Doing the tourist thing in Killarney

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Hey Everyone,

We 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 sight-seeing 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, but on the other there's a slight fakeness to it.

We spent Monday on a day-long sight-seeing tour of the Ring of Kerry, which is a 179km loop along the west coast of Ireland and has spectacular views. It was amazing, but we ended up on a tour (and apparently all the tours are the same) where you make a billion stops at tourist-traps, such as the 'Kerry Bog Village', which consisted of about 5 old-timey houses with thatched rooves, a pen with 2 Irish wolfhounds, and another pen with 4 ponies in it. We paid 5 euros to get in, and we were not exactly thrilled. You learn that lesson pretty quickly.

Anyway, for the most part the tour was great, so we ended up with some awesome photos (which I can't upload right now, due to a dead battery) and some good memories.

Yesterday we rented bikes and rode around one of the lakes in the area. We stopped at the Torc Waterfall, which was pretty cool, and we had a really lovely, relaxing day. We were TIRED when we got back last night, but it was worth it.

We took a bus today from Killarney to Galway, and we just checked into our hostel. There's a big arts festival going on here right now, which I'm looking forward to. We have tickets to see an Irish play tomorrow night, and we're excited to explore the city. Should be good!

Cheers,
Carly

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Photos

Me by the waterfall
...with a little leprachaun man! lol

POSING!
with bikes!

Taking a break lakeside.
Biking's hard work!

Getting ripped off at the Bog Village
Not too happy about that, let me tell you!