection, more people would be out and about working on their fitness. 

About 2 miles into our hike and we found the Torc Waterfall. Breathtaking. I love hearing the abound of a waterfall, it’s calming and beautiful and is perfectly natural. We found ourselves just staring at the falls because it was a picturesque scene. We took advantage of the photo ops and climbed out into the falls. We then took some STEEP rock stairs for about 300 meters & let me tell you, I am my fathers daughter! It goes without saying that I am in the best shape of my adult life and hiking doesn’t get me winded UNLESS we are in high altitudes! Mid way up the stairs, 1/2 way up the mountain I just couldn’t breathe. I was breathing in harder than I have in my entire life but left like I was getting no oxygen. I was getting light headed and had to slow down and not try to keep up with super man Bowen. Once we got to the top of the waterfall I was able to stop for a minute and breathe. We continued on our way & let me tell ya, it was an exciting hike. Very steep hills means very sharp descents! I had a little fun and allowed gravity to take over and run down each descent – fastest I’ll ever be in my life (bowen took video so I have proof of my speed). 

The hike was the perfect way to start the day and the fact that we finished in pretty good time meant that we could walk into town to catch the ireland vs. Scotland rugby match. 

We went to city center & went to a bar called Sportsman’s. Ordered 2 Guiness and realized we just walked into bookie heaven! It’s amazing to see betting out in the open and so freely done in Ireland. Gentleman were making bets at the bar & at all of the tables. Not many people were watching the match but rather horse racing, so we decided to find a better atmosphere, and better atmosphere we found! Laurel’s was the place to be! It was packed with Irish fans! Loud! Obnoxious! Passionate Irish fans! Luckily we found a table right by the TV and joined in the fun. 

Irish rugby fans reminded me LSU football fans. They expect nothing but perfection and when they don’t get perfection they yell & curse LOUDLY. The amount of F bombs that were thrown around in their lovely Irish accents made us laugh! Ireland ended up besting Scotland 40-10 but weren’t out of the clear yet. Since every team had at least one loss, Ireland needed England to lose by 26 points or win by less than 26 points. The ending of the England v. France game was wild. England was winning by 18 (I think) points with seconds left and all France had to do was kick the ball out of their “end zone” to end the game and have Ireland be crowned champs, BUT NO! They kept trying to run and pass, which could have given England an opportunity to score and get their 26 points. It was a nail biter but the Men in Green pulled out the win for the 2nd time in 2 years. The women also won the next day beating Scotland 73-10! Ireland is king of rugby! 

I want to play rugby. I think I’d be good at rugby & plan to look into it when we get back to New Orleans. 

We walked around city center some more & shopped. We bought ourselves a great coffee table book with some amazing photos of Ireland – you all must come over to see the amazing sights we got to see in person! 

The hike and the excitement of rugby kind of took it out of us and we knew we had a long day of driving a head of us so we called it an early night. We loved Killarney and recommend it to anyone traveling Ireland. 

Sláinte pronounced SL-aun-cha