Thou Shalt Always KILLARNEY

Killarney! A good place to move to after three weeks of near-isolation on the farm. It’s delightful but VERY touristy.


View of Lough Leane.

Outside of the city, however, there is a beautiful National Park with extensive hiking paths and interesting things to see. I have been walking a LOT.


A very sittable yew in the shade along the trails.

On Friday I hiked to Ross Castle, which is right on Lough Leane (Lower Lake) and was lovely if – again – covered with tourists. I wanted to hike to Muckross Abbey, because it looked like I could just follow the lake, but the girl in the information booth at the castle informed me I had to go back the way I came, then walk back down in the same direction, but down a major road until I hit the proper path. I decided to put it off.


The outside of Muckross Abbey, across a field. The scaffolding is mostly hidden here...


The yew in the abbey courtyard.

Early on Saturday I set out intending to hike to Muckross Abbey. However, I mis-interpreted the directions and…ended up at Ross Castle again. Crap. So I hiked BACK up, then down the road and eventually made it there. Totally worth the hassle, if you ask me. There was a very neat interior courtyard thing that had covered paths and a big yew tree in the middle. Apparently druids found yews sacred, which makes it very interesting and odd that the extremely Christian Franciscan monks would build almost all of their abbeys and graveyards around yews. The only downside was that part of the abbey was under repair, and there was an obnoxious scaffolding covering a large part, ruining any chance at a pretty full-building picture!


A lovely Irishwoman who was making soda griddle bread. It was delicious, especially with fresh-churned butter.

I continued on to the Muckross Traditional Farms, which is the Irish equivalent of Greenfield Village. People in period clothes (in this case, 1920s-ish) sitting in period houses using period technology to do things. It cost me four euro for a student pass, but I guess it was about time I actually started paying for the interesting things I was seeing. It was…well, a bit cheesy, but quite enjoyable! There were wonderful-smelling peat fires in each farmhouse, fresh fire-baked soda bread with fresh butter and jam, and pigs!

On the way back to town I learned/estimated that my walking speed is roughly 6.5 km/hour. Woo!

Things I’ve learned about the Irish Language Lexicon:
- Don’t call peat “peat”, call it “turf”. At least, not when you’re burning it. Maybe when it’s still in the bog you can call it “peat”
- If someone in a store/pub/restaurant/hostel asks “you alright?” or some variation, they’re not being concerned or conversational – it’s actually the equivalent of “can I help you?”
- Cell phones are “mobiles”, but I think this is common to most English-speaking Europeans. Am I right? In fact, here’s some more that I don’t think are Ireland-specific
- Carry-out = “takeaway”
- Thanks = “cheers”
- Cookies = “biscuits” (I do not yet know what biscuits are called)
- "Your man" refers to any random guy, often when telling a story; i.e. "So by the time he came home from the market, your man had money worth twice the value of the cow, and still kept the cow itself!"
- Man I am trying to think of more and I know there has to be some, but I just cannot come up with anything.

Also they have something called “curry chips” which is the equivalent of “chili fries” but with curry sauce instead of chili and I wish it would become popular in the States.

Now I’m in Dingle! Wish me luck!