Ireland - Part II Galway, Killarney and Blarney
After an uneventful but slow bus trip across The Emerald Isle I arrived in Galway to find the hostel reception staffed by an Aussie and the place full of Germans. That was fine though, I spent the evening with Germans at an Irish pub and made friends with (from left to right, see below) Annabell and Viktoria who were just about to start their term at Galway University.
The next day I went on a tour round The Burren and The Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is a unique karst landscape, fissured with large cracks in which grow 80% of Irelands native flora. The landscape is so barren that few foreign plants intrude into this sparse landscape. I really liked this area, something about it was really beautiful and I'll have to go back some day.
The area is also home to a number of smaller neolithic tombs and the tour guide stopped at the most famous of these, Poulnabrone dolmen.
The other highlight on the tour are the magestic Cliffs of Moher. They're a spectacular sight, as you can see, rising up to face the Atlantic Ocean.
The next day was mostly spent sleeping in a little and then travelling to Killarney. Killarney, the town, is situated in the beautiful Killarney National Park. With the weather doing the unheard of thing in Ireland and actually being sunny I was able to spend plenty of time outdoors.
My first day was spent on another bus trip around the Ring of Kerry - a scenic tour route circumnavigating Iveragh Peninsula. The views lived up to it's reputation, especially with the heather covering the hills in a lovely purple.
The next day I spent cycling around Killarney National Park and The Lakes of Killarney. The area is simply lovely and reminded me a little of New Zealand. It also contains the authentically restored Ross Castle as you can see in the background of this next photo.
I then travelled to Cork that evening so as to wake up early and head straight out to Blarney Castle!
No trip to Blarney Castle would be complete without the obligatory kissing of the Blarney Stone. Indeed I was only really there to do as such =)
My original plan was then to meet Liam, whom I befriended in Copenhagen, in Kilkenny. However, a combination of events, mostly my severe overestimation of the quality of Ireland's public transport system, conspired against us. In the end I had to head straight to Dublin and bludge of the generosity of Bex and Johnny again (thanks guys!) in order to catch my return flight.
Overall, Ireland was absolutely brilliant! (to use a Irish colloquialism) It fully justifies its reputation as The Emerald Isle and all the Irish people I met were great. The tour operators had the gift of the gab, to be sure, and were great fun! I strongly recommend Ireland, but only after you've saved up a bit of money, it's expensive!
The next day I went on a tour round The Burren and The Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is a unique karst landscape, fissured with large cracks in which grow 80% of Irelands native flora. The landscape is so barren that few foreign plants intrude into this sparse landscape. I really liked this area, something about it was really beautiful and I'll have to go back some day.
The area is also home to a number of smaller neolithic tombs and the tour guide stopped at the most famous of these, Poulnabrone dolmen.
The other highlight on the tour are the magestic Cliffs of Moher. They're a spectacular sight, as you can see, rising up to face the Atlantic Ocean.
The next day was mostly spent sleeping in a little and then travelling to Killarney. Killarney, the town, is situated in the beautiful Killarney National Park. With the weather doing the unheard of thing in Ireland and actually being sunny I was able to spend plenty of time outdoors.My first day was spent on another bus trip around the Ring of Kerry - a scenic tour route circumnavigating Iveragh Peninsula. The views lived up to it's reputation, especially with the heather covering the hills in a lovely purple.
The next day I spent cycling around Killarney National Park and The Lakes of Killarney. The area is simply lovely and reminded me a little of New Zealand. It also contains the authentically restored Ross Castle as you can see in the background of this next photo.
I then travelled to Cork that evening so as to wake up early and head straight out to Blarney Castle!
No trip to Blarney Castle would be complete without the obligatory kissing of the Blarney Stone. Indeed I was only really there to do as such =)
My original plan was then to meet Liam, whom I befriended in Copenhagen, in Kilkenny. However, a combination of events, mostly my severe overestimation of the quality of Ireland's public transport system, conspired against us. In the end I had to head straight to Dublin and bludge of the generosity of Bex and Johnny again (thanks guys!) in order to catch my return flight.Overall, Ireland was absolutely brilliant! (to use a Irish colloquialism) It fully justifies its reputation as The Emerald Isle and all the Irish people I met were great. The tour operators had the gift of the gab, to be sure, and were great fun! I strongly recommend Ireland, but only after you've saved up a bit of money, it's expensive!
posted by Ricardo at
11:51 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home