AIRELAND (Ireland) Part 1 - It starts in Dublin

Ohhh “Aireland”. So lovely. So green. (Well, actually not really so green since they’ve had a warmer-and-drier-than-normal summer). So more-than-expectedly awesome! I’m already having live music withdrawals. I don’t think I’d properly prepared myself for the sheer volume of live music that occurs there on a nightly basis!!!

I digress. Let me start at the beginning. (A very good place to start!)

Mumford and Sons announced their concert with Ben Howard and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros to be played in a huge park in Dublin before they announced they would be playing in London. Decision made. I’ve never seen Mumford. I’ve never been to Ireland. Who wouldn’t want to see Mumford in Dublin!?!?! Simultaneously my good friend Michelle was trying to plan a visit to see me, and we were in discussions about where we should go. Ahem. Connect the dots peeps, we’re going to Ireland!!!

So we started planning this trip, and decided we’d fly into Dublin, rent a car and hit the major hot spots driving in a counterclockwise fashion and then fly out of Cork.

What I thought the trip would look like was this.

The idea was Dublin > Galway > Ring of Kerry > Cork

 What it actually ended up looking like was this.

Dublin > Galway > Doolin > Milltown/Killorgan/Killarney > Day stopover in Dingle > Cork

May seem similar to you, however, some of those stop-offs we made resulted in some very unexpected overnights…..

DUBLIN

Gotta be honest, I don’t have a LOT to say about Dublin other than it’s got great nightlife. Since Dan was flying back to Chicago that week, and since he’s IRISH and has never been, he joined Michelle and I for the first leg of our trip in Dublin. The 3 of us flew in on Sunday, checked into the dingiest hotel we could’ve picked (we knew that ahead of time) with the loudest birds possible squawking out our window (we didn’t know that ahead of time) 

I don't actually think these were the birds. They look too nice...but you get the idea.

and really piss poor water pressure. Let's make sure you all know that just because I'm traveling, does NOT mean I'm doing it high class. J

Quality hotel man!

Sunday was the gig. It’s in a huuuuge park a bit out of the center of the city. And it was way far into this park with no way to get there besides walking. So…we embarked on a 1 hour walk to get to the concert. 

It actually ended up being more like a mini festival in my opinion. And it. Was. Incredible!!! 

I have to post videos because honestly it was just such a fantastic show. I’ve never seen a crowd so excited. And Dan kept boosting me up on his shoulders (something I’ve never done before) for as long as he could handle my bony butt so that I could see. It was pretty amazing.

This video is super short, but you can see how into it everyone was.

This one just shows how good of a show they put on.

Here are some of the photos from the show. 

I really love this one for some reason.

Last, they ended playing Galway Girl - a traditional Irish song - with all of the other bands who played. It was really cool!

Monday. What to do in Dublin. Hmmm. We weren’t really into the touristing stuff.  We realized that you don’t learn much Irish history in school. And without knowledge of the history, it’s a lot less exciting to go see things. They sort of lose their meaning. And we all slept in pretty late, so we sorta just roamed around the not-so-charming streets of Dublin for a bit. 

Our hotel was directly across from some monument that was suuuuuper high.

We went into a crypt under a church with bodies that were hundreds of years old and their skin was still preserved!!!

I think this was the church actually. Or maybe it was just pretty. Who knows!?

This was Trinity College where the original manuscripts of the New Testiment are housed.

I... don't remember what this was either. But it was pretty!

Michelle and Dan both insisted on the Jameson tour – which is sort of funny because the distillery is actually in Cork now, so it’s just a recreation. But whatever.

The inside was actually designed/decorated in a way that looked really cool.

We had great whiskey cocktails. Mommy, I got a Whiskey Sour in your honor!

Then at the end of the tour, Michelle and Dan both volunteered to be whiskey tasters. They sat alongside the other brave souls and sampled Jameson, Jack Daniels and a Scotch. For like .2 seconds I was jealous I didn’t volunteer. And then I tried a sip of their straight Scotch, cringed, made a grossed out face, and went back to sipping on my Jameson and Ginger.

Evening time was much more fun. The Temple Bar area was our end destination. It’s known as being a pretty touristy area, but honestly who cares!? It’s known for that because they have a zillion bars all playing traditional Irish music there! Perfect! We did decide to do a bit of a pub crawl heading over there though.

Just checkin to see if the phone worked in there...

Then we walked along the river and popped into this small local bar. I don’t even remember the name, but it was so cool. It was like the local dive for the 40-60 year old blue collar workers who just want to drink Guinness and sing/listen to others sing Irish music. Side note – EVERYONE drinks Guinness there. It’s a stereotype for a reason. It’s true. 

Guinness on top EVERYWHERE. Over 60% of every bar crowd is drinking Guinness in Ireland. 

So we are sitting in this small bar and they just randomly have people coming up to the microphone singing. It was really cool! Then we start over to a few of the recommended pubs in Temple Bar for some live Irish dancing

live music and (eventually) some dancing of our own! 

This is what happened as the night progressed....

And this.... :)

The next day, Dan had to leave for the airport to fly home. Gotta say, it was a pretty sad way to say goodbye. Thankfully I had Michelle there to cheer me up. So we made our way to the rental car place to pick up our car, drive on the LEFT side of the road, and start the official road trip. Eeeeek!

Stay tuned for PART 2…..

Canals, Bikes, Beer and Cheese! I love Amsterdam!

Ahh Amsterdam.

