Limerick and Bunratty Castle

So this past weekend I visited my friend Deirdre's family in Limerick. Are you guys noticing a trend that all my posts are about the weekends? Up above there is a rainbow I caught out the window of our room. Deirdre's dad was born and raised in Limerick so she has about 50 (I am not hyperbolizing for effect here guys) relations: aunts, uncles, cousins there. We stayed with her Aunt Ruth who was so sweet to us. Now Limerick has a castle right in town, I think it is called King John's castle, I got a picture of it over the Shannon there up above. But Deirdre's cousin Gary, who was nice enough to go sightseeing with us on Saturday, informed us that King John's castle is much too touristy and therefore annoying. So we were off to visit Bunratty castle and folk village in County Clare.
Probably the coolest thing about the castle was the dungeon. It was down this tiny winding stair. The passageway was like 4.5 ft high and 2.5 ft across. You had to brace yourself because it was steep. Then you got to this doorway which they have gated now so you don't fall in. And through the doorway is the dungeon.
There it is. It is taken from above because it is probably a 20ft drop down to the bottom there. It was pretty dark but my flash lit it up. The black dots on the ledge are fake rats for effect. Cute, huh? It was really cool. Once you put someone in there, they are not getting out unless you drop a ladder down. I totally wish I had my own castle.

There were some really beautiful stained glass windows in the place, like you can see above and lots of restored period pieces. Some of them are from Bunratty and others are just period. The castle was restored in the 1950s. It was kinda cool because they had a little village set up around it so you could see what it was like to be the peasants as well as the royalty.

Real thatched roofs and turf fires burning in all the grates. All the cottages were real from somewhere but many of them had been dissassembled, brought to the site and put back together. It was really cool.

Then at night we went out with some of Deirdre's cousins who were our age and went to the bars in Limerick. The first night was really fun, the second I was rather tired and we ended up making it a shorter night. You can't party all the time. Then on Sunday we had a nice leisurely day, slept in, had tea and then a lovely dinner with Aunt Ruth before we headed back to Dublin. Just in time for me to catch the Red Wings game streamed live over the internet. All in all a lovely weekend. And shocker, I am actually staying home this coming weekend, but I am sure I will have lots to tell you anyway. We caught the World Cup qualifying match against Cypress on Saturday, Ireland played not so well but won anyway, so we are going to go to the pub to watch the next World Cup qualifying match on Wednesday against...um...well someone else. So that should be fun too.

Until next time, a yellow rose means friendship, I love you all.