oonandhergoons-blog

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 30-July 1, 2017

Sorry for the lack of posting the last few days! With the next two posts, I hope to get you all caught up.

On Friday (June 30), the majority of us, minus Ashley and Mom, who were super exhausted from the day before, decided to take a scenic car ride through Achill Island. We had gone to the tourism office that morning and the woman working there basically told us that the two biggest things to do in Achill were to run July 1 marathon and go sightseeing. Since a few of our group were already planning to do the first, we decided to do the latter to pass the time.

Our first stop was to one of Achill’s five Blue Flag Beaches. If a beach is granted a Blue Flag, it means that it is very environmentally friendly and clean, and a lovely spot for people to go swimming. The water was insanely clear, as has been the trend through our Irish inventors, and was definitely a sight to see. As we were leaving, a family drove up and unpacked a bunch of floaties and beach toys. It was really adorable.

(Buckle up, these aren't even the best pictures.)

Our main goal of this road trip was to reach the statue of Our Lady that the tourism lady said was at the top of one of Achill’s mountains. The driving there made us all really nervous, but even on the precarious roads going up the mountain, the views outside were stunning. I only took a few pictures on this particular stretch of road because I knew the view would only get better at the top. And I was most assuredly not wrong.

We actually were not able to drive the whole way up to the statue. There were a series of cell phone towers that were strategically placed at one of the peaks of the mountain, around which were a few gravelly spots where a car could be parked. We parked the car here and spent a few moments talking to the sheep that were in that area before starting our (supposedly) short climb up to the mountain.

The climb ended up feeling vaguely like something out of the Twilight Zone because the statue always seemed like it was the same distance away no matter how far we climbed. Plus, the wind was SO STRONG. I could actually lean back against it and it would hold me up. However, we eventually made it up there.

And WOW.

The view from the top of that mountain was unlike anything I have ever seen before and probably ever will see again. I tried to take as many pictures as possible, but even these don’t do it justice.

It honestly felt like being on top of the world. The five of us spent a good half hour just sitting on the side of the mountain and taking it all it. There was hardly any wind where we were sitting and it was warm and sunny and just absolutely perfect.

We eventually made our way back to the car, but that view is definitely something I wouldn’t be forgetting for a very long time.

We then began moseying our way over to the White Cliffs of Achill. However, we encounter a little bit of a problem on our trip.

It is absolutely astonishing how frequently sheep were walking in the road. They didn't pay any attention to us.

Don’t worry, though. After this small delay, we made it over to the cliffs and once again, WOW. I’ve honestly never seen so many stunning views in such a small area.

Here are Cuchulain and Claire being complete nerds. (Side note: Cuchulain insulted my “stupid camera” a mere moment before this photo was taken. I’ll have you, the viewers, be imagine how I reacted to that.)

After drooling over the beauty of the cliffs for a few brief minutes, we hopped back in the car in order to drive over to the Pirate Queen’s Castle (otherwise known as Kildavnet Castle). We were bopping along our pleasant and deadly mountain road when all of a sudden, we saw this sign.

Pretty blunt, right? We all thought it was really amusing and kept an eye out for the thing that it was referring to. However, we shortly found out that the “thing” was literally RIGHT BEHIND the sign.

Naturally, we pulled the car over and proceeded to do almost exactly what the funny sign warned against, which was getting right up near the edge of the cliff. See those tiny multicolored specks in the picture above? Yeah, those are Claire, Cuchulain, Finn, and Dad, with Finn being the one that decided to go a ledge lower than everyone else. This cliff was literally so tall and dropped so suddenly that I was getting dizzy just trying to look down at the bottom, so I was not participating in that particular part of the adventure.

There were also some incredible views shortly after these cliffs, all of which were just amplified by how gorgeous and sunny the day was. We really chose the perfect day to take this trip.

Oh, and here’s another pic of Cuchulain looking like an idiot.

Finally, after all of these unexpected (but not unwelcome) pit stops, we made it to the Pirate Queen’s Castle, which actually ended up being more of just a tower, but was beautiful in its own way nonetheless.

This concluded the majority of our sightseeing, with our final stop being at a grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner (lots of carbs for the runners). IT was then a straight shot back to the house.

After dinner, Finn and Ashley pointed out that the neighbor’s sheepdog was rounding up the sheep directly next to the house. The majority of us raced outside and discovered that they were getting ready to shear them! We stood around and watched them like a bunch of tourists and got to talk with the husband of our Air B&B hostess, a lovely man named Paul. He was very willing to talk and answered all of our questions about living in Achill and even offered up some additional stories. By the end of the hour, we had seen twenty sheep shorn and made our way back into the house as it got colder. And thus concludes the day of June 30.

The next day, July 1, a.k.a. the day of the half marathon, was much less eventful. That is to say, there weren't as many separate small events, just one big one in the morning.

All of us got up fairly early and made our way down to the start line, where Cuchulain, Claire, and Dad warmed up before the race started at ten-thirty. Basically immediately after they got started, it starting raining very hard, so Ashley, Finn, Mom, and I made our way over to the Beehive, which is this cute restaurant in the middle of Dooagh. We stayed there for two whole hours due to our unwillingness to go back out into the rain. Mom ended up leaving after only an hour because she wanted to make sure she didn’t miss any of our runners finishing. The remaining three of us apparently had much less faith in them and made our way to the finish line about fifteen minutes past noon. Once we got there, we found that Claire had finished first out of the three (woo hoo!) before we got there, but I got to get a few pictures of the two hooligans crossing the finish line.

We then got a victory shot of the three of them in front of some of the many beautiful cliffs of Achill.

And a more accurate shot showing Claire’s superiority.

The lot of us then headed back to the house to freshen up and rest for a few hours before packing ourselves back into the car and saying goodbye to Achill as we headed for Galway. Cormac was flying into Dublin on the 2nd, so we figured it would be easier to drive halfway back the night before and drive the rest of the way the next morning.

We played several rounds of various car games to keep ourselves amused for the three-hour car ride, but eventually we got tired and spent the last hour resting. The roads seemed to get narrower and narrower the closer we got to our destination, and we shared a few of them with a couple of big tractors, which was definitely very interesting. However, around eight p.m., we made it safely to the Air B&B, which was this 150-year-old country house out in the middle of nowhere. It was really beautiful and recently remodeled and I’m ninety percent sure it was haunted.

We then went out for a nice dinner at a nearby hotel restaurant before retiring to our beds early in preparation for the early morning.

Again, apologies for the late posts! Will do my best to fill in all the days that I’ve been missing!

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 28-29, 2017

Strap in for a long post because these last few days have been BUSY. (This reminder is as much for me writing this post as it is for you reading this post.)

