Derry to Belfast.

On Monday morning, I headed towards Dunfanaghy, only taking one wrong turn on my way and having to turn back around (but I got a really nice view of some mountains on my detour). At Dunfanaghy I took a little sideroad and drove around Sheephaven Bay. Here I took a walk on the cliffs where it was extremely windy. I could lean into the wind and not fall over. It was very therapeutic, I felt very invigorated afterwards.From here I travelled through Letterkenny and up to Buncrana and around the Inishowen Peninsula, stopping at Malin Head which is the most Northerly point on mainland Ireland.
I then drove onto Derry, where I stayed the night in a lovely B&B called Sunbeam House (which I found very easily!). The owner was very friendly and gave me a map of the city and gave me a list of all the things I could see and do in Derry. That night, I walked around the walls of the city which are the oldest, best preserved walls in Ireland. There are some original cannons sitting on the walls and some stories about the history of the walls and the city.The next morning, I visited the murals on the walls in the Bogside which have been painted by "The Bogside Artists" which depict scenes from the troubles in Ireland as well as messages of hope for peace. These were very moving pieces of work, and I found myself close to tears while looking at them and reading their dedications, particularly "The death of innocence" which is dedicated to the memory of a 14 year old schoolgirl who was killed in the crossfire between the British Army and The IRA, and another mural which depicts a priest and civil rights protesters carrying the body of one of the youngest killed in the Bloody Sunday Massacre.While in The Bogside, I also visited the Bloody Sunday Memorial.

After my visit to the Bogside, I went back to the walled city and went to The Tower Museum, where I learnt about the early history of Derry.

By this time it was early afternoon, and time for me to get going if I was going to make it to Belfast in the evening. I drove to Downhill where I visited an old, ruined house and Mussenden Temple, which is situated on the edge of a cliff by the sea.My next stop was Dunluce Castle, which is a ruin just outside of Portrush. It is basically just a shell, and some of the Castle was lost to the sea when the cliff collapsed underneath it in 1639.
As I visited The Giant´s Causeway last year, I didn´t bother stopping here this year on my way to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Instead, I crossed this rope bridge to Carrick Island. The bridge itself is about 18metres long, and about 25 metres above the waves below. The most nerve-racking part about crossing the bridge is not the fact that it moves under your feet, but that the rope handrails give way somewhat as you place your hands on them. Originally, the rope bridge was built so that fishermen could cross to Carrick Island to cast their nets in the water in the best spot to catch migrating Salmon. These days, it´s tourists who use the bridge.I quickly stopped at the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, to buy some Dulse and Yellowman. Dulse is an edible seaweed which tastes like...seaweed. It was quite revolting, and after eating one piece I threw the rest away. Yellowman is a very yellow, hard honeycomb which actually tasted pretty good.

I then drove through the Glens of Antrim to Belfast. I drove around the city, looking for a place to stay. I tried a few B&B´s but they had no vacancies. Luckily, I managed to get the last bed at a hostel, so I didn´t have to sleep in my car on the street!

Westport

Last Saturday morning, after taking a walk down the mainstreet of Galway, I headed to Clifden, travelling through the Coonemara region, famous for it´s rugged landscape and it´s ponies!
I stopped at Clifden for a short break, before visiting Roundstone. There is a Bodhrán (traditional Irish one-sided drum) workshop at Roundstone, where world-quality bodhráns are made by a man by the name of Malachy (people call him Malachy Bodhran, although his last name is Kearns). Sometimes there are demonstrations of the art taking place in the workshop. Unfortunately Malachy was too busy serving tea in the coffee shop to do any demonstrations the day I visited, so I just had a piece of carrot cake instead. Mulachy is the official supplier of Bodhráns for Riverdance.

Driving through the Coonemara region to Westport, I also stopped at Kylemore Abbey to take a look. This was a mansion which is now a boarding school run by nuns. It has a spectacular setting.
I drove through Leenaun, which is situated at the head of one of Ireland´s few fjords, before arriving at Westport late in the afternoon. I didn´t have nearly as much trouble finding my accommodation that night, as Westport is quite a small town and my hostel was situated on one of the main roads.
My accommodation was a former abbey, now turned into a hostel. It was a really lovely old house, with wooden floorboards and a wide hallway, and a huge TV in the common room (and lots of comfy chairs too). I had dinner at a hotel in the town (my first choice of venue was fully booked, as was my second choice). The town was buzzing with lots of people about, as there was a competition on called Gaelforce, which is a challenge involving mountain climbing and running and bikeriding (I think!). When I finished my dinner, I went for a walk through the mainstreets and came across a bike race which was being held around the streets. I arrived just as they were on the last few laps, so stayed to watch the end and cheer the winners (even though I didn´t really know what was happening!).

When I went back to my room, I met a German girl called Larissa, who was staying in the room also. She was travelling around Ireland with her boyfriend, Marcel, and they were going into town with another German couple called Manuella and Alex, and asked me if I wanted to come with them. I decided to go, and we tried to get into the most famous pub in town called Matt Molloy´s. Unfortunately, the rest of the town (and it´s visitors) had the same idea as us, and so although we got into the pub, it was so full that you could hardly move, and I think we had little chance of getting near the bar for a drink!So after leaving Matt Molloy´s, we then spent the next hour trying to decide between the multitude of pubs and clubs, where we were going to drink. Most of the clubs just weren´t "traditional" enough for Manuella and Alex, and some of the pubs were too quiet, so we finally decided on a pub where they had a band playing outside. Although the music wasn´t traditional, the band was Irish at least!

