This morning we woke up to a quieter Dublin, which was in sharp contrast to last night's celebrations following the Dublin football/soccer win over Kerry. We got our first good Irish Breakfast and visited two more places that were on the top of my to do list for Dublin: Sheridan's Cheesemongers and Cathach Books. We got cheese and bread for lunch. And I found two old books (one in Irish) and a map. Fabulous finds!
Irish BreakfastWe then left the city in the little rental car we have both fallen in love with – a diesel Opel Astra. While heading west across the country we stopped at Clonmacnoise, a ruined monastic city. In general I really don't like history with the exception of ancient history. I think this is because ancient history holds a lot of mystery and seems almost fantasy. And just the facts that the things here are so very old is amazing to me.
Clonmacnoise
The Cathedral at Clonmacnoise
Us with the ruined castle next to Clonmacnoise.We continued west through Galway to the ferry in Rossaveal which took us to Inishmor, one of the Aran Islands. It was a beautiful coast drive once we got past Galway and we were both happy to be out in the wild open. Especially Ben since cities are not his thing. We had a lovely dinner and pints at the Pier House. Tomorrow we will hopefully bike around the island.
Enroute and Inishmor IslandLife is definitely simpler out here on the island. We had an interesting conversation about the cultures of places today. Ben really doesn't like cities, so we were talking about why that is. Ben was saying that he likes to be somewhere to do something physical. He likes places where doing something like fishing, hiking, or skateboarding is part of the culture. Ben's option of Dublin was this: "The culture is people getting shit-faced." I laughed. I'm sure other stuff does go on and we did stay in a hotel next to Temple Bar which didn't help, but cities are definitely focused less on doing physical activities.
Well, we are out of the city for now and have a lot of hiking planned. All is well. Goodnight!