Last weekend Jess and I went to Paul and Maria's place in Kerry. This was part of our staff trip, which at the moment happens to be just me. We took the train out of Dublin and met up with them, drove for a little over an hour to the Ivereagh Peninsula in the southwest of Ireland. We basically just crashed the night we got there and got up bright and early the next day for a trip out to the Skellig Islands. This is one of two World Heritage sites in Ireland (the other being
Newgrange Burial Mounds).
Bright and early, Maria dropped Jess and I off at the harbour and we took a 45 minute ferry out to the Skelligs. The Skelligs are two islands (Skellig Michael and Little Skellig), that dramatically sit off the southwest coast of Kerry. One of the islands is the site of a 1400 year old Celtic monastery, and the other a nesting place for 55,000 gannets. The monastery was founded in 588 and throughout the years was repeatedly attacked by Vikings until later abandoned by the monks for the mainland monastery at Ballinskelligs.
The ferry carried us out for 45 minutes. J and I bolted out of the boat and started our three-hour exploration of the island. It was full of puffins! We climbed the north peak to reach the monastery. On the south peak however, there is a newly discovered cliff which is truly at the edge of the world, where a hermit is presumed to have lived apart from the
monastery. (at back in photo)
When we rearched the monastery, we found about five
corbeled beehive huts and a tiny chapel which was added later. The view of Little Skelligs was incredible from the peak. J and I eventually made our descent on the precarious guardrail-less stairs and headed back to meet up with Paul and Maria.
They took us for a spin around the countryside. Destination #1: chocolate factory. Sea salt dark chocolate completely rocked my world. We could have sat there for hours taste-testing the chocolates but peeled ourselves away and drove around a bit more. We stopped at an art gallery for a bit and then a village which was abandoned during the famine. There were about 5 stone thatched/tiled houses on a hillside which have since been converted to artists' studios.
The following day we did a bit more driving around and just generally soaking in the beautiful Kerry landscape. Maria kept saying it's like living in a painting. We did a couple other outings on sunday including seeing the 'Tetrapod' footprints which they believe to be the oldest four-legged creature on record. It was strange because what's left of our poor little ancestor was being dumped on by farm runoff - gunk from a pipe. It was interesting, but I'm still skeptical. Felt like a Loch Ness pitch.
We caught our train back to Dublin by a hair and I think that's just about all that's fit for a one-month update.
Sketchup model of the back extension.
The following day, we said a more coherent hello to each other and headed out into the city. We caught a nice view of the city from the hills nearby the hostel - the Mole Antonelliana (pronounced moleh...with a bit of Italian flair) as the main focus with the Alps in the background. Haphazardly, we made our way towards it to see it up close and explore the city at the same time. After a nice long circle route with more catching up with each other than touristy sight-seeing, we reached the Mole. It looks like a church but it has been converted to a cinema museum. We decided to have a look. It was really worth it, the inside was full of activity - a nice break from just looking at the inside of a church which has become the usual in most European cities. In Dublin however most of the churches have been converted to lighting shops or pubs. Anyhow, we spent a while here then checked out the Royal Gardens from a closed fence and walked around for most of the remaining day.
The following day, we caught an early train to head down to Genoa (Genova). Before coming here, I was trying to place our hostel on google maps. You have to see this. It's quite a contrast to Turin's gridded map. In Genova, Ghione and I explored the old medieval town and later saw the famous La Lanterna (lighthouse). Architect Renzo Piano has redeveloped the main harbour, including a tensile tent (which was closed when we were there) as well as a floating butterfly bubble. The city is totally focused inward on its historical port, where Christopher Columbus is supposedly born. The harbour is filled with massive ferries and cruise ships. We visited the aquarium there as well which is known as the largest in Europe.
Last weekend Jess and I went to Paul and Maria's place in Kerry. This was part of our staff trip, which at the moment happens to be just me. We took the train out of Dublin and met up with them, drove for a little over an hour to the Ivereagh Peninsula in the southwest of Ireland. We basically just crashed the night we got there and got up bright and early the next day for a trip out to the Skellig Islands. This is one of two World Heritage sites in Ireland (the other being Newgrange Burial Mounds).
When we rearched the monastery, we found about five corbeled beehive huts and a tiny chapel which was added later. The view of Little Skelligs was incredible from the peak. J and I eventually made our descent on the precarious guardrail-less stairs and headed back to meet up with Paul and Maria.
The following day we did a bit more driving around and just generally soaking in the beautiful Kerry landscape. Maria kept saying it's like living in a painting. We did a couple other outings on sunday including seeing the 'Tetrapod' footprints which they believe to be the oldest four-legged creature on record. It was strange because what's left of our poor little ancestor was being dumped on by farm runoff - gunk from a pipe. It was interesting, but I'm still skeptical. Felt like a Loch Ness pitch.
