In the Hills of County Kerry!

Last weekend, I went to one of the most scenic areas in all of Ireland: The Ring of Kerry

The Skelligs off the Coast

The weekend started with a long bus ride. I went with Matt, and my friends, Christina, Sarah, and Allie. We were with a big group of mostly Americans from the University of Cork. 

We first visited a small village called the Kerry Bog Village. A good portion of County Kerry is covered with bog land. The Kerry Bog Village has replicas of houses that existed in 18th Century Ireland. There's an old blacksmith forge, a turf cutters house, a stable dwelling, and a dairy house. In addition to the houses were a few animals. First were the Kerry Bog ponies, which are particular to the Kerry region. They're pretty small and were used to transport peat from the bogs to the roadside. The other unique animals were the Irish Wolfhounds. They were enormous! They were the size of greyhounds, maybe bigger.

Irish Wolfhound (I got this off Google..)

As we were leaving the village, the dogs got out and tore a cat to shreds! Comet wouldn't last in that village haha.

We made our way to the hotel and had dinner. Following dinner, we had a local come in and talk about her upbringing in Kerry. She grew up on a farm and didn't have electricity until her teens. She said they neighbors would come and tell ghost stories or they would play music and dance for entertainment. A large part of her life was digging up turf, or peat bricks, from the bog. She thought it was hilarious that her form of a chore, people now pay to do for the experience..."A Day in the Bog".

After the speaker was one of the major highlights of the trip: Céilí Dancing Class.

Our trip leader described Céilí dancing (pronounced kay-lee)  as Irish speed dating, in a sense, because it's very much a social dance where you dance with different partners. We learned a few dances like The Walls of Limerick and the Seige of Ennis.  Matt and I are clearly not the most coordinated people but it was so much fun! 

During Céilí  Dancing

The next morning, we took a bus around the Skelling Ring. We saw Valentia Island, the Skelligs, and Ballinskelligs. We saw the spot where the first trans-Atlantic cable reached as well as a monistary, carved out of stone atop a rock about eight miles off the coast. The views were amazing! It was really rainy though, and my boots were far from waterproof, so I was walking around with soggy feet all day. Our tour leader was from the area of Kerry, so she showed us where she grew up. We actually passed her mother's house and saw her brother waving out the window! It's a very small, tight-knit community! We also passed by the Skelling Chocolate Factory, which are really good, expensive chocolates. Unfortunately, the night before, it had caught fire and burnt down. There was still smoke coming off the roof when we drove by. 

We had that afternoon free, so we visited the Daniel O'Connell Church (who was the person who emancipated the Catholics, giving them freedom to practice), and stopped for some Irish Coffee at a local pub before heading back to the hotel. 

After dinner, we had another speaker. A top level GAA football player came and told us about the game of Gaelic football and the culture that surrounds it. He plays for the Kerry football team but has made it to the highest level in on all-Ireland team. Gaelic football is definitely a passion, almost obsession, of the people of Kerry. Every single town in Kerry has two things: a church, and a football field (the latter which he said is more important, but don't tell anyone)

After the football player came and talked to us, we had a table quiz, or trivia night. The questions were all over the place. There were spot prizes in between every few rounds, the first one being the first person to get up and sing a song, in any language, wins a prize. So I sprang up and belted out (nervously) one of my shower favorites, and got to pick a prize, which ended up being lotion! Our team was actually doing really well, and I didn't want to be cocky, but I was pretty sure we were going to win.. at least take second! But we didn't place.. oh well, it was still really fun :)

The next morning, we started the day with about an hour long walk up to the stone forts of Cahersiveen. It was a beautiful morning! There was this big, yellow, shiny thing in the sky that apparently people call the sun! The sky was blue and the landscape was beautiful as ever. We walked through fields, saw mountains, the ocean, lakes, horses, cattle, sheep, and of course, the forts. As we were walking down the road, we saw two big sheep running towards us, followed by two running Irishmen.. it was hilarious!

