We left Doolin for our next city up north, Clifden. It was amazing how the landscape changed from rolling green hills to rocky, craggy, hills with small lakes scattered about.
Along the way, we stopped at Dunguaire Castle for some quick exploring and photos.
The next stop on the way to Clifden was Galway! We parked in a large carpark and wandered the downtown city. I LOVED Galway. It was one of the few stops I wish we had more time in. Mike and I stopped in about a hundred used book stores, some coffee shops, and my favorite stop- Carousel clothing shop where I tried on a dress, later gifted to me from my awesome sister-n-law, and fell in love with their vintage-inspired dresses. (Unfortunately their Galway location isno longer open, but I still order clothes online from them!)
We had lunch at the Dough Bros for some incredible pizza.
Once in Clifden, we checked in to our Airbnb, an old home that was once the lighthouse owner’s home. After getting cleaned up, we headed into town and had dinner at Mitchell’s Restaurant. It was completely empty and normally, this is a bad sign, but we found it to be a normal experience in Clifden. The other towns still had plenty of tourists, but Clifden was almost completely lacking them, so the streets and restaurants were mostly empty. The lack of patrons had no reflection on the quality of the food. I had the best lamb of the trip there (which is saying a lot as I got lamb everywhere I could) and we ordered wine bottles for the table.
After dinner, we tucked in for some final drinks and some Irish music at E J Kings Bar & Restaurant.