Sligo and N. Ireland, and then I'm done.

I swear.

After galway, we stayed for a night in Sligo, just south of Donegal.  Sligo is also the birth and resting place of W. B. Yeats, if thats your thing.  Also, don't pronouce Yeats "Yeets" because Irish people will not hesitate to correct you, (as Matt learned the hard way.)

Sligo was full of rainbows, and oysters!  Matt and I ended up sneaking away from my family one night to stuff our faces with oysters at Yeats Tavern.  Normally, i wash my oysters down with a dirty martini, but they had never heard of it, so i had to settle for wine instead.

Our B&B had a stunning view of Ben Bulben, a natural plateau which i totally intend to hike up next time we are there.  After leaving Sligo, we headed up to Northern Ireland.  My mom never got to visit before because of the conflict, so we wanted to take advantage.  We drove along the causeway passage, which is basically a beautiful coastal road.  We stopped at Mussenden temple so that i could chase some sheep, and Matt could take 3,000 more pictures.  (I didn't really chase the sheep.  It started raining, so i started running through the field and it startled all of them.)

Mussenden's temple was ok, but i liked the sea view better.

 

After the temple, i was starving as always.  We stopped in Bushmills, the most beautiful little town ever, and a nice lady at a cafe made me a cheese toastie.  (so much cooler to say than grilled cheese, which is a blatant lie if you think about it)  After lunch, we went to bushmills distillery for a tour and tasting.

If you are in Ireland, skip The Jameson tour - but the Bushmills tour is a MUST!  Its the oldest licensed distillery in the world - operating since 1608!  A huge fire destroyed most of the distillery about 100 years ago, but they rebuilt, and that is what stands today.  This tour actually takes you through the warehouse to see how whiskey is made, bottled, and distributed, as well as the aging warehouse, filled to the rafters with barrels of whiskey.  So awesome.  You also drink both before and after the tour, which is smart, because by the time i left, i was drunk enough to buy a very nice bottle of whiskey to bring home.

We left Bushmills and raced to see Giant's Causeway before the sun set.  It was quite the race, and Matt and i ended up running close to a mile, fairly drunk on whisky, in order to make it to the hexagonal volcanic rocks.  These geometric rocks formed naturally, and are staggered along the coast in one small area.  It was unlike anything i have seen before.  We got to watch the sun set, and then spent our last night in a little B&B before flying back in the morning!

Obviously, this is the extremely abridged version of our trip as i don't want to bore you, but i would highly recommend both the Dublin Marathon, or just about any part of Ireland to anyone - Its a great place to visit, and I am already plotting to return!