I'M BACK!!! As the title suggests, I've had an AMAZING week TRAVeling (thanks Carey for that one) Ireland. I've seen more of the country in a week than I have in the month that I've been here (Thanks to the Harris family for the rental car!!!) and have gotten really cool glimpses at places I'd like to go back to for the rest of the summer. In an effort to keep you entertained and to not write an entire novel, here are some highlights from the week!
SATURDAY: Northern Ireland! (don't tell the rental company): Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Bridge, and Larne beach.
Ireland Fact #1: People are incredibly nice (because you've never heard that one before)
Picture of the day: Flat tire in Northern Ireland (and the guy in the red jacket changed it for us while we went and saw the bridge!!! So nice)
THURSDAY: Limerick to Dingle to Ring of Kerry to Killarney
We roped Victoria, Vince, and Bobby into a spontaneous road trip to Dingle after class on Thursday. Dingle is a town on the coast (Mom, I think it's going to be your favorite town). It's a small, colorful port town with craft shops, tourist shops, regular shops, cute pubs, and ICE CREAM EVERYWHERE!!! On the way back we stopped by the beach. Turns out you can park straight on the beach!! Just make sure you don't get stuck in the sand...
After the beach, we drove the Ring of Kerry. The Ring is essentially just more beautiful views of the mountains, valleys, and coastline. It's funny because every time I think I'm used to the beauty here, we go somewhere slightly different that is just as breathtaking. My goal for the summer is that I don't take that for granted.
We spent the night in Killarney. I feel bad because we didn't get into the city until 11:30 p.m. (we found a hostel right as reception was closing). I'd heard really good things about how cute the town was and how the night life was really fun, but I think Thursday night was teen night. We didn't make it out until 12:30, right in time for the pubs to be closing and the clubs to open. We were by far the oldest people walking around by about 4 years, and Victoria and I were definitely the most clothed. We lasted for about 30 minutes before we decided sleep was a much better option than watching a less fancy version of a high school prom.
SUNDAY: Trav caught a 6 am flight back, so I got to spend another early morning at the airport. Luckily, at 6, April answered her phone, so I got to taxi over to where she was to hang out with her in Dublin!!! Only in Ireland would hanging out last from 6 am - 8 am. I was exhausted, so I headed back to Limerick while she went to explore Dublin.
and this one is just for kicks. It's actually a candid. But it makes it cool because it's outside the oldest pub in Dublin!!!
This was by far my favorite week of the trip. I was with amazing company and getting to see some incredible sights. I can't remember the last time I've laughed for a week straight or explored as much as I got to throughout the week. AND I came back to the last week of school (these 5 week semesters are the best). Today - Weds. will consist of a lot of studying, and then Thursday we're heading to London to try to get tickets to Wimbledon!! Will try to post some more throughout the week (esp. pictures from Amsterdam!!), but no promises (it's test time. You're welcome mom and dad!!)
SATURDAY: Northern Ireland! (don't tell the rental company): Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Bridge, and Larne beach.
Ireland Fact #1: People are incredibly nice (because you've never heard that one before)
Picture of the day: Flat tire in Northern Ireland (and the guy in the red jacket changed it for us while we went and saw the bridge!!! So nice)
SUNDAY: HECK of a road trip from Northern Ireland to Limerick.
Things that make this picture unbelievable:
1. Trav is in Ireland
2. It was the end to a sunny, cloudless day
3. The sun was setting over the Cliffs of Moher
Hitchikers we picked up on the way to Sligo! An Australian brother and sister and an Irish girl who they'd met in a Christian community who had joined for the weekend. So cool!!
Conversation with my dad when he found out:
Me: "We picked up hitchikers!!"
Dad: "You did what??"
Me: "It's okay, they were Christians"
Dad: "Marnie, Christians have guns too"
Happy Birthday/Father's Day to the greatest dad there is!
MONDAY: Rock of Cashel & Kilkenny! We came back early Monday night to watch the US/Ghana soccer game in the city of Limerick.
From the view of St. Patrick's cross & the Rock of Cashel.
TUESDAY: Road trip to Galway. Stopped by The Burren on the way out! The Burren is just a bunch of rolling hills made up of rock. Think Stone Mountain, but real and WAY cooler. I never thought rocks could be so pretty, but the scenery was BREATHAKING. Galway part 2 was SO fun. We went to Monroe's Tavern for Tuesday night dancing. I was expecting live music and swing dancing. We got live music, but instead of swing dancing there was a group of ~16 locals who come to the tavern for traditional Irish dancing every Tuesday night! One woman took us under her wing and "made" us dance every 4th song. Neither of us had any idea what we were doing (I don't even have rhythm when it comes to American music), but it was a really fun experience!
