Budweiser.

It's Monday morning as I am writing this. Every muscle in my body hurts and I'm so sick, I actually have no voice to talk with. But this weekend made it so worth it!

I came to Ireland through a program based out of the US. Though I am the only student studying in Limerick, the program has students at schools all over the UK and Ireland. This weekend, my program took all of us down to Killarney, a small town in County Kerry, to enjoy some outdoor adventures. Killarney is just southwest of Limerick, near the coast, so a girl studying in Galway and I took the bus down to meet up with about 20 Americans coming from Whales, London, Belfast, and almost every school in Ireland. I haven't hung out with this many Americans for this long of a time, probably since I left the airport in Newark! It was great to be able to talk to people who understood things I said, but I was starting to miss the Irish accent by the end of the weekend.

Ashley, from Galway, and I got to Killarney pretty early so we could browse around and enjoy the town on Friday. It is such a cute place, definitely my favorite place in Ireland, so far. It reminded me so much of Rockport or Portsmouth. Just so cute!

So Saturday morning, we all woke up bright and early for some mountain biking in the lovely Killarney National Park. It was gorgeous. The weather held out for us, though it was cloudy all day (good weather in Irish standards). We cycled for about three hours, exploring trails all throughout the park, which circles a lake. I don't have pictures to prove it because I didn't want to risk my camera, so I'll have to wait to steal photos from other people, even though pictures really couldn't do it justice.

We had a nice picnic lunch at Ross Castle (built by the O'Donoghue's in the 15th Centruy) and then spent the afternoon kayaking. It was freezing, but we had wet suits which sort of helped. The kayaking was so much fun. We kayaked around the islands in the lake, Lough Leane, and explored some limestone caves under the islands. Of all the things I thought I would be doing in Ireland, kayaking was definitely not one of them but it is one thing that I will never forget!

By the time we were done with that day, we all about crashed, but just in time to wake up early Sunday morning for some pony trekking! We took horses through a trail and it was so much fun and gorgeous. My horses was named Budweiser (fitting for an American, right?) and he was great..but really old. He had some gray hair and I beard! I didn't know horses could even have beards... I was so worried he would just keel over and die during the riding, but thankfully, he didn't and we both made it back in one piece.

This entire weekend was such a great time of meeting new people and experiencing a whole different side of Ireland than I had seen before! So much for a nice, relaxing weekend, but I wouldn't have traded it for that at all. And now, with no voice, I have to make it through another week of school until more adventures next weekend!