"COWS!" she exclaimed, and she wasn't kidding!
The empty field outside our room was now filled with giant, grazing cows. Cows, right there, five feet away, next door to the swanky Dingle Spa Hotel--you seriously cannot escape the cows and sheep in Ireland, no matter where you go! (Not that we were trying to!)
Amber gave me the daily shower report (she always went first, so she warned me of the varying water pressure and temperature, faucet placement, and any other important tips to not scald myself), and then we found the group at breakfast.
We had a couple hours to explore the town before our group outing, so Linda, Amber and I ambled off, past the field of cows, and toward town. My knee was feeling better, but still not great. I walked slowly, and as we passed a doctor's office, I noted the location--I was pretty sure I'd be visiting the good doctor later that afternoon.
Linda, Amber and I laughed our way through town. Amber and I took photos of the adorable streets and buildings (so many colors!) while Linda purchased a new rain coat. (Her inexpensive plastic poncho proved no match for the pounding Irish rain and wind.)
We were delighted to find the second Murphy's ice cream shop, and immediately ran inside for samples.
"What are you gonna get?" I asked Linda, who was more interested in the servers (apparently, when they'd visited last night, the servers were all cute guys!). Linda spotted the cutie who helped her the night before, and in no time at all, he was scooping out tastes of all the different flavors.
"Are you guys really getting ice cream now?" Amber asked. "It's only 10 am!"
Linda and I turned and looked at her, confused. It was Murphy's! We didn't care what time it was--it's ALWAYS time for ice cream!
"Heck yeah, we are!" I said. "What are you gonna get?"
Amber decided to wait until after lunch, while Linda and I immediately ordered chocolate Mingles. (I don't even remember what it was, except there was chocolate everything--chocolate ice cream, chocolate bits, chocolate syrup, maybe? It was a mouthful of chocolatey goodness!)
Linda chided the cute server, who was leaning against the wall in the background.
"Maybe instead of just standing around there, you could help us," she said.
"I'm not even working today," he answered. "I just stopped in to say hi."
But nobody says no to Linda, and soon enough, he was scooping up her ice cream.
After a couple more shops, we headed back to the hotel, where I met up with Mother Mary. She had a gift for me.
"Put this on your knee," she said, handing me a big tube. "Hold on to it today, and keep putting it on."
I gladly accepted the ointment, and rubbed it on my knee. My knee was killing me, and I didn't think a simple medicine would help, but I was willing to try anything.
The thought of climbing up and down the stairs into the Land Rover made me wince, so I claimed the front passenger seat, gladly accepting the task of co-pilot.
Bébhinn drove us just outside of town, maybe 15 minutes, for our first stop--horseback riding! Amid much laughter, about half the group saddled up, and trotted off into the hills.
Bébhinn took the other half of the group for a walk. Neither sounded great for my knee, so I pulled up a seat on the stoop next to a very handsome father (wow, Irish men are good-looking!) and his adorable little girl, who waved to his wife and older daughter riding with our group.
We had a really great conversation--he told me all about Ireland and growing up Irish. He asked about my trip, and when I raved about the food, he laughed and said, "That's new." Apparently, Ireland has not always been known for its good food.
He asked how we were enjoying Ireland, which I love. People were always genuinely interested in where we'd been or where we were going, and what we'd enjoyed seeing. A lot of times, they told us we'd seen more of their country than they had! I asked Bébhinn about this later, because it seemed so interesting that Ireland was such a small country, and yet, her own people didn't travel around much.
We talked about Dublin, where he worked, as the director of the National Art Gallery. I gulped a little when he said that, because that was probably the one place in Dublin we HADN'T seen.
I admitted this, and feeling guilty, told him of the places we HAD visited--the Guinness Storehouse and Old Jameson Distillery.
"We also saw the gaol and the Books of Kells," I added, but he was nice enough not to point out our obvious failure of skipping the art museum. He did know quite a bit about the Book of Kells, though, which was really interesting.
Bébhinn returned, without the walking group. She said they'd taken a short walk to the beach, and we'd pick them up later in the Land Rover.
Our group returned, and dismounted, and we loaded back into the Land Rover. We drove a long, windy path down to the main road at the beach. I'd been feeling a a pang of regret--maybe I should've walked to the beach, too--but when I saw how far they'd actually walked (dodging horse poop the whole time, Amber told me later), I was glad I didn't.
Our next stop was a hillside farm, to see a sheep-herding demo. We walked up a steep hill to get to the demo up top, but the fenced-in fields on either side were filled with adorable, fuzzy animals.
