Our first destination was killarney, a town about an hour and a half west of cork. It's known largely for its national park and hiking, for which I'd definitely like to make another trip. However, as this was only an hour long rest stop, I wouldn't have time to make it outside the city centre. But don't worry, I managed to find a Nike outlet store. After an "i deserve it" buy, I walked around the main streets of killarney. County kerry won the all ireland football final on sunday, so every available storefront, lamppost, and sign is decked out in the county colors of green and gold. There were even some huge decals of kerry jerseys plastered on the front of one of the big hotels. More More to come on kilarney once I make a Thursday trip to the national park!
After leaving killarney, we ventured toward our main destination of the dingle peninsula. For an hour, we drove through the Kerry countryside, where I'm convinced that sheep make up 90% the population. But evantually, the rolling green pastures begat hulking mountain ranges that overlook the Atlantic ocean. The view of the sun reflecting off the endless stretch of water was pretty enough, but then we stopped at inch beach, which is apparently a surf hotspot. Beaches and surfing are low on the list of things I'd associate with west ireland, but i won't complain. Staring out into Atlantic with the tide rushing over my feet, sand between my toes, and wind blowing into my face was absolutely sublime. If it were summer, I'd have bought some surf lessons and never left.
But when i did, we next drove along the Atlantic coastline to slea head island, the gaeltacht (irish speaking) island where tom cruise and Nicole Kidman met while shooting a movie. But the island itself is absolutely divine, a completely untouched and unspoiled region where moss covered mountains loom over the rocky coastline. So although it's responsible for one of pop cultures more unholy unions, slea head still blew me away with ocean views that will break instagram.
during our voyage along the Atlantic coast, we had passed through the town of dingle, but so we made a proper stop in town after turning around. Upon arriving, I jumped off the bus and made a beeline for the Kathleen mcauliffe store. I'd waited for about 10 years to finally visit "my store" and it didn't disappoint! I met dingle's Kathleen mcauliffe, who was very nice and gave me a souvenir Kathleen mcauliffe bag. "my" collection of scarves and dresses are bright, trendy, and high quality with cute but kitschy patterns. too bad I didn't quite get a "same name discount" ☺
my little pilgrimage to my store done, I explored the rest of dingle. It's It's primarily a fishing town, which was made evident by the amazing smell of frying fish in the air. Other highlights were a dolphin themed craft store, a folksy local music store that smelled of incense, and countless other cute boutiques and tea shops. Also, with dingle being another gaeltacht area, a lot of signs were in gaelic and i definitely geeked out over that. The hour and an half flew by, but thankfully it started raining the moment i hopped back onto the bus.
Overall, dingle was a blast. I can't wait to do more travelling; next on the horizon is galway, cobh, and a proper killarney trip. Also, my friends and I booked a trip to rome for November. Since I have thanksgiving to late december, I want to take some extended trips to any of spain (madrid and barcelona), paris, amsterdam, prague, and just about anywhere else my friends will go.
Slainte
Katie
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