Not so mini update

Hello again, all! Just got back to our darling beachside B&B after a scrumptious dinner at a great pub in a tiny fishing town called Portmagee. We really have been finding some gems on this trip. There's big business in pubs and B&Bs here, so you know that to some extent it's all a tourist trap, but the people have all been wonderful so you never feel conned by it. I don't know why I thought of that, but it's been something I've been considering. Anywho, on to the update of the past two days. Let's begin where we left off, shall we? On our way back into Blarney..

After breakfast and showers, it was back into Blarney to finish exploring the grounds around the castle. We strolled through town a bit (the less driving, the better) and stumbled upon a simple little crafters market outside the very tourist trappy shopping mall/restaurant/hotel. There were maybe only about a dozen stalls altogether, but it was fun to neb around anyway. There were locally made soaps, breads, herbal remedies (I thought of you, mom), food carts, and a musician. The end of the row of stalls led right onto the walking path to the castle, so that was perfect. We just barely missed a run-in with a tour bus group along the way. There had to have been fifty of them and we had no intentions of getting stuck behind them at the till to get onto the grounds. I'm all for a leisurely vacation in Ireland, but that would have tried my before-noon patience. Luckily, we not only got ahead of them, but we had already seen the castle the night before, so we wouldn't get caught up in their queue inside either. We headed straight for Blarney House, an 18th century home on the grounds currently occupied by local nobility of sorts. They keep the house in fairly accurate period condition, so guided tours are available for a short window of time each day. The guide was a very knowledgeable local historian who gave us the canned schpiel he was supposed to share along with tidbits from his own research, so that made for a nice touch. Unfortunately, as it is someone's current residence, we could only take pictures of the outside, which is rather impressive in it's own right. We continued through the Blarney grounds by exploring Rock Close, which is apparently often overlooked, along with the house. I felt like I was in an ancient Storybook Forest, with the Wishing Steps, Fairy Glade, and Witch's Kitchen to venture through. Got lots of pictures of all of that to share, of course.

These adventures had stirred up something of an appetite, so it was back to the Muskerry Arms for lunch before we left for Killarney. I finally had myself some real honest fish and chips! The fish was great, but the wedge-like fries left something to be desired. You know, just in case you find yourself in Blarney someday and are curious about what to order at the Muskerry Arms. As much as I wanted to stay and "just take one quick look" at the shopping plaza, Ben wisely shut that down and got us on our way. The drive to Killarney was mostly uneventful. I say that because we've done so much driving since then that has been very eventful, so, since nothing sticks out from this drive, it must not have been all that wild, crazy, or worth mentioning.

Killarney too, at least for the first night, wasn't all that exciting. There was a little confusion getting into the Woodlands B&B and then we weren't sure what to do with the night, so, by the time we got into town, most shops were closing and the only real option for entertainment was eating. We ate well, as we have the whole of the trip. We've only really eaten pub food technically (outside of the one cafe), but it has certainly served our stomachs well. After that it was another stroll back to the B&B (have you noticed that anti-driving stance Ben has taken?) to watch last week's Glee and organize the accumulated pictures. I only mention Glee because it was the 'Rumours' episode, aptly named for a Fleetwood Mac album, a band I am weirdly dorky about. (Dad, I'm not entirely sure how you feel about Fleetwood Mac, but they did a version of 'Never Going Back Again' that I think you would have enjoyed.) Anyway, it was a thoroughly enjoyable episode, Ben laughed while I sang along to every song, and I even got two albums of photos prepped to go up on Facebook. So productive.

