Blogs from County Kerry, Ireland, Europe - page 26

Today we had our first “Irish Breakfast.” For those of you who are unaware, we’re not talking omelets or pancakes…or even simply sausage and fruit. A traditional Irish Breakfast consists of rashers (meaty bacon - the amount of meat was phenomenal), sausage and good old “Black Pudding.” Not to be confused with chocolate pudding, cocoa pudding, or even licorice pudding, “Black” Pudding is a pureed sausage, bacon and pig blood dish. Yes, you heard it right. Ruth wouldn’t tell us what was in it until after we tried it, so that alone tipped us off that something in it wasn’t a savory American choice. Neither of us were huge fans, but can’t knock it till you try it, right? The Irish are thanking us, since we definitely brought the sunny California weather with us. We have ... read more

Today we woke up in our tiny little room in our Georgian House Hostel. The accomodations were adequate and we each showered and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast before hitting the road to see the Ring of Kerry. We were close to the start of the loop and it only took us a short car ride to start seeing the hills of Kerry. Our first stop of the day was in Cahersiveen where we found some ancient ring forts. We were all amazed by the contstruction of these forts. The forts are said to be 1000 years old and constructed without any mortar. We enjoyed walking on the top of the ring and then we heade back up the road to some castle ruins we had seen on the way to the forts. Tara was very excited ... read more

Friday morning started out with a nice breakfast in the Montenotte. There was a full spread “Irish breakfast.” Eggs, bacon (which is more like Canadian bacon), sausage, toast, beans (some white bean in a sweet-ish red sauce - yum!), and black pudding. Black pudding was the one thing I had sort of vowed never to eat. It seems like on each trip I try some local delicacy, the thought of which is usually disgusting to Americans. In Peru it was guinea pig, in Japan it was cod sperm, in Ireland it’s black pudding. What is black pudding you wonder? It’s fried blood. This one was tempered by the fact that there was barley and spices in it, so it tasted more like sausage. Still, the thought grossed me out enough that I couldn’t do more than ... read more

This past weekend Kaelyn, Gabby and myself headed to Killarney for two days and it was sooo beautiful. A lot of it reminded me of home with the lakes and the mountains (well really large hills...sort of like the ones you would see in the Kananaskis area). Even the smell reminded me of home! Killarney is very much a tourist town and they take advanage of that be upping the prices on everything! We went to dinner and I got a Burger with a salad and fries and paid 26 Canadian dollars..... sheesh. But we balanced that price by buying our breakfast and lunch at a place called Centra (a lot like a 7 Elven). There is a lot do to in Killarney and we decided on touring around the National Park both days. The first ... read more

I was told that the the best way to see Ireland was to arrive, hire a car and just head on down the road. They were right. Wanting to avoid the bigger cities we flew into Shannon and have took in most of the west coast heading down into County Kerry and Cork. While the driving can be an experience in itself it didn't take long to adjust to driving on the other side. The scenery really is as spectacular as the pictures but the real highlights were the little towns along the way. Dingle and Kinsale in Co. Cork were magic little coastal towns but easily the highlight of the trip was Kemare in County Kerry. We came across it after completing the spectacular Ring of Kerry. Right away the brightly coloured builidings tell you ... read more