We got back to the hostel at quite a reasonable hour, and Larissa and I were quite pleased that it seemed that we had our 4-share room to the two of us! We were rudely awoken, however, at 2:30am when the other two occupants of our room were struggling to unlock the door with their key! I ended up opening the door for them and they came stumbling in, singing and humming and finally figuring out where the beds were that they were sleeping in, before climbing into them and passing out...and SNORING! The biggest snores were coming from the male of the two, however the woman was also giving him a run for his money. The woman was sleeping in the bunk above me, and I have to admit that I did give the mattress above a good old poke, which did stop the snoring from her, long enough for me to get to sleep (after rooting around in my bag for my earplugs!). In the morning, I made sure that I made as much noise as possible as I got up and went down for breakfast.

Breakfast in this hostel consisted of homemade brown soda bread, which was a real treat!

I headed north in the Aygo that morning and stopped at Sligo, where I visited a 13th century Franciscan friary, which was offering free entry for Heritage week.
My next stop was Drumcliffe, where the poet W.B. Yeats is burried, surrounded by the landscape which was the source of inspiration for many of his poems.
I then drove along the Atlantic coast up to Donegal. Donegal was the first town I stayed at where I hadn´t pre-arranged my accommodation. I tried a hostel which was just out of town and recommended by my guide book, but unfortunately they were all booked up. So I ended up staying right in the centre of the town in a hotel which had reasonable rates for bed and breakfast.
After checking into the hotel, I went to Donegal Castle (which was also celebrating Heritage week with free entry) and took a quick tour. I ate my dinner at the restaurant which was just adjacent to the hotel, and had a lovely Donegal Bay Seafood Platter!

Blarney, Killarney and Galway.

On Thursday morning I left Cork and headed to Blarney, where I visited Blarney Castle. Blarney Castle is home to The Blarney Stone, which imparts the gift of eloquence onto anyone who kisses it. To get to the stone, it involved climbing the steps in the castle up to the top, then leaning backwards over the railings (whilst a helper held onto my legs) and planting my lips on the stone set into the castle machicolations. I didn´t realise quite how high up I was (or that apart from a couple of iron bars, the helper was all that stood between me and a broken head!) until I was bent backwards over the edge. It was quite an adrenalin rush afterwards though, and time will tell I guess, to see if it´s worked!
After kissing the stone, I walked around the beautiful gardens which are part of the castle grounds, then headed to Glengarriff, a little holiday resort, where I hopped on a boat which took me to Garinish Island. This small island was transformed into a beautiful garden by an MP who owned it from 1910 when he brought it from the British War Office. It changed to public ownership in 1953 and now you can take a tour boat to the island and walk around it. On the way, the boat captain takes you past small islands with seals on them.
When I got back to Glengarriff, The Aygo and I headed to Kenmare, a lovely town with lots of great restaurants and some very colourful buildings! I got a lovely chocolate milkshake from a café here, then headed back on the road again, driving around the Iveragh Peninsula (on the "Ring of Kerry" coastal road) until I got to Killarney where I spent the night.


Again, I had an awful time trying to find the hostel which I´d booked into! I finally found it though, and had to park about a mile down the road, as that was the closest (free) car park available. I had booked a bed in a mixed dorm with 8 beds. When I got there, I found that I was the only girl in the dorm! I thought that maybe another girl would turn up later in the night (as there was one free bed), but none did. I was pleasantly surprised though that no one snored, and each time I went to the toilet the lid was down!

The next morning I got up early (again) and headed to a coffee shop for breakfast, before driving to Limerick. Limerick has the very appealing nickname of "Stab City", so I didn´t particularly want to spend a great deal of time there. I ended up visiting King John´s Castle where I learned about the history of Limerick, and grabbed some lunch before heading out of the city again. I drove to Lahinch, a lovely seaside town, where there were at least 3 surf shops right near the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I think everyone was at the beach enjoying the weather. I got an icecream from a cafe and ate it while walking along the beach, then it was back in The Aygo and I headed for The Cliffs of Moher. Apparently they're home to colonies of puffins, but I didn't see any.After enjoying the sunshine on the Cliffs, I headed north, to Lisdoonvarna. This little town hosts a matchmaking festival every September. Unfortunately, I was a week too early for the festival, so didn't think there was much point in stopping!

I tried to take some back roads through The Burren, on my way to Galway, but unfortunately I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up going down a driveway to a farm yard! I thought when I was going down the road that it wasn´t very well maintained and very narrow (I was scared that I was going to meet someone coming in the opposite direction as there wasn´t anywhere to pull over), but I thought it was a road marked on the map, so kept going anyway! I ended up having to open the farm gate, turn around in the yard, then head back out and shut the gate behind me! I got back on to the main road after that, and went the regular tourist route from that point. There are limestone cliffs on either side of The Burren (and also some interesting rock formations that I didn´t see because I couldn´t find the right "back road").
I arrived in Galway about 8pm, and only looped the city one and a half times before finding my hostel!