Last Weekend a smaller group of us went to the South of Ireland--I think I've figured out where I want to plant my vacation house.
Friday night we arrived in Dingle at the Rainbow Hostel. On the way to Dingle, we stopped in Barack Obama's ancestral hometown to look around the shops (mainly Barack Cafe) and see where he had his first pint of Guinness and we also stopped in Limerick to look around the docks and see a castle across the water. The woodwork in the house was amazing, our room for eight had skylights and slanted ceilings, I could have holed up there forever. After unpacking and having a picnic on the bedroom floor, we headed to a couple different bars around the town. Kind of like the West of Ireland, Dingle required us to walk down country roads in the dark. Nothing extraordinary happened, but it's cool that most people in Dingle can speak the Irish language.
Saturday morning, we left bright and early toward the coast. We boarded a boat in the bay of Dingle to see Fungie the Dolphin. I was skeptical at first that Fungie might be a robot or caged in, but he truly just loves living in the bay and playing with the boats that come out to stir up the waters. We had a great time trying to catch him on camera and chasing him around in the boat.
After the Fungie watch, we collected supplies to picnic on the beach. We then drove around the Dingle Peninsula, or Ring of Dingle is you will, after stopping on the beach to have a feast. I dined on Lox and bread, grapes and brie, and hummus. I still can't get over how much I love picnicking on beaches.
Driving along the peninsula was incredible. I feel like my photographs look as though I was standing in front of a green-screen because the views and colors of the scenery are just too vivid. I can't describe how crazy beautiful everything along the coast was--it by far made the entire trip worth it.
Saturday night we stayed in what has been described as "the crazy party town of Kilarney." Hungover from too much bread, we went on a pub crawl around the city that ended up being pretty fun. The first pub we visited was hosting a basketball team who were drinking from their trophy! Anyways,
In the morning there was still lots to see. We went to Inch beach, where Coldplay filmed the video "Yellow", we saw some beehive huts that were built over a thousand (maybe only hundreds) years ago, spent an hour in Cork, which to me seemed like Boston compared to NYC if Dublin is NYC, visited Blarney and the Rock of Cashel (without going into either Castle) and stopped along a mountainside to get some incredible views of the island again.
I was a little bit disappointed to not go inside of the castles or ride a horse along the beach, but I would do the trip again just because the views and experiences were so spectacular.
Today I have a paper due on the Travelling Community of Ireland, which ended up being really fun to research. I learned oodles about how the gypsies of Ireland are discriminated against, in a way that seems primitive to Americans, and how they are having trouble being recognized as a community that doesn't need to be assimilated.
Tomorrow, we head to Northern Ireland on an Academic fieldtrip that lasts until Saturday. I'm excited to see Belfast on a chaperoned excursion because I'm not sure I would have gone up there on my own. Learning about the Northern Ireland troubles in History class was surprising because I am constantly reminding myself how current the political issues still are. The Provisional IRA (the violent one) was still around in 2005, which is nuts to think about. From the pictures I've seen, there are Northern Ireland murals for political and religious pride all over the sides of houses and buildings. If I make it back alive (which I will) I'll be sure to write a blog post about everything.
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