Today my friends Kyla, Holly, and Montana went on a Paddywagon Tour around the Ring of Kerry! The ring is a beautiful scenic route around the coast and countryside of County Kerry. We got to see many a sheep and took over 700 photographs amongst the four of us! It was also quite refreshing to get out of Cork city. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Cork, but there is nothing that can compare to the green rolling hills and the perpetual smell of peat that accompanies these smaller towns. Our tour guide was also an active member of Sinn Féin and provided some fascinating conversation over a full Irish lunch, featuring meat and two different forms of potatoes. Here are some photos from our trip!!
Our first stop was in downtown Killarney! It was really early in the morning, I think around 9 or so, so no one was around and it was FREEZING. Two shops were open, a coffee shop and a woolen mills shop, both perfect for helping us tourists keep warm!
One of our next stops was the Dingle Bay. You can see Dingle in this photo, it's the faint land towards the back of the picture, on the right. Sometimes you can see dolphins and even whales swimming about in this water, but unfortunately we weren't quite that lucky. We were lucky to have such perfect weather though!
This was one of our photo stops in the hills! There were two men there with heavy Kerry accents, hard to understand, but they were beyond friendly. The man on the left had a 16 year old black lab named Pluto (my new best friend, not pictured here). Pluto has been drinking Guinness for 15 years and apparently was quite hungover today (though you could hardly tell). We played a mean game of tug-of-war. The man on the right had a kitten named Bluebell, a german shepherd puppy, a 4 month old red dear, a chihuahua, a sheep, and a goat, all for the tourists to pet! Safe to say, I got some serious animal loving in at this rest stop, something I've sorely missed.
This was a river in Sneem, one of our stops. This town was gorgeous and quite picturesque, with a small tourist industry. I got some lovely homemade irish coffee and baileys cream ice cream and met a very friendly husky who followed us into the restrooms (oh my!). There were signs up around the town cheering on a girls sports team, hand painted on wooden boards. Yay community!
This is a photospot right at one of the entrances into Killarney National Park. Queen Victoria used to bring people here to relax and enjoy nature, it was one of her favorite spots, so it came to be known as Ladies View. The light was perfect for about 2 minutes, so I played around with the shadows a bit, haha.
This is the Torc Waterfall in Killarney National Park. There were some horse and buggy rides you could hire to bring you around the park, complete with wool blankets and an Irish tour guide. There were also some puppies running around! One of the dog's owners let him play in the waterfall!
The Ring of Kerry was beautiful, fun, and a welcome escape!
On Tuesday I get my pre-order of Nancy Drew: The Deadly Device (Computer Game) and then on Thursday Montana, Brianna, Holly O'Brien, and I head over to Paris! This week is going to be fun, I'll keep you updated!
Thanks guys! Night :D
great photos, and nothing to apologize for in the writing either! so glad you're having a great adventure... I've bookmarked this for future reading. XXOO Martha
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