Day 2 – Sligo to Galway

The blooming alarm awoke us at 7am. I mean I’ve had better sleeps in my lifetime.. I wore 3 layers to bed but every part of my body which was out of the sleeping bag was numb with cold. My nose could have fallen off…Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a tad but it was cold and I learnt in GCSE English that emphasis is key to excellent storytelling. Along with the lack of warmth, I swear I felt something from outside the tent try and nibble at my beautiful feet. For about an hour, every time I heard a noise I jumped and I was told it was “very annoying”.

Anyway, it was time to get up. Putting on my skinny jeans can be a task on a regular morning but it was made much harder due to the fact I got fully changed in my sleeping bag to keep in any heat that I had. It worked, and infact I may have even broken into a small sweat. Successful.

With the trangia slowly boiling, and I mean slowly, we heated water for our porridge oats & peppermint tea/coffee and popped the tent down…as you all know, this didn’t take much effort. With our tummies full, we left the camp and went into the centre of Sligo, town of volunteering – so if you’re ever hosting a bun sale or organising a bag pack, get in contact with these people, I’m sure they will be happy to help.

My boyfriend is very much into his classical music and loves to play the organ and piano, because of this obsession he likes to look at churches/chapels/cathedrals and check out both the organ and architecture of the building. When we arrived at Sligo Abbey, I can’t say either of us were impressed. I attend university in Bath, so I was expecting something similar to their abbey or even just a building… but instead we saw some really lovely arranged rumble. Highlight of the trip I reckon so far. You 100% have to go… After all that excitement, we had a dander along the river and back streets which was actually very nice with lots of pretty flower baskets decorating the town.

We were back on the road again heading towards Connemara National Park via Ballina (salmon capital of Ireland), Castlebar, and Westport. In Westport we had the nibbles so stopped for a snack. We parked up in Westport house and gardens, which is located by Westport Habour. Westport town is also unreal. I like Westport. I would love to come back here again. So much to see, so little time.

On the way to our next stop – Kylemore Abbey, we came across a cute little traditional thatched roof cottage, I was so adamant to get a picture I made my bf do a U turn in the middle of the road, I hope you appreciate it…

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect to be honest. As soon as we stepped out of the car, it started to rain. We wrapped ourselves up in our waterproof coats and headed in the direction of Kylemore Abbey/castle. When my boyfriend and I went travelling around Europe 2 years ago, every tourist attraction seemed to be getting refurbished. The same went for Kylemore Abbey. Scaffolding surrounded half of the building. No convenience caused though, we still explored the inside of the castle and the chapel beside it.

After Kylemore Abbey my boyfriend was extremely hungry but luckily I had cooked him up some al denté pesto pasta at the campsite last night for lunch so that quickly sorted him out. Next we visited Connemara National Park. When we arrived, my boyfriend suggested we walked the ‘yellow’ trail. With disgust I rolled my eyes and demanded we walked the ‘blue’ trail. Now I know what you’re all thinking… He wanted to walk a longer, harder one and I wanted to do a shorter, easier one. WRONG. It was in fact the other way round. Who would have thought… I certainly didn’t.

The winding roads to Galway were very scenic. However, I unfortunately missed most of the journey as I was “resting my eyes”. You can’t blame me. I’ve done enough walking to do me till Christmas. Just before arriving in Galway, we planned to see Ross Castle. In the end up, Ross Castle is just a big family home. Either that or we were at the wrong place.

We stayed in Galway University halls that runs as a hostel during the summer. It was my boyfriends birthday today (probably should have mentioned that earlier actually) so we planned to get the free shuttle bus into Galway Centre at 6pm to go for dinner and drinks. I went for a shower first and discovered the ice cold water. There was no way I was standing under it… I’ll just spray extra deodorant and perfume I thought. My hair was greasy though, you could have cooked an egg on it so instead of getting into the shower I stood butt naked leaning over the sink washing my hair…the floor and everything else in the bathroom. My bf embraced the temperature and told me it’s “mind over matter”. I got changed, brushed my hair and threw on some make-up and we headed to town.

In town we went to a pub with a live band playing for a pre-dinner drink. After this, we walked the cobbled streets looking for somewhere to eat. However, we some how ended up in Easons. While we were there, I asked the employees where they would recommend for dinner and they told us to go to ‘HighCafe’. We marched straight there. It looked a bit dodgy from the outside but once we went up a set of stairs we where happily surprised. It was BYOB (bring your own bottle for all you oldies out there) so my bf ran down to the local corner shop and got a cheap bottle of white wine. We shared a garlic bread pizza for starter, both got a tangine for main and finished with tiramisu. It really was delicious. Thanks Easons!

We had a few more drinks after dinner in another pub before getting a taxi back to our room. Hello comfy bed, with fresh white bed sheets… goodnight, sleep tight.