When we left our hostel, it was raining, so the weather kind of made the decision for us. We would take our chances in Dingle and see something new rather than hike here in the rain. As a little side story, we went to the tour bus place first to see if they had my sunglasses I had left on the bus the evening before. But we checked the bus and didn’t see them there. Oh well. As we walked to the bus station to get our tickets for Dingle, we heard a honk and the tour bus guy drove up with my sunglasses in his hand. Aw, how sweet! He had found them and tracked us down. What a nice guy!
A bus was leaving for Dingle in just 15 minutes so that worked out well. We made it to Dingle at about 11:30am but we didn’t have much time to spend there. Our bus would be leaving for Tralee, our final destination for the night, at 4:00pm. So we only had about four hours. At least we found a nice guy at a bed and breakfast who let us keep our stuff there so we could explore uninhibited.
What to do in Dingle! Honestly, as I mentioned to many of the locals always to the amusement of Nick, I just wanted to see a puffin! A puffin is a very silly but cool-looking bird, in my opinion, that has a little history with me. When I got my first parakeet, God rest his poor soul and all other birds that came into my care, I thought it was funny how he puffed up all the time. You know how birds puff up their feathers when they’re happy? Anyway, I named him Puffin because of it and thought it was such a funny name. Then I found out that there is an actual bird called a puffin and I thought that was so funny! A puffin! Well, I didn’t even know there are puffins in Ireland until I saw lots of photos of them on brochures and stuff and I thought, ‘How awesome would it be to see a puffin!’
But, it was not meant to be! The bed and breakfast guy said our best bet was an EcoTour which left from the harbor there – Dingle Is right in a little bay – but the weather was weird with lots and lots of fog so no tours were leaving. Oh well, no puffins this time.
What to do now? Nick and I decided to just walk and see what we could see. We saw a man walking along a green field bordering the boggy beach there so we thought we would follow and see what adventures we could find. Well we did have an adventure! The walk itself was neat because you had the foggy green field to our left and the boggy waters to the right with gulls digging for food. It was almost eerie but still enchanting. “This is what I’m here for,” I told Nick. “To walk the green fields of Ireland!” Then we saw a little old tower in the distance, also along the beach, so we continued on toward that. The entrance had been filled in with stone but Nick helped me scale the wall to sit on the window ledge there and we took some photos. Who knows how old that was or what it was for.
Then we walked down to the beach which was so alive! The tide must have been really low because the beach was filled with sea life. There were jellyfish all over the sand, those blobs that are somehow alive. There were lots of rocks covered in living shells and an abundance of sea snails and seaweed. We spent quite a while journeying over the rocks but it took some time with the rough terrain and us trying to not kill anything with every step! But I loved the whole experience, that opportunity to explore all alone. Nick said it’s funny how curious I am, how I always want to keep going and see what’s around the next corner. I told him I just love to explore, especially when I have to concentrate on crossing difficult terrain. It makes me feel part of the land. It digs deep into some basic human instinct, that desire to discover the Earth with no boundaries.
We had to turn back after a time, grateful we had found a spot to do some exploring. We went to this grocery store that was almost as big as one at home! We were so excited! And it was cheap too! We were able to get a lunch of six drumsticks and lots of potato wedges for about $7.50. That is incredible!
There isn’t much to say about the rest of the day. We took the bus to Tralee and found our hostel there. We were sleeping in a room with ten beds and it was pretty tight. We also had some very interesting characters. One old man slept with his prosthetic leg standing upright next to the bed so that was pretty different. It almost looked like his leg was hanging out over the edge of the bed except that it was too high up by his head to look natural. Then we had the sipper and sigher dude. This guy, about middle-aged, would go on his bed and sigh this big long sigh very loudly and you weren’t sure if it was a “this sucks” sigh or a “this is nice” sigh or a “I just can’t get comfortable” sigh or what! But it got really annoying. Then he grabbed his mug and was slurping and gulping some drink for a while. I was about to kick that cup out of his hand, he was so loud!
Another plus was that the bathroom is attached to the room – yeah, one bathroom for ten people – and you could hear everything happening inside. So people would go in there and pee and some of them, including leg man and sigh man, had some pretty strange pee patterns going on. I couldn’t hold it in with sigh man and burst out laughing when he walked out of the bathroom. He stopped to look at me and I just stared at my laptop like I was looking at something funny. When leg man went, Nick was holding his mouth closed and had to leave the room, he was shaking so bad with laughter.
At least it had free wifi though so I was finally able to spend some time getting caught up with the blog. But we were happy to be spending only one night there! What a winner!
PHOTOS:
We found an old bag lady in Dingle, bundled up because of the fog and the cold. She seemed sweet but something about her was a bit creepy too.
The fog was intense. It added a kind of eerie feel to everything but we thought it was cool.
Nick helped me up into that window. Cool, eh? Who knows what the history of that building is.
The rocks were so alive and the fog made everything seem like a dream or a fairytale. I was waiting to see a mermaid out there.
We found this good-sized skull on the beach. My guess is a sheep but I have no idea.
We found this jelly in the water, waiting for high tide so he could detangle himself from all the plant life down there in the water there.
This guy was waiting for high tide too. Something about a beached jelly is kind of creepy. I just don't get how that blob is alive.
Nick has conquered Dingle and heads back the way we came.
Nick was determined to buy and eat a berry in Dingle. So here he is, eating a Dingle berry.
I guess back in the ealry 80s this dolphin decided to make Dingle Bay his home. He is still there now and I guess you can go swim with him or see him on EcoTours and stuff. The residents gave him the terrible name of Fungi - I guess when you are a loner dolphin, a name like Fungi might fit - and made this statue of him in 2000. Go Fungi!
1 comment:
i like that whole sigh man and sip man. and a fake leg. how frickin' hilarious! see...hostels. i can't wait. definitely something only to do with adults. no kiddos. i like that picture of you with the hood on and the scarf and lookin' all bag lady type. it's good on ya. :-)
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