day 4 - disaster!

july 18, 2007

last night i forgot to set my alarm on my cell phone. i woke up at 11:20am this morning. not a good start to my day. what's the deal with no alarm clocks in irish hotels and b&bs anyway? i have yet to stay at a place with a proper alarm clock. needless to say, i missed breakfast. and i love irish breakfasts. it's even too much food for me! you start with cereal, then you're served an egg, a roasted tomato, a couple of susage links, a couple of pieces of bacon (HUGE bacon at that), some toast, a muffin and potato bread. mmm, mmm, good. finish it off with some tea and you're ready for the day. but i missed it. i went hungry this morning.

my plan was to hit derry-stroke-londonderry, then drive through connemara on my way back to dublin. instead, i decided to stay one more night away from dublin, tour derry-stroke-londonderry in the morning and then drive the coast of donegal through ishowen to donegal town.

derry-stroke-londonderry is a pretty sweet place. it's called the walled city because it's ireland's oldest example of walled city planning. it's a fascinating place if you're interested in that stuff (which i am). so i spent a good amount of time walking along the walls observing the city. during my wall walk, i spoke with some derry-stroke-londonderry residents and they told me that the dali lama was in the millenium forum. the dali lama! how many times in your life can you say you shook the hand of the dali lama? maybe 6? 10? anyway, if the dali lama was in derry-stroke-londonderry, i was going to meet him. so i headed to the millenium forum to search him out. i was excited. so excited that i was obssessive about making sure my camera was working, kept checking my map to make sure i was heading in the right direction, etc. on my 4th check of my camera, you know, turning it on and off repeatedly, disaster striked again. my battery was dead.

so i headed back to my car to get my battery charger. 10 minute walk. wasted time. since it was around 2pm, i decided to go to a restaurant, get lunch and plead with bartender or waitress to let me charge my camera battery. a restaurant called the metro inside the walled city was nice enough to do so. except that american plugs don't work in irish plugs. you know, square peg, round hole... so i trekked back to my car, grabbed my adaptor and headed back to the metro where i had i weird club sandwich while my battery recharged. it was more like a chicken salad sandwich with bacon. normally i won't eat anything loaded with mayonnaise, especially on vacation, unless i make it myself because you just don't know how long it's been sitting out. the last thing i need is to spend my day on the crapper with stomach cramps.

stomach full and battery charged, i began my search for the dali lama. it wasn't a long search. the millenium forum was about 200m from the restaurant where i ate. as i arrived at the millenium forum, i noticed something strange - it was dark. and empty. it was closed. the dali lama had come, gone and went somewhere where i couldn't follow him. oh well. off to donegal. but first i needed to check something out - a place called the bogside near the walled city.

apparently in the early 70's, a group of people demonstrated in derry-stroke-londonderry on civil rights and were gunned down by british troops. 17 people died in the massacre. there are murals and memorials everywhere. it was a pretty powerful place. you are now entering free derry...

after i finished with the bogside, i realized i was running late. i checked my map and decided to head to greencastle, a small town in northeast ishowen (a peninsula in donegal). greencastle was a cool name. and there was a castle there. so off i went.

greencastle is an interesting castle. it's being developed into retail and residences that butt right up to the old fort. the castle itself is across the street and has been totally abandoned. i thought that strange.

next a decided to check out a couple of places marked on my map as "bocan stone circle", "clonca church and cross" and "carrowmore high crosses" on my way to carndonagh. after driving in circles for an hour, i was only able to locate one of those places - carrowmore, at least i think it's carrowmore. i hope you like the picture.

so i woke up late, my camera battery died, i missed the dali lama and i couldn't find half of the places i was looking for. i'm on a roll! so i decided to try for a castle clearly marked in my lonely planet ireland book. it was located just northeast of ballyfillin. hopefully i would find it.

the drive to carrickbrackey castle was amazing. the weather was gorgeous for the first time all trip, the beaches surrounding trawbreaga bay and the cliffs surrounding the lagg sand dunes (on the other side of the bay) were impressive. unfortunately you all will have to just believe me because my last picture of carrickbrackey castle was of a chicken, then my camera battery died again. apparently the half hour charge at the metro restaurant just wasn't enough.

i have to apologize to pat and dave for not taking more pictures of your beloved donegal. the county as absolutely gorgeous and i will only be able to remember it in my head. i'm so stupid!

tomorrow i'm off to connemara. i've put it off long enough.