Ireland- Day 4: Doolin --> Galway

I wouldn't say I woke up well-rested. In fact, I had a helluva time falling asleep and it wasn't until almost 3am that I finally did. It's been difficult adjusting to the time change- more difficult than I remember it being in the past. But, whatever. I'm on vacation, I can deal with this.

Amy and I walked around Doolin, which took a matter of minutes before heading south to Liscannor and Lahinch. We decided we'd hit up Enis on our way back up north and thought it'd be a really good idea to go back to Moran's to have another superb meal.



The drive to Lahinch is another familiar one. We passed the Liscannor Castle, or what's left of it.



And then parked in Lahinch, which is a big surf town. I've stopped on the way out of Lahinch in the past to get a cool picture of the colorful buildings along the coastline, but never in town. Amy and I walked around for just a little bit, checked out a surf shop and then went to check out the waves. There were a few people out surfing. The water must have been freezing. But they all looked like they were having fun. I couldn't help thinking of Steve, as I often do on these trips, knowing how happy he would have been to watch the surfers in Ireland. (I thought about him and talked about him constantly during the first meal at Moran's knowing that he would have been beyond happy having those amazing oysters).



There's not that much going on in some of these small towns this time of year. So all we needed was a few minutes to walk around and then go on our way. We headed to Enis which is the name of Amy's grandparent's house in North Carolina. She wanted to be able to take a picture and send her a postcard from there.

We were both caught off-guard by how sprawling Enis was. It was much bigger than we had expected (though to be honest, we really hadn't thought that much about it before arriving- evident by how little we thought about much of anything on this trip). But it was Saturday and people were out and about shopping and visiting and walking around town.



Motivated entirely by our taste buds, we hopped back in our adorable little car and headed north for Moran's. I swear if we closed our eyes, our stomachs would have easily led us there. We meandered through little towns and even tinier villages and even though there were a bunch of detours and we used our atlas very little, we found the turn for Moran's and were happy to be seated by the fire place eating almost exactly the same meal we had just one day earlier.

We took our time and savored each bite. Sad when it was done. But so full we couldn't entertain the idea of having just one more bite. The addition of apple crisp (with both cream and ice cream because we couldn't possibly decide between the two) really set us over the edge. But we were more than happy and satisfied. And had the fuel we needed to make the very last bit of the drive back to Galway.

Now I'm staying with my friend Robin here in Galway. Which has been amazing. First of all, quick story. Robin's my oldest friend in my life. Not like oldest as in she's 101 years old or anything. But the friend I've known the longest. Our mothers were friends from the time we lived in Connecticut and naturally we became friends with Robin. We lost touch after my family moved to New Hamsphire and saw each other I think only twice after that move. But due to the magic of Facebook, I heard from Robin after my sister's article was published in Real Simple- the one she wrote about the hike we did to scatter my father's ashes. And we've been in much closer touch since then. We fell back into our friendship essentially without skipping a beat and it's been so wonderful to be back in touch with her. Robin moved here in March and has very graciously opened up her home for me to stay. THANK YOU ROBIN!

Coming back into Galway on Saturday PM, Amy and I were reminded about Halloween and how over the top the Irish are about celebrating this holiday (as it turns out, it's believed that the Irish invented Halloween...of course!). We met up with Robin when she was done with work and had a nice dinner around the corner from the apartment and then ventured out onto Quay (pronounced Key) Street to grab a drink.

Apparently we're too old to be doing anything wild for Halloween, which was more than fine with me. We had a couple of drinks and then made the short walk back to Robin's.

Happy Halloween Eve!