Northern Ireland Excursions

As time winds down, Corna and I decided we wanted to try and soak up as much of Ireland as possible. After getting to Kerry, the next stop I was dying to hit was The Giant's Causeway and Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. We decided that this was one last thing we couldn't leave Ireland without doing!

We booked our tour with Paddywagon tours. I've been on a number of tours with them and they're great! They claim to be the best in the world and I have to say, it's definitely the best tour company I have every used, so I can't really even refute that claim.

We got to the bus stop around 7:15 am coffee in hand and boarded the bus. The tour was to take us to Belfast, the rope bridge and the Giant's Causeway with a few stops in between to break up the journey. This is something I think they do really well; break up the trip with interesting pit stops.

We could not have asked for a better day! Everything, even just the view from the bus was perfect. It was warm, clear and incredibly sunny.

Our first (real) stop was at the Dark Hedges just beyond Belfast. This is a well known spot from HBO's Game of Thrones. Apparently the show is filmed in Northern Ireland, which is something I didn't know! I've tried to watch the show a couple of times, but now I am more inclined to stick with it since I've been there haha.

          

Next stop was the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. If you've been on pinterest or look up any pictures of Northern Ireland, one of the most prominent and well known sites is the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. It connects the tiny island of Carrickarede to the mainland. The views from even just the walk to the bridge are magical. The water is a gorgeous shade of teal and there is nothing but green grass and awesome views of surrounding islands. It's nothing like I've ever seen before in Ireland.



            

            

            

                             

                             

After the rope bridge, we traveled just a bit further and arrived at The Giant's Causeway. The Giant's Causeway is a basalt rock formation that is left over from an ancient volcanic eruption. That is the scientific reason. The real reason for all intents and purposes is that a giant in Northern Ireland built the path to investigate the giant in Scotland. It disintegrated on his way back to Northern Ireland when he saw that the Scottish giant was 3 times his size! Obviously that is the real cause of the Causeway ;).





 

              

 

Once again, the views were incredible. It's hard to be in such a beautiful place sometimes because all you want to do is take pictures to remember it by. In actuality, most of the time, the pictures do not do it justice and you have to take a moment to just take all of the mental pictures you can because those will be more amazing than any photograph you could take on a camera.

We grabbed some lunch at a pub called The Nook. Court got the seafood chowder and I got the Fish & Chips. Both were unreal. We talked about it for the next week haha.

Our last stop was in Belfast City Centre. We had an hour so Court and I checked out City Hall and grabbed a snack and some coffee at a Cafe Nerro (there's one on every corner) before heading back. The city is lovely and the buildings are awesome. A lot of them have the old English influence (as it's part of the UK), but there's also a bunch of modern buildings as well. It has a very different vibe from Dublin, but it was cool to spend a bit of time there.

 

We headed back to Dublin, which was the longest part of the journey. It was a long day, but one of my favorite adventures. I have wanted to see Northern Ireland since before I even decided to move to the Republic of Ireland. I'm so happy to have crossed another 2 things off my endlessly growing bucket list and it was even better to do it with Corna who shares the same lust for travel and adventure that I do.

Lots of love,
Paige xx

A Weekend in The Kingdom

Hi all,

Since coming to Ireland, a common question when people find out that I'm American is where else I've been. A quick follow up question is "Have you been down to Kerry?" Upon finding out that I hadn't yet made the trip, everyone is sure to tell me that I absolutely MUST make the trip down before I have to head back to America. This past weekend, Eddie and I had the opportunity to head to Dingle Bay Peninsula in Co. Kerry for the weekend!

We headed out Friday, mixed CDs in hand and sunglasses on and started the journey down to Kerry. We were told it would probably take about 5 hours so we were ready for some quality time during our mini roadtrip. The trip went by relatively fast and before we knew it, we were in Dingle! The forecast for the weekend was meant to be rain, so I didn't get my hopes up for much sunshine. As expected, it was raining when we arrived and a bit colder than Dublin since Dingle is on the water.

