I LOVE business class. Seriously I do. We've been lucky of late that we have been able to travel up the front of the plane on a number of recent international holidays and when we were planning our honeymoon it was a no brainer. After the unfortunate end to our Asia experience, we moved our flight forward and were off to Dublin and could not wait to get to cooler weather.
Like most countries, on arrival you are split into visitors & nationals, or in this case EU nationals. Now having my Italian passport would permit me to go in the much smaller and much quicker line instead of the dreaded line that is normal airport customs but alas my husband has to do his time before he can skip the line with me so the visitor line it was for us. It was slow & frustrating but eventually we got asked how long we were visiting for and a stamp in the passport later we had finally arrived!
The plan for Ireland was simple. Hire a car and drive around the country in 14 days. First stop was Dublin. The beauty of an over night flight is that you can try and get some sleep in the 13 hours you're in the air. The not so great thing about it is that you get to your hotel at 9am (5 hrs before check in time) and when all you want is a shower and change of clothes you instead have to start your exploring early.
We stayed in the heart of Dublin and were within walking distance to everything we needed. First stop was Trinity College - a 430 year old university which showcases the Book of Kells, the worlds oldest book. Trinity College is also home to the Old Library, the largest of it's kind in Ireland and as a 'copyright library' it has the rights to receive a copy of anything published in the Republic of Ireland free of charge. As we left the college we walked through the first ever National Services parade in central Dublin. Bagpipes and service men and women marching down the street was a pretty great experience for our first day. We retreated back to our hotel for a well intended afternoon nap and found ourselves waking up some 15 hours later ready to take on day two.
When one thinks of Ireland I'd have to assume Guinness beer would be one of the first things that come to mind. Perhaps Jameson Wishkey comes in as a close second? Well needless to say we spent day 2 drinking our way around the city. First we made our way to Jameson's where our tour guide was Australian - go figure. After a distillery tour and a Jameson & dry (yep I'm converted) we walked the streets of Dublin and found ourselves next at Guinness. Here we learnt about the iconic beer, had my first amazing Irish stew for lunch, entertained with some Riverdance inspired Irish tap dancing by the Guinness bar staff and of course hubby had a beer or two. He was in his happy place.
The following day our road trip began. Did we have a plan? Not really. We'd book a hotel the night before and just aim to reach it by the end of the day while seeing as much as we could of this beautiful country. The main sight on this day was the Rock of Cashel (pictured) and Hore Abbey in Tipperary. Founded in the 12th century this cathedral and chapel are a sight to see. There are graves spaced around the grounds and to this day descendants of those who have been buried there are the only people to still be allowed a final resting place on the rock.
We then headed further down the east cost to Killarney spending our day castle hunting. We first came across the 18th century Carey Castle which is so well hidden in a small forest we only came across the locals taking their dogs for a walk. Next we drove the coastal route to Cork and spent the rest of the day at Blarney Castle (pictured). After a somewhat steep climb to the top of the castle Caleb hung upside down and kissed the Blarney Stone. An Irish friend of mine saw his photo online and told me the local story is that the youth in the area go up there at night and pee on it so needless to say I'm happy I opted out. Just hoping the hundreds of people that went before Caleb kissed it clean for him.
Over the next couple of days we drove the Ring of Kerry in the southwest and visited sights such as the Gap of Dunloe, Rosspoint Beach, Ballycarbery Castle, Molls Gap, Ross Castle and Killarney National Park. One of the highlights of our roadtrip came on day 5 when we visited Skellig Michael (pictured) & Little Skellig. An incredible place, near inaccessible sheer cliff of an island with a monastery built around 1300 years ago. The monks that inhabited the island valued their privacy which is good because they were cut off from the mainland for 9 months of the year. Here we walked up and down the equivalent of approx 59 flights of stairs to reach the monastery at the top. Photos just don't do this place justice. Of course hubby, who is a mad Star Wars fan, had an ulterior motive for wanting to go and visit this amazing place. Apparently it was a filming location of 2 Star Wars movies. He was one happy man to see the stone where Rey practiced her light sabre skills.
It was time to start the journey north and what better way to do that then via the Cliffs of Moher. We had perfect weather but the winds are known to be very strong so hold onto your hat! Before we knew it we were about to cross the invisible boarder into Northern Ireland and I for one am a sucker for a good boarder sign. I was quickly disappointed as it only read 'Welcome to Ireland'. Upon closer inspection as we drove pass it was clear that the 'Northern' part of that welcome had been spray painted over. It was very clear some don't want the distinction of the invisible boarder. But as soon as we passed that sign the roundabouts became larger and traffic light operated, kms turned into miles, euro turned into pounds, the Union Jack was visible and there was just a general sense that more money had been used to maintain the country then it's attached cousin to the south.
With one of the worst days of weather we'd had so far we decided the only thing to do was to visit Old Bushmills Distillery near the Giant's Causeway. We then drove to our hotel which happened to be the haunted Ballygally Castle. This castle has it's own Ghost Room which conveniently was right above our tower room. After a ghost free nights sleep we headed out to Carrick-On-Rede (a Game of Thrones filming site) and walked the 30m high footbridge and enjoyed another stunning shoreline view. We finished off the day at the Giant's Causeway which will leave you breathless but stumped for answers at the same time.
As our roadtrip was fast approaching it's last legs we left our castle abode and headed east to Belfast. Here we are very surprised to learn there is still a literal wall between the Catholics and Protestants and that these gates are closed and locked at 6pm each night. There are murals up all over this part of town still which paint a picture of the history that transpired here not that long ago. We visited Titanic Belfast - the birthplace of Titanic. The new museum was built on the docs where she was built and tells the fantastic yet tragic life of the ship that couldn't sink and those that perished when she did.
Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Dublin for our last night in Ireland before jumping across the pond to Scotland. After a final lunch in the famous Temple Bar area our friends whom we had met on the tour in Cambodia and Vietnam were nice enough to come into the city and meet us for a drink. It was so nice ending this amazing time with friends we had met only weeks before. Just shows how small this world really is.
Travelers tip - You need a min of 5 hours at Blarney Castle if you want to walk to grounds. Try and spare a full day here if possible. The average wait time to the Blarney stone is approx 1 hour.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment