My precious

This past weekend, my three new Dusseldorf friends and I took a road trip to the southeast of Ireland to the county of Kerry, more specifically to see the Ring of Kerry, with a pit stop at the Rock of Cashel, a medival cathedral. The Ring of Kerry is a 180 km (112 mile) route with the most spectacular Irish mountain and coastal scenery. It's about four hours away from Dublin, and the drive around the route takes about three hours, a little more if you take some detours. I slept the entire way to Kerry as I could barely stomach watching Silke's, my flatmate's, driving of the wine-colored Datsun mini-me car on the left side of the road. We had Frederic, the only male in our group, take over the driving for the Ring of Kerry the next day while we sat back and looked out the windows in wonder. My photos (more posted on flickr) do not do justice to the gloriousness of the landscape, partially because picture-taking opportunities were limited to the number of times we found a spot to pull over.










On a side note, my project for the next two and a half months is to get a good picture of an Irish cow. I am currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and learning that the American production of beef is unhealthy for tout le monde -- humans, the cows, and the environment. So far I have observed that Irish cows lounge around in lush green pastures and munch on grass all day long. As such, I have been gorging myself on Irish steak and waiting for a photogenic cow to come along.