October 23rd — November 4th, 2018

Sitting here in late summer in the year of COVID-19 has me desperately craving travel. I need to escape, need to experience something new. I’m a different person on vacation. All of my stress melts away and my personality shifts – I’d do things I wouldn’t normally do, like go explore caves, get on a ferry, try a new food…

I miss that me.

So I’ve decided that if I can’t zip off somewhere, I’ll go back down memory lane.

---

The Lead-Up

So my lovely, lovely friend and former coworker S.R. got engaged and was planning her wedding. Venues kept falling through, I believe. She mentioned once that she’d want to get married in Ireland, and my other coworker K and I didn’t take it too seriously; after all, that stuff only happens in movies and fantasies.

A while later she messages us and says the wedding is going to happen in Ireland, and she wants us to come but understands if we can’t. I half-jokingly told my mom we’re going to Ireland.

Then I checked the prices. To fly from Syracuse (SYR) to Dublin (DUB) was pricey. But if we drove to Newburgh (about four hours away), and flew from Stewart (SWF)… well, that’s about $250 round trip before taxes.

Before you know it, I’m planning a trip to a different hemisphere…

---

The Trip

This is a day-to-day diary of our whirlwind “Intro to Ireland” tour. We didn’t stay in too many places for nearly long enough, but just to see which areas we liked best.

October 23rd, 2018

Hired Grandma and Grandpa to drive us down to Newburgh. Red eye flight. W not a fan…

October 24th

Landed in Dublin Airport at around 8~~~, grabbed the rental, figured out how to shove our luggage in the tiny VW Polo, went to Swords Pavillion, got Starbucks. Saw a Dacia Sandero!

Decided to NOT be adventurous and go grab some shut-eye at our hotel, the Louis Fitzgerald in Clondalkin.

Got in there, freshed up, laid down for like two seconds. Ended up a solid 4 hour nap for us.

Woke up and got ready for the rehersal dinner at The Duck in Celbridge, Co. Kildare.

It was lovely. Excellent music, excellent food, excellent time. Loved the pub – amazing atmosphere.

October 25th — The Wedding

Woke up early, had breakfast, got ready, got to the church at 1:30 and there was almost no one else there. We were very early. We’re never early.

The wedding was held at Barberstown Castle in Naas, Co. Kildare. 13th Century

Ceremony was beautiful. And I’m not a wedding person. They had a traditional “tying the knot” ceremony. Secular, I believe.

We were SO, SO jetlagged.

Reception at the castle as well, food was amazing. Best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. Panic attack right in the middle of the duck course…

October 26th — Unleashed Upon the Island

Our first full day of freedom! Kilmainham Gaol was sold out, so we went to Dun Laughaire??? Then Tallaght Square to go shopping, then we went to Corkagh Park and walked around. Dinner at Joel’s; W’s first chicken alfredo

October 27th

Late morning, checking out of the Louis – went to Dun Laoghaire, then Powerscourt House & Garden, then the amazing Powerscourt waterfall, where we climbed rocks like little children and had so, so much fun. Then it started snowing!

We then were going to go through Wicklow and Glendalough, but instead cut that and made a mad dash to Cashel and quickly learned by what time we had to be to our next “base”. Stayed at Cashel B&B

October 28th – The Rock of Cashel

Hello, you gorgeous, gorgeous thing. Woke up and went to Tesco to grab some Car Snacks. Turns out, an entire corner of the store is gluten-free! Got some lemon zingy muffins, some apples slices, then went across the hall to Starbucks to get somethign warm. When you exit the shopping center and look left, there it is. The Rock of Cashel. The ancient high seat of Ireland’s kings. Where St. Patrick converted the first Irish king to Catholicism.

Parked in the Cashel parking lot, staring up at the ancient walls, we ate our breakfasts of lemon muffins and apple slices.

Went on a tour with a lovely tour guide – Sarah. It was absolutely freezing, but it was such an amazing tour. Learned so, so much.

Drove down to Cork. Ate at an “American diner” that was called either Rockin’ Joe’s or Shake Dog? I think it was having an identity crisis.

Mad dash to Killorglin to Fly House.

October 29th — The Ring of Kerry

Breakfast at Jam in Kenmare

Cornbread thing??? At Ladies View.

Craaazy driving, not really a great day.

Arrived at Rose Cottage in Ballinskelligs, then went into town and grabbed ingredients for dinner – gluten-free chicken nuggets for W. and I.

October 30th — Second half of RoK, Inch Beach, and Dingle

More Ring of Kerry crazy driving. Then hit Inch Beach and walked for a long time, gathering SO MANY SHELLS.

Rounded the corner onto the Dingle Peninsula and the sun came out and changed our lives.

Ate at Murphy’s Pub

Stayed at Dingle Peninsula Hotel (they have/had a dog there!), took a shower, watched the first episode of that John Simm miniseries.

