Educators Explore Ireland's Culinary & Literary Beauty

We woke up this morning, enjoyed our last hotel breakfast, then hopped in the car and headed for the Rock of Cashel. The first leg of our drive put us on the motorway. It was nice to have the faster driving since we hadn’t had that since our first and second day however, we have gotten quite used to the smaller roads and actually enjoy the scenery more. So, we decided that once we arrived at the Rock, we would click “avoid highways” on maps for the rest of our journey to Kilkenny. The Rock of Cashel did not disappoint! Such beauty and really engaging stories to hear from guides and read about on sign markings. We had some fun with the walking man on the sidewalk. Someone working on the grounds saw us laughing and taking the photo and asked to see it which prompted the conversation of what is a Fund For Teachers fellow? We enjoyed telling our story for the over 50th time! It never gets old to us! And it always leads into recommendations of what we need to do while we are here from local

Although we are staying in the outskirts of Cork city Center, we chose to explore the smaller surrounding towns of Cobh and Kinsale. We headed for Cobh first, we wanted to hop on the ferry to go out to Spike Island. However, the timing did not work for us because we also had tickets to the Titanic experience. The Titanic experience was much different than the Titanic museum that we visited in Belfast. For those who do not know, Cobh was the last port of call for the passengers of the Titanic. The experience is quite neat in the fact that you are given a ticket when you enter with the name of someone who actually boarded on April 11 at that same port. At the end of the experience, you can see if your person survived or not. I had Ellen Shine (20 years old at time) and Francene had Katie McCarthy (24 years old at time). The experience was interactive and made you feel like you were really on the ship. We are both happy to say that we both survived! Ellen was alive until 1993 and is burie