Off to see the Kerry Nolans!

Karen got us train tickets to visit her and her family in Kerry for the weekend. We hopped on the train early that morning, with our names digitally over our seats, which is pretty cool. Just after lunch we got into Farranfore where her Da came to pick us up. Just as we got off the train trying to mind many of her bags she was moving home with, I nearly forgot my own, oops. As we appeared at Chez Nolan I could smell something YUMMY wafting from the kitchen. Bacon and cabbage! Her Da is a good cook and I devoured the mean before we set off for the Crag Caves. As we headed into Castleisland I noticed how wide the street was. This may not seem like a big thing, but this was the second widest road in Ireland. O'Connell Street in Dublin is first. Of course, these are about as wide as Burnside.

We walked through the Crag Caves where huge underground rivers once flowed. It was a strange tour sine we were the only two on it, and the guy givingt the tour used to go to school with Karen so he would talk to us about what she has been up to, and then she would say things like Ladies and Gentlemen, over here..... There were Reindeer there for Santa so we took a few pics of them before doing our own bit of Christmas shopping. Her Da just waited patiently in the car for us. When we headed back to her house we stopped and Grandma and Grandpa Nolan's house. We had a spot of tea accompanied with bread, tomatoes, cheese and some butter. It was just the snack I needed. I did have a bit of a hard time with the Kerry accent, but it started to come to me in the end. We got to her house just in time for me to meet her mom Margaret. She was off to her company dinner. Dave made us girls a nice fire to curl up in front of and watch a movie. When our movie was over we headed into the town to get some din din at the chipper. As we go into town we saw a parallel parking a Lamborghini tractor in town to pick up some take away. Now that is a sight you don't normally see. The chipper was packed as I scanned the board to see what I wanted. There was stuffing and coleslaw chips. curry chips, or mushy peas on chips?! I like gravy and chips, or even cheese on my chips, but mushy peas. Those country folk are strange here for what they cover their chips in. The stuffing and coleslaw was actually quite good and went well with our fried chicken. Then it was off to bed, it was so quiet and peaceful I slept like a rock until I heard my phone vibrating, which really was just the cows mooing from across the street, HA!

We slept in Saturday and had a filling breekie before heading to Killarney. We spent the sun filled morning walking through the the national park, muckross, hiked up to torc waterfall and stopped at some ruins. After running around the place, we saw a man pull up in his horse and cart pulling some tourists. We had our jelly babies sweets and when the horse Padrig heard the crinkle of the packaging he bee lined in straight to Karen. We got to feed the horse and your man took our picture with the horse and castle in the background. If we had been a couple, it would have made a perfect Christmas Card picture. Next stop was Killarney town where we shopped successfully for our Christmas dinner outfits. While at the grocery store for some nappies, I noticed a special spraypainted logo on the parking and it was for child/parent. Now that is something new. Killarney is a great town, and was so alive with tourists, markets, shoppers and life. After our crepe snack, it was back home for some homecooked supper. While Karen repacked her suitcase and did some chores, I took a long HOT bath and headed to bed. The train ride up was nap time and I finally could feel refreshed enough to do the push just before Christmas.