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Published: April 11th 2009
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On the "cruise" boat
Looking for Fungi the dolphin Today we took a trip down the Dingle Peninsula, which encompassed about eight different little villages. Dingle is known for it's famous live attraction of "Fungi the Dolphin." The story is, that Fungi is the only dolphin in the world that doesn't travel in a pod - he likes to fly solo. So, there is a small little boat cruise (I use the word "Cruise" lightly. Let's just say it fell along the lines of "champagne taste on a beer budget") that takes about 15-20 people out off the coast of Dingle to spot Fungi. If you don't see him, you get your money back (I'm not sure if that's entirely true, but I'm going with it). Erica and I spotted Fungi pretty soon into the trip, as he followed the wake of the boat and did some hops through the air for us.
We also stopped by the beach in Inch merely to take a stroll and enjoy the scenery. We've had nice weather (knock on wood). We ate at a small restaurant, as it was Friday and all of the pubs were closed for Good Friday. Erica had an open faced crab sandwich, while I opted for "rashers."
Rashers, for those of you who don't know (and really, who from the U.S would?) is thick bacon. It's almost more meaty than usual. It was served on un-toasted bread with a sweet butter. I was not a fan.
We then made our way further down the peninsula through the town of Ventry and stopped at The Dunbeg Fort, which was almost falling into the ocean. It's shaped like a behive and we took some pictures. We drove down even further and stopped at a cafe where we enjoyed some Tea and Scones. I lied...I actually had a diet coke. I thought I was a coffee addict before this trip. These people are insane, I don't know how they aren't wired 24/7. Every few hours they get coffee. I'm not a huge fan of tea unless it's Trader Joe's sleepytime tea or camomille, so I opted for something that I would hope give me an extra boost as I was still jet lagged and tired - good old American diet coke. Let's just say it doesn't go as nicely with a scone as tea does, but whatever.
We had an excellent view of the ocean and the Great
Blasket Islands. The weather was "stunning" or "grand" or "lovely"...those are the old english words of the day for ye all.
On our way back up the penninsula we stopped briefly in BallyFerriter to take a gander at an old church. Further along we stopped at the Gallarus Oratory (which I was very excited to see. Musems, I can take them or leave them, but I do absolutely love visiting churches). The Gallarus Oratory, the oldest best-preserved christian church... small, in the shape of an inverted boat. It was lovely, even though the guy up front was trying to charge us each 6 Euro to get in. Our tour book said it was free, so Ruth definitely put up an argument with the man, who at the end, let us all go in for 5 Euro. We then realized once we got inside, that other people had simply parked on the other side, so they DID get in for free. The guy was scamming us, and Ruth was not happy. Neither were we, but didn't care enough to do anything about it.
We got home and Ruth made us some Traditional Irish Pancakes...aka, crepes. We both were famished,
so we inhaled quite a few each, with jam, butter and fruit. The Irish eat their biggest meal during the middle of the day and call it dinner. Around 6 or 7 they have a light meal which they refer to as "tea." It's good in concept, because if you are eating your largest meal in the middle of the day, you still have time to burn calories, versus going straight to bed or going straight to drink or go out. But, it's left us a bit hungry in the evenings, so we have our stash of almonds and trail mix in our room. Once we are on our own starting Wednesday, I think we may be going back to our American ways of eating dinner around 6 or 7.
Later on, we were invited out by the Irish neighbor boys Donal and Kevin, to go to our first "Caili" - pronounced Kay-Lee. It was down the road and a huge community affair, where everyone is doing Irish dancing, jogs, circle dances...high kicks. We got in and this place was hopping. We also stuck out like sore thumbs and were asked on several occasions "So, what part of America
are ye from?" to which we replied "Oh....California." They loved it. There was even one lady who just got back from SF and was talking to us about her trip. That was nice. Even though she wasn't FROM SF, it was nice to have some kind of connection. We looked absolutely ridiculous dancing, and Derry took a video. We had no idea what we were doing, but Donal and Kevin got so into it that it was hard not to have a good time. Photos attached. Erica and I both decided that if we lived in Ireland we would attend these all the time.
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Ashdogg
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The Irish have crepes too?
So then how come the French stole all the credit, eh? Oh well... it's not a battle worth fighting at this point anyway. I guess it's better just to eat the pancakes and be happy they taste so delicious. :) I love the pictures you included! Dancing looks like it was fun and Sive is SO CUTE!