Honeymoon in Ireland

Hi, everyone!  Here are the highlights of our honeymoon + a ton of pictures!  The Emerald Isle was a blast and offered the perfect mix of all the things we love: the great outdoors, delicious food, beer, fun, and friendly people.

We departed for Dublin on 4/27...

...and arrived on 4/28.  Exhausted, but excited!  

Our flight arrived earlier than expected and we had to wait for the car rental place to open.  Thank goodness for coffee...and the first of many, many delicious baked goods.  

We hit the road in our trusty Ford Focus.  Let the white-knuckling begin!  

Our digs for the next two nights thanks to Tony's Hilton Honors points.  

We had purchased Dublin Passes prior to leaving, so almost every attraction we went to in Dublin was covered with the pass.  First stop on the list of fun:  The Wax Museum.  

I hung out with St. Patrick. 

And Tony got held up at gun point!

We were are usual selves, of course.  

Next up: St. Patrick's Cathedral 

Then it was on to Guinness!  

It was a self-guided tour and very informative.  

But let's be honest, we were really there to drink.  

Two perfect pints.  

You receive your free pint in the Gravity Bar on the very top level of the brewery.  

The aftermath.

After that, we were in search of dinner.  Here's a random find along the way.  

Anthony Bourdain recommended a stop at The Long Hall when in Dublin, so naturally I had to go.    

It's a traditional, Victorian style pub and one of the oldest in Dublin.  

We enjoyed a pint and settled on a place to have dinner.  The Hairy Lemon.  I had the veggie pie and Tony had the fish and chips.  It was delicious, but it also gave us a taste of what our choices would be for the remainder of the trip (hint: nothing healthy!).  

After about 36 hours of travel time and exploring on no sleep, we called it a night. 

DAY 2 in Dublin

We started our day with breakfast at the hotel and walked over to St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful park right in the middle of the downtown area.  It was like a mini Central Park.

This one's for you, Chuck.  Dublin pigeons!  

 

After walking off our breakfast, we jumped on the hop on/hop off bus and headed to Dublinia, an interactive Viking and Medieval Dublin museum.  

The whole thing was really geared more towards kids, which made it perfect for us.  

On the walk back to the hotel, we walked right past the Dublin Castle.  

We picked up the car and drove about 45 minutes south to a place that Tony had found before we left, Victoria's Way Indian Sculpture Park. 

It contained some very interesting sculptures...

Our favorite was the giant finger. 

While there, we learned how to forest bathe. 

You're doing it wrong, dude. 

It was an unusual find, to say the least, and the drive out there gave us our first taste of the Irish countryside.  

Back in Dublin, we jumped back on the bus and tried to make our way to the Jameson distillery.  We caught the aftermath of a bar fight which, according to the bus driver, had two bar patrons out on the sidewalk swinging bar stools at each other.  

We were getting nowhere fast with all of the Friday/bank holiday traffic, so we hopped off and started walking.  

River Liffey, which flows through the center of Dublin.  

We made it there before they closed.  Yay!  

While waiting for our tour to start, we treated ourselves to a couple of hot drinks.  

An Irish coffee for me and a cinnamon apple for Tony.  

We had a great tour guide who walked us through the whole distilling process.  We even got to compare Jameson Irish Whiskey to Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker.  

And as if that weren't enough to get us good and buzzed, a complimentary glass of Jameson at the end of the tour!  

In desperate need of food, we sought out our next Anthony Bourdain recommendation: Skinflint, for Tony's favorite, PIZZA!  It was amazing.

I had the Viv, griddled spring onions, chili/garlic, feta, tomato, and capers.  Tony ordered the Nora, meatball, roast pepper, red onion, oregano, mozz, and espelette chili.  

And since it was Friday night in Dublin, we decided to have a pint before heading back to the hotel.  O'Donoghues was said to have had live music, so that's where we went.  The place was packed and we struck up a conversation with a guy named Campbell from Australia.  We were ready to go after our first beer, but Campbell bought us another and we didn't want to be rude.  :)  

Take me drunk, I'm home.

Next up:  Off to Northern Ireland!

