Ireland! (My Favorite Country!)

Hello again! This past weekend - March 7th-10th - I went to Ireland with two of my favorite travel buddies from my Wisconsin group, Anna and Jordan. We flew from London Standsted Thursday after our class and then came back really early Sunday morning. The flight was very short, just around an hour each way. The best part about the flight was that it only cost $80 roundtrip! We stayed at a hotel just outside of Dublin in the Liffey Valley area, right next to a huge shopping center (which we didn't have time to go shopping at, unfortunately!). I have so many pictures from this trip, I hope you like them all!!

Thursday, March 7th:

When we got to Dublin Thrusday night, it was around 7pm and cold, rainy and windy. We were supposed to jump on the "Hopper" bus that would take us to our hotel, but we missed the last shuttle by 30 min (we didn't know that it stopped so early!). We then found a route to our hotel on a city bus. We found the first bus we needed, after waiting out in a bus shelter, which was leaky, for about 30 min. We got on the bus, but unlike the busses in London, there was no indication as to what stop we were at or which one we were approaching! Not knowing where we even were on the maps that we got at the airport, we resorted to asking the natives where we were. Jordan, the only guy on the trip, did not want to ask for directions (typical male...), but Anna and I outnumbered him so we ended up asking two very nice Irish girls who were sitting in front of me where we were. It turned out that they were getting off at the stop we needed, so they told us when to get off. Then, we had to find our connecting bus. We got off, but again had no idea where we were or where this second bus stop was. London has such better directions when it comes to their public transportation, that's for sure!! It was still raining and cold, and after wondering around for about fifteen minutes, we decided to hail a cab. About fifteen minutes later, we were at our hotel! Now, when we travel, we always stay at hostels because they're cheap. The weekend we went to Ireland was the weekend before St. Patrick's day, so all the hostels boosted their prices. All the hostels were just outrageously priced, so I thought about looking into a hotel, since we could pay per room and not per person. We found the Clarion Liffey Valley Dublin for $75/night, and since we were staying for 3 nights, we each only paid $75! Super cheap! We felt so spoiled staying in a nice hotel room with our own bathroom and a TV!! Yes, a TV! I haven't watched TV since before I left for the trip! Here's our hotel room:

We got unpacked and were super hungry, since we didn't have dinner, so we ordered Pizza Hut and watched Irish TV shows.

Friday, March 8th:

Today we slept in a little bit and hit the road around 11am. We took a city bus into the city centre and walked to the Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery. We booked a tour, then walked across the courtyard and got brunch. I had a really good smoked salmon bagel, yum! We then wondered around Jameson before starting our tour. The tour was so fun! It was the highlight of my day :) It turns out that the Old Jameson Distillery in Dublin is not functional anymore, since the demand for Jameson rose to more than what they could produce in the building, so they now have a new distillery in Cork (southwest Ireland). The tour taught me a lot, not that I knew anything about whiskey in the first place! At the end of the tour you got a sample, either straight Jameson or Jameson with ginger ale and lime - which I chose. It was really good! Anna and I were selected to be Whiskey Tasters at the end of our tour, which meant we got to try 3 different types of whiskey: Irish (Jameson), American (Jack Daniel's) and Scotch (Johnnie Walker Black Label). Irish whiskey was my favorite! After learning how to taste whiskey, we each got a certificate with our name on it saying we were official Jameson Whiskey tasters :)

Inside the Distillery

The Irish really like their Rugby! It's the only European country that supports its rugby teams more than its soccer teams

There was a big rugby match that night, part of the 6 Nations Rugby tournament. The French were playing the Irish, so that's why we assumed the French flag was behind the bar. There were also a ton of French people all over the city.

Masher

Stills - they distill the alcohol from the water three times. The three distillations is what distinguishes Irish whiskey from any other whiskey.

Anna and I with our certificates after we tasted the whiskeys! So fun!

After the Jameson tour, we crossed the River Liffey that runs through Dublin and walked over to the Guinness Storehouse. This was a self-guided tour, so you just walked around at your own pace. It was still fun, but I definitely liked Jameson better!

There were so many churches all over Dublin! 

St. Patrick's Windmill Tower - Guinness Brewery

We found it!

On our way to the tour! 

Had to be touristy for one picture!

On the escalator taking us up to the tour and exhibits

Too bad we couldn't have been here one week later for St. Patrick's day!

Like I had said, this was a self-guided tour so they had exhibits set up that you just walked around or watched a video clip on a screen

We walked inside the barrel when we went up each floor level. It was huge!

We got a little taste of Guinness here, where they showed how they make the kegs

Old machinery 

Memorabilia 

This was a hand-carved wooden sculpture of a glass of Guinness. The carving is so intricate, it was gorgeous in person 

More old brewery machinery

At the very end of the tour, we got a pint of Guinness on the top floor of the Storehouse, called the Gravity Bar. It had some spectacular view of Dublin and the rest of the brewery below.

