My flight back from Dublin to Bristol is delayed (so surprise, much shocking) by about 2 hours so thought this is a good a time as any to write my Ireland blog post!
It's been a really incredible last 5 days. I arrived pretty late at the hostel and met other Anna there at about 8:30pm. The person manning the desk at the hostel was really welcoming and helped bring my suitcase up (only 18kg, pretty impressive for a 6 month jaunt right?) 2 flights of stairs to our cute little sloped-ceiling twin room. After chatting and settling down for a few minutes we went out to explore Killarney. Anna got some chips for her dinner and we found a bench by a sculpture to sit for a while before heading back to the hostel to hang out in the lounge and then head to bed after discussing what we'd do tomorrow.
Day 1: Ross Castle.
Our first day in Killarney we spent exploring a bit of the National Park of Killarney. It was so amazing to be staying a few minutes walk away from the entrance. I hadn't realised until I got there that Killarney is basically the tourist centre of County Kerry, and there is so much to do around there! We walked by the river, stared at the mountains, and eventually came to Ross Castle, which is very old and sits on the lake shore. After wandering around it we got a little boat to the Innisfallen Island across the Lough (lake). The guy driving the boat had the cutest little dog with him called Bella. We got 3/4 of the way across before it finally rained on us - we got pretty soaked! When the boat landed on the island we all ran to a big tree to shelter and tried to wait out the shower but it ended up outwaiting us so we just wandered around and surrendered to getting a bit more wet so we could explore the 6th century Abbey and the Sika deer that live on the tiny island. When we got back to the mainland we had some luch and a much-needed cup of tea, then the sun came out and we went on a bigger boat that went round the whole Lough with some commentary (which was meant to be serious but Anna and I found hilarious in places because the accent is so funny to listen to and sometimes you can only understand every other word). After that we bartered with the guys driving the horse-drawn carts to give us a ride back to town for cheap - "ahh ladies ye drive a hard bargain" - and made our way back to the hostel to make tea and plan the next day's adventures.
Day 2: Dingle
This was a fantastic day! The weather in Killarney was meant to be a bit rubbish so we took an early bus out to Dingle where it held off for most of the day and we actually ended up pretty hot under the sun! Dingle is a really pretty harbour town, with a big bay and peninsula. Some of the highlights were:
- Getting the best Guinness in Ireland in a tiny little bar called Foxy's which was really hard to find and also doubled as a hardware shop
- Wandering up and down the colourful streets in the sun, heaps of the houses were painted really bright colours, lots of yellows and blues and pinks.
- Going on a boat around the bay learning about the history of Dingle and the effects of the famine, and meeting Fungi the dolphin, a sterile male dolphin who was pushed out of his pod for being sterile so he just hangs out in the bay. A dude from Devon (where I'll be for the next couple of months with my family) goes there every Summer and plays with him all day, every day, in his little boat. We got to see them playing together and it was so cute to see Fungi jump out of the water again and again to wave his friend goodbye when he had to go home for dinner! Apparently he mopes around for days when the guy goes back home to Devon.
-In the evening we went back to Killarney town and found a great pub that the locals love called The Grand. It's pretty small and gets packed but they have awesome traditional live music on every night. We watched a group of people playing the guitar, pipes, irish pipes/accordion thing and flute. Pretty great Irish experience, glad I got to see it!
Day 3: Ring of Kerry
Probably my favourite day in Ireland. County Kerry is absolutely stunning, especially when it's a beautiful day, and really diverse, and it was so intense but awesome to be able to experience it all in one big bus tour. It started at 10:30am and went counter-clockwise around the Ring, and we didn't get back until about 5pm - but it felt pretty short! The bus driver was brilliant, and really hilarious. We learned a lot and laughed a lot. We started off driving around the Dingle Peninsula, and stopped off in lots of places for photo opportunities and a few special stops. The first was visiting a Bog Village, which was a sort of preserved village from famine times that you could walk around and see what it was like back then. They were also making proper Irish Coffee at the Pub - I had one - amazing! Dram of whisky with black coffee poured on, and topped off with a really yummy cream. I drank it like the bus driver told me to - "You sip it t'rough de cream, no botherin about wid spoons or sugar or cups or tings and all messin' it up like silly people do!"
