Before leaving the hotel at quarter past 9, we had breakfast. The restaurant had nice breakfasts like a full Irish breakfast or French toast, but I settled for cereal and yogurt. When it was time to go, Brian came into the lobby and commented on how he couldn’t park the bus outside for very long. One of the boys said, “Is this a subtle hint for us to start boarding?” Brian looks at him with all seriousness and said, “No, this is me telling you to hurry the bloody hell up and get on the bus.” We all laughed and got moving.

Our first stop was Cahir Castle, and the first stop at the castle? The restrooms, which were located actually in the castle. This led to a stream of comments in the girls’ restroom: “We’re peeing in a castle!” “I’m on a throne!” After the bathroom break, a few of us paused for a quick photo shoot with the portcullis before meeting up with the rest of the group for the tour.

After the tour, we had a chance to explore on our own…and climb up the narrow, unprotected stairs. One misstep and you’d be falling from the castle wall to the green courtyard below. In America, there would be signs everywhere telling you to keep off this and not to climb that because otherwise stupid Americans would be falling and suing out the wazoo. In Ireland, however, you can climb wherever, it’s just at your own risk. We had too much fun taking pictures and exploring.

The next stop was the Rock of Cashel. We expected another fun castle to play around in, but the Rock of Cashel is the ruins of a cathedral not a castle. We don’t get very excited about cathedrals anymore, so once our guided tour ended, Dr. Harbin, Elise, Matt, Aric, and I descended the hill and went to the ruins of an old abbey that we saw from the top of the hill. We jumped a stone fence and crossed a muddy, uneven field to get to the ruins. Sure we’ve also had our fill of abbeys, but this one was different because it was unmanned. This means no rules…climb wherever you please. The boys loved this...

Our last stop was Holy Cross Abbey, which was more of a pit stop than anything else. We walked around the building, saw its piece of the True Cross, and left. We had a late lunch at McDonald’s (I know, very Irish) before heading back to Greystones.