We set out from Galway to continue our Irish Road trip to an Irish vacation hotspot, The Cliffs of Moher. We joined hundreds, probably thousands, of people at the windy, vertigo inducing marvel. It was stunningly beautiful (which I quickly saw was a trend on the island of Ireland) and the sounds of waves crashing combined with the excited/nervous tones of our fellow tourists as they gazed over the edges made for a pleasant experience. We had just seen a news story a few days before about the cliff edges (maybe in Dover) falling due to weathering, so watching people walk along the edge with that in mind made for twisted nerves.
Once we'd had enough of the wind, we continued our journey towards our destination of Dingle, where we would be spending 3 days, including St. Patrick's day. The town of Dingle was picturesque and the perfect place to get to spend some time. On the peninsula, and its surrounding areas, things are in Gaelic (Irish) first and then English. We stayed in a cottage outside of the town technically located in Ballydavid, which was a really nice change to moving around every single day. Our living room was incredibly cozy and we spent our time huddled around the fire to stay warm, while drinking tea and coffee with Digestives (horrible name... incredible biscuits (or in American... cookies). Having a fully stocked kitchen allowed us to make and eat meals at home which is also a welcome change from eating out every meal (and much more economical). The cottage also came with laundry, which by this point was a necessity.
I forgot to mention our packing situation for this month-long excursion. We packed in our 45L backpacks. In total I had two pairs of pants, one tshirt, one tanktop,two long sleeved shirts, two sweaters, one sweater dress, one set of cuddleduds for layering, leggings, boots, tennis shoes, flip flops for strange showers, one fleece, one rain jacket, 4 pairs of socks, 7 pairs of underoos, my special hand-knitted for this trip scarf, and basic toiletries. Michael had the boy version of that, adding in a few more pairs of socks. Luckily, it was so cold we were wearing a lot of this at one time most days. But... this is why laundry was becoming pretty necessary.
We went to do our laundry the first day, and when Jacqui opened the front loading washer, it was somehow filled with water and like a tsunami, flooded our entire cottage (luckily tile). We spent the next hour or so sweeping water out the front door. We followed up our triumphs by walking up the street to the pub to watch the Irish Rugby team defeat France in the 6 nations tournament. I sort of understood what was going on by the end of it.
The next day we went in to Dingle where we took a boat ride through the harbor to meet Funghi, the famous dolphin that has lived there for, legend has it, 50 plus years. They are so confident that you will see Funghi, that they promise a money-back guarantee if you don't. We weren't disappointed. It wasn't long before the big guy was leaping alongside the boat. We were freezing, it was raining, but the harbor was gorgeous and Funghi was the best. Afterwards, we alternated between waiting out the rain and walking around the town.
For the long awaited St Patti's day, we got up and headed into town (in taxi) for the Dingle St Patrick's Day parade, which was full of adorable children, fife bands, and even St Patrick himself. Obviously, the town's biggest celebrity Funghi made an appearance as well.
Dingle was such a fantastic place, and I might even say my favorite place in Ireland. Everything about it was exactly as I had imagined except even more charming and friendly. We were really sad to leave Funghi, but we continued our road trip with a "top of the mornin" in his direction, and we were on our way.
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