On the weekend of the 12th, I went on a trip organized through UCC to tour the Ring of Kerry. It was BEAUTIFUL. The Ring of Kerry is a tourist route around the Iveragh Peninsula of County Kerry, the most southwestern county in Ireland. The trip was put on by the head of the Irish language department at UCC, Marian. She's a really nice lady, and the weekend was chock full of things for us to do. There were about 50 of us on the trip, all visiting students, and I already knew about half of those people before we went (including all of the cackling hens, which we've adopted as the name for our group of 6) - which made for a good time. We all piled onto a big tour bus and began our trek out into the Kerry landscape.
Map of the Ring of Kerry Tour, done counter-clockwise.
The drive out to where we were staying in Cahersiveen was beautiful in itself. We took narrow winding roads along the base of mountains and beside rivers and the ocean. Marian gave us all a handout of basic phrases in Irish because we'd be going through some Gaeltacht areas (although I already knew them because of my Spoken Irish class), and we also sang the Irish version of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". We stopped in Glenbeigh at the Kerry Bog Village Museum, a replica of a famine town. There were little houses with thatched roofs and all sorts of Famine era objects. What everybody was most amused by, though, were two Irish wolf hounds and Hercules, the smallest miniature horse in Ireland. Also, there was King Puck - an exact model of a big wild goat that they caught one year for the Puck Fair, where they catch a wild goat and put him on a raised platform in the middle of an intersection, then drink for 48 hours straight... or so I was told!
Hercules, one of the wolfhounds, and King Puck!
The first of the most beautiful views I saw this weekend happened just before dark on the first day, just before we got into Cahersiveen. The ocean suddenly came into view, and the road we were on led us along a route carved into the side of a mountain with the water at its base. We stopped at a pull-off for a few minutes, and were told that we were looking at Dingle Bay. It wast just a very wild view. The land on the opposite side of the bay was totally uninhabited, the water was wild, and big waves were crashing onto the rocks below us. It was the first of several views I just couldn't get enough of.
We got into Cahersiveen and checked into our hotel and had dinner. Our hotel, meals, transportation, and entrance fees to exhibits were all included in the fee we paid, and let me tell you, the food was definitely worth it. The most prominent thing at every meal was a never-ending supply of these little rolls... mmm so good. We would each eat 4 or 5 at each meal, on top of the regular food we had. They gave us a buffet of scrambled eggs and cereals with juice and coffee at breakfast, little sandwiches at lunch- the barbecue meat was definitely the best, and a choice of what main dish we wanted at dinner. So yummy! And always, the rolls. After dinner, we had a local farmer, Muiris, come and talk to us about life in Kerry. It's pretty isolated, especially where he lives on Valentia Island. He talked about how far things have come in recent history, but how it still takes an hour and a half to drive to the nearest movie theater or hospital... After that, we learned some ceili dancing! I had done it once before during Trad Week at UCC, and it was SO FUN then, and it was again on this trip. It got off to a slow start, but once we'd run through the various dances a couple of times, it was great craic. My favorite ones were the Seige of Ennis and the Bridge of Athlone. I've read of beginners ceili dancing as a "self-regulating chaotic system", and I would agree - but still loads of fun! We went to bed pretty early that first night, and began our day early on Saturday.
We hopped on the bus relatively early and began to make our way to Muiris' farm. After driving through te little town of Portmagee, we went over a bridge onto Valentia Island. We stopped at The Telegraph Field, where the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1866, in Foilhommerum Bay. It was another beautiful view, with impressive waves crashing onto the cliffs and spraying at least 40 feet into the air. One of my friends went to investigate the cliff-side, and got drenched when she got a little too close. Out in the distance, we could see the Skellig Islands, the larger of which is the site of a 7th century monastery (very cool- google it!). Also, it was so windy there. I was practically blown over by one gust.
The view from The Telegraph Field.
Rough waters! The Skelligs are there centered in the distance.
From there, we continued across Valentia until we got to Muiris' farm, whereupon we parked and began out ascent up to the highest point on the island. It was still incredibly windy, and a long, steep climb that was particularly difficult because of my bruised tailbone (I had been out with the girls and was dancing with a guy, which was all great fun until he decided to pick me up and promptly drop me straight onto my tailbone... ouch). But all grumbling aside, it was well work the hike. The view from the top was incredible - the second scenic vista of the trip that just took my breath away.
As always, a picture can't really do it justice, but this was so beautiful!
Paige, Skye, and me climbing on Valentia... a little windblown!
On our way back down from the top, we take a little detour and walk out to see the Fogher Cliffs, another beautiful spot. At this point, we're all a little too windblown and decide to hoof it back to the bus to thaw. Once everyone's back and the head count is accurate, we continue on our way, stopping at the Valentia Slate Quarry. After crossing back over to the mainland of Ireland, we do the Skellig Ring Tour, sort of an offshoot of the Ring of Kerry. It's a lot of rural scenery, and we see St. Finian's Bay, purportedly one of the best places to surf (see this video for a cool look at the beach and one of the Skelligs - also, I think the dogs in it belong to Marian's brother, who lives across the road from the beach!)
