We survived the horrible hostile... Yeah, not hostel, it was hostile.
On Sunday we were woken up at 7, instead of 9:30, by some loud people.... Sooo we got dressed and headed down for breakfast. Since the hostile's breakfast was horrible looking, we stole some slices of bread and headed to a little cafe next to our hostile hostel. Ok... Ill start writing hostel... But you get the picture.
We had delicious scones at our lovely cafe. The owner was a lady in her mid fifties or so. Super sweet! After enjoying my coffee we headed to the Deros tour to find out the details for our Dingle Peninsula tour. That office... Not so nice. The main lady was rude but indicated we still had 30 minutes to wait. So.... We waited with the little dog and two American ladies that were also doing the tour.
At ten thirty we got on a 23 passenger bus and headed out. There was one couple of retired teachers from Omaha Nebraska, a family from Connecticut, a French lady, a couple from Northern Ireland, some more Americans, a lady from Belgium (I think), another American around our age, and Tony, the tour guide. Tony had a very clear Irish accent, works at Aldi supermarkets on the off season, has a daughter who goes to a small national school in his little town, has sheep, and gets turf from his land for his fireplace.... Or maybe it was bog. He was a very interesting and funny guy, took questions, and gave a fabulous tour with numerous stops for pictures!
Our first stop around the dingle peninsula was called inch beach. Then we headed through the coast. The views were breathtaking. Cliffs, water, wild flowers, SHEEP, cows, mountains, grass, tree farms, etc. Sooo unbelievable... One feels like you're in a movie.
At around lunch time we arrived at a government owned visitor center with an incredible view to the water and cliffs. Here we had the most affordable meal of our trip and enjoyed the view. Then... We walked a bit outside. ... I'm just waiting to meet my Gerard Butler (P.S. I love you reference).
Once on the bus we headed back to the town of Dingle. It is sooo cute and little!! It has 4 main streets and we had about 50 minutes to walk it. It was more than enough time to walk trough the town and enjoy some time sitting by the boats on the coast and eat some Nutella crackers!!
After Dingle we returned through some towns and arrived back at Killarney at 5:00. It was an incredible tour!!
When we arrived in town we took a walk through the outlet mall and town and then headed to change in our hostel.
Then... We headed to the Killarney National Park for a long walk. And we walked through a cow pasture with cows. Ok... Now a Leap Year reference... Road blocked by cows. Maia and I... Have never dealt with cows. And they were all moving towards us... Do we run? Will they run!? Should we turn around??! Well, there was a man just past the cows... So we moved through the cows and walked on.
Next... The biggest deer I've ever seen... They are protected and the size of donkeys!!! Sooo cute! We continued our walk up to a looking point where you could see all the lakes and all of Killarney. There.. We plopped down for a picnic dinner! After our long day and very short night... We headed back to our hostel to try to sleep.
We closed all windows and curtains... Put our heads down and then... Someone started playing warm ups on the violin. Up and down the scales. A squeaking the whole time! Then double string songs... Ugh all on the highest strings. That bow needed some resin!! After an hour or so at midnight I finally fell asleep to some slamming doors and loud conversations.
We were once again woken up by some very loud conversations at around 7:30. So... We got dressed and headed to our little cafe. Oh.... But first we headed to the ATM. And my lovely German card was rejected by 3 of them... Seriously. My American card has been blocked twice, it took me 3 months to get my German one, I can only take out cash with my German one, and now it doesn't work? It's not like I can call the bank. The wifi is so bad I can't communicate in German through Skype... My German phone doesn't work.. And even if it did... It's dead and I don't have an adaptor for the charger. Soooo... Email. After our scone I sat with Maia on a bench on the street where I could get wifi... And I sent the email! And she answered and I tried again and it didn't work... So she said to try back later or wait because it could be the actual card.... Great .... What can I do?
So, we got on a big coach bus and headed to the Ring of Kerry! This ride was a bit different. The tour guide was nothing to rave about and for the most time... The view was covered by shrubbery. It was mostly inland so we saw a lot of sheep and mountains, which was good too, but not much information was given. Another thing that bothered us was that the stops from 10:30 to 2 were all at places for you to spend Monday. No impressive view. Just a gravel road with a little shack selling wool and Irish coffee at ridiculous prices while a bag pipe blares throughout. No thank you! Stop two was a sheep herding show with three precious border collies. Also at a random spot on the road. If you paid 5 euros you could watch the show, but if not... You were stuck on the side of the road for 30-35 minutes. We paid.. Since I love sheep!
And we love border collies.... And Rick Steves had done it in Scotland sooooo... Hahaha. We headed up a path and found the shepherd with his sheep. First he had a "sheep pageant" (as one lady called it) where he showed and described the different types of sheep. Let me just say they paraded on command and were terrified of his stick he carried... The border collies watched from the other side of the fence. The younger one ( 3 yrs old) ran from one side to the other with excitement.
After that we moved to the next field. Side note: the plots here in Ireland are divided into small plots for historical reasons. A long time ago the plots were divided amongst farmers. They divided their plots with the well known stone walls (low and without cement) in order to be able to switch out the livestock from one to another for grazing reasons. The land up on the mountains is common land and since they have no predators (snakes, wolfs, coyotes, or bears) the farmers can let their sheep roam up there. They spray paint them different colors to differentiate them from someone else's sheep. Then they use their border collies to bring them down or move them to different pastures when needed.
