Last fall, my brother-in-law celebrated a milestone birthday. My sister, Karly, wanted to make sure it was special so she saved up for 2 years and surprised him with an all-expense paid trip to Ireland for a week. Knowing our family's love for travel, she invited Dustin and I, and my parents to come along. We booked the trip and somehow managed to keep it a secret from him for several months. Once his actual birthday finally arrived, we all took him out for dinner at an Irish pub in a nearby town to reveal the surprise in a fittingly themed environment.
Six months later, it was finally time for our vacation! Months and months of anticipation made it almost feel surreal that we were finally leaving! We flew to Dublin out of Chicago with a stop at London Heathrow Airport. Unfortunately, the British Airways flight crew and pilot showed up late in Chicago which delayed our entire flight and ended up making us miss our connecting flight in London. This really bummed us out because we had made dinner reservations at a fancy Michelin Star rated restaurant for that first night in Ireland and due to the missed flight, we ended up having to cancel them. We also missed out on our only day to explore the city of Kilkenny. There was only one flight left that day that had enough seats for all 6 of us on it and it wasn't departing for several hours. So unfortunately, we spent the whole first day of our vacation sitting in the London Heathrow International Airport taking turns sleeping on benches and making trips back and forth to Starbucks.
The irony in the whole situation was that when we were checking in at O'Hare earlier that day, the reservation specialist had offered us an earlier direct flight and we had declined because we had already checked our luggage and were worried it would get lost if we changed flights. Had we taken them up on the offer, we would've saved ourselves an entire day! Note to self for future - if someone offers you an amazing deal, you smile and say, "Yes, thank you!" Karly was ok with how it worked out though because we ended up having to go through customs in London in order to reclaim and recheck our luggage so she ended up with an extra stamp on her passport that she wasn't expecting!
24 groggy hours of traveling later, we finally arrived in Dublin and were granted a quick and seamless entry into the country. Right from the very start, the people there were extraordinarily friendly! We took a shuttle from the airport to our car rental location and picked up our 3 vehicles for the week, 1 for each couple. In Ireland, they drive on the opposite side of the car and the opposite side of the road from the USA so it was very strange for the guys to get used to at first. Nothing like trying to learn new traffic laws while running on fumes from no sleep! Dustin and I were given a diesel Ford Focus, Karl and Karly were given a diesel Skoda Octavia and my parents got upgraded to an awesome Nissan Qashqai. The entire roof of their vehicle was see-through, which offered amazing views when driving through the mountains later on!
Before we left for our trip, Dustin had purchased 3 walkie-talkies with a 16 mile radius so that we could all communicate while we were driving since not all of us had international phones. He and I also rented a GPS and then the other two cars followed us so that we didn't all have to rent them. However, this great plan of ours only took about 15 minutes to fall apart when we got separated at a roundabout in Dublin. (In case you've never been to Ireland, the country has a roundabout like every 10 feet when you're in a big city or on a main highway, which can make for a hard time when trying to follow someone!) We ended up losing each other and somehow ended up out of range for the walkie-talkies so after waiting on the side of the road for about a half hour, we decided to just keep on with the drive and hope that we all managed to find our way to the hotel in Kilkenny.
About an hour and a half later, we finally got within range again and were able to communicate. Thankfully, my brother-in-law had internet access and had been able to figure out the way, and my parents followed them. Dustin and I arrived about 25 minutes before everyone else so we checked in, cleaned up, and headed to the hotel bar for a celebratory first official Irish Guinness. Everyone else arrived around 8pm.
Instead of going immediately to bed after 27 hours of travelling like you would expect, we decided to rally. We wanted to make the best of a very long day by heading out to see what we could in the town of Kilkenny since it was our only night there. We drove downtown past the castle and then got out to walk around a bit. My mom has a friend who grew up in Kilkenny and his family used to own a pub there called Conway's. He asked us to find it and take a photo for him so we made sure to find the pub while it was still light outside so we could get a good photo.
Kilkenny is a very charming medieval town and we were sad that we had missed out on exploring it more. Definitely plan to return there on the next visit.
We found a pub in downtown Kilkenny called Kyteler's Inn. We were drawn in by the inviting entrance and the sound of the band playing lively Irish tunes. It was quaintly decorated with a medieval feel and the band was as fantastic as the food! The band must have been able to tell we were a bunch of Americans because about 2 songs after we sat down, they played "Galway Girl" which my mom, sister, and I had been hoping to hear. It was the perfect first night in Ireland.
