My Piece of Home: Part Three

That night in Galway was so hectic! Katie and I walked all over the little town and tried to find the perfect pub for us. But they were either full of old people or full of party girls and we weren't interested in either. As we walked back and forth that little strip of shops and pubs, we kept running into our Russian musicians! When they were done with a set, we went up to them and Katie started a conversation with one of them. We think the other one was either painfully shy or just not comfortable with English. We didn't get either of their names, but we talked to the chatty one for a while. It turns out that that they had a marimba and a vibraphone. So cool! I wish I got a video of them playing... Anyways, it was a fun little piece of our night. We went home at a reasonable time and went to bed.

We left Galway the next morning and made our way to Doolin. We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher for a few hours before going on. I had been there before, but it is such an amazing place that I didn't mind going again at all! Katie really loved it, and it was fun watching her react to it while we walked up the path, because I knew what was ahead. After spending some time there, we entered into the little town of Doolin. It is very famous for it's traditional music, and people even travel from Europe directly there to experience it. We stayed at a place called The Half Door B&B, which was so lovely! And the lady there saw my Rick Steves' Ireland 2009 book and told me that he had just been there recently and decided to put it in his next edition! How cool is that?? So if you are planning to come over here to Doolin, be sure to go there! We went to all three of the pubs there, and we tried to meet some local people. We talked to a group of guys for a little while at McDermott's Pub, but they weren't that interested in us Americans. We moved on to the other two pubs and settled in one for a while to listen to the music. It was very good music, but not my favorite so far. We were tired, so we decided to go back to the B&B. As we were walking out the door, that same group of boys had just come in and greeted us with big smiles and instant drink offers! It was so strange! But I'm not gonna turn down a free beer from a cute local. So we stayed for a bit, and honestly, it was slightly overwhelming! There was about six of them (If I can remember: Patrick, Barry, Michael, Paul...they all had Irish names and I thought it was funny) and only two of us. And they were talking SO fast that even I couldn't understand them. (I've been here for a few months, and I'd like to think I've grown accustomed to the accent...) Patrick was bullied into showing us how he can drink a pint Guinness in 1.8 seconds. I tried to tell him no. Not because it might make him sick, or even for the fear that he might spill it on me, but simply for the fact that it's an insult to Guinness. :P I got a good picture of it though. They wanted to move on to a nearby town to go to a late bar, but we were getting tired, so we went our own ways. It was a fun and unexpected ending to the night.

The breakfast at Half Door was delicious and so welcome after having cereal or nothing at all for the past week. I had a spinach and goat cheese omelette and sausage and homemade brown bread. Mmmm... And I also had real coffee, which was not taken for granted! Unfortunately, we didn't plan enough time to enjoy it properly because we had to rush out of there to make the 10am Mass. The service was really nice. I enjoy the small town churches here. We continued our journey after Mass, and headed to the Bay of Dingle. This drive was so beautiful! I got a few pictures, but I forgot my special battery charger for my camera (it's not normal AA batteries) so I'm almost out of power. I'll have to borrow some of Katie's. Anyways, it was a gorgeous coastal drive, and it included a stop at an oratory that was built over 1200 years ago! It is called Gallarus Oratory and it's definitely worth looking up. The story of it's architecture is very interesting. We also stopped to see the ruins of homes from the times of the Potato Famine. They are all over here in Dingle and Kerry. We got to Dingle Town in the early evening and checked in to our hostel, called The Hideout. It was a cute little place in the middle of the special little town. The girl who checked us in was extremely sweet. Her name is Rebecca and she is from Colorado. She is living and working there for four months this summer. Not a bad summer job, huh? We had some cheap but good take-away pizza and then went to a pub for some music. It was pretty dead there, but we passed the time by talking to the cute bartender. We didn't make it home too late, which was perfect because we made an early start the next morning.

This morning, we got up and had a quick breakfast at the hostel. We took a few pictures of Dingle, because it was so dang cute! Then we made our way through the Ring of Kerry. I have to say that Rick Steves' is my hero. He pointed out an extra little drive off the main road that took us to a chocolate shop with free samples and amazing truffles!! Oh, and the drive was nice too. :P I've never seen anything quite like this area. There was amazing rocky/grassy hills and then beautiful cliffs on the other side of us leading to the ocean. The weather was clear and bright, which truly added to the effect...if it were cloudy it would have been stunning, but the water wouldn't have been as clear and blue. We got a few pictures, but it is so damn hard to capture it all.

After the Ring, we settled into Kenmare, and had some dinner. This town is dead.... That is why we're here in an internet cafe instead of out at a pub! But it's nice to relax and catch up on emails.

I guess that's all I have for you. Sorry for the boring post! Hopefully we'll have some more adventures along the way on this last part of our trip. We are headed to Kinsale tomorrow, which is just south of Cork. It will be another driving day, and probably not too much excitement. But maybe we'll meet some more locals! You never know.... ;)