Thank God for hiking boots, rain coats, and home knit hats.

This past weekend, I went to Dingle with 3 St. Ben's girls to see the sights. Kelsey, Rochelle, Julia, and I were planning on biking around the Dingle Peninsula on Saturday: a 28 mile ride along the coast and around the mountains. Let's start at the beginning :)

Friday morning, we bussed to Dingle. It was a beautiful day, with the sun shining almost all day. When we arrived in Dingle, we found the hostel and were greeted by Dave, the man who ran the hostel. He gave us tips about where to get good local food, which pubs to try, and which tourists traps to avoid. After we got settled, we struck out to explore the town. Now, Dingle isn't very big and is definitely a tourist town. Since it's not tourist season at the moment, some of the shops had signs in the window saying "see you in March." Despite this, we found some cool art shops and promising looking pubs. We got some beautiful pictures on the pier and a delicious plate of fresh caught cod at a restaurant right on the marina.

After a rest at the hostel, we headed out to explore the nightlife of Dingle. It was really odd, how quiet it was. We were heading to a pub around 8:30, and we literally saw 3 people on our way to the first one. This was quite the change from Cork, where you'll pass a pretty steady stream of people at any time of day. But apparently all the locals of Dingle weren't on the street because they were already at the pub. When we reached the first pub, the "quirky" local pub Dave had pointed us towards, who should we bump into but Dave himself. We made it known that we were at his hostel and we were to be treated well. We stayed there for almost two hours chatting with some of Dave's friends. I even got a free pint from the bartender. Not sure why, but who am I to turn down a free beer? We then continued on to main street, where we went to another pub that had trad music. There was a group of adults set dancing, which is sort of the Irish form of square dancing. It was really cool to watch :) We were also joined by 2 Irish boys who looked no older than 18 but claimed to be 21...let's just say it was an interesting visit. At one point, the more boisterous one of the two noted our rings. We all happened to be wearing rings and he made a show of checking if we were available. I'm glad I was wearing my anam cara ring from Dave, so he mostly left me alone the rest of the night. I spent the remaining time trying to talk to the quieter friend, but he apparently has very different tastes than I do. Anytime I mentioned a topic I liked, he'd respond "oh tat's boring." They were entertaining for awhile, but we weren't too sad when they left. We went back to the hostel, heading to bed and praying for nice weather for our bike ride the next day. Our prayers weren't answered though, when we woke up it was raining.

The weather in Ireland is very fickle. There have only been a handful of days here when the weather has been consistent all day. One minute it's raining and the next the sun could be shining. So with that in mind, we bundled up and went to rent bikes, hoping that the rain would blow over and it'd at least clear up for some of the ride. The weather did fluctuate that day, but it was a small shift; from cloudy, to a light rain, to pouring, and back again. Suffice to say, we were soaked to the bone by the time we returned. But overall, it was still a great bike ride. When the rain stopped, we had some beautiful views and great pictures. It was a tough ride, and we think we went about 25 miles. We ended up not doing the full loop around, because we were worried about it getting dark too early because of the rain that had continued throughout the day. By the last 2 or 3 miles we were all just plowing through to get back and get dry. I don't think I've ever been that wet with so many layers on. But miraculously, my feet were completely dry in my hiking shoes, and my head was still warm thanks to my new hat Dave had sent me. My raincoat was great in that I wasn't drenched underneath, but it was not as completely waterproof as I would have liked. By the time we got everything hung up in our room to dry, there wasn't a spare spot in the room and the windows were utterly drenched with perspiration. We all had a nice warm nap and went for some fish and chips at a cozy pub with a fire at our backs. After dinner we decided to skip the pubs and go to bed- we were all exhausted from fighting the weather that day.

Sunday was a pretty chill day. We had to be out of the hostel by 10 but our bus wasn't picking up until 5:45 that night. So we mainly cafe hopped during the day. I found a church to go to, and they said the Our Father in gaelic :) It was really cool and I think I'd like to find a translation and figure out how to say it. We had some good ice creme in the afternoon followed by a shift of location and some hot chocolate. The bus finally came, and we made it back to Cork, safe and sound. The weekend turned out to be really cool. Dingle was Ireland like I had expected it to be; a small community, surrounded by beautiful green hills and sea. We got a good work out, and a chance to test our rain gear. I'd just like to say, thank God for hiking boots, rain coats, and home knit hats.