The Ring of Kerry

The Kerry Peninsula has many attractions and cute towns, but it is hard to get to any of them if you do not have your own car to drive. So, we joined a tour bus so we could get around. Whereas yesterday the weather was gorgeous, today the weather was rainy and wet the whole day. Before the tour started, we got up early to do some shopping. Only problem is that no store opened before 9, most 930 or 10 and the tour was at 1015. So we could only do a little bit of window-shopping because of time constraints. I guess the more relaxed hours here are in-line with the more laidback Irish attitude – no need to rush, it will be ok. It’s kind of refreshing to not be in atmosphere where time = money and every second not used doing something deemed ‘productive’ is considered wasted. I know I have that mentality too often, so hopefully I can adopt more of this relaxed use of time. Eventually, the tour started. We went through a couple towns, went through many fields and along the coast. One of the mountains we passed is a pilgrimage site, with the 13 Stations of the Cross along the crest. I couldn’t see them though because of the low clouds and rain.

beautiful cathedral 

what much of the landscape looks like

more coastline!

beach

ancient ruins

farmlands sectioned off by trees and such

Saw many sheep! Apparently, the higher the sheep go up the mountain, the less heavy the rain will be as they only go as high as the risk of slipping is when they want to go down. Well, they were all pretty low on the mountains and that was pretty accurate, it rained steadily for the whole day. Speaking of sheep, farmers paint spots on either their butts, heads or upper necks to distinguish their herds. So we saw some with red spots, or blue, green, pink or a combination thereof. One farmer is apparently quite patriotic (for America that is).

ruin of a famous senator O'Conner's house 

scenery near a little town

gap of Dunloe in top left

One of the cool things I wish I saw was the “Ship that never sailed”. We drove past it higher above, but I couldn’t spot it. It’s a house built for a captain that resembles the bow of a ship and so that’s how it got its name. The story goes that his wife was very dedicated: she woke up every morning and threw a bucket of water at the window to resemble the sea – she also made sure to leave the window open, too. One of the last, and certainly most beautiful stop, was “Ladies’ View’. When Queen Elizabeth I visited Killarney, she asked her lady in waiting to find a good spot to see the three lakes of Killarney and the maid said that the view from this point was fit for any lady. It was certainly gorgeous.

smaller of the 3 Killarney lakes

the other two Killarney lakes

Cavalier spirit

After the tour, we did a bit of shopping and had dinner. We then tried to find another pub with live singing and went to a few. The first one was cool, with a violinist, mandolin player and guitarist. It was standing room only, and not much of that, so we moved on. We went to another pub and stumbled upon this show of poetry and other solo acting. It was interesting, but the performer had a very specific sense of humor and we could only take it for so long, so we went downstairs. There, we found a bachelor party. They were really funny, singing their own out of tune jigs over the live music. Then, we heard about a celtic rock band and had to go check that out. What is a Celtic Rock band? I imagined a band playing traditional music in rock style. Wrong. They played traditional music normally, but they had a mandolin, guitarist and bass guitarist (I suppose the bass guitar pushed it into ‘rock’). They were good, but not what I was expecting, obviously. In the same pub, they also had a techno dance room. We had to see how the Irish youth dance, so we went there briefly. They played basically American music and danced like most UVA students do. Speaking of American music, I’ve heard Sweet Home Alabama and Born in the USA (or was it Proud to be an American?) and just about every American pop song that is was popular in the States a few months ago. I think that’s weird and makes me sad that they cater that much to American tourists – I’m sure native Irish aren’t going to find ‘Born in the USA or Proud to be an American’ very appealing or relatable. Anyways, it was a good day, though it rained so much.

Sunday was our last day in Killarney, but we had to leave at 2pm to get back early enough. We have to make sure we get back early so if there are problems, they can be resolved quickly and we won’t miss work Monday. We can’t miss any scheduled days unless you’re on your death bed, so getting home early on Sunday is a must. That meant that we had to leave early and there were only so many things we could do in the morning since whichever few shops would actually be open on Sunday would open later than usual. We decided to go back to the National park because it was walking distance and try to explore some other parts. The weather was beautiful again – I thought Virginia Beach had bipolar weather, but Ireland seems to have the most unpredictable weather yet. We went to a garden, then wandered around and found a lake path. Honestly, we barely tapped into the national park, you could probably explore it for days. We headed back early, ate lunch and then read some in a café while we waited for the train. I liked Killarney, lots of fields, rolling hills and some mountains. The coast is pretty, when you can see it over the rain that is.

more fields

cool house

walkways in the gardens 

more streams by the paths 

a lake in the National park

another view of the lake