I would be ignoring the obvious if I didn’t immediately acknowledge that the stereotypical draw of this city for Americans is the Red Light District and the fact that pot is legal to smoke here. I can honestly say I sort of forgot about both of those initially though when Dan suggested we go there for his ‘last week hurrah’ before leaving the UK though. I’ve heard so many people rave about how beautiful the city is. How charming. How authentically European it feels. So the combination of all of the above made agreeing on a city a no brainer. And it didn't disappoint.

We actually did Air B&B for the first time there, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the process was. We basically rented someone’s apartment for our week in the city. While there is definitely a benefit at times to having a hotel concierge to ask opinions of…this worked out quite well for us and allowed us to stay in a really cool area of the city – the Jordaan. DEFINITELY recommend staying in that quarter if you ever go to Amsterdam. It was pretty cool.

So we flew into Amsterdam, caught the train the city and immediately after leaving the Central Station looked at a 3 level garage full of bikes! Walk across the street? Bikes everywhere!

Try to cross traffic? There are dedicated bike lanes everywhere!

Bikers in skirts, work clothes, all clothes! Dan is a huge cyclist so he thought this was awesome. And after biking around London with their for-hire bikes, I’ve gotten much more comfortable riding in unfamiliar territory. In Amsterdam, it was even better though. Cyclists get the right-of-way over cars AND people! EVERYONE bikes! It was pretty awesome I have to say.

I know, I look like such a natural...

The other part I hadn’t quite prepared myself for was the number of canals that existed in the city. I knew there were canals. I didn’t realize that there were canals EVERYWHERE! Like, every 2 streets was a canal!

Double whammy: canal AND a bike!

Dan thoughtfully enjoying the scenery ;)

Given my obsession with water, I loved this! It was sooo pretty. Picture brick or cobblestone streets, old-fashioned looking bridges and canal waterways everywhere. The city was so charming it seemed to jump right out of a picture book. After being there just one day, I was almost bummed that I hadn’t just moved to Amsterdam instead of London. I was prepared to feel like this since one of my friends forewarned me how beautiful it was….and she was right. The city had a smaller feel to it also. And as much as I’ve enjoyed London, I’m not sure I’ve fallen in love with the city. Amsterdam on the other hand had it all (in my opinion): great restaurants and food, beautiful city, nice people, more of an outdoorsy lifestyle (or at least a bit of it with all of the biking), and it was small enough to get from one side to the other with minimal hassle.

One thing that skewed our opinion though was the amazing weather we had. It was like a heat wave there apparently. I guess it’s usually gray and rainy (like London only worse?!). Not while we were there. It was sunny and warm. The sun shimmered off the water, and the buildings looked especially unique in the sunlight.

One of the days we took a countryside bike tour on Mikes Bikes (which I actually did last time I was in Europe 8 years ago in Munich). We rode out into the Dutch countryside....

were entertained by funny tour guides, saw a working windmill...

went to a local Dutch farm where Dan made friends with lots of animals...

Dude is obsessed with dogs.

And apparently had never seen a cow up close.

 and they made homemade Gouda cheese (delicious!!!!!)

By the way, they had cheese tastings. This cheese was incredible!

and traditional wooden shoes...

Seriously, they intentionally have different colors of shoes for different occasions. 

These are the unpainted shoes (clearly).

and then biked back along the river through Vondelpark - their version of Central Park.   

I clearly was not the only one who had the idea to get a photo taken in front of this iconic text.

Dan biking through Vondelpark

Water thief! I swear for every bottle of water we bought, I think I got like 3 drinks...

The second day we rented bikes and did our own city tour. I do have to say, drinking and biking is NOT the best idea when you’re not used to the one-speed, reverse-to-break Dutch bikes. Why do I say this? Well…. Let’s just say I STILL have an indent and mark on my shin as a result of me running into a pole. How did this happen you ask? Well… it went something like this: We went to a windmill/brewery where we had some pretty-high-alcohol-content craft beers (one of which was called “Columbus”!!!)

They were delicious! I've realized I really like craft beers. 

What a great place! Columbus! ;) 

Then we biked around and went to what I can honestly say is one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. It was a small place that our friend Dave had recommended from his trip there. It was a bit of a splurge (for Dan, haha) and was a 4-course meal with wine-pairings.

Sadly, this photo of our wine was the only one we thought of snapping at dinner.

The restaurant was super small, and the chef and owner came out to serve every course to us!!!! We had no idea what the menu was….and one of the courses was…. Wait for it…. PIGEON!!!!! I know. I know. I hesitated at first too. Apparently it was “farm-raised” pigeon (which probably means that they live a boringly miserable life), but I have to admit that it was actually really really good. Anyway, 2.5 hours and 4 glasses of wine later, we emerged from dinner to go check out the Red Light District. I get on my bike, turn to look at Dan, see two people coming at me really quickly, try to swerve out of the way and BAM! Smack my shin right into a pole. I almost cried. Seriously. It hurt. Lesson learned I guess.

Gotta say, the Red Light District is certainly an experience. Of course we checked it out! You can’t go there and not. I’m going to save the details of it for your trip should you ever go though. You decide for yourself what you think.

Anyway, there wasn’t a TON of sight-seeing we did. We just wanted to relax, enjoy the city and soak up the European culture. The last day we just ate the cheese we bought at the Dutch farm, drank wine and hung out in Vondelpark.

We got a bit of taste for the gray weather our last day there. I do have to say the temperature and sunshine probably made the trip for us. But honestly it’s probably one of my very favorite cities I’ve been to.

Oh yeah, and let’s just say “coffee shops” don’t really serve coffee. Heehe. ;)