I woke up, bright and early at 6:15am and was out the door by 7:00 to begin my hike to the cliffs of Moher. The owner of my hostel had drawn me a map that included hopping over gates and walking along the edge of some smaller cliffs. now, this was not the usual path, he said that the rangers at the cliffs would stop anyone trying to go back to Doolin on this route, but he could send people there because he was in the opposite direction. sketchy. anyways, I followed the directions, but they were a little misleading, perhaps i missed a step or read the map wrong, but i wound up in a variety of places i feel i really shouldn't have been. when i first lost the trail it looked as if i needed to head down to the rocks, so that is what i did. i even passed the landmarks he sketched out for me. eventually though i realized that to go any further would mean needing either superhero powers or climbing equitement, so i cut my losses, tried to find a dry patch of rocks, and hoisted myself upwards torwards the cow fields. well, i'm still alive so i guess i was sucessful. no, it wasn't that dramatic, but i would have hurt myself pretty severely had i fallen. The guy said i would be along the edge for this part and the map lined up with everything, but i found myself on a tiny path next to barbed wire fences on one side and DOWN on the other. when i could go forward no further, i went up again. this time i got to use grass to pull my weight up, and i had an old wire/post fence to aid me, but its a good thing i'm fairly agile at climbing because this was a death type of a fall had i lost my footing. From here i had to manuver my way through cow fields, mud, small gourges and over/under fences (barbed and electric) in the general direction of the cliffs before i finally reached the main road. it was an adventure, but i'm not sure exactly how worth it it was.... turns out the way over was more interesting than the cliffs themselves. The top of the cliffs don't offer nearly as good a view as the side view i had on the way over. there wasn't much there, and the scopes didn't work. however, i did borrow someone's binoculars and i got to faintly see a Puffin!!! so cool.

After catching the 11:15 bus back to Doolin, i grabbed a salmon sandwich for lunch and then hurried down to the pier to catch my boat to Inishmore at 1:00. I passed out within 15 minutes of being on the ferry and woke up around 1:27 when the boat had slowed. assuming we had reached inisheer, the first island where i would catch my next ferry, i strapped on my bag and went onto the deck. much to my surprise, and dissapointment (since i had been sleeping) the ferry had gone to the cliffs and were right under them when i woke up! at least i caught the last good view, but i wished i had known. THEN we went back to Doolin. they must have combined my ferry with a tour of the cliffs, or i got on the wrong ferry, because we didn't even get to Inisheer until 2:30, when we were supposed to be there an hour before. not having enough time now to wander the island, i just waited on the rocks by the pier for the next ferry to take me to Inishmore. it was all very confusing, and i wished i had known what the agenda was.

When i got to Inishmore i went to my hostel, dropped my stuff off, got into my bathing suite and headed to the beach. Anthony, one of my roomates in Killarney, was staying there too, as were Ellen and Lindsay (our whole Killarney dorm), and we all went down to the beach. it was too cold to swim and there were jelly fish, but we had a good time shell finding. When we went back to the hostel we had a BBQ, hung out, batted away the midges, and listened to the loud music that made us feel like we were on spring break. Eventually we went to a pub that had some live music and finished out the night drinking and watching the locals drink themselves stupid and dance. it was a grand time.