Cliffs of Moher

We had an amazing day hiking the Cliffs of Moher. Using our trusty Lonely Planet book, I researched and learned the Cliff view from the tourist lookout is pretty lame and not worth your €6. The book suggested we hike out an extra 10 minutes to get the money shot. Well, turns out the longer you walk, the more you get to see. We ended up doing a 10k hike and saw the cliffs. It was crazy hiking along them!!! You were only a couple feet from plummeting to your death the entire way, enough to make you feel fairly crawly when you looked over the edge. It was also enough to make you feel fairly concerned when the wind gusted... But Brad and I are both still here to tell you all about it!

We stayed in Galway City tonight in a fairly overpriced hotel. It was €99 (so about $150CDN) and was pretty crappy compared to the places we have stayed at. Also, we had to pay an additional €10 for parking in the snuggest parkade ever... Which we had one heck of a time trying to get out of! All the gates were locked and there was definitely a moment of complete utter irritation from both of us hungry travellers. However, we finally got out of the stupid parkade and went pub walking. Irish pubs know how to do their live music. Everyplace has amazing entertainment! We ended up watching FOUR bands last night, the last one being the most amazing. It was actually at our hotel bar, with a fiddle, banjo and guitar. We watched until they finished for the night.

Today we headed out to Roundstone, a tiny town on the west coast, as Brad wanted to go visit a music shop there. Well, it turns out the owner of this shop is the only fulltime bodhran (Irish drum) maker in Ireland and he made the drums for the Riverdance!! He was extremely kind and proud owner of Malachy Kearns. Needless to say, Brad bought a drum to complete his collection after getting a deal (it pays to be a musician).

We are on our way to Clonmacnoise Monestary to see some neat remains from the 10th and 12th centuries before driving to our more moderately priced hostel for the evening! Brad is having a food swing (I think he is having one for me) so we are stopping for dinner first. Stay tuned!