Dingle Peninsula Tour

Again it took me 2 weeks to write this post, but I have just been too busy in the evenings doing nothing :D. So, this post is about Dingle Peninsula Tour I did 2 weeks ago. I booked the tour with Paddywagon again, the price was 39 €. Departure was at 8.30 in the evening and we returned about 12 hours later. It was a long, and enjoyable, day. First stop was Killarney, and I read that it has been voted as the most beautiful town in Ireland. Since it was Sunday morning hardly anything was open but I was able to get a cup of tea anyway. Lovely place though, could spend a weekend there too. Then we drove to Inch Beach, stopped there a little while to take some photos, before continuing to Slea Head drive. Absolutely GORGEOUS scenery! There is also the most western point of Europe by the way. Did a few stops on the way to take photos, and then stopping a longer time in Dingle. You know the most famous resident of Dingle? It is Fungi, the dolphin. Dolphins are so cute… ❤. And they do NOT belong in aquariums, and neither do whales!

The day was a bit cloudy and very windy, but luckily no rain. It sure rains here a lot… got really nasty flu a week ago and had to take a couple of sick days too. I am feeling much better now but winter is coming! Not sure how I am going to handle the winter here, but we'll see. Last weekend I went to get a bike, here they have Bike2work scheme. Your employer issues you a cheque to buy the bike (and some necessary accessories), and then they deduct a certain amount from your salary to pay it back. But you pay it back without taxes, so it is a very good system to the employee. So I went to Bike Shop (that is the actual name of that shop), I chose the bike I want, the helmet (WEAR A HELMET!!!), and all the other stuff I need including a very bright yellow jacket. Seriously, you need sunglasses to look at it. Well, the guy calculated all the stuff together, and the total price is 666 €. I just couldn't stop laughing, the demonic shopping! :D

Anyway, here are the pics from Dingle Peninsula Tour

This house is made of stone, including the roof!

The Sleeping Giant

Perfect example of Irish logic :D

Otherwise… I have 3 bigger trips coming up this year. In few weeks I am going to Shetland! I just got to my head that I want to go to Shetland, so I booked flights and accommodation. Maybe the end of October is not the best time but I will enjoy it anyway. I was thinking about taking the ferry from Scotland, but then I read that the sea can be quite rough then, and they also have to cancel the ferry sometimes because of that. So I decided to fly. Weirdly the most reasonable flights are via Amsterdam and Aberdeen. Makes no sense to me to fly to Amsterdam first but that's my flight. I will stay in Lerwick for 4 nights, no idea what I will do there but I will find out :). Then in November I will be in Cyprus for a week, and in December 4 nights in Palma. I won't be doing much weekend trips because I have to save for those bigger trips…

I will move next weekend still very happy about that! I hope I will post something before Shetland, I have already started to write a post called Nomadic Alphabets. Knowing myself, the next post will be 3 weeks after visiting Shetland. Until then! :)

Galway and Waterford

This is going to be a long post… Two weeks ago I spent the weekend in Galway, a lovely city in West Ireland. It has a gorgeous old medieval part of town with very narrow pedestrian streets, and that is the most interesting part of Galway. I took the bus there from Limerick, I think it was only 1,5 hours (again too lazy to check). I left straight from work so I had some time to walk around in the evening too. I rented a room on Airbnb, and it was easy to get around by foot or by bus. Saturday was a lovely day, sun was shining a lot so I spent all day outside walking around, also walked the seaside to Salthill. Very beautiful walk, do that if you are ever in Galway! The old town is also amazing, so those two are the things to see in Galway if you have just a day or two. I had lunch at Cava Bodega, tapas bar in the old town and the food was GOOD!!! The portions were much bigger than tapas in Spain, so just two tapas was already a good meal. I had patatas bravas, I have missed them… had them in Spain all the time. Sunday was chilly and rainy so I just took earlier bus back to Limerick. Really have to go to Galway again!

Photos of Galway

Thumbs up for this one, saw these also in Waterford!

Then a week ago I went to Waterford. I left on Saturday morning so I spent there only one night. I took a taxi to the bus station, and while on a taxi, a woman was walking a dog and I commented “cute dog”, as I always do. Then the taxi driver told me a story of her dogs. Some years ago she had a Great Dane, and when they went on holiday, the dog was in a kennel. The kennel was also a foster home for dogs who are waiting to get adopted. There was one of those dogs in kennel during that time, and when they got back from their holiday, their dog and the foster dog were best buddies. The foster dog was about the size of the Great Dane's head :D. But, since their dog had picked that one, they adopted her. A few years later, the Great Dane had passed away, she went to see her uncle a day before St. Patrick's Day. There was a street dog that her uncle and some others were feeding but no one could take. That dog had a sad story, she had a home, the owners had two dogs and when they moved, they took only the other one and left this one behind. Wtf is wrong with people??? Well, she went back home after visiting her uncle, and the next morning told her husband that she is going to get that dog, and she did. Because it was St. Patrick's Day that day, she named her Patsy. Sometimes, you just meet a person with an interesting story to tell! She even apologized me for talking about her dogs. I told her I loved that story!

Well, then to Waterford, a city on the south coast! The bus ticket was about 31€ return, and it took almost 2,5 hours one way. On the way there the bus goes through lovely small villages, so also the bus ride is worth keeping your eyes open. I rented a place from Airbnb again, it was a small apartment attached to the main house, but with own entrance and bathroom and a kitchenette. The house was amazing!!! I think it was built in early 18th century or something, and the owners bought it over a year ago and are slowly renovating it because it was already in quite bad shape. And the owner had many stories! He picked me from the bus station, and first thing he said “You are Finnish right?”. He used to work for years in motor sport, both Formula 1 and rally, and of course knows all the Finnish drivers from those years. And he had great stories! He also told me he used to do biathlon! An Irish doing biathlon, I wonder if he is the only one :D. And also, his great (x times great) grandfather founded Waterford Crystal! Unfortunately sold it 100 years later.

The house was about 2,5 km from the centre, nice walking distance but there was also a bus stop near. I walked around the city, it was such a nice and sunny day, and of course visited Waterford Crystal. Damn what they have there! Didn't have time for a tour there but that would be nice if I visit again. Sunday was also sunny so I had a few more lovely hours in Waterford before catching a bus back. On the way it started to rain… so I was lucky with the weather!

Photos of Waterford

Photos of Waterford Crystal

Retail price 40 000 €. If you had 40 000 €, would you buy this??

Last weekend I did different tours. On Saturday I, and two of my colleagues, did a shopping tour on the second hand shops in Limerick. There's 10 of them and we did them all. And we found some great stuff! Had also very nice Asian street food for lunch, probably the best fish cakes I've ever had. On Sunday I did the Dingle Peninsula Tour with Paddywagon. I will write my next post about that or otherwise this post will be ridiculously long! Hopefully it won't take me two weeks but who knows :).