Ireland 2010

The long awaited Ireland post!
I'm sorry it took so long for me to complete this. I have a lot to write still about Chianti and Greece! but here goes...


A few weeks ago, Kristina, Kate and I set out to a four day adventure in Ireland. I was most excited for this trip out of any of the others because of my wild irish family and our roots! We left on a wednesday morning and arrived in Dublin around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. After settling in, we made our way down to the Brazen Head, which is one of Ireland's Oldest Pubs, established in 1198! It was very quaint and welcoming, and the food was amazing! Lots of meat, we were SO excited! It's funny how leaving Italy puts you into a meat craze...you will search until you find anything that has beef on the menu. Yes, my friends had beef stew and I had a steak sandwich. We sat around for awhile and drank Guinness, (the best Guinness I have ever tasted) which I had felt honored to be drinking.  We spent the rest of the evening walking a little around Dublin to try and become somewhat familiarized with the city. I was able to see the Christ Church Cathedral and the Dublin Castle, which was absolutely breathtaking. We only walked around the outside but they we're filming a movie so we sat and watched for a little while. Supposedly it is going to be on HBO and is called Neverland.  We stopped at a few gift shops on the way back to our hostel and had dinner. It was an early night because Thursday we had booked a tour to the Cliffs of Moher, which left at 6 am.

Getting up the next morning was a little difficult. 5:30 in the morning is A. not something I've been used to for a while and B. not particularly something I've ever enjoyed. (hint hint Dad) haha but anyways,  we met our bus and set off for Western Ireland, which turned out to be my favorite place in the world. There were rolling hills with all sorts of cute little houses and farms and the grass was more green then I had ever imagined. The sun and clouds reflected off the hill sides, turning the grass different shades depending on where the sun hit and where the clouds covered. It was beautiful! Lots of sheep and cows, so I really felt at home.

After stopping in Limerick, where we were able to briefly see King John's Castle and the Shannon River, we made it to the Cliffs of Moher. The coast of Ireland was much more windy but had some of the most beautiful views I had ever seen. The cliffs were HUGE and very very beautiful! The tops of them were sort of flat but covered in grass that looked like green velvet.  Most of the cliffs we saw reached about 400 ft from the water but the tallest is about 700 ft! On the other side of the watch tower, you could easily see the Aran Islands. That was not nearly as pretty as the cliffs but definitely something cool to add on. Out of the blue, it began to rain and hail, but only for about 10 minutes as we made our way back to the bus.

When leaving the Cliffs of Moher, we stopped in Doolin for lunch, a little coastal village that was not highly populated at all. In fact it was pretty secluded. It was nice though to be somewhere that you could just relax and take everything in. Ireland is good for that. We ate at a little pub called McDermott's that was founded in 1867-and the meat was good here too!! 

On the way home, we stopped at the Burren, the karst-landscape region of the northwest of Ireland. It was really neat, the layers of limestone looked almost like layers of a cake...an enormous cake. The Burren measures about 250 square kilometers and borders the Atlantic and Galway Bay. It is known for its variety of plants and animals due to it's unusual environment. However since we were visiting in the fall, the variety was scarce. 

We then stopped briefly at the Dunguaire Castle, which is supposedly one of the most photographed castles in Ireland. It wasn't opened to tour but we walked around the outside just to take a look at the structure and snapped a few pictures before heading home to Dublin for the night.

The next day we decided to do another tour that took us to Cobh and Cork. We hopped on the "Paddywagon" tour bus and set out for Cobh which was the last stop of the Titanic where 123 people boarded. Only 4 of these people survived. We were able to take some pictures by the gates for the Titanic, view the Lusitania memorial statue, walk around the John F. Kennedy memorial park, go inside St. Colman's Cathedral, and my favorite was seeing the Annie Moore statue with her brothers. She was the first immigrant to be admitted to Ellis Island in 1892.

Leaving Cobh, we then took a short stop in Kinsale for lunch. It was a nice little town with little shops painted different colors. I liked it a lot and I was able to snag some of the best shepherds pie of my life!! We didn't spend a lot of time there really...just about 2 hours because we were on our way to the Blarney Castle and the stone of Eloquence!!

When we got to the Blarney Castle, I was really excited. My mom had talked it up so much that I couldn't wait to kiss the stone. The estate that the castle is on is absolutely beautiful! There are a lot of pastures and streams, gardens and neat vegetation. We walked up to the Blarney Castle and it was actually smaller then I had expected, but still really old and pretty. We walked to the top which was fairly steep and slippery so obviously we moved slowly. The view from the top was beautiful! Rolling hills for miles, I loved it! We took turns kissing the Blarney stone and I felt the gift of gab immediately!!! ....haha not really...but it was still a lot of fun!! I was so happy just to just be there!! Next to the castle we walked through the Poison Garden which is filled with all poisonous plants. I thought that was pretty neat. Then we traveled to Rock Close which was within the estate and was more of a mystical nature walk. The the dolmen, wishing steps, witches kitchen, hidden caves and more, all had their own story to them and "magical power"...It was pretty cool, especially because I had such an open mind that day that I honestly believed these "natural phenomenon" if you would call it that, had these powers. It was a lot of fun. We boarded the bus and headed back to Dublin, arrived around 9:30 and ate at a really nice little pub called O'neill's. We never ate at Temple Bar but we did check it out. We heard from the locals that the Guinness was too expensive so we found it elsewhere.

Annie Moore  Statue

Our third day in Ireland, we spent in Dublin. We walked around and toured the Guinness Factory, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Trinity College.

The first place we went to was St. Patrick's Cathedral which I thought was one of the most breathtaking cathedrals I had ever seen!! I walked around the church and went inside to look at all the historical pieces. The alter was beautiful and everything was so old and special. It was a structure that warmed my heart. In one of the smaller chapels, I lit a candle in honor of my grandparents, and thought a lot about how lucky I was to be standing where I was. It was an inspiring feeling.

Touring the Guinness Factory was a lot of fun! You don't actually get to go through the entire brewery but it's more of a museum-like tour. I really enjoyed learning about Guinness and its production.  Making such a great beer out of simply yeast, hops, roasted barely, and water is incredible. I love Guinness!!!!! The factory was huge, about 7 stories, and on the 4th, we were given free tastings of the beer, which was THE BEST Guinness I had ever tasted! It was perfectly chilled! When we finished the tour, we were at the gravity bar where we received a free beer. The very top floor to the factory which overlooked the entire city of Dublin!

We made it to Trinity at the end of the day. A lot of the buildings were closed and I wasn't able to view the book of Kells, which I was a little bummed about. It was still SUCH a beautiful campus. I was so impressed with the old buildings. I loved the city of Dublin overall. Ireland as a whole was my favorite place in the world and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to see the country.