Day 2: Picking Up Penny & Conquering Left Lane Driving

After landing at the Dublin airport (a place with which we would become very familiar over the next month) and getting our passports stamped (which is always very exciting to me...I had to get a new passport with my married name, so I'm starting all over with the stamps), we walked over to the Dan Dooley car rental booth. Now, Dan Dooley is an Irish car rental service (obviously, right?), and I highly recommend them if you ever go to the Emerald Isle. The lady there was extremely welcoming and helpful and said things like,"Me and God, we're going to have a conversation about that later." I'm still not really sure what she was talking about, but I liked her.

We jumped on the Dan Dooley shuttle and went to the lot where our precious little barely-bigger-than-a-go-cart car was waiting for us. It was sparkling clean and parked in such a way that it seemed to be saying, "Here I am, I've been waiting for you!" It was a Ford Ka (as in how people in Brooklyn probably pronounce "car") and was a burnt orange or copper color. So, I named her Penny.

Ever since we began planning this trip, Zach had been nervous about driving on the left side of the road, with a stick shift no less. However, I must take a moment to brag on my husband. He seriously can do just about anything he puts his mind to. He conquered those roads and that car like a champ. Penny loved Zach, and Zach was pretty fond of Penny.

We got out of Dublin pretty quickly and headed west toward County Kerry. About halfway, we stopped in Cashel to stretch our legs and get some lunch. Cashel is supposedly the place where St. Patrick first baptized a pagan king of Ireland, and is also the first place I saw sheep during our month in Europe. Zach would later accuse me of being obsessed with those adorable and furry little creatures. Later, we walked around some old abbey ruins in the middle of a field of beautiful green grass.

Refreshed by the crisp air, we got back in the Ka and drove the rest of the very narrow way to County Kerry. Led by some tricky and slightly vague directions I had printed out, we somehow managed to make it to the Eclipse Center, a self-catering equestrian resort and our home for the next 4 nights. We got a great deal on this place and were very impressed by the cleanliness and newness of it all...not to mention the fact that it was inside of the Killarney National Park, which meant beautifulness all around.

Needless to say, we were pretty tired by then, so after a shower and some pizza, we headed to bed.