Southern Ireland Tour Part 2

So much for writing during my break. That week went way too fast! I now have two weeks left of class and desperately trying to make sure I have solid essay topics ready to be written. While being surrounded by piles of books, I decided I needed a break and it was time to do another post! 

The rest of the southern Ireland tour is here in all it's glory. So buckle up because there's a lot to get through and tons of photos.

On our second day we traveled to Dingle. Along the way we stopped at a nice beach, which is something you don't expect to say in Ireland...

We stopped for lunch in the small town of Dingle. Dingle is best known for a spunky Dolphin, Fungie, who hangs out in Dingle Bay. It was a very cute little town and I really enjoyed spending time here.

You can see they take their fishing pretty seriously, being by a bay and all....

Fungie the dolphin! No, I sadly did not get to see him but you could, of course, buy tons of souvenirs that had dolphins on them.

We stopped in Killarney, in Country Kerry and visited the Killarney National Park. When we arrived, we found they were working on the front part of the park so it took us a while to find an open entrance. But it was worth the work. I would love to visit the park again and spend more time exploring this beautiful area. 

Moving along the Ring of Kerry....

Here is the fertility stone that our tour guide so kindly stopped at so all of us young female college students could flock to it. Which, as you can see, we all did. Tradition says if you touch it you will be able to get pregnant. The saying, "wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole" comes to mind....

Instead, we passed the fertility rock and climbed a hill that had a great view of the water and surrounding mountains.

 On our final day, we visited the Cliffs of Moher. Famously known as the Cliffs of Insanity from one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride.  I would like to say that my camera had died at this point in the trip and these photos were all taken on my iPhone. Pretty happy with the quality. Definitely glad I purchased this phone before I left even if others were unsure about its worth ... cough cough looking at you mom... ;)

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Our final stop was the along the Burren in County Clare. The rock formations in the Burren are very unique and amazing. Some of the hills reminded of the plateau in eastern Washington. It's just a tad bit greener here than on the east side.

I hoped you enjoyed the photos. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to put them up. School is quite consuming but I am having a wonderful time here and can't believe how fast these months are flying by. My next post will be more catching up on a few hikes I went on. Maybe sometime I will actually be caught up on photos and posts... hahahaha

Happy Thanksgiving to my family and friends from home!!

Tour across southern Ireland

Alright, I know I haven't posted in awhile but school does get a bit busy... I have quite a few photos to share so I will try breaking it up into smaller posts. A few weeks ago, some friends, Agnes and Zaida, talked me into going on a tour around southern Ireland to Cork, Dingle, Slea Head, then up to The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. This was on my list of things to do so it didn't take long to convince me.

We left Maynooth on Friday and returned on Sunday so it was a pretty long weekend full of driving, eating and picture taking. We started by heading down to Cork on Friday. Along the way we stopped to check out the Blarney Castle. Unfortunately, you had to pay to get in and as I'm not crazy about 'touristy' places, I declined to pay to see the castle. Instead, we walked around the city and enjoyed the sights.

As we walked around the city we saw a church at the top of a hill. So we made our way up and found this gorgeous church.

After taking pictures, I turned around and realized we could see Blarney Castle peeking through the trees. We were quite excited that we were able to see the castle ... for free!!

 While we waited for our tour group to finish at the castle, we rested a bit at a park in the middle of town. It was a very cute little park surrounded by a rock wall.

I have a dear friend who loves rocks, so of course, I had to take photos of rocks along my trip. Here is just one of many. Thinking of you Lizzie!

We were only in Cork for the night, which was a bit disappointing as I had hoped to see more of the city, but I did get a few shots from around our hostel. Our group went to a pub for dinner which ended up taking about 2 hours to get our food and, when we did get our food, it was burnt. Sooo, we weren't thrilled to say the least. However, we still had a nice time and I would love to go back ... I just might pick a different place to eat!

 Agnes and I are deliriously hungry at this point.... (thanks for the photo Zaida)

The next day we drove along Slea Head and to Dingle. I have plenty of photos to share but don't want to overwhelm everyone with photos so I will stop here for now. I have a week off from classes so I have some time to post again soon!