Day 3: Dublin to Belfast 

We said goodbye to Dublin and headed north to our next destination, Belfast.  Along the way, we stopped at Castle Ward in Downpatrick (about 45 minutes south of Belfast) to do some exploring.

It took us forever to find the trailhead, and Tony kept taking us the wrong way.  

Finally found it! 

It was a beautiful day for a walk! 

We walked through sheep fields...

And cow pastures...

That one on the right was staring me down and it was pretty terrifying.  There was nothing separating us.  We were walking right through their home!

There was a castle too, of course! 

And what was supposed to be an 8 mile walk, ended up being 9.5 miles.  

We got the hell out of there after our full day of walking and checked into the Hilton Belfast, courtesy of Tony's points.  Free booze and snacks in the Executive Lounge?  Yes, please!  

We could have stayed there all night, but figured we should go explore the city.  

Plus, I was hangry.  

Off to explore Belfast! 

Clocktower jump fail.  

Meh...I got a little air.

The acclaimed Victoria Square shopping mall.  We didn't go in.  

Saturday night in Belfast and no dinner reservation anywhere.  After trying about 4 places, we finally got into the Crown Bar, upstairs from the famous Crown Liquor Saloon.  I think the look on my face says it all.  

A deep fried veggie burger for me and that thing for Tony.  Probably our worst meal of the trip.  

After choking down our dinner, we went downstairs to drown our sorrows in a pint.  The Crown Liquor Saloon is on everyone's must-see list for Belfast, so we had to at least check it out.  

The booths are all enclosed and have their own doors! 

It was a fun filled day and we were off to bed!  

Day 4: Belfast to Portrush

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and headed right round the corner to check out the St. George's Market.  The Sunday market is a mix of food and crafts.  As soon as we walked in, we kicked ourselves in the ass for having breakfast at the hotel because there were so many awesome food vendors.  There were also a ton of amazing craft vendors and we found some cute gifts and souvenirs.



We bid adieu to Belfast and took off for the small, seaside town of Portrush.  But we had several stops along the way we needed to hit first!  Stop number one: The Dark Hedges.

Honestly, we were underwhelmed.  Expectation...



...vs. reality...



There were tour buses everywhere, it was packed with people, and there wasn't a bathroom in sight (and yours truly was about to pee her pants).  At least we were able to snag a (rare) non-selfie picture of two of us!



We hightailed it out of there and headed to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge!



Walking across the bridge was pretty terrifying,

but the views from the other side were amazing.

He loves to make me nervous by getting as close to the freaking edge as possible.  

And the last stop planned before checking into our B&B was the Bushmills Distillery, what else?!



We thought the Jameson tour in Dublin was pretty cool, but Jameson is not a functioning distillery.  Bushmills is!  We must not have been allowed to take pictures during the tour because I only have pictures from after.

We received a complimentary glass of their 12-year-old distillery reserve which is only available from the distillery.

Haha!  Yep.

We loved it so much, we left with a bottle.



Then went back for another!



It was a short drive to our B&B, The Beulah Guest House.  Nestled right in the heart of Portrush, we were walking distance to all of the fun.

Yes, we went in.  

We popped into Kiwis Brew Bar for a beer and some live music.  

Then tried to get into the Harbour Bar for dinner, but it was too busy so we settled on 55 North instead.  We both had the smoked salmon and feta tartlet as a starter and it was the best part of the meal.  

After dinner, we checked out a little hole in the wall bar called the Atlantic.  They had a nice fire going and it was open mic night!  

I'm pretty sure we could only stay awake long enough for one drink.  We had a long drive ahead of us the next day as we headed for the west coast!

Day 5: Portrush to Boyle

We were headed for the West Coast!  But before we left Northern Ireland, there was one last place we had to visit - Giant's Causeway.  However, we happened upon this nice little surprise along the way!

The ruins of Dunluce Castle. 

It was pretty early in the morning and we were the only people there.  

We had plenty of fun exploring. 

Now on to Giant's Causeway!  It was chilly but sunny and there were no signs of rain.  No need for a raincoat, right?



That quickly changed...



About 15 minutes into our walk, the sky opened up and we got dumped on.  I was NOT a happy camper.



