Today was a nice day with lots of sun and little rain. It does rain particularly every day in Ireland all year round. I slept in a bit and had breakfast at 8:30 after I made my way slowly downtown. I wanted to see what buses to take tomorrow for Dingle. I went in the coach station first thinking they are for all buses, but it housed mostly tour and private buses so I exchanged my Burden tour ticket first. The tour didn't start until 10:00 so I had time to find the other station which was a block away. The person gave me a timetable of the buses and some possible connections (3 buses) to my destination. You can't buy a ticket until the day of travels. I'm leaving Galway a little earlier than expected in case I miss the other connections I will have options. I have to eat breakfast early and figure out if I should take the bus or taxi down to the station. I'll figure it out tomorrow in how busy breakfast is. So far, three tour buses of people have checked in. One for Trafalgar and I think the others are part of a charity event. There's a cycling charity event from Galway to Dublin tomorrow.
I digress. So this morning while I was waiting to the tour to begin. I met another single female traveler from Michigan. She said she haven't met anyone girls doing a trip by herself. We got to talking. I thought we were going to be on the same tour but we weren't. I was on the Burden tour and she was doing the Connemera tour. I wished I had time to do the Connemera tour.
(Another tour bus just pulled up. Good thing this hotel is big. Now I feel bad for having two beds.)
So anyways, we had a little rough start. There were only 5 people on this tour but we were waiting for the other tour (McCools) to get in. They were running late so the tour guide/driver said he would meet them. So another 18 people joined the tour. Then the guide got a called and said there were two people at the station but the other guide, probably for the Connemera tour, drove them out to meet the bus. So, there were 7 Lally people and 18 McCools. On the first stop, the guide gave the Lally people options. Go to the farm and learn about farming in the Burrens with the McCool or go to the Aillwee Caves. I did the farm and it costed €6. The Caves cost the same. I figure I might see caves in Mexico so I rather just hike the Burrens and have some home baking at the end.
The Burren Wild guided walk was not that wild. The farm we were on is a working farm with lots of livestock. The guide for the farm gave us a great hike up the Burrens. We didn't go to the very top, but we did hikes great distant. He was very informative of the area and even showed us a faerie tree. Everyone was excited about the puppy (well about a year old) that was following us. Afterwards, we headed down for some home baking. It was past noon and was a little hungry. Unfortunately, the infamous apple pie was sold out. I had the rhubarb cinnamon cheesecake (€4.50) and it was delicious. After our treat, we waited for the the bus to come back to pick us up. We then headed to the Cliffs of Moher. On our way, we past through Lisdoonvarna renowned for its matchmaking festival that takes place in Sept. People come from all over for it...there is also an oyster festival in the next town over during sept too that have more people coming. Yes, maybe I'm heading back to Ireland in Sept. :)
We got to the cliffs at about 13:30 and had an hour to look around. I went to the north side first to look at the south cliffs. They were spectacular and so beautiful. I even saw the Aran Island when looking on the other side on top of the cliff. I had some time so I walked on be south side. I like the South cliffs better. The path stopped at the first cliff but people hopped over the barrier and continued walking. The south cliff weren't fenced off and people were getting close to the edge. I hopped over the barrier walk up about 5 meters took some pics and went back. I think people are crazy. I walked back down and just had a few moments to myself enjoy the birds, the water, and the cliffs. I tried not looking up at the crazy people. With about 15 minutes left I went to the gift shop. The visitor building is built inside the rocks. It was suppose to cost €20 million to build it but instead it cost €31.5 million. The tour guide pointed this out and I agreed, it looked like the teletubby house with windows and doors on the side of a grassy hill.
After the Cliffs, we made our way down to Doolin at have lupper (at 15:00). I had chicken curry and rice. The curry was a bit different but good all the same. After the meal, we took to the costal road down and back to Dunguaire Castle. We didn't stop this morning because the tide was down and no water surrounding it. By the afternoon, the tide had come in and it looked nice. The castle wasn't open (only opened during the summer) so we just took pictures and walked around it. The was an actual path around the outside wall of the castle. The castle is not that big. We arrived back in Galway at around 17:30. I decided to walk around the pedestrian area of the city centre. There was lots of people and shops. I stopped and got some gelato. I can't really compare the taste with the ones in Calgary. It was good. I had cherry mania which has pieces of chocolate and cherries in it.
After walking around, I can't buy anything since my big spending spree yesterday, I decided to head back to the hotel. My legs were a bit tired after all that walking especially up to the Burrens and the Cliffs. I threw my stuff into my room and made my way down to the lobby of the much needed internet time. For Dinner, I just had a bowl of French onion soup and a fruit pudding with orange custard for dessert. The fruit pudding fast oddly like fruitcake with too much raisin. I was going to go for a lemon cheesecake but I had cheesecake earlier. Yep, today was strange eating day. I have to retire early in order to wake up early for tomorrow to pack and have breakfast before trying to catch my bus.
Tomorrow's agenda: Travel day to Dingle
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