Yesterday (Wednesday the 28th) began with an early morning bike ride down to a local lighthouse with Cuchulain and Claire. Well, I should probably rephrase that: the original goal was to get to the lighthouse, which Google Maps insisted would only be a twenty-minute bike ride. However, it started raining fairly aggressively shortly after we began biking through the streets of Dublin, causing our sense of direction to get way off and resulting in a number of wrong turns that severely diminished our confidence. In fact, we did end up seeing the lighthouse, but it was off in the distance mostly hidden by the iconic Irish fog. After seeing this faint red outline of the lighthouse so far away from us, we decided to turn and head back to the apartment in order to finish getting ready for our road trip (woot woot) to Blarney! I ended up taking a bit longer than everyone else because I was a dummy and hadn’t packed the night before, but by ten thirty, all of our luggage for the weekend was packed in our rental car and we were off!

The car ride there was fairly uneventful, although the scenery next to the highway is much different from what you’d find next to I-77. Following about three hours in the car, we arrived at Blarney Castle with plenty of time to spare for lunch, which we ended up enjoying at the Blarney Café right outside the gates (a lovely establishment, by the way). It was a really nice way to be able to decompress and relax after such a long time in a confined space.

But enough about the small details, let’s talk Blarney!

Blarney Castle itself actually ended up being a very small part of the whole Blarney experience. The grounds seem to stretch on forever and I spent a lot of my time in the Rock Close, which contained a bunch of old Druid sites from times way before Blarney Castle was even built. A lot of it was clearly done up for tourists, but it still passed off as really magical, especially when walking through it on my own.

And yes, I did kiss the Blarney Stone. How could I not when Mom and Dad have been talking about their experience kissing it for the last fifteen years?

In all seriousness, despite the nearly-hour-long wait to get up to the stone, it was definitely worth it, primarily because I felt very proud of myself for kissing the stone despite my fear of heights.

The seven of us met back up in the Blarney gift shop at about five p.m. and hopped back into the car to make the hour-and-a-half drive to Bunratty, which would be the finale to what Dad excitedly called “castle day.” We were able to relax in our newest Air B&B, an adorable house in a suburb near the castle, for about an hour once we got there, a welcome break to our busy day. But, because relaxation is for dweebs, we quickly whisked ourselves out the door once more around eight p.m. and piled into the car for the short ride to Bunratty Castle.

We were actually going to have a medieval dinner in the castle, which sounded really awesome and ended up being REALLY awesome. There were several actors dressed in medieval-style clothing there to greet us and hand us mugs of mead as we walked in the door, the latter of which proceeded to make Mom squeal with excitement because she has literally been waiting to taste Bunratty mead again for the last fifteen years. We were guided into a sort of waiting room with the other groups that were there that night, which was gorgeously decorated. There were really detailed fifteenth-century tapestries on each wall, as well as a gorgeous “dowry wardrobe” that was leaning against the right wall as we walked in. A dowry wardrobe was apparently a piece of furniture that a rich family would begin constructing when a daughter was born into the family, which would then be continuously added onto until the girl was married off. The final piece carved into the wardrobe would be the crest of the husband’s family.

After a about twenty minutes in the waiting room, we were directed into the main dining room. This room ended up being packed wall-to-wall with people, a fact that no one seemed to mind because at least seventy-five percent of the room’s population was slightly tipsy or just about there. The atmosphere was warm and energetic and everyone was super into it once the actors started announcing the various skits of the evening. The food was delicious as well and the madrigal singing that the actors performed throughout the night was beautiful. Special shoutout to the harpist, who absolutely killed all of her solos.

We left Bunratty in incredibly high spirits with a lot of quality spirits. (Get it? Because we took some mead with us.)

Today (Thursday the 29th) was quite possibly one of my favorite days of this entire trip. We didn’t get out of the house until about eleven-thirty when we headed into Limerick for a nice family brunch. We wound up at this restaurant called Hook & Ladder near City Centre. When I say this place was adorable, I mean that this place was so cute, you’d want to wrap it up and take it home with you to look at when you’re feeling sad. There were these two booths along the back wall of the bottom floor that were separated by a wall of very realistic tree branches stretching up to the ceiling and connecting with these strings of old-fashioned spiral lightbulbs. It was altogether very homey and the food was amazing as well.

During brunch, Claire came up with the idea to go on a boat tour around the Killary Fjord, which was around an hour and a half away from our final destination for the day. A boat tour sounded like a new and exciting experience to us all, so we eagerly agreed and planned to make it to the four-p.m. tour. Our original plan was then to find something to do as we drove through Galway, but due to a bunch of delays on the roads in Galway, we ended up having to just drive straight through in order to get to Killary on time.

I then fell asleep for about an hour, only to open my eyes to the most beautiful countryside view I had ever seen. Travel guides are not kidding when they say Ireland has the most scenic road trips in the world. Several of us gasped when we saw the mountains, including Cuchulain, who seemed to be unable to stop saying, “Oh wow.” In all honesty, he was just saying what we were all thinking.

(Complete side note: About twenty minutes from our tour meetup point, our path got blocked by a bunch of escaped sheep, who paid absolutely no mind to us. We all found that really amusing.)

The crazy thing is that those views weren’t even the best part of the day.

We made in to the boat tour office about ten minutes before we needed to be there and got a taste of what we were going to see over the next hour and a half. It was breathtaking, to say the least.

About ten minutes after four, the seven of us walked onto the boat and our journey began.

I cannot even begin to express all the different ways that this place was beautiful.

It was super windy and cold, but it really didn’t bother any of us at all because the air felt awesome running through our hair as we stood at the front of the boat. There was one moment when the majority of us were standing at the front, clearly starting to feel the effects of the cold, and Dad walked out with a bunch of hot chocolates from the boat’s built-in bar. I can definitely say that there was nothing else that could have made those next few minutes anymore perfect. Hot chocolate, a perfect view, family around me: it was, in a word, fantastic.

The entire hour and a half was filled with amazing views. The only way to properly describe them is to show them to you.

See what I mean?

We also got a lovely man on the boat with us to snap this picture of us, which I think is absolutely precious.

At the end of the tour, we were all thoroughly exhilarated and exhausted at the same time, which didn’t end up being a very good thing for our nerves as we drove through the narrow roads of the Irish countryside. However, we ended up making it safely to Westport, a popular tourist/vacation spot along the west coast, where we decided to have dinner. We settled on a lovely Italian place, which gave us another chance to decompress before getting back in the car for another hour-long drive.

On this last leg of the journey before reaching Achill Island, which is the destination of the half marathon that Dad, Cuchulain, and Claire are running this weekend, Cuchulain decided to start up some car games. These didn’t end up going in his favor, much to his frustration as time went on with no wins to his name. However, he couldn’t be too upset because the views outside our windows started looking unreal again.

