Today we woke up in Derry. I was quite disappointed when I got to the breakfast bar and there wasn't any gravy boat full of Bushmills. I settled for a cup of coffee and some juice. The rest of the breakfast was quite delicious though, containing the standard Irish breakfast stuff - eggs, soda bread, mushrooms, baked beans, roasted tomatoes, sausages, rashers, pastries, cold cheese, ham, fresh-squeezed apple and orange juices, fruit, yogurt, and more. I am really loving the baked beans with the sausages.
After breakfast we left Derry (and Northern Ireland) and drove up the
Inishowen Peninsula, en route to
Malin Head. The Inishowen Peninsula is in County Donegal, and is the largest peninsula in Ireland. It is pretty rural and we passed several thatched roof cottages that people still live in.
Malin Head is the northernmost point in Ireland, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. Malin Head was chilly and extremely windy. It was hard even to stand up when some of the gusts hit. The coastline is beautiful, and almost reminds me of parts of the Oregon coast, or the coast in Northern California.
After we left Malin Head, we stopped at Farren's - the northernmost pub in Ireland. This place was cool. There was only one local guy in there. Donal, our fearless leader, brought his guitar into the pub and played guitar while some of the guys played pool and we all sat around and chatted with our driver, Paddy, and the bartender.
The bartender was pretty great - he managed to write my name in my Guinness in a half-pint. That's a lot of letters to fit in a half-pint. Quite impressive! Paddy told me that the best Guinness was in Dublin, because Guinness doesn't travel well. I hadn't been to Dublin yet, but I couldn't imagine a Guinness tasting better than the one I was drinking right then - it was creamy and chocolaty and had my name written on top!
We drove back to Derry, stopping for a bathroom/pint break every half hour or so - whenever we happened to come upon another pub, it was time to stop for a pee and a pint! When we got back to Derry, we had some time before dinner, so we wandered around and ended up in a pub called "Bound for Boston." We talked to some local guy forever - he had just turned 30. We played songs on the jukebox and talked about Americans, homeless people, music, surfing, motorcycles, healthcare, and just about anything else we could think of. Both that guy and the bartender thought that the best Guinness could be found in whatever pub people drink it a lot at, because the lines and taps are fresh. The local guy we talked to hates U2 and the Dropkick Murphys, and just wanted us to play Placebo on the jukebox.
We eventually headed back to the hotel for dinner, and turned in early. I really wanted to get up early the next morning - we were leaving Derry the next day, and I really wanted to walk the walls of Derry before we left.
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