IRELAND: PART 2 -- DINGLE TOWN -- GALWAY

DAY 3: SATURDAY APRIL 24, 2010

I began the morning by getting up at 8:00 am so I could see as much of the town as I could before I had to leave in the afternoon. I didn't have transportation booked at all because one can just by tickets from the bus driver but I had a reservation for Galway for Saturday night. So I did have to get there sometime that night. That's how the majority of the trip went, I made plans and decisions about what to do and what to see one a very short notice. I was happy with that though.

Well after getting showered and dressed I went out to breakfast. It was just cereal, toast, some coffee, and orange juice, but that was good enough for me. I don't complicate much of anything. Although my hostess had offered to make a cooked breakfast, I didn't want her to go to all that trouble for me since I was the only one there. Though a simple breakfast, it was very good. The husband came in a talked to me for a little while. He's a very nice gentleman and of course wanted to know where I was from and everything. We ended up having a nice chat.

After breakfast I got my cameras and went about exploring their farm...I had permission of course. It's a sheep farm. Now I'm not sure what kind of sheep farm, whether or not it was for wool or for meat, I don't know. I didn't ask. However it's a very nice property located right beside a small creek or that flows down from the surrounding mountains. It's a tidal creek so the water level rises and falls very dramatically with the harbor tide. They have quite a few sheep and several small pastures and what looked like several larger pastures farther away from the farm. I went through the sheep pastures taking pictures of the sheep and the surrounding landscape. I did have an ulterior motive. I really wanted to pet a sheep. Though they are tame to a degree they do have a good respect for humans...they keep a wide distance. That is the older ones do. Some of the youngsters came up to me just to see who I was but they didn't let me touch them. All in all I got some really good pictures out of it.

I went back inside, grabbed my bag and headed for town. Upon getting into town I went to the store and grabbed some lunch. Next I headed for the bike shop and got myself a bike to rent for a couple of hours. With bike and food I headed for the hills. There are quite a few hills and mountains around on the Dingle Peninsula and around Dingle Town. I wanted to get on the back roads and see the country so I took the road up that parallels the main road up one of these hills. It was a nice ride, although I haven't had many chances to ride a bike here so I felt a little goofy on it. It was a cloudy day and looked as if it wanted to rain. But it didn't, at least not for a while.

I continued along this road until it came down the hill and met with the main road. I'd been taking pictures along the way which had taken up quite a bit of time so I turned towards town. I hadn't eaten yet and I was thinking about trying to get out to the coast so I turned down a farm road which lead to a little farm town of about twenty buildings. The road went past this down to the coast about a hundred yards and stopped at an over look of the harbor mouth.

The overlook sat over some small cliffs just maybe 40ft high. The sea was a little rough so the water would pound the cliff base. Here is where I had my lunch. Though the weather wasn't the best it was still a very nice lunch. Looking out to the harbor the bay is on the left and the lighthouse and harbor are on the right. It is possible to walk out to the light house although I didn't have enough time to do so and I the path isn't suitable for bikes otherwise I would have bike out there. Just as I finished my lunch the clouds opened up and the rain came down. I took my leave and road back to town at the double quick. I returned my bike and went back to the farm to collect my belongings. I paid my hostess, said goodbye, and began my soggy march back to the town and the bus.

I caught the bus at 2:45PM. The bus ride was again an hour long but I made a point of it this time to stay awake and see the countryside which was very pretty. The sun kept trying to break through the clouds but always failed. However this little light made a very pretty picture as it mixed with the gray clouds and rich green countryside. I arrived at Tralee at about 4:00PM and went to find some food. It was very awkward doing this since I had to lug my duffle, which was more like a rucksack and my small backpack with me. Once again thought my ruck marches with Army ROTC proved very handy here for I didn't mind it so much. I found a super market and got myself dinner for the road and went back to the bus station. I caught the bus at 5:00PM and headed up the road for Galway. This was a very nice ride as well. I might as well mention that the bus system in Ireland is one of the best I've ever seen. All of their buses are coaches and it makes for a pretty good ride. There are always just enough people for each person to have their own set of seats making the ride just a little more comfortable. I have to switch buses in Limerick and had a 25 minute layover.

I finally arrived in Galway at 10:00PM that night. I couldn't find my hostel at first because Google maps, though useful, is rather inaccurate and since this trip was pulled off on such quick notice I didn't have maps of all the towns and addresses for all the places I was to stay. I had quickly looked them up on Google maps for a reference. So I walked around the square only looking for my hostel. I saw a sign that said "Hostel" on it but it didn't say which hostel. Mine was called the "Galway City Hostel." But since that was the only one around I figured they would know. As turned out that was my hostel so I got my room, which was a "mixed" (co-ed) room, left my stuff there and went to check the place out. The night life in Galway is just bars and pubs. So I decided to skip that and went back to the hostel.

In the hostel I loaded pictures onto my computer and checked emails. There was a German couple roughly my age there. They were spending the summer and spring before college traveling around Ireland to improve their English. The German education system is different than America's so that's why they had this time to travel. There is an "apprenticeship" option before college and after high school that most students take. So most German college students are a little older than American college students. We ended up talking for quite a long time in the wee hours of the morning. It was very fascinating. Finally though, since we were all very tired, we decided to go to bed.

Well that's it for today because I have quite a bit of "chores", more or less, to do today. I've got a test a history test on tomorrow afternoon and some other things as well. The sun is actually out today for once. The whole I was gone from Paris it was really nice with temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. That converts to 72 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit. So it was pretty nice. However this weekend the rains came back along with the cold winter type winds. Before too long we were all searching for the winter clothes wondering what had happened. I was May for goodness sake! Hopefully now the weather will right itself around. Also while I was gone all the leaves came out and the flowers so Paris has finally reached its full potential for spring. Well I'll leave you with that. Take care!