I am King of My Castle

the whole reason we went to Clifden, is because Kim's parents had, as a birthday present, paid for us to spend a night in a luxury castle/hotel. now we thought on wednesday that when we got to Clifden, there'd be plenty to do for 2 days in Ireland. There's a National Park that we could go to and do some hiking and then we thought we could shop or ....well turns out it rained (no hiking) and there isn't much else to do. on a day like this, it's helpful to not be on a tour and to be guiding yourself, because we just started driving North out of Clifden and came to a fascinating place.

A benedicting nunnery (is that the right word? i think not) and girls school nestled in the mountains on this lake in the middle of nowhere. it could not possibly have been any more "storyboard" than it was. the place was beautiful gothic architecture and the surroundings were entirely peaceful and the gray/fogginess of the day made it even more kind of surreal. we spent a couple of hours exploring the grounds and just hanging out, came back to town and had lunch at a little pub and then checked into our hotel.

The hotel was gorgeous. huge. beautiful. i've never stayed in a luxury hotel before. now, there's not much to do, so we went to the local video store and rented movies and just had a night in instead of going out and "doing" something. which was actually really nice and relaxing. We rented Closer which was just flat out awful. not, like, awfully acted or directed. But awful in its subject matter. i don't think people live that way, and if they do i don't want to watch a movie about it. it was hurtful. But then we watched Finding Neverland which was an incredibly good movie. it's not a typical guy movie (although i don't typically like those either), but it's one of those movies i think everyone should see.

Then we slept in our kingsize bed. very very nice. i'm not even sure i knew kim was there the bed was so big ;)