Ireland

We (I) decided to interact with the wildlife at the castle before we headed on to our next destination.  There was a small electrified fence between me and the donkeys and I decided I jump over it.  Ok...not really...there was one low spot that I was able to step over.  Can you imagine me trying to run and jump over a fence.  HA...that may have been the end of the vacation. 

The Donkeys were very nice and friendly.  The let me come right up to them and pet them.  I think they really liked the guests of the castle.  Look...Gretchen also joined in on the animal fun.

But...this was my object.  I really really really wanted to touch the miniature house and the baby miniature horse.  Aren't they adorable? At first I concentrated all my efforts becoming a Ninja and using stealth to creep up on the little horses.  Um...the were not fooled.  Then I tried to pretend I was walking to the end of the pasture to "inspect" the fence.  Again...I wasn't fooling the horses.

Then I tried an all out run in their direction.  I am pretty sure I heard them laughing at my pathetic attempt to catch them.  I think they even taunted me..."Hey Lady...we have 4 legs and you only have two.  Give it up as it is never going to happen."  They were right.  They never let me get close enough to pet them and I was very disappointed.

This is me walking back to the Donkeys after I admitted defeat.  I was pretty annoyed.

Gretchen and I wanted to make sure to properly photograph the entire grounds of the castle so here I am with the lion statue.

We spent the next few hours driving to Killarney and then we drove through their National Park.  It was super awesome.  The park was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  It was green and beautiful and gigantic.  We decided to take a little horse cart ride in the park and the guy driving our horse provided us with some of the best insight on the locals.  The guy we met worked as an orderly at a local psychiatric hospital and he and Gretchen had a great discussion on the Irish health care system.  He also told us a bit about the countries economy from his perspective.  Apparently, there was a large boom in their economy a few years ago and the Irish opened their borders and allowed mass immigration. It is difficult to get locals to work in the service industry and most service workers come from Eastern Europe.  But he was very clear to say that they only allowed "white" immigrants.  I had no idea that the country was so racist.  Shortly after the immigration boom the economy took a horrible turn for the worse and jobs and money dried up. But the Irish constitution allows for all immigrants to partake in the generous social welfare system.  So part of the problem in turning their country back around is having too many unemployed people draining the governmental funds. 

Gretchen and I being silly as we walked up to the local waterfall.

Beautiful!

The driver told me that the water was very pure and I could drink it if I wanted to.  So I did.  Yea...it was a bit awkward to climb around on the rocks so I could take a sip of water.  And...it tasted like water.

Finally, I was done driving and I could enjoy several beers with dinner.

Beer #2  I believe my eyes were getting a bit glazed over.

And Beer #3

We were hanging out in a pub listing to some traditional Irish music.

The music was good and the beer was even better.  Another great day in Ireland.