Ireland, February 2004

We went to Ireland in February 2004 for 6 days/5 nights. Here's what we did on the Emerald Isle:

Driving seemed like the best way to see as much as possible, especially of inaccessible areas, and so instead of confining ourselves to a city-break in Dublin, as we'd originally planned, we pre-booked a hire-car with Hertz through our airline Ryanair and picked up our little Fiat directly from Dublin Airport.

After a 10km drive from the airport to the city centre we parked near Temple Bar and went for lunch at Gallagher's Boxty House, a traditional Irish restaurant specialising in Boxtys. The waiter described these as 'Irish Burritos' -- I think they're more like a pancake/crepe made from potato... but regardless, they were very yummy! So much so, that we rushed back to Dublin at the end of our trip for another one before heading to the airport. I went for a Gaelic Boxty (Prime Irish Fillet Steak cooked with mushrooms in a whiskey cream, pepper steak) and Yves went for a Bacon and Cabbage Boxty (Cubes of Gammon & Fresh Cabbage Smothered in Parsley Sauce.) Both plates were fantastic!

After lunch, we bought a couple of cds of Irish music, which we thought might provide a good soundtrack for our holiday. We fell in love with the music and made another trip back to the store, Mojo's Irish Music Store, to get more music when we were on our way out of Ireland a week later. We bought one pot-luck cd called 'Darby O'Gill's Irish Pub Music' which cost us 5 Euro (very cheap!!) and it turned out to be our favourite cd. We've digitised it since we got back home and listen to it almost everyday. Our favourite artist on the CD is John Doyle. He sings 'A spaceman came travelling' with a gentle but rough voice which suits this traditional ballad perfectly. He also sings 'Dublin '62' and 'McAlpine's Fusilliers.' The other very notable artist is Bill Craig, who sings 'Blarney Roses' in a very comical way and it's a great craic -- as the Irish say.

We then drove over to Donegal. This county is located on Ireland's North-West coast and it took us 5 hours of driving to get to our accomodation. The County of Donegal is what's called a 'Gaelthacht' -- which means that Irish is the mother tongue of the people living in this area, and it is the largest Irish-speaking district in Ireland. (Source: Dùn na nGall.com)

We made a stop at numerous service stations and supermarkets along the way to get supplies, and stopped for a fish supper at Killybegs. We went to a small cafe called Melly's, which overlooked the fishing port. The food was quite good, although the atmosphere of the place was a bit lacking... or maybe we were just looking for something a bit more comfortable after such a long drive... hmm.

During our stay, we were cosily stashed away in one of the self-catering Thatched Cottages. on Cruit Island. The island is joined to the mainland via a bridge. We made it to Cruit Island well after dark, at around 11pm and pretty much went straight to sleep the minute we walked in the door.

The next morning we awoke at 8am, just in time to catch sunrise. I thought I'd woken up in heaven and we both ran around looking out the windows at the gorgeous golden light that dusted the grassy sand dunes around our cottage. Immediately outside our back door was a beautiful white sandy beach and raging blue surf. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was!

We did a self-guided day trip spent trekking around the stunning coastline of Slieve League Europe's highest cliff.

For our Valentine's Day celebration we went to a fantastic restaurant called Danny Minnies.