Particularly for family, if I don't have you on Facebook, here are the public links to the photos we have uploaded so far. Keep in mind: this is only a small selection of photos. If you know me at all, you know there is no way I could go on a trip like this and only take these few photos. The photos haven't been cropped or edited or had anything fun with them yet to make them look prettier. Finally, Ben wrote all the captions, so if an inside joke doesn't fly, blame him. Also, captions have yet to be added for day 2. Day 1, Flying & Dublin: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150182202111965.303543.735401964&l=f2855a2ca5
Day 2, Bit of Dublin & Blarney: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150183870271965.303656.735401964&l=ff45e3eeaf

That brings us up to this morning in Killarney, I think. Breakfast was wonderful (I had my first taste of smoked salmon = yum), and we got to get to know our hosts a little better. Paddy came out to talk with us all through breakfast and was full of helpful tidbits for getting around. Although we had decided to be rebels and drive the Ring of Kerry clockwise (rather than the more popular anticlockwise), he pointed out that the unconventional route would make it easier for us to visit a few often-missed stops: Ross Castle, Muckross House, and Torc Waterfall. I kind of want to make an account on TripAdvisor and leave him a stellar review just for that advice alone. Granted, the Ring of Kerry is beautiful and awe inspiring and will leave you literally without words just by driving it, but it wouldn't have been the same without those stops.

Ross Castle is a wonderfully restored tower house style castle on Lough Leane dating from the 15th century. Again, photos are not permitted inside, a common theme amongst guided tours thus far, but the guide provided some insight into what it would have been like to live in a tower house castle - another common occurrence once, as literally thousands of these things were built all over Ireland some 500 years ago. They were even accommodating enough to show us what bathroom/dry cleaning facilities would have been like at the time - drafty, smelly, and communal. Great. After that tour was done, it was just a short drive down the road to Muckross House. Literally, "muckross" translates to "pig peninsula" as wild boar used to inhabit the area before people took over the scenic spot some couple hundred years ago. The house and grounds are quite simply massive. The house had something like 60+ chimneys and over 20 different bell pulls. The estate encompasses so much land that when it was donated to the Irish government in the 1930s, it became the country's first national park. There are so many lakes that something like one quarter of the park in water. And man, are they beautiful lakes. Wow. Just, wow. We only had one more stop recommended by Paddy before we officially started the Ring of Kerry within the Killarney National Park, but it's only going to be a blip in this entry because the Ring is just that damned beautiful. Torc Waterfall, although it can be reaching by jaunting car (horse-drawn carriage), we approached via Ford Focus to save on time. It's only a short hike through the woods along the stream/river to get to the fall and literally everything around you but the water is green. It's quiet and lush and damp and you could swear there had to be a Tolkien-esque elf nearby. The two minute walk takes at least five because you just need to stop and stare around you every few steps. The fall itself is beautiful and loud and just plain pretty. Thanks, Paddy, it was completely worth the side trip.

Once that was finished, we well and truly started in on the first half of the Ring of Kerry. The peninsula the Ring is situated on encompasses massive lakes, rocky fields, acres upon acres of mountainous pasture, narrow hairpin winding roads, expansive bays, and windswept sea shore. And that was only the first half! I took, quite literally, several hundred pictures. Granted, many of these were individual, overlapping shots meant to be turned into sweeping panoramas after some Photoshop wizardry, but still! It's a lot of pictures. You hear people use words like "speechless" and "breathless". I'm sure I've used those words myself before. I must amend myself. Without hyperbole, I saw some of the most beautiful vistas today that my eyes may ever see. Driving through those mountains provided breathtaking, truly took my breath away, views of the kind of countryside that pictures will never, ever do justice. Like crawling through the Great Pyramids, or standing in mosques five times as old as the United States itself, I doubt I will ever have enough words or pictures to fully describe these things to you. I want to be able to, and I know that when I see you, I will certainly try, but it will not be enough. It's simply not possible. I can show you pictures and probably make up words, but it is just too big, too beautiful, too too for me to express!

And the thing is, there's more to come. This was only the first half of the Ring of Kerry! We have nearly the whole other side of the peninsula to go tomorrow, along with the majority of Dingle Peninsula, which most sources say is the more beautiful of the two. More beautiful? It gets more beautiful?? I nearly cried writing about what we saw today. I don't think I can physically handle more beautiful! We'll just have to see when tomorrow comes.

