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From County Cork to County Kerry: Gift of the Gab, Dingle Peninsula and the Roadtrip Recall
Kerry, Ireland
After 3 days in Dublin it was time to hit up the countryside, so we jumped into a little rented Yaris and made our way to the city of Cork.
With the help of GPS we made it out of Dublin and onto the motorway. As we drove past exits for towns with names like Nurney, Ringaskiddy and Horse and Jockey (what the?), we started to see the beautiful and majestic scenery typical of Ireland - rolling hills of wild green grass and scraggly grey rock, lush pastures bordered by stone fences where sheep and cows grazed, tiny farmhouses, a lone cemetery or church, and now and then a small village dominated by cosy little pubs: all framed by brooding dark clouds that make the greens look even brighter than you thought possible.
It was lovely having the freedom of a car (even if, being 24, I was only allowed to be a passenger), and we exercised said freedom by taking a little detour to see Cahil castle. We'd soon find that Ireland is dotted with many, many castles.
Cork is a fairly large city but like most of Ireland, smells like a farm..grass, hay, smoke, animals and s***..which is not unpleasant actually, I love that farm smell. Not a lot going on here - lonely planet told me there is a big arts scene here and so maybe our one night didn't do it justice. We did however find the best fish and chips in a pub with 18 beers on tap, and stayed right next to one of their biggest landmarks, St Ann's Church, which is hard to ignore given the constant ringing of the bells (visitors are invited to ring them. Allllll day.) The very centre is quite modern - nice and clean with lots of shopping and (overpriced) restaurants...our most exciting find here was a Dealz store! Whole store - $1.49. Lollies, hair dye, umbrellas, drinks...fantastic!
We left early the next morning and drove half an hour to Blarney castle - well worth the visit! I only really knew it for the blarney stone, but we easily spent a couple hours here crawling (literally!) through the tiny, damp and slippery corridors and cells of the castle's dungeon, browsing a 'poison' garden where, evident by its name, all sorts of poisonous plants are grown, and walking through the expansive gardens and past the picteresque blarney house.
The castle itself was great, and we were surprised at how tiny the rooms were even with many of the floors/ceilings missing...it seems these castles were really built more for defense than comfort. I think it would have been quite claustrophobic and very dark. Also, the blarney stone actually forms part of the castle wall, right up the top of the castle, and to kiss it you need to lay on your back and dangle your head out over a sheer drop about 5 storeys up...I saw a fair few people with a fear of heights back away in terror! Perfectly safe though, there are a couple of bars below that would catch you, and a man holds onto you as you lean back. Personally I was more worried about hygiene. The difficulty in reaching the stone allayed my fear of people peeing on it (still, you never know), but it's an awful lot of people puckering up to one tiny piece of rock. Ewwww. Even so, I grinned proudly at Mark once the deed was done, and he grimaced at my lips covered in grit. Note: do not wear sticky lipgloss when kissing the blarney stone!
So, we now officially had the gift of the gab, and the certificate and photo to prove it (10 euro later). The story behind this legend is that the King of Blarney was known to be a bit of a bulls*** artist...when the Queen of England was making all of the clan leader's sign over their land and allegiance, he would skirt the issue by flattering her immensely without ever actually making any such commitment..leading the frustrated Queen to use the expression 'all this talk is Blarney".
As we continued our drive onward to the County of Kerry, the English translations started to disappear with many signs written only in Gaelic. We stayed in Killarney in a beautiful youth hostel tucked amongst the forest and set on the beautiful Ring of Kerry road. Just lovely! We had planned to drive the full perimeter of Kerry on the ring road, but once we reached Killarney we hit a little speed bump in our plans.
We had picked up the car in Dublin using Mark's international license, and as we drove to Killarney I was flicking through it's pages. I reached the final page, where it says that the international license is only valid in conjunction with a current national driving license from your home country. Practicing my best nagging wife voice I said to Mark, ahhh wasn't your license coming up for renewal? You'd better check that.
Mark pulled out his license. Oh crap. It was due a month ago. Mark was driving unlicensed and therefore uninsured. Being 24, I would also be uninsured if I drove. We jumped on the Qld Transport website to renew the license, and it requires a reference number from the renewal letter, which never came. Mark called Qld transport, who could do nothing for him without the renewal letter reference, other than just send another renewal in the mail, unless we want to fill in 5 forms, see a JP and send these to them? Ridiculous. We were 4 hours from Dublin. Oh crap.
So we decided we would have to cut our time back in Killarney to give us extra time to travel back to Dublin and return the car, while still allowing time to make it to Galway on a bus. Gah. This meant a choice of just one between two of the daytrips in Kerry that we had wanted to do - the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula.
After a bit of googling and talking to the hostel workers, we picked Dingle. I think this ended up being the best decision, as although we couldnt hear a word our driver said despite asking him to turn the mic up, the scenery was the star here. Absolutely amazing! We drove past and stopped for photos on dramatic cliffs, beautiful beaches (including lovely Inch Beach), stunning lakes surrounded by mountains, and super old stone Clochans ('beehive' huts) and an oratory (church). Archaeologists believe these date back to the Middle Ages, around the Bronze age.
The city of Dingle is a super cute seaside town with lots of cheap, fresh seafood on offer...unfortunately we had been organised enough to pack lunch so we sat on the rocks in the chilly but pretty port to eat sandwiches ((boring!). You know what isn't boring? Seeing a dog sitting on the back of a donkey. Only in Dingle, peeps.
The daytrip also gave us an unexpected chance to visit the town of Tralee, where my great grandfather times about seven is from. Unfortunately when I say visit, I mean drive through the outskirts. Had we still had the use of our car, we were going to drive in and check it out...unfortunately all I have to show my Mum is a photo of the roadsigns. Oh well. It joins the uncertain list of 'next time'.
Oh and somewhere around the Dingle Peninsula we saw Dolores' old house! (of Cranberries fame). Cool!
After returning to the hostel in the late afternoon, Mark and I went to a spot just down the road where we had spied a wedding earlier. With no-one around except a horse in the paddock, we sat in content silence on a fence and watched the breathtaking sunset over a majestic view of the lake and mountain range.
So beautiful, and a little bit romantic. A lot romantic.
And then it was time for the anxious (but trouble-free) drive back to Dublin, to return our little Yaris and get on to the big finale that was Galway.
- comments
Pambo Wow! That sounded awesome! You had me hooked and really wanting to travel over to Ireland. Missing you guys so much! It is very quiet here without you, even though I was not the biggest socialite when you were here :) I guess you guys have moved on from Ireland already, but I can't wait to read more. I don't know what it was about your entry but it made me feel like I was reading a novel! Anyway, I better get back to work. Love you guys lots and look forward to reading more travel blogs soon I hope :) xxx Bumma about the licence. But good that there were no accidents and unnecessary insurnace claims.
Liss Thanks Pammy, we miss you too! Ireland is definitely worth the visit, amazing scenery, amazing people and amazing stories. Say hi to Jack and Adam for us! And write me a nice long email soon lol. Big love xox