We gladly left the hustle and bustle of busy Dublin for the beautiful countryside we had been waiting to see. Dublin was a crash course (literally!) in learning which side of the road to look down, as not only do they drive on the "wrong" side of the road, but they switch the lines too -- yellow denotes the edge of the roadway, and white divides opposing lanes of traffic...and also lanes of the same direction traffic...talk about confusing! At least Dublin was considerate of tourists and conveniently painted "look right" and "look left" as hints for pedestrians. And we all passed with flying colors in adjusting to the traffic differences, because when we had to catch a bus to our next terminal after arriving in the Boston internationals on the way home, we all looked down the wrong end of the street before realizing we were back in the States!

Our first stop out of Dublin was Altamont Gardens, a 100-acre estate of beautiful gardens on the previous site of a 16th century convent. It was here that our debate of the week was finally put to rest by the master gardener: there are no snakes in Ireland, St. Patrick drove them all out. Fr Rene was determined to prove all of the Irishmen we asked about this wrong (after all, why would someone who lives in the country know anything about its flora and fauna? haha) and was on a quest to find a snake in Ireland -- he was jubilant when he found one, but we told him that zoos don't count!

 After a drive through the Irish countryside, we reached the small town of Kilkenny, over which Kilkenny Castle keeps watch, seat of the Butler family for over 700 years. They got their name from their profession; the butler was responsible for only one job: handing the king his first goblet of wine after his coronation. And for this most difficult and wearying job, the family received 2% of the income from the exports of alcohol from Ireland.

Our night in Kilkenny was topped off with a real Irish pub experience: Allyson, Amanda, and I went to Kyteler's pub and listened (and sung along!) to traditional Irish music while having a pint (Guinness for Allyson, Smithwicks for Amanda, and Bulmer's for me), soaking up the local Irish atmosphere, and watching a soccer game =]