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This morning we arrived in Killarney, Ireland. Our bus driver warned us this is the Las Vegas of Ireland and we were there on a Saturday, so expect some craziness.
The first thing our group did was tour the Muckross house, which is a big, beautiful historic home you can tour right outside of Killarney. The home is known as the place where Queen Victoria stayed for 2 nights as a guest. The owners of the home were hoping that she would write good things about her stay there so they could get some funding for the estate. Unfortunately, her husband passed shortly after and she forgot all about the visit. The estate eventually went bankrupt and now is available to the public for tours.
We saw many of the rooms including the drawing room, bedrooms, bathrooms and downstairs we were brought to the servants corridors. The servants corridors had a room with a giant loom for weaving sheep's wool, a kitchen with brass pots and pans and a bell system. The bell system ran throughout the house and each room had a pull cord (just like Downton Abbey) that corresponded to a bell downstairs. The bells all had different pitches so the servants knew based on the pitch which room their services were needed in. They removed the bells in the kid's rooms, and I'm sure you can guess why!
After the house tour, we walked around the rock garden, the lake walk and river path. It was absolutely beautiful, most of which had been established just for the queens visit. In fact, they brought in many non-native species of plants just for the queen which are now growing out of control on several areas of the island. The non-native species are thriving because of the heavy rain fall and mild temperatures.
In the afternoon we took a carriage ride around the town of Killarney. Now today is our first year anniversary, and unfortunately I was spending it away from Jason in a carriage ride in Ireland. Couldn't have been a more romantic setting! Oh well :)
That night we had a concert in Killarney. The crowd was great, we had a really good turn out. I also thought we sang really well. It has been fun singing Irish songs as well as our regular repertoire, including the Irish Prayer and Parting Glass. After the concert a good amount of us went to a few bars and listened to Irish music and drank Jameson and Guinness. I even tried a "baby Guinness" which is a tiny little shot of a coffee flavored liquor that they put into a mini beer glass to look like a Guinness.
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