Day 2: Tralee, Dingle, Muckross House, Ross Castle, Kilarney

I think a part of me has always known that I would love the British Isles. Today, we were driving from Tralee (a tiny city we spent the night in last night) to Dingle and I had a moment of overwhelming joy, contentment, and peace. The bright blue ocean was on my right, and the quaint rolling hills of farmland were on my left. I was listening “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor and I started thinking of my sweet Grammy. It seemed to me that she would absolutely love this beautiful country. It dawned on me that it actually is the country of her heritage—and also mine—and so it makes sense that I would love it so much. Tears swelled up in my eyes—I don’t know if this was from missing her, from wishing we could experience this moment together, or just from the overwhelming beauty of scenery. Regardless, it filled my heart with peace that stayed with me for the rest of the day.

Today, we spent a lot of time on the bus. I think I’m not as adjusted to the time change as I thought I was yesterday. There were moments today where physically couldn’t keep my eyes open on the bus and I found myself asleep before I realized it. The main sights we visited today were the Muckross House and Ross Castle. The Muckross House is an old house that has been owned by rich families for hundreds of years. Queen Victoria visited the house back in the 1800’s so it’s a very lavish and fancy house. It reminded me almost exactly of the house in Downton Abbey—the fancy staircase, the lavish dining room, plain servants quarters—it was kind of awesome. I almost loved the gardens around the house more though.

We also went to Ross Castle. It’s an ancient castle that’s been restored with original furniture. I have to say, I wasn’t that impressed. It was cool to walk around in, but it wasn’t my favorite part of the day. What really caught my eye today was the bright colors throughout Ireland. They love to use bright colors on their houses, on their boats, on their storefronts…it’s very picturesque. 

We ended the day by walking up to the ruins of an old Abbey and graveyard near our hostel. The sun was setting, so it made for a beautiful scene. The abbey doesn’t have any sort of restoration, and so it really feels ancient. There were tombstones in there from the 1700’s, and even more that were unreadable, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were older than that. I feel like my mind can’t even comprehend how old these places are. I am so in love with Ireland that I can’t even handle it!