REALLY, what is black pudding?

Hmmmmmm…..

Chocolate pudding? Maybe some sort of tasty Thanksgiving dish loaded with carbs? Licorice flavored cream? (That would be gross.)

Well…. It’s ANIMAL GUTS and blood mixed in to a little patty. YUM. There is also WHITE pudding which is seasoned differently, and not quite as dead looking…

Excerpts from my journal: Day 7
It is early. I woke up to go on a run before our breakfast scheduled at 8 am. All of us were going to go running, but it’s pouring rain and obviously cold, so none of us wanted to. We are going on a walk after breakfast instead.

So here I am sitting in a cozy lounge, next to an unlit fire, looking out at a drizzly dawn of the Wicklow Mountains. There is really something about this place. I don’t want to use the term “magical” because I feel that it isn’t a strong enough word. It takes the spirituality out it. I guess there is something spiritual about this place.

Peace. Serenity. Still. Safe. Love.

I am grateful for the rain.
I am grateful for the little rainbow (spray painted) sheep outside our gate.
I am grateful for the friends who are sharing this amazing experience with me….”

“After a long, long day of driving I am too tired to put much thought into this tonight. We literally drove across the entire country today! I didn’t get us into an accident! Here is the day in bullets…” (I’ve embellished these for blogging purposes)

“-Breakfast. Michael got black and white pudding and he and Lisa tried both. I was not brave enough for the black, especially because of the whole not eating animals thing. But I did break my vegetarianism for a teeny taste of white. It wasn’t bad if you didn’t know what it was.
-Walk in the rain to see St. Kevin’s church and the sheepies.
-Drive….
-Drive….
-Drive…. But it was scenic! We drove the long way along the coast, on scenic back-roads.
-Stopped in a village called Avoca where we visited a weaving mill. You literally could just walk in to the weaving area and watch how the factory worked.

It was so cool watching the hand weavers. What an art. All the beautiful colors laced through one another as the skilled human hands whipped the threads through. I got a ring here that is the Celtic symbol for the Trinity. For me it carries a double message, the three points are also me, Michael, and Lisa!
-Drive….
-Stopped at a gas station where Lisa and I pretended we were cars and walked through the teeny tiny car wash and made all the sounds and motions of being scrubbed down. I felt like a little girl again.
-Drive…
-Stopped at Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone!!!! It was very quiet here, and we were the only ones up on top to kiss the stone. It is quite an awkward endeavor…

-Pretended to be princesses and nymphs climbing trees and making human sacrifices of each other in the Rock Close garden around Blarney.
Drive… (this segment we got lost and then drove on the narrowest road yet driving RIGHT in to the setting sun.)
-Destination ACHIEVED! Our Bed and Breakfast, the Woodlawn house is the cutest, most comfy place.
-Dinner at Danny Man Pub with a live musician and a 9 year old traditional dancer. She was cute. The music was great and we bought his CD!
-Lisa and I laughed so hard at dinner that we cried and attracted many stares from the surrounding tables…. Oh dear… sometimes I really do fit the loud American stereotype, but it was worth it.
-Germans take our picture and tell us to say (sorry for the improper spelling) “Ahmeinen shitz” instead of “Cheese” and when we say it they all burst out laughing. We thought that they were insulting us, making us say something awful. The next morning they were at breakfast at our hotel! They explained to us then that we said (pardon my French) “rat shit.” Oops.
-We stopped at a little gas station on our corner and got ice cream. We made a friend. The owner of the gas station was an older Irish man who was the most gentlemanly guy ever. For the rest of our time in Killarney we went and bought whatever we needed from him. Bread, water, gas, ice cream, chocolate.
-Warm bedddddddddddddddddddddd……..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.