Ok, after that novela, let's see if I can wrap up the rest of our night here in the teeny tiny town of, well, we aren't really in a town right now. We're situated right along St. Finian's Bay between the seemingly equal minuscule towns of Ballinskellig and Portmagee. Like, one lane road with a useless line painted down the middle with an unfenced sheep/cow pasture on either side kind of towns. I loved being in Blarney because it had a small town feel in spite of its tourist-ness. This place? It has a small town feel because it really is a small town. Any tourism comes from the fact that its a small town perched on what is, so far, the most beautiful little corner of the world. As I sit up in bed to write this, I am looking directly out our window, across the lawn, across the road, across the unobstructed stretch of beach and into the Atlantic Ocean. So far, life doesn't get any better than this.

We left earlier tonight to drive to Portmagee ("just o'er the mountain") for dinner, but wanted to stop to stroll along the little patch of beach first. We weren't there long, just us, some sand and water, when up from the road runs this dog. Just, out of nowhere! I'm not sure what he thought he saw, but it didn't take him long to get into the Remington trademarked "Ball? You have a ball? Throw the ball! When are you going to throw the ball? I want to chase the ball!" stance. Unfortunately for him, we had no ball. But we did find a stick! He (after checking his tags we found his name to be Ringo) seemed to feel stick was a suitable substitute for ball. Ben positively reveled in it - playing with a big happy farm dog on a beach on the coast of rural Ireland. If I thought he was in love with the Guinness factory? Ha! Nearly forgotten in this setting. Dinner, at least, was certainly forgotten. We played with Ringo for quite a while before mysterious, pretty, long-haired, undetermined shepherd dog also came down to join us. Although this dog got in on the game of fetch (or, as I like to call it, 'run really fast and kick up sand at the camera'), it seemed a bit skiddish when we got super close, so we never got a look at its handy tag. More fetch was played, the stick was broken in half (since sharing is apparently not a dog concept), but eventually dinner was remembered. The dogs followed us back up the beach and when we turned off for the footpath, the dogs turned the other way and trotted back the way they came, presumably to a nearby sheep/cow farm. We never figured out the other one's name and I'm still kind of worried about the poor things getting out on the road so easily like that, so I plan on asking about them with our hostess Bridie in the morning, in case you were worried too. She's either going to think we're crazy for playing with the town strays, or she'll laugh because the neighbor's dogs are smart enough to spot two suckers willing to play with random dogs from 300m.

When we finally made it to the recommended Bridge Bar in Portmagee for dinner, the smell of salt air had me hungry for seafood. Ben? Apparently not the seafood type, though I still mommed him and made him try everything in the mixed bag seafood dish I got but had a French name I can't remember. Regardless, incredibly yummy. We also noshed on some filo wrapped, fried prawns (aka shrimp - I love Irish lingo) for starters and homemade whiskey cake for dessert. Can't go wrong there, right? We met the cutest older couple sitting along the bench beside us who we chatted with all through and after dinner. He was English but now lived in Austrian with his Austrian wife whose English was not that great. But they were sweet and asked us about our holiday and life back in the States and would we be brave enough to get up and dance later? Dance? Oh yeah, didn't you know? There's live music and set dancing every Friday night. When the owner of the place stopped by to check in, he explained that this was what most of the locals did all year round, it wasn't just a show for tourists - although that's what it seemed to become in peak season. You partner up and dance in groups of eight, with each of the dozen or so local small towns having its own particular signature dance. Awesome, right? Totally. Were we going to, literally, step on toes by trying to join in? Heck, no! At one point our cute table neighbors did try their hand (or feet?) at a slower number, but we weren't Guinness-brave enough, since we knew we had another death defying drive up and over the mountain on one lane switchbacks to traverse before we saw the bay again.

Which is where we find ourselves now. It seems I have written quite the novel here, so if you have busy lives, I apologize. I can give you the sweetened condensed version when I see you next. In the meantime, I am off to bed as this novel took me well past my Irish bedtime. Hopefully I shall have a both shorter and sweeter update for you again tomorrow night from Duinin House in Dingle.