On the way to Connemara

We both enjoyed the luxury of the pool the next morning and then enjoyed a rather large continental breakfast buffet. We discreetly pocketed a couple of hard biscuits and some slices of oat bread for later. What?? I'm sure you would have done the same.

Afterwards we wandered over to the castle, which we had spotted the night before. This was Saturday and there was a small local market selling arts, crafts and other sundry items...and for some reason, entrance to the castle was free! Cool!

The Donegal region was once part of the kingdom of Tir Chonaill, which was lead by one of the most powerful families of Ireland from the 5th to the 16th century. Perhaps you know a descendant - the name is O'Donnell.

The dining hall

The castle was built in 1474 on the inside of an elbow of the river Eske. It was once regarded as one of the finest castles in Ireland. Hey, this castle has an indoor toilet! The waste chute drops into the river and is angled so that an enemy archer could not get someone unawares. It also has a right handed ascension with uneven stair to trip up enemies. Its well protected location and high walls could not help them keep it indefinitely though.

In 1607, after the nine years war, the O'Donnells left (read: were chased from) Ireland and their castle was taken over by an English Captain called Basil Brooke. Brooke added a Jacobean style manor to the castle.  It stayed in the Brooke family until 1898 when it was donated to the Office of Public Works...by then it was mostly ruined.

On our way out through the market, Jolene bought a small framed painting from a local artist and I bought a small cupcake to support the local RSPCA - I miss my dog.

We walked along the Eske river through the small town of Donegal; had a wee chat with an elderly Irish lady who was feeding the birds from her front stoop (didn't understand too much of what she said though). Then it was back to to the car direction West towards Connemara.

On the map it didn't look too bad perhaps 3 hours...but there was a reason people said ''Ooooohhhh Connemara....'' whenever we told them we were going there.

Donegal

Carrick-a-Rede and the Giant's Causeway more than made up for the unease that we had felt the night before. But we had to leave this beautiful place and find ourselves another beautiful place to discover.

We had nothing planned or booked for this night, but we were staying in Connemara on the western coast the next night. We decided to go in a south-westerly direction.

When we got to Derry (or Londonderry), which is still in Northern Ireland, we were diverted due to an Order of Orange parade. The police were standing in the road telling folks to turn around. We were stopped by a policewoman who asked us where we were headed.

We told her we were headed to  DONegal. She blinked at us. ''doNEgal? Where in doNEgal?'' Our turn to blink, ''Um, what? DONagal the city.'' She smiled and looked at each of us. ''DoNEgal (she emphasised the NE, not the DON as we were doing) town ye mean. Its not a city. Its very small. It's tiny!'' She told us how to get onto the road to DoNEgal and sent us on our way. As we drove away we realised that DoNEgal was not only a town, it was the name of the County as well. oh.

We arrived there at about 5:30 - it had been a long hot day. We were ready for a shower. We went in search for a place to stay for the night. We stopped at the first hotel - just to get an idea of the prices in the area. €55 per night, per person...breakfast included...and they had a pool. OK. We had been staying mostly in hostels at about 18 - 22 each a night so this was quite a jump, but we were only comparative shopping, right?

Ok who were kidding - we went through the motions and actually went into one other place, but the chick at the first place had us at pool.

The room was on the top floor (there were only 5)  in a room that overlooked the town square - this really was a small town. There was no air conditioning, who needs air conditioning in Ireland? We were under the roof and it was HOT even with the window open. What to do. Well, we reckoned that this was a great time to do laundry! We had both packed for Ireland, so our stock of summery weather was limited we needed to do laundry often enough. Soon the room was strung up with our drying clothes.

Jolene decided to go for a swim and I decided to go to an internet cafe that I had seen on the way in.

Since my arrival in France I have been stymied with technology - or the lack of it - or the lack of access to it - take your pick. This is the first time in years that I have gone away to a 'first world' country. Here there aren't many Internet cafes about - sure there's free wi-fi here and there, but that I really wanted was access to a USB port to upload my pictures. I was so excited to see an Internet cafe in Donegal...and equally disappointed to see find out it was closed.

