european chronicles- ireland

SWOON!!! I am madly in love with this country.

We landed in Dublin and immediately went out to Temple Bar, a neighborhood full of pubs. The area felt a little fratty, but people-watching (and listening) was super entertaining.  The first bar we went to was pretty packed, and had a man playing a fiddle. People were dancing and singing along and I was already in heaven. Then the second bar had a band with a banjo player. I mean, my heart could not contain its own giddiness.  We basically just went pub hopping listening to music and talking to people till 6 AM when we made it back to our hostel with McDonalds and coconut water. Maybe Dublin is a lot like home?  Sidenote- Dublin boys are for.ward. That was a little bit shocking, but we felt very popular so it was all fun and games. And Guinness.  We also got some more amazing audio clips.

{banjo. enough said.}

Remember in the Munich post how I said we made some great new friends? Well, one was Callan from Galway. He was on our day tour, went to the English Garden with us, and the Schnapps tour, etc so we were BFFs by this point. We had already booked our flight to Dublin when we were in Munich, so he gave us some suggestions, but really encouraged us to visit the west side (I don’t think he called it that, it’s just the LA in me coming back out). So we took Callan’s advice, and I am SO happy we did.

Since Friday was our first full day, we took a morning train out to Galway… Funny story- we were running late for the train, naturally, so we had to grab breakfast to-go at a restaurant in town and then took a taxi to the train station and sprinted down the train platform to barely make it. Picture Darjeeling Limited… That was us. So we ate our breakfast on the train but didn’t have any silverware so Monica used coffee stir sticks as chopsticks to eat her scrambled eggs. We were struggling. The older Irish gentleman sharing our booth was entertained by our shenanigans as he worked on his crossword puzzles.

So after the most beautiful train ride through the countryside, we made it to Galway…  My favorite place in the whole world.  I know this sounds a bit dramatic, especially considering that in the grand scheme of the world, I haven’t been to THAT many places. But I stand by it. There are no words to properly describe how charming this town is… but I will try. It’s so damn charming. I’m pretty sure I looked like a fool because I could not stop grinning. Literally grinning like a giddy child. 

{streets of galway}

We checked into our hostel (woot woot!) and the people at the front desk suggested we walk around Claddagh Park/Galway Bay, but told us it would be freezing and even showed us where we could buy 50 euro cent mittens. So off we went to a store that seemed like an Irish Forever21 for our mittens and then around town and down to the Bay, which is breathtaking. Even with my snowboarding jacket, scarf, mittens, jeans, tights, and boots, I was absolutely freezing. Regardless, we still walked around for like 2 hours because we just couldn’t bear to leave. There were kayakers in the Bay, which I think is absolutely crazy. If a drop of that cold water hit me, I would have probably cried. But the view was so beautiful and we saw another stunning sunset.

{gorgeous walk}

{it was way too cold to take off our mittens...
so we used our noses to take pics with the touchscreen phones. #macgruber}

{i actually think this is what heaven will look like}

{the sunset on the bay and the cutest row of houses i ever did see}

That night we met up with our friend, Callan, and went out for the night.  It was so much fun- so many hilarious conversations, sing-a-longs, and dance moves. Also, I discovered my new favorite drink (Jameson and white lemonade) and term (fiddle dee dee and diddle lee aye). We also have a few priceless audio clips from these conversations.  It was Halloween the following weekend, so one of Callan’s friends told us he is going as “The Credible Hulk. When I get angry, I back up my arguments with facts”. HAHA.  Then we had an epic sing-and-stomp-along to Tenacious D “Tribute”.

Later that night, we went to a farmhouse just outside of Galway, where the guys promised us they had a horse named “meow meow”. You’re probably wondering how they came up with that name, cause we definitely were curious. “He just seemed to respond to it” was the only explanation we could get. So we decided they probably just yelled animal sounds at a horse until it responded. We went searching for the horse in this creepy field, but never found it. We just walked around yelling “meow meow”, and then joking that this whole story was a trap to lure us into some shady situation. Don’t worry, mom… We never actually felt unsafe.  They had potential Halloween costumes strewn about (mostly just funny wigs), a separate fridge for beer and cider, a lava lamp, and an entire room with just a table and printer. Funniest house tour ever.

{being a passenger in what felt like the drivers' seat, a dancing storm trooper,
 and yelling "MEOW MEOW" into a dark, empty field}

The next day we took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher.  I don’t understand how something this beautiful exists. I took probably 200 pictures of it, and none of them do it justice.  Along the way, we made a few stops at castles and farms in the Burren (picture the landscape from Leap Year with Amy Adams), and a 5,000 year old tomb made of 12 foot long/1.5 ton rock.  We also stopped at a national monument that is a fairy tree. No joke. I love this country.

{going clockwise from the top-left: rock wall in the Burren;
Poulnabrone Dolmen (the ancient tomb); the "defensive ring" around the
fairy tree monument- which is the little shrub-looking thing in the middle;
a castle NBD; more Burren scenery}

{cliffs of moher looking one way}

{cliffs of moher looking the other way}

{standing on the edge of a 210 m cliff over the Atlantic}

 That evening we made our way back to Dublin for another night out where we found a new band we love- Land of the Giants, who were recording their show and now we’re totally in the background of their music video. While we were there, we met some more entertaining characters. A guy who, once he found out we were from California, really wanted to take tequila shots with us. I’m not sure the connection but we obliged. 

We spent our last day in Dublin walking around and exploring. We got a traditional Irish breakfast (yes, we tried blood pudding), walked Grafton St and saw places from the movie “Once”, went to St Patrick’s Cathedral but it was closed, so we went to the Jameson Distillery for a tour. I also finally took advantage of being in an English-speaking country and went to a pharmacy for that cough that kept creeping back (I started feeling sick during week 1 in Italy and Ireland was 4 weeks later. Oops!)  

{full irish breakfast and a bloody mary}

{lady at the entrance: "I'm sorry, the Cathedral is closed to visitors for mass right now.
us: "oh, that's okay, which direction is the jameson distillery?}

{jameson!!}

{screenshot of cnn.com a few weeks later... doesn't that row of houses look familiar?}

If I could move to Ireland tomorrow, I would.