travel journal: The Aran Islands to Clifden to Donegal

We left the Aran Islands in the morning, taking ferries from Inish Oirr to Inish More and then to the tiny coastal town of Rossaveel (the names of places have only gotten more charming). We were still with Mike, a fellow traveler, so we left the pier and started walking towards the main highway where we thought we'd all try our luck at hitch hiking again. I'm still constantly surprised at the endless kindness of the people here, with no exception to when we didn't make it 100 meters from the pier and an older couple walking in front of us stopped and waved us over. Apparently they had been discussing driving to Clifden and after hearing we were heading that way, simply said, "Well, you'd better come with us then." We settled in for the ride, enjoying hearing about their lives and other hitch hiker experience on the hour or so ride to Clifden. They were incredibly charming and kept saying things like "You looked like three lost sheep out there, and and you know what you call sheep with no legs-- clouds!" Uh, adorable. The beautiful Kylemore Abbey was also somewhat on the way to Clifden, and the couple very kindly drove about 20 minutes out of the way because they just wanted us to see it. Somewhat in awe of how lucky we had been, we arrived in Clifden in the early afternoon and said goodbye to the couple.

We found the hostel in town (easy enough when there was just one!) and walked around the town for the evening. We listened to some local music (as usual) at the pub and called it a night. The next morning we debated our next move, and decided to head further north to Donegal. We have about 3 more days to make it to Belfast to catch our ferry to the Isle of Man, so we've kind of had to plan our schedule accordingly. We spent the night in Donegal; local pub for a bit in the evening to enjoy the music-- although it's become our routine here on the west coast it's been great hearing different musicians in every city, and a nice way to meet some locals. It's funny though, we are usually the youngest people in the pubs here, but we really were youngest by FAR at the pub in Donegal (as you can see by the clip) which still made for a great evening. To Northern Ireland next!