Doolin is rural, down home, fun. It has four pubs and several restaurants, which we never visited because we loved the pubs. It has the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, the Burren, and a beach.
It does not have a bank or an ATM. You might think that is not a big problem. Pubs take credit. But many independent shops don't take credit. Nor did our B&B. A critical error on the part of our hostess was failing to inform us that she didn't take credit and there is no ATM.
We were on foot. Not to worry, we thought. We will take a bus to Ennis where there is a bank and we can spend a day seeing the town.
A bus is scheduled to leave Doolin for the 1-hour trip to Ennis at 10:00 and return at 2:30. Perfect, given our 9:00 breakfast habit. We'd have lunch in Ennis, wander around, go to the ATM, and catch the 2:30 getting back in good season.
Wrong. To start with, the bus cost 26 euros ($30) a person, making for a pricey lunch trip. Then it was an hour late and took an hour and a half to get to Ennis, where the bus station was a few miles from town. We had all of 40 minutes to find a bank and hightail it back to the bus station. Since we didn't have lunch or see Ennis, all we achieved by our trip was to save our hostess the cost of accepting a credit card. Hmmmmm, not a good exchange . . . and one that could have been avoided easily with more information.
We did get to go by the Cliffs of Moher on the way and count all the buses in the parking lot. And we saw every little town from Doolin to Ennis, both directions. We also confirmed our conviction never to drive the bus-loaded, narrow roads of Ireland.
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| on the bus, for a long time! |
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| in Ennis, for a short time |
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| found the bank |
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| walking back to the bus station |
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| views out the bus window of little towns along the way |
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| Lots of Dooliner beer when we got back to Fitz's Pub |
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