North-west & Galway, Day 9, August 28th

Feeling lazy for will keep this extra short. No a/c in our rooms so we were able to negotiate free breakfast for all. And they moved us to a larger room. Great Maldron hotel & very nice manager. That's us, after breakfast. We were impressed to see a large group from South America. Russian tourists have nothing on their style. The staff looked completely demoralized. 

We've started the day at on of the typical home/castles that potentially pre-dated larger castles that had a defensive wall and the castle inside. This design had a smaller/less defensible wall and a defensive castle complete with the murder holes and other fun contraptions. This one also had a secret lock room for the prisoners right next to the castle owner's bedroom. Pretty interesting. Keep your friends close but your enemies by your bedside, apparently. 

Polinka and I enjoyed our time at the castle, reviewing the different floors and reading the posters, while kids were running around. When we came out, kids were nowhere to be seen. So we figured they went to join dads at the parking lot and leisurely strolled 200 or so meters back to our car. When we got there, kids were not there - apparently they were left at the castle. So we turned back and went to get them. Shortly after Isabella's screams could be heard loud and clear all around. Poor kids went to the bathroom at the castle and we've missed them. Novichenok's were quietly waiting by the ticket office. Our kids were never "dropped off" before so they were ready for the full panic mode. Certainly gave everyone a nice shot of adrenaline.   

Kylemore Abbey. Best viewed from the vantage point of this picture. Absolutely not worth going inside. Last time because of the rain, we limited ourselves to the mediocre cafeteria. This time around we've extended experience with a giant garden that has long failed at trying to keep up with the grandiose plans of its creator and two rooms of the abbey that have the usual trappings of the similar establishment diluted somewhat by the monastic occupation. What a tourist trap. Felt pretty stupid. 

Back in Galway. We love everything about this city. Every street and almost every building seem to hide a secret. We enjoyed walking around the streets, magnificent cathedral, lovely Murphy's and a nice bar that Romik found. 

One gotcha - sampled the local beer at the bar downstairs. They need to keep trying. But it was a great day. 

To Galway, Day 8, August 27th

The day started fittingly in a “stolovka” like breakfast setting manned by un-characteristically (meaning out of character w. stolovka) friendly Lithuanian waiter. The food was nice and we got on our way. We wanted to make a few quick stops to pass the time before going to Loughrea Renaissance Fair, which was supposed to start at around 1pm.

The first stop was a church plus some friary ruins we saw from the road. Perhaps Romik remembers what it was called. The ruins had some very peculiar images of the passions of the Christ. The church, similarly, had images of passions – clearly medieval but somehow cartoonish looking. The priest really tried to get us engaged. First he took on the tour of the church, then took us to a separate room that smelled but a cosmic warehouse of naphthalene and made watch a video about the history of the church. I thought we will all go extinct from the smell and made everyone get out. The poor priest probably hoped we will stay for service too.

Next, we pulled over by the Pigeon Hole limestone caves. Polinka said they were hers top 3. It was really cool – after a short walk down the path through the word, we lined up to take wet and slippery stairs down into the cave. Below, the trusty flashlights of our cell phones showed a pretty expansive cave. We were completely alone – no ticketing office, no guides, or anything. Made visiting this place even more special.

Totally awesome Ross Errilly Friary next. The best-preserved friary in Ireland. Mecca for hide and seek. The thing I don’t like about these places are the recent graves. Dan explained that they may want to increase their chances of getting to heaven by situating their bones on the holy ground. May be a reflection of their activities during their lifetime. Oh, well. I guess everyone wants to get to heaven.

When we finally reached Loughrea it was so disappointing. A few interesting booths but overall a tiny event. I guess we are a bit spoiled with our Rt 17 event, and with LT Archeology days, and with the fair we went to while in Portugal that was held at the actual castle. After a brief round we went to Galway, our final stop of the way.

After getting a few drinks down from the road, we were ready to explore. This is our favorite city - street musicians fade one into another, the walls are incredible, and every side street hides a secret. This place has tons of character and loves and spoils its visitors – and they return the favor.

We’ve listened to the same 2-guy Russian band on the xylophone & vibraphone as last time. And this somehow tied another round of the spiral of our lives together.  

Portnoo to Westport, Day 7, August 26th

Beautiful day. Great amazing waiter at the white hotel started us well-nourished and well serviced. We took the final pictures of the beach and got on our way. The first stop was Donegal castle.

Very friendly guy at the reception gave us a flier for Loughrea Renaissance fair and gave kids stickers for finding everything they had to find at the castle. It is a small castle with a good history. We walked through town and made our way to the tourist information area where there was a food festival this weekend. 

The entry fee of 6 euro for adults alone was a bit much for such as small town and so only moms and kids went. It is interesting and different from other food fairs we’ve been too. Lots of muffins, sweets, & candies, followed by the different kinds of ciders, a little cheese, and next to no meat. Not your Lithuanian food fair. Boys made a wise choice.

