Tour of Ireland

The final part of this crazy trip takes us to the beautiful country of Ireland! This was actually added to the trip later but turned out to be the highlight of the entire trip...or year for that matter.

It was back to the three of us: John, Catie and I. We flew from Amsterdam to Dublin where we rented our little car, somehow fit all of our luggage and drove about 3 hours west to the town of Donegal. We stopped along the way to take pictures of the countryside because it was so picturesque.

We got into our little B&B and cabbed into the town center for our first beer in Ireland, it was delicious, obviously. 

Donegal Town at night

late night eats

View from the B&B

Our place

Leaving Donegal in the morning, we were recommended a place for breakfast and it was by far the best breakfast I've ever had.

Heavennnnn

I love this. Donegal was amazing times a million it was unreal!

After breakfast we drove about a half hour, like a typical drive you would see in a movie. We had the windows down taking pictures the entire time, driving down this skinny little one lane dirt roads through the countryside passing cows and old stone ruins. 

We stayed on the beach at a surf hostel, so of course we took surf lessons and just so happen to have a good looking Frenchie as our instructor. After squeezing into an already wet and sandy wetsuit, we started our lesson in the freezing rain. It was worth it though, surfing is so fun! That night we walked to the nearest place to eat and had an amazing seafood meal. 

Our little car!

After a day at the beach, we headed south to the wonderful city of Galway. After a couple days of country it was exactly what was needed: shopping, bars, multiple restaurants. 

THE Galway Bay

"Artsy"

Spanish Arch

Home of the original Claddagh. Had to buy one, of course.

After a long walk around town we sat down for a great dinner!

Oysters, mmm...

Our Guinness stew. The beer is better

Nothing like a nice serving of bangers and mash

Dinner followed by traditional Irish pubs, folk music and Guinness. Solid night if you ask us.

Some things never change...

The next morning we drove to Dingle, stopping at the Cliffs of Moher for the afternoon. Also stopped at a castle we passed along the way. 

Oh, just another one of the castles on the side of the road.

loved these houses

The Irish countryside, ahhh...

After the cliffs, we continued south till we got to Dingle, a tiny little town in south west Ireland.

Arrival in Dingle: straight to the closest pub.

Dingle!

Catie really wanted to horseback ride on this trip...

We left Dingle and made our way on a long 5 hr (or so) trip to Dublin, stopping at the Blarney Castle.

Kissed it, what now?

So, we got into Dublin for the last day of our trip. We checked into our HOTEL, yes only hotel in the last 6 weeks or so. It was heaven. We spent most of our morning and early afternoon just laying on a normal mattress and enjoying every minute of it. That night we had tickets to Riverdance, second row, and what a way to end our tour of Ireland. Not to mention meeting the cast afterwards...

Babes

We had a good nights sleep in our comfy hotel beds and woke up early to catch our flights back to the US! Crazy, crazy trip to say the least. 

Little free gift from the flight attendant, much appreciated. 

Ireland was amazing, best experience yet. Sad this is my final trip post, but I'll have one final post coming up, hopefully soon so I can be done with this thing!