Paddywagon Tour to Dingle

ROAD TRIP!!!

We went to Dingle with a stop in Killarney...

 Our first stop was a

café called Sprögler.

 First I set the camera on the table and set the timer,but a kind man walking past offered to take a picture for us :)

 ^_^

 For those of you who do not know, my friend Michelle has a thing for the color purple (especially on buildings and doors). we can't walk anywhere without her randomly shouting "PURPLE!"...

So I took a picture of her next to this stunningly purple door. For some reason my camera made it look blue!

 We got back on the bus after buying a few souvenirs to make our way over the Cork and Kerry Mountains.

 But first we went to Inch Beach! I am always a little wary of beaches after that on time on Achill Island with the sand fleas... but this was nice.

 Shout out to my West High Choral people! I loved singing with y'all and this made me think of you!

 A moment of SUNSHINE!!!

 Michelle likes beaches apparently...

 Story time!

So this...quaintly named pub was built rather quickly next to a hostel, and it was painted a shocking shade of green to boot. Nothing was inherently wrong with it...until the preacher and the congregation walked out the church doors in the morning to be faced with this at the bottom of the hill!

This was taken out the bus window as we rounded a corner at Slea Head drive... The driver got in the intercom and announced had to 'cross this wee river here...' and just as he was explaining the bus' hesitation we came to a jolting stop. It must be difficult to take a large tour bus around a 90 degree turn... I still don't know how he did it with a rock cliff face on  our right and a drop off to our left...

After that harrowing adventure we stopped to take pictures again. We stopped in front of a modest blue house on a hill. Before the bus doors opened our driver mentioned the bee-hive huts on our right...They are on private land now though,and the lady who owns it doesn't appreciate folks walking all over her property to take pictures, so she usually asks a small fee of 2 euros .

As I made my way to the front of the bus, I asked the bus driver if we were to go ring her doorbell or...

he responded,"she's a bit like a spider that one, I have a feeling she'll just...appear."

 I hadn't even crossed the road and there she was.

 The encroaching clouds and fog bank kept making pictures grey (-er than usual), unless the sun poked out for a few seconds.

 The mist looks like something from a Steven King novel...

 It was lambing season, so baby sheep where everywhere. whenever we went past a field with a few you'd hear a chorus of, "AWWWW"

 Next stop, Dingle!

 We took a picture next to the Dolphin statue of Fungi, Dingle's local celebrity. 

Fungi is a wild dolphin who started to appear in the Dingle harbor around 1984. He apparently hears the sound of the boat engines and then pops up for a look. He's such a regular now that they have created as little economy after him--yours and all. If you go on the tour and he does not make an appearance you get refunded!

 We stopped for sea-food at the place recomended by our driver...

(With deep-fried Mars Bar for dessert!)

... and then stopped for ice-cream at Murphy's.

when I was last in Dingle for my Spoken Irish's trip to the Gaeltacht (Ballyferriter) I had loved the ice-cream so much...they were out of Guinness flavored ice-cream this time :(  But I knew it would be good!

 I got 4 scoops! Dingle Sea Salt, Honeycomb Caramel, Bailey's Cream,and Blissful Butterscotch!

It is really rich, so most folks were ordering one scoop or two...when I walked up and ordered four I heard someone behind me simply say, "Bold..."

 When I went up to pay, the girl behind the register, around my age,handed me my ice-cream and said, "good luck with that!"

I replied, "I am American, I could eat the whole tub!"

 This is a play on the words, "póg mo thóin" meaning "kiss my ass"

The trip back was nice except for the giggling girls behind us for the whole two hours, so afterwards we went to the Porterhouse to get a pint of Hop Head and a shot of Dingle Gold (distilled where we just were earlier that day).

A wonderful trip!