day 2

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Day 2:

What a wonderful night of sleep! We slept way over our usual 7-8 hours, and it was well needed. Our morning started with trying to figure out how to work the shower (speed and temp) and then a wonderful breakfast prepared by Mary and Roddy (the B&B owners- we remembered their names by thinking of the inlaws from my big fat greek weddidng. After breakfast it was back into the car for an hours drive, on a more stable road without as many rock walls towards rosseval- the location of the ferry which would take us to the aran islands. We arrived about 30 minutes before the ferry left and decided,since we can still pass for it, to try for the student rate, which we were granted and which saved us 10 euros (yeah!!) when we arrived on Inishmore, the largest of the three aran islands, we were greeted by a bunch of vans and bicycles, but we decided to save our money and hoof it on foot- we could do a little over 7 miles in a few hours, right? Well, four hours later we made it back to the ferry after covering 7 or more miles! During our walk we passed by an old stone lighthouse, a few small towns, and a large fort on top of a high cliff called don angeus. Although the hike to don angeus seemed far at first, it was well worth it! The guide who sold us our tickets (again at the student rate  ) told us it would take about 20 minutes to reach the peak of the fort- we did it in 8 (record time!) since we knew we had to be back to the ferry before 4. From there we got some amazing views of the atlantic- but we didn’t venture too close to the cliffs edge- they are really high above the ground! It is aamazing how many stones were used to create the fort and that it is still standing! Our journey back to the ferry lasted a little over an hour and we were greeted (or sworn at- not sure it was all in gaelic) by about 50 irish teenagers who we think were on their way home from school, as well as a heavy wind and on and off again rain. We visited the aran sweater factgory before leaving but passed on purchasing a sweater due to their high costs (over $100)/

When we got back from the aran islands, we called a few b and b’s to see where we’d be staying for the night. We decided to go back to galway and ended up staying at a small b and b (even though the second b does’nt mean breakfast at this one) in Galway city. The many one way streets and pedestrian only streets made finding the place a bit difficult,,but we succeeded.. The room is okay- could be cleaner! Although the tacos downstairs smell delicious,we opt for some good old pub food- great decision! The food is delicious! We then ventured over to a nearby bar to listen to some good irish music, but instead of hearing a band play, we instead meet some visitors from the states- ohio- Cleveland! Who’d of thought wed meet browns fans in Ireland? We spoke with them for awhile and then headed back to our room.
So far we have clocked over 200 km (which when we thought were miles would have meant we were gettingGREAt gas mileage!) and have had 6 guinness (although 3 were mixed with cider- something that is not as common here as at home). I dodn’t know how well I’ll sleep tonight as I’m scared of these sheets and could really use a can of Lysol right now but I guess that’s what you get when you travel this way! More news tomorrow ! 

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