Today it was time to say farewell to Sligo and start heading back south. Our next stop is Westport, an extremely charming city near the coast in County Mayo. We got out of our hotel at the semi-reasonable time of 9:45, and were pleased to discover that our luggage fitted marginally better into our marginally larger rental car. Alas, the weather was still cool and rainy.
Our Airbnb in Westport is in the heart of the city, amidst picture book Irish pubs, shops, and restaurants. Also amidst much traffic. Bob did a valiant job steering us through the narrow one-way streets until we found the parking lot near our apartment and snagged the last possible space. (People park creatively here. There were cars in every possible place, including up on the stones surrounding a central statue. In order to get into our space, Bob had to ease past another car parked on the curb just in front of it.)
We set out to explore the town a bit, enjoying the abundant petunia displays and the quaint shops. Plan A for today was to rent bikes and set out along the Great Western Greenway, a renowned bike path running along the coast and part of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. Plan B was to climb nearby Croagh Patrick. Plan C was to rent kayaks on the bay. Unfortunately, the cold and rain made all of these somewhat unappealing. We went with Plan D, which was visiting nearby Westport House. This is a historic estate originally owned by the Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen of Connacht. It was only a 1 km walk away, mostly through a park that surrounds it. Unfortunately upon arrival we found that the house is closed for renovations, so Plan D was also thwarted. But we were still able to take a long walk around the estate, through lovely woodlands and along the lake and rivers, so it was still a worthwhile trip.
Plan E (which would have been Plan A for Nadia all along) never fails us — we found a local escape room. The rain finally relented so we were able to stay dry during the half hour walk. (Once our car is safely parked, especially in a place like busy downtown Westport, we are very reluctant to move it again.). The room was very fun and the proprietor Karolina was so kind and welcoming (like many people we’ve met here). We managed to escape in 31 minutes, thus earning our family a spot on the 2026 leaderboard. And astonishingly, since we escaped in roughly half the time, Karolina only charged us half price! Never had that happen before.
For dinner Nadia had her eye on a Thai place in town, and it did not disappoint. Despite Ireland’s not exactly having a reputation as a food mecca, we’ve had excellent meals here all along — both more traditional (fish and chips, Irish beef, etc.) and non (Korean and Thai). The restaurants have been packed, too — for this one, we had to leave our names at 6:30 and return at 7:30.
One thing we learned when we arrived in Ireland was that the Gaelic football finals were being held on that Sunday, Mayo vs. Kerry. And Mayo emerged victorious, for the first time in 75 years. As we drove to Westport (in the heart of Mayo), there were green and red flags and signs everywhere, and about 50% of the populace were wearing green and red jerseys. Even though it was now Monday, the following day, the celebrations weren’t over. As we had dinner and walked around the town, fans were streaming in. We’d planned to go to a pub for some Irish music, but it took us a while to find one that had any space at all. Eventually we were able to squeeze in and have some pints at a place that was playing the Saw Doctors on the stereo, which made Bob very happy.
The fans outside set up an impromptu parade ,with cars driving by bearing Mayo flags and hanging out the windows to cheer. By the time we left the pub, the streets were filled with revelers, drinking and singing. It was quite a scene. Our apartment is set a bit removed from the main street (in an interesting warren of apartments called The Kiln), so luckily it wasn’t too noisy — but Bob and I did hear occasional snatches of chants and songs well into the night. It was reminiscent of the time when we coincidentally ended up in Paris on the night that France won the World Cup.
