As I Was Going Over the Cork and Kerry Mountains

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Monday was our last day in Scotland. David continued life as a working man, and we remaining four (Mom, Dad, Abigail, and I) traveled on to Ireland!
For our last meal in Edinburgh, we ate at the Elephant House - an eclectic cafe where J. K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. As we were coming out of the cafe, I saw a girl in a cab with a very shocked look on her face and she was gesticulating excitedly. Turns out it was Tori Cohagan, one of my friends from high school and youth group. She and her family were vacationing in Scotland as well (her father, Jerry, is also a professor at Olivet). I hurriedly got out my phone and we took a selfie with Tori hanging out the taxi window right as it drove away. The whole encounter lasted probably 10-15 seconds. Crazy.
As I said, we are now in Ireland. We flew into Cork in the south of the country. We rented a car and Dad is having a learning experience in driving on the left side of the road. It doesn't help that most cars here (including our rental) are manual transmission.
Tuesday's venture was to Blarney Castle and Gardens. By kissing the Blarney Stone at the top of the castle we were all bestowed with the gift of eloquent speech so make sure I don't sweet talk and cajole you too much the next time we chat.
The gardens surrounding Blarney Castle are nearly as impressive as the Castle itself. A poison garden containing all manner of toxic plants (such as yew, castor, marijuana, foxglove, wolfsbane, etc.) warns visitors to avoid touching any of the flora and gives information about the toxicity of the plants. A separate Irish garden contain hundreds of flowers, plants, and trees native to the Emerald Isle. A fern garden complete with waterfall made us feel as though we had been transported to Jurassic World. Living up to its reputation, we have yet to find a patch of grass in Ireland that is not incredibly green.
Tuesday we traveled to Killarney and attempted to tour the Ring of Kerry. This Ring consists of roads circling the Iveragh peninsula with many stopping points for scenic coastal views, historic ruins, and views of MacGillicuddy's Reeks - Ireland's tallest mountain range. One could easily spend several days touring this 100 mile ring, as there are many things to see and bed & breakfasts along the way, but it is also possible to drive it in an afternoon (our jaunt took 7.5 hours). The roads along the Ring of Kerry are often frighteningly narrow, with some being a single car width yet having two-way traffic. It certainly didn't help that we chose the probably the worst day of the year to drive the Ring because it was cloudy, windy, raining somewhere between a sprinkle and a drizzle, and at times, the fog was so thick that we couldn't see the sheep pastures 15 feet beside us, let alone the mountains or coastal cliffs.
However, we made the best of it and made a few short hikes at different points. Among the ancient structures we visited were Ballycarbery Castle (some of the neatest ruins I have ever seen, with many staircases and doorways all free to be roamed) and the ringforts of Leacanabuaile, Cahergal, and the Staigue. These ringforts were constructed at different times between 800 and 2,500 years ago (they are difficult to date archaeologically) out of dry stone construction - meaning no mortar, just flat stones stacked atop one another. The walls vary in height and thickness between the different ringforts, but the thickest is about 5-6 meters and about seven meters tall at its tallest. The ringforts are simply large circular walls where the wealthy families of yore would have lived for protection. Today they are still standing strong, but the only permanent inhabitants of the area are sheep.
During our drive of the latter part of the Ring, the skies cleared up somewhat and we were able to see more mountains and the lakes of Killarney National Park (KNP) as we drove back to our starting point. All in all, it was a good day.
For our full day in Killarney we spent the day outside in the BEAUTIFUL weather (high 60s F and sunny). It was the first time I have worn a tee shirt in over a week. Last time I was in Killarney, it was in the 40s and rained all day as I biked through KNP (See my blog post from Dec. 22, 2013 "Rain in Killarney").
We hiked along the shores of the lower lake of KNP and admired its spectacular blue waters. We also took in the pleasant rushing cascade of Torc waterfall. We all agreed that Muckross Abbey, monastic ruins first built in the 1440s, was our favorite. The wonderful architecture of the windows, doorways, and columns add to the beauty of the quiet, pastoral Abbey. The most spectacular part is the courtyard, which features a hundreds-of-years-old yew tree in the open air surrounded on four sides by ambulatories (essentially hallways) enclosed by beautiful cloistered ceilings. The lighting was almost ethereal, making for excellent pictures. Surrounding the Abbey is a large cemetery, and it's is apparent that you are in Ireland just by looking at the names of the buried. The most prominent surnames includes O'Shea, O'Connor, Doherty, O'Sullivan, O'Leary, and O'Neill. There were many Michaels and Patricks buried, with the name "Paddy Mikey O'Sullivan" being the most Irish name that I saw.
The last adventure of the day was driving the Gap of Dunloe. This drive is not recommended for the faint of heart. About 25 kilometers of it were on single lane roads up and down mountain passes with switchbacks and blind corners. The road improved as we drove north and it eventually spilled out into the most beautiful chain of mountain lakes nestled in a steep valley. Even Dad, who had to drive the nerve-racking narrow roads, agreed that the drive was worth the view.
Today we move on to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast and then to Galway!

As any chronic reader of my blogs knows, I love learning about languages and the dialects of different nations. The Irish accent is among the most musical and ear-pleasing I have heard and it's only enhanced by their pronunciation of certain words. The Irish pronounce the word "three" as "tree" and "thirty" as "terty", thus if your meal costs 33 euros, your are told "that'll be terty tree euros".
When discussing time, instead of saying 6:30 ("six-thirty"), they will say "half six". For example, our hostel host told us, "breakfast is served from half seven to half ten" (7:30-10:30). I guess this would also mean that 3:30 would be "half tree" and not "tree terty".
Irish Gaelic is also very common over here. Every road sign is in English and Irish. The only words I have learned so far are:
"Cead mile failte" (Cayd MEEL-uh FAL-chuh) - a hundred thousand welcomes
"Slainte" (SLAIN-chuh) - good health/cheers
"leabharlann" - library
"Eire" (air) - Ireland
"Eireann"(AIR-in) -Irish
"Iarnrod" (EE-ern-road) - railroad
So it's pretty clear that I won't be having any full conversations anytime soon, but I can sometimes make an educated guess as to what a sign means.

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Comments

[Mike Nay]

It's a small world huh
Or maybe Tori and yourself just have a very large presence in it. Still, those are some crazy moments that always blow my mind. I miss Tori, she was always a fun one. And you as well of course, hopefully we can remedy that soon. Until then, Slainte