When I pictured Ireland I imagined big castles and green rolling hills. As I stared out my window yesterday and today all I could think was how surreal this whole thing felt. It was as if I was watching a movie instead of looking out my own window.
We stayed in Kilarney the past couple of nights. Jet lag was hitting me pretty heavily the first night there and I was barely able to keep my eyes open at 9PM. I did get my first taste of fish 'n chips though! It was so yummy! Thanks to Rachel Hensley who insisted I order sticky toffee pudding, I finished my meal with a delicious dessert! I really hate eating yummy things in a foreign country because I'll just be craving it from now on.
Yesterday we toured the Ring of Kerry. Kerry is the name of the peninsula and the ring goes all around it. I have to admit, it took me a while to realize we weren't traveling to a certain destination, we were doing the touring as we drove along. This was our first time seeing what the Irish countryside looked like. It was unbelievably beautiful! The grass is this incredibly vibrant green and trees make squares on rolling hills keeping their sheep coordinated. Speaking of sheep, they mark them by painting their backs! We got excited when we drove by a field filled with white sheep marked by blue and white paint! USA! USA! Haha! We stopped at an outlook and saw our first beach. It was crazy windy but oh so beautiful! That day it was super foggy and it just made everything seem so mystical. We stopped at another beach where we were able to walk down to the ocean. The sand was like a mixture of dirt and sand. The beach was lined with really smooth gray and green rocks. I'm a huge fan of the beach so I just stood there in awe, drinking it all in. It was a fantastic day except for the very long trip. It was twisty and windy and our bus driver is a mad man on the roads. He's good, but he's a mad man.
Today we drove around again and wound up in Dingle. The road to Dingle was a crazy one! Imagine car commercials where you see the car speeding around a winding road on a mountain with a crazy steep drop off, add a beach and some greenery and you've got our trip! It was really scary but gorgeous! We stopped to take pictures at one point and I can't adequately describe how beautiful it was. We stood off the side of the mountain road and watched bright blue waves crash off of rocks. It was like a scene from the Little Mermaid and Cast Away put together. Dingle was an adorable little town. I found my family crest there! Con, our bus driver, told me Dunlops are very popular in Ireland. There are famous bike racers in the north. How cool! We did a little shopping there and headed back on the bus to Ennis.
Ennis seems like a quaint little town. We decided we wanted to eat cheaply tonight so we found a really yummy pizza place called Numero Uno. We've been very cultured this trip. We had Indian food last night and it may have been the best thing I have ever eaten!
We still have four days left here. It's been quite the experience so far! I'm so pumped to see what else is in store.
Things I've learned since being here:
*Margherita Pizza is just cheese pizza with a cool name.
*A stag-do is a bachelor party.
*Half nine means 9:30.
*Baked goods do not get covered when they are for sale! This is probably the most upsetting thing to me. We walked into a store and pastries were sitting in a basket just out in the air. Gross!
*"Don't trust Irish boys. Don't trust English boys." from a man at Murphy's last night.
*Pub and bar are interchangeable words.
*People from the UK know a LOT about American culture.
Cheers!
-LG
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