What to do in Dingle?

I’ve come to find that every place I visit in Ireland turns out to be even more beautiful than the last. The most recent place to take my breath away was Dingle. It’s a little peninsula in the southern part of the country that sure packs a wallop as far as charm and enjoyment are concerned. API planned the best possible weekend for all of us to go because it was the best weather we’ve had since I’ve been here. (Hardly any rain!) We pretty much had a free run of the town while we were there which gave us time to explore the downtown shops, pubs, restaurants, and attractions that give Dingle so much appeal.

I must say, though, that the best part of the weekend was seeing Fungie. Before we left for the trip, we were being briefed on the itinerary by one of our professors and I remember him mentioning something about a dolphin that lives in the Dingle Bay. I brushed this off as some tourist attraction gimmick so I really didn’t think anything of it until we got to town. Turns out, the place is covered with dolphin memorabilia! There’s everything from rings to scarves to paperweights in the shapes of dolphins. I asked one of the local gals if she’s ever seen Fungie for herself or if this was all just blasphemy. She said that she had and in fact, they have a ferry that goes out to the bay every day and for 15 euro you can pay to go out there to see Fungie in all his glory. Even better, if the trip turns out to be a bust and you don’t sight him, you get your money back.

At this point I decided to give this whole thing a go. Since we’re all pretty much on a budget, we decided to skip the guided tour and walk out to the point ourselves. It turned out to be a fantastic walk on top of it all and…WE SAW FUNGIE! It was definitely one of the most amazing sites that I’ve ever seen. The moment we all spotted him jumping out of the waves we all started screaming and then just went silent, all kind of in awe of what we were seeing. I mean, how many people can say that they’ve seen a wild dolphin jumping in the waves? We proceeded to sit out at the point for another 2 hours in a sort of foggy revere. It’s hard to believe that a few short weeks ago our lives were completely separate and now I can’t picture mine without all of this. Truly one of the most inspiring moments of the trip thus far.

Possibly the only thing that could have made that weekend any better was a celebrity sighting. On our last night in Dingle, a bunch of us went out to one of the local pubs. As I was walking back outside I saw a face out of the corner of my eye that I immediately recognized. Will Forte, former cast member of Saturday Night Live and all-around hilarious man, was over in the corner having a pint and chatting. I begged one of my friends to go over with me so we could get a picture. Turns out, he’s in the area filming a movie and decided to step out that night. He talked to everyone, took pictures, answered questions and remained totally down to earth about everything. It was absolutely amazing! If by this point I haven’t convinced you to visit Dingle, reread the post again; you may have missed something.

Kara Verlaney is studying abroad with API in Galway, Ireland and is a regular contributor to our Tumblr blog.