Ireland: Part One

**I'm not posting too many pics on here but I plan on doing a photo book which I'll share when I'm done putting it together**

Our flight left Boston at 5:30 pm EST and though it was only a 5 hour flight it was about 6:00 the next morning when we landed in Dublin. We grabbed a shuttle to the Dublin City Centre and walked to our hotel on Fleet Street. I knew we would be arriving super early so I had emailed the hotel a few weeks prior to request an early check-in. Luckily they were able to accommodate us and we went up to our room on the 4th floor. It was pretty tiny! It was scarcely bigger than a room you'd find on a cruise ship. This worried me a bit as I thought all our rooms on the trip would be this small but it turns out that this hotel was the only one. We were so exhausted that we immediately got into bed and took a quick nap.

I set the alarm for 9 am so I could shower before heading out. Brandon continued to sleep and even after I got out of the shower he was bitching that he wanted to sleep a bit longer. But I was ready to get out and see the town! So I blowdried my hair and pulled out the flat iron and power converter. I bought a power converter for some of our electronics but it turned out to be a piece of crap. The flat iron didn't work with it and so I wasn't able to fix my hair for the whole trip. Needless to say I was pretty pissed.

Because our bus tour was cancelled we decided to walk to all the sites that I really wanted to see. We grabbed lunch on the way to Saint Patrick's Cathedral which was only about 20 minutes away from our hotel. The cathedral was so pretty and HUGE! On the way back to the hotel we stopped by Dublin Castle but weren't able to get in because the Queen had a banquet there the night before. We ventured back to the hotel and found our way to the Molly Malone statue. An old man playing music next to the statue offered to take a picture of us which we accepted. Then it was time to go back and get ready to meet up with Fran!

Saint Patrick's Cathedral

Molly Malone Statue

She had given me her phone number and even though I called the reception desk to find out how to dial the number it still wouldn't work! I was very frustrated and eventually had to email her about our meeting spot. It must have been the hotel phone because I called someone else later on in our trip and the phone worked fine.

Fran met us for dinner outside Trinity College and we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant called Alcapulco. The food was delicious, albeit a little spicy for me, but Brandon loved it. He's a big fan of Mexican and Tex-Mex food. After dinner we went for a walk and Fran showed us Ha'Penny Bridge. Then we walked through Trinity college, up Grafton Street and to St Stephen's Green. It was about 10:00 by this time so the park was closed but it was still great to see everything and see Fran as well. I would have never been able to find all this stuff on my own!

Me and Fran!

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and took the shuttle back to the airport where we picked up our rental car. They gave us a little silver Fiat Panda. Now some of you may be wondering what it was like driving on the left side of the road, especially a manual car. At first it was a bit confusing for Brandon but then something "clicks" in your head and you just do it. The worst part were the narrow roads and this caused me anxiety throughout the trip. There were a couple times Brandon hit the curb and one time he hit a stone pole with the side mirror but luckily all it did was fold the mirror inward (thank GOD!). I must admit that it was pretty nerve wracking to be Brandon's passenger for those 11 days. He felt at ease driving the Fiat within an hour of picking it up but let's face it, he wasn't that good. The roads in Ireland are very very narrow compared to American standards and even left me a little angry so let's vent about that for a bit, shall we?

I wasn't sure who to be more angry at, the Irish government for making roads too narrow to accommodate big ass tour buses, or the tour companies themselves who, in an effort to make as much profit as possible, use big ass tour buses that can't fit on said roads. Because the tour buses are so large they feel they can just use up both lanes on the road so the poor souls approaching the bus have to pull off the road into the bushes to avoid a head-on collision. That is, if there are any bushes. Sometimes you get a rock cliff or a rock wall and at that point you should just suck it in and pray for the best. And let's not forget about the people following behind the bus cause they're forced to go 40 km/h in a 100 km/h zone. No point in trying to pass the bus cause as I said, they like to ride the middle lane so you can't really get around them. Brandon and I experienced both sides of this and turning a blind corner on the top of a mountain and coming very close to hitting a bus was almost enough to make me lose my lunch. I don't know how many times I yelled "Slow down!" during this trip. But enough of my venting, back to the story.

So we picked up our car and headed to Kilkenny. It was a bit rainy when we got there but we walked in the rain to Kilkenny Castle and went inside. It was very beautiful but unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside the castle. By the time we were done walking around the inside of the castle the sun had come out so we were able to walk around the castle grounds. After the castle we ate lunch in Kilkenny where I tried the Irish stew (made with lamb). I wasn't a big fan of it because lamb is fairly strong tasting but I bet it would have been great with beef. We did a bit of shopping then left Kilkenny to make our way to our first B&B, the Lawcus Farm Guesthouse.

Kilkenny Castle

I plugged in the coordinates for the guesthouse and we followed the GPS to Stoneyford, about 10 km south of Kilkenny. We passed the sign for Jerpoint Abbey and since we had planned to go there, we went ahead and followed the signs to the abbey. It was a great and informative tour of the monastery ruins, which were built in the 13th century. The gravestones were particularly impressive, standing almost as tall as Brandon!

