Ireland & Northern Ireland

Ireland & Northern Ireland

Dublin surprised us immensely. While I’m at it, I’ll include the whole of Ireland for that matter. We arrived in Dublin and the sun was shining. An occurrence that can be rare to many of the locals that live here. It may be a slight stereotype that it rains 90% of the time (or this could be valid statistics – I’m not sure) but it’s nice to see the Irish keeping up the humour in regards to the weather as many of their souvenir stores were related to the typical rainy weather in Ireland.

With a quick stopover in London, where we only went from the airport to our hotel and back via shuttle bus, Dublin was our first city in Europe that we visited on this round-the-world trip and I was ecstatic to be back in this part of the world!

We were booked on a tour with company Shamrockers, who are affiliated with the company Busbaout that we travelled around Europe with back in 2012. It was great to have free time in the capital before meeting our tour group for a 7 day trip around the country.

Exploring the more popular and touristy locations, we enjoyed Guinness on tap in the famous Temple Bar, explored cobblestone streets, listened to talented buskers entertain onlookers, did a self-guided tour of the Guinness Factory, visited Trinity College and sat with friends in Phoenix park after some shopping in Grafton Street.

Early morning, we made our way to the hostel pick up point. Waiting for our guide, we soon found ourselves chatting with the nicest bunch of people on our tour & we clicked with them so quickly; Maddie, Ben, Ashley & Levi – I think we all made each others holiday that much funnier. And as the hostel dorm share was 6 people it worked out perfectly.

We left the city into the green Irish countryside. We stopped at many sites including the Rock of Cashel and the Blarney Castle to lean over and kiss the Blarney Stone before arriving in the town of Killarney where we visited the local Irish pubs for dinner & drinks to keep warm.

We bought tickets to the best but worst ever live show inside a pub by the mystical ‘Pa’ who only appeared to be a crazy Irishman that loved to skull down pints of Guinness and tell interesting folk stories. We all received a ticket as we entered the show, being told that one of them would be the winning ticket. Wade was the winner & won a lucky Irish penny which we added to our collection of money from around the world.

We drove the dramatic roads along the seaside passing through the dingle peninsula, meeting dingle the local dolphin (It’s statue anyway), stopping for local made ice-cream and a random donkey ride. It wasn’t long before we reached the beautiful Coumeenole beach. We spent the night in Ennis and went to a local pub for Baby Guinness and Irish Car Bomb shots while performers were playing and dancing to traditional music. It wasn’t until the next morning we were told the hostel we slept in was haunted & is known for ghosts.

I was looking forward to visiting the Cliffs of Moher and they didn’t disappoint as we stared over the Atlantic Ocean, trying to see puffins flying by. The cliffs were a film location for Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, where Harry and Dumbledore enter the cliffs to find the Horcrux. We asked a passer-by if they would take a photo of us jumping in front of the cliffs, which was the start of many ‘squatting’ photos as the lady pressed the button too early!

We drove through many a countryside, through the magical world of the Burren, Ireland’s lunar landscape home to fairies and leprechauns, the wild and rugged Connemara, watching mountains and glens pass by the window – we stopped for an Irish coffee and hot chocolate with baileys, perfect for warming up on a windy Irish day.

Included in the tour was a ferry to the island of Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands where the locals speak fluent Gaelic. We hired bikes and rode around the whole island, stopping to feed donkeys – the island was beautiful and made for another awesome day, Ireland was not disappointing us. We stayed in Galway for two nights, visiting the local pubs and more picturesque streets lined with cute little shops.

Crossing the border into Northern Ireland, we arrived in the medieval city of Derry, also known as Londonderry. We were led on a walking tour of Derry and the Bogside, learning the sad history. We visited the bloody sunday memorial and were quickly pushed to walk on as young rebellers drove past and decided to throw full water bottles at the group. We walked the streets and were shown the political murals before reaching the city walls of Derry.

We were pretty lucky with the weather up until this point but soon enough, that stereotypical Irish weather creeped upon us. It rained. And I mean torrential rain. And out of all the days, it had to be the one when we were visiting the eighth natural wonder of the world – the Giants Causeway. Even in the rain it was awesome and a place you should add to your list with thousands of hexagonal columns on the waterside believed to have been the footsteps of the giants.

Not far down the road we visited the carrick-a-rede rope bridge and slid down the mudslide paths to the bridge swaying over the choppy Atlantic sea below. We were amongst the last people on the bridge before they closed it due to the weather. We ran back to the bus, clothes soaking and happy to be back in the warmth.

Belfast was the last overnight stop for the tour before we head back to Dublin. The hostel accommodation was private share but we were actually upset that we weren’t all going to be together and joked as we asked for a dorm share. We visited St George Markets, amazed at all the yummy goods for sale and Levi even posing for a model photo. We walked past the Europa Hotel, the most bombed hotel in all of Europe.

Back in Dublin, we said goodbye to the group as our tour had ended. After a pub feed for dinner with our new friends, we went downstairs at the Stags Head pub to watch comedy which is held every Sunday and Monday night at the Comedy Crunch – which was free! We got in early to get a seat as free entry meant it filled up with people fairly quickly. It was such a fun last night and sad to say goodbye… travel friends really are the best kind.