Q: "what did the traffic light say to the car?"

A: "don't look, i'm changing!"

Day 35 (Day5) - after a lovely Thursday morning breakfast at the B&B, mom and i had a few hours to kill in Westport.

we decided to check out Westport House,

because it is owned by direct descendants of Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley and built on the foundation of one of her castles.

check out the GIANT swans------->

(jk, they are just paddle boats)

in the 16th century, Grace was chief of the O'Malley clan and ruled the seas around County Mayo.

she's one of the most famous woman pirates and pretty much a badass.

we didn't pay to go in (it was expensive and we didn't have a lot of time), but we walked around a bit and i'm almost positive that we didn't miss anything.

the "Pirate Adventure Park" was so incredibly cheesy that i think Grace would be incredibly pissed off that her name is on it.

(though i think the girls and i could have dressed in full pirate attire, had a few Bulmers and had a great time at this park. miss you, Dublin crew!)

anyway, after that slight fail, we stopped at The Fish Market for a quick lunch.

mom had a crab cake with mushy peas and i had seafood chowder (fresh from Clew Bay!) with homemade brown bread. YUM.

oh, and at this point, i had made it my mission to drink as much Bulmers as my body could handle before i left the Emerald Isle.

mom was sad to leave Westport,

(she got pretty good at posing for pictures)

but our next stop was GALWAY! my second favorite city in Ireland.

we got back in a cab, got on a bus to Galway, schelpped our luggage through the town square and got in another cab to Salthill.

one of my favorite things about this country? the people.

cab drivers are all too excited for you to be visiting their town and they instantly change professions to Tour Guide.

there was heavy traffic when we arrived, so once our tour guide ran out of things to talk about around us, he started telling corny jokes

(note the title of this post, which was followed by "you can tell that joke to a nun" - so cute)

mom and i didn't have a reservations anywhere, so we went to see Peter at Holiday Hotel (where i stayed when i came to Galway with the girls). he was overly excited to see me and asked about everyone.

once we got caught up and him and mom got acquainted, i took mom to Da Roberta.

pizza with sundried tomatoes, goat cheese and oregano?? sooooo goood.

my mother (the Italian woman famous for her cooking) loved this restaurant. that's saying a lot.

after dinner, we walked down to O'Conner's Famous Pub.

the inside is decorated with lots of crazy, old clutter everywhere. sort of a classy, Irish version of Joe's Crab Shack in decor.

<---random picture i took inside the pub
(click on the link above for even better pics)

the atmosphere is really cool. as Peter says "it's famous for a reason," haha

most importantly, this night must be commemorated in history, for it is the night that mom and i discovered Hot Whiskey.

it was really windy/cold outside and mom wanted a hot (alcoholic) beverage. the pub only served straight alcohol and some mixers. they didn't mess around with coffee or cream or nonsense like that (those of you that have seen Coyote Ugly understand this concept)

off the bartender's recommendation, she tried a new drink: hot whiskey with lemon and cloves (she swears that 'magic' is the fourth ingredient, but i have yet to verify that)

needless to say, she loved it and i had to remove her from the facility before she tried to stuff the bartender into her suitcase.