Dingle Ireland
After being picked up in Annascaul for my day off I was dropped off at the marina in Dingle where my group was hiking to for the day. I was still feeling pretty defeated having chosen not to hike that day and given the condition of my feet woried that I was out for the rest of the trip. I had only brought two pairs of shoes, my hiking boots, which were unwearable at this point and my sandels which I was wearing. The second I was dropped off it started pouring. Step one I had to solve the shoes issue, and fast as even walking from the marina to the city center (all of two blocks) I was entirly drenched.
I walked up the street where I spotted a sign that read Garvey’s Sports and Leisure and across the street Okeeffes Pharmacy. And then I hatched a plan. I poped in the sports store and tried on a bunch of sneakers, I found a pair of Sauconys that were cushy and didn’t rub my feet too much in the wrong places. Then I ran next door and stocked up on blister pads. Then without internet I had to try to find our guesthouse. Luckily I remembered the general direction and marched down to find it. I was clutching the soaked and tattered shoe bag by the time I got there and I don’t feel like it was that far of a walk. The weather was just that bad.
After I found the inn and was promptly turned away as it wasn’t check in time yet. I sat down to get my shoes on, and realized I didn’t have socks. So I put on the blister pads, put on the nylon socks that were meant only for trying on the shoes that I had forgotten to throw away and hit the very wet bricks once again.
I had only one more mission for the day but my group wasn’t set to get in for another 5 hours. After walking into an emberessingly large number of jewlery shops I finally found the one I was looking for and purchased the bracelete I knew I had wanted from the get go. The women that worked at Jon Weldon where I purchased the bracelete told me to go up the street to a cafe to grab some tea and wait out the storm. She also gave us a dinner recommendation.
At no point during the day did the storm let up. All these pictures were from the next day as it was too wet to even pull out my phone let alone try to use it. After my tea and cake break it was late enough to check into the hotel. I started wandering back, hoping into any open shop or church I could find to try to keep dry. Once I got back I set my clothes up to dry, took a hot bath and read some british gossip mags until my group came. They were even wetter than I was, and covered in sheep muck to boot. We did manage to get out for some food and music later in the evening but most of the day we spent drying clothes and hiking boots with hair dryers.