Nos fuimos pa Dublin...

This could very accurately be a summary of our last and fantastic trip to the middle of nowhere. We went to the very famous and touristic part of Ireland called the Ring of Kerry. It is a unique peninsula, in the west of Ireland, where you can find astounding landscapes and a really unique place, with a mix of sea, mountain, small towns, valleys, rivers and loneliness, a lot of it indeed. It is a special land, very inspiring and with a ton of places to explore, given the whole peninsula is a wonderful land full of gorgeous places.


I would say is one of those special places you have to see, and that leaves a mark in you. For me it is a place I will always remember as special, different, wonderfull and really, as I said before, unique. Not only for the place itself, but also for the people we went with and the fantastic time we had together.

We started early on Friday, at 7:30 in the morning, to start the driving early, and be in Killarney, 300km away, around midday. Roads here in Ireland are not too complicated if you have driven around big or medium cities, but we got lost for a moment, given we took the wrong exit from Dublin, but was only a minor mistake and we could maintain a good speed and keep the right route direction from that moment and on.


The car had a nice panoramic top.

About the roads... well up to 80kms away from Dublin and about the last 100km near Limerick we had a nice highway... but the rest... a two-way normal road, with good pavement, normally quite wide, with not too much traffic, but not as comfortable as highway driving. Anyway I would say that the roads here in Ireland are not so bad as people say, and they are improving them. You could see the works for a highway at many different points next to the road we drove through.

As we had a 4x4 car, we had to do something with it... what about jumping over the grass to park, instead of going around? That's a good idea.


Don't worry, the grass will grow again in a minute, with so much rain...

After the whole morning driving, with some stops to rest, and with a long final drive, where we were all starving and a little bit annoyed because of so much car, we got to Killarney. We arrived at Neptune's hostel which is in the city center and discovered the nice place.


Group picture, from top left to bottom right: Jose Luis, Luis, Daniel, Kai, Maria Jose, Laura and me.

On that day I discovered hostels, good ones, because I had never been in one of them before and it is actually very nice. You have a shared kitchen where you can cook and use dishes and everything. You clean everything after and you are done. That way you can save a lot in food, and as you can see in the next picture, it had everything you could need, clean and ready.


The hostel's kitchen.

After eating and resting we were ready to spend the evening walking around the town, getting to now the surroundings, which are part of Killarney National Park. A really beautifull place, with some lakes, mountains and nice landscapes.


Ross castle.


A view of the lake.


Torc waterfall.

Also while we were walking around, we got to a dead end... but that's no problem for us, intrepid travellers.


Jump!

We even found near the path, on top of a fence, The Ring of Kerry!! hehe, or also as many of you would like to call it, "my trrrreeeasure".


Ring of Kerry.

The last part of the evening, as we had walked for a long while (3 or 4 kilometers), was time for the car again. So we took it and drove around. We went for two hours around the lakes, through the black valley, a really beautiful landscape, and returned to killarney.


Our car in the black valley.

After the drive we got to Killarney again quite late, so we decided to go out and eat, that way we could visit any of the pubs around the city. We asked in the hostel reception for a good option and they told us where to go. Of course it was a good place, good price and with good food that we enjoyed all together.

Next morning we started the route around the ring of Kerry, from Killarney, driving over the north part, till the west end of the peninsula, and back again taking the road passing near the sea, on the south coast.

We spent several hours around, and visited towns like Killorgin and Cahersiveen from where we entered Valentia Island.


View from Valentia Island.

The day before we were lucky and had very good weather, with a nice sun and warm temperature, but Ireland cannot be so sunny, because if that happened it would be called Spain instead. So the next day wasn't so good, and we had lots of rain, cold, wind... as you can see in this picture.


Daniel's hair suffered the blow.

After going around Valentia island we headed south next to the coast, and reached the west end of the peninsula, where we found the most beautiful views.


Cows next to the sea, a picturesque view.


A wonderful beach between mountains and rocks, it must be a great place to swim in a sunny day.

During the route we stopped in many places to take pictures, it was amazingly beautiful, and a very enjoyable experience, but every time you exited the car, the cold was sooooo intense... your face ended up like this.


We planned to eat somewhere around, but had to eat inside the car for obvious reasons.

So we completed the ring at about 4 in the evening, and got to Killarney, from where we took the road back to Dublin. Some hours later we were all safely home.

We had a wonderful, amazing and incredible time with everyone. A really unique experience, mostly because of all the good people that traveled together and the fun we enjoyed. Thanks to you guys who joined us, specially Maria Jose, who left Ireland permanently today and Jose and Luis who came from Madrid to visit us for those two days.

Outstanding experience from which you have more pictures in the gallery. Enjoy.