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Irish Explorer Bus Tour: Day 2 – DONEGAL & GAME OF THRONES

June 19, 2018 /

In Ireland at this time of year, the sun stays up until nearly eleven o’clock at night. After not realizing quite how late it was and a few too many coffees, we found ourselves awake until close to 2 am last night. So, when our alarms went off at 6:30 this morning, we were far from well rested. But we drug ourselves out of bed and made it downstairs just in time for breakfast.

Sean and I were both thoroughly impressed with everything the Clontarf Castle Hotel had to offer us. We really liked that everything was locally sourced, from the curtains hung in the rooms to the handmade soaps and shampoos to the full spread of Irish breakfast that was waiting for us in the restaurant.

We walked into the dining hall to find a huge buffet of every kind of European breakfast you could want, and all of it was local, sustainable, organic and/or gluten-free. There was creamy, scrambled cage-free eggs, roasted potatoes, grilled button mushrooms, slices of ham and links of sausage, pastries, scones, breads, gluten-free muffins, yogurts, fruits, cereals, and homemade smoothies. We savored as much of the food as we could fit in our stomachs before checking out and hopping on the bus.

Today was day two of our tour. We headed towards the west coast of Ireland to the town of Donnegal, where we will be staying for the next two nights. Along the way, although I slept for pretty much most of it, we passed field after field of sheep, cows and horses grazing freely along the Irish countryside.

A couple of hours in, we stopped in Fermanagh County at Florence Court. Here, we were given a tour of the home of the Cole family, who were powerful landowners in the area. Even though it was interesting and very informative, it is probably not somewhere we would have chosen to stop on our own. With that being said, there is a very quaint little cafe on site that serves a phenomenal bowl of carrot and parsnip soup with a biscuit that is just as good, if not better. I’d probably go back to the area just to eat lunch there again, to be honest.

About twenty minutes away, we made our second and favorite stop of the day: Blake’s of the Hollow Pub. This was an exciting spot for two reasons:

It was our first experience at an Irish pub, and
The pub was chosen to have 1 of 10 doors that were featured on the HBO series, Game of Thrones

Sean was especially excited to find out that there is a “passport” booklet you can have stamped at each location across Northern Ireland, seeing all ten doors along the way.

One interesting fact about the doors: The wood comes from two trees that had fallen in a storm in the Dark Hedges, a popular set destination. The series used the doors in the pubs as a way to promote tourism across Northern Ireland.

Even without the whole Game of Thrones aspect, Blake’s of the Hollow was a great experience for us. We were greeted when we arrived by the manager, Mark, and another bartender, Michael. Both of them were incredibly friendly, offering us tastes of different beers they had on tap. We both wound up ordering a Guinness, which was served with a shamrock designed in the foam. When we commented on it, they said that it wouldn’t be a true Irish Guinness without it.

From the pub, we headed to our current hotel, Mill Park, where we’ll be for the next two nights. We were told the hotel is roughly a 7 minute walk from downtown Donnegal. Something we’ve learned from our time in Ireland, so far though, is that the walking time is always a bit longer. The family we sat with at dinner walked down beforehand, and it took about 30 minutes. Lol.

The Mill Park is another nice hotel. Upon arriving, we were greeted with coffee and scones, and later we sat down to another three-course dinner. So far, the food in this country has not disappointed. Tonight, we had butternut squash soup to start. For our main course, Sean chose roasted pork loin, and I went with some kind of goat cheese filled tart. It was absolutely amazing!

For dessert, we each ordered a toffee pudding, which was really a warm cake with toffee sauce drizzled on top – read that Best. Dessert. Ever. So good, I’m telling you. It was melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

We wanted to get to know some more of our group, so we sat with a new family at dinner tonight. Our whole group is from the states, and it’s been really fun to get to know everybody and meet new friends across America.

We wanted to head downtown tonight, but we knew the shops would be closed by the time we walked down there and I’m still pretty wrecked (my new favorite Irish term). So, for now we’ll be relaxing in our hotel and getting ready for tomorrow’s adventure.

Sean took some time to calibrate our new drone, and we’re hoping to get it up and off the ground tomorrow when we visit the Slieve Leagues.

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Look forward to sharing more of our travels with you tomorrow! Xoxo

Read our day 3 experience here.