Jameson, Guinness, Long Nights, and Green Grass
Ireland!!!! The land of Leprechauns and Green Hills…..when I got here it was much as I expected….AND I LOVED IT. I have never had such a fun time in one country, moving around so much. I stayed in three different cities and I must say that I loved Galway the most….
Coming down from Northern Ireland, we first stopped at Giants Causeway which is a site of geological wonder on the coast of Northern Ireland. It is a series of huge hexagonal stacks, created by volcanic activity, stretch far out in to the sea, forming a ‘causeway’ which legend has it was used by the mythical giant Finn McCool! It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We then took a lunch stop at the walled city of Derry. This city was made famous by the U2 song Bloody Sunday which took place here….
We finally arrived in Galway which I absolutely fell in love with!!!! The center of town is extremely easy to move around in and there is a pub on just about every corner you can think of. I had fun walking the streets and going to a bar/nightclub that was rather rowdy with stag and hen parties!!!!! The next morning I paid the price…
Next morning I took a day excursion to the Aran Islands. This is a traditional Irish village where fishing and wool making are still the main sources of income. We rented bikes and drove around the island as the cliffs were awe inspiring. We stayed the night in Galway then took off the next morning…
As we drove to see the Cliffs of Moher I was quite excited…I have always seen pictures of this and wanted to see it for myself. Unfortunately I did not get the angle of picture that I wanted because of too many tourists in the way…oh well next time…
Our next stop was the small village of Killarney…this lakeside village is charming in itself and is not so busy at all. We took a jaunt around a horse carriage to the parks and castle there which was nice. Of course I had my food in a pub…
On the way to our last stop stop Dublin, we stopped at the Blarney Stone which is embedded in a castle. If you kiss this stone, you will have the gift of eloquent speaking(anyone that knows me, knows this does not work. Then we stopped at Rock of Cashel which was an old castle:
Finally our last stop was the great city of Dublin….we stayed in a nice hotel and had a beautiful evening of an Irish Folk Festival, then went out to the various pubs, which under mysterious circumstances I lost my pictures. Next morning I went for a walk around the town and enjoyed the sites of Trinity College, my billionth church, and of course nothing is complete without a stroll to the Guinness Factory and Jameson Factory. It was somewhat of a long day as you can imagine….
I do believe I will return here in the future as there is so much to do and so much to see in this great island. I literally had the time of my life….