We arrived in Dingle late at night after a long drive from Michelle and Tom’s home… to find… a fire in the fireplace and a hostel that was completely reserved for us. It was wonderful to have a place to ourselves, and it truly felt like home for a couple of days.

Our first day in Dingle we explored the town a bit, and a few folks went horseback riding. On my quick walk around town, I stopped by to see if Mazz O’Flaherty’s small, but excellent music shop was still there. As I walked up the hill toward the church, I could hear the welcoming flute playing on the speakers outside.

In the afternoon we practiced a bit for the concert in Listowel (see Tralee and Listowel post for pictures). On the way to Listowel, we stopped for Pizza in downtown Tralee which was promptly gobbled down.

On Day two, Karen and I learned a bit about the Irish medicine system as Karen’s cold had developed into a full-blown nfection with fever. Antibiotics, an inhaler, and codeine and she was feeling much better within a few hours. After getting her on the mend, Katherine, Sean and Pam and I took a quick spin out to Slea Head, the westernmost point in Europe, and Katherine and I retraced the hike we took the last time we were in Dingle. It was just as beautiful as we remembered.

On our drive back, we rounded a bend in the road and found ourselves face to face with about 300 sheep hauling down the road followed by a 4-wheeler and a couple of dogs. It was an amazing sight. I was barely able to catch most of the “attack” on this video clip

After we returned from our hike, we went down to O’Flaherty’s Pub, where owner Fergus O’Flaherty (brother of Mazz) let us play some tunes and joined in the fun. Joe and I definitely enjoyed O’Flaherty’s most of all the pubs we’d been in thus far on the trip. It is a strictly trad pub, which was a welcome change from most pubs that switch over to non-trad music at 11pm. I still had fond memories of when Fergus had invited Katherine to join in their session for a couple of tunes during our last trip, so it was a delight to share good craic with him.