^^^ That's Bronte
It was sort of gloomy and rainy…. Again….
But that didn’t stop us! Bronte and I wanted to go to the Cliffs of Moher, a major wonder of the world, no matter what! All four of us walked to the bus station about 1 kilometer away, and figured out that there was a 12:30 bus and a 2:30 bus that would cost about 17 euro round trip. We weren’t totally sure about it, and it was only about 11:00 am, so we decided to go over to the nearby Dunnes store, grab some wifi and a snack and decide.
A box of granola bars cost about 4 euro… or we could get a box of Ritz Crackers and a water bottle for our excursion for about 2 euros… so we went with the latter! Always come prepared with snacks and water, always.
It was starting to get close on time, and the boys were nowhere in sight, but we knew they knew we had a bus at 12:30, so we checked out and were on our way to the bus! See ya later boys! They were picking up a few snacks and things for their lazy day at home.
There was only one machine to buy bus tickets and thank goodness it was working today!!! We bought a roundtrip ticket knowing it is usually harder to find a place to buy a bus ticket on the other end... and we were later very glad we did!
12:30 hit… and no bus showed up… so we asked the only guy around that looked like a bus official… He immediately whipped out his glasses and brochure of the bus times and said the 12:30 was only a summertime route, and we would have to wait for the 2:30pm bus. With my bus experience, I knew to ask what time the last bus back would be… and he said 5:10pm. Perfect, with a 50 minute bus ride that would leave us well over and hour to check out the cliffs!
We walked back to the Dunens store for more wifi and to be able to sit out of the rain!
The time went by more quickly than we thought… so it was off to the bus station again! The bus came on time, we made sure it was going to the cliffs, and we were on our way!!
……. About 10 minutes before the end of the 50 minute bus ride out to the end of the world… Bronte had a panic moment. She frantically rummaged through her purse and pulled out the keys to the house we are renting with terror on her face. The boys must be locked out. They are going to rip her a new one when we got back….
OOPS.
We just sat there and ate the Ritz Crackers for lunch!
My phone was dead so Bronte rushed to try and connect to the bus wifi to let the boys know we knew we had it and that we would be back as soon as we could…. But we couldn’t connect because we rolled in to the large parking lot on the side of the cliff with a whole lot of nothing else….
Of course there was supposed to be wifi at the visitor center… but we couldn’t connect in fast enough and we wanted to save Bronte’s phone battery for a real emergency… (like taking pictures of the beautiful scenery!)
We did just that! We tromped all over and loved the sound of the waves crashing against the huge wall of rock that we were standing on “at our own risk” !!!
The little castle on the edge was perfect as the sun went down! Honestly happy we came at a later time as the sun was going down over the water and rocks… it was unreal!
By this time it was about 4:45pm, so we wandered to the Visitor Center that was built into the side of the hill! We stood inside of the visitor center to warm up before the bus was supposed to roll in at 5:10pm.
A grounds service man in a bright yellow vest ventured to ask us.. “ Are you girls OKAY?”
I guess we looked pretty lost standing there with no purpose… We told him we were waiting for the bus and he told us there was no way the bus was going to pull all the way into the parking lot of the visitor center at this time at night. “You need to go tru the stone houses and stand in the pedestrian walk” In a thick accent.
Basically he was kicking us out of the center since they were closing. We hurried our butts over to the crosswalk and stood there. It got darker… and darker.. and colder.. and people started to trickle out one by one leaving in their cars to go home. Soon we were the only souls around.
The original bus driver said that the return bus would be coming from Galway and to give it 5 minutes before we doubt it coming since it was a busy Friday night..
We set time limits (it was freezing) and said that if it didn’t come by 5:30, we would walk to the nearest B&B that we saw on the way in about a mile away. (Note to travelers, always pay attention to possible places to stay! You may be stranded!)