October 31st — Happy Halloween from Ireland!

Woke up to a cow outside the window. Breakfast at Dingle Peninsula Hotel, checked out, then we went to Gallarus Oratory and was there before the guy. Saw an Ogham stone! Then we went to Dunquin Pier and walked down and enjoyed the view. W. got attacked by the ocean and helped fellow tourists take a picture. THEN WE HAD TO WALK BACK UP.

Once recouping from our unexpected cardio, we went back into Dingle to shop and eat, maybe? HORRIBLE cappuccino. Went to Dingle Aquarium and walked to see the bay.

Went up to Tralee and to see the Blennerville Windmill… it was already very late and dark and it… was a windmill… the sparkling lights of Tralee were gorgeous.

Stayed at Ballyroe Heights

November 1st — Tralee to Ardfert to Clare

Woke up and had breakfast at the hotel – lots of toast and juice. There were people chanting and singing at the view across from the hotel, which was a spectacular view. I’m not sure if it had to do with it being the day after Halloween or if it was religious or not. Seemed a bit odd to me, but also interesting.

Packed up and headed out, stopping at Ardfert Cathedral and exploring. It was closed to visitors, but we saw an old guy enter anyway, so we did too. No cops were called, so I think we weren’t trespassing. It was a little bit difficult to truly explore everything since there wasn’t anyone explaining things to us, as the older gentleman we saw entering promptly disappeared. We used some of our new knowledge tidbits we learned from Cashel to infer possible meanings and purposes of things, though.

Then it was on to catch the Tarbert-Killimer ferry, the Shannon Breeze. I was just about pooping masonry. But we survived and it was quite interesting. Then we got to Pake’s Cottage with enough time to settle in before the sun started to set. We walked down to the beach and walked all over the rocks, since the tide was out. An absolutely gorgeous view and a gorgeous sunset.

That night was home-cooked dinner. That didn’t go well, since everything tastes different, so “safe” dishes at home do not taste the same over there. We watched some TV and the weather folks mentioned some wind. Turns out ex-Hurricane Oscar was on its way to say hello. Very scary sounding. Can’t be that bad, right?

November 2nd — The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher

You knew where we were headed the second that we headed north to Tralee.

When we woke up, it was rainy and very foggy, so we were concerned about having good visibility at the Cliffs. So we decided to head up to the Burren first. Got to Poulnabrone just in time for an American college tour to swoop in and Instagram everything. Not a single person was paying attention to the 4500 year old portal tomb, just taking pictures of each other and with a very tired cow. Got quite upset about the disrespect and got our fill and left. Headed down to the Cliffs and we made an excellent decision to hold off. The fog lifted and we got to see the Cliffs in all their glory. We walked along for a bit, mother climbed over the slate safety fence and gave W. and I heart attacks. Eventually we climbed over as well, once it widened out. Even then I was not excited about being over there. Eventually we turned back and got back to the vistior center, which is built into the landscape, creating a unique and beautiful building, just in time for it to be closing. So we used the restrooms and headed back out into the cold to watch the sun set and light up the sky.

We wanted to head to Doolin to eat, but everything would’ve been closed by then, so we stopped at a gas station to ask for advice. This worked out well. The gentleman pointed us to a restaurant called The Cornerstone Bar in Lahinch. Gorgeous atmosphere and fantastic food!

Back to Pake’s for the night. Oscar was starting to make his presence known. It was very, very windy and the illogical part of my brain told me that obviously, the storm surge was going to get us, even though that was just about impossible. It ended up not mattering because I would’ve slept through it.

November 3rd — The Final Full Day

Woke up quite sad that morning… it was to be our final full day in Ireland, so we made sure to get everything in order. We didn’t have anything planned, so we figured we’d make a “practice drive” to Shannon Airport just… I don’t know, to do so? We ended up quite disappointed in Shannon as a city. We had to buy an extra bag to carry all our crap back with us, so we stopped at Penney’s. Then we went to Bunratty Castle and roamed around. That was very fun and very interesting. We didn’t get to fully inspect the Folk Park, since it got dark so fast! We hit up the gift shop there and did some final damage to our wallets. W. then took some manual driving practice laps around the then-empty parking lot. That was fun. Back to Pake’s for our final night.

November 4th

Quite bummed. Had to go home. Got a call while we were at Shannon Airport that my grandparents – who were to drive and pick us up – were at the hospital because my grandmother fell and broke her arm. We said we had to board the plane, but they said that if they couldn’t make it, my father or uncle would be there for us. What a great family of mine. 🙂

Followed the sunset for about 6 hours. Landed to find my grandparents sitting at baggage claim, waiting for us – my medicated grandmother sitting with her arm propped up with a big cast – she had insisted on coming along.

Spent the ride home alternating between making sure she was comfortable and passing out into a small coma.

Got home and saw my puppers, slept all night and into the next day, and snuggled my baby boys.