Sláinte Motherf**kers

Above title is from a little show called Derry Girls on Netflix for those who haven't seen it.  It's a fun program set here in Derry in the 90's.  'Sláinte = cheers' in Irish Gaelic.

Good evening from Derry in Northern Ireland. We've had a bit of driving and a little bit of sight seeing.

Today saw us leave Galway and head for Donegal. Again another beautiful drive with lovely scenery and not too much traffic to slow us down. We have had a couple of days of driving through small villages and avoiding the large motorways, which has been nice.

We arrived in Donegal about lunch time and went to view Donegal Castle.  Another fun time of trying to find carparks in these little villages as the castle doesn't provide car parking.  Poor planning of the original family that built the castle (just saying) ha!  

Anyway I digress -  Donegal Castle was a principal residence of the great royal family of the O'Donnells, who ruled the kingdom of Tir Chonaill from 1200 until 1601. There wasn't a heap to see, but it was lovely to go in and have a look without 1 million other tourists and Carrie didn't bail halfway. For those of you who have read our American blog, you may remember that famous day in Boston of returning the hire car while busting for the loo.  See the photo here of Carrie while in Donegal Castle, busting for the loo again, she is trying to break into the ancient loo (known back then as a 'Garderobe'). 

After the castle, we had a quick stroll through Donegal and then had some lunch. Carrie was still unable to get scones, despite the fact they were advertised on the sandwich board out the front of the lunch place. It appears that the past issues with the potato famine, have now turned into issues in 2025 with the great scone famine. We did at least get to pat some dogs that were having lunch with their owners. This partially put Carrie in a better mood after no scones.

From Donegal we hit the road for Derry in Northern Ireland.  We were somewhat underwhelmed by the border crossing.  We expected some sort of fanfare, or passport check, or even a sign to indicate that we were changing countries.  Alas, we only got a sign saying that speeds are now in miles per hour as opposed to Kms per hour. That was it. So who knows, we may be here illegally, but either way they let us in.

This is our cheat sheet as the car is in KM/H and we need to figure out if it can be changed.

We also now have to workout our next car game since we no longer have the 'Garda' stations to find in each town (as their signposts are very tiny and sometimes hard to spot).  Now that we're in Northern Ireland it's back to boring Police.

On our arrival into Derry, we located our hotel, squeezed Riona into the last available spot in the hotel parking lot and dumped our stuff in our room.  We then headed out to have a quick look around town and then did another self guided audio tour.

It was fascinating to hear the history of Derry and hear all about the protests, riots and the Battle of the Bogside. The conflict in Northern Ireland is widely considered to have begun with the Battle of the Bogside in 1969. The Bloody Sunday incident in 1972 also occurred in Derry, in the Bogside area.  14 innocent lives lost (unarmed civilians) against British soldiers during a protest march.  The protest was against internment without trial.

We also learnt about the city walls. These were erected between 1613 and 1619. The walls are about 1 mile circumference and contain many of the city's most important landmarks. The entire length of the walls is fully accessible on foot. You can access the walls in many parts and walk along the top of them around the inner city. The walls have played a part during many battles in early history as well as during "The Troubles" of Northern Ireland.  It's the only remaining city in Ireland with completely intact city walls.  It's one of the few cities that have never had its walls breached, withstanding several sieges including the Siege of Derry in 1689 which lasted 105 days.

After our city tour we went in search for somewhere for dinner.  You would be surprised on how difficult this actually was.  I know it's summer, the sun doesn't set until after 9pm but it seems most pubs here only serve alcohol and/or their kitchen closes at 6pm or 7pm.  So we traipsed up and down trying to find something and only ended up opting for the hotel bar & grill. We knew they were open and there was some sketchy people out and about and we didn't want to have to walk past them again during the dark.    Plus we've already seen an arrest of some local youths.  It has definitely been great people watching this afternoon/evening of the local 'chavs' around the area and underage kids pub hopping hoping someone will let them in.  

Off to Belfast tomorrow, catch you in a bit!