Killarney Day 3

Well this last week has been awfully hectic and a whole lot of fun! It was RAG Week for NUI Galway which is basically a week full of events on campus in order to raise money for charities. This year over 20,000 euro was raised for various charities. RAG Week is also a week that the college students use as an excuse to go crazy so it was definitely a high-energy, fun-filled week for me.

I never finished blogging about my trip to Killarney (although I did hit most of the important points), so I am going to finish it up before I move on to Paris (which was an amazing trip!).

The day after our trip around Kerry, we had a few hours before we needed to leave for Galway. We decided that it would be fun to rent bikes for the day to see some more of Killarney National Park. Either European bikes are different, or I have become very rusty at bike riding because boy was it a struggle to ride those bikes at first. We were all laughing hysterically because it was so hard to get on the bikes, and then difficult to ride without looking all wobbly. You know how everyone says the phrase "it's like riding a bike" referring to how you don't forget certain things? Well that figure of speech no longer makes sense to me.

After five minutes or so, we got the hang of riding bikes again and made our way over to Killarney National Park. Our goals for the day were to see Muckross House, Muckross Abbey, and a waterfall that some people recommended seeing.

Now, not only is the skill of bike riding something that can, in fact, be forgotten, but it is also something that takes some leg muscle. When you are a kid and used to bike riding, you do not realize this. When you are 20 and have not ridden a bike in close to three years, especially uphill, you DEFINITELY realize this (but it's already too late).

We passed Muckross Abbey without stopping (because it looked like every other monastery we have seen in Ireland already), and finally made it to Muckross House. The Muckross House was built from 1839 until 1843 for the Herbert family. At the time it was one of the most modern houses in Ireland and almost completely fireproof. I also recall the tour guide from the bus tour saying that it had running water even though no one else did at the time (but I'm not entirely certain about that). It is a beautiful house, which you can see from both the outside, and tours of the interior. Unfortunately it was closed for the off-season so we were only able to see the outside.




The Muckross House was beautiful; it reminded me of the old mansions in Newport, RI. It even had a very large garden in the back of it (which I could tell will be beautiful in the spring and summer).



In the 1850s, the Herberts prepared the house for a visit from Queen Victoria. Though the Queen did end up staying at their house (remember Lady's View?), they spent so much money on the renovations for her that they went bankrupt and the estate was sold shortly afterward. The third owners of Muckross Estate were Americans and ended up donating it to the state of Ireland in 1932. Muckross Estate thus became Killarney National Park.

Next we biked to a waterfall that many people in Killarney said was worth seeing. Here are some sights along the way:





Although it was very pretty, it was not much of a waterfall. Actually, it was more like a downhill stream.

We were a bit disappointed with the waterfall, but I hear that in the spring it is a lot more impressive so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. It was definitely a peaceful place to be though. (How cool are the roots on this tree?)


There was still an entire day left of our rent and we wanted to get our 12 euro worth of biking in so we explored a bit more of the park, biked into town, got some lunch, returned the bikes, and headed back to Galway. After sitting on a bike all afternoon, walking and even sitting on the bus was a tad bit painful, but it was definitely worth it! Bye Killarney!