Feels like home...

By the way, thanks everyone for leaving comments etc, it's really nice to know you're enjoying it - we're loving writing it.

We started our Shamrockers Irish tour today! It's so much fun, we are loving our tour guide Sean, he's hilarious. As Riana says, "History just sounds so good in an Irish accent!"

(<--- Blarney Castle)

There are about 30 of us in the tour, almost all of them are really lovely, and there are only about 7 who aren't aussies. Couple of kiwis, couple from Japan/Korea, one American and one Canadian.

Today we started early, with a very helpful taxi driver who we could barely understand, and met the Canadian girl (Cassie) who we are now bunking with, along with a couple of aussies and a kiwi. We went straight to the bus and travelled to Abbey Leix (pronounced leaks), where we picked up a coffee and donuts. Just to mention, it was actually really difficult to find a place that takes the cash cards! Yeah, says the travel agent, you can use them anywhere! Not so. ATMs work fine.

From there we travelled through Cork county and Cork city (where every single house looks exactly the same, down to the door colour) stopping at Mitcheltown Caves - the most amazing caves, but we weren't allowed photos. :( We had to climb down narrow stairs, which was a bit on the wobbly-leg side, but it was pretty cool down there. Good acoustics, too.

After the caves we finally made it to Blarney where we had lunch (starving at 3pm!). This was particularly cool, considering it is home to the Blarney Castle, most famous (according to Sean) in the world, because it is the only castle in the world to appear in the Simpsons. We climbed up way, way too many stairs, finally reaching the top, and David, who helped us lean back to kiss the Blarney stone (turty feet up). That was a rush! David was really nice, he pointed out some nearby landmarks after our kissing booth session. (Note the leaning back and being upside down for the kissing - also note David was not involved in said session)

Thanks to some fairly interesting (and some awful) Irish folk music, it wasn't long before we finally arrived in Killarney, a beautiful and romantic little town decked out in Christmas decorations. We settled into our dorm and went out for dinner with our little room-crew. Ordered a pint. Convinced Phillipe to put a coin on the head of his Guinness (which apparently should be thick enough to hold) - unfortunately it was not successful. The bartender managed to arrive just in time to be impressed by the trick. Phillipe drank the beer anyway (might have even improved the taste).

Love,

Bek and Belle

P.S. Embarrassing moment of the day: Bek tried to convert degrees celsius into farenheit for Cassie's sake (Canadian), only to discover Canadians use celsius. :D