Today was Maggie's birthday. Maggie is the Brit who is on the tour with us. To celebrate her birthday, she elected to drive the four of us (Tamara, me, and Jill) along the Dingle peninsula. We had asked our guide to list a few places that would be neat to stop at today, and she drew a green route around the tip of the peninsula, marking a few places. We never made it to any of those places she marked.

Our day got off to a slow start. Maggie and Jill were to go down to Killarney and pick up the car and drive back to Killorglin to pick us up. The Irish bus schedules aren't all that accurate. We'll just blame Bus Eireann for the one hour late start. We were finally off around 11:30, and headed out along the southern coast of Dingle, stopping every twenty yards to take photos of the shoreline.

Dingle is primarily Gaelic. Unlike the rest of Ireland, the tip of the peninsula has many signs in Gaelic only. Elsewhere on the isle, you'd see signs for cities and major attractions written in two languages, much the way I guess Canada has their signs. For instance, the sign marking Killarney's city limits would say "Cill Airnie" on the top with "KILLARNEY" just underneath. Out in Dingle, you'd see signs pointing to various locations solely in Gaelic. Instead of signs to the city of Dingle, you'd see signs to "An Daingean". Also, instead of seeing the signs in the newer green or brown signs, they would be in the older white signs. This would be troublesome if there were more than three roads out there.

Instead of SLOW or SLOW THROUGH VILLAGE written on the streets, you'd see TEAGLIN AM MALL, which looks really important. So important, that when you're puzzling out what that means, you're flying off a cliff to partake in yet another of the scenic views they have all over Dingle.

Dingle Dingle Dingle.

The peninsula is Dingle, the town is Dingle. Going up to Dingle doesn't always mean you're going to Dingle town. Isn't Dingle a fun word? Don't you wish there were more places named Dingle? I do.

Dingle's main source of income is the nickels and dimes (or the Irish equivalent) that they get from tourists. "INTERESTING ROCK 100mtr" says a sign, and you pull over to see the interesting rock, but to get to it you have to pass a booth where they'll charge you one punt fifty to see the rock. We did this several times (different rocks) before wising up.

We actually filled a memory card with photos and movies. Our memory card can hold 128 pictures. That's how scenic Dingle is. Our first stop was yet another Foley's Pub for a photo op. This one was just outside Inch. From there, we drove into Dingle, saw that everyone else who was touring around today stopped in Dingle, so we drove onwards to Ventry (Ceann Tra), where we had lunch and watched small birds freak out in a pile of dirt.

After that, we went to scenic stuff. We dropped in at Dunberg Promontory Fort, a pile of stones in a circle from 500 BC that cost us one punt fifty to see. We almost went to see the ("the", heh. I mean "a", or rather "another") Irish Famine Cottage, but this cost two punts to see, so we opted not to.

We continued along Shea Head Drive around the peninsula, stopping every twenty feet, as mentioned above. Every few feet is another place you can park your car and take a photo. There's one with a crucifixion scene. It wasn't until later on in the drive that we realized that was Slea Head. We thought it was just another photo point.

We drove up to Dunquin and stopped in at a pottery store and now I want to be a potter when I grow up.

After that, we saw many more scenic things: a great vista from Clogher Head overlooking Sybil Point, then over to the little town of Ballyferrier (Baile an Fheirtearaigh), the spectacularly unimpressive Gallus Oratory, and on up to the rocky inlet of Brandon Creek along the west side of Brandon Mountain. From there, back to Dingle and to Killarney for dinner.

St. Brandon is the patron saint of the peninsula. The largest mountain on the peninsula is named for him, as are several features and towns (Brandon Creek, Brandon Head, Brandon Point, and Brandon Bay). Earlier in our vacation, we stopped at that 14th century village reconstruction thing. There, they had a replica of the boat they think some monks used to travel to America in the late 500s. St. Brandon was one of those monks. The whole vacation ties together.

About the spectacularly unimpressive Gallus Oratory: It would have been okay to visit if we didn't sit down for that AV demonstration. It was a videotape with this thick Irish-accented speaker talking over perky Irish music talking about how the rocks were placed on top of other rocks. The video quality looked a bit like the Blair Witch Project in places. "The Oratory was built on an east-west axis," the narrator says. "So in the mornin' the sun would shine through the small window in the east side of the building." [The cameraman rushes through the doorway to the window, almost throwing the camera through the small eastern window.] "And at sunset, the light would come from the west, through the doorway." [Camera turns and rushes through the door, ala Evil Dead force chasing Bruce Campbell].

Anyway, we went into Killarney to have dinner and would up at an American-themed restaurant. We didn't realize it until we sat down. There, on the wall above our table, was a poster or "Our 50 States", complete with state flags. Then there were the plates on the walls with various state's names and birds painted on. Across the room were American Legion license plates. Over there were shoulder patches from fire departments and police departments. Little American flags hanging over there. It was bizarre.

I had the lasagna with a baked potato, in case you were wondering.

Silly town/place names: Inch, Slea Head, Clogher Head, DINGLE

-FP