I slept well last night and awoke to a fantastic breakfast. Margaret told me of the best sites to see between Westport and Shannon. From my breakfast table I could see a mountain. Anyone that knows would know that upon seeing this mountain I would have to go. Margaret told me that was Croagh Patrick. I thought Croagh Patrick was a statue not a mountain. She told me to go to a garriage and get a map. I had no idea what a garriage was (sounds like carriage with a g). I nodded but never stop at whatever this was to get a map. I don’t need a map (famous last words I’m sure).
I drove to Croagh Patrick. It was magnificent. There was even a little snow at the top. The parking lot was full so I parked along the street. Turns out there was a charity hike today; there were tons of people there. I took a short hike to the statue of St. Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint don-cha-know. Fitting of me to visit here since it will be St. Patrick’s Day soon. I took some pictures as usual and did a bit of reading. Apparently St. Patrick spent 40 days and 40 nights on top of this mountain where there is a church. Do you think that was before or after chasing all of the snakes out of Ireland? I would have loved to hike the mountain, but I wasn’t prepared. I started to walk down and then thought better of it. I would just hike up a little ways as suggested by a couple locals that I talked to. I hiked up to a gate where I could see so much more of the bay. There are over 300 islands off of the coast here. I talked to a few more local guys who hoped that I would come back and visit again. I could barely understand the one guy. I just nodded and smiled. Hahaha! I took a couple rocks from the stream that was trailing down the mountain. These must be sacred rocks. I got one for you too mom!
At the bottom of the mountain was a monastery. I stopped off there and looked around. I tripped in the monastery over thin air and skinned my hand. Typical! In this ruin you could actually walk up the spiral stone staircase. The top was gated, but the view was still amazing. I walked back to my car and smelled the lovely cow manure for the 20th time. As I opened the door, it hit me that it was my car that smelled! I had manure all over the side of the car. No wondered I had been smelling cow manure for 2 days.
I continued my drive down the coast through small towns with their brightly colored housed. Some of the roads are barely passable. This is why most people have tiny cars. I meandered through the mountains and the views were breathtaking. As I started to drop into a valley I saw a most glorious site. If anyone has seen the movie Leap Year, this was the scenery from the movie. Mountains on each side and a lake in the middle was the view before my eyes. Fabulous! I drove around the lake and then another lake. I drove slow because of the roads, but also the sheep. They were all over the place and even running down the middle of the road at times.
The next stop was Kylemore Abbey. I didn’t go inside, Margaret told me to just walk around a bit. The abbey sits on the side of a lake. The reflection of the abbey in the lake is majestic! I’m starting to run out of cool words to describe the scenery. Ireland really is a beautiful place. I’m ready to move here. Dad you’ll have to take a boat.
I stopped in Galway for gas and grub. It cost me 56 Euro to fill up my take. Wow! I ate at McSwiggan’s Pub. I had my first Guinness in Ireland. It taste like it does in the US except without the bitter aftertaste. After dinner, I rushed down the road to try and make it to the Cliffs of Moher. The sunset was beautiful town. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight! (The things my father taught me. Hahaha!) By the time I got to the cliffs it was dark. The road here had been so windy with all of these kiss your arse curves. (The things my mother taught me.) Oh well, I try again tomorrow.
I drove to my B&B for night. On the way, I went through a check point. They pulled the car in front of my over, so I didn’t get checked. Thanks goodness! Not that I had drank much (1/2 pint of Guinness over 2 hours ago) but I didn’t want to have to go through the whole passport, why are you here, why are you buy yourself, you look like a runaway teen discussion. When I got to the Carhegal House, Noreen forgot that I had a reservation. No worries, she had a room. I met the other folks in the house, Kelly from Scranton, PA now living in Fort Collins and Michelline (like the tires) from Canada. They invited me out with them.
We headed in to Shannon to find that there was nothing in Shannon. So we drove to Limerick. As we walked around to find a pub with some music we ran into Eddie. Eddie was about 75 and funny. He showed us to a pub and we bought him a drink. Eddie talked so much that you couldn’t get a word in edge wise. The pub was crowded so we stayed for a drink and then went next door. They also had a band. Eddie showed up again and requested a song for us. We danced the night away. The last song of the night was dedicated to the 3 American girls (one of which was Canadian). None of us knew the song. Hahaha! But they had played Sweet Home Alabama. Maybe they thought we were rednecks, all being from north of the Mason Dixon Line.
We had a great night! Andres, Kelly’s husband, was the DD and originally from Mexico. We headed back to the B&B and got lost on the way back. All of these country roads look the same in the dark.
So the joke of the night was: So I was with an American, a Mexican, and a Canadian in Ireland and we walked into this bar and met this Irish guy….
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