Saturday, April 6, 2013

SPRING BREAK 2013 Pt. 1b: The Republic of Ireland

The continued adventures of Ireland!

Day 4. Wednesday, 27 March
Today we left Northern Ireland and headed back down into the Republic of Ireland. We first stopped at Sligo, and then at the grave of a national poet - Nobel laureate W.B. Yates. It was pretty awesome! After these stops, we drove to Galway. We stayed at a hostel called Sleepzone, where for the first time in Ireland, we didn't have to sleep in our leggings and sweatshirts! Sarah and I wandered around Shop Street in Galway for about two hours. Sarah's main goal in terms of souvenirs for Ireland was to find a Clauddagh ring. We checked out a few stores, and then ended up going back to the first one, where we both picked out our favorite. We ended up matching... oops. I am absolutely obsessed with mine.

(I just realized I hadn't taken a photo of the ring, so I just took this one. So, here is a photo of my favorite Ireland souvenir, taken in our London hotel...)

We checked out a few touristy shops, and then took an hour or two break in the hostel before meeting up with the rest of our Paddywagon tour for a pub night dinner. We all ate together at The Skeff. This was the first time I'd really spent time in a pub this trip, and I was loving the atmosphere. I got the Steak and Guinness pie, and it was delicious. After the pub, Sarah and I wandered off in search of live music. We were not disappointed! We went into Taaafes Pub and each ordered a beer - at the advice of the bartender, I decided to try a Smithwick's red beer. I quite liked it! We nursed our drinks for a little less than an hour before the live music came on at about 9:30. It was a guitarist, a violinist, and an irish drummer. They were great, and it was the perfect end to the day.



Day 5. Thursday, 28 March
Thursday we hit two major Irish landmarks - The Cliffs of Moher, and the Blarney Castle. I was fortunate enough to have been to these places before, with my family during our European travels but it had been quite a while! We ended the day in Kilarney.

The Cliffs of Moher were as breathtaking as I had remembered. They are unbelievable - I had to just stop and stare for a while. It was a real reminder of how small we all are in the scheme of things. The Cliffs are probably my favorite landmark from the entire trip.

A memorial. They also had a sign that read 'Need to talk?' with a hotline to call.



After Cliffs of Moher, we drove to Blarney Castle. I remember kissing the Blarney Stone when I was younger, but I don't remember seeing the rest of the castle, so this was really fun for me. We kissed the stone, wandered through the Castle, and even spent some time in the Poison Garden - a new personal favorite! They had a lot of poisonous plants that I had heard about before, and it was really cool to read about them and recall specifically what they each did.



For dinner, we ate at Eddie Rockets - it was a diner style restaurant that made me miss the US! At the hostel, Sarah and I had our own room - it was awesome. 

Day 6. Friday, 29 March (Good Friday)
We started the day with a horse-drawn carriage ride through Kilarney National Park. It was absolutely freezing outside, but the view was so beautiful that I (almost) didn't care. After, we drove to the Dingle Peninsula, where we had lunch, took pictures with Fungie the dolphin, and wandered the town. We had a quick stop at Kilkarnie Bay, where you can see a mountain known as the Sleeping Giant, because it looks like a man laying on his back. Nice, calm photo stop... and then it got interesting. We had met up with another Paddywagon bus tour at this photo stop - the other bus driver, Sean (not our Seanie) decided he wanted to touch the Atlantic Ocean. So, he took off his shoes and got into the water... Mind you,  it's freaking freezing out side and that water was outrageous. It all started okay, but then took a turn for the worse. An extremely powerful wave came up the bay and he couldn't get out of the water fast enough - he was completely knocked over and soaked head to toe. When the wave retreated, we saw him kind of just crouching where we had last seen him. He couldn't move. Two brave souls had to run in and help him out. After some chaos, it ended up that our bus driver Seanie had to take him (and his bus with his group) to the nearest emergency room while our bus hung out and had to wait for another driver to come from about an hour away to take us to our hostel for the night. Turns out the other driver tore some ligaments and will be out of commission for a while... but no concussion so that's good.

The Atlantic Ocean!


Tragedy struck...


We stayed the night at a Paddywagon Pub named The Randy Leprechaun. I tried Heineken, and then Sarah and I decided to each do a Car Bomb - what that was: A half pint of Guinness, and then a shot glass with a shot of Bailey's and some Jameson whiskey. You drop the shot glass into the Guinness, and then you're supposed to chug it and it theoretically tastes like chocolate milk? I am basically incapable of chugging anything (including water) and I just tasted the Bailey's, but it was fun and yummy so that was cool. We also tasted a little bit of whiskey (as in, a sip and decided that nope I was good) a little later in the evening. We hung out with other Paddywagoners for a little, and actually met some Ohioans who were studying in Florence. Then, it was off to bed. The next day would be our last with Paddywagon, sadly.

Day 7. Saturday, 30 March
Today was a pretty short day - we stopped at Adare and saw some thatched roof cottages, and then it was off to the Guinness Storehouse! We went through and saw how Guinness was made, and then got a free pint! I couldn't drink more than half of mine - I am apparently not a fan of Guinness. After Guinness, we drove the last little bit back to the Dublin Paddywagon hostel, and said goodbye to Seanie... sad day! But we had a great time touring with him - I really couldn't have picked a better guide!

Seanie and "The Sister Act" (as he called us...)


We had dinner with a lot of our new Paddywagon friends at O'Shea's Pub, hung out and played some games in the pub, and then headed out. Early the next morning we were off to Liverpool, England!!



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