September 30th

Extreme Irish Outdoor Adventures

We spent Monday morning speaking to a fellow guest, who knew 7 languages and gave us recordings in Welsh and French before we left, to take home and play for mom and Joseph. 

The longer that we looked at this horse, the funnier he was.

We passed a van upon this hike, bearing a title that read something like "Irish Outdoor Adventures" and "Extreme Mountain Hiking". The van was parked at a cross ways, and there was one lone backpacker left in it. She glared at us, as we walked past with our Ikea pocket packs and tennis shoes. Clearly we lent the wrong atmosphere to her adventure.

The path took us in zig-zags across this field, soaking the pants that we had taken so much trouble to keep dry. 

The next farmer had placed a fence across the trail, and we had to climb a small rock wall to get past it.

"Horses aren't scary!"

An Ancient stone, placed in a pasture with a rock wall around it.

There used to be a boy's school in Balleyvourney.

We ate dinner at the Mills Inn almost every day, and although we were looked on with suspicion at first, we were welcomed by time we left, and were sorry to see the last of it.

September 29th

A Tour of The Dingle Peninsula

Our hostess (Peggy) drove us into Killarney, and dropped us off at a tour company. We had wanted to see the Killarney Park, but Peggy insisted that we stop by the tour company first. In a fit of spontaneity we signed up for a tour of the Dingle Peninsula, and told Peggy what we were up to. She said that she had thought we would change our mind and take a tour, but that she didn't want to press it upon us. It was the first and only tour of this sort that we took on our vacation, which was really surprising, because they were considerably common. 

Inch beach

Ireland's hottest surfing beach! No joke!

We even had TEA!

Beehive huts! Said to be from 2000 BC.

The roof from the inside.

Susie waving at the bus driver. He had honked at us, and the wave actually signified "wait on a minute!" but it looked purposeful :) Susie had asked him how long we would be there, and he said "while, I will honk the horn, and you can look up... and wave goodbye." Fortunately he didn't *actually* take off without us.

The South Westernmost point in Ireland

I'm in the ATLANTIC!

The Three Sisters!

Irish Ice-cream... very good!

looking over the Killarney National Park!

Surprisingly, the sky was striking in more than one occasion while in Ireland.

September 28th

Hiking and Saint Gobnait's Convent

Our host (Peter) took us to mass on Sunday, although we explained that we aren't Catholic. It seems that since the Irish are mainly either Catholic or Church of Ireland (mainly Catholic, of course), saying that we belonged to neither denomination, but were Christian, didn't make any sense. On top of that our last name seemed to make not being Catholic all but impossible in the eyes of the Irish. After mass Peter took us up to see Saint Gobnait's convent, and the holy well there. One is supposed to complete the Saint Gobnait pilgrimage, and than empty this holy well with the bucket beside it. The well will fill back up, as it is feed by an underground spring, and the story goes that if a little silver trout swims into the well as it fills than the pilgrim's prayers for health will be answered.

 It was a rainy, blustering, beautiful day. I couldn't get over how green and soft the landscape was!

This part of County Cork is considered "Gaeltacht", or "Irish Speaking," although we didn't hear any of the locals speaking Irish.

We sincerely doubted that any dogs had been shot recently in the Cork hills, but it made for an impressive sign.

The Irish stiles were less artistic than their English counterparts, but very effective.

The bridge to Balleyvourney!

A DOUBLE RAINBOW, DUDE!