A pint, please

The morning in Tramore started out on a positive; mushrooms on the buffet. Shortly afterwards we were on the bus to Waterford, home of Waterford Crystal. The industry is all but gone in the town since 3500 jobs were slashed in 2009, meaning the glass makers have no where to go. Much of Waterford Crystal is now made in Slovakia. This didn't stop us from having a look inside their shop, which still stocked some pre-2009 items (the freaking expensive stuff!)

The trophy for the Irish Open (golf) proudly sits on display next to an impressive bear that costs €30,000. Other than that, if it's made of glass then this place probably has it. Don't get too excited folks, this was far too expensive to get gifts!

Onwards to Blarney, home to a castle and a stone you can kiss. I went up the 100+ spiral, steep and extremely narrow stairs to look, but not kiss the stone. After getting back down we stood on the lush green grass, gazed through the autumn trees and admired what remained of the castle. It was surreal.

We were hungry. I've been in this country for 18 hours and haven't had a Guinness. Walked in, ordered the "best fish in town". Turned out to have more batter than fish. But the pint of the black stuff sailed down the oesophagus smoothly.

Onwards to Killarney! Supposedly the biggest tourist town in the Republic, it sits in the county of Kerry. Now I'm a huge fan of sports and have recently taken an interest in Gaelic Football. Kerry has just won their thirty-seventh GAA All-Ireland title and the whole place is celebrating. Just about every house has a green and gold chequered flag on its mailbox, the colours of Kerry County. Shops have posters plastered with "CHAMPIONS!" and any proud local will mention number 37! 

We check into the hotel. There's a single and a queen bed. Poppy chooses the single, wow, ok...yay!! Off to our second optional excursion, mind you we are doing all of the optionals on this tour.

Nigel drove us down a very long narrow road where no tourist would ever dream of going. There it was. Two boots hanging upside down in a barrel and an old rusted "Guinness sold here" sign. We were at The Shanty, a 150 year old pub. Walked in to find two gentleman having a Guinness, one with an accordion. They were the Craic for the evening. Craic is a Gaelic word for someone who entertains, mainly at pubs and normally in the "old days". They sang Irish ballads with some old Australian and American classics thrown in. In amongst all of this was a few jokes, told like an old Irish tale. The delivery was spot on! Sooo funny. I think two pints of Guinness helped!

It was sad leaving. Then the Cosmos bus magically turned into a party bus. We were buzzing! Everything from the YMCA to the Chicken Dance were played from the comfort of our seats. What a great drive home.

Not being the biggest fan of Guinness I get on the Bulmers cider when we have dinner at the hotel pub (yes there's a pub inside our hotel!). A chicken Fajita later I'm full of cider and chicken and it's time for bed. What a day...bring on tomorrow.