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Kya Travels
We woke up this morning to what i expected the read Ireland to look like... Grey skies, cold and raining. Today we had ANOTHER bus driver! His name was Mark. He was instantly my favourite, making jokes, telling us lots about what we were doing and where we were going, and generally being a cool guy. We should have him for the rest of the tour now! Our first stop was a little lookout over the lakes and mountains. Darren had a chat with Mark and found out he was the tour guide that his coworker Kelly had when she did paddywagon! Random... We had another little lookout stop, where there was a man and his pet donkey just standing there in the rain. Apparently he just stands there every day, waiting for a wife. He was friendly though, and very content, smiling away and enjoying the rain. When we got back on the bus we were in for a bit of a treat.. Mark decided he would play us some Irish music. So for the next 20minutes or so we were treated to a bit of Bewitched and Backstreet Boys!! It was so horrible, but it got the atmosphere going at least! Our next stop was a town called Waterville, which was a very fitting name, seeing as it was pouring down! It's the town where Charlie Chaplin is from, and they had a little statue of him there. We headed straight for a nice warm pub where we got some food. Lyle had an Irish breakfast which had black pudding, as well as white pudding. We have no idea what was in it, and even the waitress didn't know what was in it! So that was a bit of a mystery food... After Waterville, we headed back onto the ring of Kerry, which is supposed to be one of the most scenic drives in Ireland, but it was so wet, grey, rainy and foggy that we didn't really have much to look at! We stopped at a lookout, which is known to be the best view in Ireland. It was crazy how little we could see! It was pretty much all fog. The wind was crazy, and the rain was heavy, you could only see about 15 metres in front of you! But we still got off the bus and ran around for a very quick couple of minutes! It was actually quite exhilarating! Love it. Or next stop was a little village called Sneem, where they're known for making ice cream. So we all got off and had an ice cream in the rain! We had a look around a few of the shops there, then went into the pub, where I had my first Irish Coffee. It was kind of nice because it was so cold, but it was VERY strong! I couldn't quite finish it, but I had a few volunteers to help me out with it! Our next stop was another lookout spot overlooking part of Killarney National Park, known as Ladies View. The rain had started to ease up a little, and the fog was disappearing so we had a much better view there than at the "best view in Ireland"! They had a sign at the side of the road that said Leprechaun Crossing. That was kinda funny... Then we went off to Torc Waterfall, which is part of the national park. It was only a short walk down to the waterfall, but we went for a bit of a hike up and around it, in a bit of a circle to get back to the bus. That was the day I first encountered midgies!!! Tiny little insects that were just horrible! Flying all around your face, and some people were getting bitten. It was okay while we were walking, but when we were standing around looking at the waterfall and waiting for the bus, it was horrible!! During the day on the bus trip we learnt a few fun Irish songs, including "wild rover" and "bog down in the valley-o" which I learnt after hearing them once, to the surprise of everyone else... "With the flea in the feather, and the feather in the bird, and the bird in the nest, and the nest in the twig, and the twig in the limb, and the limb in the branch and the branch in the tree and the tree in the bog and the bog down in the valley-o!" The wild rover was a fun one too, very sing-along-ish, complete with hand claps (X's) and everything! "And it's no, nay, never XXXX No, nay, never, no more! XX Will I play the wild rover, X No, never, no more!" When we got back into Killarney (and after we had ran to the music shop, which didn't have a left handed mandolin) we went to get some dinner, with Chris and Haley. We had some food and drink and deep conversations about life and history and everything we don't know about the world and the past and the universe. In between these conversations we swapped pubs a few times and had a pint in a few different places. There were some very interesting theories and ideas that came out, it was great! We ended up in a place called O'Connells, where they had a free stand-up comedy show upstairs. The guy was a Scottish man called Scottie (very fitting..) and he was really really funny. He would ask everyone where they were from as they came in and work it into his show throughout it. We got plenty of Aussie jokes, it was great craic! (On a side note, craic is what they do here, pronounced like crack, it means like fun, and music, and drinking, and dancing, and laughing etc, etc, etc!) After the comedy show we headed back to the hostel and went to the tv room to use the wifi for a bit. When we went in, it was full of a group of young French Canadian girls (and boy), who were on a different paddywagon tour, so we joined them. They were watching a horror movie and Darren kept scaring them by playing with the creaking door handle. The girls were very loud and drunk, and even had a pillow fight! I didn't realise that was a real thing that girls do!! They decided to play some drinking games after that (I have never ever...), which kept them giggling even more! Crazy kids! I finished up with my wifi use then we headed up to bed.
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Kya Knights Not many! The coffee here is actually pretty bad... :P Maybe in some of the other countries!!! Xx