Mainistir House Hostel

We are here at Mainistir House Hostel, rustic would describe it I think. The mattresses are about 40 years old, and I don't know about the rickety beds. The plumbing leaves much to be desired, and the drain in the shower is so sow that it flooded the bathroom. Good thing I didn't have my clothes laying on the bathroom floor. But all complaints aside (including the ancient kitchen) you get what you paid for and we have only paid about 8.50 pounds Irish per night here.

The ferry was quick and very smooth. We got a ride up to the hostel with one of the tour drivers, good thing as it was 1/2 hour or more walk to the hostel! For the boonies, we are out in even farther boonies! We passed by 3 different hostels right in town, so I don't k now why we couldn't have been booked into one of them. anyhow, after we got here and rested a little while, we went for a walk to Dun Duchathair, but when we got near there, we saw a sign telling us it was closed due to foot and mouth disease, so we kept on walking (past the turnoff) and met two gals from France who said they had been there, so we may go back tomorrow to have a look. The sign we saw was fallen so maybe it wasn't closed anymore. We are planning to rent bicycles tomorrow as it is too far to walk and we don't want another bus tour.

The view from our room is just gorgeous, as it is here in the front sun porch where I am now. I did a bunch of laundry earlier this afternoon in the bathroom sink, and have hung it in our room to dry. The building is cold so they will take longer to dry.

On our walk, we saw a few cows, lots of stone walls, and we both stopped on the beach to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean! We also saw some peculiar monuments, that looked like upright stone coffins. They had a sort of carved gravestone on the front, a stone cross on the top and were about the size of a coffin. The inscription is in English, which is odd as Irish is the dominant language here. All the townspeople speak it.

We stopped off at a little pub and had a coke before heading back into town. We picked up some groceries and headed home, where it was raining and got lucky, flagged down a tour van who took up up the hill to the hostel for a pound. We were very tired by then and the wind and rain was making it very miserable. The sun it out again now but everyone who comes in is talking about how cold it is. I might go for a little walk on the shore down over the hill from here before dark.

The drivers here all drive like maniacs. They go tearing over the roads like they're the only one on them. I don't know what the hurry is as there is very little road on this island!