Ok, well soon we will be exiting Ireland, but it had a certain ring to it that sounded lovely…and truly that is what Ireland is…absolutely beautiful. I may repeat stuff from Andrew’s earlier blog, but bear with me. I don’t feel like re-reading his just now. Yesterday we went to the County of Donegal, the township of Letterkenny. There we met up with Margaret Friel, a friend that Annie and I stayed with when we were last in Donegal. We woke up at 5:30 and caught the 6:15 bus to Donegal, it was a four hour bus stop, which Andrew and I for the most part slept through when it was dark, but when the sun came up, it was necessary to stop resting, because it is so beautiful. The green is not just green, but jade, and crayola green and wasabi green and all the colors you can imagine all rolled into one. We arrived at Donegal and called Margaret. We were a bit confused, b/c we were certain that it was Thursday, so we had a tough time buying the tickets that morning, b/c they would only sell us Friday tickets, after finally determining that it was indeed Friday we were simply relieved that the world wasn’t crazy. Anyhow, Margaret told us to come up the main street and turn on Church lane. I suppose she never knew how terrible my directions were, but thankfully after asking only a few people we were able to find the “Main Street.” We met Margaret at a bakery called Bakersville, and happily sat down to a breakfast of Coffee and Scones for me, and Sausage Rolls and water for Andrew. We chatted for an hour over breakfast before going back to Margaret’s house, (a house which has been in her family since 1920) and then Margaret offered to drive us to Fanad Head, which is on the northern border of Ireland. It is a beautiful mixture of sheep, the Atlantic Ocean, lighthouses and pubs. When Annie and I came to Ireland a few years ago, Annie tried to pet the sheep, it was no surprise when Andrew tried the same thing, but the sheep were having none of it. Later we had a nice lunch in a pub where Andrew had his third hamburger since arriving, and I had soup and ate his fries. Margaret has a wonderful Scottish/Irish accent, and a thorough knowledge of Irish history so she makes for an excellent conversational companion. She’s also a quick driver, and since the Irish drive on the left side of the road, I let Andrew ride up front. If you have never been in a car driving from the left side, you can’t imagine how surprising it is to be a passenger on the left side of the car. It’s really a weird feeling where you feel as though you are going to crash at any moment, and I wanted Andrew to get the best of the experience.
Anyway, we met the evening bus at 5:45 and hopped on and arrived in Dublin at 10:00. We had dinner and watched scrubs until it was time for bed.
-Alex
