slaw's Sunday May 13th, 2012

We left our beautiful little hideaway in Dingle for the big city of Galway. We arrive the first night late an exhausted so sleep was our main priority. The next day we walked around town and did a little shopping. The weather did everything within an hour: rain, sun, hail... And then did it all over again. But the sun finally won out and we took to the road to explore Connemara.
W stopped in the tiny town of Spiddle to find my first geocache in Ireland!! Well, technically Jessa found it. But it was great fun for me!!
We drove the short and narrow Sky Road on the far coast to see the amazing views of the atlantic. Was definitely worth it. Then stopped at Kylemore abbey for a tour of the abbey that's still in use by the nuns (used to be a girls school but closed last year). It was really beautiful and strategically placed on a lake.
We spent the night out in galway - after a very tasty dinner at a place called the malt house we went to the kings head for a couple drinks and some live music. The boy-girl ratio there was 10 boys to every 1 girl. At least!! Haha... So opposite from Vancouver. We did however drink a bit too much and were a bit sleep deprived the next day when we headed to stay with my friend and co-worker Victoria. We got to meet her lovely and welcoming family in the beautiful home she grew up in, saw her nieces and nephews and new week old baby niece!! And it was all topped off with an amazing home made dinner (Victoria, you have to give us the recipe!) and some wine;)
Today we drove back towards the coast to Strandhill, Co. Sligo for a seaweed bath, which is exactly what it sounds like, apparently an Irish tradition we didn't want to miss out on!! It was lovely and relaxing and a good refresher for us. Then after a windy and rainy drive we have arrived in the small fishing town of Killybegs, Co. Donegal where we will hopefully be for 2 nights to take in the beautiful coast before we officially tour northern Ireland and the Antrim coast. There is currently a pretty crazy storm happening so even though we are at a B&B with an amazing view we can't enjoy it to much. But the people are friendly, the tea is warm, and maybe tomorrow it will be nice:)

Killybegs, Ulster, Ireland at 5:55pm IST.