The next morning, we woke up refreshed and had a delicious Irish breakfast at the Aspect Hotel. Continental breakfasts in Ireland are light-years better than the cold cereal and bagel breakfasts at U.S. hotels. They had pretty much every breakfast food you can imagine- fried eggs, sausage, bacon, yogurt, fruit, pancakes, etc. and of course, Irish tea! As a breakfast lover, I was pleasantly surprised!
Our next destination to explore was the seaside town of Kinsale located near the Irish sea on the southeast coast of the country. We opted to take the back roads there for a more scenic route and decided to drive through the historic town of Waterford on the way. Tramore was another notably cute town that we went through on the way. We ended up driving along the Copper Coast which is a stunning drive along the Irish Sea. The views were breathtaking and around every other curve there was another gorgeous lookout atop the cliffs over the water. We (girls) wanted to stop a bazillion times to take photos and thankfully the guys were really good sports about it!
We decided to veer off track a bit and drive to Cork before continuing on to Kinsale. We wanted to see the Blarney Castle and wanted to make sure that we arrived before they closed for the evening. Initially we weren't really planning on doing more than driving by, but we figured since we were so close, we might as well tour the castle. It was gorgeous and exactly what you'd expect a medieval castle to look like and we were so glad we had decided to stop. We walked around the castle grounds for a bit then went inside the castle.
And yes, we all kissed the Blarney Stone. The legend says that kissing the Blarney Stone bestows one with the gift of eloquent speech. Not being too keen on public speaking, my sister and I figured it couldn't hurt!
After spending a good couple of hours at the Blarney Castle, we continued on to Kinsale for dinner. Kinsale was a bustling and charming coastal city with a cute little harbor. The tide was out when we arrived and there was a tugboat resting gently against the sand, as if it had run ashore. But by time we had finished dinner, the tide had come back in and the boat was once again floating and bobbing about in the harbor. At home, we live on Lake Michigan and while it looks like an ocean, it's just a big lake and we do not have a tide that goes in and out so it was neat to see how drastically different the views were when the tide was out.
We found a cute fish n' chips restaurant on the harbor called Dino's where we had another really great dinner. This is where we discovered "mushy peas," a popular side dish with Irish meals.
After dinner, we took a quick stroll around the town and then drove to our next hotel in Limerick.
On the way there, we saw the Heineken Distillery in Cork.
It was dark out by time we arrived in Limerick, which enhanced the already shady appearance of the areas we were driving through. Let's just say we saw a lot of barred up windows and a lot of graffiti and were not that impressed with Limerick from the little that we saw. Although we weren't thrilled with the area we were staying in, our hotel, Absolute Hotel, was very nice and modern and had a fantastic restaurant/bar with large, expansive windows overlooking the river.
In the morning, they presented an even better breakfast spread than the first hotel with lots of healthy options. After indulging a bit, we headed out for another fun filled day of exploring. Our first stop was Adare Village. Adare was a tiny, quaint, little town that is known for its historic thatched roof cottages.
We stopped at a few shops in the town and walked around to admire the buildings and then got back on the road, the Dingle peninsula being our final destination for the day.
Our route took us right past a beach that we had heard of that was supposed to be beautiful and was well-known for surfing, called Inch Beach. We decided to veer off track a bit and stop to take in the view at the beach. Cars are allowed to drive right on the beach here so we drove along the coast for a bit and then parked and got out and stretched our legs a little. The views were gorgeous!
There was a small restaurant on the beach so we stopped in for some caffeine and then got back on the road.
We drove on some incredibly beautiful mountainous roads on the way to Dingle. This is definitely one of those days that the journey was just as much fun as reaching the destination!
Upon arriving in Dingle, we found a cute little place near the harbor to eat lunch called the Boatyard Restaurant. We shared a few of their Atlantic Platters as a table and enjoyed beer battered fish, Dingle Bay seafood chowder, crab claws, steamed clams and mussels, calamari, and homemade Guinness bread. All of it was phenomenal!
After satisfying our tummies, we walked around a bit to see Dingle town. As with most Irish towns, there were a grouping of inviting, colorful pubs and storefronts downtown that made for a picturesque backdrop in our photos. I don't think I saw a single town in Ireland that wasn't charming in its own right.