Tony, however, stayed nice and dry because he was smart and wore his raincoat.

This is Tony.
Tony wears his raincoat even when it's sunny out.
Tony is smart.
Be like Tony.  

Lucky for us, the sun came out again and the 30 MPH winds dried us off quickly.  :/

Giant's Causeway is famous for its basalt columns.  An amazing geological phenomenon.





It also had lots of trails leading up to some neat cliffs and overlooks.

He's lucky he didn't get blown off the cliff. 

We could have stayed and done more, but it was so cold and windy and I was over it.  

We had about a 3-hour drive ahead of us as we headed to our destination for the night, the small town of Boyle.

On our way to Boyle, we stopped in the busy town of Donegal and had lunch at the Old Castle Bar. 

Tony had the venison pie and I opted for the seafood pie.  It was one of the best meals we had during our trip.  (Certainly not the healthiest.) 

Your eyes are not deceiving you.  We are indeed drinking water!  

On to Boyle!  The town of Boyle, in County Roscommon, is known for not much else other than being the hometown of actor Chris O'Dowd.  I chose it because it seemed like a good resting point on our journey down the West Coast and because I wanted to stay in this "tiny home" that I found on AirBnB!  We had a bit of trouble finding it, but when we arrived, we were greeted by this! 

We were in desperate need of some R&R and the house was perfect for a quiet night in.  

Tony wasn't sure what to think.  Haha! 

Day 6: Boyle to Cliffs of Moher

Our host, John, gave us a ton of information about the area and seemed crushed that we were only staying for one night.  We took his advice and walked down to the Boyle Abbey the next morning.

Crazy hair, don't care.

We had also read about the Carrowkeel Tombs and were intrigued.  John told us they were difficult to find, so that made us want to check them out even more.

They were, indeed, a bit hard to find and we were unsure just how far up the road we could drive.



But eventually, we found a sign!



Of course, it rained right as we were getting out of the car.  It blew over quickly, though.



The Carrowkeel Passage Tombs are the largest concentration of passage tombs in Ireland and are believed to have been constructed between 3000 B.C. and 2000 B.C.  That pre-dates the  Egyptian pyramids.  Crazy, huh?!?



The area we explored contained 4 of them, but there are 10 more scattered throughout different areas of the county.

They're located on top of a mountain.

We later read that people have climbed inside of these.  Uh....thanks, but no thanks!  

Tony absolutely loves stuff like this.  He could have stayed up there exploring all day!



We headed back to the car and I took a thousand pictures of goats on the way down.

"What the hell are you looking at?"

Next stop: County Clare. 

We stopped to stretch our legs at the Dunguaire Castle. 

Doing his thing!  

We made it to our B&B, the Cliff View Lodge, and got checked in.  Our plan was to visit the Cliffs of Moher the next morning, but our host, Marie, suggested we go that evening because the weather was so great that day.  We were glad we listened to her because it rained the next morning.  

The Cliffs of Moher are Irelands most visited attraction.  It's clear to see why.  

If you're afraid of heights, like I am, suck it up!  The views are spectacular.

We walked over to O'Brien's Tower.  

And then in the opposite direction along the main cliffs.  

The sun was BRIGHT. 

I love this picture so much.  I'm not sure about the two glowing orbs in the side of the cliff though...creepy.

I could have stayed there all night taking pictures.  

Tony grabbed my DSLR and blindly snapped this one, just joking around.  It ended up being one of our favorite pictures.  It perfectly embodies our whole trip - carefree and fun.  

For dinner that night, we, once again, took Marie's advice and made the short drive to O'Connors in the charming town of Doolin.  We both had one of their specials that evening.  Roasted lamb for Tony and a spicy veggie & goat cheese tart for me.  

Carbs for days!

Back to the B&B for a good night's sleep.  Another road trip was on the horizon!

Day 7: Cliffs of Moher to Tralee

Day 7 started off fine, with a nice breakfast at our B&B, but soon after, things took a turn for the worse and I started feeling sick.  It was about a 3-hour drive to the Dingle Peninsula, which is filled with cute shops and restaurants.  We did a little shopping and popped into a pub for some lunch.  I think that pushed me over the edge and from that point on, I was violently ill and running a fever.  

