It's hard to come back down from a trip to Ireland as those of you who have been there will know!  I don't want to either!  I've started my scrap book of photos which I'm glad to say mostly turned out good, just another way to keep the magic happening as I look at them all!

After the hair raising Moll's Gap we stopped at Mac's in Killarney for dinner for a second time.  We were pleased with prices and the service and loved our home made Irish coffee ice cream for dessert.  Went back to the B&B to rest for our long journey the next day.  En route to Kilkenny, we took Michele's advice to stop at Cahir Castle.  Very good advice indeed!  It was lovely.  We had originally planned to do Blarney Castle before but we had decided it was too far out of the way to fit into our plans that day.  Oh well, next trip perhaps!  After Cahir we went on to Cashel.  The country side is beautiful.  We actually saw corn fields!  I found the geography to be quite differant than the west and south west.  The roads were easier to navigate now as well, or could that have been due to our ever increasing confidence driving?  I do think the roads are better around there.  Well, there it was, the Rock of Cashel, quite a magnificant sight from down below it.  We found the traffic in Cashel quite bad as we tried to find the road to get to the Rock.  A few honks later and we finally found it!  For some reason we could not find our way out of this confusing town and I found a man who had pulled over on the side of the road to let his greyhounds...well..you know...give us directions.  He actually did more than that.  He had us follow him out of town on our route, which I thought extraordinarily nice of him!  He even offered to take us right to Kilkenny!  But I told him "we'll be fine now".  My friend thought he may have been flirting with me, which never hurt anyone!  He was very gentlemanly about it anyway.  We had tried to book Alcantra as per Michele's suggestion, but unfortunately they were booked right up.  So we ended up doing one night at Hillgrove just outside of Kilkenny.  It was a beautiful home with a lovely host and hostess, Margaret and Tony Drennan.  I loved our room and our view and our breakfast the next morning.   Afterwards we noticed the award for Margaret's "Best Breakfast" on the wall!  They were very accommodating as to our plans and guided us on to our next B&B.  We had wanted to stay right in Kilkenny but couldn't find a a room for the Saturday night, which is why we stayed outside of town our first night.  The next B&B Dunromin was not far and Val and Tom settled us in our huge room right away.  We felt welcomed with open arms there for sure.  They were very resourceful about the town and the area, ready, willing and able to help us plan our day!  We had actually sat at an outdoor pub on the main corner of Kilkenny the night before and were quite amazed at all the goings-on.  I believe it was Bill who had told me that there would be lots of Hen and Stag parties there on a Saturday night!  Very comical to watch!  The girls all wearing strange get-ups such as bunny ears traipsing the streets in search of the next bar!  Apparently the town is divided on these shenanigans, half cater to the Dublin crowd(which is apparently where they all come from every single Saturday night of the year!) and the other half want a stop put to it!  I can't say I blame the latter half really if it's every weekend.  We noticed a fair amount of litter in the streets, which isn't to say that it's from these nights, all the same it's a shame to see such a beautiful town disrespected in this way.  Our second day in the area was spent just wandering around and up at the castle.  We did the tour which was awesome.  I though it an especially terrific castle, mainly the art room.  As a matter of fact I enjoyed all the artwork in the castle.  As I am an artist myself I think it was phenomenal to stand before these canvases and let my imagination go wild.  Unfortunately I had forgotten some important papers at home which included Cory's walking tour, so we were quite dismayed when I discovered their absence.  We did view the Black Abbey and St. Canice's Cathedral before heading off to see Inistioge which we fell in love with.  By then it had started raining which happened a fair amount on our trip.  On our way back to Kilkenny we stopped at Jerpoint Abbey and borrowed umbrellas while there.  I loved the solitude of the place and as with many others your imagination roams wild as to what it might have been like in its heyday.  All of this journeying was very tiring so we headed home for a "rest" before going to Cleere's Pub for some good craic that evening.  First time I saw someone playing the "uilean(sp.?) pipes which was wonderful!  There was a fellow there telling stories of old and another whistling entire songs with the accompanying musicians...entirely cool!  Our host at the B&B, Tom had a singsong with us as he played a squeezebox and foot pedaled a bodhran which added to our delight of our Ireland experience.  Also in Kilkenny, I saw my first ever "live" monk.  Excuse my ignorance, but I really hadn't known they still exist, which I though fascinating!  I must say Kilkenny was a terrific eye opening experience.

The next day we were off to Glendalough.  We toured the visitor centre before making our way to the monastic ruins and around the beautiful lakes.  It was very peaceful and stunningly beautiful.  The forest was so green and lovely and cool.  My friend spotted a mushroom that was very interesting looking...red with yellow polka dots!  Another magical moment.  After that excursion we dined in the "Wicklow Heather".  We loved the food and the fact that they capped off your dinner with a shot of Baileys(very nice touch indeed!). 

Powerscourt was our main destination the next day.  Of course it was raining again which didn't bode well for picture taking of the awesome gardens, but we did manage a few.  I bought myself a bodhran while there, adding to my already expanding suitcase!  We both wanted to see the seaside so we toured to the town of Wicklow.  Very beautiful, but we opted not to eat there as we didn't find it the friendliest town.  So again we headed to the "Wicklow Heather".  Thanks for that suggestion as well Michele!  We finally tried banofee pie, now I can see why everyone loves it so!  After dinner we went back to the B&B and I waited awhile so I could call my husband at home.  By this point we were both starting to get a little homesick(I know...sounds crazy, doesn't it?) but I really missed him.  I guess I was a little upset after talking to him and accidentally(stupidly!) locked the keys in the car!  I panicked all night long about it, but after a few phone calls in the morning, the car company sent someone out to extract them free of charge.  One woman at Shannon airport where we had rented the car said it would be 12 - 48 hrs and about 150 euro to get a new key!  I was really panicking after that conversation!  Thankfully it didn't work out that way!  After waiting the next morning for my knight in shining armour we started the last leg of our journey into Dublin airport to drop off the car.  We took a taxi to our next destination, the Harcourt Hotel.  Dublin was kind of a blur to me as we only had really one and a half days to explore it.  But that was all I really needed as I'm not really a city person.  I made all the points of interest on my hit list which included, St. Stephan's green, the Book of Kells, Ha'Penny Bridge, Temple Bar district, Christ Church Cathedral, the National Gallery(my personal favourite), Grafton Street, Guiness Storehouse(really enjoyed the Gravity Bar), and the tart with the cart(whoops!  I mean the statue of Molly Malone!).  I was disappointed that they had unistalled the statue of Anna Livia which I had also wanted to see, although one of our cab drivers pointed out other statues with colourful monikers as their names which made us laugh!  We were quite homesick by this point when we went to dine in a second story restaurant , can't remember the name, but we were quite unimpressed with it until my friend motioned for me to look out the window behind me and strangely enough there was a Canadian flag floating right beneath the window.  We knew the journey was over for now!  You're probably all thinking what a wimp I am for becoming homesick, but I've decided next time I come I'll come with the man that will prevent that from happening again...my dear husband!!!  I do not regret this journey at all, except that I couldn't share it with him!  Now I will look forward to everyone else's stories so that I can relive my dream trip from time to time!  Thanks once again Michele and fellow forum members for all your valuable knowledge in helping me to make this a vacation to remember!