June 11th & 12th, 2012

Day 22: Strandhill, Sligo & Roscommon, Ireland

Today I was on my own- left to wander about in Strandhill! Not a bad place to be on a gorgeous day like today. Declan had to work at 8 so Sharon gave him a lift to Sligo- I slept until about 10 and then got my day started!

After I got ready, I headed to Spar to pickup something for breakfast and then made my way to the beach. Like I said, it was a gorgeous day so I spent a few hours wandering down the beach and in the sand dunes. I took a short nap in the sun as well! You’d never guess that this was Ireland judging by the pictures:

After the beach, I went back to the apartment got my bags and headed to the bus stop. It was a short trip to Sligo (town) where I wandered around a bit before I found Sharon at her work. My phone was dead and I didn’t remember the directions Declan gave me the night before or the name of his Bistro- oops! Lucky enough I accidentally stumbled on The Body Shop where Sharon was and oriented myself. I walked around a bit and then went in to Dec’s bistro for a cup of tea before he got off of work. A nice place, indeed!

We took the train from Sligo to Longford at 5 where his mom picked us up and then I met the fam! They’re a lovely bunch of people J We watched the England-France  game (they drew), had some sandwiches for dinner and then went out to the pub to watch the Ukraine- Sweden game with Dec’s brother, Fintan. Ukraine took that game 2-1!

Ran into a few of Declan’s friends while we were out too, and ended up going back to Senan’s house after the pub. At that point, we played poker until around half 6 and finally called it a night! Slept straight through to noon, when Senan’s brother brought us back to Declan’s and immediately proceeded to take a 3 hour nap. At around four, Declan made a proper fry for the family and I and we sat down to breakfast, haha.

Declan and Fintan took me around town a bit to show me some sights- we went to Roscommon Castle, the football pitch and visited Alan, Declan’s oldest brother and some others!

Declan had quite a hard time trying to catch me a lamb at his neighbor’s house next door, but it was definitely entertaining for Fintan and I to watch J

We went back to Dec’s house and sat down to watch the Poland-Russia game and then Declan went to off to the dentist & I hung out with his pops and Fintan. He picked up some dinner from the chipper and we had a relaxing night. Need time to recover after last night & Dec needs his rest for his game tomorrow!

Favorite part of the day: My mid afternoon nap was savage, but I'd have to say watching Dec chase the lamb around the yard was priceless. :)