With my head hung low and my frustration levels rising I went back to the hotel. ..and there in the lobby...a computer! Hopes soared! I all but skipped to it...only to see that it was out of order. REALLY????!!! I went to the front desk to see if there was any chance there might be another computer around the place. The front desk lady told me no, but the sister hotel two doors down did and I was free to use that one. Dare I hope once again?

I went to the Abbey Hotel, which was much fancier, and found the computer...it was on! It was working! AND it had a USB port! Oh JOY! Oh BLISS! Ok all I had to do was insert a few coins..I got my coin purse out and then looked for the rate. €7.50 an hour. WHAT?!!! They must be mistaken - surely it wasn't over $10 an hour to use the internet! Those bastards!

I grudgingly put in €3.50 to get a few paltry minutes thinking that at least I would get a few photos up for you fine folks. Accessible USB ports were hard to come by as I had learned and you had to take every chance you get. Riight?

When I plugged in my USB I found that although I could look at the photos I couldn't access them. I get that viruses are a pain the butt but come on!!

<insert string of expletives>

To add insult to injury it took forever to complete any action on this dinosaur of a computer - ...tick, tock my expensive internet time ran out. I did manage to send an email to my bank telling them about the ATM incident, that's something I guess.

With frustration levels peaking, I went to meet up with Jolene. We picked up a greasy falafel pita for dinner and, for a change, we decided to go out for a pint. We were hoping for some live music and we were recommended a place called The Coach House. We got there, ordered our drinks and sat down. We saw the list of bands set to play there, but there was nothing slated for this night. We finally looked around us. There were two big screens with sports on, and the place was wall to wall guys...Felt a little out of place, but did enjoy the scenery!

Finn MacCool

Long ago there lived a giant named Finn MacCool. He lived on the North coast of Ireland with his wife Sadb and his son Oisin. They were happy there, except for one annoyance. There also lived, across the sea, another giant called Benandonner. He was a Scottish fellow who shouted insults to Finn every time he saw him. One day the string of insults was just too much for Finn so he grabbed a clump of dirt and flung it at Benandonner. Unfortunately he missed and now that clump of dirt is the Isle of Mann.

Benandonner laughed at Finn's attempt, and told him he was lucky that there was a sea separating them, else he would get a proper lesson. That was the last straw for Finn. He began taking huge columns from the cliffs and drove them into the sea. After a week's hard work he had created a path to Scotland and went in search of Benandonner.
He was tired though after all that hard work and thought that he should use the element of surprise to his advantage. So, he snuck up to Benandonner's house and peered in the window. There he saw a giant that was even bigger than himself. He realised that he would be throughly schooled by this fellow so he beat a hasty retreat .

Finn's boot in the fore front

He ran back over the causeway he had built and as he was making his way back to his house he fell and lost his boot. Benandonner heard this and ran to his own shore, and seeing what Finn had made, he laughed and began crossing.

Finn ran to his house and told his wise wife about the size of Benandonner. She told Finn to quickly put on Oisin's baby cap, take his rattle, and lie under a blanket. She told him to wait for her signal, a cough, and to shake the rattle when he heard it.

Benandonner arrived and pounded on the door demanding Finn MacCool.
Sadb calmly answered and told Benandonner that Finn was out hunting, but that he was sure to return shortly. She invited him in for a cup of tea while he was waiting.

Benandonner accepted and came into the house. He quickly grew impatient and again asked where Finn was. Sadb coughed and repeated that he would be back soon. Finn heard her cough and shook his rattle. Benandonner heard this demanded to see if Finn was hiding in the house. Sadb smiled and told him that it was only their son Oisin, but he was welcome to have a look. Benandonner stormed into the room next to the kitchen and there he saw Finn MacCool dressed as a baby.

Benandonner paused and thought to himself...if this is the baby, how big is the father??!! Finn waved his arms like a baby and struck the wall, shaking the entire house. That decided Benandonner and he turned tail and ran.

Fearing that Finn would cross the causeway to get him he also destroyed the causeway behind him.