We did some driving around the Dingle Peninsula and stopped several times along the way.  

Me to Tony:  "Hey, remember that time we were on our honeymoon and we had to stop at a high-end pottery shop so that I could use their bathroom?  Yeah, that was awesome." 

I just want to forget about that awful day.

Here's a picture of a life-size crucifix in the side of a mountain!

The weather was so gross that day.  A perfect match to how I was feeling.  

I was beyond thrilled when we finally made it to our AirBnB rental.  We would be staying there for the next two nights and it would serve as our home base for exploring the Dingle Peninsula more as well as Killarney National Park.  

Our view from the upstairs bedroom. 

I curled up on the couch and passed out while Tony went to the store for supplies.  He took care of me for the rest of the night and we finally got my fever to break.  I went to bed praying that I would feel better in the morning.  I wouldn't wish whatever I had (food poisoning?) on my worst enemy. 

Day 8: Killarney National Park and Dingle

I felt much better the next day, but definitely weak and scared to eat, which didn't help the weakness. 

 It was Tony's BIRTHDAY!!!  And we were NOT going to sit around and do nothing!  We were off to Killarney National Park.  

We walked to the Muckross House. 

And then to the Torc Waterfall. 

The park had beautiful mountain views...

A lovely garden...

And a spooky cemetery.  

I was still feeling drained and had to take a lot of breaks.  

After exploring the park, we drove the small portion of the Ring of Kerry that passes through the park.  I would equate it to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah NP.  

We headed back to the apartment to rest a bit before more celebrating. 

Tony had his choice of several nearby towns and he chose to go back to Dingle since we kind of missed out the day before.  Somehow we made a wrong turn on the way there.  Not necessarily a bad thing.  

"Woohoo!  A waterfall!"

"Woohoo!  This!" 

That would be the Connor Pass.  The highest mountain pass in Ireland.  A terrifying, one lane road along the side of a 1,500 ft. tall mountain.  I took one look at it and said "no f'n way".  

But it was Tony's birthday.  And all he wanted to do for his birthday was put my life in danger, so I reluctantly agreed to it.  

That road led us right to Dingle town.  Since the weather was so beautiful out, we decided to check out Inch Beach before we went to dinner.  It was amazing! 

My handsome hubby on his 41st birthday. ((heart eye emoji))

I've become a master of the self-timer selfie. 

We walked around Dingle town a bit and settled on Paudie's Bar inside of the Dingle Bay Hotel for dinner.  I had the trout and Tony ordered a fabulous looking ribeye.  Both served with, what else?  Potatoes!

I was very excited that mine came with "vegetables"...as in three pieces of broccoli.  

 It was delicious and as we were finishing there was a couple up towards the front of the restaurant that was gearing up to play some music.  We ordered a couple of Irish coffees and stayed to enjoy it for a bit.  

  The one and only thing I had wanted to do while in Dingle was have ice cream at Murphy's.  I was too sick to even think about ice cream the previous day, but I was feeling better now and ready for a scoop of their famous Dingle Sea Salt ice cream.  

They were closed.  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.  

We decided to pick up some beers to continue the party back at our apartment only to be disappointed again - they stop selling alcohol in the stores at 10PM!  So we popped into the Railway Tavern right around the corner from our rental.  The place was dead so we only stayed for one, but we had a good chat with the owner, who lived upstairs...from what we gathered (we could barely understand him).   

The Semper Fi sign caught Tony's eye.  

It was lights out for us!  Tomorrow would be our last full day in Ireland.  :(  

Day 9: Tralee to Limerick 

We debated over what to do on our last day in Ireland.  Our AirBnB was in Limerick, about 20 minutes from the Shannon airport.  I had originally planned for us to drive down to Cork and do the whole Blarney Castle/Kiss the Blarney Stone thing, but that would entail about 4 hours worth of driving, round trip.  We scrapped that idea - if you've seen one castle, you've pretty much seen them all.  We opted to stay close to our place and see what Limerick had to offer.  

