Galway

Where did we leave off? Right. Sligo. Very cute town, great fish & chips, no time to look around.

It was definitely an early start as we headed out of Sligo. Not like… 5am early but early enough. We had a 2 hour drive to get to Connemara National Park where we were going to do some hiking. It was another morning without breakfast before we got going but there was a little roadside shop/cafe where we were able to get some hot chocolate & I had a scone that was fine but nothing like that really good one from Derry. We got into the parking lot, into our hiking boots, had a bathroom break and off we went.

Connemara has several different trails with none of them being particularly long so I decided we’d do the red trail, a 3.7km loop that leaves from the blue trail, which is a 3km loop from the starting point. Easy Peasy. Not easy. Not sure I know the definition of peasy to say on that one. If it relates to peas, it was definitely not peasy. We started out on a very easy trail, passing a lovely pasture with a couple of horses. We headed up some gentle slopes, enjoying the countryside until we reached the turn-off for the red trail. This took us towards a mountain that I assumed we’d be going partway up and then around. Uh, wrong… we went to the top. And yeah, I checked (after-the-fact, not in advance...) Diamond Hill counts as a mountain with a height of 442m. Good thing I carry my Ativan. The trail stayed amazingly well-groomed for our entire climb with paths and steps made of rocks. And it did end up being a gorgeous hike, it just wasn’t what we expected we were doing! It was a fairly foggy day so we weren’t able to see too far but we got great views of the lake we travelled along to get to the park and I got another photo for my new photo series featuring EDP that I’m calling Staring at Stuff with Binoculars (still workshopping that title.) Anyway. You go up one side of the mountain and down the other on a one-way trail and there is an escape point before you head towards the absolute top - there were a fair number of people who definitely either overestimated their abilities or perhaps just had no clue what they were getting themselves into and so the one-way trail wasn’t really one-way as it should have been. There were also some VERY smart people with thermoses, enjoying their coffee at the top of a mountain (note to self: definitely do this next time…)

It ended up taking us about 2 1/2 hours to do the two trails and the parking lot was PACKED when we got back. Not only was the lot full but the sides of the drive into the parking lot were also lined almost entirely to the entrance so it was good we made it an early day. Let me tell you - the woman in the car that I stopped was incredibly happy when I told her we were leaving and she could follow us to our spot. We had a long drive down to Galway, our base for our last 3 nights in Ireland, which was lovely drive and we were glad we had some car snacks to tie us over until we could get something more substantial. After a very long drive into Galway (with the last part taking FOREVER with traffic), we headed off into town to see the Spanish Arch (that’s IT?!) and get dinner. Dinner was the far superior of the two and I broke from my obsession with fish & chips for a beef & Guinness stew. So good and was the right kind of meal for after you climb a mountain. And so was the whiskey we stopped for on the way back to the hotel. And the hot chocolates we took for the walk back. I deserve a LOT of treats for climbing a mountain that I didn’t know I was climbing, despite being the person who planned the hike, okay?

Saturday was another day of hiking - it was time for the Cliffs of Moher and my last chance to see puffins. It was supposed to be the clearer day between Saturday & Sunday but when we got up there (after another early start since it’s 1 1/2 hours from Gayway), the fog was insanely thick. Like… Couldn’t see a thing thick. The cafes were still closed so we made due with car snacks and as we started off on our 10km hike to Hag’s Head, we could barely see where we were going. We could maybe see 20ft in front of us? But we were hopeful some of it might burn off as the morning marched on and so we did, too. Well, I wouldn’t say things cleared up but we did seem to hit a few little spots where we had more visibility and we were able to see some lovely little birds (not puffins) all snuggled up in the cliffs. It ended up being a really lovely walk (definitely more walk than hike) and we were often the only people around on our way out to the Hag’s Head. It was much busier on our way back but we had already done our exploring and the visibility wasn’t any better so it didn’t take long to get back at all. I’m disappointed in the lack of puffins and I’ve warned EDP that I will be planning a puffin-centric trip in the next few years so that he’s prepared for what’s coming. Given his new situation with the binoculars, he’s pretty keen on the idea. We’re really showing our age…

Anyway. We headed into Doolin for lunch, where we decided that we’d skip out on our afternoon plans for the Burren. I had been really struggling to figure out where the heck someone parks at the Burren and the trails were all quite long. With the fog, we weren’t going to be able to see anything and while there’s a small national park with the trails, the entire area has the same type of landscape so we were driving through what we would have been able to see. So we scrapped that idea and headed back to Galway, stopping at a lovely chocolate shop on the way (chocolate > hiking in the fog.) Then, it was off to dinner - and it was starting to rain just as we left the hotel and rain, it did. It was coming down pretty heavily so we ended up ducking into a pub for a drink before heading to a wonderful Spanish tapas place for dinner (TWO kinds of croquettes!) On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for one last ice cream at Murphys.

For our last full day in Ireland, we headed out to Inishmore, one of the Aran islands. It was a bit of a drive from Galway but we caught the first ferry over to Inishmore. After bolting up to the grocery store to get something to eat (seriously - why can’t you get food before 9am in this country?!) we decided we should maybe take one of the tour buses that take you around the island so we could see more. I vetoed the idea of renting bikes, though EDP would have been delighted to do that, but with the size of the island, we wouldn’t be able to see much if we just walked. And so, we found a hop-on-hop-off. Who said we’d leave in 10 minutes. Great! Just enough time for a bathroom break. A half hour later, we still hadn’t left. We finally bailed when it was clear the driver was trying to wait out a family that was indecisive about whether or not to take the tour. And we headed out on foot to Dún Dúchathair, the black fort. It was the closest of the 2 things I was hoping to see (the other being Dun Aengus.) We took the only road out of town and then headed up a side road that grew increasingly rocky and I started another new photos series called Abandoned Bikes I’ve Seen. A fair number, which was unsurprising. We saw some of the famous Aran sheep as we walked along and soon enough, we got out of the pastures and onto the cliffs. And it was stunning - we absolutely made the right choice in getting off the tour van. I have no idea how it would have gotten you up there, where it would have dropped you off, etc. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The sky was clear and the water was crashing and the rocks were so interesting. The ruins of the old fort were interesting but really, the cliffs and the promontory stole the show. After wandering for ages, we headed back into town for a seaside meal of cider and goat cheese salad (it sounds like the adult choice but Inishmore is known for its goat cheese and also, it may have been the only thing on the menu I could eat other than the fish and chips.) We stocked up on fudge from the Man from Aran, were delighted by a crew member from our ferry who is also a poet and wanders around selling his book to unsuspecting tourists, and soaked up the last of the Irish sunshine. With how long we spent exploring Dún Dúchathair, we didn’t have time for anything else but I didn’t even mind. It was a quiet ferry ride back and we were back in Galway, heading out for our last dinner. I wanted one last fish and chips so EDP armed himself with a list of places - happily, we were able to grab one of the last tables at the place at the top of the list, which happened to be the same place we stopped on our first night for a whiskey. It was an excellent meal to close out the trip!

With a mid-day flight home, we had a lazy morning with a long drive back to Dublin. After dropping off the car, we got through security, found a bottle of the whiskey we enjoyed at Teelings that you can’t get in Canada, got something to eat and boarded the plane. It was an uneventful flight home (always the best kind) and now it’s back to regular life. And laundry. Why is there always SO MUCH laundry after a trip?!