After our poor timing in Great Britain we made it to Ireland and started out the day without a hitch. That is except for the driving. After reading forums online we expected the roads to be poor and narrow and the driving to be crazy. After the UK and their narrow backroads we were in for a real treat. NOT! There are few main roads in Ireland. The ones that are main roads are wide enough for 1 and a half cars. They have uneven, shoddy, potholey paving. The roads are sided by brush covered rock walls giving the impression of a soft shoulder when in fact it is very very hard. Either people are used to that amount of space so they come whizzing by or they are just reckless and they take up the entire “one-lane” on their side giving you no choice but to brace yourself and hope you and the car emerge unscathed. Poor Chad had to deal with my nerves while he drove. That couldn’t have made it any easier. Soon after we started we were going through a city street with only about 4 inches clearance on either side of the car. A parked car had their front wheels turned out into the street a few inches, and I hit their tire as we passed. Not to mention they were parked 2+ feet from the curb. They were just asking for damage. We were unhappy–but then happier when we saw that we had only touched the rubber on their tire. It sure gave us a scare though.

The weather was pretty nasty that day. It reminded us of Seattle. We drove through the Burren whick is a very different looking area. It was super rocky. I do not know how anyone could live there. The land would be so difficult to do anything with. It was pretty though. We stopped at a seafood restaurant that was reccommended to us by Ian, one of Chad’s co-workers. It was alright. We must have had high expectations.

The only big stop that day was at the Cliffs of Moher. The pictures were really pretty there. But it was COLD and windy. Poor Eden was not having a good time, even bundled up in her stroller. She hadn’t slept very well in the car either, so she was grumpy. Or so we thought. We haven’t done a very good job of keeping track of time. As we were leaving, we did a quick calculation and realized that she hadn’t eaten in about 4 hours. She normally would eat after 3 hours. So the poor thing was just cold and tired and so hungry. She’s such a trooper.

After that we waited for a ferry to take us along our route. We stopped and had yummy hamburgers again. Then we arrived at our Castle for the night. Yes, our castle! We were impressed by the fancy old building and had a good night together. They had a really big castley dog. I want one when I grow up.