Monday May 20, 2013

Aiofe and Sean had to work early, so we all said a quick goodbye around 8:20.  She gave us a key to lock the door when we left, so we walked up into town and mailed our postcards, and bought a glasses repair kit for 3 EUR to replace the screw in Melissa’s frames.

We didn’t leave Manorhamilton until almost 12:00.  We drove to Glencar Lough and Waterfall, which was a 50 ft. waterfall a short distance from the road along a little path.  After this we headed to Knocknarea, a hill/mountain where an enormous cairn 180 ft in diameter and 30 ft high stands on the peak.  We hiked the 1.2km trail in extreme fog, and could only see about 30 feet in front of us by the time we reached the cairn.  After making it back to the car, we went to Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, where we saw dozens of passage tombs in various states, some still quite well preserved for being 5000 years old.

 

 

 

 

 

It was around 3:00 and we shortly entertained the idea of heading back to Aiofe’s flat to chat a bit longer, but we had already set up a couchsurfing night with Damien McIntyre in Dunkineely, County Donegal.  We decided to stop in the town of Donegal to visit Donegal Castle, a partially restored castle in the city center.  We did a self-guided tour, took a few pictures, and headed out.

 

 

 

 

And you’ll never guess who we saw coming into the castle as we were leaving:  The annoying guy sitting behind us on the airplane.  NO KIDDING!  What are the odds of that?  We did not stop to talk as we basically heard his life story already, 35000 feet in the air.

We headed to Dunkineely where we met Damien at his place called Mac’s Bar.  We talked for a good hour at least and he recommended going back toward Donegal to a place called the Village Tavern in Montcharles.  The atmosphere was great, food was very good although somewhat pricey, and we paid 43 EUR for fish and chips (Joe), Crab Toes (Melis) and some wine.  We also learned that one of the server girls lived in Madison for about 6 months, so that was another cool coincidence today.  We headed back to Mac’s, talked for another long while with Damien, and headed to McIntyre’s Bar (owned by his dad and technically our host) for the night.