Blogs from Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland, Europe - page 4

I spent the first week of my Spring Break in Ireland. As some of you may know I had always wanted to go to Ireland, ever since I was a little girl. I’m not really sure why, it has just always appealed to me; something about all that green, the music, Celtic art, and of course, that wonderful Irish accent. In more recent months, in preparation for my trip, I have been reading about the Irish people; not only about their history and their struggles, but about their culture, their traditions, their language, and above all their honest warmth and tendency to hang out chatting, singing, and laughing in pubs. Ireland seemed like a real, fascinating, and friendly place, as well as a stark contrast to the formal, cold, and suspicious feel I get in Bordeaux. ... read more

The Last Full Day On the last day of our adventure we decided to make it a memorable one. We took the drive along the Dingle Penninsula (ps. amazing views) towards Dingle to take a two hour horseback ride up a mountain and along the Dingle beach. I rode on a nice chestnut horse named Rosie! We rode up the mountain, down through the city, and out to the beach. It was a great ride we got to canter full out across the beach then walked through the water with the horses. Apparently, there is a wild dolphin that lives in the Dingle Penninsula year round. The story goes, the dolphin (fungi) was a born in the Dingle bay but its mother died shortly after. Fungi having lost his mother there has never left since. ... read more

A.A. is a Very Bad Acronym Think of all the A.A. acronyms. They’re all awful. 1. Alcoholic’s Anonymous 2. Adult Acne 3. All American 4. AA the Bra Size I’m sure there’s more, but I started eating beef jerkey and drinking beer and I’m no longer in a negative frame of mind. There are many dangers that exist in the world. The first two that come to mind are hen and stag parties which are the Irish versions of Bachelor and Bachelorette parties. Both are so ridiculous here that they are banned from certain pubs here because they annoy the shit out of local pub patrons. Now if I was single and partying with Louie, these hen parties would be my hunting ground. Since I’m non legally married to Tara the bars that disallow them are ... read more

Howling winds woke us several times during the night. It seemed like the full force of an Atlantic gale was battering the walls of the house. Despite the double-thick window panes, it seemed at times like the wind was blowing straight into the room. In the morning, as we dined on the best breakfast yet, we watched sheets of rain blowing horizontal outside the windows. Given that Dingle is in a well-sheltered natural harbor, we could only imagine what the conditions would be like out on the shore, our intended destination for the day. Emlagh house made us a yummy breakfast. Home-baked goods were du jour. Axel finally sampled the “Full Irish Breakfast” which consisted of the following: Two farm-fresh eggs any style, sausage, bacon, and black and white puddings. Both puddings contain oats and other ... read more

The Incredible Unibrow We finally arrived in Dingle. I have the sneaky suspicion that the view on the way in was amazing, but due to the pitch black and thick coating of clouds above us, we had no light to see it. I fell asleep in the car about 20 minutes from our destination and was awoken by a tall dark haired irsih man with large teeth, who reeked of cigarettes. As the dome light came on I could see clearly, the greatest and most epic unibrow in the history of all mankind. I’m talking from caveman days to Animal from the muppett babies, our bed and breakfast host Tom had the most prominent facial hair feature since Hitler’s mustache. He also put out the, “I have cameras in your room, I have bodies in the ... read more