I am now typing this post from a delightfully cozy cottage a little way up the mountains in Dooagh, one of the towns on Achill Island. As a conclusion, I’ll leave you with this high quality picture of some sheep that blocked our way as we drove into town.

Prospective plans for tomorrow: exploring???

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 26-27, 2017

The last two days have been absolutely full, mostly with “typical touristy” things, but they’ve actually ended up being really interesting!

Yesterday (Monday the 26th) was what Claire fondly dubbed “alcohol day,” as it started with a visit to the famous Guinness Storehouse. Mom and Dad decided not to tag along, so the group that ended up going was Cuchulain, Claire, Ashley, Finn, and me. We were initially really worried about getting their late because although we had ordered our tickets online, our reservation was for noon and there was only a fifteen minute “forgiveness period,” but the worry was unnecessary because we got there with about ten minutes to spare.

The entire museum ended up being incredibly interesting, with about seven different levels detailing the history of Guinness advertising and flavors.

The tasting room entrance looked very futuristic and our walk through it was rewarded with an adorably tiny glass of freshly brewed Guinness.

We then headed up to Guinness’s Gravity Bar to collect our free pints of Guinness and the view was INCREDIBLE. I wasn’t able to get a perfect shot of it because it was pretty crowded in the bar, but it overlooked all of Dublin and was unlike any other view I had seen in the city.

After we had finished our pints, the vegetarians (Cuchulain, Claire, and me) and the meat-eaters (Finn and Ashley) went our separate ways for lunch. The vegetarians then followed lunch up with a walk through Merrion Park, which was very serene due to the slightly rainy weather and the lack of people in the park. We also stumbled upon the statue of Oscar Wilde and the monuments surrounding it that were covered in his quotes. The statue was incredibly sassy.

In order to recharge a little bit before partaking in our evening plans, all five of us met back up at the apartment and relaxed for an hour or so, taking a few rejuvenating naps.

However, after those naps, it was time to PARTY (educationally)!

Cuchulain, Claire, and I went to the Duke Pub near Trinity College in order to met up with a group that was going on a Literary Pub Crawl through the surrounding area. This pub crawl was led by two professional actors named Kevin and Finbarr who acted out bits from famous works written by famous Irish authors as they took us to four different pubs that had direct ties to those works and those authors. It was a really fun evening and all three of us enjoyed the company of the other people in the tour, although Cuchulain ended up cheating a bit because he told Finbarr his name and Finbarr FREAKED OUT. It was hilarious.

Today (Tuesday the 27th) was significantly less alcohol-based. All seven of us (Mom and Dad now included) started the day off with an early morning to get to Kilmainham Gaol, a prison that used to be used in the 18th through 20th centuries. This was the execution site for the leaders of the Easter Rising, which began the fight for Irish independence in 1916, and is considered to be one of the darkest places in all of Dublin, if not all of Ireland. Absolutely everyone we asked said that Kilmainham was a site we couldn’t miss, so we were very excited about it.

The jail certainly didn’t disappoint. Everything about its appearance screamed Victorian jail, between the old stone walls and the creaky wooden floors. It was also strangely beautiful in a way, maybe because of how apparent the history was in every single facet of the building. It was absolutely something to see.

I highly encourage any and all of you to research Kilmainham and its history. It's fascinating.

Following our departure from the famous prison, we had a lovely lunch at a small café called Beanhive, which 1.) is a brilliant pun and 2.) serves AMAZING food with AMAZING vegetarian options! It was a bit of a tight fit in the restaurant, but it was absolutely worth it.

We then took a short stroll through St. Stephen’s Green, which is Dublin’s equivalent of Central Park. It was in the middle of the afternoon, so it was fairly full with people, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Not shown are the flocks of angry seagulls that attacked us when we tried to give bread to the Green’s ducks.

Nice and refreshed and full of adrenaline from escaping the seagulls’ flippers of death, we walked a short distance to the Café en Seine, where we were scheduled to take a class to learn the traditional way to make an Irish coffee. (For those who don’t know, an Irish coffee is coffee... with whiskey.) The interior decorating in this place was on point, I was very pleased.

We ended up being the only group signed up to take this class, so it was very intimate and low stress, as well as a lot of fun because we were able to joke around with each other and the instructor a whole lot more easily. This was the end result for me.

Pretty glorious, right? I was very proud of myself.

We then each took the time to enjoy our coffees before heading on our way to our next and final destination for the day, St. Michan’s Church. The surface level of St. Michan’s may not seem very interesting to most people, although I found it to be quite charming (see pic below).

However, the main attraction at this particular church is the crypts that lie underneath it. There are several different sections of the crypt that are accessed through different hatches, but we were only permitted in two specific ones. We could imagine what the other ones looked like though. We weren’t allowed to take any photos in the crypt, but believe me when I tell you that it was unreal and very much seemed like someplace you would end up in during a horror movie. Claire was not too thrilled with it, which I felt bad about, but hey, we all ended up alive!

We then took the tram home and voila! Another day done in the Land or Ire!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Blarney and Bunratty

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 24-25, 2017

And then there were seven!

Yesterday (Saturday the 24th) saw the arrival of the dynamic duo, Finn and Ashley, at around eight in the morning here in wonderful Dublin! They were surprisingly awake while we had breakfast with them in the apartment, but they quickly crashed after we told them to go take a nap for a few hours in order to get properly adjusted to the time change. The hours that they spent asleep saw Mom, Dad, and I generally wasting time in the apartment as we twiddled our thumbs and basked in the cool Irish morning air.

Once we woke them up, we decided to take them out for an idealistic Irish lunch, making our way down Pearce Street before ending up at one of the various local restaurants that sold Guinness and fish & chips. I don’t want to speak for them, but I think they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Because it was their first day, Mom, Dad, and I decided to take Finn and Ashley on the Hop On, Hop Off tour just so they could get their bearings as they were driven around Dublin. The bus route ended up being a little skewed because the Pride celebrations were going on in the center of Dublin, but it was definitely okay because we ended up getting back to O’Connell Street (our stop) while also seeing a bunch of people in really colorful clothes who were just so so happy to be there. I was a bit bummed that we weren’t able to go to the parade, but being able to see everyone’s happiness afterwards made it a little better.

We knew that Cuchulain was supposed to arrive at around seven pm, so we decided to head back to the apartment area around six thirty. Finn, Ashley, and I went up to the apartment while Mom and Dad stayed in the square to await Cuchulain’s arrival. You may call this being a “bad sibling,” but Finn and I call it “self-care.”

