http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Ireland , County Kerry en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:18:36 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:18:36 UTC Left early this morning to drive the spectacular Irish west coast. The weather was still warm and sunny with blue skies. The plan was to drive the three rings of Beara Kerry and Dingle. The Beara penisula is where the Sullivans are from. And they are everywhere. Ever business was owned by one. Thought i might try and stake a claim on a nice house.Anyhow as we left Cork the cloud started roll http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/blog-345704.html 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 specta http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Kenmare/blog-344516.html by Becky Killarney was our next destination and we thought we'd be going by bus. Buses here are not very reliable especially off season Sundays so eventually we landed a taxi with a driver who was both good looking funny. Gene O'Sullivan is the personal driver for Maureen O'Hara who lives in town and he is more like a tour guide than any other driver we have had. He stopped at a http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-340932.html 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 doublethick 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-340359.html Driving day. Day 3 involved the longest bit of driving of the trip and so required a departure from Waterford at a reasonable hour. We also had plans to stop at Blarney castle outside of Cork to kiss a stone along the way more on that later.Ireland is not a very large country. East to West the greatest distance is perhaps 200 miles. Nevertheless such a trip can easily take 56 hours becaus http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-340357.html Our taxi driver Charlie O'Leary gave us some information about St. Mary's Cathedral in Killarney as we drove by. He told us that 600 children were buried on church grounds who were victims of the great famine. St. Mary's operated as a famine relief center. A family immigrating to Ireland to make a new start soon lost their child to the great famine of 1840's. The father planted an A http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-340081.html by Terrie The County Kerry scenery was gorgeous. Lush greens fields deciduous trees in autumn splendor running rivers and sheep painted brightly in lieu of branding. Our taxi driver Gene O'Sullivan said he was the personal driver for Maureen 0'Hara who lives in Glengarriff. Gene said he didn't learn to speak English until later in childhood due to Gaelic being the primary language spoke http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-340080.html James had another day off another trip. We went west again but this time to Kerry and went to Killarney National Park. We rented bikes for the day there are lots of trails to ride around on. First we went to Ross Castle part of the trail was completely flooded but we managed to find an alternate route. We went on to Muckross Abbey which is a 15th century abbey. Then on to Muckross House Queen http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-338242.html A.A. is a Very Bad AcronymThink of all the A.A. acronyms. Theyrsquore all awful. 1. Alcoholicrsquos Anonymous2. Adult Acne3. All American4. AA the Bra SizeIrsquom sure therersquos more but I started eating beef jerkey and drinking beer and Irsquom 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 p http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-338059.html I love that I'm in Dingle. The name makes me laugh. Last night was hilarious. I drank way too much but had a wonderful time talking to the locals dancing listening to incredible live music and getting lost to AND from the bar. The night began in O'Connors pub in Killarney. Full of local farmers we'd been previously warned about how lonely they may be and far cheaper beer than Dublin. Our tou http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-336231.html Well day one of tour is exactly what I neededwanted. Have kissed the Blarney stone crawled round an ancient monastic ruin and consumed nearly 1 litre of cider. The bus isof course80 Ozzies with a few Americans thrown in for good measure. I am the only Canadian on board and my RMT status has been well received. I knew I'd feel better once we got out of Dublin. In the last 12 hours I've http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-335855.html The Incredible UnibrowWe 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 co http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-326755.html Cougar HunterWe spent our last day in Dublin burnt out and lounging around Dublin like hobos. At one point during the day Tara did her best to burn the house down by plugging in her hair dryer set on the wrong voltage. She ended up just frying her hair dryer and catching the converter on fire. I still believe I saved the day when she was about to use her laptop to see if the converter and adapto http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-326744.html . . . but before we left Dublin we decided we needed one more night of destruction to really thank Rob for all of his hospitality First we were off to the largest club I've seen yet. Four stories of dancing and mayhem in a place that looked like it had been plucked straight out of Vegas. Lights flashing everywhere with gaudy statues and horrific paintings filling up every inch of space that http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-324245.html Every traveler often dreams of stumbling upon a significant cultural event or tradition in the country they are visiting. Something that allows a tourist to experience and even briefly become a part of that nations culture. Well last week we had that opportunity in Tralee. We arrived just in time for