Friday was one of the only days of the trip where we didn't have a super early wake-up call for planned activities. So instead of sleeping in, I decided to explore Killarney National Park on a run.

The entrance to the park was a short ways from the hotel, and one of the hotel employees gave me directions on how to get there and told me I'd be very safe, and I'd only have to worry about seeing very large deer.

So around 6:30 a.m., I set off to explore.

I ran up past St. Mary's Cathedral, which was gorgeous, but wasn't open yet to the public. I made a note to put it on my list to check out the inside later that day.



A block or so later, I turned into the entrance of the park and got lost (not literally) in nature.



The park was stunning and my four or five mile run through it was actually one of the best parts of the trip because it was one of the few times I had alone time to just admire the scenery around me.

Maybe about a half mile into the park, I definitely encountered those deer I had been warned about, and oh my goodness, they were massive. I grew up in PA, so I've seen deer in my life, but nothing like these suckers.



I was a little worried they'd be scared of me and as a result run at me, so I started making a lot of noise and basically talking to them as I ran by. I figured loud noises would keep them away.

I continued to explore the park on foot, crossing over rivers, with my ultimate destination being Ross' Castle at the bottom of the park,

I wasn't sure how far away I was from the castle, but then I suddenly crested a hill and the trees parted and there was the castle in the distance. I mean seriously, where else in the world can you be running through a national park and then see a castle in the distance?! Definitely only in Ireland.



I ran out to the castle, passed a park ranger who said "Top o' the morning to ya" and then cut out of the park to the main road back to my hotel.





View from the castle grounds

After a shower and a full Irish breakfast (so.much.food), we boarded the bus that would be taking us on our tour of the Ring of Kerry. The Kerry Peninsula is one of the pretty well-known attractions in Ireland because of it's gorgeous views of the ocean and surrounding tiny towns.





Our first stop was to see some Kerry Bog ponies. These little miniature horses were super friendly, and Emily and I obviously made immediate friends.





We stopped at several other places along the ring to take in the views.



This gorgeous river cutting through the hills pretty much perfectly captures Ireland.



We also stopped further along the ring to get views of the Atlantic Ocean and in the distance the Dingle Peninsula.





Dingle Peninsula from the Ring of Kerry

Every time we stopped and got off the bus, we couldn't get over how green the grass was and how blue the water was. Truly, it was like something you'd only see in the movies (which is perhaps why the last scene in the most recent Star Wars movie was filmed on an island right off the coast of the Ring of Kerry!)



One of the more fun things we did on the tour was getting a demonstration of sheep herding from a shepherd and his dogs.



The shepherd demonstrated how the dogs responded to both voice and whistle commands and could round up a whole herd of sheep that were grazing on the side of a big hill.

We spent the rest of the afternoon stopping in various little towns along the Ring of Kerry. I explored a church, saw a very random statue of Mary on the side of the road, put my feet in the sand on some Irish beaches and marveled how just how pretty everything was.


Toms in the sand





We got back to Killarney pretty early in the evening, which left us plenty of time to explore the little town. We all sort of broke into groups to explore on our own.



I wandered back to St. Mary's since I was curious to see what the inside of the church looked like. I guess my timing was pretty perfect because daily Mass had just started with the bishop of Killarney. Before this trip, I had never been to Mass outside the U.S., so it was a really neat experience for me.



After Mass ended, I spent some time wandering around admiring the gorgeous stained glass and all the little shrines inside the cathedral. As Erin said at one point, I had major church-dar on this trip. Any time we'd see a church, I'd spend some time checking it out.



After geeking out over the pretty church, I met up with Emily and Hadass for dinner at a different pub and on a recommendation from a friend, ended up stopping for ice cream at Murphy's.



All of the food in Ireland, including the ice cream, was super locally sourced. And while by the end of the trip I was definitely craving something other than bland meat and potatoes, I can't deny that the food we ate was super fresh.

After another long day of exploring, I passed out on top of my Kindle yet again when we got back to the hotel.

Friday Snapstory: