To Doolin

Scott and I woke early and took a fairly empty bus to Doolin. We went through Ballyvaughn and Lisdoonvarna which were two of my favorite words to say on the trip. As we neared our stop I was preparing to get off and unstrapped my camera from around my neck. I got off and left it on my bus seat. I realized it when I was getting the tour of our hostel. Our host, Karl, was extremely helpful and called the bus as we stood there and arranged for a pick up as the bus came back through. Karl, by the way was the best hostel host ever. We stayed at the Aillie River Hostel, which was incredible. The kitchen was busy 24/7 it seemed and there was always people lounging about sharing stories and games. I think part of it was that Doolin was a small village and tourists were more apt to stay at the hostel than to try and explore a large town.
As we got there, and settled in, we asked Karl how to get to the Cliffs of Moher. One reason for our stay. He sat and drew us a map and described the walk to us. We walked out and waited for the bus and got my camera before we left for our hike. The day gave us brilliant sunshine and we took advantage of it.

We started on a road out of town and to a pasture. From there we hopped a fence and walked close to the water. We stayed near the water until the trail turned to look at an abandoned settlement. It was left during the potato famine.

We then walked along the cliffs the whole way. Along the cliffs there was a waterfall that didn't fall. It came over the cliff and was immediately blown back onto land. We saw a sea cave full of sea foam. The hike only became more and more exciting as we neared the cliffs. There was one point where the trail was a foot wide between fence post and a 300ft drop to the sea. The walk started at basically sea level and climbed to over 400 ft above the Atlantic. We were able to take all of the photographs that were on postcards.

Scott and I approached the visitors center and realized we would have to hop the fence. You are suppose to enter at a certain checkpoint and pay an entrance fee(if driving, after an 8 euro parking fee). We hopped the fence near many tourists and walked to castle that was at the top. We then ate a sandwich we had packed from our free breakfast in Galway and walked around the area. If you tour the way you are suppose to, you only get one view of the cliffs and you need to work your way above a giant fence to do so.
We hiked back along the road and saw some great local sights.

We found a jam shop and bought some delicious raspberry spread. We also found a small resataurant. We ate fries and drank beer. It was great.
We made our way back to the hostel and decided to sit for a bit. We knew the next day we wanted to hike the Burren and asked Karl what his favorite walks were. He showed us on a map where we should go. We rested and then went out to buy food. We toured the village and found a music shop, a small grocery store and 5 pubs. We bought some pb and bread, some oatmeal and a couple of bananas and apples.
We read for a bit at the hostel and decided to get dinner out at a pub. We walked down the road and stopped at the last pub we could find. I ordered an Irish Stew with Guinness sauce and Scott had fish and chips. It was delicious. We decided to wander while we waited for music to start. We found a very neat old cemetery just out of town. We searched for names of relatives (Carr, Higgins, Cahill and Donahue) but only found Griffin which was the Surname of in-laws.
We went back and saw a little band who had an accordion, a banjo, drum and guitar. We drank some more beer and ordered more fries. When we finished our fare, we walked down to the next pub. There a fiddler and a guitar were just taking a break. We continued our walk and found Fitzpatricks. There was two flutes and guitar playing.

They were decent. After a while we decided to head back to the hostel. We used the FREE internet(only place we stayed at that offered this) and checked the bus schedule and our email.