Last night we got into Donegal late and had no internet access because the guy who stayed late to let us in didn't have the password. So here is yesterday's update.
Tuesday night we stayed in Galway and went into the downtown with a recommendation of a place to see local irish dancing. It was great fun and I recorded a little movie of course.
Galway
Wednesday we checked out of our cute little guest house and walked back into Galway center. We went to T. Dillon & Son, said to be the original makers of the claddagh ring. So naturally I bought a sterling silver claggagh ring. After picking up some lunch food we hit the road and headed north-ish through Connemara, which was amazing. Absolutely beautiful.
We stopped at Aughanure Castle on our way to Connemara.
Connemara...cheese and bread, always sheep in the road, and more magnificent views.
Unfortunately the roads made me feel super sick, so I had to take over driving. Ben had been doing most of the driving. He enjoys it and I make him nervous (but I’m not a bad driver, honestly!). But yesterday the roads wound around and around and I started feeling very car sick. Took some meds but it was not enough. I had to drive. I was excited and it was fun even though I could barely get up to the speed limit. I don’t know how the other cars were doing 62 mph on the barely-two-lane country roads. Insane.
I quickly realized that I needed to focus. If for even a second I let my auto-pilot take control, like I do at home, I would immediately start drifting so that my body was lined up along the left of the lane (which with the car being reversed would have put most of it in the bushes, wrapped around a sign, or smashed into a stone wall...all of which were a little too close to the road for my taste). Driving had to be focused and conscious.
Driving on the left and Connemara National ParkWe are now in Donegal and have changed our original plans so that we are staying here until Saturday. There is enough to do here and a trip up to Northern Ireland just seemed too much to fit in. This was a hard decision to make because I just want to see everything, everywhere. (More about that in a later post, I think.) I have a hard time not packing in as much as possible and a hard time slowing down. But now that we are here and we still have one more night here it feels good to be in one place and explore another part of Donegal tomorrow. We will just have to come back!
I will post about Donegal later tonight or tomorrow. Tonight is Arthur's Day here...another Guiness holiday. :)