On Friday, January 30, my Ring of Kerry Weekend trip was scheduled to start. There were some Quinnipiac students and then some mixed other schools that came on the trip. We met up down the street from where I am living to catch the bus at 1:50pm. We started our bus ride to get to the Ring of Kerry Hotel where we were staying, which was about three hours away. Our first stop on the bus was two hours in. We stopped at the Crag Caves in Castleisland County Kerry to see the underground caves. These are thought to be over 1 million years old and is the tenth longest cave system in Ireland. There was a stream running through it, and the whole cave was pretty wet and damp. Our tour guide told us how there are bats that live in the cave as well. About another hour and a half later, we arrived at our hotel to drop our bags off and get ready for dinner. The hotel food was actually a lot better than I expected. I have never had salmon prior to this, but I decided to try it. The salmon was served with potatoes and vegetables and had a balsamic glaze. For dessert, I got a chocolate cake with chocolate sauce. That night, a guest speaker came to talk to us. Maurice Fitzgerald, who is apparently a very famous futbol (soccer) player in Ireland came in with a few members of his team to talk to us about the team. There was then an instructor for an Irish folklore dance that came in to teach the whole group some of the dance steps that are part of this traditional dance. On Saturday morning (January 31), we met down in the hotel restaurant for breakfast at 8:30am. Each day for breakfast, there were scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and rolls, along with some fruit. Tea and coffee were also served at every meal. We then headed back onto the bus, where my friends and I sat in the front row. We mainly did this so that we didn't get car sick, but we actually had the best view of everyone on the bus since we got to look out the big front window the whole time, and we were always the first ones off the bus to be able to get to the next site before everyone else, so it actually worked out really well. We started driving to Cahersiveen County Kerry and we drove through Portmagee and saw some views of Valentia Island, and finally reached Skellig Ring, where we could see a really pretty water view. We were able to seee the Transatlantic Cable Site in Valentia Island, which is where the first site of a permanent communications link from Europe to the United States. There is a memorial there now to remember this, and there are actual pieces of the cable within the monument. We then continued driving along windy roads with incredible views of hilly landscape and a lot of sheep roaming to reach a farm on Valentia Island where we got to see cows and a baby calf. A farmer came on the bus to tell us about how that whole area is just simply all farmers. The houses around here were so isolated, and all I could think about was where they found a food store or any shopping since they were actually in the middle of nowhere. It was clearly a much simpler way of life. We then took a walk up a big hill to get to the Geoghan Mountain and the Fogher Cliffs on Valentia Island. This is Valentia's highest point and one can see 360 degree views from this point. The Atlantic Ocean extends really far to the West and we were able to see far out; luckily it wasn't foggy on the day we went. At the highest point, the winds honestly must have been such a high mph, we were really getting whipped around up there. Our next stop was to see a holy well/shrine, that was actually from Bridgeport, CT. We then got to walk over to see a big overhead view of most of the island (Southwest Ireland) where we could see the water and other rock islands in the middle of the water, as well as rolling hills covered in greenery. This was part of Valentia Slate Quarry. Slate was a really big deal in this area since this was used for slate roofing and flooring, as well as for some gravestones in this area. We then went back to the hotel for lunch, where I had a chicken caesar salad. We then went to go see some Stone Forts after lunch. These were called Cahergal and Leacanbuaile, "Over the Water", as well as Cumakista Pass in the Ring of Kerry, which was a really pretty view of the hills and water. The forts were all made of stone and were just big circles that were open in the middle. Standing on the top you could see pretty far into the hills. A farmer also came and brought lambs for us to hold that were so cute. We all got to hold one if we wanted to. We got back on the bus and went to go see Ballycarberry Castle, which has continued to break down more and more with the winds. It even started hailing a lot at times, mixing in with the rain. We would be driving through one part that would be nice and sunny, and a few minutes later we would drive through a heavy rain patch. We headed back to our hotel for dinner, where I had the fish and chips, and then homemade apple pie for dessert. On our last day at the Ring of Kerry on Sunday, we went on the Ring of Kerry route which is the route that the tours take to see the most scenery. Our tour guide was telling us how some people save up for a while for a Ring of Kerry trip, and then they get a foggy day where they aren't able to see anything, so we got lucky in terms of the clear weather for the most part. We got to see a very scenic ride all along the greenery and hills with a lot of sheep. We stopped at the Derrynane House and Beach in Caherdaniel, Abbey Island. The House belonged to Daniel O'Connell who was known as "The Liberator". He was a politician who supported the Irish in the British Parliament and achieved Catholic Emancipation, the first step toward achieving Home Rule. Therefore, Daniel O'Connell is a leading historical figure in Ireland. We then walked from the House to Abbey Island, which was a beach, about a mile and a half away. The water was so pretty and it was really nice to be by the water. We saw a cemetery there that was right on the water, a nice place for a cemetery, except the people in there unfortunately don't get to enjoy it. We walked all along the beach in the sand and it was a nice sunny day, so that worked out perfectly. When we left here, we stopped at Ladies View which was a scenic area to have a picnic on the Ring of Kerry. It honestly looked like a green screen backdrop. We had sandwiches by this scenic view that was really nice. Our last stop before we headed back to Cork was Torc Waterfall in Killarney, which was a foresty-type walk to a waterfall, where all the trees were covered in green moss and a river was running all through the walkway. The scenery on this trip was incredible and was definitely worth all the bus rides. Monday was a good recooperation day, and now I am leaving Wednesday morning for London!