Home Sweet Home

What a trip.

I made it back to Richmond in one piece; after a 7 hour flight to Boston and a 6 hour layover I've never been so happy to pull in my driveway.

Saying that Ireland was amazing would be a complete understatement. What a way to end college & such a wonderful chapter of my life. I honestly didn't want to get on that plane going west Monday morning. I highly encourage everyone that is entering a new chapter to take some time and travel, whether that be a week or a month. You are going to learn a lot about yourself and things you didn't know. You are probably going to come home with an empty bank account and your jeans will be a little tighter but it is so worth it.

Everyone told me that I would learn so many things about myself on my trip and it was so true. I learned that I like ice in my drinks and I like them cold; definitely one of the biggest things that I missed about home. Sweatsuits are a huge thing; one that I'm glad isn't a trend here. We need more public transportation; it's convenient and it is cheap. And I learned that Ireland is the only place besides college where it is acceptable to have a drink before noon. While these are pretty trivial I came home knowing many things about myself that I wasn't aware of before and that is priceless.

We had so much fun and I wouldn't have wanted to go on this trip with anyone else. Peg, you are the best travel companion, partner in crime, and I cannot say thank you enough! 

Some outtakes and randoms from our trip:

Selfie Stick just for you Debs

Dublin, Malahide, & Brazen Head

Day 5 & 6. 

Friday was pretty casual spent around Dublin, once again the rain holding off into the evening. We started out with breakfast at Queen of Tarts, what has quickly become the usual for us. We knew that we wanted to head back to Trinity College to see the library and grab a few things in the shops around that area.

We stopped in the Aran Sweater Market which is known for their famous fisherman sweaters and are found on Aran Island right off the coast. We ended up spending around an hour and half in the store earlier in the week trying to decide which ones/colors/styles we liked. I finally bit the bullet and bought a  mid length charcoal cardigan that I'm already looking forward to wearing home on my plane ride. I also took it as an opportunity to stock up on their beloved socks.

Afterwards we headed to Brazen Head which is the oldest pub in Ireland, kind of a must see in my opinion. It was a lot smaller and quieter than a lot of the other pubs around here which was definitely a change of pace.

 Yesterday morning we hopped on the Dart again  and head to Malahide which is just north of Dublin, it was another adorable waterfront suburban town with tons of charm.

Our first stop was the Malahide Castle & Gardens which turned out to be situated in the middle of an adorable little park.

An old Malahide Abbey

After touring the castle grounds and gardens we decided to stroll around Malahide and see what it was all about. We ended up walking along with waterfront coast walk and stumbled upon a little Greek restaurant where we ended up eating lunch.

When we first arrived it was sunny and downright warm outside, this quickly turned to sprinkles after lunch which then turned into flat out rain on the way back to the train. We've gotten so lucky with the weather this week though that it is hard to complain.

After taking the train back to Dublin we roamed around for a little while; getting coffees and stopping in a few shops. We ended up going back to The Church for dinner; we were a little disappointed that they didn't have any sort of music on Saturday nights but still had a really good meal.

We stopped by The Wooden Whisk which is this little bakery and coffee shop a couple streets over from where we are staying. So good yet so bad for my jeans.

Doolin: Cliffs of Moher & Corcomore Abbey

Day Four.

We woke up at 5:30 and sprinted out of our Airbnb to find the closest functioning Starbucks to get our necessary caffeine fix before we hoped on a tour bus with Extreme Ireland to trek to the western side of Ireland to see the Cliffs of Moher. 

Group tours are no joke, while I think we can both say that we are glad we did the tour to see the Cliffs of Moher rather than trying to get there ourselves I can also say we won't be participating in another one. Our tour guide was amazing in a not so amazing type way, que the singing as soon as we stepped foot on the bus at 6:45 a.m. The singing also continued until we stepped foot off the bus at 7:30 p.m. Joey you were a great knowledgable tour guide but you also took an entire hour to tell us about a review saying you talked too much. 

The Cliffs of Moher are something that I have grown up hearing about and I've seen thousands of pictures. It was definitely something that I wanted to see while here but I didn't realize what a difference it would be actually seeing them in person. I know that people say seeing things yourself is so much better but pictures truly don't do them justice. 

We got extremely lucky weather wise, it was a somewhat drizzly day but once we got to Doolin the rain stopped and we had no fog. We've been told that if there was fog you wouldn't be able to see the cliffs at all so we were really fortunate. While it wasn't necessarily sunny with blue skies there were still no complaints. The wind on the other hand,I'm talking knock you over wind...it was insane.

O'Brien's Castle at Cliffs of Moher

People hike on both sections, there is a somewhat of a viewing station with a nice stable wall in the middle (exactly where I stayed). Heights and I don't dance, seeing these people standing on the edge and jumping down actually made my stomach hurt. My Aunt on the other hand faced her fears and hiked out to the very end, go Peg!

We had just around 2 hours at the actual Cliffs before heading into Doolin for a lunch break.

A few pictures from Doolin and the ride there. Sorry for the glare, most of these were taken from inside our bus.  

I found that Ireland is full of cemeteries and farm animals. 

After lunch we headed Corcomore Abbey which is located in The Burren in Co. Clare on the western side of Ireland. 

The weather had really cleared up by then but the wind was still in full force, we had a lot of people that didn't even get off the bus towards the last few stops. 

"Scoop the Poop"

We were pretty happy to get off of that bus after 12+ hours with a tour group but we really enjoyed the day and are so happy with the weather turn out. Visiting the Cliffs of Moher is something that is a must do for anyone that comes to Ireland. I had someone tell me that is should be the 8th Wonder of the World before my trip and she was so right.

After returning to Dublin we were starving, we actually found a little Mexican restaurant in the Temple Bar area that had pretty good food and margaritas. 

After dinner we stopped by Murphy's Ice Cream on the way home and it was as good as all it is talked up to be. I had half butterscotch and half Dingle sea salt, so so good yet very different from what we are used to. 

 Pub crawls and more Irish adventures to come!

xo