Kinerva, Cliffs of Moher, Killarney
When last I left you I had all of the best of intentions of seeing the Ring of Kerry. The famed Ring of Kerry that even my grandmother has seen on her one excursion to Ireland a hundred years ago I could not see. I blame the bus system. I blame a bad planet alignment. I blame my ineptitude at reading signs. Anyways, we didn't get to go to see it and we ended up taking the bus to Killarney instead. There were rumors of famous lakes and breath-taking views and castles (ho hum around here. here a castle, there a castle, everywhere a castle, castle.). Killarney has a beautiful national park in the middle of its city and if you're ever wandering around that end of Ireland I fully advise at least a day for just the park. We spent what seemed like 45 minutes only walking 1.9 km down winding paths down a peacefully flowing river. We get to these "lake shores" and it is nothing but a hole between some forest. A bit of a let down really.... however we did see a herd (yes, a herd) of wild deer, swans on the lake, cattle, and a whole mess of wild bird, etc.
We then walked down to Ross Castle (another 45 minute trek) and there is a beautiful, open spaced view of the lake. Gorgeous. There were also boats to rent to go into the lake but because we wasted nearly two hours to the "lake shores" we didn't have enough time. After that we headed back towards a mall/bus stop combo where I bought a pair of silver glitter shoes for my collection.
After our ride back to Cork we were wiped out.
This morning we made the three hour drive to a small town just outside of Galway to a town called Kinerva. We have a really cool bed and breakfast here. B&Bs here are more like people's homes that they let out for the night. Her whole family was there including her daughter. The place is littered with family artifacts like children's drawings and family photos; I like it a lot. Even better she has cows with calves and LAMBS. Two little baby lambs and she said that Tara and I can feed them their bottle in the morning and cuddle them and whatnot! Now, this seems silly but I am actually really, really excited about this.
This afternoon we drove out to tallest cliffs in all of Europe, the Cliffs of Moher. Talk about amazing- we, of course, went beyond the "no visitors beyond this point" sign and walked all the way around the south end before heading to the much more controlled northern end of the cliffs. I cannot tell you how beautiful it was but I can say with certainty that it is a rather dangerous area. Apparently they are doing more to control just how far you walk out because even as soon as this winter they had people falling off for whatever reason. The drop off is intimidating and the wind is going at breaking speeds and it actually pushed Tara and I around a bit (although in the opposite direction of the drop off). All in all a fabulous few days.
Cheers mates,
elizabeth
Not all who wander are lost.