Puck Fair Day One

I arrived in Killorglin yesterday and today was the first day of Puck Fair. I saw the crowning of King Puck (the goat) and we're about to go out and take advantage of the extended pub opening hours.

Yesterday, I left home at about 15 minutes past midnight in order to catch a bus to the tube to catch one of the last tubes to Stratford where I caught the 1am coach to Stansted airport. Although the coaches run 24 hours a day (about every half an hour or so), getting to Stratford to catch the coach would have been tricky after the tubes stopped running. That's why I left home when I did. I did have a couple of hours sleep between getting home from work and leaving for the airport, but not much.

I arrived at Stansted at about 1:40am. My flight was at 6:45am. I had a fair bit of time to kill. I read, I had hot chocolate, I bought Euros for the trip, etc, etc. Eventually it was time to go.

I arrived into Kerry airport without any problems. At least I didn't fly today. That would have been all very interesting!! Cormac picked me up from the airport and we went back to his family's place. Despite my lack of sleep (I did get a tiny bit more on the coach and on the plane), I was keen to go into Killarney and have a bit of a look around. Cormac dropped my in town and I caught the bus.

Killarney is renowned for being very touristy. Perhaps by Irish standards it is, but given the last place I visited was Paris, it didn't seem all that touristy. After having a bit of a look around, I had lunch (seafood chowder, very tasty) and walked to Ross Castle. Unfornately, entrance was by guided tour only and I didn't have time for the guided tour because I wanted to catch the 3pm bus back to Killorglin. So I had a very quick look around the outside and then walked back again.

Cormac came and picked me up from the bus stop in Killorglin and we drove to a hill Caragh Lake. We drove up as far as we could, then walked up the remaining 10 or 15 minutes. Cormac figured this was the place with the best view for the least effort. From the top we could see the late, the ocean and Killorglin.

In the evening, I had a bit of a nap (maybe 2 hours), in preparation for going out that night. It was not a big night, because Puck Fair had yet to start, and the pubs were only allowed to stay open to 1am instead of 3am.