After Dingle, we headed to Galway, stopping at the Cliffs of Moher along the way. The views were spectacular!
In order to save a little time, we took a ferry part of the way.
Once parked on the boat, the man in the jeep next to me leaned out his window and said, “Go see the matchmaker.”
“What?” I asked. He had a heavy Irish accent, and I thought I must have misunderstood him.
“You and your friend should go to _____ and see the matchmaker.”
I looked at him in disbelief. Why was a total stranger telling us to go see a matchmaker?
I explained what he’d said to Paula. “He’s cute,” she said. Of course, she’d be attracted to him. He was pulling a horse trailer, and she was an animal fanatic!
A few minutes later, I grabbed our atlas and got out of the car. “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand the name of the town. Can you show me?” I opened the map.
He smiled and pointed to a town called Lisdoonvarna. “Ask for John _____. He has a beard. You’ll like him.”
It was definitely one of the most bizarre meetings of my life.
Thirty minutes later, we drove into Lisdoonvarna and saw a huge sign that read “Matchmaking Festival.” Paula wanted to stop, hoping the man with the horse would be there. Unfortunately, we were on a time crunch and needed to check into our B&B before dark so we kept going. Hopefully, we didn’t make a mistake and miss out on an Irish Prince Charming … or two!
The following day, we explored Galway — a beautiful college town with a lovely shopping district, …
… including a small medieval section, and …
… a river filled with ducks and swans.
The best part of our time in Galway, besides the scenery and a nice dinner at the Park Hotel, where we had the best Bailey’s coffees in Ireland, was the shopping. It was here that I bought myself a silver Claddaugh ring and several gifts for family and friends.
The worst part of our stay was stubbing my toe on Paula’s steel (actually hard plastic) suitcase on the morning we left to catch a plane for London. By the afternoon, it had swollen to twice it’s normal size and was extremely painful. With me limping through the airport, we managed to drop off our rental car and make the flight.
Next stop … Bath, England.