In Pursuit of Happiness...: Killarney

Just a small February flood.

We arrived in Killarney after a hefty dose of driving to check into the International Hotel which was located in a perfect downtown location. It was so centrally located that we parked our car where the horse and carriages normally park during peak tourist season. We did our homework and researched a few highly rated places to eat and hit the streets for a nice dinner and perhaps a stop at an Irish Pub. We located three of the restaurants on our list and all three were closed for the off season or only open on Friday and Saturdays. Monday night was not very popular for local restaurants. We found a Bar that Paul looked into before we left for vacation, Courtney's Bar. It was one of the few open establishments, so we decided to give it a try, maybe they had some fries or something. We ordered a pint and I finally tried an Irish Whiskey. There were only two other locals in the bar, so we chatted for a moment and they asked us why the heck we decided to come to Ireland in January?!? Haha, it was too funny. The bartender gave us each a glass of complimentary scotch to celebrate! We then took his suggestion for food down the road at Murphy's Bar. We ordered the cheapest thing on the menu and found out that Killarney is a very expensive town that relies on almost exclusively tourism.

View into Kilarney National Park

One of my favorite pictures from our Honeymoon.

For our full day in Killarney, we started by driving to Ross Castle. This is where we realized that many of the attractions on our Heritage Pass cards were closed in the off season to tourists. There were only two local men, a dog, a flooded parking lot and some flooded boats. However, we managed to get some great pictures and from there we decided to check out the Killarney National Park which has quite a few attractions nestled inside. We went to the Abbey and when we pulled into park, we found a couple that I took a picture for in Killkenny at the castle. Haha, we asked if they were perhaps doing the Groupon tour too, turns out there were! Haha crazy that we continued to go to the same destinations at about the same time. They told us to drive between each attraction, and unfortunately we thought we needed the walk and ended up spending most of our day in the park on foot.

Muckross Abbey.

Storm clouds are moving in.

We walked around on a self guided tour in the Abbey.

First we went to the Abby, where people today are still burried. It was nicely preserved and you could take the stairs to three levels. Afterward we started in the direction of Muckross House. We took the hiking trail which put us right on the bay. We arrived and found out the next tour wasn't leaving for a while so we used the time gap to quickly walk back to the Torc Falls. I was moving my legs as fast as possible to keep up with Paul on the wooded walking trails. The walk was beautiful, but we knew our feet were going to be tired by the end of it. The falls were well worth the trek back. They were a wonderful sight.

Center tree in the Abbey.

Muckross house on the other-hand was probably not worth the wait. I think our tour guide was an off season veteran, but basically what we took away from the experience is that rich people bought the house, went bankrupt and then more rich people bought it. That set of rich people died from pneumonia and then someone took all the land and gave it to the government as a national park. The house was well preserved, but we were unfortunately not able to take pictures. Hunting was a big hobby with those who lived there and I wanted to take a picture of some of the sweet mountings, but no dice. After freezing through a very slow tour, we finally escaped to walk in the rain to our car. Haha, it was funny looking back, but unfortunately we wasted a good portion of daylight in that dark, cold, old estate.

Muckross House, and interesting tour indeed.

Paul in Kilarney National Park.

We went back into town to warm up by a coffee shop near our hotel, and the Georgia Groupon couple walked in. Haha, we seriously thought alike. Turns out they were also on their honeymoon, were living off of granola bars, and thought the prices in this town were outrageous. HAhah. Perfect.