ROCK OF CASHEL, IRELAND

We left JFK Saturday night at 10:30pm and arrived in Dublin at 10:30 Sunday morning. Our redeye flight turned out to be pretty awesome because they oversold coach so we got upgraded to Business Class..the service and the seats were amazing!! After cleaning up and changing in the airport bathroom, we hopped into our rental car and realized that we had two huge challenges: 

1. Ryan had to drive on the wrong side of the road in a manual car while shifting with his left hand

2. I (having absolutely NO sense of direction) was in charge of getting us from point A to point B with as few u-turns as possible 

Our first stop was the Rock of Cashel, a historical landmark whose history of the site dates back to AD 450 and St. Patrick himself. We first explored the quaint town center

The castle and cathedral were built upon the rock for strategic positioning and protection

Once inside we realized that I would have fit in well with the Monks. After watching everyone ducking to get through the doorways I breezed right through, and probably still would have made it on my tip toes!

Ryan wanted to see what life would have been like for the Monks so he sat in the light of the window sill where the Monks used to read..(which was behind the velvet rope!)

St. Patrick's Cross in the courtyard with stunning views

Relaxing in the castle

Graveyard behind the cathedral...I have a weird fascination with old graveyards!!

Ryan goofing around in the sarcophagus

Still enjoying the graveyard

Ryan showing off his handstand skills in front of the castle

Climbing the outside wall..gives you an idea of just how big the castle really is

The stone work was so impressive, especially considering how old everything is

Posing...

HORE ABBEY

In the fields below the Rock of Cashel is the ruins of this 13th century Abbey. There were paths leading to there but we somehow missed them and created our own way over there. Ryan looked over a rock wall and said that he saw a path so he helped me over to our "path" which was the grass field

Realizing that we hadn't taken a picture together yet

Ryan climbing the ruined wall

Then climbing into what used to be a door and the now non-existent second floor

And then climbing some more...he was like a little kid in there!

The two of us

So, we took Ryan's "path" back to the castle which was full of thistles. I was trying to avoid walking on them since I was in flip flops so when I saw a large flat rock I stepped onto it to save my feet. Only to find out that it wasn't a rock...it was a cow patty!! I screamed and Ryan turned around to see me standing there next to it and trying to figure out how I didn't notice the HUGE pile of poop!! I then had to tell him that I actually deliberately stepped in the cow patty... luckily I had wetone's in purse and Ryan to clean off my shoe!

After a very eventful and long day we got back in the car and headed to our Bed and Breakfast for the night, which was about 2 hours away in Blarney. When we got into our room we sat on the bed (both exhausted after only sleeping a few hours on the plane the night before) and were asking each other what we wanted to do for the rest of the night. Ryan suggested that we relax until 7 and then go check out the town, I then had to inform him that it was already 8:30! The sun didn't set until around 10:30-11pm there! After deciding that we didn't need to go out we continued to just lay there. We didn't even manage to get changed, brush our teeth or wash our faces..we were out!!