Ok, so before this gets boring I'll tell the long story short (yes, yes, I can hear the sigh of relief already!).We decided to go on a little road trip of Ireland, and see as much as we could in four days. Now, if we would have had an extra couple of days, we would have been able to go down to Clare, Kerry & Cork area and see that beautiful part of the world, but we had four days, so had to make the best of it!
We hit the road early in the morning heading West... I had a little detour I wanted to make over in Derrylaconnell, and after that, and while enjoying the beautiful scenery of West Donegal we headed south towards Galway!
Some people have commented that doing a quick road trip like this isn't good, because you don't get to spend enough time anywhere... but I would have to say that it's a good way to see a lot of the country, and to take a broad view of Ireland. I would agree that you don't get to see much in detail, but that's the sacrifice to be made!We did make a little stop at the ruins of Claregalway Abbey, which I thought were just amazing! It was a beautiful clear blue sky, and we just stumbled upon this abbey!
We reached Galway mid afternoon and had gorgeous weather, so took a walk around the Spanish Arch and the bay, and up into the shopping streets! I really liked Galway, there was something magnetic about it!
That evening we visited the little town of Claddagh, where I had expected to see some mention of Richard Joyce, and the origins of the Claddagh ring and legend. However, there was nothing. The little fishing of Claddagh had been completely torn down, and all that now remains is the name and the legend... I still really enjoyed walking through it, and as we got to the bay at Claddagh we were greeted with a beautiful night sky.
We had dinner in a lovely local pub and met my cousin and her fiance for a few drinks. We were hoping to catch some live Trad music, but we had arrived in between sessions, and with all the driving planned the next day, thought it was best to not stay out partying into the wee hours.
The next morning we took a walk again, and saw some sights we had wanted to look at again from the afternoon before, then late morning jumped into the car and headed for Dublin!By now Cory was a pro at driving on the left, so after driving about half way while he slept it was my turn to chill in the passenger seat & catch 40 winks... thing I know we're at the Dublin toll road!!!
Dublin was great! We were again surprised by the weather! The sky was blue and the air was warm... it was perfect! So, we grabbed lunch and hit Temple Bar!We saw the Guinness Storehouse the next morning and the Old Jamesons Distillery in the afternoon... we hadn't really planned to make our road trip a hop-on-hop-off brewery trip, but we were both interested, and thought 'feck it'! We got some tour bus passes
and saw the city that way... It was nice to just be able to stroll the streets of Dublin, taking in the history and culture... the buildings were amazing too! Oh, and we managed to pop in and see my brother too for a few minutes. He was working at St. Pats Cathedral one of the days, so we stopped by and annoyed him for a bit... it was good to see him!We were also in Dublin for the US Presidential Election results... so we chilled out watching the news channel, and the next day everyone was asking Cory what he thought of the news etc etc! Everyone seemed impressed to meet a 'real live American' person on the day of the results!
The next day we did a little more sightseeing, and then mid-afternoon hit the road again for Donegal :)
(But we did have to make a stop in Derry for dinner, neither of us could wait any longer, and we were both craving fajitas!)
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