Ireland's west/northwest

... Galway in the evening is really bustling. From high heels and short skirts to street musicians in sweatpants, everything is there. The fish at McDonagh's was delicious, the beer and live music at 1520 was good, although touristy, while the beer at Salt House was much more local. With a recommendation for a nearby beach shower, we finally said goodbye to Sonja and Christian and their green T3.

Day 13: After getting up, we went to the recommended beach shower. 40 cents for a total of 30 minutes of lukewarm showering was okay ;) Then we continued towards Connemara National Park. On the way, we stopped at a public laundromat, which can be found at all major gas stations and supermarkets here. Fortunately, the required washing machine was free, so we could start right away. We passed the time by optimizing and tidying up the car. 9 minutes before we could put the laundry in the dryer, a lady with bedding arrived before us. So we had to wait another 60 minutes until our laundry could go in. In the end, we spent 2.5 hours in the gas station parking lot. Well, at least we have clean clothes again.

From there, we briefly went to the city of Clifden, which we had higher expectations for, and then drove along the coastal road to Cleggan. Here, the salty sea and a sweet lake were only separated by a narrow peninsula at the tip of the peninsula.

Then we went on a short circular hike in Connemara National Park at the foot of Diamond Hills.

And we visited the impressive Kylemore Abbey, a grand Victorian castle that was used as an international girls' boarding school until recently.

And then we drove to our idyllic sleeping place at Killary Harbour with a fantastic view of the fjord.

Day 14: After a freezing night, we crossed the Doo Lough Pass and drove along Clew Bay, dotted with hundreds of small islands that look like they drowned in the sea. We spontaneously decided to do a recommended hike on Achill Island.

The hike led to Croaghaun, which at 688m is the second highest peak on the small island. The route was declared challenging and only possible in good weather and without fear of heights, and a compass was mandatory. Fortunately, Tobi had one.

So we followed the instructions and started from the parking lot towards the north. Unfortunately, we were not quite clear what was meant by the instruction "until the mountain ridge is fully visible". Since there was also no visible path, we decided to just climb the mountain ridge somewhere. With three breaks and a pulse of 200, we finally reached the ridge and could continue following the instructions in the travel guide.

The effort was rewarded with a breathtaking view of the steep cliffs and the sea. When we reached the summit of the mountain, we felt like these cliffs are the grandmother of the Cliffs of Moher, with over 600m. This tour has been the highlight of our trip so far!

# Fun fact on the side: The expression "boycott" also comes from Ireland. It goes back to Captain Boycott, who was such a hated landlord that people simply ignored/boycotted him.

To cover some more distance, we drove straight to Sligo to our next sleeping place at Rosses Point.

Day 15: This day greeted us with rain, and unfortunately, that didn't change. Very undecided, we drove across the northwest of Ireland. First, we wanted to go to Atlantic Drift, then to Slieve League, but when we arrived there, it was raining so heavily that we didn't want to start the hiking route due to a warning in the travel guide. So we decided to drive directly to Glenveagh National Park and spend the rest of the day comfortably in the bus in order to explore the park the next morning.

Day 16: Said and done! Despite more drizzle and strong winds, we put on our hiking shoes and set off along Lough Veagh towards Glenveagh Castle. The view of the mountains was somewhat restricted due to the fog, but the gardens and the castle were still pretty to look at.

Back at the bus, we set off for the Inishowen Peninsula to reach the northernmost point of Ireland - Malin Head. On the way there, we realized that we had misunderstood the Five Fingers. They are not the peninsulas in the southwest of Ireland, but rather a dune landscape on Inishowen. Upsala!

Unfortunately, we couldn't spot any whales or dolphins at Malin Head, as advertised on the signs. So we left the peninsula, did some shopping, filled up the tank before heading to our sleeping place at the Irish/Northern Irish border. It's not quite clear which side of the border we're actually on right now. The only difference that is noticeable is that people are much harder to understand.