Today I woke up at 8:00 to get ready and packed. I took my time with breakfast and getting ready since my bus out of Dingle wasn't until 10:15. At 9:55, I slowly made my way to the bus stop which is just a few minutes away. I waited under the currach, a light boat, since it was raining. I took the bus out of Dingle to Tralee and change to a Cork bus stopping in Killarney. The cost was €15, and the trip took a little over two hours total.
I got into Killarney a little after noon, and it was raining but I walked to the hotel anyways. It eventually stopped on the way to the hotel. Yes, I found a hotel cheaper than a b&b but the furnishing is soooo outdated. Check in wasn't until 15:00 so I asked if I could leave my luggage at the hotel. The front desk checked and told me that the room would be ready in 30 minutes so I waited. Once I got into my room I dumped everything and made way out to explore the city and find lunch. I found a cafe serving lite lunch and have lasagna under it. So I ordered the lasagna and it wasn't lite. The piece is almost the size you get at home and is mostly meat served with salad, but at least it was a good price. After that, I just walked around looking for the TI and then the tour place to get my tour ticket for tomorrow. The tour place told me just to get my ticket tomorrow.
Killarney is a very small. It is easy walking around it, and lots of tour buses stop here overnight in their in or out of seeing Blarney Castle. There is also an Outlet Mall here which I'm not going to explore in fear I buy lots of stuff. I just walked up and down a few streets and that was the town. So I went exploring more. I eventually ended in Killarney National Park which is a block away from town hall. I just started walking and following the trail. I did the river walk and then loop back around. I was going to go to the shore but it was very muddy getting there. I did detour to see Ross Castle on my loop but didn't go in.
Overall, it was a nice walk with only about 1 minute of rain around the National Park. I walked over 5km of the trail in about two hours. I took a lot of nature pictures and an elderly gentleman stopped and told me to go to Muckross Garden where they have lots of pictures. Muckross garden is about 3 miles outside of Killarney. It's so weird in Ireland where people just interchange miles and kilometers all the time.
After the walk, I headed back to the hotel and took a shower. Then I went down to the pub, The Danny Mann Pub, which is attached to the hotel. I had their early bird (17:30 to 19:00) special of two courses. I guess they eat dinner here late. I had traditional Irish stew (this time with lamb) and raspberry grateaux for dessert. The place is very busy and had only one real server there. So far that I know, there are two tour bus groups here. Good thing I didn't include breakfast, which is €10, when I booked. I found breakfast cheaper down the street. For a full Irish breakfast, only €6.50 and a smaller size is €5.50.
It's been a not so writing filling day. There is live music down at the pub at 21:00. So, ill probably dropped by and listen for awhile. Other than that, I had a good exercise today.
Tomorrow's agenda: Touring the Ring of Kerry
" It's so weird in Ireland where people just interchange miles and kilometers all the time."
ReplyDeleteDon't we do that too? Maybe they thought you were American?
In terms of food, I think you eat fish and chips, stew, and cheesecake a lot!