GOOD CRAIC IN DOOLIN’
We followed a rainbow almost all of the way to Doolin-(no foolin), passing by several quaint villages such as Listowel, known as the home of playwright John B. Keane, who wrote the film "The Field" starring Richard Harris. Lots of folks from all over Europe come to Doolin for the "trad" (traditional Irish music) scene. Gus O’Connor’s Pub is one of the hottest spots and folks from many nationalities enjoy pints and share travel stories here. The new group I'm traveling with is super friendly. We've been nicknamed "the 12 Apostles, or "the dirty dozen" by our tour leader Des(mond)-a craggy blue eyed man of about 60 who played his harmonica while driving today, singing "The Rose of Tralee"... Desmond played Simon and Garfunkel tunes most of the afternoon, which kept me singing along..."We've all gone to look for America....." (nearly brings tears to my eyes as I feel very blessed on this trip). For me, the travel bug is the best virus to catch in life.

The new group has welcomed me to hang with them, and I'm the only American on board. Cool. Once we got settled into Paddy's Doolin Hostel, we went down the road to Gus O'Connors pub, where we met 5 young lads from Australia, here to surf (!), of course, they're wearing 2 wetsuits each. The pub serves a good plate of cabbage and bacon, i'm told (but sounds yucky to me), so i stuck with the Irish stew. God knows how much my cholesteral levels will rise by the time i'm home....the Irish don't know from smoothies and veggies! Maybe all those years ago, between 1845-1850 during the Potato famine, they realized it could happen again, so no plate goes unserved containing pototoes now.