We head back to the hotel for a big dinner after our long day of sightseeing, and afterward get a lesson in Gaelic football from a local man and his son and nephew. There was a table quiz that night in the bar in the hotel, and though my team didn't really do so well, it was a lot of fun. There were these things called 'spot prizes', where randomly between rounds of questions, there would be a challenge, and the first person to do it would get a prize. The challenges were things like, first to find a certain person in the bar (a regular, of course), first guy to come up wearing an item of women's jewelry, first girl to come up wearing men's shoes, and first person to sing a song... and guess who was the first to sing a song? That's right, yours truly! I sang Tell Me Ma (with the help of Erin and Kelly) and won a bag of Skelligs mint chocolate brittle! SO yummy. My team actually won almost all of the spot prizes, so we were winners after all! We were all having such a good time that after the table quiz ended, we didn't want to go to bed yet. So of course, I make friends with the bartender, who promises me that he'll keep the bar open as late as we want to stay up. This sounds like a good deal to me, and barman Stephen becomes my new best friend! A couple of us wind up staying in the bar until about 4 or 4:30, at which time we decide it's probably a good idea to go to bed, considering we had to get up at 8... But before we did, Stephen got all of our phone numbers and said that he would definitely give us a call when he came to Cork for RAG week that next week.
Getting up for breakfast was not the most fun, and needless to say, we took advantage of the copious amounts of coffee offered. We started our day by going for a walk... a nearly TWO HOUR walk to this ring fort. The whole time were walking there, we could see massive storm clouds rolling in, and wondered what we'd do when they reached us... Turns out we get to the ring fort and it starts pelting hail down on us, so as many people as possible crowd into an entryway in the fort and try to wait it out, feeling bad for those stuck outside. Happily, the bus came to pick us up, but not until after we all get soaked through, including wet shoes. Yuck. The walk out was nice at least! Always an adventure in Ireland.
A view from the bridge on the beginning of our walk, coming out of Cahersiveen.
I believe that's Skye and Kelly on top of the fort that we walked so far to see...
We finished touring that day, stopping to see Derrynane House, the home of Daniel O'Connell the Liberator. I fell asleep during the movie we watched about his life, so I can't tell you much about him, but the house and views were nice. Caherdaniel, the town, is one of the most beautiful places. It was in this area that I saw the most spectacular view of all. After driving through Waterville, which contains a bronze statue of Charlie Chaplin, we climbed up a mountainside, and stopped at the top of the gap. When I got out of the bus and saw the view, I literally had to turn my back because it was just too beautiful. Yeah. Of course, when I turned around, there was still another view, so it didn't do me much good!
Driving into Waterville.
The cackling hens! Kelly, Skye, Paige, me, Jen, and Erin.
Killarney Lakes as seen from Ladies' View.
Strange mountains...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So after we got back from our Ring of Kerry Tour, despite being so exhausted, we went out that sunday night to see The Kilkennys perform. The Kilkennys are a band from Kilkenny (duh) that play a sort of rock take on traditional Irish music. And they're GREAT. I'd been listening to their music for a while before I saw them, so I was really looking forward to the show. They were playing in Reardens, and when we got there, I of course made my way to the very front of the stage. If you didn't know, I'm obsessed with the bodhran, the Irish traditional drum. It's just an amazing instrument, and I'm transfixed whenever it's being played... ask any of my friends. It' sort of a joke among us, actually. So I got right up to the stage and gazed up adoringly at the the bodhran player. They played a really great set of music, and things got pretty rowdy at times. I got shoved into the risers they were playing on by drunk people that I had massive bruises on my shins for the next week. Totally worth, it though.
Skye, Kelly, and me with the lead singer of The Kilkennys, Davey.
And then it was RAG week... RAG week, or R&G, stands for Raise and Give. Basically, it's a week of fundraising for charity, but like every other holiday in Ireland, has turned into a major drinking event. And I mean MAJOR. Every night is crazy in every pub, people start drinking in the early afternoon, and it's sort of amazing if you go to your classes. In fact, if you drink every night and go to all your classes during RAG week, it's called a platinum week; if you only miss 1 or 2, it's a gold week, etc. There is a lot of pride about these, er, accomplishments. Now I'm not going to give you all the sordid details of my week, but I only completed half of what makes up a platinum week... I went out every night. And Stephen, our friend from Cahersiveen, did come up to Cork, and we hung out a few times! Also, our friends from Limerick came down, we played Irish Kings (a super fun card game) and went out with them. Overall, it was a really fun week! Legen - wait for it - dary.
The cackling hens :)
