Dingle Peninsula and Killarney

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This weekend I took at trip to the Dingle Peninsula and Killarney. I stayed in my first hostel! We took the bus to Dingle on Saturday morning. We had a transfer in Tralee so we walked around until the next bus got there. There was a bunch of little shops and we stopped in a book shop. I found a book that was a rip-off of 50 shades of grey called Irish Shades of Grey. I bought two books there. One was traditional Irish Fairytales and the other talks about the little idiosyncrasies of Irish people that separate them from everyone else. They both are very interesting. The bus ride to Dingle was beautiful. We were on a winding road through mountains and farm fields. When we got to Dingle, we went straight to Jon Benny's because we were starving. I had the Seafood Chowder Soup and Homemade Apple Cake for a dessert. Sara has family that used to work for Jon Benny when they lived in Ireland for a year. After we ate, we went shopping around town. There were cute little shops everywhere in this port town. One shop was called "The Craic House" which was really clever. Sara bought a wool sweater. at the woolen shop We proceeded to take a walk along the coast to the lighthouse. The walk was very muddy and we came across a ruin of a tower that was in the middle of a cow pasture. When we finally got to the lighthouse, there were stairs going down to the ocean. The rocks were formed in a very unique way. They were slabs sticking straight up. The Atlantic was beautiful from there. We were keeping our eye for the dolphin. There is a dolphin that lives in the bay that came one summer and never left. His name is Fungie. There are boat tours you can take to see him. After the long day in Dingle we go on the bus to go to Killarney, which as where we were staying for the night. When we arrived in Killarney, we walked to our hostel which was called "Paddy's Palace". It was really nice for the price of 8 euros a night. The owner of the hostel walked us downtown to a pub called Sheehan's. They had traditional live music all night which was another new experience that I absolutely loved.

The next morning, We decided to walk to the National Park to see a waterfall. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. It took and hour to get to the park and another hour walk inside the park to get to the waterfall, but on the way to the waterfall we stopped a few places. There was a hotel called the Lake Hotel and it was back off the road so we walked down to walk along the lake. It was absolutely stunning. Then we arrived at the Park. Inside we stopped at the Muckross Abbey. This was an Abbey for friars a long time ago. There were so many rooms to explore in it. The surrounding cemetery also looked like it is still used to bury people today. We moved on to the Muckross House, which was owned by a wealthy couple. The house was huge, unfortunately they lost their wealth and lost their home and now it is the property of the State. We walked along the coast down to Torc Waterfall. It is peaceful and beautiful there. At this point we were exhausted. So we walked back to downtown and caught the bus back to Limerick which we all slept on. What a fun weekend!

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Photos

Walking to the Lighthouse
Sara told me to be like the birds behind me.

Everyone in the Group
Leanna, Me, Sara, Sammi, Emily, Julia

Comments

[Grandma]

Killearney
Beautiful pics. What a lovely country. Can't wait. Enjoy!!