June 24th, 2001
DAY FOUR: Doolin
BED AND BREAKFAST: WestWind B&B (065 707 4227) £13-15 per person

We got up pretty early in the morning to a nice crisp day out. We took nice hot showers in this little tiny contraption with the shower head acting somewhat like a pressurizer, I guess it's not easy to get pressurized water out on an Irish island. While Keri was taking her shower I was out in back of our hostel taking video of this incredible view of the harbor. It really was amazing out there. We threw ourselves together, loaded up the heavy backpacks and headed off towards town. The problem being that we still had our bikes, and the backpacks made us feel like we were going to fall over, (well I thought I could ride without killing myself) but Keri had to walk so I felt bad and walked with her. Once we got into town (after a small break laughing at the crazy roosters running on the bar fence) we grabbed a bite to eat at the restaurant that closed before we got to eat the night before which was fabulous...I think I just had English muffins and a hot chocolate that morning, but it was really good (after all I was dying of hunger). We then went over the Aran Sweater shop and I bought my dad a nice gray sweater for around 30 pounds or so, which ended up taking up way too much room in my backpack. The boat ride back was pretty quick and then we had to take another bus just to get back to Galway. Afraid we might miss the next bus to get down to Doolin, we went and found out (after much confusion with the bus terminal guy) our trip wasn't for awhile, so we did a little shopping and some eats, and sat in Eyre Square and wrote postcards. After that we admired this wino making funny noises at all the people waiting for the busses...I got a picture of him in there somewhere...he kept going "eh eh eh" scaring everyone. Keri and I thought this was wildly funny and kept making those noises at each other for the remainder of the trip. So we caught our bus, rode it for a while and then had to change busses at some random small town. While we were waiting for our bus, we called up numerous bed and breakfasts to try and get us a place for the night so we wouldn't have to stay at the hostel. Thankfully the place "Let's Go: Ireland" recommended had a spot, so we had a nice place to spend the night! Eventually our final bus came. We sat up front so we got to admire our Bus Eireann driver who was an old man and noticeably very British. It was great, but he was a bit fast of a driver and considering the roads were barely big enough for one car, he was swerving in and out of the road all while blasting classical music. We thought the situation was insanely funny despite our lives being on the line. Finally around 9:00 at night we arrived at Doolin not really knowing which way was toward the center of town, we got lucky and went the right way. Once we found our bed and breakfast called "West Winds", we checked in and then rushed over and grabbed a bite to eat, as many of the places were closing for the night. We found this very much "upscale" restaurant that had amazing food, so things were off to a great start! After eating we headed back to West Winds for some down time. West Winds which is right in the center of town in front of a river with a bridge. It had the quaintest rooms complete with this amazing bathroom and shower, all for 17 pounds a night (about 18-19 US dollars). After we settled in, we went to the local pub because they were having some big 20th anniversary or something. It was big and had awesome Irish music playing...good times! Keri and I thought this would be the best time to give the Guinness a whirl, after spilling a bunch on my arm (they like to fill it to the rim there) we gulped some down, and didn't really get very far...it tasted like tar, and it just didn't go over very well with us. So we were sitting enjoying the music and some a nice local guy named Michael introduced himself to us. We stared talking to him and his other tourist friend (which he made quite obvious that he wanted) named Kerri who was from Canada. Later on after we got back we sent Michael a letter, though I doubt he remembered us because we was drunk off his rocker and wanted to get Kerri the Canadian in his bed. So we had an awesome time that night, and slept incredibly well...easily one of the best nights there, I highly recommend heading over there sometime.

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