The forts were really, really well preserved. I really loved visiting them. Plus the view from on top was breathtaking. I wish my camera could capture what the scenery actually looked like, but it didn't even come close. 

After leaving the forts, we visited Daniel O'Connell's house, who led the movement for the freedom of Catholics to practice. His house was really beautiful, but the tour was a bit boring. The lady giving the tour literally outlined every single item in the house. Not exactly the best thing to listen to running on little sleep. Our drive back was mostly mountains. We stopped at a place called the Lady's View, where you could see mountains for miles, and the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Again, just breathtaking.

We arrived at Killarney Bus Station and caught the next bus back to Limerick City. 

This weekend was definitely one of my favorites.

Then on Wednesday, I went on the Mystery Bus Tour. Basically, I paid to go on a bus, having no idea where it was going. There were 400 tickets sold, all of them were UL students. So we got on a bus and two hours later, I was back in Killarney! The student union rented out a club there exclusively for UL students, so that was great craic! I also learner the phrase "well, what's the crack, hey!" which apparently means "what's up?" It was a really fun night though :)

So as some of you may know, Elise is coming to visit during my last week in Ireland, and we planned and amazing trip! We're travelling to Rome, Barcelona, and Paris, then flying into Dublin and getting some quality Irish time :)

Unfortunately, my final exams also fell during that week. Two of my lecturers have given me the option of writing a paper, instead, and the other exam is the first day of our trip, so hopefully we can just cut it short a day! But I will be very, very busy for the rest of the semester!

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is in less than a week! My American friends and I are throwing a traditional American Thanksgiving party for our Irish friends, complete with pilgrim hats and the story of Thanksgiving!

I also have an Irish song recital next week for my Irish music class, which falls on the same day as the biggest drinking day of the semester: an all-day fiasco called Christmas Days. Perhaps I will go after my music final...

Also, Matt and I are going to Paris in one week! I cannot wait!! Ahh so much to do, so little time!

Slán leat!

Beau Rêve

Recently, Matthew's grandfather passed away. It's really been upsetting me, and I didn't even know him.  I think it's because I realized how much I take my own family for granted. Not many people my age have four living, healthy grandparents. Not only are my grandparents all living and healthy, but they are all such amazing people. They are always loving and generous and have really made an impact on my life. Not just my grandparents, but my entire family. I am so blessed to have the people in my life that I do and I couldn't be more grateful. So as Thanksgiving is approaching, I am thankful for all of the truly amazing people I have in my life. I love you all!

Le Beau Rêve

"Not all those who wander are lost"

I like this quote because lately, I have felt pretty lost. I am almost half-way through my third year of college and am no where closer to knowing what I really want to do with my life. I am constantly changing my mind and imagining the type of life I want. I feel torn between my many passions that I want to pursue. But this quote reminds me that it's ok. Just because I am curious and fascinated with the world doesn't mean that I'm doing something wrong. Just because I didn't crawl out the womb knowing what I want to do for the rest of my life doesn't mean I'm going nowhere. I have so many interests and studying abroad has only, no pun intended, broadened these interests. So I am a wandering soul. Not lost, just undiscovered.

It is week 9 of the semester out of 12. How did that happen!?

Time is flying. I can't believe another week has come and gone. I guess the fall Irish days seem to meld together when you keep busy!

I was in a musical in the beginning of the semester, but the performance dates are the same as an Irish Heritage Weekend that I already committed to, so I had to bow out.

I was also involved in the rowing team, but I seem to be facing sickness after sickness here. The semester began with bronchitis and a kidney infection, and now I either have tonsillitis or strep.. going to the health centre to find out later today. I think because of the amount of travelling and schoolwork and balancing all that with a social life, my body is just not able to keep up. Hopefully this week, i'll get some meds and be back on the water. 

