My friend Nicole is in Ireland for a few days during her solo adventure and I am excited to have a friendly face with me. We have the bright idea to rent a car to take us from Dublin to Galway to Cliffs of Moher.
Roughly the drive 7 hr 10 min; 549 km or 341 miles
To save money Nicole wants to rent the standard and I am willing to splurge on the automatic. If you have never visited Ireland let me remind you they drive on the right side of the car and the left side of the road, completely opposite from the states. We also decided to rent a standard to save costs. Well I cannot drive a standard so Nicole took to the wheel and I handed navigation. Bring on the stress levels! I now understand why couples break up after trips. I love my friend dearly but driving in those circumstances did not bring out the best in either of us. It took her a good 20 minutes to get used to the car and I did get lost once or twice but once on the highway we somehow found our groove. I do this thing when someone yells or snaps at me I just shut down, I don’t talk unless spoken to, and I retreat into myself. So needless to say the first 20 minutes was stressful and now I am sitting here not talking but navigating. Luckily this car has Apple CarPlay so I am no longer in charge of navigating.
Two and a half hours later we arrived in Galway. This is such a cute little town! The streets are lined with adorable shops and quaint little restaurants, overhead they have stings or flags hanging connecting one side of the street to another. We do some window shopping and have lunch at the cutest restaurant that has a tree in the center. I am trying to do my best to talk but I can’t seem to come out of my shell. I also realize I don’t have our tickets to Cliffs of Moher, they are on my MacBook back at our place and I only have an email receipt but no tickets. This does not help my not shutting down.
When we leave Galway Nicole cannot get the car into reverse so after several minutes I walk down to the firestation to ask the firefighters if they can help us. They were sweet but also joked that we didn’t know how to drive. I had to point out that everything is the opposite here. Handy Nicole looked up how to reverse and figured it out before I returned with the firefighters. They were kinda cute, I was hoping to spend more time with them but also relieved to get on the road.
An hour and a half later we arrive at Cliffs of Moher and thankfully we don’t need a ticket, just our reference number! We make our way up to the cliffs and I feel like we are starting to walk into a horror movie, there is fog everywhere! We can hardly see the end of the cliff in front of us, much less anything else. We take a few pictures but it is useless trying to see anything. Nicole decides to rest for a bit in the grass and I want to stretch my legs. What I can see is beautiful and it is lovely to relax in the scenery. We spend about an hour here and then head back to the car for the trip back to Dublin.
Nicole is doing much better at driving but it is trippy to see the trees coming near you from what is typically the drivers side. We make it back to Dublin pretty late and I am thrilled to climb into a comfy bed.
Oh I forgot to mention, I escaped my horrid AirBnB. I also slept most of the other day and am caught up from jetlag. I couldn’t sleep in that disgusting mess of a place. I complained to the owner who changed the sheets and said he cleaned the bathroom but it was while I was at the Trinity Library and wasn’t there to point out all the nasty aspects of the flat. Needless to say I didn’t see any changes except a new change of sheets. I don’t want to gross anyone out but I promise I am not exaggerating how grotesque this place is. There is used toilet paper stuck to the bathroom walls…it only gets worse from there. ThankfullyI have a little nest egg for emergencies I am borrowing from while I work with AirBnB on refund. I checked in to Beckett Locke North Docks | Central Dublin, I highly recommend staying here! It is across the street from the train so I no longer have to walk an hour into town, the studio is equipped with a kitchen and a washer, the bathroom has a waterfall shower head and a heated towel rack! I am in heaven!
Today’s Helpful Tips
Renting a car
If you are from the states or not the best at driving standard, splurge for the automatic. It wasn’t that big of a difference anyways. Alos, have a lot of patience and don’t leave at morning rush hour.
Galway
Stop in Galway it is adorable! We ate at dela- Galway. Honestly, if I return to Ireland I want to stay in Galway and wish we had more time there.
Cliffs of Moher
Purchase your tickets ahead of time but don’t fret if you don’t bring them with you, they can look up your order. Just know the Cliffs can be hit or miss and like me you might hit fog.
Hotel Stay
100% recommended Beckett Locke, the staff was wonderful, my room was amazing, and they are close to the train. I will be staying at one of their other locations in the future.
