Five Countries Four Marlboroughs: From Galway to Sligo - and a bit of bad luck. Where's my gold at the end of the rainbow?

We all had a bit of a sleep in before heading for a walk around Galway. It was 10am, rainy and windy. We grabbed our brollys and started the short walk to Eyre Park. We looked around and couldn't believe everyone was just out walking in the rain - why is everyone doing this? Where were their umbrellas?

Terry: This is crazy, let's go back
Bel: No, let's keep going
James: This is fun

So off we went. We turned the corner and were hit with the wind - and immediately knew why there were no other umbrellas! James' umbrella had already blown inside out and he said it was the funniest part of our whole trip.

Bel (screaming): Abort mission, abort mission!

And off we all ran back to the hotel laughing in the rain the whole way. 2 minutes into the day and not the smartest start. We changed into our wet weather jackets and headed back out. We called into a shop to pick up a plastic bag to put the camera case in as it was starting to get soaked. The guy who worked there joked, 'have a great day and enjoy our lovely weather'

Walking around the Latin Quarter with the kids we realised nothing opens on a Sunday - only church When i was talking to the concierge earlier, he had asked if i was Catholic or Protestant - to which i replied neither - looks like we weren't going to church. Shortly into our walk, the clouds parted and the sun came out. We were so happy and couldn't believe our luck as we were really, really cold. We walked around the harbour before heading back to the hotel and as we walked through Eyre Park it started raining again! What is it about the park?

Off to start our next drive, we headed to Sligo via the Connemarra National Park.

The grass is so green - the greenest grass I've ever seen. It is so green that if you painted it in a picture it wouldn't look real. As we drove along, the colours all around are green and grey - and then the odd touch of blue breaking through the clouds. We passed cows and sheep, sheep, sheep. There were even sheep right on the side of the road - I couldn't believe they weren't getting hit by cars. With the crazy weather brings rainbows! I saw rainbow after rainbow and it's no wonder there's folklore of leprechauns having a pot of gold at the rainbow.

We were about 50kms out of Sligo when I saw two young teens playing on a hill on the side of the road. I couldn't believe it when I saw one of the boys pick up a big rock and throw it at our car - BANG! What the hell! We couldn't stop where we were but once we could pull over safely we checked out the damage - DAMN IT! There goes the $3000 excess, Furious, we turned around and headed back to where they were. FOUND! 'Right, don't you dare move' yells Terry from the window. We pull up in the driveway of the house and the kids looked terrified. One ran off and the other was yelling, 'it was him, it was him' The big brother came out but we wanted to speak with the parents. I could go on and on but let's just say we weren't going to get anywhere. The parents - and grandparents - were worse than the kids and they were menacing! We told them we were going to the police, took a photo of their house and car and left. There was no way they were going to pay for it and these scumbags were liars. Without proof we weren't going to get anywhere and if they had of had money they would have bought teeth.

We decided to stop for coffee before we arrived in Sligo. When we came back we noticed a big dent at the back of the car. Someone had run into us and taken off. BRILLIANT. Damage enough to have split the bumper bar. There definitely goes the excess - we have travel insurance which will just cover us but this is a pain. We'll also have to pay more on our next rental in the UK to make sure we're covered as our insurance is basically taken up with this claim.

Defeated, we finally arrived at the hotel in Sligo. The hotel is set on a river and is really picturesque. Some days are better than others and we are thankful that we weren't injured. Now all we need to do is find $3000 at the rainbow's end.