"Be careful!" Nate warned us. "Donkey bites HURT!"
That was enough to keep my hands away from the fence.
Poor Bébhinn kept pushing us to keep on, saying that Gabriel the sheep farmer was waiting for us, but we wouldn't leave the cute animals. We didn't need to see a sheep herding demo, we were a sheep herding demo, as Bébhinn followed behind us, herding our group ever closer toward Gabriel.
Bébhinn had warned us that Gabriel was quite a character, and she wasn't kidding. He was hilarious, yelling at his crazy dog, Captain, and telling us how sheep farmers don't make much money, except for demo days like today, and that it was gonna be a good night down at the pub.
Captain the dog was not the main shepherd today, because Gabriel said he's mad and scares the sheep. So poor Captain sat on the sides, trembling with excitement, and occasionally sneaking over to help out the other dog herding the sheep.
The creeper dog eventually corralled the sheep and we all cheered. The dogs and sheep weren't all that cooperative, but Gabriel was fun to watch.
Bébhinn led us over to a stone house and some beehive huts. She showed how farmers lived back in the day, and honestly, it looked a little rough. There were dirt floors and high hay lofts that doubled as bedrooms, and a hearth where all the meals were cooked. There was also a super creepy little girl doll with scary eyes and a menacing smile staring down at us from the loft, and she freaked us all out so much, we quickly moved on to the next room.
We explored the stone beehive huts, which Bébhinn said were similar to the huts on Skellig Michael (which we could see out in the ocean). The view from the top of the farm was amazing, but I could see it'd be a tough life being a farmer here during the long, cold winters.
We stopped again to pet the horses and donkeys on the way down, much to Bébhinn's frustration. (She was always trying to keep us semi-on track, which never really worked). Everyone was totally loving the animals, most of all Ashley, until the donkey swung its head wildly at her, and tried to bite her (that donkey was a jerk!).
Bébhinn finally got us all loaded back into the Vagatron, and back on to the Slea Head Drive. We drove around the peninsula on yet another skinny, winding road--and I'm not kidding! Here are the cars ahead of us on the TWO-WAY ROAD!! (And yes, we did have cars come toward us!)
Bébhinn did say that most tour buses agree to go the same way on the road, so as not to collide into each other, but clearly, the cars do not follow the same rule. Luckily, because of the rule of big (we were bigger than they were), most of them pulled over and gave way to us.
Slea Head Drive was beautiful. It curved around the cliffs, and gave us tremendous views of the Skellig Islands, the Blasket Islands, and the sleeping giant island, believed to be Finn McCool (so horses can't walk on water in Ireland, but giants can sleep on it!).
It was a bit chilly, but the sun was out and shining, and we could see for miles out to sea.
We stopped a couple times for pictures, and then Bébhinn pulled into a park with a path down to a gorgeous beach called Com Dhincol. We got out for a short picnic and a walk around, but the view was just so lovely that we sat around staring at it.
Some young boys smacked a ball around with giant sticks just in front of us. We tried to figure out what they were playing--hurling? Gaelic football?--and admired their skill. They batted the ball back and forth, which was admirable, as we surely would've sent that ball flying over the cliff.
"What are you playing?" we called out to the boys, who immediately stopped and turned toward us.
"Hurling," they answered. One boy held the stick out to us, offering it up. "Wanna give it a go?"
We declined, telling him we didn't want to lose the ball. But no sooner had we declined than big-kid Brian showed up, asking what they were playing. He accepted the hurling bat and joined in the game. We smiled, because of course Brian would play!
It was gorgeous--the grass here was a greenish- khaki, not as bright green as the other side of the road, but just as pretty. The heather bloomed everywhere, adding spots of color to break up the landscape, and a dirt path lead up to a huge wall of boulders.
I'd been putting Mother Mary's Magic Cream on my knee all day, and by God, it was working! I don't know what was in that stuff, but no wonder she had her husband buy it in bulk in Australia--it really was making the pain go away. (Turns out walking helped, too--my knee was mostly sore after sitting in the car a while.)
I followed the group for a bit, until my knee finally stopped me. Then I stood there, pretending to enjoy the view, but sadly watching my group disappear beyond the rocks.
They said it was beautiful up there, and Bébhinn snapped this awesome photo of them, with Finn McCool in the background.
I'm sad to have missed out, but the great thing about this group is that they described it all in detail, so much so that I kinda felt like I actually was with them up there!
