Going back a few days on this post, but it was an interesting enough day to warrant a post.

I missed seeing quite a bit while in Killarney, and was just so tired that I didn’t relish the thought of hopping back on the bike. I’d had such a smashing time the night before and was just a bit worn out.

Instead, I settled for touring around the town on foot and doing a bit of shopping. I found a shop and after trying on every single sweater they had, I settled for a gorgeous charcoal number with exquisite detail on the shoulders and down the back. Ok, that’s not really relevant to this story, but I LOVE my new sweater :_)

I went to the checkout and chatted up the fellow ringing me through. He asked what my plans were for the rest of the day, you know…the usual small talk. I told him I wanted to do some site seeing, but didn’t want to jump back on the bike. I asked if there was such a thing as tour guides that I could hire to drive me around so I could take some photos. I said I was considering just hiring a taxi. “No! Don’t hire a taxi! C’mere I could take you around.”

Really? That would be fantastic! We agreed to meet outside the shop he worked in at 6:00 pm.

I showed up, camera in hand, and off we went. He seemed pretty cranky so I offered him a way out. If you’re too bagged out from work, this is no big deal. “No bodder at all,” he tells me.

He took me out to the Gap of Dunloe and he seemed to relax into the whole tour guide thing. It was nothing like the great craic I’d had the night before, but I actually had a really nice time as a passenger for a while.

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On the way back down from the Gap of Dunloe I asked if he’d stop at a broken down stone dwelling so I could take some photos.

Was this a broken down house? A storage facility? It looked hundreds of years old, the light was glorious for photography, and I was really enjoying clicking away. My tour guide told me to climb up into one of the windows and he’d take my picture. Um yah, not interested in breaking a foot on the way down and thwarting my adventures. I took a pass on that one!

There was another building across the road so I took some pics of that too. No idea what it was, but at some point someone added a tin roof, which had since fallen to complete disrepair. I strategically avoided the garbage strewn about inside for these photos:

We continued down the road and he showed me where he likes to go swimming; Lough Leanne (I think?). I was losing the light, but took some pics anyway.

Our last stop was Torc Falls. What a beautiful spot! It wasn’t even tainted by his discussion about how pathetic I was while shopping for a sweater. He told me all about the stupid customers he typically has and in the back of my mind I was going over my own shopping experience wondering if I’d been one of those! Quite a…..character ><

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Although I DID miss out on what would have been a beautiful ride around the Ring of Kerry, it was really nice to have a chance to be a passenger on my own adventure for a couple of hours!