Kerry County, Ireland

One of the greenest, friendliest and most impressionable places I’ve ever visited is the west side of Ireland. Between the Ring of Kerry, Killarney National Park and Dingle Pennisula, there are so many ways to enjoy Kerry County. 

Ring Of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry is a road that follows the coast of lower Kerry Peninsula, with breathtaking viewpoints of mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. Here are my favorite hidden gems of the Penninsula. 

1. Sneem is one of the villages in the Ring of Kerry that lies on an estuary in the Sneem River. It’s a precious little town with nearby hiking trails and a gorgeous river running through the middle. 

2. Lady’s View is a scenic point along the Ring of Kerry. It’s name apparently stems from the admiration from Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting during their visit in 1861. 

3. Scarriff Inn is acclaimed to be the most scenic restaurant in the entire country. We stopped there for lunch as we made our way back to Killarney. They served the best Shepard’s Pie I’ve ever eaten, and I surly wasn’t complaining about the view while chowing down. 

4. Watervill is another charming town in the Ring of Kerry. The town’s Irish name, Coirean, refers to the shape of Ballinskelligs Bay on which the town sits. There town is also infamous for its association with Charlie Chaplin. There’s usually a street entertainer dressed up as Charlie near the statue they built of him when you first drive into town. It’s known as his favorite holiday spot and his big yellow holiday home isn’t too hard to find in a town of its size. 

Dingle Penninsula

Inch Beach: This three-mile beach stretches along the south east side of the Dinngle Penninsula. It’s so different than any beach that I’m used to because you’re surrounded by mountains and sheep!

From Inch Beach we took Slea Head Road along the coast and stopped at viewpoints like the Cross at Slea Head to see the Sleeping Giant, which is an island close to shore that looks like a sleeping man with the head on the right side of the island (pictured below). 

The best view of all from Dingle Penninsula is up by Fearann by the famous geological landscape called The Three Sisters. There is a lookout point that’s recent known as a filming location for the upcoming Star Wars movie. 



Killarney Town

Killarney is by far my favorite city in Ireland so far. It’s quaint with buildings of all different colors, bricks and textures. Most pubs play live music every night of the week and there is plenty of good food. If you want to try a local beer that isn’t Guinness, I recommend going to Donloe Lounge for a Murphy Extra Stout. Seafood restaurants like Danny Mann Pub serve up some of the best seafood chowder I’ve ever tried. Wherever you decide to go for drinks, food or music, you’re bound to have a true taste of Killarney. 

Killarney National Park

One of the best things about Killarney is the huge national park just steps from the city centre. There are plenty of walking trails that are mostly paved, which is great for renting a bike to get around to most of the north side of the park. The views are worth checking out especially if you’re looking for mountains, lakes, deer, and hilly fields. 

Dublin, Ireland Gallery

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin is as green and grand as I had imagined. My adventure began in Navan, Ireland, just northwest of Dublin’s city center where a friend of mine lives. Between Navan and Dublin City Centre is a wonderful balance between the beautiful countryside, intricate architecture and a pride for Guinness beer.

Navan

Slane Castle (Slane, Boyne Valley): Constructed in 1785, Slane Castle overlooks the Boyne River of Meath County. The owner, Lord Henry Conyham lives there to this day. In 1991, a fire in the castle caused an estimated 2 million pounds worth of damage. After a ten-year restoration, it reopened in 2001 and continues to offer tours. Although I didn’t take an inside tour, the exterior alone is very impressive. Since 1981, the grounds are often used for rock concerts, since it’s landscape creates a natural ampihiteatre with an 80,000 person capacity. Artists including The Rolling Stones, Queen, Madonna and David Bowie have performed on the grounds.

Bective Abbey Ruins (Bective, Meath County): Bective Abbey is a Cistercian abbey on the River Boyne that was founded in 1147. Although there isn’t much left of the structure it’s still a cool place to explore. It’s known as one of the locations for shooting the film Braveheart in 1995. 

Trim Castle (Trim, Meath County): Trim is the most touristy attraction of the castles I visited, but for good reason. Trim is a Norman castle built in the 12th century on the south bank of the the Boyne River and it’s the largest Norman castle in Ireland. The bridge that leads to the front gate over a moat makes for a grand entrance to the inside area of the ruins. This castle is also well known as a film location for Braveheart. After visiting the castle, the surrounding town is worth a walk-around. The streets and buildings are quaint and colorful. It’s a great place to grab lunch at a local Irish pub after visiting the castle across the street.

Dublin City Center

For tourists who aren’t able to check into their accommodations until later in the afternoon, I highly recommend dropping your bags off at the Tourist Center on O’Connell street. For only 5 euros per bag, it saves time and money to conveniently check your bag in at the office and explore the city without the hassle of carrying around your luggage. 

Guinness Storehouse: We started our tour of the city centre with the Gunniess Storehouse, which I highly recommend for the start because it’s one of the furthest attractions of the centre. It was more than I imagined it would be with its 5-story high self-guided tour from production to restaurants, and a stunning view over the city. The tour starts at the center where the 9000-year contract signed by Aurther Guinness himself sits beneath your feet inside a glass display. An orator gives you some background to the Guinness history and your self-guided tour begins. It’s an amazing display with signs and visual effects to paint a picture of the process from cropping, fermentation, and maturing, all the way to bottling and advertising. My favorite parts were The Tasting Room and the Guinness Acadamy, both of which are interactive tasting sessions. In the tasting room are four stations, each with there own aroma that combine to make the Guinness scent. You receive a sample-sized glass and proceed to a room where an orator explains the different sensors of your taste buds, and how it combines to give your to stout taste of a Guinness. After the tasting room, we headed to the Guinness Academy, where your ticket comes with a free pint of Guinness. But this is not just a beer that’s handed to you. In groups of about 10 people, an expert explains the steps to pouring a bereft pint from the tab. One by one, everyone gets the chance to pour their own pint of beer and you receive a printed certificate with you name on it, proving you’ve taking the “course” to pour a perfect pint. Overall, the Guiness Storehouse was one of my favorite experiences in all of Dublin.

