They Call Him Fungie

I checked the bus schedule and there were two buses leaving Dingle on Monday morning. One was at 7:15am (too early) and the other at 10:15am (a little late). I decided on the 10:15am bus so I could take my time and not rush. I woke up and turned on the computer to figure out my travel plans for the day. My goal was to get to Galway and the next day get to Belfast. Well, as I looked into it I made a mistake. My mistake was....if you are going to travel for a long distance you need to do it early. If I took the 7:15am bus I would have been in Galway by 1:30pm. The 10:15am bus missed some important connections and would put me in Galway by 6:30pm. So I thought, "If I go to Galway today I won't have time to enjoy it!" I would have had dinner, walked around a bit, and then gone to bed to get an early start to Belfast. So sadly, I decided to skip Galway. I would really love to come back and see it. I also heard Doolin was a nice small town and it's also pretty close to the Cliffs of Moher which would awesome to see. Well, I guess I'll have to come back! My next thought was to head part way toward Belfast, but I ran into some of the same problems with train and bus connections. I couldn't get very far with such a late bus out of Dingle. I was all packed for Galway, but I decided to stay another night in Dingle and take that 7:15am bus the next day. Not a bad place to spend an extra day and the hostel was very clean, nice, inexpencive, and comfortable. However, that means Tuesday will be a LONG travel day. It's worth it though! Oh, and remember that women who was showing me the heater the other day? Well, I know who she reminds me of! Mrs. Doughtfire! She sounds like her! She has a very quiet and soothing voice and says things in a similar way. Anyway!

I spent a good part of the morning catching up on posting my blogs, loading and backing up photos, and trying to figure out my plan for Tuesday. Trying to organize my plan for Tuesday with the bus and train schedules was a pain. I decided to get out of the hostel because my head was hurting from the computer and it was such a beautiful day in Dingle. I walked around the town, bought a picnic lunch, and walked in an out of the little shops. I ran into a lady who was staying in the hostel and she said that she was going to do a bus tour and wanted to know if I wanted to join. It was pretty expensive and I was a little burntout from buses so I declined. She said, "Well, in 5-minutes they are doing a boat cruise and that is cheaper." I decided to look into it. I went to the office and it looked like fun so I signed up for this boat cruise. I had some time to kill before the cruise so I went over to the local Ice Cream Shop called, "Murphy's". It's funny because everything is called Murhpy's in this town: Murphy's Pub, Murphy's Hotel, Murphy's Bed & Breakfast, Murphy's Clothing, etc. It reminds me of the movie "Blazing Saddles" where everyone in the town of Rock Ridge in named, "Johnson". Classic! Anyway, I pop into Murphy's.......the ice cream one.....and they had Guinness ice cream. I had to have it! It was pretty good! I didn't get that "chocolate milk" flavor that I do when I drink it. I think it works better as an ice cream. After, I walked into the market and got a drink for the cruise. I got this soda that was like "Sunkist", but their big selling point was that it had "real chunks of orange" in it. It tasted very sweet.

Well, this brings up a good point and I don't know if I have mentioned this before. I made a little rule with myself, which I've done fairly well with sticking to. My rule is: If I go into a market looking for something specific (like a soda or a Coke) and I find an "off-brand" version (like a Capri-Sonne, Bulmers, or Beamish) I must get it instead. This my way to try new things and experience new foods. It's like if I came to Europe and only drank Coke. Well, I've had Coke before. I can get a Coke anytime back home. What you can't get at home (or it's really had to find) is Brown Sause, Wurst, Bulmers, Hedge Monkey, etc. It's the whole mom-and-pop mentality of experiencing great and really bad foods and then being able to have stories about them. There is an exception to this rule. The exception is when I need to take a vacation from my vacation. If I ever start to feel a little homesick then I'll grab a Coke, go to an American movie, read an English book, listen to popular American music, etc. So, when I saw that Guinness ice cream among the chololate, vanilla, cookies & cream, and such.....I had to try it. I did stop drinking warm beer in England and Wales, but I did try a couple of different ones before saying, "Okay! That's enough!"

When the cruise started it was kind of touristy. Many people with their cameras out and taking photos. I don't like to do these things too often, but this one was pretty cool! Now, this wasn't just any kind of boat cruise. This was a dolphin cruise. We were on the search for "Fungie" who is Dingle's resident dolphin. Well, we went out in search for Fungie on this tiny fishing-type boat. The view from the ocean was beautiful! The sun was out, the water was clam, and the sky was blue. It was a great day to be out on the water. Then! All of a sudden! Out of the water pops a gray dolphin! It was Fungie!!!! He swam along the side of the boat jumping in and out of the water nearly 3-feet away from me. It was fantastic! Then Fungie would play a game with us. He'd pop out way in front of us and the captain would chase him. When we got to where he was he'd pop-out somewhere else. We played this game for about 20-minutes. It was a blast! The whole cruise was about an hour and I got to see plenty of Fungie. There were a couple of young girls on the boat who were so excited when the dolphin would pop-up out of the water. "There he is!" they would shout. "Oh, he is so beautiful" they would say. It was cute. At that moment I wish I could take Abby, Lily, Calvin, and Dash with me. I imagined that Abby and Lily would be excited looking for Fungie. Calvin would be asking the captain question after question about boats....then he would proceed to teach the captain all the nautical terms he knows......and maybe how to hot-wire a boat motor. He's a smart kid! Dash would probably sit in the captains chair with the captain's hat on his head and just drool on himself. Anyway, we headed back to the dock and enjoyed our last views from the water. It was so nice!

