Pride of Ireland

Not long after our parents left on the bus back to Clare, I was wondering what will I do with my week off. After a suggestion from +Niamh, I emailed Enniskillen Hotel about a prize I won in the Rte Guide a few months ago, just hadn't the time to use previously. As I still hadn't heard back by lunchtime on the Monday, we decided to organise backup plans in case. Just as we were finalising plans, and heading to book a tour, I get a reply back saying the Bronte Suite was available for the nights I wanted which was great. I confirmed the booking immediately. Now only issue was, was what to pack. I met Niamh after her meeting the following morning, and we quickly got few bits before getting the 13.30 Bus Eireann bus towards Enniskillen. After a slight delay we finally arrived to the hotel just before 5 pm. The Bronte Suite was fabulous no wonder it is the hotel's best room. As part of the 2 night stay, I also got a nice bottle of white wine and dinner. I kept wine for later in the week to use to celebrate Pride. That night we had dinner at the nearby Wethespoon's Linen Hall, which was exactly what we needed after all that travelling on the bus. After dinner we went exploring around the town on the way back to the hotel, which I had arranged for a Bushmills whiskey tasting with the hotel's whiskey expert Alex. Throughout the tasting he was so funny and made the whole experience quite fun. We called it a night after that as we were both wrecked and wanted to do and see a lot the next day.

We went down for breakfast a tad later then we planned, and decided after the nice breakfast to make the effort to really enjoy it properly the next morning. After breakfast, we set out to see what sights the town had for us. Being me of course I visited the two main churches within the town, before paying a visit to the headhunter barbers which is home to the railway museum. This museum within the barber impressed both myself and Niamh, as it told the story of the railway in the area until it closed and the amount of artefacts was quite extensive. From this museum we strolled down to EnnisKillen Castle before walking towards Portora Castle via the Portora Royal School which in the past had been Home to both Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde at different times as students. On the way to and from the castle we saw the playing fields which was used for General Eisenhower's visit to inspect the American soldiers stationed there before Invasion of Normandy. 

After exploring around the castle, we made the trek back towards Forthill Park, as I wanted to climb Cole's monument to see the view from the top. I nearly winded myself climbing up the 108 steps to the top. Although after the run up those steps I was out of breath, and the wind which I was greeted with was unexpected , the view from the top was breath taking especially seeing all of Enniskillen and River Erne. We took a few mins to recharge our batteries, after which we started the trek to try and find Castle Coole which was about a 40/45 mins walk away.

As we found the wrong entrance, the nice guy at the pedestrian entrance was very nice to let us in, although we hadn't any cash on us, we both think he felt sorry for us, as it looked like it was about to start pouring, luckily enough was only a very quick passing shower. To be fair on the young lad, he tried to sell us the National Trust passes, although we had no interest we listened, as he let us in for free and the fact he was cute did no harm either.

We ended up doing nearly all of the walks around the estate, from around the lake, down to the ice house, around the house before we left through the same entrance again. The long walk back to the hotel for dinner was made via a visit to the local ASDA, where we stocked up on low cost meds and few treats. We had the complimentary dinner in Wilde's bar, as it was off season for the hotel, the meal it self was lovely except for my Risotto which I personally found very bland, although the hotel staff were great about it and I got sorted which was nice. After dinner we were both exhausted as it was such a long day with all that walking. 

We did actually get up early for breakfast, and it was even better than the previous one. We even had time for a post breakfast snooze before check out. The receptionists at the hotel throughout our stay were all very friendly and helpful. As we had some time before next bus, I wanted to get few vegetarian products at ASDA which I had never seen before and wanted to try. Like the bus up on Tuesday, the bus back to Dublin was late in this case nearly 30 mins. The journey back itself was very uneventful and relaxing. Once we arrived back, on the way back to the apartment, we stopped off at the Wild Rovers office on Bachelors Walk to book our tour to Belfast and Giants Causeway for the following morning. We were able to both get students tickets which saved some money which was great. We then had to rush home to quickly change and put the food away before heading out to Miele Gallery in Citywest for the Neven Maguire Demonstration evening.

I must say I personally was more impressed about the event then I thought it was going to be. We got some cool recipes and even got chance to talk and get our photo taken with Neven. After this event, we had to wait for bus back into town, where we were meeting cousins from Australia who had met our parents and other members of our family previously in the week. It was strange yet interesting meeting Jamie and his wife Josie, before we knew it hours had passed and was time to leave the Brazen Head as we all had early starts the next day. It was great to finally meet them after the emails and calls.

Jamie - long lost cousin from Australia