Our last full day in Ireland... We HAD to make sure it was a good one! We set out early from our B&B to see the 2,000 year old fortress on a 300 foot cliff known as Dun Aengus--but not before enjoying another fantastic Irish breakfast, complete with the yummiest scones I have EVER tasted. Man, I should have eaten more of those. But, I was too busy stuffing my face with french toast and eggs and everything else under the sun.
Anyways, luckily, our B&B was literally right across the way from the entrance to the fort's visitor's center. Kevin and I had thought to ride our bikes up the hill to the cliffside, but alas, they made us dismount before going up. We we booked it on up on foot, though, trying to be the first ones to arrive. We passed an older couple on the way up and arrived at the scene with the place completely to ourselves!
And what a sight, really--the ring fort is perched right at the edge of a dramatic cliffside, with the ocean pounding far, far below. The wind was blowing so we had to be careful not to step *too* close to the cliff's edge. Still, we enjoyed some mighty fine scenery all to ourselves. Awesome! That was a big perk of staying the night on the island--this was before any of the ferries had arrived, so there were no day-trippers on the island yet and things were quiet.
We took it all in for a while, and then just as we were leaving, we ran into that older couple, who turned out to be a charming Irish two-some from Galway. They struck up a conversation with us, asking us how we liked Ireland and how we liked the Aran Islands. They told us about how very, very poor the country was when they were young and how different things are now. They talked about religion and their disgust with the recently publicized abuses of the nuns and priests in Irish Catholic schools, and about politics (of course they thought Obama was great and wondered if we liked him.) I was amazed at how many topics they spanned (including the controversial ones you usually avoid with people you just met--religion, politics, etc.) and how much they loved to just talk. We did get to join in on some "craic" after all! It was fun to experience that gift of gab, but we had a boat to catch and eventually just had to break in and say we had to go. (I wondered for a while if we'd ever manage to get away!)
We were now running late, so we ran back down the hill, checked out of the B&B, and hopped on our bikes to pedal back to the dock. We had to go swiftly up those hills for fear of missing the boat (we'd had plenty of stuck-on-the-island experiences already for our tastes). To our great pride, we made it with a few minutes to spare even. We got on the RIGHT boat, and had an uneventful ride back to mainland Ireland. Except for the fact that we were beat red and still breathing hard, and deathly thirsty. (I convinced one of the crew members to come down and man the snack bar and sell us some soda, thankfully.) We took turns standing in front of the air vent and eventually cooled back down.
In Doolin we had a quick bite to eat--soup, bread, and ice cream if I recall correctly--and got back in the car (which was not stolen or damaged in any way--hurray! Doolin is a very small place, so there wasn't much reason to worry, but I still managed to do so anyway.)
Then, we were on our way towards Shannon (where we would fly out the following morning.) We went a slightly longer route so that we could go by way of the Burren, a unique part of Ireland full of strange rocky landscapes and lots of wild flowers. We passed a Dolmen (a burial site marked by huge stones laid on top of each other, kind of Stonehenge looking) called Poulnabrone and stopped for a few pictures.
We eventually ended up at the village of Bunratty (what a name, eh?), home of Bunratty Castle. Bunratty is a more touristy, restored, a little kitschy type castle, but it was fun to see still. It was rather crowded, and that made climbing the n-a-r-r-o-w spiral staircases...interesting. Let's just say I'm very glad for the thirty pounds I lost last year or else I may not have made it back out without getting to know my fellow tourists much more personally than I would prefer. Next we enjoyed the restored 19th century cottages and farms at the Bunratty Folk Park (doesn't quite fit in with the medieval castle theme, but eh well).
We went and checked in at our B&B, rested up a bit, and then went back to the castle for... a medieval banquet inside the castle! Okay, it was a bit hokey, but still it sounded like a lot of fun. It also happened to be our last night in Ireland, AND the night before our anniversary (yes, we flew home on our actual anniversary--how romantic, right?) so we were celebrating that too. So we splurged for the medieval banquet tickets. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't really worth it. They also offered an "Irish" night dinner with lots of Irish music and dancing (not in the castle though). I think in the end I might have liked that one better, but I couldn't resist the idea of eating a banquet in an actual castle, so...that's what we did. It was fun--they had a bunch of madrigal singers and a harp and fiddle thing, with servers all in costume who called you "m'lady" while they filled your glass (they kept trying to feed us mead, but luckily they also had punch for the kids). They made us eat with our hands and they threw one of the guests in the dungeon..the whole shebang. It was fun, just not quite 50 euros fun.
And with that, we said goodbye to our last real day in Ireland! All that was left the next morning was one last Full Irish gorging, followed by returning the rental car and taking another looooong overseas flight back to the good old Flatland, USA. We took the L to Union station, and then the Amtrak back from Chicago to Champaign, followed by a cab back to our home sweet home.
On the whole, Ireland was really fantastic. I was surprised to find that I didn't completely love every second of Ireland the way I thought I might, though. Maybe it was because I got so sick at the beginning, or maybe it was the stress of that whole ferry ordeal. Maybe I felt a little guilty for taking all that time off of work. Or maybe it was just the crazy driving/navigating situation. But for some reason the trip was a little more stressful than I would have liked. (Not to mention, expensive. Nothing is cheap in Ireland!) I don't mean that I didn't totally love it, because I did. I'm sooooo glad I got to go, and I think Ireland has TONS of interesting things to do and see and lots of touristing stuff to offer....but, if I had to choose between going back to Ireland or going someplace new, I'd probably choose the someplace new. I guess it would depend on where the someplace was, though...But you get the idea.
That being said, if any of you ever have a husband who gets a paper accepted into a conference in Ireland and has the university paying for his trip anyway and you have to decide whether or not you should go with him...well, you know what the answer is, right?
