Ireland, Part 1

Hello, all!

The majority of my family comes from Ireland, so it's always been a dream of mine to go there. Last year, my mom decided we should stop putting it off, so we bit the bullet and reached out to a travel agent, who worked with us to plan the ideal vacation.

We opted for a private driver rather than the typical tour group only because I get terrible motion sickness on those big buses, and this way ensured we were only seeing what we wanted to and allowed for more flexibility. We were there for 10 days, but the actual tour was only 8 days. We flew into Dublin a few days early to have time to explore before the tour started, and then it went through the southern part of Ireland around to Galway.

It was honestly the trip of a lifetime, and I'm so happy we finally went. The scenery was stunning, the people were so friendly, and we were so lucky with the weather (it was sunny and in the 60s the entire time, even our driver was saying how unheard of it was to go so long without rain!) I'm going to break down the trip into parts since we did so much and I just have way too many pictures, hope you enjoy!

Day 1: Dublin

We flew out of JFK Friday night, so we got to Dublin on Saturday morning. Our fight was supposed to leave at 9PM, but it was delayed until 1:30AM which was not the best way to kick off the trip. We ended up missing most of our first day in Dublin because of this, and we had tickets for things that we had to try and reschedule. 

The one thing that I was desperate to see was the Trinity College Library, so I was so grateful that we were still able to make it in after we explained to them what had happened with our flight. The library is currently undergoing renovations, so most of the books are removed, but it was still a dream. The smell of old books hits you the second you walk through the doors, and I just stood there taking it all in. I was living my best dark academia life.

After the library, we just walked around Grafton Street and got a bunch of our shopping done. Surprisingly, I didn't already own a claddagh ring, so I knew I wanted to pick up one and I also had to get a traditional wool sweater, and then we picked up a few gifts for others. It was so nice just strolling around and listening to all the Irish music and there were even people dancing in the streets. It was so lively.

At this point, we were all exhausted so we went back to the hotel, had a lovely dinner and chilled out.

Day 2: Dublin

We had a bit of a later start on Sunday since we were still trying to adjust to the time change and everything. We kicked off the day at the Dublin Castle which was interesting. I loved the architecture.

Once that was finished, we just walked around for a bit and saw the Molly Malone statue and the Ha'penny bridge, which so happened to be it's 207th year anniversary so that was fun.

Then we ended the day doing tours of the Jameson Distillery and Guinness Storehouse, so my brother was in his glory. I'm not a drinker, but these tours were still really fun and informative!