Day 7: Morning in Heaven

Sunday night we fell asleep under the Irish stars. Our bed and breakfast had huge skylights instead of windows and even though it was raining, the stars still peeked through the clouds in the dark night sky. It was the ideal way to fall asleep, with the rain dancing on the skylights and stars smiling down upon us.

We awoke Monday morning to a knock on our door and Murphy calling through the thin walls, "This is your wake-up call." We yelled back, "Thank you" and then went about getting ready for the day. It seemed the night had renewed our energy and we were determined to make our last two full days in Ireland memorable ones.

As soon as we entered the breakfast room, we could see the sun beginning the rise just above the distant horizon over the ocean. It had a beautiful array of pinks, oranges, and golds and was the first sunrise we witnessed since our flight into Ireland. Murphy brought us out our usual tower of toast, as well as the requisite tea and orange juice. My heaping pile of at least half a dozen scrambled eggs nearly matched Chad's Irish breakfast in size.

When we had finished eating, we headed back to the room to complete our packing and check out. We found Murphy to pay for our room and signed the guest book. Chad handed Murphy the room rate plus an additional amount for the tip and told him to keep the change. Murphy smiled slighted and said, "Oh so you're giving me a tip?" and Chad was tickled.

We then chatted with Murphy and discovered various things about him. His wife was in New York City on holiday with some of her girlfriends and Murphy himself had visited New York City three times, although he never ventured into the Midwest. He was skeptical when we mentioned that we had been in Dublin for New Years and told us that Dingle was, in fact, the place to be. Murphy had negative feelings in general towards Dublin and commented that it has disintegrated into a crime-ridden and dirty city, far worse than New York City.

I desperately wanted a picture of Chad and Murphy so I made up a story that we were getting pictures of all our bed and breakfast owners to show our friends back home. Murphy somewhat unwillingly agreed and I got the feeling he doesn't really like having his picture taken. He then helped us down the stairs with our luggage and we departed. Just as we turned the corner into the car park, I saw Murphy stick his head out the door, just to be sure we'd left for good. He probably was afraid we would come back requesting more pictures.

We then drove west towards Slea Head, a famous spot at the very tip of the Dingle peninsula. It was pleasant driving weather, the sun reflecting brightly off the water and the green rolling hills reaching high into the sky. There weren't many other cars on the road so we were able to keep a steady pace and the signs were labeled better than most, eliminating the need for a map. About halfway to Slea Head, we spotted a goat tied to a post by the side of the road and beckoning drivers toward the Celtic and Prehistoric Museum and antique shop. We were intrigued so we pulled over.

Although the parking lot had three other cars in it, it was evident that we were the only current visitors to The Celtic and Prehistoric Museum since it was eerily still as we walked in the door. We half expected it to be closed for the season like everything else on the peninsula and just as we were about to turn around and walk out, we heard footsteps on the staircase above. We looked up to find the director, Harris Moore, descending the staircase in his bare feet and clearly excited to have visitors.

Harris the Hippie explained that the museum was made up of seven rooms filled with artifacts that dated back to the stone, bronze, and iron ages. The admission fee was 4 euro per person and though Chad and I had entered for mainly the antiques, we felt awful getting this guys hopes up and then not touring his museum. So we paid the entrance fee and began our tour.

We walked through the hanging beads into the first of the seven rooms which featured the highlight of his collection. We were stunned to be staring into the empty eye sockets of a 40,000 year old, completely intact woolly mammoth skull. The skull was apparently discovered when it was pulled out of the ocean in a fishing net. Now, let me be honest. I have seen the "On the Edge of the Inland Sea" exhibit at the Green Bay Neville Public Museum at least twenty times as a child and part of the exhibit is a replica of a woolly mammoth about to be jabbed by a Paleo Indian hunter with a crude weapon. As a child visitor to the museum, the woolly mammoth is quite large and lifelike, but it was still a hard sell to make me buy the concept of woolly mammoths. Dinosaurs were far easier to believe in than big hairy elephants with beyond massive tusks. But after my visit to the Celtic and Prehistoric Museum, I am a believer.


The rest of the museum was interesting, filled with other prehistoric fossils, jewelry from the Bronze Age, and weapons from the Iron Age. After we had our fill, we headed back down to the gift shop, which was the main reason for our stop. Instead of pushing shoddy shamrock key chains and "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" t-shirts, this gift shop sold actual Ireland antiques, such as old iron keys and currency, vintage Irish posters and magazines, and fossils and gems. We looked at everything for quite some time, attempting to reasonably assess how much remaining space we had in our luggage and the possibility of us successfully traveling home with some of the more fragile items. We finally selected an Irish key from the early 1800's and two coins, a lucky Victorian penny and a Irish coin with a pig on it- sturdy, small, and significant selections.

After purchasing our wares and small talk with Harris the Hippie (who, of course, knew all about Madison, WI), we bid farewell to him and his goat and headed back on the road towards Slea Head.

Day 7: An Daingean

We left the museum and continued our journey west along the southern coast of the Dingle Peninsula. Our destination: Slea Head. We had heard so much about the grandeur of Slea Head and knew it could not be missed.

