I was picking up a hire car at 9am, but what always seems to happen when I hire a car (or camper) happened - I had someone in front of me asking 20-questions and causing a fuss. Honestly, just take the keys - do your research before you go!! Plus there was also a queue of about 5 different people; a couple in front of me, then a few groups behind me. It's as though they just book people all in the same timeslot but only give us one person actually working the desk. Very annoying.
I finally managed to get the keys at almost 9:40, meaning I'd sat around waiting for the better part of an hour (I'm looking at you Sixt, time-wasters!). Thankfully, it was still fairly early, and a Saturday, so there wasn't too much in the way of traffic on the road, and I hit the motorway. The destination was about 3 hours away, across the other side of the country at the Cliffs of Moher. The drive wasn't particularly interesting until I got fairly close to the ocean, with the only interesting part being when I saw a Garda (cop) doing a speed check on the side of the motorway, and driving around Limerick, where there were daffodils coming up all over the place!
I made it to the cliffs at about half one after driving along the beautiful coastline to get there. The weather was truly in my favour - it was so sunny, despite being windy and cold. I got out and walked to the cliffs. They were so absolutely amazing
The drive from the Cliffs to Galway, my stop for the night, was one of the best roads I've driven down. It went through an area called The Burren National Park, covered in the most amazing rock formations, I'd never seen anything like it! Highly recommend driving down there. If I'd had more time, I would have liked to stop and go for a walk... Next time! And unfortunately there are no photos because I was too busy driving and there were very few places to stop on what was quite a busy road.
I made it to my bed and breakfast in Galway at 4:30, quickly checked in and went to explore because the sun was setting quickly. Galway in sunset was truly beautiful and I'm so glad I managed to get there in time to be able to see it!
I stopped into town to get dinner and a drink, and then wandered back to my B&B for a bit of relaxation and an early night. I was having another early morning the next day and doing a lot of driving so I made sure I was ready for it!