It was now 5:20. The bus was 10 minutes late. We were freezing!!! We both started walking circles to warm up, and prayed to the bus gods. Were we even in the right crosswalk? At about 5:24 I saw big headlights down the road… it HAD to be the bus, I stood in the crosswalk with my hand out, hoping it was the bus. It wasn’t, so I just looked like an idiot to the truck driver. Can’t tell the difference between a bus and truck in the dark!
We were destitute. Cold. The boys probably wanted to rip our heads off for leaving them.
BUT. The view was SO WORTH IT J
We were about a minute and a half from using the last minutes of Bronte’s phone battery as a flashlight to walk down the road, it was so close to our 5:30 limit we set for ourselves.
The. Bus. Came. IT CAME FOR US!
We first asked if it was going to Ennis, and then we were so happy to see the bus driver we sort of screeched at him in excitement… he said “I always come!”
We weren’t stranded and we didn’t have to bed the B&B people to take our last 20 euro we had left and give us a place for the night! Travel win.
Back on the bus, Bronte immediately connected to wifi to see if the boys walked back to wifi to message us to get our butts home with the key… no message from them, so we relaxed a little. It WAS possible that the sliding glass door to the backyard was left open…
We were last off the bus and took a spin into Dunnes store for dinner (Gnocchi, ham, broccoli, and red sauce for 4 euro because we are bosses at grocery shopping) and basically ran home to get out of the cold.
We said our prayers and opened the door. No boys.
BUT the washer was running… so they much have gotten in! We were starving and jumped right in to making dinner! About halfway through dinner the boys poked their heads in through the sliding glass door.. they were at the store as well getting snacks.. how did we miss them on the way home?
Oh well, we got to keep out heads because the sliding glass door was unlocked and they weren’t stranded. All of us were almost stranded today! IT all worked out in the end and we made it safe in the warm house for the night. The funny thing was, Tanner ALWAYS takes care of the key, and today was the fist day Bronte said she would lock the door on the way out and take care of it. Bad day to choose to do that Bronte, bad day….
-Payton (on bahalf of Bronte, Joe, and Tanner)
It was sort of gloomy and rainy…. Again….
But that didn’t stop us! Bronte and I wanted to go to the Cliffs of Moher, a major wonder of the world, no matter what! All four of us walked to the bus station about 1 kilometer away, and figured out that there was a 12:30 bus and a 2:30 bus that would cost about 17 euro round trip. We weren’t totally sure about it, and it was only about 11:00 am, so we decided to go over to the nearby Dunnes store, grab some wifi and a snack and decide.
A box of granola bars cost about 4 euro… or we could get a box of Ritz Crackers and a water bottle for our excursion for about 2 euros… so we went with the latter! Always come prepared with snacks and water, always.
It was starting to get close on time, and the boys were nowhere in sight, but we knew they knew we had a bus at 12:30, so we checked out and were on our way to the bus! See ya later boys! They were picking up a few snacks and things for their lazy day at home.
There was only one machine to buy bus tickets and thank goodness it was working today!!! We bought a roundtrip ticket knowing it is usually harder to find a place to buy a bus ticket on the other end... and we were later very glad we did!
12:30 hit… and no bus showed up… so we asked the only guy around that looked like a bus official… He immediately whipped out his glasses and brochure of the bus times and said the 12:30 was only a summertime route, and we would have to wait for the 2:30pm bus. With my bus experience, I knew to ask what time the last bus back would be… and he said 5:10pm. Perfect, with a 50 minute bus ride that would leave us well over and hour to check out the cliffs!
We walked back to the Dunens store for more wifi and to be able to sit out of the rain!
The time went by more quickly than we thought… so it was off to the bus station again! The bus came on time, we made sure it was going to the cliffs, and we were on our way!!
……. About 10 minutes before the end of the 50 minute bus ride out to the end of the world… Bronte had a panic moment. She frantically rummaged through her purse and pulled out the keys to the house we are renting with terror on her face. The boys must be locked out. They are going to rip her a new one when we got back….
OOPS.
