There is a lively bar scene in Killarney, but nothing really seems to get going until about 11pm. At a sports pub called “Tatley Jack’s” we drank our fist Guinness, a drink tasting vaguely of coffee and thick enough to fill me up for the next two days. Here we also listened to a lively three-man Irish band sings songs with lyrics like, “The natural gas will burn your ass/ And send you all to Hell," and other such patriotic tunes.
The next day we headed out around 10:00 to catch a tour of the Ring of Kerry, a 170km road circling the peninsula between Dingle Bay and the Kenmare River. It was the rainiest, coldest day I’ve had in Ireland yet, but the van was warm and dry. A five hour tour saw us stopping at a number of spots along to route to take cold, wet photographs of a cold, wet landscape. More than ever I was reminded of what our accommodations officer had said, that we were living on a rock in the middle of the ocean. The Ring of Kerry felt exactly like that.
Unfortunately the rain continued into today, when we planned to rent bikes and tour Killarney National Park, including Ross Castle, a building sitting on the shore of Lough Leane and dating from the 1400s. But after a fruitless search for open bike rentals and a half-hour walk in the drenching rain, we finally gave up upon stopping for directions and learning the castle was closed.
So we opted to dry out at the hostel and head back to Cork and our oft too warm Leeside Apartment, finally defeated by the Irish rain.
A Statue of the Blessed Virgin, the Ring of Kerry.
