Well, I took a stroll down the ole long walk of the day, I ay I ay...

Overlooking Quay Street

There are so many things we’d like to say about yesterday....  but the one that is ringing in our ears is the fire alarm, that went off at the hostel in the wee hours of the morning.  Yay.  Well, not really.  Plus, we were so exhausted we didn’t bother to get out of bed,  We looked at each other, Kalena suggested we could jump out the window if things got bad, and we went back to sleep.  Or tried to.  We have a cute little private hostel with its own bathroom, overlooking an equally adorable pedestrian street.  well, its adorable during daylight - it morphs into an outdoor club at night. Despite that, we had a great night over pub grub, pints and walking through Galway.  

We stumbled upon a little street fair with a Christmas theme - lots of international food (it seems wrong to see a mexican food stand in Ireland, but oh well), local crazies, and things to buy.  We spent more time just wandering around the city - there were lots fof little hole in the wall pubs we wanted to venture into, but it had been a long day (or days at this point), so we headed back to the hostel relatively early at 10pm.  

But, prior to all this fun in Galway, we had had a very long, very fun day.  It started with our departure from SeaTac.  We exchanged gifts over bloody mary’s, and attempted a video blog, but are running into some trouble with it.  We will try again and post as soon as possible.  Megan and I played numerous rounds of InFlight Trivia (of which she won the majority) and then we settled in with a couple glasses of free wine (thank you international flights!) to watch some movies and fall asleep.  And sleep came...for some.  Kalena got maybe an hour total of good shut eye.  Between Megan’s bedhead hair and Kalena’s bloodshot eyes...we were a sight/fright.

We eventually made it to Dublin where we picked up our midget car (it’s smaller than a twin bed).  And the driving commenced.  With practically no issue, we made it out of Dublin and onto the M6 for our cross country journey.  We stopped along the way in Athelone to see King John’s Castle.  We don’t know who King John is, nor did we find his castle, but we did enjoy driving through the quaint little town.  What can we say about our first glimpses of this country? Heaven...with rock walls and sheep.  And the fattest ponies we’ve ever seen.  It truly is beautiful - from the shape of the trees to the simple architecture of the buildings.

We are heading out of Galway soon. Today’s adventure includes our first one lane roads, country side, and small towns.  We are heading towards Ennis and then onto find our cottage.  We are looking forward to an excursion into Tulla (4k from the cottage) for some grocery shopping and to stake out our favorite local pub.  The next few days will begin our real adventures - chasing leprechauns, hunting down a fox hunt, and riding pony carts through the barren Aran Islands.

So, with no further delay, we are off.  That’s all folks.