It is 6am (again) and this time it is Saturday morning... Only because it was time to start the last two days of the road trip around Ireland. The few days before had took us all way from west to north-east but this time we were heading south-west to Ring of Kerry and Dingle. At first time we actually had a very international group in the car, seven people and six nationalities: Finnish, German, French, Dutch, Italian and Irish. I don't know is it because international atmosphere but in this car trip people travelling in the car were least sleepy out of all previous car trips.
Plan for Saturday was to drive around Ring of Kerry, even that I had been there already during my first semester I was still excited because going by car offered more possibilities to stop where ever it felt like and see places that are not on the side of the main ring road. When started the actual ring road, I easily recognized places where the tour bus drove and stopped when I was taking the tour so it gave me a kind of an opportunity to act as kind of a tour guide. At this time weather wasn't as good as it was in October, much more rainy and colder (I know, talking about weather again.. how boring is that!) but I would just say that now I experienced it on Irish way :D
The Ring of Kerry itself has many scenic stops on the main road and even more when it's possible turn the car to the smaller roads where barely two cars are able to pass each other when encountering. On those kind of roads we found out first one old castle ruins, just needed to cross or go under barbed wire fence and cross small field to get actually in to the castle where we could climb up on old staircases etc.
Another stop to visit was one beach. One of us was wearing rubber boots so of course it's possible to walk in water then but unfortunately no one reminded the person of a fact that there are also waves in the sea. As she was walking there a wave came and suddenly she was all wet all way up to her knees. When she walked back to shore and took off her rubber boots they were full of water, that's what I called a new way of fishing. But no worries, after a good laugh (and new warm clothes on) we were ready to return on the road again.
After several stops and numerous of small curvy roads we found ourselves at the waterfall. Because it has been raining, it was really flowing rather much. It was also that late that there were no coach bus tourist groups anymore and only few tourists I was able to actual jump on the stones and get near that waterfall. It was a bit slippery but not enough since none of our group didn't fall into water to take a bath.
After completing the Ring of Kerry, we drove in to a town Annascaul to sleep a night in a hostel there. It was such a tiny little place: not a real supermarket, no ATM etc. in the town, we even heard that it wasn't more than few years ago when they got electricity in town... But it might be also only one of those urban legends. Reason why we actually went there was that there were group of NUIM international students who had gone on a guided few days Kerry trip organized by international society. It was cool to see many friends there and relax enjoying a pint of Guinness. As a surprise there were a karaoke night organized for that evening so the atmosphere was even more better!! Even I did find myself singing YMCA with a friend, but it wasn't my fault because a person X wrote our names on the paper. And if your name is called, it is important to answer.
Sleeping finally a bit later than 6am (around 8-9am at this time) we prepared ourselves for a new day which was was a perfect day: Sun was shining, few clouds in the sky and wind was only very light, I was able to wear sunglasses while driving!! We didn't have specific plans for the day yet so we decided first to see Annascaul lakes that the hostel owner recommended us and he was absolutely right. Small lake mostly surrounded by high hills and waterfall flowing into the lake. Of course I needed to walk my way down to near waterfall which after all were very easy thing to do... But coming back from there I manage to somehow take a bit too long step when I heard the sound of a ripping clothes and realized what was going on. And the faces of other people after they saw me wearing my new fashion, the first comment was,
"Thank god you were wearing underwear!" I just answered that "of course I am and at least now I got air conditioned trousers". :D Luckily I had another pair of jeans at my trunk so I didn't need to shock all the people in Dingle County.
Roads keep going and going... Now we drove around thte Dinglen Peninsula. (again) on extremely beautiful landscape while driving high coastal routes. On the side of the road I spotted a small cafe place were we decided to enjoy a cup of coffee. The place itself was great, small and cozy, views over seas and rocky coastal line. It was afternoon when stopping there so the sun was actually directly shining on there so we could sit down outside without wearing jacket or at least almost everyone. They offered home made sweet pies (rhubarb or apple) with whipped cream and when we ordered slices of pies the women actually whipped the cream after the order so it certainly wasn't any ready made stuff... 100% home made fresh sweets and that's what they also tasted like.