We just sat there and ate the Ritz Crackers for lunch!
My phone was dead so Bronte rushed to try and connect to the bus wifi to let the boys know we knew we had it and that we would be back as soon as we could…. But we couldn’t connect because we rolled in to the large parking lot on the side of the cliff with a whole lot of nothing else….
Of course there was supposed to be wifi at the visitor center… but we couldn’t connect in fast enough and we wanted to save Bronte’s phone battery for a real emergency… (like taking pictures of the beautiful scenery!)
We did just that! We tromped all over and loved the sound of the waves crashing against the huge wall of rock that we were standing on “at our own risk” !!!
The little castle on the edge was perfect as the sun went down! Honestly happy we came at a later time as the sun was going down over the water and rocks… it was unreal!
By this time it was about 4:45pm, so we wandered to the Visitor Center that was built into the side of the hill! We stood inside of the visitor center to warm up before the bus was supposed to roll in at 5:10pm.
A grounds service man in a bright yellow vest ventured to ask us.. “ Are you girls OKAY?”
I guess we looked pretty lost standing there with no purpose… We told him we were waiting for the bus and he told us there was no way the bus was going to pull all the way into the parking lot of the visitor center at this time at night. “You need to go tru the stone houses and stand in the pedestrian walk” In a thick accent.
Basically he was kicking us out of the center since they were closing. We hurried our butts over to the crosswalk and stood there. It got darker… and darker.. and colder.. and people started to trickle out one by one leaving in their cars to go home. Soon we were the only souls around.
The original bus driver said that the return bus would be coming from Galway and to give it 5 minutes before we doubt it coming since it was a busy Friday night..
We set time limits (it was freezing) and said that if it didn’t come by 5:30, we would walk to the nearest B&B that we saw on the way in about a mile away. (Note to travelers, always pay attention to possible places to stay! You may be stranded!)
It was now 5:20. The bus was 10 minutes late. We were freezing!!! We both started walking circles to warm up, and prayed to the bus gods. Were we even in the right crosswalk? At about 5:24 I saw big headlights down the road… it HAD to be the bus, I stood in the crosswalk with my hand out, hoping it was the bus. It wasn’t, so I just looked like an idiot to the truck driver. Can’t tell the difference between a bus and truck in the dark!
We were destitute. Cold. The boys probably wanted to rip our heads off for leaving them.
BUT. The view was SO WORTH IT J
We were about a minute and a half from using the last minutes of Bronte’s phone battery as a flashlight to walk down the road, it was so close to our 5:30 limit we set for ourselves.
The. Bus. Came. IT CAME FOR US!
We first asked if it was going to Ennis, and then we were so happy to see the bus driver we sort of screeched at him in excitement… he said “I always come!”
We weren’t stranded and we didn’t have to bed the B&B people to take our last 20 euro we had left and give us a place for the night! Travel win.
Back on the bus, Bronte immediately connected to wifi to see if the boys walked back to wifi to message us to get our butts home with the key… no message from them, so we relaxed a little. It WAS possible that the sliding glass door to the backyard was left open…
We were last off the bus and took a spin into Dunnes store for dinner (Gnocchi, ham, broccoli, and red sauce for 4 euro because we are bosses at grocery shopping) and basically ran home to get out of the cold.
We said our prayers and opened the door. No boys.
BUT the washer was running… so they much have gotten in! We were starving and jumped right in to making dinner! About halfway through dinner the boys poked their heads in through the sliding glass door.. they were at the store as well getting snacks.. how did we miss them on the way home?
Oh well, we got to keep out heads because the sliding glass door was unlocked and they weren’t stranded. All of us were almost stranded today! IT all worked out in the end and we made it safe in the warm house for the night. The funny thing was, Tanner ALWAYS takes care of the key, and today was the fist day Bronte said she would lock the door on the way out and take care of it. Bad day to choose to do that Bronte, bad day….
-Payton (on bahalf of Bronte, Joe, and Tanner)