After Jerpoint Abbey we decided it was time to find our B&B. Only the GPS got us lost and we almost ended up in Waterford before realizing our mistake. Apparently when using coordinates in a GPS system there are different formats and we had it set to the wrong one. Eventually we found the B&B and it turned out to be a major highlight of our trip.

The Lawcus Farm Guesthouse

The Lawcus Farm Guesthouse was our version of paradise on earth. It was so beautiful and peaceful yet there were so many things to do. It felt like coming home...that's really the only way I can explain it. When we pulled up Ann-Marie was waiting for us and showed us to our room, The Stone Room. It was so nice. We came back downstairs and had some tea while Brandon found a book and read. After our tea Ann-Marie showed us around the farm. It was teeming with new life. Her four sheep had all given birth about 6 weeks prior and there were little lambs everywhere (I think there were 9 babies between the 4 sheep). Her sow had also given birth and we stopped by to see her 13 piglets. There were dogs, cats, ducks (video here), chickens, turkeys, horses, cows and a little river down the hill where we spotted trout swimming. It was such a neat place to spend the night. Ann-Marie suggested we visit another unique site close by, the Kells Priory. It was literally set next to a pasture. Brandon and I pulled into the small parking lot and walked through a field of sheep to get to it. It's not exactly a big tourist attraction, though they are doing renovation to the site so maybe one day they'll start charging admission. For now you just have to pick your way around the sheep poo. There's not much information on the Kelly Priory but it was founded in 1193 and was like a religious fort. We walked around the area before heading back to the guesthouse.

The Stone Room

Kells Priory

Ann-Marie's husband Mark had come home by then and they offered us a nightcap. So we accept cause, you know, when in Rome and all that. The name of the liquor escapes me but I think it was this. It turned out to not be a nightcap at all, it was more like a burn-a-hole-in-your-stomach kind of drink. But it was nice to try. We ended up staying up till midnight talking with Ann-Marie and Mark. We chatted about Brandon's service in the military while Mark gave us each a bottle of an English beer called Bishop's Finger. We talked about all kinds of stuff and Ann-Marie made fresh bread which we ate with black currant jelly (my first time trying) and butter. She also made a boiled duck egg which I tried but didn't like so Brandon ate it. It was just so nice to sit and chat like we were old friends.

The next morning we woke up and ate fresh pancakes with bacon. The Irish bacon is so much better than American bacon. It's thick like Canadian ham but still salty like regular bacon. I fell in love with it from the first mouthful. I tried porridge for the first time too. The first bite was bland but then Ann-Marie told me to add milk and brown sugar and after that it was great! I also tried her neighbor's homemade butter which tasted a lot like melted American cheese. It was an excellent breakfast and we were sad to leave. Brandon would have stayed there the whole trip if I had let him but this was an adventure trip and we knew there were lots more to see so we said our goodbyes and headed for Kinsale. We stopped at the Rock of Cashel on our way which way pretty nice but also pretty crowded and touristy. The wind was blowing fiercely and it was difficult to walk around without freezing so we didn't stay long. Rock of Cashel

The town of Kinsale was not as grand as I had expected but maybe that's because it rained the whole time we were there. We did a bit of shopping and got some hot chocolate at a little cafe called Jo's. It was the best hot chocolate I've ever had. They even serve it with a small cup of chocolate morsels in case you want to add more chocolate to your hot chocolate. Brandon took one look at my mug and ordered one for himself of white hot chocolate. I really wish I had taken a picture of it, it was so magnificent.

The colorful town of Kinsale

After shopping and eating an afternoon lunch we checked into our next B&B. We took a long nap because we had planned to go to a pub for some live music that night. So at 9:00 we walked into a bar called Ned Kelly's to see a band called Leon and the Celtic Knights. I was expecting some kind of traditional Irish music and instead we got a local band. I was a bit disappointed at first but we stuck around and ordered our first (and only) Guinness. I'm not a huge fan of beer to be honest, I mostly stuck with the Baileys coffee and Irish coffees throughout the trip.

So the band starts playing and what do you think their first song is? Johnny Cash! We thought it was pretty humorous but this guy was actually really good. Their next song was Whiskey in the Jar which Brandon and I love. I caught it on video here. Well because it was a Saturday night the bar got pretty full of locals that night. The first big group to come in was a bachelorette party and then we sat next to a stag (bachelor) party. Those Irish guys party pretty hard! They were taking off their shirts and jumping all over each other, knocking their beer bottles off the table and making all kinds of ruckus. It was very entertaining (video here). We staying all night listening to the band and singing along. Brandon likes Dropkick Murphy's and Flogging Molly so lots of the songs were familiar to us but the locals went crazy over all the American music. We heard Johnny Cash, Elvis and even Garth Brooks that night. It was so much better than any trad session we heard during our whole trip.

Brandon with his Guinness

Leon and the Celtic Knights