He picks seaweed off the shore

We joined them and went to Donegal Craft Village – beautiful establishment outside town where several artists specializing in different mediums are working with their craft. Very impressive.

Net we saw the beautiful formations at Mullagmore, we’ve missed them last time and they are more than worth it. It makes sense to park in town and walk the loop around the outcrop, and maybe stop in for a swim. Because of the rocky outcrops that act as the natural wave breakers, the beach in town, though not the clearest the water is calm, the beach features incredible variety of shells, and locals in various stages of undress, dress, and over-dress.

We passed Drumcliff and Sligo, the latter seemed more up-beat than its yesterday’s counterpart but still downtrodden looking, and we decided to skip in favor of Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery. Aww, the best. Great hike, awesome sites. One of the passage graves had sank in. We stood on the stones and must have inadvertently disturbed a next of wild bees. They suddenly swarmed around us. We ran back down covering our faces with our rain jackets. Scary – and a bit of “Indiana-Jones” feel to it – bees decided to protect this grave and were pissed for us disturbing it.

Westport was our dinner stop. We so did not do it justice. One of the most charming cities we’ve seen. Now, this one had charm, and street musicians, and singing restaurant patrons, and flower basket from every bridge and window. Too bad most stores and coffee shops were already closed. We still had a great time. We landed at Lough Lannagh Lodge B&B at the Castlebar for the night.

We got “upgraded” to our own cottage w. Novichenoks. Felt a bit bad for the place –a large cottage built and furnished possibly in the 50s. One of them “sanatorium” looking ones. On one hand, nice to have so much room & all the ancient equipment looks really curious. On the other, that has not seen an upgrade in the last 50 years.

Kids spread out through the rooms. Adults stayed together and enjoyed each other’s company under accompaniment of Louis CK.

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.

Northern Route, Day 5, August 24

We made an attempt to view the murals but the day was gloomy and we could not find the right ones so we rushed up North for Carrick-a-Rede. Wonderful as ever!! Polinka took a pass. 

Same for the Giant’s Causeway. Everyone got to enjoy this magical place. Georgia volunteered the tale of two Giants who built the staircase during the walk to the Cathedral formation and back out. What’s really cool is that we saw the mini-version of the Giant’s causeway earlier in the year in Iceland… So the legend is true?

Lunch at a non-mention-worthy Cod-way in Bushmills. Then again cod is really not the fish of choice. While we waited, we took turns at the art stores around. We continue to be impressed with incredible imagination. Lots of bunny imagery 😊

The next stop was Dunluce castle, back at the coast. We enjoyed the colorful ruin in the light of the fading sun. To make the most of the day we relocated to the sandy beach a few miles west. Aww – lots and lots of sea buckthorn bushes.

We all grabbed us some berries and tasted their tart taste.

Kids ran around the beach. We marveled the white limestone caves & black giant volcanic rocks on the beach (reminiscent of the giant’s poop).

 The final stop was our hotel Harmony Hill Country House at Ballymoney. At first, we accidentally stopped at the derelict mill next door. Horrifying red brick building looked abandoned. Google confirmed that this is it. Fortunately a passing trucker saw our shocked faces and pointed out and to the driveway on the left. 

A few minutes later we were at the former manor house of the lords of the mill. Fantastic (read: old and weird) rooms – Romik’s had a fireplace, enormous bed, ancient (Russian style) bathroom, and kid’s room perched up above the wall ladder on the second floor. Our long room was in the attic. Owner’s toddler toys were lying around – toddlers should have been 20-30 years gone.

There was a folder with Hotel’s history. The owner who built the mill was successful entrepreneur. His two “wayward” sons had the misfortune of driving one of the revolts against the British in the uprising of 1798. It was interesting to continue to get more color on the relationship between Ireland and Britain. The sons were both captured and condemned to be executed as traitors. When it happened, a member of British military force came to the mill a few days after vining and dining there and burned the place down. The father was able to get the sons freed under condition that they give up everything they had and leave the country. They went to the United States and successfully rebuilt their life there. Even started their own B&B upstate NY.

Reception area had enormous bookcases that could swing open to open an office, a living room, and the part of the house where we’ve stayed. Whether this development was to increase privacy, or make better use of the space or both. It was an interesting thought to contemplate that they could have locked our bookcase forever with us behind. On that happy thought, we’ve consulted the friendly owners who had the place for 30 years on a good dinner choice and they suggested Molly’s pub in town.

Excellent choice. We ended up all ordering international food –Indian, Thai. Kind of amazing to get this many options and so well executed. While we were waiting for our food, the boys stopped by at the supermarket and got some options for the drinks in the living room of the house. We came back, put kids to sleep, and went to the living room, lit up the fire and enjoyed. This place lost Internet connectivity after a bad rain storm a few days ago. It was nice to take a break from work at last. I lasted a whole of half of my drink before going to sleep on the couch.

Pic on the right is Isabella contemplating her lost tooth immediately prior to crossing the rope bridge. Not to worry - the new tooth already erupted. Tooth fairy had made the reparations as well.