Eat, sleep surf, can i repeat?

Mullaghmore is a quaint village in County Sligo, Ireland. If you are an active walker, the skyline of Mullaghmore is dominated by Ben Bulben mountain. The village is small, there is a cafe with the most beautiful mural on the front of the building, trust me you can't miss it, the beach hotel and the pier head hotel are available for you to stay in, but for this visit, we had the luxury of a beautiful cottage sitting high on a hill overlooking the harbour.

My favourite part of Mullaghmore is the harbour, from there you can rent a boat and go fishing for the day, go swimming, paddle boarding, and jump off the high wall (no thanks, that looked scary). The pier head hotel is right on the harbour and one night when we went for dinner, it was just entertaining sitting and watching all that was going on around me.

*Due to covid - 19 there are different restrictions in Ireland, so please be sure to know what these are before you visit so you are prepared. For example, non-guests are not allowed into the hotel, but are welcome to sit outside and order food and drink*

I have finally ticked another item 2 items off my 100 things to do in the 2021 list! There's still a lot on there, but hey! Im getting there! This weekend my family and mu (Ryan, mum and me) were incredibly blessed to get the lend of a holiday cottage right at the beach! #dreamhouse! It was perfect we spot for a weekend away and we even brought Mac! The plan was to eat out, relax, walk along the beach and not worry about a thing! AND leave the phone in a drawer!!! One thing i have always wanted to do is learn to surf, and considering i went to University for 3 years on the North Coast of Northern Ireland i can't believe i never done it then!!

A day or two before we were due to leave, i started googling surf schools close to where we were staying, and by joe did i find a good one!! Finn McCool Surf School and Shop is AMAZING! I emailed Neil and asked if there was availability for Saturday and got a speedy enough response, once i told Ryan i was doing a surf lesson, we decided to move the lesson to Friday as he would be at the cottage. Neil was super accommodating and was able to plop us in for 3 pm on Friday! Ryan was away Friday morning sorting his things out so mum and i packed up the car and headed off on our two-hour drive to the cottage, we were travelling separately for the first hour and this week i am staying with my aunt, which is halfway between the cottage and home! *so handy!* We got to the cottage eventually and unlocked the car, not forgetting Mac!! We didn't have too long until our surf lesson so we headed off! After some quick introductions from some very friendly people we were given boards and headed across the road for a short walk to the beach. The instructor we had been given was lovely, but for the life of me, i have no clue what his name was! I'd recommend him if i could remember his name! We did the tropical beach drills of how to get up on the surfboard and off we went into the water!

I was bouncing with excitement!! The sea was lovely and warm, in fairness my wetsuit is a winter one so i didn't feel the chill!! Ryan went first, and as usual, he was a pro, up the first time and soon after that he was catching his waves and moving a little further out. It was my turn... I got on the board, The guy had the nose of it, He got me positioned towards the beach, He shouted 'You ready' Paddle Paddle Paddle Away i went, i was riding a wave, One foot, Then the other.... Bang, i ate shite!! I stood up for a few seconds, but after this i was flying, catching waves all around, moving out to the bigger ones! Man is surfing a workout! Im currently nursing what i call a busted shoulder, so it wasn't too keen on all this paddling but i was loving life! Dredging through the water back out over the waves was tough but it was so worth it for those few seconds standing on that board riding into the beach feeling like the coolest person there! So it's official im a professional surfer, im going to quit my job, live by the beach and spend I say in the salty water catching waves! * i wish* If anyone is looking to learn how to surf, head to Rossnoulagh, to Finn McCool's surf school, book a lesson and ask for the young (ish) lad with long (ish) blonde hair! His amazing, patient, fun, and will have you surfing in no time! I was so sweet, i was getting beat by the waves, my arm was killing me but i still wanted to surf, so he got me on the board, grabbed the nose and pushed me out over the waves until i caught a good one! *i thought this was the sweetest thing* The rest of the weekend we walked around, explored, walked along the beach and hung out. It was very simple and quiet and relaxing! Just what we all needed. It had nothing to do with the fact it's Ireland and rained from about 2 o'clock Friday until... Well im pretty sure it's still raining!