However, Cuchulain was soon there and then we were all hanging out in the apartment, talking over pizza! Cuchulain told us some stories of his from when he was in Paris over the last few days visiting his friends, before suggesting that a few of us went over to Temple Bar to grab a drink and explore the area. “A few of us” ended up just being him and me, but we definitely made the most of it. We rode the Dublin Bikes over to the Temple Bar area, where the entire section of the city was crowded due to the combination of it being a Saturday night and it being the same day as Pride. We went to two bars with really awesome live music and did a lot of people-watching before biking home along the canal around midnight. It was so beautiful and refreshing. It was like an absolute dream.

Today (Sunday the 25th) was a little more active. Cuchulain’s girlfriend, the lovely Claire, arrived early this morning and snoozed for a few hours before we decided to wake her up and head over to the Dublin Flea Market. The Market is only open on the last Sunday of each month, so we were really lucky to have been here when it was going on!

(This was some art on the outside of the building that the Market was held in and I thought it was pretty cool.) The Flea Market itself was huge. Not only did it fill up the entire building it was being held in (which was pretty massive, probably an old warehouse), but it also spanned most of the street outside of the building. People were selling everything that you could possibly think of, from furniture to clothes to vintage telephones and postcards. We were there for the better part of three hours, during which I got a few gifts for some friends back home, as well as a few trinkets for myself. I also found this really absolutely stunning photo album from 1921, which I picked up for just twenty euros (!!!). I don’t have any pictures of the album right now, but I will be sure to post some at a later date. I was very proud of myself for finding something like that for such a reasonable price. After we had some lunch at the café within the co-op near the Market, a few of us went to the Teeling whiskey distillery that was next door and tried a few of their different whiskies. On a completely unrelated note, I’m not a huge fan of whiskey. The whole group of us then made a very short trek to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a very popular tourist site that none of us had had the chance to see yet. Although it was a “freaking heathen” church according to my dad (who says that about literally anything that isn’t completely Catholic and actually about most things in general), it still ended up being absolutely gorgeous.

We weren’t able to stay very long, as we got there a few minutes after five and the cathedral closed at six, but we were definitely given enough time to fully appreciate the beauty of it. We then made our way back to the apartment since we were all pretty exhausted and Claire and Cuchulain ended up making us an amazing pasta dinner, complete with a lovely peach, tomato, and avocado salad, and donuts lovingly bought for us by Ashley as a surprise. All in all, it was a really awesome day and I’m so happy that everyone is here! Prospective plans for tomorrow: Guinness Storehouse

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 23, 2017

On our last day of Dad working at the office, Mom and I decided to see one of the more “traditional” tourist sites that Dublin has to offer, the National Museum of Ireland’s Archaeology branch. We had read that it had a bunch of exhibits detailing Ireland’s medieval times and we were really interested to look into that new side of history.

I will admit that we were a bit late getting moving; we ended up leaving the apartment around two in the afternoon. However, we then swiftly checked out some rental bikes from the nearest Dublin Bikes and successfully made it to our destination with only one cop yelling at us! Practically perfect, if you ask me.

From the outside, the Archaeology Museum didn’t look like it would be all that impressive. The architecture was very classy and well-structured, but the building itself was a bit small and didn’t really fit the image that I had in my mind for what museums looked like. However, inside proved to be much more interesting than the outside promised; there were a bunch of really fascinating exhibits, including one that described how closely the power of a king and the sacrificing of peasants were linked. (Hint: very closely.) They even had a few sets of human remains that had been mummified through the natural elements kept within Ireland’s bogs, which were incredibly interesting to read about. I took a few pictures of these remains, but thinking about it now, it probably wouldn’t be best to attach them, in case the person reading this is of a more sensitive nature.

There were definitely a lot of interesting artifacts apart from the remains though. It’s incredible to see all of these things that date back as far as 2000 BC and to just think about the journey that piece of history has gone through to get to this museum. Absolutely incredible.

(I’m not entirely sure which of these pictures were and were not legal for me to take, but hey, don’t ask, don’t tell.)

Mom and I ended up staying at the museum until it closed at five. The museum staff were very insistent on getting everyone out exactly at five, which I suppose is fair since it was a Friday night and our admission was free anyway.

We then decided to go on a little quest to find this delicious strawberry wine that we had tasted yesterday afternoon at The Winding Stair. Well, it actually didn’t turn out to be much of a quest at all, as the nearest liquor store was only about a block or two away from the museum.

This liquor store was definitely classier than anything we have in South Carolina. It was called the Celtic Whiskey Shop, although it sold much more than whiskey. All of the wines they had were separately by countries and we were able to very easily find the wine we were looking for with the help of one of the shop attendants, a very sweet woman named Caitlyn (I’m assuming that’s how she spells it). We sparked up a conversation with her and ending up finding out that she is originally from Denver, Colorado and is currently in Dublin studying for her PhD in Literature at Trinity College. She was really interesting when she found out how long we’re staying here and got very excited when we told her that we’re heading out west next week. She told us stories about trips her family had taken with her and gave us tips about what to do while we were out there and seemed genuine in all that she was saying. What an absolute sweetheart.

Other than those two adventures, today was pretty mellow! However, tomorrow, THE SIBLINGS START ARRIVING! AHH!!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Tour bus around city with Finn and Ashley, and Cuchulain’s arrival later on in the evening

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 21-22, 2017

The city of Dublin never ceases to have something interesting in store for us.

Yesterday (Wednesday the 21st) brought along with it a new wave of homesickness for the three of us. Well, actually, maybe homesickness isn’t the best way to describe it. Basically, we are really missing our dogs. Mom decided to be proactive about this issue and found an animal shelter that we could go visit in order to abate our need for affection from small animals. That ended up being our main mission for the afternoon while Dad was at work.

Since the shelter was several miles away from our apartment, we made the executive decision to get a cab to take us to the shelter (which ended up being a very good idea considering it was in the middle of a bunch of hills). We told the cab driver why we were going there and he just kept laughing at us, asking why we didn’t just go to the zoo if we were that desperate. However, we persevered and ended up at the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA).

First of all, let me just say that the facilities at this place are amazing. They take in larger rescue animals such as horses and goats, as well as the typical smaller ones like cats and dogs, and in order to accommodate for the large animals, they literally have entire fields for them to walk around and graze when they aren’t being fed in their stalls. The majority of the animals were actually kept in enclosures outside, meaning that they weren’t cramped and could always be exposed to fresh air and sunlight (well, as much sunlight as Ireland offers). There weren’t any cases in which I felt sorry for an animal due to a lack of space, which is rare with animal shelters. It was absolutely perfect.

But back to the subject at hand: PUPPIES.