After about an hour of driving along the most beautiful scenery we had yet seen, we arrived in Slea Head. The morning was still clear and sunny and we took the opportunity to take many pictures. At one point, a pair of Irish women stopped along the side the road on the same shoulder as us and we took pictures for each other. Our experience in Slea Head confirmed the advice we had gotten before leaving and the suggestions we had received from everyone we asked: Slea Head is truly incredible. We lingered for a long time and simply looked around the small village and the stunningly green hills that jutted into the ocean.

Kristy and I had discussed our plans for the rest of the day and decided that if we were going to stay in Galway for the night, we had better leave the northern half of the Dingle Peninsula for our return visit and head back to Dingle Town the way we had come. Additionally, Kristy desperately wanted to try to go horseback riding, which is offered year-round by some stables in Dingle. So, we headed back in search of "horse noseys" (Kristy really likes the noses of animals).

On our way back to Dingle, we stopped by a perplexing corner in the road. There was a stream that came down the mountainside and across the road itself that continued on the other side of the road towards the ocean. While we were diving towards Slea Head, we hesitated for many a moment while considering if it was a dead end or if the road actually had a stream running through it. Eventually, we concluded that it must be the road because there had been no other route possible. We drove across it and continued towards Slea Head. However, on the way back, Kristy wanted to get pictures because she was skeptical anyone would believe that the road seriously had a stream flowing across it. So, on our way back to Dingle, by now old pros at the "water roads," she got out and took pictures before we continued across the stream without a moments hesitation.

We arrived back in Dingle and found the stable. We got out of our car, walked towards the main building and were instantaneously accosted by friendly dogs. After a brief interlude of petting, the dogs followed us towards the main building. We discovered that we could not ride that day, but if we came back tomorrow, we could. We discussed it, but decided that our desire to get to Galway won out over lingering in Dingle for horseback riding.

So, Kristy and I got back into the car, carefully backed out of the stable's gravel lot and began heading towards Galway. It was only about 12:30 PM and there was plenty of daylight left for our journey.

A very interesting point about the West of Ireland: some of it is what is called An Ghaeltacht, or a Gaelic Region. This means that the road signs do not have to be in English at all, but may only be in Irish. For instance, Dingle is not actually marked anywhere as Dingle, but as An Daingean. Luckily, our road atlas also listed the municipalities in Irish, or we may still be looking for some places. We were both fascinated by the vast cultural differences the further away we got from Dublin and the Eastern parts of the Island.

Day 7: Not Yet a "Galway Girl"

I was sad to be leaving Dingle, but looked forward to visiting Galway after hearing so much about it. We had perfect driving conditions: gorgeous weather and little traffic. Since we drove along the same route that we took into the Dingle peninsula the night before, we were able to see the beautiful view that we had missed in the darkness.

Upon leaving the peninsula, the driving was still nice, but consisted more of farms and rolling green fields. When we were about halfway to Galway, we encountered a significant road block. Ahead of us in the road was an entire herd of sheep, being followed by a red truck, at least two individuals on the road, and a sheepdog. Since there was traffic in both lanes, the sheepdog was responsible for herding the sheep from one lane to the next. We enjoyed watching the little sheep butts wag back and forth as they changed lanes. Passing by them, their little heads bobbed by our windows and I was jealous they were on Chad's side or I would have reached out to pet them. The entire incident was a highlight of the trip for me.

The next major city we passed through on the way to Galway was Limerick. We missed the exit to bypass it so we ended up downtown in the middle of rush hour. There's really not that much to say about it except for this analogy: Limerick is the Milwaukee of Ireland. Needless to say we did not stop.

As we reached Galway, night was heavy upon us. After driving through all the small towns of the southeast and west we were in for a rude awakening at the size of Galway. Add in the mass amounts of teenagers walking all over and the numerous one way streets and our intial reaction to Galway was not the idyllic one I had imagined. We finally found a parking spot and got out to search for a bed and breakfast.

After walking a few streets we realized that we would most likely need to stay in a hotel since there were no bed and breakfasts to be seen. Finally, we found the Skeffington Arms Hotel for a seriously reasonable price and checked in. The bad news was that we would need to move our car to a parking ramp and so we trekked our way back to the car. Even more unfortunate, we discovered upon entering the car that we had left our directions to the parking ramp in our new hotel room. So we drove around for nearly an hour searching for the vague notion of where the parking ramp was described to be located. At last, we found what we imagined would have to be the ramp and, even if it wasn't, I could care less at this point.

We walked back in the direction of the hotel and looked for restaurants to eat at. Somehow we were not able to find any in the area except for the one attached to our hotel. So that is where we ate. The food tasted pretty good after not eating all afternoon. Chad had some chicken breast and ham with a hollandaise sauce (aka heart attack on a plate) and I ordered salmon because what else should you really order in Galway. To top it off I had a delicious Bulmer's Iced Cider which was the cider topped with more frozen icy cider. After we finished eating, we walked around the rest of the restaurant because it used to be the hotel and was ornately decorated.

We then found a convenience store to buy a phone card for phoning our families and some post cards. After our purchases, we went back to the hotel room and crashed. The hotel allowed guests to borrow DVDs so after leaving our deposit I returned to the room with "The Apartment". We watched it while sipping hot chocolate and sprawling out on our tremendous bed, which was two double beds pushed together. We enjoyed our evening and hoped that Galway would look different to our fresh eyes in the morning.