Day started out .... well Sarah's alarm blared itself and jolted us awake. It's that irish DUN DUN DUN DUNNUNDUNDUN upbeat deal.
Not a gentle wake-up, but at least it felt somewhat appropriate.
But it was at the appropriate time so c'est la vie.
We decided on an 'early' start though that's not true when it's 8:30.
But apparently it was early enough because we grabbed breakfast at about 9 and we strolled in, no wait, and got to eat the second we sat down.
Not surprisingly, it was great. They had the whole shebang and it was a delicious start to our day.
Checked out and got to have our bags taken to our car--like seriously you barely have to lift a finger at this place if you don't want to.
We got ready to leave but I swung by to grab a tea to go (cause I could) and the breakfast area was JAM packed. There was a wait, and every table was taken.
Glad we got in early.
So we head to the town of Donegal to get to an ATM and some gas before we went to the Slieve League Cliffs. Small hiccup at the gas station- the pump is one of those lift up and back and we couldn't find an obvious way to pay so I went inside and had to ask the attendant. Once the pump was revealed, he said that you just start pumping.
*What?
Yeah, just start pumping. When you have what you want, pay inside.
That can't be it--people could just...not pay.
Yeah, but we hope they don't.*
So that's a thing apparently.
And then we drove to the cliffs.
They're beautiful.
And the sun came out to play for a bit!
I had a small incident where I went to take a picture off the path, and as I was walking to the fence, the wet ground just....schwoop.
Down I went. Somehow, as I fell, I managed to get my feet stuck under the fence.
Sarah in all her glory said, "Probably shouldn't have walked there."
So her helpfulness being what it was, I LITERALLY could not get my feet unstuck on my own.
Like, you know those videos where a sheep or a deer or even a fox (I think I saw a fox one once) gets stuck in the fence and a helpful farmer has to come and get them out?
Yeah, some random dude had to lift the fence so I could pull my feet free.
I've got a gnarly bruise.
Poor guy was super sympathetic, making sure I was ok, but my pride was very injured and muddied.
I mean, it was a good lesson before I climbed too high, cause, could you imagine if I fell from the actual top of the cliff?
Like, the cliffs have these stone stairs with no railings embedded into the ground and it's Ireland, so it had rained not too long ago.
Everything was slick.
(And, as an aside....am I clumsy??? I don't think I am. But I now have at least 3 stories where I went to take a picture of something, and suddenly I'm on my ass. Stone Mountain, Iceland, here?? To be fair, weather conditions were rainy, icey, and muddy but....I mean...come on.)
But I trekked upward with Sarah behind, and the views were stunning.
Totally lost track of time.
We didn't get back on our way until 2! And we were trying to make it to this place- Grianan of Aileach. But I sucked at being a navigator again, fell asleep so Sarah was using the GPS and missed a turn when an asshole honked at us, and then we fell behind schedule.
We didn't make it to Grianan until about 4:30, and by the time we did, they had closed the road to it due to 'icy conditions'.
We thought about walking up to find it ourselves, but it was pretty dark and we still had 2 hours before we made it to our place of stay for tonight. So we decided to move on--sometimes it's fate, sometimes it's because the navigator falls asleep.
We also decided to move on cause the gps battery wasn't charging super great so we were trying to get as far as possible before it crapped out on us. We ended up taking pictures of the directions on my camera in a weird faux 'old school' technique.
Whatever works, right?
(It's charged now-- I think there was a problem with the cable in the car with all my junk on top of it.)
So we left Grianan, and hopped the border to the Northern Ireland of the UK. (So, since Brexit got passed by Johnson, does that mean if we tried this road trip in the future, we'd have to go through some border station???Like, it was a blink and you missed it kinda deal, we were in Ireland, and suddenly we were in the UK. Anyways, I politically digress)
Unfortunately, the sun had been on it's merry way for quite some time so we were very much in the dark and I'm sure the beautiful drive was...well it was dark. We saw nada.
I hate winter.
We're going to be in the area a bit tomorrow so we'll see it, but man I hate how dark it gets! Here's worse than Georgia, and not as bad as Iceland, (in theory, it's been very cloudy so it's kind of equal as far as I've seen, but weather apps tell me different.)
But the place we're staying tonight, the Fullerton Arms in Ballintoy, Ballycastle has a really great room! Plus it...is a pub/restaurant so we ate here and the food was great. Had a more Irish dinner with a steak pastry pie.
Alas, the town was also super dark and quiet when we arrived so we have been inside for the majority of the night, but I think Sarah needs it (especially since driving is draining) and I guess I do cause I keep nodding off in the car.
I legit had a dream sometime today.
It involved Pepper, my brother's cat.
But it's nice to chill, and Fullerton has a little Game of Thrones room where banners are hung and the have either replicas or costumes worn by extras. We took some pics in their Iron Throne.
Chill!
Tomorrow we will putter about the area before we head back to Dublin to actually stay there. We might see some more Game of Thrones stuff, who knows!
And that's all from me tonight.
See you tomorrow!
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