Doolin - Day 2

Ooooh, the morning after the night before.  This is the only way to start the day, so the boys told me...

Anyway, after this fortifying start to the day, we walked down and along the shore at Doolin.  Here I am perched on the rocks with the Cliffs of Moher in the background. 

The Atlantic was crashing onto the rocks, and apparently that means it's not safe to swim, so Martin found me a nice pool to try paddling in:

LT said it would be a bit cold though, huh, what did she know!  Then I dipped my toe in an it was a little chilly, so I decided to try some rock climbing instead.

I found this sign at the harbour, and it said 'Notice' so I did.  Wonder what I was meant to notice?

We wandered back up to the cottage then, and grabbed lunch before we went to a real beach at Fanore (that was a real beach at Doolin - LT)  Oh no it wasn't, there was no sand, EVERYBODY knows a real beach has sand (they do? -LT)  Duhhhh. 

Look at all the junk people toss into the sea, it makes a real mess on the beach, and it's really bad for the fish and for little bears that can get tangled up in it:

It looks like an absolutely giant monster had been here already, I hoped it didn't come back...

There were people out surfing, and I thought I'd like to give it a go, but I think the surf board they left for me was a little big (ya think? - LT)

We drove round to Ballyvaughan next to meet up with 'The Bish', or Pat, as he's otherwise known.  There were a lot of jokes about fathers and bishops that went right over my furry little head (and that would be a good thing - LT). 

I think the Irish have a very funny idea about sea rescue though, look, they think this tiny wee ring is going to save a car that goes over the end of the pier:

I'm really not convinced that it will work.  It's also an awfully long way to the end of the pier, plus there's a boat in the way.  Hey, I thought boats were meant to float on water next to the pier, not sit ON the pier!

Next I got dragged round to see a Martello tower.  It wasn't very exciting, being just a big tower of grey bricks, and I didn't think much of their outdoor plumbing, I mean there's even an electric fence running over it!

We went home after that and then they left me behind while LT went to dinner and the pub with Stephen, Pat and Martin, as LT thought I'd had a long enough day already.  I'll just not tell her what I got up to with Chris, Mark and Pete who stayed behind...

Doolin - Day 1

Hi everyone, nice to meet you!  I'm Jack, star of this blog, and intrepid worldwide adventurer.  I stow away with LT, of The Littlest Thistle, when she goes on holiday, but I get up to far more daring and exciting things than her...

As you can see, LT doesn't travel light.  Me?  It's just me and my jack...

Anyway, here I am at (London)Derry airport waiting to go.  Huh, I've never travelled to a town with brackets before, why does it have brackets LT?  (well, that's a very long story with lots of invasions and fighting and centuries of bigotry, shall we just leave it there? - LT) 

Oh, okay, well here I am waiting for our chauffeur Chris, and backseat driver Mark to come and fetch us.  What?  Not a chauffeur?  Well he drove didn't he?  (Err, yes - LT)  And the other one sat in the back, didn't he?  (Well, I suppose he did - LT)  So our chauffeur then!  (Whatever you say - LT).  We got up at 6:30 am for this, I had better be travelling in the lap of luxury from this point on, getting this far in a bag was quite undignified!  (It wasn't the bag he's sitting on, I should point out - LT)

Here I am sitting in my own little seat on the way down, look at the sun shining in.  Ireland's obviously a very sunny place.

Not long after this we got stuck in a traffic jam at Kilcolgan, just south of Galway city.  Who knew you could get traffic jams in the middle of nowhere?

I felt that this really wasn't the sort of welcoming impression that the residents of county Galway really wanted to give, so I tried to phone and tell them I was a celebearty and to get me out of there.

Do you know, there wasn't a single fast response unit sent!  Anyway, we eventually got through and drove down the twisty, windy road to Doolin, going over Corkscrew Hill on the way (and getting a leeeetle bit car sick too - LT).  Car sick?  Pah, it was a fur ball!

Here I am sitting outside our cottage for the weekend, isn't the view nice?  Chris and Mark decided that I needed to try some Guinness too, and had picked up quite a lot when we stopped at Asda in Strabane (I think the shelves were bare! - LT) 

We got in, and unpacked, and decided that after the nice sunny day that the sun was going to go down behind a thick band of haze on the horizon, so we skipped a sunset photoshoot.  After dinner we went to the pub to enjoy lots of drinks and live music from a band that looked half dead (that wasn't very nice! - LT)  What?  They were very old!  (Well, yes, I suppose they were - LT)  This time the boys introduced me to draught Guinness.

And LT let me have a little of her vodka and diet coke.  The American woman behind was really shocked at putting diet coke with vodka, so we decided she'd come from a really sheltered background.  She didn't smile all night either, maybe she should have tried the vodka and diet coke...

Chris decided he was going to play with his phone torch to make the drinks and me look all glowy, wasn't that fun?

I made a new friend too.  We were sharing half a table with 2 young American girls, and one of them had brought her own critter on holiday.  I didn't catch his name, but apparently he has a Facebook page and everything, hint, hint...

After they'd gone, it was time for more Guinness

Whew, such a lot for a little bear *belch*

For the rest of the night I had to make do with Jameson's whiskey, a much better size of a glass for someone of my stature.

We stumbled walked back up the lane to the cottage at about 1 am, wasn't that a long day?  More tomorrow...