Dingle Town, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland

Arrived in town of Dingle by bus today where I will spend the remainder of my holiday. Have been perusing cozy bookstores, getting laundry done, and noting how much traditional music there is here every night.  Tonight I will go to a paid concert at the churches and perhaps find some pub music after that.  At this moment, I am enjoying one of my new Irish addictions: seafood chowder made primarily with salmon and accompanied by delicious "brown bread."   Weather is overcast, but no rain. Will go by tourist office to see about walking (or bus) tours to take in the coming days. And I still have a bit of room in my oversized rolling duffle for a bit of shopping. This country is such a pleasure to visit: not just lovely countryside, but amazingly friendly people.  My bus driver chased me down for several blocks to me provide directions to my B&B which he had not known when I initially inquired.  Particularly great for solo travelers; I find myself in conversations throughout the day. All is good.

Nothing quite as luxurious as a really good hot shower (best of the trip so far) and cozy long johns after getting a thorough soaking while hiking.  I decided that I would do some or (unlikely) all of the next stage of the Dingle Way (Dingle to Dunquin) since my feet are pretty much healed. I can state with certainty that my "totally waterproof" jacket is not & that was also true of my waterproof boots.  It's not that the rain was particularly hard (as is often true in TX & NM) but that it continued unabated all day.  I eventually had to circle back & get a taxi because I could not locate either a waymarker or path off the beach & there was a stream too deep to cross. So this was at sea level & I would have been a bit freaked if this had occurred in mountains in the fog.  Having no way markers and no idea which way to turn occurred on a few occasions on the Wicklow Way.  If you had not been carefully following your progress in the map (like was frequently the case for me) it was nearly impossible to determine where exactly you were and which direction to head since the path was so circuitous that a compass is only added to the confusion.  A few times I missed the waymarker, but other times it simply was not there. I was not the only person to have to retrace their steps because they chose incorrectly.  In spite of my complaints about the markings, this was quite a delightful day walking in rain showers on the beach. Certainly a much easier route today than any day in Wicklow. Might just hang in bed and read Irish short stories.