Ring of Kerry-Friday

Oh wow.  I just got back from a weekend trip that I will never forget!  I have been fortunate enough to see some pretty cool places on this earth before coming to Ireland but this weekend I saw the most beautiful sights that I have ever seen! Before I get to the good stuff let me tell you about Friday.

We loaded our things onto a coach bus at 2:30pm on Friday.  We traveled with 50 other international students.  Most were from the United States but there were also some from Italy, Germany, and Sweden.  When we got on the bus, we were introduced to our guide (more like our mother...) for the weekend.  She was such a sweetheart and had so many great things to share with us.  Her name is Marion and she works for the Celtic Studies department at UCC.  She is originally from a small town on the Ring of Kerry route and has such a passion for southern Kerry. 

After boarding the bus she gave us a rough agenda for the night and took our orders for dinner, dessert, and Saturday's lunch. Fancy!

Our first stop was the Kerry Bog Village Museum.  This Museum displays a traditional Irish village just before the potato famine hit Ireland.  All of the homes in the village were true to size and had real artifacts on display. 

This was as traditional Irish home. While Ireland was under British rule Parliament thought that the Irish did not deserve light so homeowners were actually taxed for the number of windows that they had in their homes.  Most of these houses had only one small window.

The "bog" in the museum name refers to the land that surrounds the area of the museum.  Bogs are the marshy lands where these poor Irish men would harvest peat.  You can see a stack of peat leaning against the left side of this home.  Peat was soil cut out of these marshes that was dried, stacked against their homes, and eventually used as fuel.  Marion told us that since the current recession in Ireland may Irish people have returned to using peat as fuel.  She also told us that there is a wealthy BBQ restaurant owner in California that comes to Ireland every year to purchase 4000lbs. of peat.  He has it shipped home and uses it to to smoke his meat.  He says that it gives a unique flavor that no one can resist!


Inside one of the larger and more luxurious homes:

The museum also has two Irish Wolfhounds.  These are massive dogs that can grow to up to 5 feet tall.  They were traditionally used as hunting dogs.  They were so friendly!

Traditional Irish pony:

We arrived at The Ring of Kerry Hotel in Cahersiveen around 6:30pm.  The bus ride was so beautiful!  We drove through the Irish countryside, many small Irish towns, around mountains, and alongside the ocean.  After dropping our bags off in our hotel room we went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  I had salad, rolls, lasagna, and Baily's Irish Cream chocolate cheesecake (heaven).  This home cooked meal tasted so good and it was well needed!

After dinner we listened to a local farmer talk about growing up in County Kerry.  He talked about his childhood, the farm he has now, and the local ferry business that he now owns with his neighbors.  After that and Irish band came in and played traditional Irish music.  We learned how to Celtic dance.  It was so much fun!  We learned 4 different dances.  Fortunately I don't have any videos to share of this experience. 

We went into the hotel pub after this to have a pint and talked with the other students on the trip.  We all headed to bed pretty early though because we knew we had a long day ahead!