land of my people!

Oh the luck o’ the Irish! Ready to hear about our wonderful week in the beautiful country of Ireland?! Good, can’t wait to tell you all about it!

On April 3^rd we had an early flight from Stanstead to Dublin, followed by a 4 hour bus ride to Cork. Cork is an adorable city, and we liked it because it’s sort of an unknown place in Ireland. Our hostel was above a bar, so we enjoyed some ciders and relaxed after our long travel day.

The next day we went to the Blarney Castle, with the famous Blarney Stone. The coolest part about going there was that my mom went there when she was a little older than me. It was great to be in the same place she had been, experiencing the same country, but still have it be my adventure. I have to say, facing my fears of closed in spaces and extreme heights was well worth kissing the famous Blarney Stone. The whole trick is that you have lie down on your back and bend you head back nearly 90 degrees in order to kiss this stone that SO many people have kissed. Really gross, but cool. We took a TON of pictures and enjoyed the beautiful scenery around the castle. Before we left, we stopped in the Woolen Mills, which is biggest Irish shop in the world! Since I’m half Irish, seeing so many authentic Irish items was like heaven! I felt right at home :)

Now it was on to Galway. Before another long bus ride, we got breakfast where I had an absolutely delicious waffle, with fruit and yogurt. YUM! After we arrived in Galway, we went to the local “mall” and ran into Laurel and I’s friend from bible study, Stephanie! She was traveling on her own for the break, so it was great to buddy up with her for a bit. Before calling it a night, we visited some of the local pubs and began to experience the real life of the Irish!

The next day we went on an all day tour to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher (my favorite place by far!), and Stephanie was able to join us. The Burren is a very pretty area full of hills that are covered by a certain limestone. We visited a family owned farm at the Burren, where we got a tour of the farm and the beautiful mountain behind it. We saw little lambs and cows! It was neat to do a small amount of hiking, because I hadn’t been in the wilderness in so long, and Copenhagen is extremely flat. After going into Granny’s Cottage and eating some homemade desserts, we drove to the Cliffs. By God’s grace we had the perfect weather to view this magnificent place, and being there made me so grateful of this journey God has allowed me to experience. I don’t know how anyone could look at those cliffs and not know that it was created by the ultimate creator.  After that, we stopped at a few more picturesque sites, then made it home. Since it was Good Friday, a lot of things were closed, so we hung out at Stephanie’s hostel and watched a movie.

Now it’s April 7^th, the day before Easter! We took another day tour, but visited the Connemara Valley. A beautiful drive, seeing a lot of the Irish scenery I expected to see. Then, we stopped at the Kylemore Abbey where we also saw a Gothic church and a Victorian garden. The gardens were beautiful, and we were able to stop for a bit and grab some delectable scones with jam :) That evening, we went out to a pub called The King’s Head, which was the best pub I’ve been to yet in Europe. A band played around 11 o’clock, and covered a ton of songs that we knew, which made it fun to sing and dance and enjoy ourselves.

It’s Easter Sunday! It’s been hard to be away from home the past 3 months, but today has been one of the hardest days. This was the first Easter where I did not take up at 5 in order to make it to the Aldan Union Sunrise service, and I missed it. But, we made the most of the day but attending a service in Galway. It was a Catholic service, so needless to say, it wasn’t quite the same, but I’m glad we got to recognize the great celebration that is Easter, even if it wasn’t the way I was used to. After the 30 minute service (no, that’s not a typo) we walked past a soccer game, where we stood and watched for a bit. Man, do I miss watching sports! Because of the holiday, we decided to be fancy and make ourselves a lovely Easter dinner – stuffing-filled turkey, potatoes, broccoli, and garlic bread.

Back to Dublin we go – which means another bus ride. We hadn’t heard great things about Dublin, despite its well-known name, so we decided to only spend 1 day there. We found a cute (and cheap!) little café, where we had sandwiches and I had my first Bailey’s coffee. SO TASTY!!! Then, we visited the bar, Whelan’s, which is in the movie P.S. I Love You (which of course, I have not seen… yet). It was kind of a letdown, so we hit the Temple Bar area – a few streets full of different pubs. We found a cool place with live music and enjoyed our last night in the beautiful country of Ireland.