Dingle!

So, DINGLE! Let me start off by saying that I absolutely ADORE Dingle. It is the most adorable little coastal town with a very rich history. Right off of the coast of the peninsula (because yes, Dingle is a peninsula) is an island called Blasket Island which was inhabited b a group of Irish people who strictly kept their Irish roots intact (aka spoke and wrote in Irish). They had a huge emphasis on literature. We got to learn about that as well as random facts about Dingle from our incredible bus driver Brian, but I'll get to all that later.

We started the day pretty early, bus pulled up around 8. Maggie, Erica, Meghann A, and I got kinda stuck sitting in the back (but secretly I liked it because nothing's more fun than the back of the bus in my opinion haha). It was a pretty long day, hours of driving, but of course trusty Brian kept us entertained. After passing the town of Limerick, Brian presented to us a challenge to create the best limerick. We had the entire bus ride to come up with a good one and the winner would receive a pint on him that night. Most of them were really funny, a lot of them involved inside jokes, but in the end there were two winners: Tilly - who created a funny one about being scared of ghostly figures only to have them be two of our classmates, and Mandy was also thrown in as a winner due to her flattering limerick featuring Brian as "a very good ride" (for those of you that don't know, in Ireland a ride, well, it's not a lift, if you get what I mean, haha). That was pretty much the highlight of the bus ride. We had a few vista stops on the way but that day Ireland was very misty. So misty that this is what happened when I tried to take a photograph of the sea:

Pretty foggy, huh? Not only was it a bit grey, but we drove a good portion of the way along a coastal cliff. Now, this is not just a van are carted around in, our travel bus is a bonafide coach bus, so you can imagine how nerve wracking it got sometimes as Brian was making these turns along the cliff. We were prepared, though, because as we have all figured out, Brian is an EXPERT at driving busses, he can do anything. Anyways, there was also this on the side of the road:

I don't really know what that was about haha. But yeah below is what the cliff looked like that we were driving along. The whole trip reminded me of the coast of Northern California (Monterey and Carmel), my favorite combination of cliffs, ocean, and those beautiful sea colors you only get in magical places like this.

Also, funny thing: the photos below were NOT photoshopped and it is NOT a trick of the camera, that is actually what it looked like from inside the bus! Nothing!

So this is our bus ride into nothing haha. Also, this is our bus =)

After a ways we stopped at a grocery store to get some snacks so we could have a picnic on the beach! It wasn't the prettiest of days in terms of sunshine, but of course it was still beautiful. We had a really wonderful lunch and got to play on the beach. =)

View from our lunch spot

Us eating lunch on the cliff. (That's Maggie, Erica, Hannah, Shawn, and Mandy up front)

A bunch of the BCA crew.

A cave! It was pretty neat =)

So yeah, that was lunch. We had a good time exploring the beach and enjoying the ocean. I stuck my feet in of course and got sand all over the place, haha, but it was fun.

Next we went to the Irish Literature Interpretive Center. This was a building created to display things associated with the people who lived on the Blasket Island. The man who gave us the tour said the best way to describe the way these people spoke was that they simply spoke great literature. Apparently great writers travelled to the Blasket to learn the Irish language as well as how to write from the people there. It was a small population of about 800 people that slowly dwindled to about 60 something. Now the island is empty. Brian later told us that the reason it was evacuated was the lack of resources. The population was not large enough to warrant a doctor and when a child got sick and died, the government decided that it wasn't worth the many losses to stay.

Below is the stained glass window that you see as you walk in. It represents the different aspects of the Blasket Island and it's incredibly beautiful. You should click the picture to look at it bigger and see the details. Lots of textures and patterns, very interesting.

This is a model of the island made from plaster. You can see the tiny houses and farm land. That is what the town looked like in it's heyday.

Uncle Jim, this photo is for you. I wish I could have gotten a better, closer photo, but these are some of the books that the people wrote and they are all written in Irish!!!! Oh btw, did I tell you that the man that gave us the tour opened up by speaking to us in Irish? It was so cool. What a crazy interesting language. Also, let me just take this opportunity to tell you an observation I've had despite my pre-conceived notions.

When I was coming here I was not expecting to see the Irish language anywhere, nor was I expecting to hear it. (btw way, I know you guys are burning to ask - they call it the Irish language not gaelic because gaelic is an extremely broad term that also includes other celtic languages not associated with specifically the Irish language). Anyways, from the books I've read about "modern Ireland" I got the sense that the language was almost extinct and there were only a few places that still spoke it. Contrary to my beliefs I have seen Irish written EVERYWHERE. Almost all signs are written in Irish and English and when I was in dublin I saw and heard people using the Irish words everywhere. I friended the two Irish people I met in Dublin (Liam and Re) on facebook and they are always writing things in Irish. it's really interesting how incorporated the language is here despite what I thought. I realize that as the Irish become more and more modern/independent they realized that they lost a lot of cultural growth during the period of English reign. They finally got their independence and had a famine and never had time to create a culture of their own until the past few decades. Now they are trying as hard as they can to bring back as much of their past culture as possible and one way of doing that is through language. It's all very interesting. I noticed this a lot while in Dingle, especially when every store I went into had the Irish language everywhere.

