Northern Immersion - Tour of Donegal

I woke this morning at the usual time and headed down to breakfast only to discover that they were serving off the continental bar today.  The breakfast was less than stellar off the bar.  I missed my usual eggs Benedict and bacon.  After breakfast, I decided to hit the shops.  My intention was to buy my wife a souvenir from Derry.  So far, I haven’t been able to find anything touristy here.

Disappointed, I decided to trek up to the monastery that that CD had showed me earlier.  I guess I didn’t realize how long that walk was when I was riding in the car.  It took me an hour to trek down the river, up the hill, and finally find the monastery (after passing the turn-off a couple of times).  Along the way, I found a really neat park along the river with walking trails, trees, and lush green grass.  Also, after one of my wrong turns, I ended up in Brandwell, which had some really neat houses and murals.

I followed the whole trip that CD had taken me and walked back through Creggan, guiding myself by the few landmarks that seemed familiar.  It was a long walk, especially trudging up that hill, and I was exhausted when I finally made it back to the hotel.  At the hotel, I mapped out my walk, and I found out it was about 2.5 miles in total.

But I didn’t stay there long, deciding to high-tail it down the street to The Sandwich Co. for a soup and sandwich.  The lunch was amazing.  I had a BLT and the soup of the day, which was a vegetable soup.  The BLT was not traditional, in that they had mixed all of the ingredients together in a sort of sandwich spread.  The whole thing was very tasty.  Would go again…five stars.

After lunch, SD had agreed to take JM, KM, and I on a driving tour through Donegal (pronounced Donnie Gall).  We headed northwest to Buncrana and then followed the coast road up to Ballyliffin before turn around and heading southeast to Carndonagh, Quigley’s Point, Muff, and finally back to Derry.  Besides the amazing scenery and coastal views, we also stopped at Fort Dunree to take some pictures and enjoy the freezing cold wind before journeying on.

Here’s a funny story about Muff, Northern Ireland.  Muff sits right on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.  One of the guys in the class, BM, actually lives in Muff.  He said that what Muff is actually famous for is their scuba diving club.  They’re called the Muff Divers.

Well, I was supposed to meet JM and KM to go out to the Sooty Olive tonight, so after a quick nap, I texted him.  Apparently, he forgot we were going to go and went somewhere else without me.  So, pissed off that he didn’t text to let me know, I set off to try to find something.  I wasn’t feeling like eating out alone and needless to say most things in the town are closed, except pubs, so I ended up at Paolo’s Pizza again.  I tried the pepperoni pizza this time.  The pepperonis were tiny, like small sausages.  I ended up picking half of them off.  The pizza was okay, nothing great.  It could have been that I just wasn’t in the mood for pizza again.  I watched the Proposal while I ate, and now I’m going to bed.  I feel like I’m giving Twitter updates or something.