The Ring Of Kerry bus tour was today’s activity. The bus picked me up at the hostel (extremely important after the nearly five hours of walking the day before) and started traversing the Ring (counter-clockwise is the one with the best views). There were a number of other buses taking the same route, stopping at the same places, so it didn’t seem to matter which company you used. We stopped in a number of picturesque places, and I had fish and chips for lunch – a mistake as this was surely the worst meal of my trip. To make up for it, I had some Homemade Bailey’s Ice Cream when we stopped in Sneem. There were so many great views along the trip, but one of the best was the ‘Ladies View’ of the Upper Lake near Killarney (a view much admired by Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting, when they visited here in 1861, hence the name).
I wasn’t up for walking into town and back, so I decided to visit the restaurant at the end of the street where the hostel was, The Golden Nugget. Well, it said it was a restaurant, anyway; when I got inside, I found out it was now only a bar. A couple of guys who worked at the hostel were there, and they said they could call the hostel and get some food heated up; I thanked them and sat down for a pint. and another and another. I got in a long conversation with one guy, Luke, about many things and forgot about food. Turned out he also was a big Dave Matthews Band fan (unusual on that side of the Atlantic), and had a good reason, as his parents, Keith and Julie Tippett were making music that was a mixture of jazz and rock in the late ’60s.
[Originally published at GoHither.Net]