Adventuring {Day 2}

{KILLARNEY TO DINGLE}

     Well....my feet hurt. Pretty bad. But it was pretty much a hilarious story as to why. Ok, maybe it just seems hilarious to me and Christy because our brains and bodies were completely fried. HA.

     The morning started off grand with a lovely Irish breakfast at our B&B. I tried "blood pudding" - basically a bread thing that Christy says she thinks actually has some animal blood in it? It wasn't that great...But the rest of it was amazing! You all know me...I love me some good food. 

     Anyways, we decided to walk to Killarney National Park and Muckross House because it's a big tourist attraction. We sorta just randomly decided to walk in a general direction and ended up at Ross Castle - BEAUTIFUL. Ah, it was grand. The picture is located there - the castle was right up next to the water. That's only a tiny little piece of the amazing panoramic view! Walking there from the town centre was 2.9 km. After we were done exploring the castle (Rabbit trail....I love how many castles there are here!), Christy asked these two older men to point us in the general direction of Muckross House. Well..it was in the opposite direction from our starting point. 

     Off we went...walking all the way back then all the way to Muckross House. It's located in Killarney National Park so we were able to see some gorgeous green scenery along the way. Except that it took an eternity to get there - or so it felt. Seriously man.....It was loooong. Later, I realized we walked 7.8 km to get there.

     Now, I know you may be thinking we're just being whiny wimps, but we had two decently heavy backpacks (our "suitcases" for the week), a bag of food, and my camera bag. I'm sure it would've been much easier had we not had all that stuff but it added up.

     We kept asking people how much farther and they kept saying "Oh, just up the road a bit" and then "Oh, maybe like 4 km." When signs starting popping up they all said "Muckross House - 2 km." Until we saw the next sign...which also said 2 km. I swear all the signs just kept saying 2 km. I thought I was going to die. Then I just told Christy that it was probably some Irish myth that they keep around just to fool tourists. Hahah. Yeah...as we trekked through the national park we just sorta started losing our minds more and more. We FINALLY got there. It was really nice! Walked up to the house, laid in the huge field of green grass, and laid down. The people around us probably thought we were absolutely insane - we were dying of laughter at pretty much nothing, saying "Mum, mum, mummy, mum!", and quoting Anjelah Johnson lines. Oh my.... It was pretty bad. After a while we finally got up and walked around, it was beautiful just so huge that we didn't look at everything.

We called a taxi to take us back to the bus station.

You would have too if you had been there with us.

     After reading what I just wrote I realize you probably won't find this too funny...or maybe as funny as I did. Haha. I guess you just had to be there with our craziness to realize how comical it was.

     We took the bus to Dingle so now we're here in a nice little B&B. Christy says that Dingle is her favorite place in all of Ireland - and I can see why! Just from a quick walk to the B&B from the bus station I can tell it's the cutest little town! Very quaint, rustic, and homey. Excited to explore it tomorrow!

*I've decided to write about what I learned in my devos as well during my trip so here goes:

"He [God] has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver - those who do every work and those who design artistic works."

~ Exodus 35:35

     "God has filled them with skill..." GOD. It's not me - at all! I can wish with all my heart to be good at whatever gift/skill I'm not good at that someone else is. I can work as hard as I can within my own abilities to help myself get better at my own gift/skill. But none of that matters. God's gifted me in certain ways because He knows what the best use for me is. How dare I insult His work by not realizing what a special treasure  it is that He has given me in the gifts that I do have. Yet I get so restless and discontent - so desiring that awesome gift that someone else has - or their ability to use their gift - or someone else's huge amount of talent in a particular gift more than my own. I always cry out "It's not fair!" [So I looked up a verse..and man, did God show me one!]

"Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not only My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?'"

~ Ezekial 18:25

OH....yeah. Right. I'm a human sinner. God is sovereign and holy. He is the One who gave me my gifts - and my level of ability in each one. He is the One who gives me the grace to use them! He is the One who has filled me. There is nothing I can do in and of myself (within reason) to make my talent "the best." Me, just being honest, would really really really really (add about 100 more "reallys" to that) like that. To be so extremely talented. But I'm pretty sure God knows that my pride would be puffed up so ridiculously much that I would explode. Haha. God gives me the strength to grow in my ability when I seek His guidance and help. With His help, I take less of the focus off myself and put it more on Him - which is where it should be! When I use my God-given gifts, it's not about me - it's supposed to be all about the Almighty God! For His glorification!

So why do I forget that so often?