Because It's Time to Stop Saying Dingle

On the morning of May 22, we left Dingle. Yes, I know many of you will be very disappointed that you no longer get to giggle at the name Dingle everytime you read it (I know I am), but it was time to make our way to Cork.

 

After another delicious breakfast, we did a bit of light shopping around the town since we made it into town too late to do much of that the night before. Linen stores, woolen stores, random Irish trinket stores--They were all fun to visit. We loaded up our purchases, fueled the Ka, and got on the highway. As we passed the area where the lighthouse into Dingle Bay is located, we decided to take a detour to try to find it. While we did not find it, we did find some beautiful scenery. We enjoyed this for a while, then got back on the road in the direction of Cork via Killarney. We stopped at the tourism office in Killarney and really didn't find anything we were desperate to see, or anything we could see in a short amount of time. So, we just decided to make a quick jaunt into the Killarney National Park. Of course, we had to find it first, and in an attempt to avoid some really gross looking traffic, we ended up in a neighborhood where you have to watch out for juggling children. Or at least that's what the sign looked like. We exited the neighborhood without encountering any juggling children and eventually found Muckross Abbey, a 15th century Franciscan friary. We strolled through the ruined structure, climbed the stairs to a tower, and looked at the beautiful crosses in the cemetery. For more information on Muckross Abbey, see http://www.killarneynationalpark.ie/Muckross%20Abbey/Muckross%20Abbey.htm

 

From the Abbey we walked down to a lake in the park. Out on the water was a lone fishing boat with one occupant. The boat glided past the small islands in the lake on its solitary sojourn. We looked out across the water, still pretty despite the clouds. Horse-drawn carriages ferrying visitors around the park passed by.

 

We walked back to the car and, to our delight, saw a small group of deer (or a group of small deer) over to our left behind a rail fence. They were petite versions of our deer. Once back at the car, we went full-tilt to Cork. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Cork it was around rush hour. And we weren't entirely sure where we were going. And people drove fast on very narrow roads with cars parked at the curbs. All of this (really, one particularly scary narrow, two-way road that I have no idea how it's really a two-way road, and it had cars parked on the curb) caused my stress level to shoot through the roof of the car. So, while I'm crying Alec is trying to find the best way off this insanely narrow road. He made it, he got us to our B&B, and we went inside to relax with a lovely pot of tea and some cookies.

 

After relaxing and letting the stress level subside, we headed out to dinner. A mediocre meal in a pub included trying Beamish, the last stout on our list. Not my favorite. We walked around and explored the city as the streetlights filled the darkening sky with a soft glow. We were staying near University College, Cork, so it was a fairly modern part of town with lots of chain stores, but intermixed with them were older establishments, pretty churches, a courthouse (where the college students gathered to drink on the steps), and a fairly laid-back atmosphere. We took some photos down at the River Lee, found another sign for the referendum vote, and eventually decided to turn in for the night. A relaxing end to a slightly nerve-wracking drive.