Wednesday, June 11

Lydia and Dana – We all got up at 6a to shower and get ready for the day.  By 7:30, we had eaten our breakfasts and had our luggage in the common room.  A lady from St. Louis was in our hostel and watched us get ready to leave.  While waiting for the bus we sang rounds and different songs from Dance School.  When the bus arrived we loaded quickly and were off.  We stopped at a castle that had slits for windows.  These slits were used to drop stones and boiling water onto attackers. New we saw the famine walls.  These were built by families that had been banished to the wastelands of Ireland to work and die.  There was no purpose to the walls besides punishment.  In ancient times a portal tomb was built encasing 23 men, women, and children.  This tomb was made by balancing a slab on top of two pillar-like stones.  We saw W.B. Yeats’ tomb at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on our way to Donegal, with his famous epitaph:  “Cast a cold eye, on life, on death. Horseman pass by”.  We are now above Donegal in a very nice and modern hostel.  Out our windows we have a beautiful view of mountains topped with clouds.  And an overlook that covers a town; lots of sheep.