Claire Blogs Day 4: We Are Too Polite For Our Own Good

Breakfast this morning was fresh-baked scones, porridge, coffee, oranges. I sort of wish we could live here forever. I took photos of the bathroom because it otherwise defies explanation. Let's just say it involves a fireplace, blue Christmas lights, and a disco ball.

I love that it's apparently baby-animal season here in Ireland. Maybe the Irish tourism board just breeds them year-round, but we've seen baby ponies, baby horses, baby donkeys, baby cows, baby sheep, baby cats, baby dogs...

Today, after church (it was...fast), we did the Proper Tourist thing and went to Kylemore Abbey:
We toured the Victorian Gardens with a large number of middle-aged German tourists, and I took the opportunity to take a number of cheesy macro-mode flower pictures. I think I liked the gothic church best, however; it was like a miniature cathedral.

We skipped a boat tour because the weather was crazy windy, and then rainy, and then sunny, and then windy, and then rainy. And then sunny. You get the idea. It's been making for dramatic pictures, at least. Instead, we drove to Clifden, a slightly larger town a couple dozen kilometers from Letterfrack. It's super adorable.

I wanted to go to Clifden to check out the ruins of Clifden Castle, which was built in the 17th or 18th centuries. As I said: "We came to Ireland to stomp around in ruined castles!" (Emily: "I thought we came to Ireland because it was cheap."). This took much longer than intended, because of this sign:
That sign does not, in fact, refer to the road next to which it is posted, or if it does, it doesn't mean it. So we wandered around lost for a while before figuring it out. The castle was totally worth the trek, though. We climbed in through a not-totally-blocked-off door:
We crept around the ruins, taking pictures and disturbing the birds. The ruins come complete with black birds circling ominously overhead and making a racket; we got a number of pretty excellent pictures:
Though this one may be my favorite (click to enlarge, a directive that actually applies to all photos, come to think of it):
The castle ruin was right next to a cow field:
The following conversation actually took place:

Claire: "That one must be the bull, it's the one without milk."
Emily: "It's also the one with the huge testicles."

After that, back to Clifden, where I had, I AM NOT KIDDING, the best mussels of my entire life:
That was all dinner was: the biggest bowl of mussels you have ever seen, and they were glorious. They melted in one's mouth.

Now we're back at the hostel, hanging out with other hostelers, getting involved in their dramas. It's fun.

Tomorrow: the Aran Islands!