Ireland Day 7 - Flying Home

Our flight was pretty early, so we were up and out of the villa by 5am. At the airport we had one last Irish breakfast (and Brian tried an Irish coffee) before getting on the plane.

Again, I spent most of my transatlantic flight watching movies...

The Princess and the Frog

This was a pretty cute Disney movie. It's about a girl (who works as a waitress, but dreams of opening her own restaurant) who goes on an adventure with a prince (who has been turned into a frog by a voodoo guy). It's all set in New Orleans in the 1920's. It's interesting, because I think it's one of the few Disney movies set in relatively modern times. It's crazy to think that when the Disney brothers first started drawing cartoons (in 1923), all the stuff in this movie would have been very modern (or even in the future), but now the 1920's seem like fairly distant past. Overall, good songs, decent story - definitely not the best Disney film ever (Aladdin) but not bad.

Julie and Julia

This movie tells two parallel stories. One is about Julia Child learning to cook in France in the 1950s, and the other is about a woman named Julie in 2009 (or so) who decides to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child's book and then blog about it. The movie is cute - and the historic info about Julia Child is pretty interesting. I remember watching one of her cooking videos in my high school foods class.

The September Issue

This is a documentary about Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue (in America). She's one of the most well-known figures in the fashion industry (the movie 'The Devil Wears Prada' is supposedly based on her). The documentary was interesting - partly because Anna is interesting, but even more so some of the characters around her - like the style editor who started working at Vogue the same time Anna did. It's also interesting just to see and better understand the process of putting together an issue of a fashion magazine. Some of the photography shoots are very cool.

Ireland Day 6 - County Wicklow and Glendalough

On our last full day in Ireland we decided to visit nearby County Wicklow.

Wicklow has beautiful mountains, so the drive was really nice.

We saw some adorable lambs while driving through.

The main attraction in Wicklow was Glendalough, which includes the remains of a monastic settlement from the 5th century tucked into a valley in the mountains.

It's near two big lakes, so we spent a few hours hiking along the two lakes.

We even saw a waterfall and some wild mountain goats.

On the way home we drove along coast. At one point we found beach access and went to see the Irish Sea.

We decided to have dinner at the bar in our hotel, since we hadn't spent much time there. The food was great! It was a nice relaxing end to the trip.

Day 5 - County Tipperary & County Cork

Friday was our castle day in Ireland. Our first stop was at the Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is an archeological site that's been in use since the 4th century.

From their we drove to Caher Castle - one of Ireland's largest castles, it was built in the 12th century. This seems to be a slightly less well-known tourist attraction, because much more of the castle seemed to be open - you could climb stairs, walk on ledges, and just explore everything.

At this point we were ready for lunch, so we stopped off in Cork for lunch in a pub. There was some kind of horse race going on, and there were lots of people in the pub watching it.

Just outside Cork is the Blarney Castle (and the Blarney Stone)! It was raining a bit, so it wasn't crowded at all, which was nice, since I've heard there can be long lines to kiss the stone. Kissing the stone does seem a little silly, but the castle was really cool - it was about four stories tall, which was pretty amazing to see, and all of the surrounding gardens were really beautiful.

The Blarney stone is at the very top of the castle (and the castle is really tall!) and you have to bend over backwards and stretch to reach it.

Back at home Emily cooked up an amazing meal of sausages and potato stew, and we all watched "The Informant!"

Ireland Day 4 - Ring of Kerry

Day four in Ireland was our most car-intensive day (about 14 hours in the car!). We drove to County Kerry to do the famous scenic drive called the "Ring of Kerry."

It was a beautiful day - we had some really nice blue skies in the morning and lots of amazing views during the drive.

At one point we went off the beaten track a bit and visited a small castle. Ballycarbery Castle was near the town of Caherciveen.

We also went around the Ring of Skellig - an area off the Ring of Kerry where buses can't go (since the roads are too narrow. We got some beautiful views looking over a cliff on the ocean.

However, it was really, really windy.

Towards the end we saw Ladies' View, named for Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting, who enjoyed the spot.

We also stopped at a beautiful lake in Killarney National Park.

When we finally made it back home, Jeff whipped up pasta for dinner and we all watched 'District 9' before falling asleep.