Our hope going into this adventure was that we would be able to see the pups they had there and play around with them, something that we were sure the shelter would let us do considering they want the animals to be socialized. However, yesterday also happened to be one of the hottest days in Ireland’s recent history and the shelter staff didn’t want the dogs to get too exhausted, so we were unable to physically play with them. However, we were able to look at them and talk to them to our hearts’ content. They were all a bunch of sweethearts.

After our visit with the little angels, Mom and I went back to the apartment to freshen up a bit before meeting up with Dad for a ghost tour at around seven. I’m not going to go into a ton of detail about it because I wasn’t a huge fan of the tour itself, but we did get to see parts of Dublin Castle, including its haunted vault, and the abandoned St. Kevin’s Church in one of the local cemeteries, both of which were beautiful in their own right.

Today (Thursday the 22nd) involved a lot of exploring of Dublin for Mom and me. We felt like we had kind of been sloths the last few days and wanted to be more active today, so we looked up a list of recommended things to do when staying in Dublin. Through this, we discovered this vintage shop in the Temple Bar area called Lucy’s Lounge, which is located in the basement of a shop that sells artisan jewelry and accessories. And believe me when I tell you that I fell in love with this place.

These pictures only show about a fraction of the entire shop. It was absolutely full of these incredibly unique items of clothing for really reasonable prices and there was some really popping music being played over the speakers, so looking through the racks proved to be an absolute blast. The woman who was working the cash register was also incredibly sweet and seemed genuinely flattered when anyone complimented the store. I ended up leaving with two new shirts while Mom got a few items of her.

We explored the surrounding area a little bit afterwards, looking in a vintage shop or two that surrounded Lucy’s, but soon found that we were quite hungry and headed over to this restaurant right across the Ha’penny Bridge called The Winding Stair. We had also found this place online and had only read really good reviews about it, so we decided to give it a shot.

The Winding Stair actually refers to both the restaurant, which is situated on the second floor of the building, and the bookstore that takes up the first floor. The are both named after a Yeats poem and are located right along the main canal that runs through Dublin.

Since we were having lunch so late, Mom and I actually ended up being the only ones there other than the restaurant staff, which actually proved to make a really nice environment for us. The restaurant itself was also very well-decorated and had a lovely view of the Ha’penny bridge.

And the FOOD. Let me tell you, the food here is absolutely delicious. It’s definitely more on the pricey side, but the quality of the food pays off for it. We ended up staying there for about an hour and a half and soaked up every bit of the sun from outside and the taste from the amazing food we were given.

Other than that, the rest of our day was fairly tame! We’re really excited for the rest of the family to get here in the next few days, which will definitely be an adventure in its own right!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: ???

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 17-18, 2017

Saturday brought about the long-awaited trip to the Giant’s Causeway, which is largely considered to be one of Ireland’s most spectacular naturally-occurring phenomena. However, we had a full day ahead of us before we got there.

We had another semi-early morning, as we needed to meet the bus tour at about nine in the morning. We were able to get a pretty decent breakfast across the way from the bus headquarters before hopping on the bus and heading over to our first stop, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. The ride on the way there was along a route that is famous for its scenery. As you can see, it was stunning.

Once we reached the bridge (after a semi-terrifying ride up the various steep mountain roads that our double-length tour bus had to navigate), Dad and I headed for the bridge while Mom stayed behind to look at a few of the sites nearby; she’s not the biggest fan of heights, so she thought it was best that she stayed back.

Dad and I were in a rush since the tour bus driver had given us tickets to cross the bridge that expired at 1:30 pm and our bus had arrived at about 1:05 pm. We booked it down the path that lead to the bridge, while I did my best to get a few pictures along the way.

By the way, in case you can’t already see for yourself, the water around this area was basically crystal clear. It was absolutely gorgeous. (I need to find some new synonyms for “beautiful.”)

Now it was time to actually cross the bridge, which, let me tell you, was VERY HIGH. It’s famous for a reason, I mean, Lord, if I hadn’t known this bridge had been repeatedly fool-proofed beyond belief, I would’ve been absolutely terrified. Even as it was, I was pretty shaky. Here’s a picture that gives you a fairly good idea of how high the bridge was. Roughly about 100 meters, if I remember correctly.

Dad took this really hilarious picture of me crossing the bridge where you can literally see the fear in my eyes.

However, the views on the tiny island we reached once we crossed the bridge were absolutely worth the momentary fear. You could really imagine salmon farmers back in the day (the ones who originally built this terrifying bridge, by the way) coming over here and sitting on the rocks during a moment of rest after a long work day. The look of it was indescribable.

Dad and I also spotted these caves that went into the mountainside. We suspect that there are some villains using them as hideouts while they form their plans to take over the world. Either that, or they just have a bunch of sand in them.

After we survived the walk back over the bridge, we headed back over to the bus where we met up with Mom. We then had a very quick lunch at The Causeway Café before riding over to the main event: the Giant’s Causeway!

The walk down to the Causeway was arguably equally as gorgeous as the Causeway itself. There's some really stunning scenery all along the Irish coastline, you really just can’t go wrong with it.

The Causeway definitely didn’t disappoint though. For those of you who don’t know, the Giant’s Causeway got its name because the oddly symmetrical shapes of the stones made the Irish people of olden times believe that it had been built rather than formed naturally, and the only people who would’ve had the ability to build something like this were giants. The legend was then made that the giants didn't want to get their feet wet and made the causeway to prevent that form happening. After seeing it in person, I could absolutely see how someone would think that. Even after all of the information I had been given about it beforehand (long story short, lava dried weirdly about 64 million years ago), I almost didn’t believe that this wasn’t handmade by someone a long time ago. The wear on the rocks from the last several million years has definitely not dimmed their shape enough for them not to be fascinating.

It was truly an amazing thing to see in person and definitely not something I will soon forget.

Having witnessed the grand finale of our tour, it was time for us to load back onto the bus and head back to Belfast, where we had a lovely meal at Darcy’s Restaurant before retiring to our small flat.

Today (Sunday the 18th) was fairly uneventful in comparison, since we were just making our way back to Dublin and celebrating Father’s Day by going to a late Mass and eating at Sweetman’s, a restaurant that we enjoyed earlier this week.

Dad is having to work for a few days this week from an office here in Dublin, so it’ll just be Mom and me on our own in the big city! Who knows what we’ll get up to.

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Emigration Museum

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 16, 2017

Today was the beginning of our first out-of-town weekend excursion! Mom and Dad decided a few days after we arrived in Ireland that we needed to make our way up to Belfast for a few days, as they had never been there before and wanted to see some of the famous sites around that area. Plus, Dad just really loves trains, so he was looking forward to the hour-and-a-half long trip there.

Since we were also travelling there today, nothing too exciting happened during the first portion of the day. We made sure we had everything we needed for the weekend and then made our way over to the Dublin Connolly Station to catch a 11:30 train out to Belfast. The train ride was really smooth and allowed us to see some of the gorgeous countryside that has been dazzling us the whole time we’ve been here.