The View

I'M ON A BOAT!

Dingle Homes

A Nice View

The Pimp on the Boat

A Dead Boat

Tricks He Will Do When Children Appear

Going Back

I headed back to the hostel and tried to get plans narrowed down. It took forever! However, I did get a nice break when I got a chance to talk to the family on Skype. Abby had fun dangling her Logo Pirate in front of the camera and Lily put on Hunny's glasses and became, "Hunny Lily". Cute! After our chat I went back to my plans for Tuesday. I figured it out, finally! However, I had to make some tough choices. I decided not to spend as much time in Northern Ireland and move quickly to Scotland. I almost skipped Northern Ireland completely, but it was WAY cheaper to fly to Edinburgh from Belfast then from Dublin. I could take a boat from Belfast into Scotland, but then I'd still need to bus it from the dock to Edinburgh and that was going to take time and more money. I found a cheap and efficient route it will still allow me to spend some time in Northern Ireland.

When I was done with planning everything for Tuesday I took the night off. A small group from Germany were cooking dinner in the kitchen and they came into the common room and offered me some sparkling wine. We drank wine, played fooseball, and chatted. It was relaxing! Oh, the Germans were asking me what my favorite German beer was and I said, "Franziskaner". Tom Moberly and my brother got me hooked on that one! It's so good! Well, the Germans ask me, "Oh, do you drink it with Coke?" I said, "You mean you have a beer and you have a Coke OR do you mean you mix them together?" and they said, "Oh, you mix them together to make it sweeter, you just add a little bit". I said, "What a waste of a good beer and of a good Coke!" I guess it's not uncommon for younger people to add Coke to their beer and they'll even serve it in restaurants that way. Yuck! As we talked more I found out they were all from Offenburg. I said, "Oh, I've been to Offenburg!" and they were amazed that I'd been there let alone having ever heard of the place. They asked, "What did you do in Offenburg?" and I said, "I got on a train out of Offenburg". They laughed. I also got the opportunity to tell them my German joke I made up:

Question: How many Germans does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Answer: (Shouting) NINE!

Ha Ha! I find that one too funny and I don't expect anyone to appreciate as much as me because it is a pretty stupid joke.....but I love it! I'm glad they laughed to.

Anyway, there was one thing I'd been meaning to do while in Ireland, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I hadn't had any Irish Whiskey. So, me and the Germans headed to a pub that was playing some Irish folk music. Hanna was the girl I first met the day before and we talked most of the night while her Brother Simon (pronounced "Seamen".....yeah I know! I was laughing so hard when I first heard it that they insisted that I explain to them what it meant in English. Ha! Ha!) and his girlfriend Annabelle (I believe....their accents were thick). We bought each other some drinks and had some good laughs. Hanna was brave and did a shot of Whiskey with me. It was fun! They were so much fun to chat with and were just really nice people. I had fun explaining to Hanna the English words for the various instruments in the band that was playing. As it got late we made our way back to the hostel. We all had to get up early and catch that 7:15am bus to Tralee.

I woke up today at 5:45am, took a shower, and packed my things. I made my way down stairs to grab a quick bit to eat. Oh, note to self: Look into the Krups Hot Water Pitchers. These things are cool! It gets water instantly hot! One thing I missed when I moved away from for the first time was our instant hot water faucet. Anyway! I met the Germans downstairs and we walked down to the bus stop together, which Hanna pointed out to me, was made out of a wooden boat. It was cool! We jumped on the train and the bus driver said, "I can't accept this ticket". I said, "The Inspector wrote number for you to call if you had any questions with the ticket." He sighs and reluctantly says, "I'll let you on". On the bus I sat with Hanna and we talked for bit and she showed me some photos of their cycle trip around the Dingle Peninsula. Gorgeous photos! I want to go back to Dingle one day. Most of the way we were quiet. It was a late night and we were all pretty tired. When we arrived in Tralee we said our goodbyes. I hate leaving good people. I also feel bad because of something else. We are all headed to Dublin. They are taking the bus and will arrive in Dublin about 3:30ish or so. I got my rail pass so I'll arrive in Dublin at 1:23pm and it's a First Class ride the entire way! The view is spectacular, the cabin is quiet, and these chairs are oh so comfortable.

I still have a busy travel day though. When I get to Dublin I'll have about 30-minutes to hail a taxi, rush to the bus station, buy a ticket to Belfast, and find my bus. If I do this in 30-minutes I'll arrive in Belfast at 4:30pm. If not, I'll arrive in Belfast at 5:30pm and maybe get to hit up that awesome Irish sandwich shop for lunch.

We'll see what happens!

Me and The Germans