Wednesday - the Rock of Cashel

When we woke up, Sheena cooked us a wonderful Irish breakfast – fried eggs, tomatoes, bacon, sausage and black and white pudding which is not really pudding at all – it looks like perfectly round sausage but it’s really pig parts and the black is with pigs blood. Janice enjoyed the black pudding very much – sue couldn’t even take a no thank you bite.

After breakfast we headed out with sue behind the wheel – oh what an adventure. Janice took exception to the fact that Sue squealed every time a car went past us on the right hand side when Sue was driving, scaring the piss out of Janice . Janice stated that Sue turned the car into a lawnmower by trimming the hedges on the left whenever a car came in the opposite direction. Mostly we laughed so hard that Sue did pee her pants and had to stop at a restaurant to change (I know - TMI - but it's a huge part of the trip and the fun we had. We stopped at a pharmacy to get Sue some Depends (actually mini pads) because it was obvious to both of us that there was going to be a lot more laughing and peeing. Janice avoided this by stopping to pee every five minutes.

We got directions from someone at the pub the night before – and we tried to follow them, but signage being what it is here, we ended up touring every single small town, which was definitely a delightful outcome. We had lunch in Carlow at a fast food place of sorts (they even had Quarter Pounders on the menu) where sue got a pizza and Janice got chicken and fries. Then we got directions to the rock of cashel from the lady working the counter – she had to make sure we understood, so at least 5 times, using her hand gestures she told us to go “all da way true” the town. We ended up in Portilouse where we came upon a very nice butcher who let us use his toilet (as they call their restrooms) and gave us directions to cashel but wanted us to go to a place he thought was nicer 10 minutes past it. We promised to go but never made it because by the time we finished at the rock of cashel sue was very tired and cranky (and bitchy according to Janice) and just wanted to go to sleep.

The rock of cashel – so beautiful – too hard to describe in words so just look at the pictures or better yet - get your ass on a plane asap and see this place.

Our priority for finding a place this evening was for Sue to get a massage, and a laundry if possible. We spent the night at a beautiful 250 year old country estate outside Dundrum not far from Cashel. It was filled with the most beautiful antique furniture, massive sized rooms with large furniture, each room different from the last. Our sleeping room was huge with 3 twin beds. It had a spa and Sue arranged to get a massage at 8:30 pm while Janice went to swim, sauna and Jacuzzi. We all felt much better and had a nice sleep.