Friday, Day 5 of Ireland Adventure

Friends,
Killarney is a beautiful town up in the mountains with a national park attached to the town. The park has 3 lakes or Loughs(locks). One is huge and the other 2 are much smaller. Our trip to Killarney was uneventful except I left my towel at the hostel. The streets here are even more narrow. Our hostel is a Paddy's Hostel because the second nite is free. A 2 for 1 sale. It is almost in the center of town, much smaller than Dublin's. They are renovating it so we got a 2 bunker with a couple from Australia. And this bathroom is actually ensuite. So many young people we've met are on tours around the world. I surely didn't have that kind of money when I was young.
Tom and I went to the park first, before going to the hostel. We visited Muckross traditional farm villages. You walk around and see recreated farms from the 30's and 40's. There was a small, medium, large and laborer's farms. Boy it makes you appreciate what we have now. No outhouses even. Just potty pans that they emptied every AM on the compost heap. Every cottage, which we are not supposed to say, because a cottage actually belonged to to a laborer, had flower pots in the windows. They used turf(dried peat) with some wood for their fires. Cooked eveything in a fireplace just like our pioneers. The large farm however had a black cookstove in their kitchen. They also used older children from other farmers as servants or handimen, field workers or dairy helpers. Everyone worked hard to make a living then and they valued what they owned.
After that tour we had a cuppa to warm up( Did I mention it was cold and windy?) and off we went again to walk to Muckross House, a huge mansion. We didn't go in because how many rooms of finery, fancy furniture and paintings can you see before they all resemble each other? We continued walking to see the Muckross Abbey ruins. Very impressive structure with a Yew tree growing in the middle of it. Apparently the Yew held a special meaning.
After that I was exhausted so we checked into our hostel. Our room has a new wood floor and curtains! And the bath has a shower with a regular handle you don't have to hold in. What a luxury. I wanted to buy more pants and a sweatshirt so we went to a store called Penney's, just not our Penney's. Clothes in my budget. Then we went walking around to find a place to eat and finally settled on Caraigh,(Carrack). Their smoked bacon is our ham. You wouldn't believe the proportions. Tom and I split that and a bowl of seafood chowder. It was way too much and now my tummy is not happy. After a hot shower I am heading to bed. TaTa to all. Love you mom.---You all will have to wait until later for the pics, they are not uploading. :(