County Kerry, Ireland

I met up with my family here in Ireland at the Shannon airport and we headed straight on to Dingle to start our trip in County Kerry. Dingle is one of the many small towns on the West Coast of Ireland, known for Gaelic-speaking people, traditional music, and beautiful scenery. Dingle is actually one of the towns with a good harbor on a little peninsula, called the Dingle Peninsula. We explored the area around Dingle town, pubs and all,

before heading out to Slea Head, the point of the peninsula,

and taking a look at the ancient buildings and ruins left by the Celtic and early Christian people in the area more than a thousand years ago. On the right is our archaeological tour guide, giving us a talk on the history of the stone in the ruin around us. On the left is one of the buildings made entirely of stone (no mortar) which have stood since the time they were built.

After Dingle, we went to Killarney to start our bike trip around the Ring of Kerry, the common name for the next peninsula south of Dingle, the Iveragh Peninsula. The weather for the first half of the trip was unbelievably good for a country that never goes a day without rain. Here is the Glencar Highlands on the first day,

and coast on the next.

After the first two days we had a break day, which my mother, brother, and I used to go to Skellig Michael, a rock-island off the west coast where Puffins and other seabirds nest and a 7th century monastic ruin sits on top. Many of the buildings in the settlement where the monks lived are still standing. They are all built without mortar in the typical beehive hut style that predominates the early architecture in Ireland. Just across from Skellig Michael is Little Skellig (bottom two), home to tens of thousands of Northern Gannets who come here to nest. It is impossible to get on the island but we circled around it to take a look. You'll notice a lot of white dots, each one is a bird. Here are the photos:

The next few days rained but it did stop for long enough to let me have a look at the coast at Daniel O'Connell's House and Staigue Fort, a ring fort built thousands of years ago before Christianity came to Ireland, but nobody can agree on exactly when:

and Killarney National Park with the Muckross House (which is inside the national park) on the right.

Although I spent a few more days in Ireland after leaving County Kerry, there really isn't enough to make another blog post about. So here are some pictures from Doolin, one of the pubs there with local musicians playing for the tourists (a pretty typical sight in Ireland) and the Cliffs of Moyer, a cool seaside cliff but probably not worth the acclaim it gets:

I'd like to thank all my family for supporting my broke self in Ireland for a few weeks, especially my parents. I really had a great time with all the bike riding, pub crawling, music listening, and all the other times in between. Here we all are in Waterville, on the Ring of Kerry.

Ireland is an interesting place nowadays. Americans have been conditioned to love Irish anything and there really is a lot of misconception about the place. To enjoy the place, I think you have to know what to expect going in. The countryside is gorgeous, the stouts are amazing, the music is fun, and there is a lot of history on the island. However, Irish people are generally dismissive of tourists, of which there are far too many (especially Americans), it is incredibly expensive, being one of the most expensive countries in Europe and the exchange rate on the euro is far from favorable, and finding anything truly "traditional" there is practically impossible. Since there isn't really much else to do, all the larger towns and cities have pretty good nightlife.

Beer of Ireland: Ireland is the home of the stout. They sell three major types, Murphy's, Beamish, and, of course, Guinness. They all taste about the same and though I'm not a stout person generally, they are damn good stouts. And, of course, the Guinness is better in Ireland. That statement isn't made without irony, see why, if you don't already know (and interestingly enough, the guy who runs that site has one just for me). There are also a few other types of lesser-known beer widely available in Ireland. One is their lager, Harp, which is mediocre at best and another is Kilkenny, a cream ale, stuck somewhere in the middle ground between Guinness and an Irish Red. Kilkenny is both unique and flavorful, making it probably my favorite beer in Ireland from an "intellectual" approach (meaning that after awhile I just started to order Carlsberg, a good Danish beer) though it isn't available in most bars . There are a few good microbreweries in Dublin, but their beers are not widely available. Stout lovers, this is your heaven. Everyone else... well, don't say I didn't warn you. Grade: B-.

Ice Cream of Ireland: The selection isn't great, the quality is decent, but nothing special and it is always (always!) unduly expensive. Most places on the west coast just have soft serve at the grocery stores and it honestly isn't even great for soft serve. When you can find the scooped ice cream, it's decent, but paying $8 for two scoops dampens the enjoyment. Grade: C-.

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Details:

While you can take a one day tour of the Ring of Kerry from Cork or Killarney (which I have done in the past), the better way to see Kerry is to go as slow as possible, by bike, leisurely car rides, or walking, all of which are regularly done. It will rain a lot so increasing the time you spend there will increase the chances you have of getting a few sunny days or getting to see most stuff at least once in the sun. If you want to see a lot of small towns and countryside the best option is to rent a car, provided you won't unnecessarily freak out about driving on the left hand side of the road. I flew into Shannon airport on an Aer Lingus flight from London Heathrow ($85, 1.5 hours), before which I left Prague by flying British Airways into London Heathrow ($129, 2 hours). When traveling through London, make sure your flights are in the same airport (there are 4: Heathrow, Luton, Gatwick, and Stansted). Inter-airport connections are expensive, time-consuming, and very much a hassle.