The first day of our official holiday did not start well. No longer was it the reeking Italian, but a very annoying Irish woman who works for National Car Rental. I had arranged that my insurance would be covered by my gold credit card, but she did not believe me. She tried to call the number on the back of the card, but after one try, she packed it in and said there was nothing she could do for us.

We then walked rather dispiritedly to a village down the road and found an internet cafe where we printed off the VISA agreement we had previously made. Then it was back to see the Irish woman. This time she said that the contract did not explicitly say that southern Ireland was covered!!!!

Luckily, at this moment her superior showed up, and she had the patience to get us past step one of the VISA agreement and gave us the all clear for the rental. I was furious, especially when the Irish woman said goodbye to us with a cheery, "Well at least this didn't take up too much of your day!" It took three hours!!

I cannot even imagine her trying to do that to my parents, or to anyone over 40. Ageism strikes! I took a while to cool down.

Thank goodness the drive was gorgeous, and I quickly forgot my worries and remembered how cool this trip actually is. We stopped in a tiny village called Craignamanagh. This is probably spelt totally wrong, but it sounds something like this. My Canadian friend Ciaran Tierney had told me that I HAD to go there, as it is so beautiful. He is quite right.

We had a little walk through the town and found a perfect little pub for Amy to sip her first Guinness in Ireland. We also had a good talk with the proprietor. She has owned the place for 50 years. I soon found myself liking the Irish again. Not all Irish women were mouldy Mollies like the car rental woman.

Later in the day we walked around the city of Kilkenny for a few hours, but couldn't find anywhere where we wanted to eat so we drove the 15 minutes to our hostel ...which masquerades as Foulksrath Castle. I am not sure where Diana found these exotic places, but the castle was amazing! The place was creepy, and the lady in charge barely noticed us. She didn't care what we did as long as she didn't see us.

We were also the only ones there: A lot of fun. We ate at the only place to eat in the entire village, and I am very pleased we took the time to wait for dinner. We ate in someone's kitchen and had three options on the menu: Chicken; roast beef; or my favourite, lamb. The food was out of this world. We had a three course meal, while enjoying some of the friendliest eating companions you could ask for, and all for 15 euros. For us, this was the deal of the year.

This morning we were up bright and early and drove up the west coast to Cashel where we took a little walk round some ruins before heading up to Killarney, the town where we are staying the night. En route, we stopped in Killarney National Park for a three hour walk through the area, and we had a great time there too, while keeping up our fitness. After a long day in the park, it felt great to walk about a bit and the scenery was nothing less than stunning. We ate supper watching a soccer game at a local pub, I could get used to being Irish and living here.

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