Day 4- Whales

Turns out I couldn’t stay up and I fell asleep. The worst part about it is that the hotel forgot to give me and Andres the wake up call I asked for. Luckily, Ray woke us up at 6:15, fifteen minutes after we were supposed to be on the bus. The only reason they didn’t leave without us is because they had an issue with fitting the entire luggage on the bus. Needless to say I wasn’t feeling too good, but at least I made it to the bus on time to get to the ferry. When we got to the docks, David showed us the ferry, which looked more like a cruise ship. As soon as we got on, I sat down and fell asleep for a few hours. Finally after a long ride we arrived in Whales. It looked exactly like what the locals in Dublin told me it would look like, mountains and sheep. But it was very nice. It looked a lot better than the mountains you could see on the freeway in New York State. Our first stop was a tiny tourist shop with a ridiculously long name. The town we were in was very small and empty. Up the block from the shop was a supermarket chain called Somerfield’s, which is where the short British film “Cash Back” took place. Unfortunately, you can’t get cash back with an American Debit card. Afterwards, we went to a castle, which was used as a military base. It was really cool. Nader, Art, and I disregarded the “closed” sign on the steps going up to the outer wall and walked around the entire castle. The view from up there was incredible. After exploring the rest of the castle we made our way to our hotel. Again, the town was very small and quiet. And our hotel was more like a big cottage than anything else. They had no elevators so everyone had to lug their luggage up a few flights of stairs. And between the way they numbered the rooms and the way the place was built, it was like navigating thru a maze. Worst of all, they had little to no hot water in the showers or sinks. On the brighter side, I had an excellent view of the mountains from my room. After we were settled, we went to dinner in the hotel. Then when we were finished, David told us about a castle near by that he would guide us to. What he didn’t tell us is that it was at the top of the highest mountain that I could see from my bedroom. It was very strenuous and very tiring but once we reached the castle, it was all worth it. The view was incredible. You could see the entire village and a lot of the surrounding valleys. When we got back to the hotel I went and had a drink with everyone else who went on the hike then went to my room and relaxed. After two all-niters, I needed a night off.