The Brazen Head: After the Guinness Storehouse, we headed over to The Brazen Head for lunch. What’s special about Brazen Head is it’s the oldest pub in all of Ireland, dating back to  1198. What I enjoyed about the atmosphere of the pub was walking through an archway and that opens into a small courtyard with both indoor and outdoor seating, and multiple bars on all four sides of the courtyard. It was cozy, authentic and very decently priced.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral: What makes St. Patrick’s Cathedral unique is the beautiful park that’s situated directly in front of it. The inside of the cathedral is beautiful with stainglass, detailed architecture with arches, and an ornately-decorated alter. Although it costs about 6 euros to go inside, the park is free to stroll through. From the back of the park is a spectacular view of the cathedral with flowers, greenery and people lounging in the sun. It’s a great stop to read a book or have a picnic.  

St. Stephen’s Green: The historical park and garden is comparable to Central Park in NYC. It’s a 9-Hetacre square of greenery in the middle of Dublin Centre. The middle of the park has a roundabout walkway the splits in different directions of the park with shady trees all around. Many student from Trinity College, along with locals and tourists alike take a break from the hustle and bustle of the urban landscape. There are ponds with plenty of ducks and swans to feed and benches for reading or naps.

Grafton Street: We stumbled upon Grafton Street, which is a well-known pedestrian shopping street in the city centre. It was full of people listening to street performers, eating ice cream and browsing the shops. It’s a nice area to walk through on your way to Trinity College which is just on the other end of the area.

Trinity College: Right next door to St. Stephen’s Green is Trinity College — the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin that was established in 1592 — is well worth a walk through. The architecture is something like no other, with cobble stone pathways and a open green recreational field that gives it a campus feel separate from the city centre. Two buildings in particular that are worth touring are the chapel and the library. Built in 1798, the chapel’s interior reflects the college’s Angelican heritage, with tall stainglass as the backdrop of the alter on the far side upon entering. The Library is the largest research libary in Ireland and impressive in size. It contains about 5 million books, along with manuscripts, maps and printed music. 

Temple Bar: Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey and is known as the cultural quarter of Dublin. It’s a great place to get dinner and enjoy a few drinks into the night. It’s full of restaurants and pubs with outdoor seating, music and the like. It’s great even just to walk through as it depicts what many imagine when they think of Irish nightlife.

There is plenty more to do in Dublin than the few highlights I was able to get to. Here are some other well-known sites that are worth checking out: Kilmainham Gaol, Christ Church Cathedral, Old Jameson Distillery, Dublin Castle, and the General Post Office.

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How soccer saves lives in Medellín

This week has been full of hard work, brushing up on my Spanish and experiencing first hand how God has touched and transformed the lives of so many through soccer.

The first day we met all of the coaches in a small room for praise and worship. One guy was on the keyboard at the front of the room leading the songs. I couldn’t really sing along since the words were in Spanish and I hadn’t heard them before. But I understood what they were saying, and it was so beautiful. At one point I just closed my eyes and listened to the group singing praise all harmoniously in Spanish. So surreal.

That afternoon we got started on the project we’ve worked on all week, which is building sidewalks and prepping the landscape for sodding. They are almost finished building a third soccer field on the property. After an afternoon of hard work we played a soccer game with all of the coaches.

Mind you, I haven’t played a soccer game in ages, let alone against a group of coaches who eat, breathe and live soccer every day of their lives. The beautiful thing was that despite any language barriers, soccer was something we all bonded over and understood without words.

That evening the program director broke us into groups to have dinner at some of the coaches homes. I was blessed enough to spend time with Alex, a long-time coach of Cosdecol (the Spanish name of the sports club). We sat around the couch of his living room with his entire family and he shared his story with us of how he became a coach.

He started working for his father, who is the leader of one of the biggest drug cartels of Medellin, at a very young age. As he was growing up and helping his father with violence, he was also playing soccer all the time. For two years his friend encouraged him to join this Christian soccer team. The first day that he went –he was 17 years old at the time — he saw the coach had a bible in his hand. He was about to leave before it even began and the coach encouraged him to just stay for the message before soccer began. After hearing John 3:16 that afternoon he began to have a change of heart and continued coming back to the practices. By 20 years old he told his father he no longer would work for him. His dad kicked him out of the house and sent his men after him to kill him. After two years of battling his father, he was finally left alone and started a family. He became a coach to save the lives of other kids who have also been involved in the drugs and gangs of the city. In recent years, he met again with his father — who to this day is still in charge of the cartel — and they began to build their relationship again. Now in some strange way, the Cosdecol Christian sports club has an invisible hand from the cartel protecting them.

Alex’s story is one of the many from coaches here that have turned their life to Christ. I am awe inspired by the good works that are happening here and so blessed to meet these people who are doing amazing things in this community. Soccer really is changing and saving lives and it’s a beautiful thing to see. What’s simply just a sport to one country can be hope, life and a future for another.