The drive to Dingle was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. It was the Ireland I had always imagined seeing....huge, rolling green pastures. A lot of the drive was thru County Kerry, which is a renowned county for being beautiful. But oh man, even though this trip was a little more pricey by bus (about 25 euro) it was so worth it. some of my best pictures this weekend I took from the bus window! I was freaking out at how beautiful it was. We drove up big, winding roads through the mountains. It was phenomenal. We took about a 2 hour or so bus ride to Tralee, the county seat of Kerry. We waited about 20 minutes for our bus to Dingle, which was another hour. Oh, this brings me to talk about the weather of Ireland. I have learned that weather forecasts do not apply to Ireland, at least in my experience. It might say it will rain, but maybe it won't. You just have to look to the sky. We had sun for awhile, drove through a small rain shower, and then were back to sunny skies during our drive through the mountains. However, when we pulled in to Dingle, it was like, hailing sort of. Luckily, the shuttle van to our hostel (oh so convenient!) was waiting for us at the bus stop. Bob, one of the owners of the hostel, let us pick up some groceries and then we were off to the Rainbow hostel, which was owned by Bob and his wife. They didn't have a tour guide dog like Holly in Cashel, but they did have two friendly cats who enjoyed going in and outside as they pleased, and they also had a baby son who ran around in a cruiser thing and enjoyed crashing in to our feet. He was so cute! We unpacked, made a late lunch, and then headed outside back in to the town of Dingle. Bob (who reminded me of a young Robin Williams) suggested we take a back road that led right in to the main street of Dingle, and was less busy with traffic. We got some great pictures of the hills. When we got in to town, we walked around the harbor, scoped out some touristy stuff we wanted to do the next day, and found a pub we wanted to go to. Afterward, we went back to the Rainbow, made more food, and then headed out to the pub, as we were promised some traditional Irish music, finally! It was dark out by the time we left, and we were wary about taking the back road and we didn't have a flashlight, but Bob had seen us leave, so he fired up the van and drove us in to town. The pub we went to was called An Droicead Beag, which means "A Small Bridge" in Gaelic. We went in and got drinks (except Katie who gave Alcohol up for Lent!) and I was slightly irked to find the Bulmers was more expensive than at Stables. We sat and enjoyed the music, which was 2 guys playing an accordion and some type of guitar-like instrument. We stayed for an hour or so, and then headed back, this time without Bob to drive us. The walk back down the dark road was a little creepy, but at least we had each other! Our room that night was a bit chilly, but Bob brought us extra duvets which helped.
My cold will just not quit! I woke up with a clogged nose. I looked out the window and it looked rainy, and I was bummed, but then I went back to sleep. When we finally got up, it was sunny out! We ate breakfast and then walked to town. We were going to take a boat tour out to see Fungi the dolphin, which is a dolphin that has frequented the Harbor since the early 80s. The price was 16 euro for an hour tour, but we wouldn't have to pay if we didn't see Fungi, but it's never happened. However, we inquired about land tours in the tourist office/gift shop, and called around and found a guy who would drive us around the entire peninsula for 10 euro an hour! We ended up doing about a 2 1/2 hour tour and it was AMAZING.
Things we saw:
*A Beehive hut
*The field where the opening of the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman film "Far and Away" that I watched in 9th grade history was filmed. That movie was pretty corny, but I was pumped to hear about it.
*The Great Blasket Island, which used to be inhabited by people, but they were moved to the mainland in 1953 because it just became too hard to live there with no immediate access to health care, and bad weather conditions. A young man had appendicitis on the island, but died because they couldn't get a doctor in time.
*The beach where the film "Ryan's Daughter" was filmed. I have yet to see it, but it won 2 Academy Awards back in the day. Robert Mitchum stars in it; I have since learned it came out in 1970. It (the beach) was beautiful. It was a little cloudy when we got there, but the sun started peeking out.
*Then we went to another area where we could see a beach, and there was a big, rocky, hill type thing. We hiked to the top of it, which took a good chunk of time, but it was absolutely beautiful. We could see the ocean as far as the eye could see. This was the closest I've been to North America since January 18! By the time we got back to the van, Sean told us our tour was over if we only wanted to pay 20 Euro. We did want to see more, but wanted to keep the price relatively low. It was still an amazing tour so far, and definitely my favorite part of Ireland so far. I want to move there!! We were very blessed to have good weather, because Dingle is probably a better place to go to in the warmer months, but it was sunny for the most part during our tour. It exceeded my expectations.
After the tour, we ate at Murphy's Pub. I had roast beef and mashed potatoes and veggies. It was deeelicious and hit the spot after hardly eating all day. Then we went to a few shops. I bought some postcards and a present for my grandmother. It started to rain, and I suddenly realized I didn't have an umbrella with me. I had sworn I had brought it along, but thought maybe I left it in the tour van. I decided to buy another at a grocery store for 5 euro, because I knew I'd need one for the rest of the semester. However, when we got back to the hostel, we found I had left it in the bathroom!! At least I'll be extra prepared now. Maybe.
We headed back to the hostel. Katie stopped at an ATM but it ate her card. She called the ATM help number, and they told her it reported fraudulent activity. So she just has to cancel the card and get a new one, which will be a bit of a hassle, but there's no way to get the card back so she at least knows no one will get a hold of it! We also ate at Murphy's ice cream. After sampling half of the flavors (they had Guinness, which didn't taste too bad! I'd probably throw up from a pint though, haha) I got chocolate whiskey (which didnt seem to taste much like Whiskey) and Bailey's. Yumm.
We laid around the hostel for awhile, made dinner and hung out with Bob, who was getting a little bit drunk. He knew the heat in our room wasn't working so we changed rooms to a 12 bed dormitory that was really warm! We headed back in to town to go to John Bennie's for more music! Liz had bought a CD by a female duo group and one of the members is the wife of a guy who works at John Bennies and was going to be performing that night! So again, we took the creepy road in to the night (no lift from Bob!) The music was really nice! Liz got her CD signed by the singer, Pauline Scanlon. I got a glass of Bailey's for 4.20 euro. Cheaper than Bulmer's at the other pub, but I didn't get a whole lot in my glass. I wanted to try something new, though.
Sunday morning we checked out and went to Mass at a church in town. The entire thing was spoken in Gaelic, which was a little frustrating but cool at the same time. I'm not Catholic, so I didn't fully participate, but it was an experience. We had like 2 hours to kill before the bus, so we went to one of the only cafe's open in town at that time. I had a chicken sandwich (it was one of the cheapest things on the menu) and a can of diet coke. We got back on the bus around 12:30 and after transferring, we back in Limerick at around 5:00. It was a weekend I will never forget. I don't think I left too many details out. Ireland is beautiful. I recommend it to everyone to visit, especially Dingle! It's fantastic. I will now post some pictures.
Cheers!
One of the pubs we went to
awwww :)
yum :)
Great Blasket Island
The Beach where "Ryan's Daughter" was filmed
Very beautiful! You're right; this is the type of scenery that comes to mind when you think of Ireland. I CAN'T WAIT to see it myself!!
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