The following is my day by day account of traveling through Ireland during the summer of 2009.

Day 4: Galway & Limerick
After getting the eff out of the booming metropolis that is Donegal town and heading back on the highway (aka a two lane country road with more curves than Kim Kardashian), we set out for Galway. Galway is renowned for its local beauty, and something else, which I’m not really sure of.

On the road to Galway there is a cool castle off on a cliff somewhere. I have no idea where it is, or what its called, just that it looked friggin sweet as we whizzed past at 100km/h which on a country road feels like 75mph (though i suspect its closer to 55mph). If you can find the castle, and its name, i’d suggest getting off the road and seeing it, as it looks like a fantastic photo opp, though I could be incredibly wrong and it could suck. (Note I think it might be Mullaghmore)

Once arriving in Galway, it struck me as the most “continental” city I’d seen so far in Ireland. Galway has this beautiful pedestrian street (Quay St up through Kennedy Park) lined with everything every other major city on the european continent has: overpriced shops, random little cafes, street performers, beggars, and creepy statue people. This part of Galway though looks like Walt Disney had a wet dream here, but then thanks to budget cuts due to the economy had to scale back the powerwashing/cleaning just a bit.

While on Quay St we stopped and ate some amazing fish and chips at McDonagh’s thanks to @erinlancione’s recommendation. Must say, some of the best chips I’d had so far in Ireland. Chips for the uninformed are what we’d call french fries, usually though they are closer to what we label as steak fries, served with vinegar and salt. Hmmm chips.

Near the end of Quay st, is the Spanish Arch & the city museum. You can see both in a combined 20 minutes.

After the grub, we headed off to Limerick which used to be known as “Stab City” according to @carlosmiller. Unfortunately we were about an hour too late, otherwise we could have caught the IRLvsAUS friendly that was being played in Limerick; I ended up watching it on TV (they have like 12 channels in Ireland, but I get the impression they don’t need/want more). Sadly since we arrived in Limerick a bit late, everything was closed, so we headed to what turned out to be a delicious Indian restaurant: The Mogul Palace. If they had Yelp in Ireland, I definitely woulda left some kick-ass feedback.

We’d been told Limerick had some rough patches, so we basically used it as a place to park the car

The following is my day by day account of traveling through Ireland during the summer of 2009.

Day 3: County Donegal, Ireland (aka Northwest Ireland)
So technically day two ended in Letterkenny after a long drive along the northern coast, but we really only stopped there to sleep. From what I gather there really isn’t anything to do in this town that’s worthwhile. I did have my first pint of Guiness here, and have to say that it tastes so buttery smooth compared to the bitter guiness we have in the states, that I am not sure I can ever go back to appreciating it in america again. Its like driving a lamborghini after a Kia, yeah they both get you from point A to point B, but its never the same.

Fast forward to Day 3 (August 11)& we’re off to Ardara, a small village of 700 people. Why on earth were we heading to this town in which we now accounted for nearly 1% of the people there? Well turns out this is the town where the Breslins came from. Ages ago, before the internet, the Breslin family emigrated from this tiny village to America, and apparently they all went. There were no signs of any Breslins left (except for this gaelic version in a quickie mart pictured below)! Not even a trace of our family coat of arms in the local trinket/souvenir shops! For those of you wondering, Ardara is famed for its textile/wool industry; unfortunately for me I live in Miami, where wearing wool sweaters would result in spontaneous combustion.

However, all was not lost, we did manage to find a trace. By hunting down our old family farm house on the road to Donegal Town, we managed to find a long lost cousin. 91 year old Margaret Ann Ward. She who happened to be first cousins with my great grandfather Thomas Breslin. Meeting this sweet old lady (novegenarian) was perhaps the highlight of my trip to Ardara.

After meeting this lady who may or may not have witnessed the invention of the wheel, we headed off to Donegal town. Donegal is like New York City compared to Ardara, there are over 40,000 people here! Yet, Donegal makes Miami look like New York City or Tokyo, so its not like we’re in the epicenter of the world here. Apparently Donegal is famed for its natural beauty and sport fishing. When you’re only in town for a few hours, you can’t really do much fishing unfortunately. We did manage to catch a performance by a local Irish musician at the Abbey Hotel in Donegal, but get this, the guy lived in Ft. Lauderdale until recently! He apparently was a regular at O’shea’s in West Palm, and John Martin’s in Miami. So after traveling thousands of miles to see a local musician, we get someone we could have seen 6 months ago 5 miles from my house. Awesome.

Tips for traveling in this part of the country: watch out for tractors on the road, horse drawn carts, and plot out your route on a map before you go, the roads are poorly marked. Also in donegal, make it a point to stop in at the Crafts village which is on the way to Galway.
Next up Galway.