IRELAND! Donegal.

 

After leaving Derry we began to make our way to Bundoran, but not before stopping for the morning in Donegal.  Of course we stopped there to visit a castle!  For a very long time Donegal Castle laid in ruins, but was almost fully restored in the 1990s.

 

The castle dates back to the 15th century when it was occupied by the O'Donnell clan, who were a very powerful and influential family during the time.

 

 

You can't imagine my glee when we discovered we were actually permitted to go inside and explore!  I have always wanted to visit old castles and this was my first proper castle to visit.  Belfast castle was nice, but it's not a proper castle in my book.  You need to feel the adventure by just looking at it.  This one had stone walls and ivy and secret windows and winding staircases on the inside.  Proper fairytale material.

 

 

 

A lot of the photos that we took indoors are just too blurry to post, but I wanted to share this one of Roibeard going up the chimney!  We took this photo and then saw a sign that said something like: Children, please don't play in chimney.  Whoops!  Haha.

 

 

This photo I like because I feel like I look so mature...as in wise beyond my years.  Sometimes when I look at myself it's hard to see anything other than what I saw when I was a child.  If you look at photos of me from when I was 3 you'll see that I still have the same face.  I look this photo and see all of the things that I have experienced over the years.  Make sense?  Oh, also...my hair was a royal mess the whole time I was in Ireland.  I decided to not fight it and just embrace it.  (Also...I didn't realize my hair straightener and curler wouldn't work over there...)

 

 

While waiting for the bus to take us to Bundoran we headed to the coast where we discovered this ancient abbey.  It was quite beautiful right on the ocean.  Some of the graves were more recent, but most of them were so old you couldn't even read the stones anymore.  All in all Donegal was a really nice day trip to make.