Entering the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland is barely noticeable apart the change in speed limit signs from miles per hour to kilometres per hour. We booked two nights in Galway to enjoy the city, music and nightlife. As we were there on a Saturday night it was jam packed with locals, tourists, musicians and street performers which gave it an awesome vibe. Galway has a medieval feel and you can imagine what it would have been like back when the cobbled streets were lit with oil lamps. We did our classic three pub pub crawl and listened to some live bands play. The second day we explored Salthill which is by the coastline. Here, we found an awesome South East Asian restaurant where we had pad Thai, a curry and spring rolls – so good. After that we went for a couple of pints (really starting to become a trend now in Ireland) at the bar that Ed Sheehan filmed the last part of the Galway Girl music video. There were some great live musicians and on a cold, windy evening it’s very easy to just have one more drink and stay out a little bit later than planned.

Galway

Galway girl pub – great live music!

The following day we were up early to catch the ferry from Doolin to the Aran Islands, InishMore. This is the largest of the islands and has an incredibly rough sea between them and the main land of Ireland, with the crew repeatedly telling us “there’s nothing between here and Boston”. We enjoyed the waves and arrived without being sick like many other passengers. We hired bikes and spent the day cycling the perimeter of the island. The coastline is so rugged and unspoilt with the weather constantly changing. We braved the wind and rain and made it up to visit the Dún Aonghasa prehistoric fort which was built impressively on the edge of some very high cliffs. The cliffs on the coast are super impressive but also dangerous. The height combined with the rocks and rough sea at the bottom means there’s no coming back if you fall/get blown off by the wind. Matt made sure we were always at least 4 meters away from the edge in case of unstable ground haha. This is where extending our one meter tourist alert go pro stick came in handy to get some good and safe photos.

Loved riding the happy hooker to Inishmore and back.

The following day we decided the visit the Cliffs of Moher. Similar in style to the ones on Inishmore but even higher, the highest being 214 meters. Not letting our experience walking to Giants Causeway bring us down, we parked in Doolin and decided to walk 8 kilometres along the cliff line to reach them. The walk was fantastic and although cloudy and foggy we didn’t get rained on. We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher suddenly surrounded by the mass of tourists who caught a bus up. After some pictures we decided to walk back to Doolin the way we came as the weather was nice as were the views and quiet atmosphere. Back at the car we drove to Tralee where we spent the night before our drive the following day around the Ring of Kerry.

Started off dubious, worked out well

this picture really sums up outdoor activities in Ireland