Il Nittalope

And by now... I started feeling the wear and tear of being on my own. Saturday I woke up, simply packed everything and left to get to Cork. The day was fine, sunny, and the morning got on quite quickly. I stopped to refuel, take a coffee. I arrived at the B&B in Cork at noon, perfectly on time: demonstration of my inner GPS. I left the luggage at the house, meeting my guest, and left for the airport were I returned the car. I then went to the city by bus, walked my usual 2/3 hours around, doing nothing particular, and headed home. I was feeling tired and worn, wishing only to got back home. Sunday there were the idea to go and watch a hurling match, but there were none nearby. So I stayed in bed, watching Daredevil (nice series, by the way!), then went out, took a beer, ate something, took a coffee in a nice coffeeshop/library (not the Amsterdam/type coffeshop!) and went back home. Monday it was time to go, but my flight was in the late afternoon/early evening so my gue...

And the day to leave Galway come, and it was a sad day! I spent the most of Tuesday thinking if it was worth leaving Galway... I would have loved to listen again to some more sessions! But the time came: Wednesday ! The day was one of the finest, sunny and warm. And of course I have to drive! I decided to go swiftly to the south and then walk around somewhere. But go swiftly to the south means to use highways, which I despise. So I drove quickly as I could, but along the coastline. I encountered some nice town on the road, but the finest has been Milltown Malbay. Lovely, on a natural gulf, with surfers surfing the waves. I stopped for some photos in the sun, that promptly got covered. I head on. Arrived at Killmore, to take the ferry, and took it. Landed in Talbert, visited a nicely preserved five storey castle nearby, Carrigafoyle, in which it is still possible to understand the position of the rooms on every floor. Drove on, Tralee was on the way, I stopped looking for a map of the ...

Sunday started with heavy rain and a fun breakfast with a nice serving lady-man, sir-girl. Heavy, blonde, extremely kind and thus scary. But again: kind, really kind. After breakfast it was time to decide where to go, what to do, who to be. And it was a though decision: rain all around! So, lets go to Connemara National Park and see what's there. There are wild goats, this is what's there, and heavy rain. So I visited the Visitor's Center, enjoyed a nice exposition on Ireland's history, and a nice coffee (with scone...). Then headed east, and then south into a fine pass valley, with strong rain all around. And floodings of the roads, too. Arrived in the happy Oughterard town, and had lunch. And relaxed, have a beer, wait for the rain to pass. It didn't. I visited the nearby castle, really nice, and then headed to the Galway City, famous in the world. Visited the center, had a Guinness in a pub and to the B&B we go. Nice and clean, and wonderful landlady. At ...

So comes Thursday . Early hours, it's just before 3 am, I am at Mullaghmore and I cannot sleep anymore. What to do? Took the car, headed for the north side of the peninsula, peed and started my way to Belmullet, that from now on we will call Béal an Mhuilhead, in it's Gaelic form. Before passing Sligo I went to Rosses Point, to check one of the places were I thinking of actually spend the night before. I tried to sleep a bit more in front of the sea, but indeed I was out of sleep. So I went on, passed Sligo and went on the Wild Atlantic road, that easy roads are no fun to me. I passed Easky when the sun was almost getting up, then a bunch of other villages lost on the Atlantic Coast. My idea was to have breakfast at Ballina (Béal an Áthal), the capital of wild salmon. I arrived there... and it was 6 am! I thought it was 7 at least... nothing to do, everything's closed. Let's go on to Crossmolina, che the Lough Conn and go on to Ballycroy National Park for a early start...

Monday I woke up from  my first camping night into a delightful day of bright sun and clear sky. The same valley in which I slept got a completely different look. A wonderful one. I packed everything, the rain of the night before almost completely dried up on the tent and poncho, and headed for the B&B. At the house I had a nice and sturdy Irish breakfast, and luckily my room was to be ready at 11 am. Since It was not so far away, I simply awaited on the bench outside the house in the nice sun. Once I got my room (number 5) I took a shower. The most amazing, wonderful shower I have ever had. Probably beaten only by a shower I took in Stockholm... but that was with a lot of funny optionals like waterfall effect, side jets and things like that. After the shower I decided to do a 5 hours walk: up the hill, up to another hill, and back again. The hills happened to be around 600 metres high, so not too much. But I have to say that the excursion took its toll. At the end...

So, after a lot of planning... ehm... not that lot. After some days of planning, here I land in Dublin a Friday night, at 9 PM, heading to a B&B in Malahide. This is how I started this 18 days holidays: getting left by a taxi driver on the wrong Malahide Road... some 10 km away from my B&B. This is how carefully I planned my holiday. Luckily, after some walking, a second taxi collected me and so I managed to arrive were I would have spent the night. Rockstar! I've been thinking of visiting Ireland since I was 18 and I first heard the songs from Clannad (I know, too commercial kind of music... no?!?). I've been wanting to visit this country so bad that I never talk about it with anybody and never planned it. But here I am (still I haven't planned it, but this is a different story). So, Friday night at Malahide, Pebble Bed&Breakfast. I spent the night watching TV (it's a novelty for me! I have no TV in Amsterdam!): The Hurt Locker. Liked. Sat...