Once we were in Belfast, we got set up at our Air B&B, which was this cozy little unit on the outskirts of the city. Sadly, there was no WiFi, which made things a little difficult for the three of us, but it was pleasant nonetheless!

When we were thoroughly settled in, Mom really wanted to make sure we visited the Titanic Museum, as we were going to be very busy for basically all of Saturday, so we headed over to that area for a quick lunch before buying our tickets for the exhibition.

The first part of the museum that we visited was the Nomadic, one of the two “water taxis” that helped transport people from the shore to the loading deck of the Titanic. We were able to walk through its different decks and it was really interesting to see how deeply ingrained the social classes were, even on a simple transport ship.

Here’s the view from the upper deck, overlooking the shipping yard a little while away.

We then went inside the main building, which has a bunch of detailed exhibits on the different aspects of the Titanic’s construction, launch, and eventual sinking, as well as a whole floor on the discovery of the Titanic’s wreck site in 1985. Although the first floor or two were a bit slow in my opinion, as they mainly focused on Belfast’s economy around the time the Titanic was being built, once it got into the details of the passengers and how they lived, it was absolutely riveting and really beautifully displayed. A lot of the exhibits didn't allow pictures, but one of the last floors was dedicated to the night that it sank and had twinkling lights on the ceilings to represent the stars of the night sky, which I managed to get a picture of (it’s unclear whether or not I was allowed to, but we’ll let that go).

Overall, the entire museum was both incredibly educational and really well put together. I wish we had had more time to explore the discovery of the wreck, but by that point, it was five minutes before closing and the staff were clearly wanting to get home. It definitely peeked my interest though, so I will absolutely be doing my own research into it when I can.

Other than the museum, our day was pretty tame! Tomorrow will bring along a lot more adventures in the countryside :)

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Giant’s Causeway

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 15, 2017

Another road trip! Woo hoo!

Mom was feeling a lot better after her day off yesterday, so the three of us decided to book a tour on one of the various available tour buses that go out to the countryside. The route we ended up choosing was run by Collins Tours and went through Glendalough, Wicklow, and Kilkenny, all of which are significantly more removed from the “urban” setting than Dublin is.

Our day started pretty early, as we had to be at the stop to meet the bus by around 8:45 am, meaning that we left the apartment at approximately 8:00 am. Normally, this would not be the most pleasant of circumstances for a person such as myself, but literally every person we meet, whether at the café where we were getting some tea to wake us up or at the bus stop helping organize us to get onto the bus, was so sweet and charming, so it actually didn’t end up being all that bad after all.

Once we were on the bus, we met our tour guide, a lovely man named Pat, who clearly loved his job VERY much and was cracking jokes basically the entire time. Good ol’ Pat.

Our first stop was St. Kevin’s Monastery in Glendalough, which seemed to be a part of an almost completely hidden village in the valley of a few mountains.

The scenery around the former monastery was absolutely breathtaking, as you can see.

Pat also pointed out this strange arrangement of rocks that was placed in the fork of a trail moving away from the monastery. The rock in the middle of this arrangement had a neatly carved bowl indention in the center of it, which Pat explained was because of an ancient Gaelic tradition. There is one near most every monastery in Ireland and it’s said that if one washes one’s face in the water from this bowl, they will gain the gift of beauty (”internal beauty,” Pat added). It’s so interesting to learn about all of these timeless traditions that the Irish still practice today and how often they are rooted in the belief in magic and fairies. I love it, it’s like being inside of a storybook.

Pat also lead our group down to a lake near the monastery with the promise of telling us its “secret” once we got there. He first let us take in its beauty, as it is at the lowest point of the valley and thus allows you to see most everything around it.

As it turns out, the lake’s “secret” is that it has been slowly funneling away from the valley for the last several years. It is much lower than it was in the past and will likely be completely gone within the next fifty years. Knowing that made seeing this lake as it was today really special for me.

After seeing the lake, our group got back on our bus and made a quick stop at a higher point on the mountains in order to capture a really spectacular view. There were some people there filming a scene for a movie and it was starting to become incredibly windy and rainy, but honestly, I think the wind and rain made the view even more gorgeous.

We then quickly hopped back onto the bus and drove through the county of Wicklow, which was also incredibly beautiful. I didn’t get many pictures during this part of the tour, but we did pass through this one town called Hollywood and I got a picture of a little message that a farmer once left on one of the town’s hills. See if you can spot it :)

After this bit, I will admit that I snoozed for a little bit. The bus was very comfy and I was a bit tired from the early morning. However, I was up in plenty of time to be aware of our last stop, which was the town of Kilkenny. It’s very clear when you drive into this town that there is a lot of history packed into it, between all of the churches and Kilkenny Castle, which were all absolutely grand.

Since we were going to be there for about three hours, Mom, Dad, and I decided to have lunch before anything else, as Mom and I had not had any breakfast that morning and were getting more than a tad bit hungry. We ended up going to a restaurant within one of the town’s hotels and enjoyed a really nice meal and some excellently prepared tea before heading back outside.

We then decided to look around Kilkenny Castle because, let’s be honest, what is a trip to Ireland without at least several castle tours? While walking through the castle’s various rooms, we discovered that this castle had been around since the 12th century (although it had been significantly remodeled since then) and was only vacated once Ireland became an independent state in the 1920s. The amount of detail in each of these rooms was stunning and the color coordination was FANTASTIC.

We also found a real-life family tree connecting the Irish nobility with the English royalty! I thought it was extremely cool and even found Anne Boleyn and Queen Elizabeth I on it.

Once we were done looking around the castle, it was time for us to load back onto the bus and head back towards Dublin. We reached the city fairly quickly and after a round of “Molly Malone,” it was time to get off the bus and say goodbye to our good friend Pat. I miss him already.

For dinner, we stopped in this pub called Sweetman’s, where we all thoroughly stuffed ourselves while I finally had a pint of Guinness! Can you believe it? I’ve been in Ireland for nearly a week and I’ve only just now had my first Guinness. At least I’ve finally stopped dishonoring my heritage.

I then had a positively amazing cup of Irish coffee, which I think will become a regular thing now that I’ve discovered how delicious Irish cream is.

The days seem to only be getting better. Can’t wait to see what’s next!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Belfast and the Titanic Museum

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 14, 2017

Today gave me a look at what I always picture when I think of Ireland: the countryside.