Back to our show. The man raises his dogs for competitions and has a little plot where he does his show. Here he keeps about 6 sheep and uses his border collies to show us how herding works. He has different whistles for each dog and also different commands. The dogs only react to their whistle and know which one means right, left, up, down, and stop. It was incredible. Such smart dogs!!! And I got to pet one too!! Sweet things.
After the dogs, we stopped at a town... Not too cute.... to spend more tourist scam money at a fancy restaurant. The majority of the people, us included, either ate a packed lunch or got food at the gas station across the way. We had our bread and Nutella and headed down to a camping ground a ways off ... There... we sat by the water and enjoyed the incredible view! The restaurant didn't even have a view!!! Bad call, Deros tours!
This route is way more crowded than Dingle and every picture spot was full of huge buses. But after lunch it got a little prettier! We stopped at Waterville on the coast and enjoyed some time on the rocks! Then... back to the bus! More coastal views and some stops amidst the mountains. Then... another town! Super super cute! Bridges, waters, mountains... Amazing.
Oh... Here I tried the ATM and I got money!!! Whooo! Love Bianca and my German bank and the fact that I fixed my problem in German!!! Hahah.
Once back on the bus we headed to an amazing stop over the mountains. There an Asian woman asked the bus driver to skip all the other stops because she would miss bet 5 o'clock train. The answer: "you want me to make all these people skip the stop so you can get a train you were told was not compatible with this tour. I don't think so. We sent an email to let you know 3 weeks ago. That should have made it to you by now even if it was sent by carrier pigeons." That wasn't the exact quote but the context is the same. Amazing. The woman returned to her seat and we stopped once more at an incredible picturesque point overlooking all the lakes of Killarney National Park. We took a picture there and the background looks like we are photoshopped in.... That's how pretty it is!
After that stop we headed back to town and arrived at around 5:30. After a walk around town we headed to our hostel and rested a bit before going out for dinner at our cafe. I had the most delicious chicken and mushroom pie and Maia had some beef lasagne! Both typical here apparently... I knew about the pies, but beef lasagne is a staple at every restaurant here... And that was news to me. The lady was precious and chatted with us. She studied abroad in New York back in the day and traveled through 20 states and loved it. She was super sweet and told us how lucky we were with the weather! After some chatting we headed in.
Since it was early, we attempted to watch PS I love you on Maia's phone... But then the screaming began ... A group of 10 year old French kids having camp or something at our hostel had cooked a huge meal downstairs and proceeded to run, yell, and slam doors down our hall until way past midnight. It was horrible. Maia went to the restroom at one point because we wanted to make sure they knew they weren't alone on or floor, but it didn't make a difference... It was horrible. Ugh. At some point we fell asleep...
This morning... We were woken up by a drill breaking up the cement in from of the hostel. I don't think those things are called drills, but you get the picture. Loud French yelling and drills made for a not so very happy me...I also saw my pillow inside its case and it was sick, stained, moldyish, and had hairs.
Sick. We packed, turned in our keys and were thrilled to walk out of there. Our next stop was our cafe for our last scones and conversation with the owner. She welcomed us sweetly, gave Maia a free glass of water, and then saw us off as we rushed out of the door after stuffing our faces. Why? Well, we thought our bus was at 11 but while eating breakfast we realized it was actually at 10:00! Haha after that, we hurried off and got our tickets figured out. We made it right on time and got on this bus to Limerick, where we will switch to one that will take us to Galway. There, we will walk to our host Sarah's airbnb home! Can't wait!!!
The bus has been one interesting ride thus far. We switched buses because the other one was not working properly, but aside from that... the conversations. One man's wife is in Germany with the kids for 5 weeks and he is going somewhere. Sooo... his neighbor is taking care of all his stray cats and dogs. Getting all the berries on his farm and watching over his chickens. If he doesn't feed the cats at the right times... they'll eat the chickens. The lady in front of us is reading the royal baby special newspaper (we will be buying that at our next stop). We are kind of sad not to have been in London yesterday when the baby boy was born, but we will be there soon enough and the craziness will last. Especially when the name is announced. They should name him Spencer! That was lady D's maiden name! Haha. Next to us is a couple from Argentina... Talking to an American that studies Spanish and is trying out his skills. He's doing pretty well!! Hahha he is a musician playing guitar and is on his way to Galway to play an has a lot of family here. The couple is here for a wedding and the man speaks zero English. The American is rocking the Spanish! He's from New York and lives in New Jersey.
Anyway.. Killarney turned out to be an absolute success! I loved the vibe of the town, and the park and trails made it amazing with the weather.
Another thing we noticed was the attitude towards the disabled and handicapped. On our way into town, a teenage girl with Down syndrome was hitch hiking on the road and our bus stopped and gave her a lift. On our walk into town, a man with a metal disability on a wheel chair was out on the street collecting money for a charity and petition and people stopped, chatted, and donated. Many walked the street receiving helpful hands from everyone they crossed. A woman working at our bus tour office was also disabled and working. On this bus ride, we have picked up (for free) 3 or 4 either mentally handicapped, blind, or physically handicapped people. It is a truly wonderful thing. I don't know why it stood out to me, and I guess that's not a good sign... since this is how it should be all over the world... but it was nice to see people being respected and helped. I was thrilled to see it.
People overall are just very friendly to all. Every person we crossed in town or on the park greeted us with a "hello," " good day girls" or something of the sort. I really do love Ireland! Beautiful place and nice people, what else could you ask for? Aside from another place to sleep at.... Hahhaha
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