Soooo, did I say I was going to slow down? Lol. Well not today since it looks like this might be the last day of good weather for awhile. Hey, 9 straight days of rain-Free weather in Ireland, is not too shabby!
So I decided to get out on the water today, actually twice! But first I started my day off with a hearty (make that un-heart-healthy!) traditional Full Irish Breakfast. This AirBnB provides breakfast which is nice. So I had eggs, rashers (Ireland’s fattier bacon!), sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, and black pudding (don’t ask!, think blood sausage!). Boy did that fill me up.
Then late morning/early afternoon I went deep sea fishing. It was so fun! And easy. We didn’t use bait, but rather 4 lures on each line, so we didn’t get our hands all nasty. And when you caught a fish, the captain would take it off for you. Easy peasy! I caught 5 fish (two haddocks and 3 small mackerels). But only the two haddocks were big enough to keep. The captain filleted them for me and I took them to the fish restaurant across from the marina to have them cook them up for me, but I got there too late. So they’re keeping them in their fridge and will cook them for me for dinner tomorrow. These people are so nice! There was only 5 of us onboard fishing and everyone caught several. This one little girl couldn’t have been more than 10 years old and she pulled in 4 small mackerels on one line! That was crazy!
Then in the late afternoon/early evening I took a boat tour over to the Blasket Islands. They are a group of 6 islands just off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula with these really jagged coast lines and dramatic cliffs. I think parts of Star Wars was filmed around here. We stopped at Great Blasket Island, the largest of them at 3 miles long. We had about an hour to hike around and explore. There were these cool private beaches, ruins from old houses and some spectacular views.
This island is really an icon of traditional Irish culture. About 100 people lived here until 1953. Because they lived off of the sea, rather than potatoes, they survived the great potato famine.
After that, the boat took us down thru the other 5 islands. The shorelines and rock formations along the coast of these were incredible. We also saw dolphins, puffin birds and seals, but none of my pictures of them were clear enough to show.
Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain so finally I can slow down! Lol. Happy Tuesday!
The pics are as follows: 1 – Full Irish Breakfast, 2 – 7 – Deep Sea Fishing, 8 – 16 – Blasket Islands.
The Wandering Italian 