Today was an in-the-car day. Our time in Donegal Town was over, but before we left we stopped off at “Pretty Baked” patisserie where Isabelle got a savory croissant and a hot chocolate, and an almond croissant for later, and I got a cinnamon bun with cream cheese frosting, and a…I’m not really sure what kind of muffin it was; it had a spot of chocolate frosting on top so naturally I chose that, but I think it was some kind of molasses and raisin?

Our next stop was Castlebar, which is somewhere North of Galway on the Western side of the island. Before we hit the B&B, though, we took a swing through Drumshanbo to visit The Shed, makers of Drumshanbo Gin.

We were familiar with Drumshanbo Gin as it’s available in New Hampshire, and since we had already visited two whiskey distilleries, this was one for Isabelle. Unfortunately, Drumshanbo is trying to hype their whiskey line, so the bulk of our tour was focused on whiskey with a bit of gin and vodka at the end. At least we got some gin cocktails at the end.

After checking in to the B&B we took a run westward to Westport, the goal of which was to do some shopping. One weird thing we noticed immediately were the overwhelming presence of Canadian flags. When I asked a store clerk why, she explained that the Canadian Prime Minister was visiting tomorrow, and the President of Ireland was also coming to join in and there was some kind of bike race set to go through town, or something?

Westport is nice and Isabelle finally found a tweed hat she liked! Unfortunately, with Ireland’s narrow streets and even narrower sidewalks, navigating into the town and then navigating the crowded sidewalks was giving me anxiety. That and the intermittent rain and powerful wind, and the fact that we really didn’t find any shops that offered anything we might have been interested in, and we get into the car and headed in the opposite direction back into Castlebar proper.

Castlebar town is a lot like Westport in that there are a lot of shops clustered around the downtown area. Unlike Westport, though, there were far fewer people, and the shops extended out beyond the town center (there were a few major stores where we parked, like Dunnes — a department store — and Boots — a pharmacy and cosmetics store — and Tesco — supermarket).

Since it was 5:30PM or so and this was our last stop, we went looking for a place to eat and chose Everest Nepalese and Indian Restaurant. This was our first time at a Nepalese/Indian restaurant and everything we ordered was fantastic. The downside is that we ordered a bit too much but couldn’t take it all with us (although I absconded with the garlic naan).