The Rocky Road

I titled today's post "The Rocky Road" because we spent most of our time around the landscape known as The Burren.

I read all over the place that The Burren was one of the places you must see before you die. I don't really understand why! When I told this to a cab driver in Dublin, he said, "I hate The Burren. It's the ugliest place I've ever seen." It's just a bunch of rocky hills. We started our day taking the ferry from Doolin to Inishmore (25 euros per person). Inishmore was, yet again, a bunch of rocky hills. It was not a very pretty island. I'm not sure if the rest of the Aran Islands are prettier, or maybe if we had stayed a few days we would have gotten to experience the rich culture there, but unfortunately, the half-day we spent there wasn't too exciting.

We had planned on renting bikes (10 euro per bike) and biking across the island (Inishmore is the largest of the Aran Islands), but a few days before we went I thought we'd be too exhausted (and honestly I was already too out of shape to bike before I even went on the trip). I ended up emailing a tour bus

company and reserving seats for a tour (15 euro per person). Most of the things I wanted to see were included in the tour, which was great. We got to go to Dun Aonghasa, which honestly was really scary. It's a fort overlooking the sea, and there aren't any wall barriers guarding you from plummeting to your death. I crouched down to look over the side so that the wind wouldn't force me

off the cliff, and ripped my good jeans in the process on the rocky ground. It was a really unique view, though it was heavily populated. We had time to souvenir shop (though the shops were rather expensive) outside Dun Aonghasa and also around the dock where we first unloaded from the ferry (which, I am glad to say, was a MUCH easier ride than the Skellig tour boat!). We also went to a little ruined church and were able to explore around there, and our last stop was the Seal Colony. I loved seeing the sea lions sunbathing on the rocks.

When we returned to Doolin that afternoon, we parallel parked on the side of the road and walked about a half mile down to the Gus O'Connor's Pub. We ate bar food for supper and got to listen to trad music there- two guys came playing the fiddle and the accordion. We spent the entire evening from that point on visiting pubs. Our airbnb was at a little farm about half an hour south of Galway. The owner's daughter checked me in and looked up trad sessions in the area for me, and there was one at a pub that was walking distance from the house (it was actually owned by her aunt). There was a small handful of musicians there with guitars, a violin, and an accordion, and they played some folk music, some songs they wrote, and then some popular songs (like Here Comes The Sun).

After that we ventured into Galway to a pub that was supposed to have trad music and dancing. I would have loved to learn to dance the jig or at least to see it, but we only saw one person get up and dance- maybe we just didn't stay long enough. The music was a hired band and not a group of musicians around town just coming together spontaneously for a session, which is what I was looking for (and what happened at the two pubs we had already been to). We got to hear some good music, but I am a little disappointed that we didn't hear a lot of authentic trad sessions while we were there.

Total costs for Day 8: ~55 euros per person

Cost of airbnb: $65