I was able to sleep in until 7:15 a.m. I decided to mix things up somewhat for breakfast by having a bowl of oatmeal with some brown sugar and a small piece of those small waffles you eat at room temperature. This turned out to be a good idea, as once again I found myself to be one of the last people to get onto the bus for the 8:30 am departure.
Today’s ride was around the Ring of Kerry, which goes around the edge of the western half of County Kerry. While on the previous days’ tours we’d occasionally get lucky with multi-lane roads, this one was exclusively single lanes (and sometimes even just “lane”); coupled with occasional stretches of road work, this led to some unexpected stops that Jill suggested was par for the course regarding these older roads.
We came across several roadside vendors along the way, mostly selling hand-made St. Bridget crosses and sitting with some small animals and a little basket for spare change next to them.
At one of these places (which happened to be a shore town called Waterville, where Charlie Chaplin lived briefly) was a van whose driver was selling small bottles of Irish moonshine, known there as “poteen,” for €5 a bottle.
We later passed by the Skellig Rocks, which were used as the backdrop for both the final scene of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Rei’s training scenes in the upcoming Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. As you can imagine, the stores in the area took full advantage of that fact, with several of them selling some variant of a “Skellig Wars” t-shirt (usually with a puffin wearing Darth Vader’s helmet). As you can also imagine, these shirts are in fact available online – with free shipping, no less!
If Kylo Ren ever had a pet bird, something tells me he definitely would have tried doing something like this.
And while I’m on the topic of Star Wars, I unfortunately was still hacking and coughing non-stop like General Grievous from Epsiode III: Revenge of the Sith (in case you thought I was lucky enough to start feeling better)
Not too far off from how I was feeling on and off up to this point, interestingly enough!
Lunch was at a small place along the cliffs called The Scarriff Inn, which was a bowl of shepherd’s pie with some homemade iced tea and a slice of unfrosted carrot cake as a snack. I sat next to an elderly Indian couple from Los Angeles, where I found out that they had already been in Ireland for a few days for a family wedding at Ashford Castle.
We next stopped at a place called Avon, which a plaque inside said it was the oldest textile mill in the country that was still active, followed by a spot called Ladies View; this was where Queen Victoria, her ladies-in-waiting, and 100 of her mounted soldiers would stop to gaze upon the lakes and hills.
Pretty hard to argue against this being something fit for royalty, no?
After this we made our way back to the hotel and almost immediately going to the day’s optional event, a jaunty cart ride through the Muckross grounds we went to for last night’s festivities.
One of the most interesting things about the ride is that there were parts of it that took us onto active roads, which meant seeing cars either speed up to pass us or slowly creep behind us until they could make their turns to other roads; interestingly enough, none of the drivers seemed to be all that impatient with us or honked their horns at us.
I’m sure at this point all of my readers near (or from) Amish Country are probably wondering why someone would ever get excited about something like that.
We returned from the ride at 3:50, after which I decided to rest up for a bit before heading out to get something to eat, which ended up being a restaurant called Bricín. I actually made it in time for the Early Bird special, which was only 45 minutes long (I guess this was to bring in customers quicker after its afternoon opening more than enticing elderly eaters), where I ordered a boxty with curried lamb filling and a side salad, a Sunburnt Irish Red Ale from the 8 Degrees Brewing company, and a piece of warm chocolate cake for dessert.
For those wondering, a “boxty” is essentially a potato pancake folded over a ladle-full of curried lamb, beef stew, or vegetable stew – and apparently an Irish favorite. After enjoying the food, I found myself wondering why none of the Irish-styled restaurants in my area ever offered this, or even a facsimile of it; it’s not even like it takes a skilled cook to make one – you could just go order some latkes from a kosher foods wholesaler and call it a day.
Deciding to walk off the meal, I walked around some of the nearby side streets, seeing that even here wasn’t immune to patches of empty storefronts, where I got caught in the middle of a rather breezy and sustained sun-shower. I walked as far west as St. Mary’s Cathedral, and then decided to head back to the hotel room to pack my things up for the next hotel tomorrow.
P.S. This was something I found on my way back to the hotel, and just couldn’t help but notice how similar this guy looked to that guy.
Seriously, I can’t be the only one here that thinks that, especially with the coloration of the wood and the pattern its lines are taking, right?
Random Doesnt Even Begin To Describe It 