doolin, population 250

yesterday we drove from galway to doolin, a teeny tiny town that is well known for traditional music, so hostels and bed and breakfasts have cropped up to serve the tourists who come to listen to the music in the pubs.  the town (really just a collection of buildings along one main street) was adorable, right on the water (we're on the west coast of ireland, so this is the atlantic ocean), and we had a great pub dinner (i had a goat cheese tart with a big salad and a side of chips - must get potato products whenever possible) and then we hung out until music started in the pub around 9:30.  honestly?  the music was kind of disappointing.  three musicians who sat in the middle of the pub - super cozy, really great atmosphere, but we'd just seen this amazing band the night before in galway, and these guys didn't seem INTO it - there wasn't the energy we'd seen the night before.  also, EVERY PERSON IN THE PUB WAS A TOURIST.  in retrospect, of course, right?  it's a town of 250, so everyone who frequents the pub doesn't live there.  but the music FELT touristy, with cameras going off every second and the musicians seeming lifeless - like they HAD to be there to get tourism to the town.  i don't know if that makes sense...we had a great evening - delicious dinner, great pub, made some friends at the table next to us - but the music wasn't the highlight of the evening.  i didn't get any pictures in the pub - i didn't want to be THAT tourist - but this is a picture i took from our hostel - the pasture literally across the street.  super rural.  smelled like freshly cut hay when we got back to the hostel at night.  loved that.  it was really homey.

to back up a bit...our drive from galway to doolin brought us into county clare!  yay!!

and county clare is GORGEOUS.  dry rock walls - no mortar - line the roads (sometimes a little TOO close to the road for my liking) and mark off the pastures.  cows and sheep everywhere.  again, we had great weather - some rain as we were leaving galway, but it stopped pretty quickly.  every 10 minutes one of us would say to the other, "look how beautiful!"  it felt like every corner we turned had something new and different to see.  and new and different tour buses going 100 miles per hour to avoid.  eek!

i took this picture to illustrate WHY there are so many rock walls.  in the foreground you see green fields and walls; on the hillside, you see that purple stuff?  rocks.  everywhere.  covering every surface.  it was so incredible to see the contrast between the cleared fields and those that hadn't been cleared and were still rock-covered.  it would have been a LOT of work to start farming this land.

and this is our trusty car!  some people (boys) had asked what kind of mercedes it is; it's an A160.  (how is this an "intermediate" car?!?!)

we've now made our way to dingle for the night - another sea-side town a couple hours further south.  the guidebook says there is an excellent ice cream place here, so that is one stop we've got planned for our evening - otherwise we'll just see where the night takes us!  (i can't recommend the lonely planet series highly enough - great maps, interesting blurbs about the towns that i read aloud to other claire while we're driving into the town, good recommendations for food/drink/etc.)