How I feel at the end of this week
WEDNESDAY: Galway to Roundstone to Clifden. We stopped in Roundstone for lunch - it was a cute town on the coast. Really colorful, the world's BEST seafood chowder, and homemade icecream! These pictures are pretty indicative of the time we spent there. But then we rented bikes in Clifden to make it all worth it! We biked through a completely different of Connemara than we did with the group the first weekend. This bike ride was shorter (14 km), but the first 7 km were ALL uphill with the wind blowing in our face. The plus side was that we were getting killer views of the coast and it was sunny and beautiful! We stopped in a pub in Clifden after we got back. It might have been the result of being hot, sweaty, and exhausted, but I had the best cider I've EVER had.THURSDAY: Limerick to Dingle to Ring of Kerry to Killarney
We roped Victoria, Vince, and Bobby into a spontaneous road trip to Dingle after class on Thursday. Dingle is a town on the coast (Mom, I think it's going to be your favorite town). It's a small, colorful port town with craft shops, tourist shops, regular shops, cute pubs, and ICE CREAM EVERYWHERE!!! On the way back we stopped by the beach. Turns out you can park straight on the beach!! Just make sure you don't get stuck in the sand...
After the beach, we drove the Ring of Kerry. The Ring is essentially just more beautiful views of the mountains, valleys, and coastline. It's funny because every time I think I'm used to the beauty here, we go somewhere slightly different that is just as breathtaking. My goal for the summer is that I don't take that for granted.
We spent the night in Killarney. I feel bad because we didn't get into the city until 11:30 p.m. (we found a hostel right as reception was closing). I'd heard really good things about how cute the town was and how the night life was really fun, but I think Thursday night was teen night. We didn't make it out until 12:30, right in time for the pubs to be closing and the clubs to open. We were by far the oldest people walking around by about 4 years, and Victoria and I were definitely the most clothed. We lasted for about 30 minutes before we decided sleep was a much better option than watching a less fancy version of a high school prom.
Stuck in the sand! At least we had a real tire at this point...
FRIDAY: Dublin!! We didn't get into the city until the afternoon, so by the time we had gotten settled into the city it was already 10:00. The nicer cheap food options were closed, so we picked up Subway (because we have to have something to compare it too - it was delicious) and walked around until we found a place that looked to. I'm naturally drawn to live music so I walked into the first bar where I could hear a guitar, but it was pretty chotchky (is that a word?). We headed to Temple Bar, and what I had expected to be awful and touristy and crowded ended up being my favorite pub!! We ended up meeting a Canadian and Italian and spent 2 hours talking to them about their jobs, poetry, human rights, and loooove (he was Italian. It was bound to come up). Really cool experience and it made me a huge advocate for Temple Bar!
Because this is the only picture I have from Friday. Fries for breakfast!
SATURDAY: Dublin take 2! As we were walking around the city, we stumbled upon the Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin! We celebrated by getting the best Irish coffee's I've ever had. We continued walking around the city, where we saw Trinity College (really old, REALLY pretty, the library holds the Book of Kells. The line was long and it cost money to go into the library, so we decided looking at pictures would have to do), picnicked in the park (the BEST brownie I've ever had and Ethiopian coffee. I was a happy picnicker), and watch Ghana tie Germany in the world cup (soccer is way more fun to watch when everyone else thinks so too)!!
SUNDAY: Trav caught a 6 am flight back, so I got to spend another early morning at the airport. Luckily, at 6, April answered her phone, so I got to taxi over to where she was to hang out with her in Dublin!!! Only in Ireland would hanging out last from 6 am - 8 am. I was exhausted, so I headed back to Limerick while she went to explore Dublin.
and this one is just for kicks. It's actually a candid. But it makes it cool because it's outside the oldest pub in Dublin!!!
This was by far my favorite week of the trip. I was with amazing company and getting to see some incredible sights. I can't remember the last time I've laughed for a week straight or explored as much as I got to throughout the week. AND I came back to the last week of school (these 5 week semesters are the best). Today - Weds. will consist of a lot of studying, and then Thursday we're heading to London to try to get tickets to Wimbledon!! Will try to post some more throughout the week (esp. pictures from Amsterdam!!), but no promises (it's test time. You're welcome mom and dad!!)
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