I'm actually finding it a bit tough to figure out where to start here! I know... me! At a loss!? And what's more is that I've tried to finish this blog now like 3 different times....and at this rate it will NEVER get posted. So.... I'm going to do a split-post. Half of this is typed up about Galway and our start to the next town: Doolin. But to be honest, given that I have already posted more photos of Ireland than I'm sure ANY of you care to see on Facebook, I'm struggling to finish this blog post. I'm obsessed with Ireland, don't be mistaken. Whoever thought it was boring is wrong. There's live music everywhere. They drink a lot of Guinness beer (which I've come to like in small portions), and they are WAY friendlier than....ahem....other people from the United Kingdom. But I've been typing for a week. Soo....enjoy this half and half post that looks like I may have schizophrenia... (because maybe I do).
Resuming where we left off: Our road trip commences in Dublin. We're ready to leave, pick up our rental car, and begin our 3 hour drive out West to Galway. So I get the drivers seat first.
You'd be making this face too if you were on the left hand side driving!!!
Left-hand side of the street, right-hand side of the car. Only a weeee bit stressful trying to get out of the city.
Michelle was an expert navigator, even counting the "exits" on the roundabouts for me.
For the most part our drive to Galway was rather uneventful. It's certainly not the prettiest of our drives. However we did see a bit of these...
But after we got to Galway - to our cute little B&B - and saw the coastline, we were in heaven! Or at least I was. My love of water was completely validated this trip. I couldn't get enough. I don't know why I didn't realize how much coast and water we'd be around on this trip. I guess you think of Ireland as green rolling hills, and no one really talks about the awesome views of the Atlantic.
Our B&B in Galway
My attempt at a panorama of the view
No better place for some vino and to plot our night than out by the water!
Walking out on the rocks for a bit of photography
That night in Galway was one of my favorite nights. We happened to be in town for their big arts festival, so the town was ALIVE with activity. We walked up to the main drag, and it just oozed culture.
It didn't take us long to find our first musician...
Who had some really funny props...
As we walked around more, we decided to do a bit of a pub crawl. Stop, have some oysters and and seafood chowder (the BEST on our trip), then go, listen to more live musicians in the street.
Stop, go into another pub where there were live musicians playing.
I had to have a pint of the Galway Hooker! I mean...how do you resist!?
Then walk to another famous Galway spot for some fish n chips.
I think it was about that time that a bird decided to fly by and POOP on Michelle!!! Hahah, she was super pleased.
As soon as we finished dinner, the festival ended in the streets, complete with a dragon parade!!!!!
Next stop? You guessed it. Another pub. More live music. This time it was a bunch of 40-60+ year olds doing awesome Trad (traditional) dances!
Despite the fact that I could've stayed in Galway for DAYS....we had already planned to move on the next day. Sigh. The realities of a 5 day road trip were kicking in and sadly we had to leave. (Not before I got a good run in along the coastline though!). Next up we decided to head to the Cliffs of Moher (famous sweeping cliffs that drop into the Atlantic that were featured in Harry Potter). This part of the trip begins the more beautiful drive....
Off we go...driving on the left again!?!?
Just thought it was worth pointing out that the speed limit was 100 KM/HOUR!?!? And it's going around sharp turns!?!? Let's say I stuck closer to 60....
Michelle really wanted a photo in the BRIGHT green grass...
...which happened to be up to her thighs!!
so we hit our first castle....
and then continued driving through VERY windy roads, past the town of Boston....
only to stumble upon an adorable little "street" (even calling it a town is a stretch in my opinion), with a restaurant advertising fresh seafood. Seemed like a perfect place to get some lunch!
The boat was pulling in their catch for the day as we ate...
Hard to beat fresh chowder, crabs and some vino!
Our next stop? Doolin - a little townalong the Atlantic coast.
We were under the impression based on some poorly written travel guides that Doolin had a bustling town full of live music. Hmmm... not so much. It had 4 bars and restaurants combined. However it had beautiful coastal views...
Highlights of Doolin?? We made friends (shocker - Michelle and I made friends in nearly every city we went to) with two Irish folk: Eve and Kevin. They were awesome. And we kept running into them everywhere because the town was so small that they were even staying at the same B&B as us. We saw more live music.
We also went on a ship to see the famous Cliffs of Moher from the water. For those of you interested in Harry Potter, there is a scene in one of the movies that was filmed here. It's stunning. We also saw a dolphin that proceeded to race our boat! Also very cool. Please preview here.
Alright schizophrenia begins. Too much typing. Never going to finish this blog. From here, I'm just going to post pretty pictures and videos of cool cool live music at our stops.
Killarney - Unintentional stop. Accidentally booked a B&B (one of the nicest) in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. So...we drove 30 minutes to Killarney and had a night out.
There was a horse race around that turned into a total shit show (pardon my french) of glitzed up young kids
Dingle Peninsula - This was actually our intended destination the previous night. We loved it. Everything about it. It's gorgeous. If you ever have the chance, GO THERE!
Michelle took over driving at this point....
We started driving through mountains on skinny roads with gorgeous countryside surrounding us.
As we approached the water, it really got pretty!
We stopped at one of the beaches and it was early enough in the morning that the water from the tides was still lingering on the beach, and it was nearly deserted. It was so gorgeous!
Honestly... SO beautiful. I could just sit and stare at this forever. I wished there was a running trail along the water I could've run along.
We approached Dingle, and it was an adorable little fishing town nestled in the mountains and directly on the water.
All of the pubs were super cute in the town... this is a great example.
Okay I guess this one wasn't the cutest, but it was literally the 5734th "Murphy's" pub we'd seen in Ireland.
Sadly, we could only stay in Dingle for a few hours, and then had to make our way off to Cork (ugh) to fly out the following day.
And on our way out, we passed a sheep!
Our last night was spent in Cork. Honestly, Cork was shit. Anticlimactic. It's like Detroit. We stopped and got a drink at ONE cool pub and heard some 12 person choral group singing Bill Withers outside...
And admittedly they did hand out free ice cream cones there, which OBVIOUSLY made us happy.
Seriously happy girl: cider and ice cream!
But after that, there was seriously NOTHING. Sigh. Sort of a sad way to leave our Irish adventure. Oh well. All in all, it was one of the best trips I could possibly imagine.
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