Anyways, I know that was long, but I found it very interesting. There is the model again in it's glass case.

and that's the building.

So after that we finally got to our hostel (which I forgot to take a picture of, whoops!) and we were allowed to explore. The only thing is that it was already pretty much 5 pm when we got there and all the stores were closed. I wasn't very hungry because I had a big lunch so Shawn and I moseyed around a bit and I took some photos while most people were eating.

After that we headed back to Murphy's pub where we had left everyone and got some food. Some of our friends left and some others came in and sat with us followed by Brian. Now of course Brian is a man of his word so since Mandy was there he got her a pint of none other than Murphy's Stout! So here is a photo of a Murphy drinking a Murphy's at Murphy's =)

That night was fun. I hung out with my friends Shawn, Brijit, Emerson, Erica, and Liz. We chilled out at the hostel for a bit eating the guacamole and tortilla chips I had forgotten I had from the picnic, then headed out to a pub called The Courthouse. We stayed there for a good while then Shawn, Brijit, and I parted ways to find some place to dance. We followed the dancing lights to the disco but it was 10 euro to get in, forget that, so we headed back looking for something else to do when we ran into our friends Sarah and Kendal accompanied by the Irish, American football team! It was quite a surprise, but we went with them to a pub that had two floors, two djs, and no entry fee, haha. It was a good time, we all danced and hung out and finally left, went back to the hostel, and went to bed.

The next day my friend Alyssa and I went exploring a little bit. We took a walk and hoped that some of the shops would be open so we could go souvenir shopping, however most didn't open until 11/12 since it was sunday so instead we continued to walk around and take photos.

We found Mandy and Hannah, had some breakfast, and wandered off again when we found the statue of Fungi! Now, the story of Fungi is pretty interesting. He was a very friendly dolphin that lived in the region. What was so special about him? Well, first off he lived way longer than the time dolphins usually live. Secondly, he was so friendly that he would come up and swim with people brave enough to endure the cold Atlantic sea. Fungi is gone now, but his presence lives on STRONGLY in Dingle. There is even a Dolphin Store with tons of Fungi merch!

Anyways, we found the statue and obviously had to take photos with it, haha.

Walking along the dock

After we did some shopping (I got a really great scarf from the Woolen store and some gifties and post-cards of course) We grabbed our stuff from the hostel and headed to none other than Murphy's Homemade Ice Cream Shop. Let me just say: BEST ICE CREAM EVER. I got a scoop of bailey's, a scoop of guinness, and a scoop of dark chocolate and I was in HEAVEN. It was so good, the perfect way to end a perfect weekend in Dingle.

Alyssa, me, and Mandy with our ice cream.

Brian got some too!

Aaaand Brian running away from us, haha.

So overall Dingle was a great trip. The lift back was extremely long and we were all SO grateful to be home. It's always fun to go on vacation, but going home is sometimes the best part.

Now that we are home, though, EVERYONE is getting sick. It started after the Berlin trip and refuses to stop. I was hoping so much to avoid it by getting lots of sleep, drinking lots of water, and eating well; but alas, I woke up this morning feeling as if I got hit by a bus. Headache, cough, aches and pains, it's pretty awful. I'm taking it easy today and this weekend, I left school early today (we didn't have art history) and took a nap but now I feel worse. Unfortunately Irish studies is tomorrow and I don't know if I'll be up for going since we are doing an incredibly long hike (which I was really looking forward to). Of course, though, it's more important that I get better and I hate feeling like this so I'm going to sleep as much as possible this weekend. There is also a trip to Galway tomorrow night that I signed up for but I don't know if I will be up for that either, we will see.

Lastly, it's my friend Loretta's birthday today! But of course now I'm sick. She is having a small get together tonight that I can most likely handle for a little while but the REAL craic will be on Saturday with DJ Stephen McCormack at Logue's and I DEFINITELY don't want to miss that, haha. ALSO, my friend Hadley is coming to visit me from Scotland next weekend for my birthday!! I'm so so excited, and that is pretty much the only reason I'm glad I got sick now as opposed to next week. So now I'm going to go back to sleep in hopes that the next time I wake up I will feel well enough to go downstairs and eat some of Liz's delicious coconut chocolate cookies she's making and hang out with the birthday girl for a bit. Until next time!