Sligo, Ireland

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W.B. Yeats was quoted as saying

"the place that has really influenced my life most is Sligo."

I can see why...if you are looking for a place that shows the heart of Ireland, this small coastal country town would do the trick. Nicole's job had her placed here for several weeks, so we thought we'd swing by for a quick visit "on the way" to Belfast. You know how that goes.

Kyle and I got some wrong directions and wound up getting turned around in the search for Nicole's hotel. It was dark when we stepped off the train...but luckily, within about 10 minutes of our arrival, a middle-aged couple saw us and offered to give us a ride. I was really astounded. They spoke to us as if we were family friends, though we were pretty rough and ragged looking strangers (I'm fairly sure we got mistaken for Pikeys later on.) Still puts a smile on my face.

"You want to come eat Italian food!!

Sligo really threw us for a loop with regards to their drinking agenda. Every other town required a damn early start because the pubs closed down at approximately 11-12:00, and that's when the clubs got rolling. Just when we got used to hitting the establishments at dinnertime, Sligo bucked the system and we found ourselves--9:30 pm--in an empty bar. While chatting with the bartender, enjoying a quiet beer and watching a football game, the Italian Student Association came waltzing in with a party mix CD and enough food to feed a starving 3rd world country...and we were ordered to "come eat Italian food with us!"

The group turned out to be super cool, so we rocked out Italian night with them at O'Neill's Pub and headed to the dance club afterward to shake off all those extra calories.

Sligo...the Place of Shells

We decided to break free from the pubs for a day and headed out to the coast, where the original Coney Island lies. Though it was cold and windy, we wandered up and down the beach for what seemed like hours. The sand and rocks were strewn with a beautiful array of shells, and the three of us were like children...heads down, stuffing our pockets with the coolest shells we could find and calling out to the others, "Hey, come check this one out!"

On the way back into town, we hopped on what appeared to be a public bus, but we soon realized it was actually a grade school bus. I challenge anyone to ride on a country bus full of little Irish kids and keep from having a grin plastered on your face...the kids were so full of vigor and curiosity that it was immediately infectious. One thing really stands out in my mind: The bus driver actually got out of his seat and walked a boy across the road to meet his waiting mother and the stick-fetching family dog...and two little girls giggled and honked the horn at the driver as he crossed back in front of the bus. Of course, he just laughed it off and hopped back into the drivers seat. How storybook can you get?

Exit strategy...

Once again, 2 days quickly turned into the better part of a week and we needed to think about getting to Belfast. We said our goodbyes to Nicole once more and hit the train station only to find out that we had overslept and missed the only train/bus to Belfast. There was, however, a town on the map called Derry. We didn't know anything about Derry, but figured it was as good as any...and 15 minutes later we were on a bus bound for Northern Ireland.

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