Mom decided to stay at the apartment and rest today, which is completely understandable as the walking the last few days has been completely exhausting. Dad and I decided to go on a trip of our own out to the coast and go on a “cliff trail,” which normally border the ocean and the hill ranges of Ireland. We consulted a “50 Best Things To Do In Ireland” list online and found a trail that seemed really nice in Bray, which wasn’t terribly far away. (Haha, did you get the rhyme?... I’ll continue.) This trail connected Bray and the town next to it, Greystones, and was supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. Everything we read on TripAdvisor said that it was a really easy trail and it would only take about two hours at the most, so we packed up our backpacks, said goodbye to Mom, and headed over to the DART to catch a train over to Bray!

I will admit that we lost our bearings a bit after getting off the train, mostly because we had no idea what we were doing and there wasn’t really anyone to tell us that fact at the time. However, we talked to a nice old woman at the front desk of one of the hotels in Bray and she pointed us in the right direction, wishing us a nice walk.

And once we got onto the trail, boy, was it beautiful.

This particular trail had a little bit of everything that makes the Irish landscape as famous as it is. On our left, the water was this beautiful turquoise color and very calm considering the wind we had been experiencing before starting the trail, while on our left, the hills were covered in greenery and random broken down ruins of houses from centuries ago. It was truly one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen in nature.

Plus, because this is Ireland, we found some random sheep, which I attempted to take a picture of, despite the fact that they were on the opposite side of a broken stone wall that was about four feet taller than me.

(Also, in case you couldn’t tell, I brought my big girl camera with me today.)

Dad also managed to take a picture of me, so here is some proof that I haven't been just stealing all of these pictures from Google.

Afterwards, once we reached Greystones, Dad and I were thoroughly pleased with ourselves for walking the whole trail in precisely two hours, as well as exhausted from walking the whole trail in precisely two hours. We treated ourselves to some refreshing bottles of water from a bakery on the edge of town, then headed back towards the DART station in order to catch a train back to Dublin, where Mom was eagerly awaiting our return.

Thus begins the first of many out-of-Dublin trips! Thanks for sticking along for the ride, all of your family friends who keep telling my parents to tell me your compliments :)

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Kilikenny and Wicklow

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 13,2017

Our day started off with Dad... mailing some postcards. Pretty boring, right? Except not, because he was mailing his postcards in the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, which just so happens to have also been the site of the Easter Uprising that happened in Dublin in 1916, aka one of the biggest and most significant rebellions in all of Irish history. It’s so cool to look at the outside of the building because not only can you very easily imagine the men using it as shelter during the rebellion, but there are also still bullet holes in the stone from the English forces that eventually defeated them. It’s absolutely amazing.

(Here’s Mom pointing out the bullet holes while looking uncertainly at the camera.)

We were also able to see the Famine Memorial on our way over to the Post Office, as it’s just along the canal that’s between our apartment and most of the rest of Dublin. It was really striking how elongated the artist made the people seem and it really seemed to emphasize how awful the famine was for the people of Ireland. Positively stunning.

Shortly after we had seen the memorial and gone to the Post Office, we got lost for a little bit before making our way to the Little Museum of Dublin, which proudly advertises that their tours take you through a significant amount of Dublin’s modern history in just 29 minutes. It’s an adorable place right across from Stephen’s Green Park and it’s stuffed with memorabilia from Dublin through the late 19th century and the whole 20th century. We got there around three in the afternoon and they told us that their next tour wasn’t until four, so we decided to have a late lunch at the restaurant that they had downstairs called Hatch & Sons. This place was equally as adorable as the museum and had some of the best tasting eggs I have ever had in my entire life.

Once we were done eating, we went back upstairs for our tour (which, as advertised, took all of about 29 minutes) and looked around at their various displays before heading back to the apartment to freshen up a little bit.

Then, at about seven thirty this evening, we saw the UK tour of “Evita” as it performed at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre near where we were staying! It was absolutely INCREDIBLE and the man who played Ché is one of the most beautiful and talented men I’ve ever seen, it was overwhelming. And of course, the woman who played Evita was a showstopper, God, what a voice!

Afterwards, we had a late dinner and a cocktail before retiring to the apartment! Exciting plans in the days to come!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: ???

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 12, 2017

I definitely put forth my best effort to break in these walking shoes today.

The great thing about the fact that we’re going to be in Dublin for as long as we are is how slow our mornings can be. We don’t feel the need to get up super early and rush to every event and cram as many sights as possible into a few hours because we have the ability to space things out if we want to. I know, this definitely sounds like I’m bragging, and maybe I am a little bit, but it’s only because I’m excited about the fact that one of my first international experiences can be both completely stunning AND relaxing.

After a fairly basic breakfast in the apartment, Mom, Dad, and I headed over to the Hop On, Hop Off bus stop near the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in order to catch a ride over to Trinity College. Trinity College is one of the oldest universities in Europe (which means that it’s HELLA old) and was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in order to prevent the largely Protestant Irish population in Dublin from being “tainted” by Catholic ideals when they went to go study aboard in countries like France. It’s absolutely stunning and the sun was shining when we went to visit this morning, so it looked even more gorgeous!

(Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of this art piece that was painted near the entry to TC, but it was really beautiful and MASSIVE.)

We were intending to see the Book of Kells while we were there, but due to the fact that it was around noon, the line was ridiculous, so we decided to save it for later in the day when we would come back with online tickets.

Our next stop was the famous statue of Molly Malone, who is the title character of a well-known Irish folk song. The legend told in the song says that Molly was a woman who sold raw seafood on the streets of Dublin. She then dies of a fever, but continues to try selling her products as a ghost. Her statue is a really popular tourist site and Mom in particular was really excited to see her.

From there, we went to the National Gallery of Ireland, which showcases a bunch of really beautiful Irish art. Well, normally there is a bunch. No one told us before we got there that the Gallery has actually be going through a significant renovation for the past six years and doesn’t have a ton of art to be viewed at the moment. Luckily for us, there were still some awesome pieces and they’re actually having their grand “reopening” this Thursday, so we may come back to see some more pieces another time!

We couldn’t photograph in the Margaret Clarke exhibit, but I highly recommend looking up some of her work. THE EYES in her portraits are crazy expressive.

Mom and I were starting to get a bit hangry by the time we made it through the exhibitions, which prompted Dad to immediately rush us over to the nearest restaurant in order to prevent any loss of limb. We ended up at this place called Lincoln’s Inn, which was fairly empty in the late afternoon and had an awesome selection of food, including VEGETARIAN LASAGNA, so you know what your girl went for.

After we thoroughly sated, we headed back towards Trinity College in order to see the Book of Kells, which is an “illuminated manuscript” of the Four Gospels translated entirely into Latin sometime in the 10th century. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of it, but there were some beautiful illustrations throughout each of its pages and some EXCELLENT calligraphy, which I was living for. However, I have to say that my favorite part about seeing the Book of Kells was actually what followed immediately after it, which was these section of Trinity College called the Long Hall. THIS LITERALLY LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.”