So this past weekend, I decided to take it easy. Matt and I were going to hike Craogh Patrick, but since I wasn't feeling well, he came to Limerick instead. He really hasn't seen much of Limerick, so I decided to show him around a little. Saturday morning, we went to the milk market, a huge tented market in the city centre where all sorts of vendors come every week with delicious foods and unique crafts. I wasn't interested in buying anything in particular, I just love the atmosphere. The fresh fruits and vegetables, the smell of Irish meat on the grills, breads baking, chocolates, crepes, jams; anything you can imagine. And there are so many people rushing about. It's an incredible sight to see.

We walked down the streets of the city centre, which were already adorned with Christmas decorations! I guess since the Irish don't celebrate Thanksgiving, there's nothing in between Halloween and Christmas. It still felt a little too early to be singing Christmas carols though.

Grave at St. Mary's Cathedral

St. Mary's Cathedral

We walked down to St. Mary's Cathedral, built in 1168. It is a magnificent Gothic-style cathedral that almost resembles a castle from the outside. We tried to go in, but it was closed when we got there, so we just admired the small graveyard next to the church, filled with Celtic crosses marking the graves of the passed Irish.

King John's Castle

After the Cathedral, we visited the most recognizable symbol of Limerick, in my opinion, King John's Castle. There's a visitor center which houses exhibits and films explaining the history and significance of the castle to Ireland as well as the remains of the castle, which you can still go in. We climbed to the top of the castle, overlooking the River Shannon, the hills of county Clare, and the city of Limerick. It was such a beautiful fall day, and the view was just as nice.

After visiting the castle, we went to the Limerick Museum. There were hundreds of artifacts from all different periods of time. There were old love letters, military uniforms, medicine bottles, prescriptions, receipts, and weapons. I was fascinated by the amount of history in one small room. It was incredible! 

Dolan's Pub

We left the museum and spent the rest of the day just walking around the city until we came back to campus. That night, we headed out to Dolan's, a small pub near the docks that houses the music scene in Limerick. The downstairs features nightly local traditional music, my favorite :) These musicians just get together and improv a song. There's usually a fiddle, a tin whistle, a the bodhran (which is like a drum), most times a guitar, and even sometimes ullieann pipes, which are similar to bagpipes. There's also an upstairs which has modern  rock bands and any big acts that come to Limerick usually play there. And of course everyone was wearing crazy Halloween costumes. There were some older people that walked in that looked like tourists, and they were scared off by all the young people in halloween costumes. We didn't dress up, but we did sit and enjoy the trad music while sipping some Irish cider :)

Elise and I also booked our plane tickets for our Tour d'Europe. We are going to Barcelona, Rome, Paris, and Dublin, then taking a bus across the Irish countryside back to good ol' Limerick. Then I have one day to pack and it's back to the states! I can't believe that my time here is almost up. But I know I'll be back someday. I am so excited to see Rome, because during our week in Italy, there simply wasn't enough time to see it, so I'm really looking forward to it. And hopefully my semester of Spanish will pay off in Barcelona, although I'm pretty sure they speak Catalina there.

So my weeks ahead: This weekend we're going on a day trip to Blarney Castle so I can kiss the Blarney stone, which Irish people supposedly pee on to make fun of tourists. Hopefully I won't get herpes.. Then we're spending the day in Cork City. 

The following weekend is the Irish Heritage Weekend in the Ring of Kerry. Ceili dancing, traditional food, music, and ruins! 

Since we didn't get to hike Craogh Patrick this past weekend, Matt and I decided to go the third weekend in November. It's in County Mayo, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful, scenic areas in Ireland, so I didn't want to miss it. 

The next weekend is Thanksgiving weekend, during which Matt and I will be spending four days exploring La  Ville de Lumiere, Paris! I CANNOT wait! This week will also be the last week of classes. CRAZY.

Then I have exams, a Munster Rugby Game, and finally, my last shebang of Europe with Elise, then I'm homeward bound! 

La vie est comme un chanson