We woke up at the ugly crack of dawn, since our ferry left
the Aran Islands at 8am. I am not a morning person, so I was pretty grouchy. I
also sleepily noticed that I had what seemed like a painful pimple on my cheek.
I have NEVER had a pimple on my cheek before, so I was confused and assumed it
was due to weird travelling habits or something.
Our bnb included breakfast, and I was ridiculously tired, so
I drank lots of coffee. I assumed that I didn’t sleep well since I didn’t have
a fan near the bed (we left it in the car and didn’t bring it on the ferry).
After the coffee, realizing with dread that I had to take a ferry again, I
begrudgingly took another motion sickness pill. One of these days I will stop
combining drowsy medication with caffeine, I promise.
The ferry ride wasn’t bad at all. Apparently, Day 13 was a
nasty ferry day, and Day 14 was more like normal. It was very calm, and I
totally could have gotten away without using a motion sickness pill, but I had
taken it before we left our bnb, so too late for that!
Off we went in the car. It was our one of our longer car
drives. It would be over 3 hours of driving to get to our next airbnb. The car
ride was difficult for me. I’m the navigator, and I help Paul by giving the gps
directions, but I was SO tired, it was very hard to stay awake. We assumed at
the time that it was the motion sickness pill and that I would get better
later.
We stopped along the way to see Carrowkeel, which is a Stone
Age cemetery for ancient clan leaders and their families. It was made of four
big tombs made partially underground, with circular rock roofs. Of course, it
was on top of a mountain, and of course, surrounded by sheep. It was a 1-2 km
hike to the top of the mountain, and it had to be one of the hardest
walks/hikes of my life. I was so tired, I felt like I was trying to walk
through thick sludge. I was slurring my words and kinda going cross-eyed. It
was weird. I also had a slightly sprained ankle from Day 12 and two swollen
knees from our bike ride on Day 13. Yeah, things weren’t going well for poor
Cris.
Paul got more and more concerned as we walked, since it
seemed odd that my motion sickness pill hadn’t worn off yet. We finally made it
to the top of the mountain and it was amazing. Such beautiful views! And the
mounds were cool, too. We went into a few of them.
We traipsed (I was more stumbling than traipsing) back to
the car for the next place, Knocknarea, which was an even bigger Stone Age
cemetery stone mound. However, when we got in the parking lot, the thought of
hiking another 2 km to see it just filled my fog-thickened head with dread. I
have never felt so groggy and miserably tired in my whole life. It was getting
a bit scary.
So, sadly, we left Knocknarea for another future Ireland
vacation, and headed for our airbnb. It wasn’t until later that night, after I had
passed out for a LONG time, that I put two and two together: I am now thinking
that I was stung by that bee on my cheek at the Aran Islands fort. For some
reason, I didn’t feel any pain until the next morning. I don’t understand that
part. However, I’m thinking that either I have become slightly allergic to bee
stings, or, the combination of drowsy medication, caffeine, and bee stings are
not the right combo of toxins for a body. And maybe my annoying bleeding
disorder messes it all up, too. Anywho, whatever the reason, Day 14 was not a
good day for me. At least we saw some amazing history and some astoundingly beautiful
views still!
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