Favorites of Ireland

This day marked exactly one week since we'd left the States! I had 3 very highly recommended places on our itinerary for the day. So far our favorite place in the west of Ireland was Mizen Head. Two of the places I'll talk about today, Killarney National Park and Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, definitely made it to the top of our list. Dingle, however, fell short.

We started out bright and early at Killarney National Park (totally free except for the pony and trap). I had planned to drive through it, but I didn't see any other cars and I didn't want to be "that guy." (or gal.) I'd recommend spending a whole day or half a day hiking around the place. The Gap of Dunloe (pictured above) was without a doubt one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. We were in a hurry (I didn't prioritize this one, though I wish I had), so we ended up "chartering" (is that the right word?) a pony and trap. I shouldn't have done this... I told the driver we were in a hurry, so he trotted the pony (Tom) down the street, and all the equipment rubbed Tom raw so that he started to bleed. He also threw a shoe on the way back, so we had to get out and walk for the last little bit. At least I can rest easy knowing Tommy boy was done for the day.

After this, we drove to Dingle. I've read on so many websites that Dingle is the place to go, but we weren't very entertained while we were there. This may just be because we only went for a short time. There's loads of things to do on the water (including dolphin tours), but we didn't have time to do any of those. All the places we were planning on eating lunch at were closed as well, so we went into a little cafe where a bunch of students were eating lunch (Ireland still has school in session in the early summertime). The only other thing we really got to do in Dingle was go into a hardware store looking for a jacket for Graham. He had been so cold since he only brought one Northface jacket on the trip. All the jackets in there were really heavy-duty and crazy expensive, so he decided to suck it up and freeze for the rest of the trip.

Our next stop was Bunratty Castle and Folk Park (15 euros for the park, 55 euros for the banquet dinner). We had so much fun! We spent a couple hours walking around, exploring the castle and village and playing with the farm animals. I wish we had skipped Dingle and spent more time here. We went into all these little thatch-roofed houses with actors/musicians playing the part of townspeople. We even got to hear a fiddler play and sing Molly Malone! That evening we went to the banquet for dinner, which was such an entertaining experience. It was a dinner theater where the actors played the parts of kings, nobles, knights, and peasants at the castle, interacting with the audience members as they went. There were also musicians who played several songs on string instruments (medieval style and folk songs), plus some multi-part singing. We sat next to one couple from Nevada and another couple from New Jersey, and they were so much fun to talk to during the quiet parts of the dinner. It was my favorite thing we did for dinner in Ireland.

Late that evening we stayed in Ennis and tried to explore the downtown area to listen to some trad music. The bar we were recommended had someone playing covers of American country and rock music... The bar was kind of a hole-in-the-wall and it was really hard to find parking late at night. A bit scary, too, walking the short distance to the bar without many street lamps around. It had a somewhat Jack the Ripper feel. I was growing more and more disappointed that I hadn't heard any real trad music played in bars- the only traditional music I had heard was the lady playing the Uillean Pipes, and the fiddler in Bunratty. The next day we devoted the whole evening to traveling the west side of Ireland from Doolin to Galway listening to trad music, since it was the only Saturday night we would be in the west- and I had been told the whole trip that the trad music in the west was the only genuine trad music (don't go to any sessions in Dublin!).

Total costs for Day 7: ~90 euros per person

Cost of airbnb: $76