Either way, I did have a nice time wandering around, enjoying the view and the silence. I hiked a little closer toward the edge and was surprised to see a sky-blue bay below.
The young adults (Nate, Ben and Ashley) were going kayaking back in Dingle, so Bébhinn dropped the adults off at the hotel, then took the kayakers, me, and Amber back to town. We wished them well, and told them to find Fungi, the wild dolphin famous for swimming around the kayaks, fishing and tourist boats. (And they did find Fungi, who swam right up to them!)
Amber and I wandered around the bay, searching for Fungi with no luck. Sure was pretty though!
We ended up at a a pub for a little downtime, hoping to connect with some locals. Unfortunately, the main area by the bar was full, so we ordered a couple Tom Crean beers and found our own space in the next room.
We drank our beers, giggled, and shot silly photos. Brian and Margie walked past us, and we waved at them through the window.
We hadn't done any souvenir shopping on our trip yet, so we ambled along the streets of Dingle, stopping in to the shops. Amber bought a beautiful Aran Islands sweater, and I got a shirt for Mark. Then our hunger got the best of us, so we switched our mission from shopping to eating.
Dingle is well-known for its live music and pubs--there are only 2,000 residents but 54 pubs! We found one right next door, called the Marina Inn.
The music hadn't started, which meant we were early enough to grab a seat. We'd hoped to sit next to some Irish people, but instead sat next to American tourists. It was a couple, and they seemed relieved to hear our accents, asking about our trip.
We asked about theirs as well, and it was interesting, to say the least! They were a new-ish couple, had only been dating a few months, and were here on their first trip. They were hiking across Ireland, from one B&B to the next, and though they looked to be in good shape, they weren't really prepared for how much walking they did.
They told us how they'd hiked one day, and the boyfriend got "lost" after an argument. The girlfriend freaked out, calling the cops and other local rescue teams, who searched for him. He turned up as they were looking. Total time he was "lost"? One hour!! (Amber and I were convinced he just got mad and stalked off, and was never really lost at all.) They were a funny couple, for sure!
We ordered dinner, and it was our best yet! It was a little odd, but that was normal for Ireland. We were used to getting fries on the side of ALL dishes, no matter what you ordered, and a whole lot of rocket (arugula) salads. (Man, I was craving some good old-fashioned Romaine lettuce! I hate that weedy arugula!)
I ordered a chicken and mushroom pie, which had a creamy, red-wine sauce and was more gourmet than I expected (I thought it would be your usual gravy and chicken pot pie kinda thing). It was delicious! It came with fries on the side (kinda weird, but not unexpected), and a salad that was unexpected AND weird. It was iceberg lettuce, with a little bit of dressing and a giant glop of coleslaw in the middle of it. That's right, a salad salad. I didn't even bother with that!
The music came on just after dinner, one guy and his guitar. He was really good, singing a mix of Irish folk songs and other well-known but not necessarily Irish songs (he played John Denver! Seriously, we heard John Denver all over Ireland--who knew they loved him so much???).
Amber and I sang along, and ordered more beers so we could stay longer. The pub filled up, and we were glad to have seats in the crowded bar.
But then Amber had a craving--she hadn't had her daily dose of Murphy's ice cream! It was still light out, so we figured they were still open, but we were wrong. They'd just closed!
"They don't close till 10!" Amber cried, and I searched around for a clock. It was 10:30. And just now getting dusky. Dang it, that late light threw us off every night. And poor Amber missed out on her Murphy's ice cream. (Amber, next time we order ice cream at 10 am, you do it, too!)
Except for Ben and Nate wandering into our pub post-kayaking, we hadn't seen any of our fellow Vagabonders in a while. We walked around a bit, finally heading back to the hotel around 11 pm. And there was Ashley, heading back IN to town!
She was meeting up with Mary, Linda and George. Amber looked at me, pleading, but my knee, despite the magic cream, was done for the day. I told her to go ahead if she wanted to, but I was done. I saw the conflict in Amber's head, weighing the options, and she finally gave in and went back with me. I felt really bad, because I knew it was killing Amber to miss out on a night with the group, so I readily agreed when she said we had to at least go to the hotel pub.
Which we did. And of course, there was another live singer there, so we had a couple beers, listened to the music, and left only when they closed the place down an hour later.
And the best part was, our walk home was so short--just a long hallway to our room! I still felt bad about Amber missing out on the party, but that only lasted until my head hit the pillow. (Sorry, Am!)
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