Travel

BlondesAbroad2015: Inching through Ireland

Guess who’s back, back again, Shady’s back, tell a friend. WOOOO! We’re back with the last of the European cities in my Extravaganza series and I am so excited! We’re going all over Ireland today and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
But have you seen London & Paris yet? You don’t want to miss those! GO check them out and come right back here for Ireland!

Woo! You’re back! (or you were already up to date, regardless welcome!)

So Ireland. What a trip. I had no expectations for Ireland because I didn’t really know what to expect, but goodness gracious was I pleasantly surprised. Okay that was an understatement. I was blown away with how much fun it was. Like Holy Toledo.

The trip started off great as we got to board the plane from the tarmac and Carlee had never been happier. Haha it was one of her goals in life and I got to be there when it happened, #Blessed. We arrived in Ireland and loaded onto a few passenger vans to get to our hostel in downtown Dublin. I believe the airport was only about a half hour drive from downtown and it ended up taking about an two hours to get there. I literally took a 45 minute nap and I woke up and we still weren’t even close. We probably should have just walked, eh, hindsight is 20/20 right? Anyways, after grabbing a bite to eat, the activity for the evening in our little group was a pub crawl! I don’t know if I’ve ever participated in something as fun as that night was. The pubs in Dublin are completely different in the best way possible than anything else. They have live bands playing everywhere, dancing, sing-alongs,- I can’t even describe how wonderful it was. If you ever get the opportunity to go to Dublin or just Ireland in general- go, don’t hesitate, just go. you won’t regret it.
But word to the wise, if you don’t like Guinness (both of my hands are in the air right now) you will be frowned upon slightly by the locals, but just accept it and go order a “Sex in the Forest” because it’s delicious and you will actually enjoy your drink instead of spitting it out upon it touching your lips. (Carlee and I are fully guilty for that)

Also fun fact- the last bar that the pub crawl took us to, I don’t know the name, was where Ed Sheehan’s afterparty was that night because he was playing in Dublin! And our leader ended up meeting him later that night too- #Jealous.

On our official first full day in Dublin, we did many of the local touristy things- walking tour of Trinity College, Dublin Castle, and the Guinness Storehouse of course, and finishing up the day at a restaurant called The Storehouse for some Irish Cottage Pie. The wonderful thing about the restaurants in Dublin is that they also have live music all the time, and the musicians are so unbelievably good, and they just do it for fun- they have day jobs and do other things but just love to come out and play at night. It’s amazing. And so this night was no exception.

I found this excerpt from my journal that I think sums up this night in the most perfect way possible:

You know those few times in life where you just know that you’re going to remember this forever? That was tonight. I was sitting in the basement of a bar in Dublin, Ireland, with 10 people I had only met a few weeks ago, listening to 2 Irish men sing their hearts out to Mumford & Sons and Cotton-Eyed Joe, with me, who couldn’t be happier than that moment. Life is so unbelievably awesome and I’m so beyond grateful to be able to be on this journey.

 

 

 


Let’s talk about the Cliffs of Moher for a hot second. *Jaw drops* Words cannot describe how incredible and awe-inspiring and magnificent and indescribable this moment was when I first saw the Cliffs. Let me back up a little. We drove from Dublin to the Cliffs-which is about a 5 or 6 hour drive, you’re literally driving across Ireland to do that- and so we left bright and early. As we were getting closer to the cliffs, it continually was getting foggier and foggier. And by the time we arrived at the Cliffs, we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us. We were incredibly bummed. We got onto the grounds and started walking towards what we thought were the Cliffs, we seriously could not see anything so we were just hoping that the hill we were climbing up was the right way to go, and were trying to make out even anything that we could see. After talking with several people around us, and sending up many silent prayers, a row of lighter fog appeared and the fog started to slowly rise to reveal the cliffs. I’ve never seen something more beautiful than the slow reveal that the fog did to show off the entire Cliffs.
The crazy and cool thing about the cliffs is that there’s a visitors center area where it’s paved and a fence and all that jazz, but just a little ways down, there’s a fence that says “Proceed at your own risk” and it’s literally only grass, mud, you, and the cliffs. There’s no fence, the edge is right there. If you slip, you’re basically done for. It was incredibly awesome and frightening at the same time. I was so completely awestruck & humbled the entire time we were at the Cliffs. I can’t even begin to describe it. I don’t know if it’s one of the seven wonders of the world, but it should be.

Our trip had 2 more days that were full of bus rides, monasteries, almost getting kicked out of pubs because our 50 year old friends forgot how to behave in a bar, and plane delays, but eventually we made it back to the homeland of London with memories that I will never ever forget.

 

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