We checked into our hotel and it was lovely! We stayed at The Dingle Bay Hotel, which is smack dab in the middle of the town of Dingle. It's surrounded by pubs and restaurants. We dropped off our bags, freshened up and headed out on the town! We decided we wanted to see as many pubs as we could so we decided to just have one drink in each before moving on. Each one was better than the next. The pub we ended up in last was actually owned by someone who is a great friend of Eddie's uncle! They used to play together when his uncle lived down in Dingle. We listened to some great music as it was in the style of an open mic night and even had a little chat with Fergus O'Flaherty.

The next day we grabbed some brunch in a pub right next door to our hotel before grabbing an ice cream cone at Murphy's which is homemade ice cream made in Dingle! The staff was so lovely and made sure we tried about 6 flavors before actually making a decision. It made me miss my days at Iceberg so much and I was so happy to have some delicious home made ice cream again! Eddie and I both decided on Raspberry Sorbet and Sea Salt Ice cream. It was fantastic! The sun came out just as we stepped out of the shop so we were delighted!

Next we put a few bets on some horses as the Grand National horserace was this past Saturday! It was my first experience in a betting shop so it was a bit of craic as well as the adrenaline of placing bets with the hopes of winning some moolah!

We jumped in the car and headed out on a mountain drive to check out the view of The Skellig Islands that weren't too far off. We stopped in to see some Mud Huts and snap a few pictures of the incredible view! The roads were a bit scary, but Eddie handled them like a pro. They reminded me very much of roads in Positano as they were basically one car wide, but a two way road! It was also pretty common to come across some sheep just chillin and grazing right next to you. There are very few things cuter than a baby lamb surrounded by green and hills.

 

On our drive, we actually intercepted a rain/hail storm! It only lasted a few minutes, but it was amazing getting to watch it roll in from the mountains. It was surreal and very reminiscent of summer storms while out on the Hudson that I grew up watching roll in. I loved it. The views on the drive were breathtaking both rain and shine.

We headed back to our hotel bar to watch the Grand National! I'm still not sold on the idea of it as it's incredibly risky for both the horses and the jockies, but it was very exciting to watch! Everyone around us had also placed bets. Since there are 40 horses in it, Eddie and I just picked randomly for the most part. It turns out, Eddie's horse won! He won a handful of cash, which made the whole experience that much more exciting! One of my horses came in 5th, so I managed to walk a way with a whole 5 bucks! I was quite proud of both of us on our earnings.

Next, we decided to venture up to Main Street in Dingle. It was filled with a number of cute restaurants, shops and pubs. We did a bit of wandering before deciding to grab a steak dinner (courteous of Many Clouds, the winning horse!) in a lovely restaurant! The food was amazing! We even topped it off with a Bailey's cheesecake with raspberry sauce and fresh cream (my mouth is drooling all over again typing that out!)

We continued with the theme of a pub crawl and continued to explore the local haunts. We ended up in a bar that had two guys playing Irish trad music mixed in with a few covers of pop songs. It was great. The local GAA team had won a match so we even got to witness a parade at around 11 pm with singing and drums and all! It was cool to see a hometown so proud of their team.

We then decided to hit the local "night club." It was such a different experience to the clubs in Dublin! It was basically just a small dance floor with a DJ attached to a regular pub. It was jam packed, but I have to say people watching in those types of scenarios is one of my favorite things to do and I'm lucky, Eddie enjoys it as well! It was such a fun night!

The next day, we grabbed some food (and quite a bit of water) before venturing into a few more shops. We decided it was about time to head home because we had quite a long drive. On our way back, we took a bit of a more scenic route and came across some amazing sites! The sun came out and it was just a vision of everything you expect Ireland to be. It was back roads and farms and green and rocks and mountains and castle ruins. It was perfection and I was delighted I got to see it.

  

 

 

Dingle and Kerry were everything I hoped it to be! It was small pubs, waterfront marinas, rolling hills and country. It was blue skies and rain showers and delicious meals. It was perfect and once again, I was so happy I got to experience it with Eddie because it made it all that much more fun! Trips like this are what make it basically impossible to grasp why I have to go home!

Sending love back to the States,
Paige xx