Poor Rooster...

Friday, August 5, Doolin to Galway

Where's Meagan?

Kathryn setting up the perfect shot

 We left Doolin about 10 am to explore the Burren.  The Burren is an area of Ireland in the County Clare that is made up of limestone rocks. I find it crazy that we can be on a beach one minute, in a freakishly green pasture the next, and on a limestone plateau in another 10 minutes... We first stopped off at the Tourist Information Burren Centre so that Kathryn could get a cup of life (aka coffee). We left the centre and decided that we needed to go left. As we got out of town, we realized we were going the wrong way. So we u-turned and headed BACK through town. Navigation wasn't clear, nor were ANY signs visible in the town to help. We headed the opposite direction, got out of town and realized we were definitely going the wrong way. So we did ANOTHER u-turn, drove through the town a third time, and finally was en route to the Burren! We first stopped at the Caherconnell Ring Fort. I hung out in the shop and debated buying miniature leprechaun figurines while Kathryn visited the bathroom (that dang coffee). We didn't want to pay the 6 euro to actually walk up to the fort, so we gazed at it from the parking lot, moo-ed at the baby cows in the adjacent pasture, and hopped back into Rooster. Drove up the road about 5 minutes to visit an old burial tomb called the Poulnabrone Coulmen. This thing is thousands of years old. We parked and walked up to it, reading all the informational placards on the way... it was erected in 4200-2500BC! Aka... it's really old. The huge rock formation stands on the Burren, where crevices have slowly been formed by rainwater and small, hardy plants grow up between the rock.

You see me??? Huh??? See me?!

 We wandered around a bit, took some pictures (what else?) and climbed back into Rooster. Drove up to the Aillwee Caves - because of the acid in the rainwater, years of run-off has created a large cave system underneath the Burren. Didn't go into the caves, just drove through the parking lot :) We stopped down the road at a pull-out and hiked about 1/2 mile off the road just to experience the views. What a strange place... it's amazing that just yesterday we were at cliffs and beaches, and today we're in this semi-desolate place where the only vegetation that survives has to cling to the edges of rock crevices... While we were there, we decided to have a little photo shoot -

These pictures make me so happy.

 We drove through several little Irish towns, and decided to stop in Kinvarra, a tiny little harbor town. Signs were posted advertising a farmer's market, so we thought that would be a fun thing to visit. The main street was clogged with traffic, and a large tanker truck was trying to navigate between parked and moving cars towards us. I thought I would try to quickly grab a parking spot on the road, so I crossed the oncoming traffic and tried to pull into a little space. "Tried" is the key word in that last sentence... Rooster was parked all cattywompus on the curb, and our tail end was still poking out into the road. However, that tanker truck was too close for us to try to re-adjust. So we just froze, held our breath and prayed! He cleared our rear bumper by mere inches... We let out our breaths, but were still stuck. Trafffic was bumper to bumper and I didn't know if I could reverse up the hill to get us out of the space... I tried once, stalled out and we ended up 3 inches from the delivery van parked in front of us. Ooops. Right at that time, this lady in a hippie van sputtered on by and clipped Rooster's rear bumper! How dare she... but Rooster didn't even flinch - he's so tough. Finally the traffic cleared enough for me to release the parking brake and reverse out of the spot... we went and found a legit parking space. Lesson learned!

Found the farmer's market saw all sorts of interesting stuff! A little band was playing, we bought cheese-filled bratwursts on sourdough buns for lunch. Talked with merchants selling everything from artisan cheeses to wool clothes to carrots and lavender:)

Farmer's Market - post fender bender...

Made it to Galway and had to drive around the entire city twice before finding cheap parking. I dropped Kathryn off on the curb to run into a hostel to check for availabilities... we got the last 2 beds! The city was really interesting... it had a series of canals that run through the city, which is why Galway is called "the Venice of Ireland." The canals were used to power mills back in the day. The water was pretty clear and clean, so the city thankfully did not smell like Venice! We wandered a bit and saw the entire city in about 2 hours... We saw men fishing for salmon in the main canal - fly fishing! Went into a pub called Tig Coili and heard some great traditional music, then went to get some fish and chips (on Kathryn's to-do list for Ireland). Delicious, but SO greasy... We then went to the Quay's, a pub that some new friends in Dublin had told us to visit. The band started 1.5 hours later than we had anticipated, but we had a great time... this band was NOT a traditional band - we heard the Beatles, Elvis, Mumford and Sons, and even a song by the legendary Mississippi blues man Robert Johnson!