Well this is it – the wrap up. You're probably feeling the same way about this series of posts that we were about the trip at this point: It's been a lot of fun and we've seen a lot, but it's getting a little tired. Not to fret, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled mediocrity soon.
After we left the area of the Cliffs of Moher we headed up toward Galway through The Burren, where we saw this rock that looks like a lobster:
It's a pretty interesting place speckled with limestone like Megan speckles her food with salt (healthily) and I can't really explain it any better than
it's wikipedia page, but I do have
some better pictures for you. We were a little frustrated as the day got started because the fog was very thick and we really couldn't see what — if anything — we were missing. Thinking about it though, we were probably pretty lucky with the weather considering we were there for 6 days before the weather was noticeably bad. By the time we got to the first parking area to get out and explore a bit things cleared up and it turned out not to be too bad of a day.
When we got to Galway, we spent some time exploring
the streets and checking out the pubs. My favorite was a little place called
The Kings Head – with amazing food, great atmosphere, and live music in the evenings. We eventually found an internet cafe and that's when
we posted the picture from our anniversary.
We spent 2 days in Galway. Actually, we spent about a day's worth of time walking about a mile's stretch of road from our B&B into the heart of the city. There was no sense driving anywhere – parking would have been a nightmare and we had plenty of driving both ahead of and behind us. So we would walk in after breakfast and do some shopping or sight-seeing, grab some lunch, and head back to the B&B for a nap. Then walk back to town and get dinner and try to experience some of the night life. Let me tell you: we are party
animals. I don't think we were up past 11:00 for a single night of the trip.
I would say that of all the places we visited in Ireland, Galway reminded me the most of (some of the larger cities near) home. Dublin was reminiscent of New York City – but that's coming from someone who's been to NY once, with the Boy Scouts, when I was like 12, to see the Statue of Liberty and … I don't even remember what else. It seemed kind of urban and dirty. But Galway was more like Baltimore's Inner Harbor or Philadelphia's Center City, without as many tall buildings. There was lots of foot traffic and tourism, and well kept historic buildings. It's still got nothing on Kenmare.
When we left Galway we headed east at about 100kph (just over 60mph) and drove across the entire country in a matter of about 6 hours. We stopped along the way at anything that looked interesting, like
a whiskey distillery, and at roughly our half-way point,
Athlone.
We ended our cross-country drive at a B&B called
San Juan. (Your guess is as good as mine.) We picked it because it was near the airport and in our price range… and it had internet access. Of course, my plans of checking on my fantasy football team and my email were ruined when our voltage converter decided it would be a good idea to stink like chlorine and become hot to the touch. I wouldn't be able to do either until we were home.
So instead we did some exploring in the suburbs of Dublin, had an overpriced and under-filling pizza for dinner, and ended up at the most pleasing pub I've ever been to. It was getting pretty crowded as we arrived, and we soon found out that this was all due to Ireland playing a Rugby World Cup Playoff game that evening. Everyone was hollering with an Irish accent and as much as you might think we would be used to it by our last night there, it was still very charming.
We stayed for most of the game and decided we quite like Rugby. I guess we looked like we fit right in because we were mistaken for Irish rugby fans by some other tourists a few nights prior. It's an exciting sport to watch, and by the time we left we were quietly cheering on Ireland — you just can't stand in a crowded bar with 150 of your Irish brethren glued to a plasma TV watching Rugby and
not cheer. I would venture to say that it's physically impossible.
C'mon Iuhrlend!
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