County Mayo

With a few pints of the black stuff (as an aside, they seem to have better tasting Guinness in Ireland. Not sure what the reason, but it was enjoyed by many during our stay, even those who don’t usually enjoy it. Maybe the secret recipe remains in Ireland?!) in our tummies and some happy memories we bid farewell to Dublin. We left the next morning and drove across the country to County Mayo. Brent’s Dad’s grandmother grew up in Ballina so we headed in that direction. About two hours outside of Dublin the roads change from highways to one lane winding country roads. This made for a long journey. Distances that looked on the map as if they should be travelled in under an hour ended up taking over two hours! We stayed at an amazing B&B (the Bervie!) on Achill Island just off the western coast. What a place. We had the waves crashing outside our room and sheep grazing outside our door. It is the closest we’ve been to Canada since we left last September. I had to use all my strength to hold Brent back from getting in the water and swimming home!

Ballina was interesting to see. It is a small town in essentially the middle of no where. It is famous for fly fishing wild salmon and we saw many fisherman when we were there. We toured around and had lunch in a local establishment. In our touring around we were the recipients of many stares as we were clearly not local! I guess they couldn’t detect the Ballina blood running through the veins of Clint and Brent.

After a couple of relaxing days on Achill Island, we made the long drive back to Dublin and flew back to Leeds. It was such a great experience to see a fair bit of Ireland, from the big city of Dublin to the rural and remote western coast. Plus there is still enough we haven't seen of Ireland to warrant another trip!