Sunday, The Final Day, of the RoK trip. We were told that we were supposed to report down to the bus at about 9:15 today instead of 930 like yesterday. I used the time to shove all of my still sopping shirts, underwear, gloves, waterproof pants, socks, and shorts into the CSB campus ministry bag that was about to get extremely moldy. Thanks to the questionable-looking hairdryer, my shoes were dry-ish, but i could sense the mold creeping in. Enough about mold. We ate breakfast, and I had some more runny eggs and bacon strips. But after breakfast, instead of going to the bus, Marian told us to go to the room where we heard the speakers. We get there and then there is this lady who looks like a nursing home nurse, and she is supposed to teach us to sing. I did not like this, because I hate singing. She gave us a song sheet, and told us to sing this "Galway Girl" song about hooking up, and then a nursery rhyme in Gaelic about a little girl that wants to go to the market but the mom says no. Then we got handed these art straw things and taught how to make Saint Bridgett crosses. It was kind of fun, yet I felt like I was in kindergarten all over again. i measured out the sides of the cross using the damn song sheet and Hannah and Matt thought it was funny. I made mine red and white to spite Morrison.
After a grueling hour of this substitute activity (for walking to the forts. They usually walk to the forts. Marian thought the weather was bad), We got on the bus and headed out to the forts. I decided to wear jeans because I figured it had stopped raining. We got to see a non-foggy cahersiveen today. It was really nice. Mount Bentree loomed behind the quaint village, and we could see hills across the sea. We drove for about 5 minutes and got out, to walk a trail up to the fort. It was awesome! Marian said it is a natural amphitheater, and it sure looked like it. There was a small stone ring in the middle and the larger ring circled the outside of the enclosure. I was all set to take some amazing pictures, when all the damn girls started climbing all over the damn fort, doing their poses for Facebook pictures. So I busied myself looking at the grass and rocks up close and snapping them. I waited until they were all leaving, and picked a nice spot up on top to stand up on. Marian was waiting by the exit and herding everyone out. I stood my ground and waited till all the other people were gone, and then snapped awesome pictures. Marian was not mad about this at all. I walked with her the 500 meters to the next fort, and we talked about small towns. I told her that the same thing that is going on in Ireland is going on in the states, where rural areas are dying out thanks to no jobs. I told her that my town had 8,000 people and she said “That would be a pretty big town over here! Cahersiveen has like 600 people” I thought about the towns in America that have 600 people= Bovey, Hill City, Murdo, Taconite. They are all drug ridden dumps. Cahersiveen is pretty, clean, and nice.
So then we got to the second fort. The Journalism major that sat by me on the bus yesterday thought she saw a fox. I was excited. But it was a mere hare. It ran away, and kicked up a pheasant! Cool! I finally made it to the fort, after everyone was in. this fort was really really cool. There were actual places that wooden beams would have gone in holes in the walls to hold up stables or buildings. I took my close ups, and, once again, I waited for everyone to leave. Marian was yelling hurry up. I stood my ground and she said “I know what you want to do”. We saw some sheep on the way back that were nuzzling each other with their faces, and every damn camera was taking pictures of them. Marian said they were a breed that was imported to Ireland, and so they were coined Fake sheep. But they were bigger and some though better looking than the other real sheep. But they were dirtier.
Then we got en route to Daniel O’connels house, which was also specially opened for us. It was cool, and the tour guide was boring. We watched a History Channel type video about Daniel O Connell, and the first time his face popped up, everyone giggled. The guy was ugly as sin. They kept doing the history channel thing where they pan away from his portraits, and I kept giggling. He married his cousin, who was also ugly, and they popped out 11 babies. The portrait showed his wife, and a ginger baby. The video was about his life but all I could think about was how damn ugly he was. We got out of the video and went to his living room, where we heard about his hunting dogs that got rabbits all of the time, on the hunts. We did get to see his chariot though, and it was cool! It was velvet with like gilded sides. I am sure it wasn't real gold though, because there were no alarms on the doors to his garage.
So we headed off for home, then. We drove through very beautiful parts of the country, but Marian was looking for a volunteer to sing. So eventually Connor, the guy who was drunk, came up and took over the microphone. He sat on there for like a damn hour taking requests like taylor swift and other pop songs, and singing it loudly and terribly. Hannah and Matt put headphones in to drown him out. He did say some funny stuff though, like “And on your right, you will see sheep. The largest flock in Ireland.” And “A baby seal walks into a club”. We drove, and drove, and passed by large tracts of woodlands, pines that looked like they could have been white pines, and bogs. Kerry as a county is rural, remote, and gorgeous. Very brown. But I suppose it is winter. There are mountains all over the place. Its beautiful. Unfortunately we did not have a chance to stop and take pictures until we got to Killarney national park. We got to stop at this place apparently called Moll’s Gap, and take pictures. It was nice, but I don’t think my pictures turned out. We then took a vote on going shopping or seeing a waterfall. I was thinking "we better not choose shopping", and luckily we didn’t. We stopped the bus, and walked up this trail to the falls. It was huge, roaring, and awesome. And it was pouring rain on us, but I used my poor camera anyways.
Then we got back. And that is the end of the Ring of Kerry Heritage Weekend. It was fun, but i really wish the weather would have cooperated a little bit more.
