I visited Muckross House and all I got was this lousy sunburn

The following day I set out decidedly on foot, to walk to the Muckross House and Gardens. This lovely estate was about an hour's walk outside of town, just on the edge of the National Park. Although the easy walk was annoying bordered by a busy road and an endless string of B & Bs, I found them to be almost comforting in their peopled-ness.

I took an interesting and antique-filled tour of the House, where Queen Victoria once visited for two nights. Preparing for her stay (the family had 6 years advanced notice) contributed to their unfortunate bankruptcy not long after. Hope it was a great couple of nights, anyway!

From there I leisurely walked around the grounds, taking in the carefully tended gardens and grand views of the lake. With more time on my hands and the weather sunny and warm, I decided to walk up to the Torc Waterfall- a cool and refreshing sight.

My day much more calmly and pleasantly spent, I walked back into town and was joined by a french girl my own age. I didn't realize she was french until about halfway into our walk, at which point we enjoyably switched to her native language instead. She was, she told me, spending five months in Ireland roofing as a volunteer. At least, that is what I thought she said. Turns out she works for Woofing, an acronym of some sort that involves organic farming. Still, it sounded like hard work either way.

That night at the hostel (Cathy had left that morning) I met a young German man who looked to be about 26 but swore he was only 19. In any case, his story was unique. He is bicycling from Cork to Donegal (basically from the southern tip to the northern one) over three months, while teaching himself the Irish national sport of Hurling. He had been apprenticing as an insurance salesman, but he hated it so much he up and came to Ireland in hopes of joining a Hurling team some day soon. I didn't really know what to think, but it was quite the story.

The next morning, I was surprised to find my face bright pink and my chest bright red. Was I sick? But no! I had somehow gotten a pretty good sunburn from my long walk the day before. Even the hostel receptionist looked at me with surprise. "Your friends won't believe you've been in Ireland!" she quiped. Hahaha. Ouch.