new location: galway! still in ireland, just arrived in the city of galway this morning off the aran islands where we spent two nights. we’ve been doing a lot of biking and hiking and such, taking lots of great pictures and meeting tons of really interesting people.
interesting and *wonderful* people that is. we ended up catching a ride to the ferries for the aran islands from a random couple we met at a hostel. they were on their way to go surfing! in slightly chilly weather! there is a different attitude towards hitch-hiking over here, that’s for sure!
we got stranded in this little town called liscannor. it was really just bad planning on our part because we wanted to see the cliffs of mohr and ended up booking a hostel that was only like 15 minutes away but had terrible bus and taxi service so nobody could get us where we needed to be in time to see the cliffs and still make our ferry to the islands the next morning. we still went exploring down the beach and through an old church and had a good time, but man, i never want to call so many irish taxi services in a row again.
we decided to go out again that night and ended up meeting paul, who introduced us to their mayor, mickey, who then proceeded to take us to this tiny old school pub where the bar tender refuses to serve pints to women. this was one of the first cultural difference things that really hit me. i’m not sure if we handled it in the best way, but we were with the mayor so it couldn’t have been too bad, right? we walk in and there are only men. of course they all notice us. hmm, awkward. so i’m just like “hi everyone!”, and the mayor bought us drinks and we made small talk with them all. it was an interesting experience :o) i’ve never been in a town where the mayor is an old man who goes pub-hopping with the locals every night…
pictures – when i get settled into austria i’ll be putting all the ireland pictures up! i can’t wait! there are some amazing places that we have seen!one of the coolest things about ireland – the lack of fences, ropes, and railings. you can climb up the walls of an old castle, through an old abby, hang your head over the edge of a cliff, touch everything, pretty much whatever you want. america suddenly seems very aware about “preserving” things. just because europe has so much more history, does that make things seem more dispensible? anyway, off the explore galway!