I still can't get over how big the brewery was - I read somewhere that it was as big as 7 football fields

My first glass of Guinness! It tastes different in Ireland than what I had tried back in the States. It's not as thick, I guess you could say. But despite that, I still couldn't finish it! I made it past the Guinness logo on the glass and then I gave it to Jordan :) 

They had all the bottles that Guinness had ever used on display

Friday, March 9th:

We woke up really early and took a cab (since the busses weren't even running yet!) to the city centre to get on our bus for a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. This was by far, hands down, my most favorite trip I have taken yet. The natural beauty in the Irish countryside and seaside is just fantastic. I can't even describe how beautiful and breathtaking it is! Our tour guide, who was also our bus driver was Damian,  a very Irish Irishman. He was hysterical!! We left Dublin at 7am, after some complications with these obnoxious French kids, who were around my age. They wanted to all sit together on the bus, there were 7 of them, yet they kept getting off the bus to go smoke! Damian almost left without them. We stopped about an hour and a half later at a gas station for bathrooms and breakfast. Damian somehow rearranged the two busses so the french kids ironically had to go on the other bus :) Let's just say, no one on the bus objected to that! After that stop, we headed for the countryside. The first stop was at Dunguaire Castle in Galway County. We got off the bus and it was gorgeous outside! It was 54'F and sunny; couldn't ask for a better day to go site seeing than that! This was a beautiful old castle. We could only walk around it, as it is only open for touring in the summer months. 

The next stop on our tour was a little Irish pub called Monk's in Fanore, County Clare.

The hills were stunning!

The next stop was Poulnabrone Portal Tomb in Dolmen. It is a burial tomb, dating back to the Neolithic time around 4200 to 2900 BC. Inside, there have been estimated 22 adults and 6 children buried beneath. Archaeologists believe that even more people may have been buried below, since the burial tradition back then involved cremation of the dead. Who knows how many people's ashes are buried below. This tomb is older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the Stonehenge in England.

The fields were covered with this rock. Our tour guide said it was like this because Ireland was once underwater in the Mediterranean. So as the sea animals and plants died, they would float down to the bottom. After millions of years, it created this rock.

There were such green plants in between the rocks

There were all these frogs in this pen, they were so loud!

Our next stop was Kilfenora and High Crosses and Corcomroe Abbey. Corcomroe Abbey was ruins of an old abbey built around the 13th century. It was very serene and peaceful, especially since it was literally in the middle of no where!

This was a ruins of a 16th century castle. There was a story about a red-haired woman who owned this castle in that 17th century, but I can't remember it!

The headstones were so beautiful

This is one of sevens High Crosses that led to the Abbey. They are so old!

There's Anna! There were small doorways everywhere, I'm not sure why they were so small.

This red flower was randomly growing between the rocks!

Lunch at The Irish Arms in Lisdoonvarna was the next stop on our trip! This was a traditional Irish pub that had really good food. Down the road from this pub were cute little shops. 

Guinness and Beef stew with potatoes and carrots, with homemade Irish soda bread and an Irish coffee. I don't think I could have had a more Irish lunch if I tried! Yummy! :)

Go Milwaukee!!
I was walking up to the bar to get a glass of water when I saw the Irish Fest bumper stickers on the wall!! So so cool! 

The last stop on our day trip was the Cliffs of Moher. Oh my gosh, I have never seen anything like this before in my life, nor will I ever see anything like this again! These cliffs are part of Ireland's National Parks, so they are some of the most popular places to visit in all of Ireland. There are larger cliffs down to the south, but the our tour guide said these were the most accessible and easy to explore. If they look familiar to you, that may be because they were used in a scene in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Part 1, when Harry and Dumbledore aparate to the Cliffs of Insanity to destroy a horcrux. We're still not sure which one exactly they aparate to, but it's definitely one somewhere around here! This was my favorite part of the whole day - so absolutely breath-taking!

Hello! This is the closest, geographically, that I've been to home so far! I'm looking out across the Atlantic.

This was a lookout tower that you could climb, but it had an entry fee so we chose to skip it.

Can you see that little hill on the top of the last ridge? We were nearly all the way out there when we had to turn around to catch the bus! It took about an hour to walk all the way out there

Sunday, March 10th

After getting back late to our hotel from the day trip (we got in around 10pm), we packed up and went to bed very early. We got up at 3:30am to catch a shuttle to the airport at 4:15am. We got on our plane at 5:50am and I was back in my flat in London by 9:30am, where I then took a nap for a few hours :) This was an absolutely perfect weekend vacation, one that I will never, ever forget!