INK? Brush death to kiss the Blarney Stone

On the fourth day of our tour through Ireland, the four of us had made our way down to Cork in the southern part of the country.  We were getting the hang of the backpacking thing, but were already tired of busses and we weren’t even half way through the week.  Despite that and the ever-present wet chill in the air, we gambled against the looming dark clouds and climbed aboard the open-topped, double-decker bus and embarked on a day’s worth of sightseeing around the city and out to one of Ireland’s most famed stops: Blarney Castle.

INK? Then don’t forget Kilkenny

Nore River

Following our pubcrawls and a day of taking the long way to the Guinness Brewery, my traveling partners and I excitedly headed out for our first bus ride of the trip on to our next destination down south.  Along the way was a little town called Kilkenny (population 26 thousand and some change), and I had been following them on Twitter for the past months of planning the trip to Ireland.  They were always tweeting about art exhibitions, poetry and music events, and other festivals at various venues, and gave me the impression this was a quaint but lively little town not to be missed.

INK? Then take the long way to the Guinness Brewery

We – my sisters, cousin and me on our first trip together to Ireland – got a late start on the morning from the pubcrawl the night before and missed the free walking tour Barnacles Temple Bar Hostel was putting on, so we decided to make our own way.  Hung over and tired, what we wanted were some pints of Guinness and the Guinness Brewery was our ultimate destination of the day, but we knew we needed to take at least a few sites of the city, so we decided to walk the other way and check out a few of Dublin’s highlights first.

We started at Dublin Castle, which resembles more of a square and city hall than anything.  Once home to Ireland’s royals, it’s now a center of government for the capital city.

                                    

INK? Then spend fabulously in Positano

The day after I was in Naples, I took the tram back to the station to catch a train further south to the Amalfi Coast.  I’m going to warn you – there isn’t much of a story here because I didn’t really do much here.  Not much but stare at the exceptional beauty, eat exceptional food, drink exceptional wine, watch an exceptional sunset, and enjoy an exceptional state of feeling fabulous.

Before I ever traveled or did anything with my life, and long before that dumb movie Bucket List came out, I wrote a 101 Things I Want to Do Before I Die list.  And visiting Italy – or what I imagined Italy would be – was #30-something.  This whole trip has been a small dream come true, and I saved getting down to the Amalfi Coast for last because I knew it would be the highlight of checking this number off.

There are several cities you can stay in when visiting the Amalfi Coast, Amalfi being one of them and Positano being another.  If you’ve ever seen Under the Tuscan Sun (a much better movie than the aforementioned), Positano is the town in which Marcello lives and takes Francis to when they’re looking for the chandelier.  That alone has become a cheesy reason for me to visit the town, only to be able to say “I’ve been there!” when I watch the movie.  But the Amalfi Coast is one of the top tourist attractions in Italy, and Positano came as one of the highest recommended places to see.