Killarney and Around the Mountains

              We began Thursday with a bit of a flip flop on our schedule. What we were supposed to be doing was taking a bus and walking tour of the Ring of Kerry. Instead, our professor had some worries about weather and changed that plan to be on Friday. What he threw together for Thursday turned out to be one of the best days I’ve had here so far! We went to Killarney National Park by coach and then walked to Ross Castle which has been restored, only to pass it up and reach a pier where there were lots of small boats lined up. We did get a bit of time to explore Ross thankfully after being briefed on when we were leaving, and then split up into two groups on two separate boats. We then moved out onto Lough Leane and moved southwest through the mountains near Killarney. There are a bunch of lakes that we passed through including Muckross Lake, and the Upper Lakes. The sights were breathtaking. We drove around moving through the lakes for about an hour and 45 minutes, once stopping to hike a bit in order for the boat to get through a narrow spot, and ended up at Lord Brandon’s Cottage. Strangely enough, our boat guide nor the people who served us lunch near the spot had any history to say about the place. From what I learned by exploring after lunch, there are some ruins of a stone tower on private property and a bunch of hiking trails leading from the spot but no historical markers. Anyways from there we took horse carriages through the Gap of Dunloe, the gap between the mountains including The Black Valley (who got its name from the fact that this part of Ireland didn’t have electricity until about 20 years ago).

Ross Castle

The map of where we went

One of the boats that took us out

Lord Brandon's Cottage is the white house!

              The horse carriages took us on the 7 mile ride, where we only had to get out when we got to a very steep part of the road where Manhattan the horse couldn’t take us up. We almost picked up another passenger in our already cramped 4-person buggy when we stopped to let Manhattan catch his breath as it was the first day of the season for him. Our guide stopped near what I’m assuming was his home as he was speaking to another woman in Gaelic and in English about the sheep herding and how he needed to pick up another bridle. Their dog Lassie the sheepherder was very friendly with us and when he saw he could get a bunch of petting from us he jumped in to the cart and our guide didn’t even notice until he tried to get in after the dog! Past that, we got to see the mountains rise up around us and see where locals go fishing when it’s the season. Manhattan did a good job at not going too fast so that we could get photos and not have them be blurry! We ended the ride at Kate Kearney’s Cottage (which we also did not get told about) and rode back into Killarney by coach again. Overall it did not rain too much and it was mostly misty, but we got to see so much! Like I said, this was probably one of the best days so far!

Our horse Manhattan taking us through the Gap

The Black Valley

The view of the Gap of Dunloe

               Today, we actually did our Ring of Kerry tour. The Ring of Kerry is basically a circle tour around a southwestern part or Ireland where you go through many towns down the coast and through the mountains like Killorglin, Caherciveen, Waterville, and Sneem. This is a long tour by bus. We left at 10 am and returned at 4:15 pm, which makes sense because the route is so long but definitely was a little bit than we expected. I enjoyed the sights we got to see, because man did we get to see some beautiful places today. We stopped whenever the bus driver felt we should see something, or basically whenever someone from the group wanted to get off and get some pictures of the view. So we ranged from stopping at memorial sites, to coastal views of the ocean, to views of the mountains and picture down into the Gap of Dunloe. We at one point stopped at a mountain view overlooking the ocean and didn’t realize how windy it was until stepping off the bus. I think it was as bad as the wind in Ballyvaughan the day we hiked the mountain. You couldn’t stand up straight but if you did jump off of something the wind would carry you (which we of course did, for about 5 minutes too). I tried taking photos of everyone looking ridiculous in the wind, but even my camera was having trouble focusing because the wind was so strong. So in short the wind was crazy strong, but did make for some good photo-ops when we could get our cameras to work!

One of the places we stopped at for the Ring of Kerry

Ashley, Myself, and Becca at one of the sights

My friend Shari enjoying the slight breeze

                  So the Ring of Kerry works so that you are seeing the coast up until you starting turning back around to start coming back to Killarney. So basically the morning was seeing the coast, and then after lunch we got to see more mountainous terrain and where we had ridden with the horses yesterday. I cannot explain how long ago the beginning of today or even yesterday feels by the way. I feel like each day is a new year! To think its only been a month since we’ve left Auburn is crazy because it feels like we have been travelling for ages together. I am very glad to be on this trip with the people from my studio because I think we all mesh pretty well together, even if we do get on each other’s nerves every now and then. Tonight we had a Passover dinner because one of our group members is Jewish and wanted to share the holiday with us. We had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about Jewish culture and the dinner traditions including the fact that you drink 4 glasses of wine during the dinner! Anyways this has been a pretty short blog today, but I wanted to make sure I got to write about Killarney before we move to Inch Island way up in the north of the republic of Ireland. I’m not sure how much internet access I am going to have while we are staying there so I hope I get to write while I’m there, but if not you’ll be hearing from me in about 5 or 6 days!