This place was absolutely massive and smelled like old books, which should be a car freshener smell, in my opinion. They had all of these cool manuscripts on display in glass cases, including this “word-book” written by Esther Johnson, a girl whose education was largely sponsored by Jonathan Swift and whose ended up being an important figure in Swift’s life and writings.

Following the magical library, the three of us walked over to Christ Church, which is one of Dublin’s most famous churches (out of the multitude that are here). As you can probably imagine, the architecture here was breathtaking. And the church itself was HUGE. The exterior picture I got of it doesn’t even represent half of the building.

We also, of course, went inside to look around for a little while and even went down into the church’s crypts, where there were a bunch of interesting tidbits laying around, including this mummified cat and rat that are apparently the church’s “most famous residents.” They apparently got stuck in the church’s organ pipes during the 1860s and became mummified there, which is super sad, but also makes for an interesting story. We also found out that the heart of St. Laud used to be kept on display in the church, which Dad was very excited to see (maybe a bit too excited), but it was STOLEN about five years ago. Someone literally STOLE a saint’s heart from the church and it hasn’t been seen since!!! The woman at the information desk said they think it was sold on the black market. How crazy is that?!

By this point, we were all pretty exhausted so we decided to head back to the apartment and are currently making plans for the rest of this week! Ahhhhh! Can’t wait to let you in on more adventures!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Little Museum of Dublin, The Post Office, and “Evita” at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre 

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 11, 2017

I must say, Dublin looks a helluva lot prettier through well-rested eyes.

I started the morning off by myself, as my parents were gracious enough to let me sleep in while they went to a morning Mass at St. Andrew’s, an event that I’ve very bummed I missed, but I’m very grateful for the extra sleep in hindsight. The morning and early afternoon in general were very lowkey: Mom, Dad, and I had a small breakfast in the apartment when they got back and we laid around until about two.

For our afternoon, we decided to be a group of extreme tourists and took a Hop On, Hop Off bus tour around Dublin to get a better idea of what we should see in the next few days. Even though it promptly started pouring about ten minutes after we got on the bus, the city still proved to be absolutely gorgeous. The architecture is insane; it’s so stuffed with history and it’s literally on every corner here.

By the way, our tour guide/bus driver was this guy named Frank and he kept making awful puns and mindlessly singing Irish folk songs when the traffic got bad. I think I’m in love.

Next came my personal favorite part: the food. And the beer.

We went to this small pub near the Grafton Street Shopping Center called Sheehen’s and it was basically everything you could have wanted out of a traditional Irish pub: a football (for us just-have-to-be-different Americans, soccer) game on the TV, freshly made Irish fish and chips, and a fantastic selection of beer.

Here’s the interior. Ain’t it just a beaut? (I promise I don’t embarrass myself by actually talking like this around the locals.)

And, of course, I had to have a little taste (well, a pintful of a taste) of one of Ireland’s prized “national anesthetics,” as my love Frank described them.

Please ignore how pleased I look with myself. I’m just flattered they didn’t even ask for an ID. Although, not entirely surprised. I mean, this is IRELAND, after all.

I also had some Irish coffee, which is basically coffee plus whiskey and the best cream in the world. It was fantastic.

The reminder of the evening was spent walking back to our apartment through the crowds streaming out of the stadium from the football game (Ireland vs. Austria, 1-1, by the way). Mom and Dad were thoroughly disappointed that I wasn’t stumbling home. Isn’t it great that I have such a lovely support system with me?

Once again, it was a pretty slow day, but we’re just getting started!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Trinity College and the Book of Kells

[oonandhergoons-blog]

June 9-10, 2017

We’re here! After a connecting flight to Chicago and a fairly painless eight-hour overseas flight (well, painless other than the fact that it was EIGHT HOURS), Mom, Dad, and I have successfully made it to Dublin, a feat that would have had us positively vibrating from excitement if it weren’t for the fact that we were practically corpses after getting off the plane. Jet lag is no joke.

A very obvious difference between Dublin and the States is the chattiness of the taxi drivers. Our cab ride into the city was probably about thirty minutes long and our driver made a point of talking to us about Ireland’s various attractions the whole way there and was actually super pleasant about it. It was startling in contrast to the - umm - variety of characters I’ve met as cab drivers in America.

We had some time to spare between our arrival in the city and the time we had scheduled to meet the owner of the apartment that we are staying in for the month, so we had brunch at this little café called KC Peaches, which, despite the name, had a distinct lack of fuzzy fruits. Mom and I each got a cup of Irish Breakfast tea (I know, ha ha ha, we’re so cheeky) while Dad got a cup of Americano coffee and then complained about said Irish Americano coffee because that’s just the kind of person he is. We were really starting to feel the effects of the jet lag at this point (meaning we were basically falling asleep at the table), so we were very happy when our Air B&B representative showed up to take us to the apartment.

The apartment is right off from this square of restaurants and grocery stores located a few miles from the center of the city. It’s basically perfect situated, as everything we need in an emergency is right there near us and we can basically walk anywhere in Dublin as long as we set our minds to it. The apartment itself is really lovely, with a small balcony that can be accessed from both bedrooms and the living room area at the left side of the flat. There’s also an adorable, yellow-schemed kitchen that branches off from the living area that I’m super excited to play around with as the month goes on.

After getting myself situated, I promptly took a glorious hour-and-a-half nap that made me feel like I had been reborn. 10/10, best nap I’ve ever had. (Side note: I understand that this nap is not the sort of content you are reading this for, but trust me when I say that it is worth mentioning. Once again, jet lag is no joke.)

Mom, Dad, and I then decided to take a walk through the surrounding areas to see what there was to see, which took around an hour and a half and left our feet sore, but was absolutely worth it. We passed by more pubs than I can count (yeah, that’s not just a joke) and a bunch of really awesome architecture, as you can see from the few pictures I took because I haven’t figured out how to be a proper tourist yet.

We also passed this coffee shop that had a very straightforward name. I appreciated it.

After all of this, it was getting to be a bit late, so we decided to get some dinner at this Italian restaurant called Milano that is right around the corner from our apartment. It probably seems kind of ridiculous to get Italian food our first night in Ireland, but hey, we have 29 more days here, we’ve got time.

We then picked up some groceries from the food mart across the way from Milano, which was basically like a mini Earth Fare, except better because it’s not American and there was gelato. We then came back to the apartment and now I’m here typing out our day!

As the trip goes on, I’ll do by best to write a post for each day that we’re here. I may miss a day here and there, but a girl’s gotta sleep. Hope you enjoy!

Prospective plans for tomorrow: Bus tour through Dublin’s attractions