Corking Good Time

Friday, we rented a somewhat strange, oversize, odd looking vehicle and drove to Cork. Good times. While exhausted by trying to find where our hostel was (the street networking system is a little odd around, and the people really have no idea how to give decent directions. "Go down that road for a bit, take a right, it's on the corner. You can't miss it." Right.) we still managed to explore the town a bit and see some sites.

Saturday morning, we decided to take a bus trip to Killarney, a nice little town. Beautiful drive. While there, we rented bikes and rode to Ross Castle (which has been at the same spot for a long, long time).

A word about the weather here in Ireland (and Scotland for that matter). Beautiful. Every where we have gone it's been nice. All the locals say it's been raining the whole summer (I'm sure it's global warming, right?) but that the last two weeks have been great.

Riding in Ireland is really interesting. I'm quite independent, and the whole concept of telling me to wear a bike helmet makes me very irritated with big brother and the works. But no such problem in Ireland. lots of people riding bikes. No helmets.

But this is the place that we really need them. Honestly, this was the first time in my life that I really wished I could have been wearing a bike helmet. Narrow roads, with somewhat different driving styles, and you're riding a bike on the shoulder. A little scary.

Anyway, we rode to the castle, then we're making our way to the Killarney National Park when it was determined that there probably wasn't time for us to all make it and back. Well, Blogger had all sorts of energy. So I rode on, saw about half of the National Park (they don't make 'em the same way as in the states, but it definitely was beautiful), then returned the bike about fifteen minutes earlier (it was a fast ride). After that, I took the bus back (But evidently a different one, since I haven't seen the rest of the crew yet. Via email I have been informed that everyone is back in Cork).

Everyone is so into talking here in Ireland. Everyone is like Seth. They just can't walk by and say a simple "hi." A good long talk is in order. The people are definitely fun.