day 4 - march 19, 2009

kp and I woke up at 8am to explore Dingle.

Have I mentioned yet that all these fabulous photos are kp's? And this is only a fraction of them. There were too many pleasing things to photograph. If you want to see all of them, buy a bottle of wine and bring it over when you've got 4 hours or so to spare.

I love going into churches, especially when they are in another country. The architecture is always interesting, but it's also about it being a place of worship. I'm not religious, but I feel a bit of awe for a lone building that is the repository for all that faith.

kp's favourite store. Five bucks to anyone who can guess why.

Once B and Ciaran were awake and we all had had something to eat, we went on a drive to find some Irish landscapes.

Ireland sure did deliver.

We climbed down to this beach and put our feet in the water. It was COLD.

So we warmed ourselves on the rocks.

In my mind, Ireland is a country of green, rolling hills, low stone walls and sheep, sheep, sheep.
It's all true. The one thing I didn't know was that the sheep couldn't CARE LESS about people. I thought we'd be able to pet their noses or at least feed them grass or something but no. They keep to their own kind. Racists.

We drove along the coast of the Dingle Peninsula and stopped at Dunbeg Promontory Fort. The archaeological site, dating back to the Bronze Age (as in, 800 B.C.-ish... that's older than I can fathom) is on the edge of a sheer cliff, surrounded by wind blown hills with not a tree in sight.

Up the street there was also a cluster of beehive huts. I walked around trying to imagine people living here in this barren landscape, sleeping in stone huts, trying to start a fire in the blustery wind coming off the water.
I was very struck by the cross (in the above picture, on the right hand side of the photo) carved into the rock. Someone who lived hundreds of years ago put that there with their hands, maybe worshiped at it daily, and now that faded etching is all that is left of them. I think that's amazing.

We stopped at a few spots along the coast to get out and take photos because everything was just so beautiful. In the below video you'll see one of those spots.

You'll also see the following:

1. Me being very woodsy
2. Me being a bit clumsy
3. Me being proud of myself for not making a mess
4. Me asking a direct question and not getting a direct answer from kp
   

After driving along the coast and getting almost lost in the misty hills, we returned to Dingle for a late lunch before heading back to Dublin.

But first we had to visit this bakery and eat this delectable deliciousness:

Apple. Cream. Heaven.

Our bellies full, we said "byebyebyebyebyebyebye" (how the Irish, or maybe just B, say "bye") to Dingle and made the long drive back to Dublin.
Thanks for everything, Dingle.
You are cute as hell.