Northern-to-West Day 6, August 25th

Friendly hosts served marvelous breakfast and we got on our way, taking ferry at Magilligan Point, enjoying the beautiful views on the other side, getting the new share of the precious jewels at the Ballyhillin beach and going up to Malin Head – the North-most point in Ireland.

We’ve been remarkably lucky so far – every time we get out of the car the rain or drizzle, if there is one at the time – stops.

To pay our dues to the gods of rain, we never get out of the car without our rain jackets. Speaking of lucky, Dan found a bee inside his t-shirt. Luckily it only scratched him near his neck. The area swelled up but we gave him several Zyrtecs, Ibuprophens, and put anti-inflammatory steroid on the scratch and it stopped swelling.

The next stop was Londonberry. The guide described it as charming and adorable. I had to be on a call during my time in town but my fellow travelers did not find much charm. Dirty, polluted and with way too many malls. 

Add to it blasting Madonna songs on the mall radio, youths dressed in Adidas track suit, and one gets the idea. Don’t get me wrong. The city wall is amazing, few places on earth had seen the Guildhall of this level of opulence, but something about the feeling of our group, or the city – we just could not get along.

We decided to call it a day and drive to Carnaween House, Pornoo to enjoy more time at the beach. From our last time here we remembered it as haven of peaceful white beauty on the beach, and equally peaceful white beauty at the beautifully designed hotel/restaurant. Unfortunately the absolutely awful service by the staff made it anything but peaceful. 

At first, Polina & I had to fight for the rooms that were booked and paid for in advance. They were finding our reservations piecemeal. Finally we decided to join kids & boys at the beach but decided to check on the dinner reservations – that too had a problem. Some prior restaurant guests had come in really late and so we would have to wait until they were done.

We joined kids and dads at the beach briefly. Impressive to, once again, see Irish vacationing families prevail over weather with wetsuits, wintercoats over bare legs, and just plain underwear. We watched, shivered, and went back inside.

The fun continued through dinner. Waiters distributed the wrong menu and then shushed each other over them out of guest’s ear, spilled some sugar and then gathered it u by hand back into the sugar box, dropped things and put them up on the table. Romik, is a staunch non-carb-eater very expressly asked to not serve him any carbs. He got his hake slathered in mashed potatoes & veggie mix, poor guy. At one point we got tired of waiting for our drinks and got our wine, coke and water from the car. The sad part is they are the best game town – the chef is awesome, incredible and so even horrendous service will keep the customers coming back for more.

 

We calmed our nerves somewhat during the long walk on the beach and got ready for the next day of fun.