As know, all great things end sometimes.. So did this road trip. It was time to take direction back to Maynooth. Still we enjoyed the real summer feeling: open the windows, turn music loud and sing along to show that you are having the best time ever! Finally returning to Maynooth after being travelling five days and about 2400km on the road around Ireland... I was tired but satisfied of the trip!
Plan for Saturday was to drive around Ring of Kerry, even that I had been there already during my first semester I was still excited because going by car offered more possibilities to stop where ever it felt like and see places that are not on the side of the main ring road. When started the actual ring road, I easily recognized places where the tour bus drove and stopped when I was taking the tour so it gave me a kind of an opportunity to act as kind of a tour guide. At this time weather wasn't as good as it was in October, much more rainy and colder (I know, talking about weather again.. how boring is that!) but I would just say that now I experienced it on Irish way :D
The Ring of Kerry itself has many scenic stops on the main road and even more when it's possible turn the car to the smaller roads where barely two cars are able to pass each other when encountering. On those kind of roads we found out first one old castle ruins, just needed to cross or go under barbed wire fence and cross small field to get actually in to the castle where we could climb up on old staircases etc.
Another stop to visit was one beach. One of us was wearing rubber boots so of course it's possible to walk in water then but unfortunately no one reminded the person of a fact that there are also waves in the sea. As she was walking there a wave came and suddenly she was all wet all way up to her knees. When she walked back to shore and took off her rubber boots they were full of water, that's what I called a new way of fishing. But no worries, after a good laugh (and new warm clothes on) we were ready to return on the road again. After several stops and numerous of small curvy roads we found ourselves at the waterfall. Because it has been raining, it was really flowing rather much. It was also that late that there were no coach bus tourist groups anymore and only few tourists I was able to actual jump on the stones and get near that waterfall. It was a bit slippery but not enough since none of our group didn't fall into water to take a bath.
After completing the Ring of Kerry, we drove in to a town Annascaul to sleep a night in a hostel there. It was such a tiny little place: not a real supermarket, no ATM etc. in the town, we even heard that it wasn't more than few years ago when they got electricity in town... But it might be also only one of those urban legends. Reason why we actually went there was that there were group of NUIM international students who had gone on a guided few days Kerry trip organized by international society. It was cool to see many friends there and relax enjoying a pint of Guinness. As a surprise there were a karaoke night organized for that evening so the atmosphere was even more better!! Even I did find myself singing YMCA with a friend, but it wasn't my fault because a person X wrote our names on the paper. And if your name is called, it is important to answer.
Sleeping finally a bit later than 6am (around 8-9am at this time) we prepared ourselves for a new day which was was a perfect day: Sun was shining, few clouds in the sky and wind was only very light, I was able to wear sunglasses while driving!! We didn't have specific plans for the day yet so we decided first to see Annascaul lakes that the hostel owner recommended us and he was absolutely right. Small lake mostly surrounded by high hills and waterfall flowing into the lake. Of course I needed to walk my way down to near waterfall which after all were very easy thing to do... But coming back from there I manage to somehow take a bit too long step when I heard the sound of a ripping clothes and realized what was going on. And the faces of other people after they saw me wearing my new fashion, the first comment was,"Thank god you were wearing underwear!" I just answered that "of course I am and at least now I got air conditioned trousers". :D Luckily I had another pair of jeans at my trunk so I didn't need to shock all the people in Dingle County.
Roads keep going and going... Now we drove around thte Dinglen Peninsula. (again) on extremely beautiful landscape while driving high coastal routes. On the side of the road I spotted a small cafe place were we decided to enjoy a cup of coffee. The place itself was great, small and cozy, views over seas and rocky coastal line. It was afternoon when stopping there so the sun was actually directly shining on there so we could sit down outside without wearing jacket or at least almost everyone. They offered home made sweet pies (rhubarb or apple) with whipped cream and when we ordered slices of pies the women actually whipped the cream after the order so it certainly wasn't any ready made stuff... 100% home made fresh sweets and that's what they also tasted like.As know, all great things end sometimes.. So did this road trip. It was time to take direction back to Maynooth. Still we enjoyed the real summer feeling: open the windows, turn music loud and sing along to show that you are having the best time ever! Finally returning to Maynooth after being travelling five days and about 2400km on the road around Ireland... I was tired but satisfied of the trip!
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti