Dublin to Inishmor to Galway and the Owen Wilson siting...

We wrapped up in Dublin and hopped on a bus to Galway...we arrived and are staying in a town about 2km from Galway called Salthill at Noreen and Ambrose Cosgrove's Bed & Breakfast...a charming Irish couple that Hoyt has managed to chat with every free second he gets...Hoyt has been all smiles since we landed and tries to chat up everyone he can...of course, they are Irish and so for them that is a welcomed action...they are for sure always up for a chat...they certainly are the most friendly folk I have ever met.

This morning we were walking on the street and looking at our map and a gentlemen stopped to ask if we 'were getting on ok' and there was a moment where I thought oh no, he will ask for a change but that is not the case in all but in actuality he genuinely was concerned about our well being...amazing.

Anyway, we pulled into our beach town and walked along the promenade which is right on the coast and then settled into one of the oldest most unique pubs in Ireland. The pub has been given the James Joyce award which is the highest honor for a pub in Ireland. So, what makes this one so unique was by far the 150 lamps strewn around, the 200 kettles tucked away into every nook and cranning. The placed looked as if one of the couple had a serious pack-rat problem and the other person in the couple said "let's open a pub and you can put every treasure you find into it." It is perfect.

The next day we woke up early for our adventure on the Aran isalnds which are a chain of islands off the western coast of Ireland. We caught the ferry over after a delicious Irish breakfast prepared by the ever-lovely Noreen. We then hired a bike and set forth although it was about 40 degrees with about 50mph winds hurling through. We are so happy we did. The island is everything you see in the movies. Green pastures marked with stone walls, people speaking in gaelic over large pints and cliffs where you cannot even step to the edge due to fear of being blown off and swept away by the crashing waves 200 ft below. We biked for about 5 hours all around the island, stopping everyonce in a while when the wind would get the best of us but thankfully we had bought some aran sweaters so we stayed toasty.

The day concluded with some fish and chips where the mackral was caught fresh that morning and listening to the local fisherman tell jokes and stories of the day or of their glory days...we sadly got on the ferry at 7:30pm and got back to town, had one more pint where the bartendress did one of those shamrocks on the top and hoyt got to of course chat it up with more folk...a perfect day!

Today, we were so overwhelmed by the grandeur of the day that we slept in, watched some trashy irish version of Jerry Springer and headed to Galway to wander the streets...while wondering, Hoyt all of the sudden stopped dead in his tracks and said "oh my gosh, that is owen wilson." He was walking next to us. Seriously, something weird always happens to me when I travel and it is this weird sentiment of the randomness of the world, mixed with the understanding of how small I am in the grand scheme of things. I realize now that in my own world, at home, I feel like that is the world and the rest is like a story book. Then, as always, some bizarre twist of fate happens and the world seems so small. Not a very good explanation but the best I can do right now...

Anyway, the fact that at least 1 person a week tells Hoyt "you know you look like Owen Wilson" that it was to the say the least a surreal experience to have him then walking next to him...of course, then I realize that the randomness makes sense if we think that at some level there must be a bizarre connection between the two...we were unfortunately too star struck to figure out how to approach him and so we followed him around for a bit and got a decent photo of him from the distance...maybe he will be at O'connor's tonight...who knows?