Limerick is the retail capital of Ireland, so we started by walking around downtown and then headed to the Crescent Shopping Centre, a giant indoor mall.  Honestly, neither of us really wanted to walk around a shopping mall on our last day there, but we had no clue what else to do.  We grabbed lunch at a place called Delish - no pictures, but the food was HEALTHY and so very tasty - and came up with a plan.  

We decided to drive about 20 minutes outside of the city to visit Lough Gur.  

It was a beautiful day and the park had plenty of walking paths. 

And a fairy village!  

There is an enormous amount of history at Lough Gur.  Legend has it that there is a sunken city beneath the waters, like a lake-sized version of Atlantis.  

There was so much there to explore and we didn't even scratch the surface, but we did enjoy the sunshine and the scenery.  

Back to Limerick we went to check into our AirBnB for the evening.  A no frills room hosted by a lovely woman named Sadhbh (<--I'd like to buy a vowel, Pat).  She did not live close to the downtown area, but she was walking distance to a couple of pubs/restaurants, so we chose to spend our evening by walking down to those.  

We started with a drink at the Hi-Way Bar because they had outdoor seating and it was the warmest day we'd had since being there.  

We then walked across the street to The Unicorn Pub for dinner.  Our server had us cracking up because, I swear, we must have asked for two glasses of water about 10 times and she never brought us any water.  She was quick to refill our adult beverages, though! 

Parched!  And mad that we had to leave the next day.  And maybe a wee bit drunk.

We were up early the next morning to head to the airport.  

Summary

Ireland was everything we thought it would be and more!  Almost everyone we interacted with was extremely friendly and helpful.  It's beautiful over there.  Like, seriously amazing.  Getting there was pretty affordable, and once over there, prices were comparable to the U.S.  

Miles Driven
Almost 1,000.  Our trusty little Ford Focus ran on diesel and got very good mileage.  I was a nervous wreck most of the time that we were in the car, but mostly because of the other drivers.  Tony did a great job driving.  

Favorite Town

Me: Dingle 

Tony: Dingle 
Dingle had it all.  The beach, the mountains, shopping, restaurants, and a small town feel.  

Least Favorite Town
Me: Belfast 
Tony: Belfast 
We felt like the people weren't as nice up there.  Or they just didn't like tourists.  Or both.  

Favorite Accommodation

Me: Hilton Belfast (It was so nice!  And free wine!)

Tony: The"tiny home" in Boyle (This shocked me!)

Favorite Landmark 

Me: Cliffs of Moher

Tony: Cliffs of Moher 

Best Meal

Me: Murphy's ice cre--- oh wait, I didn't get any ice cream.  

Tony: I think he liked just about everything he ate.  
The food was very good over there, but definitely not conducive with healthy eating.  After 9 days of indulging, we were both happy to have vegetables again.   And water.  

Guinness' Drank

A lot.

Miles Walked 
I would guess at least 50.  We walked so much! 

U2 Songs Heard on the Radio

 Only 2!!!  I was certain that was all they were going to play on the radio over there.  

Biggest Surprise

I thought it was a stereotype, but everyone really does drink Guinness over there.  And a lot of it.  And day drinking is totally acceptable, if not encouraged.

Souveniers

Lots of new magnets for our magnet wall.

Tony bought himself an "old man" hat to keep his noggin warm.

A personalized bottle of Bushmills.

A tiny Ganesh from the Indian Sculpture Garden.

And I couldn't leave without this beautiful lambswool throw.  

Random pictures that I couldn't fit in earlier...

That's a guy riding on a cart being pulled by a horse down the main road.  NBD.

We had too much fun at the wax museum.

I know Tony would be upset if I didn't include this one.

Or this one.  (My husband is a 12 year old stuck in a 41 year old's body.)

Awesome panoram of the Dunluce Castle.

Driving through the Dingle Peninsula.  There were people surfing out there.

An interesting statue in Boyle. 

Probably the most disturbing of the statues at the sculpture garden.

It was nearly impossible to find pretzels out there!  

Beautiful tulips in St. Stephen's Green

An amazing trip to an amazing place with an amazing man!  Thanks for reading!!!