ring of kerry - friday.

Friday, March 9th

Ok, So I spent the entire weekend in County Kerry driving along the scenic Ring of Kerry Peninsula... but I did way too much to put it in one post, so you're getting this one in shifts!

My trip was made up of a big group of UL international students from Australia, France, Germany, Singapore, China, Sweden, Canada, the US, and more.  We were all picked up on campus on Friday afternoon where we met our tour guide for the weekend, Marian.  Although she now lived in Cork, Marian grew up on the peninsula in a town we visited on Saturday so she was and really knew her stuff!

On our way to the Ring of Kerry Hotel in town called Cahersiveen we stopped at the Kerry Bog Village in Glenbeigh to see what life was like in the 18th century in Kerry.  It was pretty cool... there were 4 houses on in the village each a little different from the others.  They also had farm equipment, boats, and animals!  The animals that at the Bog Village were just the beginning of the zoo I would experience over the weekend!

This is an Irish Wolfhound, I couldn't get a picture with a person

 as a reference, but this is one HUGE dog!

Felt just like Iowa!

Kerry Bog Ponies! They are light enough to walk on the bogs without sinking... 

very useful for peat harvesting! And they are just plain adorable!

After our quick stop at the village we made our way to Cahersiveen to get settled in for the weekend.  We stayed in a hotel which was totally decadent (as my friend Paul would say)!  Although my hostel experience has been great here in Ireland, it was nice to not have to bring my own towel on a weekend trip and to share a room with only 2 girls instead of 5 guys and gals!

We enjoyed a great dinner and dessert (chocolate and Bailey's creme cheesecake... decadence again!) and then had a farmer who grew up on Valntia Island come in to talk to us about life on the island.  It was pretty interesting to hear him talk about how slowly things like TV and phone lines got to the island!  He still lives on the Valentia Island now with his family and has a dairy farm (which we visited on Saturday) and runs a tourist scenic overlook.

We finished off the night with a pint and a game of trivia... it was great craic!

I'll get Saturday and Sunday (don't worry, they will have more pictures and less words!) up as soon as I can, but I am off to Cork tomorrow to visit my friend Kristi from ISU and to celebrate St. Paddy's Day!!