I caught the 8:10 train into Killarney from Dublin yesterday morning. After checking into my hostel, i got some lunch and then headed to the national park. i spent the afternoon walking/light hiking, visited ross castle and even took a boat tour of one of the rivers. it was very laid back, i was there for around 5 hours. The park is beautiful and HUGE. Its exactly how i would imagine a park in Ireland to be.

Today i had to choose between hiking and going on a bus tour of the ring of kerry. so i chose a bike trip through the gap of dunloe. it is a beautiful day today, i walked yesterday, bikes are faster/cover more ground and the guy at the hostel said it would be a bad idea to waste a beautiful (rare) irish day stuck on a bus, even if the scenery is beautiful. i got up at 7:40, showered, ate, rented a bike and was off by 9:30. it was a long trip, 50 km, but i managed to do the whole thing without giving up and taking a ferry back. it was breathtaking. when i said earlier that the national park was what i would imagine ireland to be, i was wrong. THIS is what i would imagine/want ireland to be.after a 3-4miles ride i arrived at the entrance to the gap. its a narrow road that traverses between mountains and around lakes. i passed sheep and horses. i stopped and sat on a rock looking out over a lake. i huffed and puffed (alright, i walked my bike), up to the head of the gap and then whizzed down the other side to a tearoom/cottege, where i got some soup. i then continued on an unpaved path through the woods/bush. it reminded me of the african savannah, except there was a lake on one side. it was so beautiful. the end half of the path went through a mossy forest. eventually i was spit out on the highway and had to ride quite a few miles (actually, it was probably about the length of the gap itself), to the muckross house and gardens, back in the national park. right before i got to the house, i stopped on a rocky beach, waded around in the water (i would have swam but i had no suite and there were too many people around to go otherwise), and then took a nap in the sun, laying on the small rocks. i also stopped by the torc waterfall, but it was underwhelming and swarmed with tourists. the house was really neat, i guess the original owners spent all their money so that queen victoria could visit and title the man of the house, but she didn't like it, left, and they went broke. i also meant to go to the devil's punchbowl, and am quite sad that i forgot about it. from here it was another couple miles to the main road and then some more miles on the ugly highway again. i returned the bike at 5:00, and then went to my hostel and made some food (that turned out really s***ty). it was a fantastic, exhausting, totally fulfilling day. i defanitly made the right choice to do the bike trip, i biked a total of 32 miles, saw some amazing, life-changing scenery, enjoyed some gorgeous irish weather and wasn't crammed up in a bus all day.