For those of you who were not aware, this past week was half-term break at the school I teach at, so I decided to head to Ireland and visit my good pal Theresa who is working there for most of the year. It was a busy trip with lots of travelling, but very worth it. Thankfully, Theresa had a car in Ireland so it made our ability to travel much easier than busing/training, etc. It was a jammed packed week but here's what we managed to get through:
Sunday
I arrived in Dublin after an extremely rock ferry across the Irish Sea and was met by Theresa at the Dublin Port. From there we made our way to the house she is living at in Ashford. The house was amazing, on a giant piece of country land...it took many windy and small roads to get there but it was a great house. The family I stayed with were amazing. They included me as one of their own and made me feel so welcome to not only their house but to Wicklow and Ireland. Sunday night, we decided to head out to a few local pubs in Wicklow. We were supposed to go to a Halloween party with the daughter of the people we were staying with; however, the costumes we had planned failed hard so we did our own thing.
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| Bracken Beg house- Asford |
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| view from house |
Monday- Dublin
1. Guinness Storehouse- We took a Luas (transportation) into Dublin. We got a great tour of the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Its the original building where Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease. The building is shaped like a giant barrel of beer with different attractions on each floor including gift shops, how the beer is made, marketing, taste tests and final top view of Dublin City. It was gorgeous.
2. Lunch at Grand Central- old bank that is now a restaurant.
3. Shoppped O'Connell St. and toured the city centre of Dublin
4. Crossed the River Liffey to go to Temple Bar (an area known in Dublin for great night life and restaurants).
Tuesday-Wicklow and Wexford
1. Glendalough park (a gorgeous park and nature trails in Wicklow County). There was an old monastery ruins on the ground followed by great trails through gardens and the wonderful Irish landscapes.
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| St. Kevin's Monastery |
4. Bray boardwalk
6. Wicklow City- Black Castle, Life Boat Station and Wicklow County Lighthouses. The Lighthouses were interesting because they built 3 in the same area. The first one they built was the largest but was not visible from all sides (a large hill/mountain blocked one side of the light house). Then they built another one but once again, it was not visible. Finally they built a lighthouse on the coast side of the mountain and it is still used today. I LOVE lighthouses.
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| Black Castle |
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| Last Lighthouse |
Wednesday
1. Dunbrody Emigrant Ship Experience: a museum experience dedicated to the Irish who emigrated after the Potato Famine to the Americas. This was the first morning that I saw any major rain, and we were on the ship during most of it...although it prohibited us from doing much touring around the deck of the ship, it was interesting because it would have been the weather conditions they faced most of their 50 day journey.
2. Blarney Castle and Blarney Stone. For those who have not heard of Blarney Stone, it is apart of Blarney Castle and people flock to it with the myth that if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will get the "gift of gab". I kissed a Legend! (along with thousands of other people who also kissed that stone...but these are things I just ignore...except for the famous people who have kissed it including Winston Churchill). The Blarney Castle was beautiful with gardens followed by more gardens. I couldn't get enough of it there.
3. Blackrock Castle Observatory- by the time we arrived at Blackrock it was nearing 5 when it closed down so we decided to save money and not pay to go in. However, if we had of gone in there is an observatory where you can see space. I did however get out of the car and snap some shots while it was still light out.
Wednesday we decided to stay in Cork County, a BEAUTIFUL city with a great city centre at a hostel in a private room for two. We had a great night in Cork travelling to some pubs and the hostel was awesome about giving us great treatment and sending us to some awesome locations while in the city).
Thursday
1. We left Cork early in the morning (after a rough start) and headed to Limerick to see St.John's Castle. The Castle has a museum experience in it at the beginning and then you can travel the grounds to see the whole castle. It rained for most of the castle experience so we ran through the grounds to see as much as we could.
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| Theresa avoiding the rain in a peasant hut...while looking like a peasant. |
2. Cliffs of Moher- famous cliffs in Ireland that are breathtakingly beautiful...but super windy. It was one of the worst days we had for weather (which was a miracle because we had unusually nice weather) and it was WINDY! Walking up the paths at the cliffs we had to hold onto ropes and fences so we would not blow away.
3. After the cliffs we drove to our hostel in Galway. The drive was now pitch dark and we had to travel down "Corkscrew Road'...I think that explains enough. Our hostel in Galway was nice, we shared it with 6 other females with the room set up in bunk beds. Once in Galway we decided to head out on the town and experience the night life where we saved a life, laughed alot and had a great time overall. It was Halloween night, we didnt dress up but almost everyone else did! Galway is another beautiful city, I loved it.
Friday
After another "late" start to the day, we went for an Irish breakfast and then walked the streets of Galway (in the daylight this time). By the time we got headed on the road, we planned to go visit another nature sight; however the GPS got us lost so we decided that because it was a 3.5 hour drive home we would hit the road before it got too dark. After a tiring ride with a pit stop to wake up we arrived back at Bracken Beg house in Ashford where we were treated to a great home cooked curry dinner and warm beds awaiting us.
Saturday
It had arrived--the day I left Ireland and headed back to Luton to my Life with the Limeys. We decided to sleep in a bit this day and then head into Dublin to do some last sight seeing. I got to see Trinity College (a beautiful University campus in Dublin) and the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells are the first hand written accounts of four gospels. It was beautiful to see them and learn about how the books were created. After the Book of Kells tour we went upstairs to the largest collection of Irish books ever. We walked in the room and it was floor to wall (2 floors worth) and almost wall to wall books. It smelt, looked and felt like Heaven. I was in love.
After a sad farewell to Theresa, I boarded my plane back to England which was much better than the ferry I took over to Ireland. It was short (1 hour) with no weather conditions leading to sick people in my vicinity.
A great half-term break to start the next 7 weeks of teaching!
The Final Trip in total
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