Destination 51: Mullingar, Ireland
Day 1:
We went to the airport and picked up the rental car. It was a little bit of a hassle because there are two different places to pick up a car outside of the airport and we were told to go to the wrong one an our car obviously wasn’t there but I had the key so everyone was confused. We eventually figured it out and were on our way. Sitting on the right side of the car and driving on the left now feels normal to me and I am SO HAPPY to be driving again. FREEDOMMMMM!!!!! Mullingar is only an hour and a half from Dublin so the drive felt quick. No hostels in this town so we are at at Air bnb. We drove into town and walked around and got dinner. A fun fact about this town is that Niall Horan was born and grew up here. Some background info: Niall was in a band called One Direction and he was my favorite band member. My 12 year old self was so convinced I was going to marry him that my instagram handle for four years was MrsNiallHoran1. I was literally so in love with him (Sorry Harry). We drove and saw the house he grew up in which I believe he still owns but no one lives in. Later in the night we went to Nialls favorite pub called Clarkes Bar. They had pics of Niall all around and signed posters, vinyls, books, etc. They also had tons of pics and signed posters of Lewis Capaldi who is also a famous singer and Nialls best friend. I got to sign and write a note to Niall in a book that the bar gives him every time they see him which was super cool. Since it was late when we went the bar the bar tender told me to come back in the morning and he would show me the stage Niall used to perform on and all the other pictures and signed memorabilia.
Day 2:
Since we discovered there wasn’t much to do in this town we did a day trip to Sligo. Sligo is on the coast and it was only an hour and a half drive. We went to lunch and then drove the horseshoe which is a small narrow roads in the countryside that had beautiful views of the mountains, cool ruins, a massive cave and tons of sheep. This Irish man and his daughter saw we stopped to look at some stone ruins so he pulled his tractor over and started chatting with us. He thought we were crazy for driving an hour and a half to get here. He said that’s an awful long drive and I said it felt normal to me. I’ve driven a lot further for a lot less before. Apparently he owned the land the ruins were on so he opened up the fence and let us in to look around. He also took pictures of us. The ruins used to be an old school house which was cool. We went to Mullaghmore after which is right on the ocean. Tons of boats and water activities here. We also saw a cute seal swimming around. There is an island here called Coney Island (not to be confused with the one in New York or the Taylor Swift song) that you can actually drive to at low tide. We drove over to the starting point and decided that we didn’t want to get stuck on the way back so we just walked as far as we could and then went back. We did a little hike on the Knocknarea mountain. We didn’t hike to the top but we found a really cool wooden path through the trees that looked like a mideval forest. On the hike up there were tons of blackberry bushes and I ate SO many! We watched the sunset from the top, hiked back down and then drove back to Mullingar.
Day 3:
We checked out of the Air bnb and then went to breakfast. After breakfast we went back to Clarkes Bar and the girl working showed me all of the Niall stuff. I took pictures on his stage and with his pictures. The girl gave me coasters that they made for the bar when he came home and I got one of the shirts that they made with his signature on it. She also sent me every picture she took of him when he came home and preformed at the bar last year. I was in fan girl heaven. We also stopped by a hotel that has his Brit awards on display. After that we headed out and drove to Galway.
Next stop: Galway, Ireland
