boy did it rain and rain and rain some more today.
we woke up at 7 am, had a wonderful breakfast at 7 45. the nice irishman came and took our order from the menu that was included in our stay there! there was a traditional irish breakfast, pancakes, or an omelette. i chose a cheese only omelette. it was great. i'm thinking about pancakes tomorrow? irish breakfasts are legit.
after breakfast, our bus departed at 8:30 to head back to dingle, where we were the day before.
peter is a phenomenal driver and knows a lot of things about ireland. our plan was to take a tour around the dingle peninsula, which ends up being the furthest west part of europe until you get to new york. i thought that was kinda cool!
we stopped for a potty break and headed on the tour. as weird as this sounds, the toilets here are different than the US ha ha. the seats are just weird! i think we all get used to the daily things we do and use, but when it's something different than what we are used to, we notice it!
a quick stop was quick i tell you. at inch beach. it was raining so much. so cold! me and chrisse went out for about two minutes, took a picture and headed back to the bus.
unflattering pants, i think so.
anyway. peter was telling us about dingle. it is one of the only places that teaches traditional irish in school. they will have all classes in english but one irish class for two hours every day. imagine that? dang. he said that some parents will pay 3,000 euro to send their child to some small town home in the country just to learn irish. they can't take any laptops or phones. and if the speak one word of english, they are sent home! reminds me of asians and their intense studies. (is that even comparable?)
back to dingle. well there is some political battle. the political officials decided that because dingle is the only place that teaches irish, they wanted to change the signs to say an daingean (pronounced an dang-un). so the government paid to have all of the signs changed to say that and no longer say dingle. well, this dropped the tourism greatly because people who do not speak irish (like myself) couldn't tell where to go to get to dingle. there has been a battle back and forth between the locals wanting the signs to say dingle and the government being stubborn and keeping them to say an daingean. now, the locals have, by themselves, somehow written dingle on the signs. so we have seen tons of signs with both names on them.
i thought that was interesting! peter has told us a ton of old folk tales and myths.
we passed some old homes. the last ones that were left from the plague days. the people stayed there and had to fight to find food and work. everything here is so ancient and awesome! i can't get over it.
the ancient house is the brown brick one.
p.s. the lady that lives in white house literally sits AT her window, waiting for tourists to come up. when they start to walk through her yard, she yells at them to leave or to pay 2 euro to walk through. smart woman she is.
we passed the beautiful beach and shoreside. it was so pretty. peter asked us if we were feeling energetic because we were about to get in the ocean! i was not in the mood for that. but... i figured i am only in ireland one time. so i probably should do what he says. this beach was Coomeenole Beach. let me tell you, this was THE coldest wind i have ever felt in my life. and probably will ever feel. it was blowing so hard. i couldn't walk straight it was pushing me to the side. had i not tied my scarf, it would have blown away in a second!
notice the girls behind me standing facing the wind and letting it hold them up? yeah, it was that strong.
peter told us that we need to dip our feet in the ocean. and when we do, we lose some of our soul. but if we come back in ten years, we can get that part of our soul back. i guess i'm going back in ten years! it was so cold, rainy, and more rain. our shoes and socks came off and we ran through the ocean for a little while. attempted to take some pictures, but i don't know how well they turned out! it was an adventure that's for sure.
we continued on to some smaller stops and took more pictures. we headed back on the loop to dingle. amazing houses are everywhere. they are so beautiful, new, and modern designs. i bet the inside is even better. we also passed a huge mansion in dingle. it was originally built by the lead singer of the cranberries (singing donkey as peter calls her). there were so many huge parties thrown there that the locals got upset at the helicopters and stretch limos coming through their town. she sold the house to a producer who now rents the house out to artists/groups who need to record there. snow patrol has been there for the past two months!
after arriving back in dingle, we had a couple hours to eat and walk around the shops. i will say, walking around wasn't very pleasant because of the miserable rain! arg. a bunch of us ate at a little restaurant i don't remember the name of, whoops. i ordered seafood chowder and hot cocoa. the hot cocoa was average but the chowder was exceptional! very very good. big V would have loved that! i did find a rain coat walking through the shops. i hope it will keep me warm and semi-dry!
i wish you all could have seen the rain and the wind at the soul-taking beach! it was insane.
after arriving back at the hotel, we changed and freshened up to head back out to the grocery store to get some things to share. hilary, kathryn, and i went to tesco to pick some things up. dubliner's cheese and soda bread was our main purchase. it was not my favorite but good to try.
the chocolate is tasty! i may or may not have picked up a few bars while i've been here. :) i know you're jealous.
i am drained from the weather today. it was pouring all day and has kind of cleared up. it's nice to be inside and warm. i wish i had some rain boots! my canvas vans and toms aren't cutting it with wet streets. we were told that today was worse than the average day so hopefully most days will be better.
we've got two castle tour appointments set up for tomorrow and we will head to dublin to stay in a hostel and go to to church there. that will be really cool!
cheers. thanks. (that's what the irish say here).
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