the last two days of the Rose of Tralee Festival. During the five days of this festival 'Roses http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-318966.html The next few days of our tour dealt with some of the scenic wonders of Ireland. The first that I will discuss is the fabulous and iconic Ring of Kerry. The bus pulled out of the hotel amidst a dreary backdrop of haze and fog. At our first stop Moriarty's at the Gap of Dunloe a store where Tommy was letting us out to shop we were scheduled to take a group picture. Complete with umbrellas rainco http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-316654.html We landed in Ireland around 1130pm on Saturday night. The flight was good however there were kids everywhere. One little girl commented to her mom on the way to the plane that Licorice is lovely. It was very cute. Another little girl who was sitting in front of me screamed BLASTOFF when the plane took off. It was hilarious. Ireland is great. Immediately we loved it regardless of the http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-313625.html This entry will focus on the first day of our tour proper in which we began our travels on the tour bus with our fearless leader Tommy O'Reilly. I was paired with Nancy on the bus and we all settled in to our new mode of travel which included long periods of Tommy sharing his endless Irish wisdom and boundless knowledge of Irish history with us interspersed with Irish music. Our first stop was t http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-313366.html So i arrived to Cork on July 9th a few weeks ago. The weather was no surprise...raining. I spent a few weeks just going for walks alone as Dave was working. He is offically Retired since July 27th as we say Ronan is Daves friend that we are staying with here in Cork for a few weeks. They are still in training for the triathelon so I had even more time to myself as I have no intentions of put http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Glenbeigh/blog-307616.html Breakfast started at 830 this morning and we were in the dining room shortly after that. We enjoyed our breakfast and quickly made our plans for the day. Our first stop would be a sheep dog herding demonstration on the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry is a very scenic drive that takes most of a day but we decided to only go about around the ring to make it to the demonstration as we saw the http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-307183.html We drove the Dingle Peninsula today and then made our way to Kinsale for the evening. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-305638.html Dingle Town http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-305635.html Hello everyone I'm still in Ireland now in Dingle and just enjoying my last few days here I was supposed to go to Cork but ended up meeting a great group to travel with and we all cancelled our seperate plans to come here to Dingle together. It is BEAUTIFUL. Probably the most scenic place yet. Too bad I don't have a camera but it's ok because the people I'm with are taking tons of picture http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-304843.html So I'm heading to Dingle tomorrow instead of Cork. Pretty excited about the spontenaity.....Keep you posted. P.S. my camera broke So not happy Getting a new one soon even though I'm going to spend 300 dollars on a new one here...boo. Oh well...that's life....keep writing http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-304155.html So I'm here in Killarney Ireland. So far update of my trip I've met the GREATEST people many from Canada and Boston actually I'm on day 8...yes 8 of wearing the same jeans and they haven't started to smell YET. I'm assuming soon though...I have been able to shower everyday though somtimes twice so at least I'm staying clean I've been living on baguettes pasta fruit and free hostel http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-303996.html Hey EveryoneWe spent the last 3 nights in Killarney which is the most touristy town we've been to so far. It's situated in County Kerry in the Killarney National Park and not only do they have all kinds of sightseeing tours throughout the area but they've also got the whole traditional Irish music and pub culture down. It works and it doesn't work because on one hand it all seems very cool http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Killarney/blog-303606.html Well one thing that we learned about Ireland is that internet connections are few and far between So now we have a lot to catch up everyone on especially if we hope to encourage a cult following of our blog by the end of the tripNow we are settled in Norway We arrived late last night and have spent the day exploring Oslo getting sunburned Even Norway is warmer than Ireland and enjoying http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-303022.html July 19We made it home safely. Here is an account of our final trip in Ireland.On our last day in Ireland we had a wide range of experiences. We began with the challenge of ascending Connor Pass. This pass is 1300 feet and 6.7 kilometers to the top a 6 slope. Three members of our group decided to do the ride and the other three rode in the van. Carl Nanci and Bill started in the mist an http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Tralee/blog-301954.html This morning we started with a full Irish breakfast. Our BB owner was a wonderful cook and we all enjoyed leaving with full stomachs. After packing our bags we loaded the car and set out for Dingle. Dingle is a good size town in County Kerry. Upon arrival we stopped in the Tourist Information office TI and got a map and then used the Rick Steeves Book to give ourselves a walking tour of Dingle http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Ireland/County-Kerry/Dingle-Peninsula/blog-301743.html