Dingle Friday Night (July 10th)

This is the place I stayed out in Dingle for Friday - Sunday. I shared a room with my friend Brenda. We had our own private bath and a tv with a good number of stations. No internet access. Apparently the lobby had a grey cat though I never saw him.


Here's pictures of the room we stayed in.




Some pictures of the town of Dingle



After I took this picture a woman next to me walked out into the street yelling "Taxi! Taxi!", waving her arms overhead - the car she was trying to flag down was a police car. I had a good laugh over that and so did she when she realized her mistake.


Just thought this place was pretty




ah, Irish humor and directions. It never really changes does it?


The non-official name of this pub is the "Yellow Pub". I stayed in there for a bit listening to their music. I spoke to one Irish man who was quite friendly but was standing too close for comfort... just enough so that I wasn't sure if he was creepy or not. So I excused myself and rejoined with my GMU group in the pub. Tom, our faculty person who came with us was talking to a local Dingle man. As the conversation progressed the man leaned closer. Then he put his hand on the wall next to my head, effectively trapping me against the wall. I kept thinking, "This man is totally standing in Robin space right now". Basically when he was talking to Tom he was close enough to kiss him, seriously. Eventually he said goodbye and left. I wasn't freaked out this time because I realized that personal space isn't quite the same in an Irish bar. Now on the streets in Ireland people tend to give you the same amount of space as they do in America- but in a pub its just different. I spoke with my friend Katie who said that one man had leaned so far into her that his ear was practically in her mouth. I think this happens because the pubs are so loud.



Just thought this was a pretty door and knocker.




I got icecream here. They advertise that all their milk comes from Irish cows. And most of their ice cream has some sort of alcohol in it.


I just love this sign. 5pmish Sometimes closed on Wednesdays



Dingle had some of the best pubs and the best music I've experienced in Ireland

These performers were in the "yellow" pub sorry its so dark, but you can hear the music and that's whats important.



This was an impromptu singing by random bar goers. When we left they said "awww come on, we weren't that bad" They were really quite good. But the bar was closing and trying to kick everyone out. This type of singing tends to happen quite a bit if you go to the right pubs. The Crane in Galway has this happen every night. Someone will bang a glass against a table and everyone in the crowd says "SHHHHHHH" and then someone sings for a pint. Its awesome.

Pictures of the Drive to Dingle - Friday July 10th

Just some pictures taken from on the bus. The storm clouds made for some pretty unique pictures. Most of the time it looked like the clouds were sitting on the tops of the mountains



I'm not really sure what this building is but it looks like aliens have landed to me!

Bunratty Castle - Friday July 10th

So we stopped at Bunratty Castle on the way to Dingle. The castle was surrounded by a small village- a sort of reenactment place. I didn't get to look around the village as I would have liked because we only had about 1.5 hours to tour the castle and get lunch. As the picture suggests it was sort of a yucky rainy day. This is one of the prettiest castles I have visited.


The stained glass was just lovely. It was pretty much all throughout the castle


This is the ladies window. Since the girls were not allowed in the Great Hall, they made this window for the lady folk to look into the hall and be amused.



View from the ladies window


Me at the top of the castle. Unfortunately the view from the castle top wasn't so great because of the road and other urban developments. The edge near the look out point dips down at the wall. I didn't realize this and so I basically fell into the wall. I wasn't sure there was anything under my foot so I had my claws sunk into the stone. My friend Katie reassured me there was solid ground under me and I stepped back. Did not like that experience, just assumed I was dangling over a huge drop.



Some pictures of the inside of the castle





This was hanging above on of the beds. Who would want to look at this before falling asleep?



This is my favorite room of the castle because of the awesome ceiling





Some pictures of the little folk village

Aran Islands Bike Ride

This is just to prove that yes, I was taking pictures while riding my bike!

More Aran Island Pictures!

This is the pretty little beach we stopped at. You can really see all the different colors in the Irish ocean in this photo.



There was a little grave yard we stopped by.



Some of the horse drawn carriages


I just wanted to show an example of the stone walls up close. The stone walls are all over Ireland. They don't use a mortar to hold the stones together. They are stacked carefully and neatly, fitting various sized rocks together. There is no "glue", which makes them all the more impressive


This picture is just the vision of Ireland. Cattle, ruins, and green fields.



The "town" we stopped at for lunch. Most of the crafts are handmade.


It was amazing to watch the waves crash into the sides of the stone








This is probably my favorite picture so far. This really says yes, I'm in Ireland. And yes, being this close to the edge is super scary


Looking directly down at the water from the cliffs



Me, trying to look over the edge without you know, dying.


Me with our super sweet tour guide. He must be really strong of heart because he watches people go near the cliff edge every day.





This is a fairy house




Yes horses lay in front of houses in Ireland. I saw one on the front porch once.



The guy we rented the bikes from told me that there are not many donkeys left on the Island. When the movie Shrek came out all the girls wanted donkeys for their sweet sixteen gift (who would have guessed?), so there was a big problem with donkey theft at the time.


There were underground caves that the water was crashing into, it make an awesome sound. Here's a video of one. Yes, I know, it was windy.