We also watched the (allegedly) best shephard in Ireland with his two dogs and a few sheep, demonstrating how sheepdogs work. Anna and I were a bit skeptical, coming from NZ, hearing that this was apparently the number 1 tourist attraction in Kerry... but it was really good! He explained a lot, and the dogs were incredible - though I expect the sheep are pretty used to it and know the drill by now.
We stopped off for lunch at a restaurant that sits atop a cliff overlooking my favourite view for the whole trip. It was near the town of Waterville, and it overlooked the bay, the sea, little islands, sailing shipsdown below, fields, and gorgoeus mountains behind us. It was a bit hard leaving this view behind to continue round the Ring but it was also really cool driving through the mountains and valleys through little villages like Sneem (heehee Sneem). We got back pretty tired but really pleased with our amazing trip.
Day 4: Muchross Lake/House/Abbey & Torc Waterfall
Today we decided to stay in Killarney and explore the National Park a bit more. We got a shuttle down to the pathway up to Torc Waterfall. We walked through the forest, up bits and down steep bits, and got some really amazing views over the Park and the lakes! We got down to the lakeshore and walked along, watching people fishing for salmon and brown trout, and had our lunch sitting on the shore. Next we continued on through the forest until we found Muchross House, a huge old mansion house with really lovely grounds and gardens. After that we walked through the park to the 15th-ish (they aren't sure) Franciscan Abbey that Cromwell attacked and the monks were pushed out - it's wonderfully preserved and you can walk around the whole thing, even up the stairs - only the roof is missing. It is surrounded by a grave yard, and the Killarney locals insist it's haunted and won't go there at night.
We got back at about 4pm and wandered around the town some more trying to find a pub with music, but they were all so packed we couldn't fit in any of them, so we went to the best fish and chips place in town to eat - we were so stuffed but it was great!
Some highlights:
- The Irish accent. It was fantastic.
- All the tourist companies/activities are run by Killarney locals, as far as we could tell. We asked most of the bus drivers, hostel workers, and horse/cart drivers where they were from and they all said Killarney.
- The bus driver/tour operator on the Ring of Kerry. He was really funny, we ended up in stitches quite a few times with his rants about various things ("we stop at Moll's Gap, dere's a shop dere if ladies want to go shoppin'... or jus' pick tings up an drop em down..shoppin should be called pickin up an droppin down cause dat's all dey do, just pick it all up and drop it down wit no intention o buyin anytin at all and de men just wander along behind like sheep, like half-boiled eejits ooh noooo...") and actually saying the words "holy mary mudder o' god" when he got overtaken by a rather suicidal motorcyclist
- Getting a long lecture from our shuttle driver, Column, about not stepping in or tamperin' wid Fairy Forts, or you'll be cursed de rest of yer life, I knew a man up north o here... etc. It was brilliant - he was completely serious.
- On aforementioned shuttle trip, a load of Irish ladies joined the bus, Column put on a radio channel that played Irish traditional folk tunes and they all sung along very loudly to them all the way back to town.
- The long, long hours of daylight. I wasn't up early enough or up late enough to see any sunsets or sunrises! I was a bit sad I missed those, but it was wonderful being in the light all the time after weeks of Dunedin winter.
THE END! Sorry for the enormously long post - I'm going to find a Guinness and some grub now. Here are some photos of the trip.
Anna x
Beautiful killarney national park
Ross Castle
The 6th Century Abbey on Innisfallen Island
Boat buddy Bella!
Our ride home
Killarney in the evening
On the boat back through Dingle Bay
This guy was great
A Peat Bog Village house window
Proof that the sun does shine in Ireland!
View from the bus of the Kerry mountains
Dingle Bay
