The Land of Eire: Part 2

Welcome back! Let's continue on more Irish adventures.

Day four was our Cliffs of Moher adventure. This was also our biggest driving day. We started the day off later than other days we had but we were all tired. We were at the cliffs quite a while in the early afternoon. There was a visitor’s center we explored along with the cliffs themselves. When you’re at the cliffs, there’s a couple different directions you can walk. Most things are on the right hand side including an unrestricted area that people came and go from all the time. The main section had a wall and some buildings to look over the cliffs from. The unrestricted section let you get right up to the edge and by sheep pastures (see the picture below). The cliffs were beautiful and breathtaking. It was nice to have space to walk around and not be stuck in a car.


After we were done at the cliffs, we headed up to Galway. Our first night in Galway, we went to a restaurant that was in the process of the expanding their menu so they had some free specials. It was packed but we were able to enjoy good food and drinks and each others company. After dinner we wanted to explore a little bit more so we walked around town and found a playground to play in for a bit.

Day five saw an early start for coasteering with Epic Ireland. We were able to see Kylemore Abbey for a quick stop. From there we went on a hike a couple hours from  Galway. It was right on the coast as well. There wasn’t a clear path to hike up the mountain like we have in States. Instead, you could basically just hike wherever you wanted to in order to get to the top of the mountain. This was handy since some areas were boggy.  (Side note: bogs are weird.) 

When we finished the hike, we headed to another spot for coasteering. Yay…. this wasn’t something I was looking forward to and I panicked and couldn’t do it. I’m not a huge an of heights or jumping into the ocean. Everyone else did it and enjoyed climbing up and down cliffs, jumping into the ocean, swimming and repeating. I sat on a cliff and waited for everyone to come back up which was nice because I got to look out on the ocean. Once everyone was back up, we headed back to Galway. 

That night we explored downtown Galway a bit and went to O’Connor’s Pub (which is featured in Ed Sheeran’s music video “Galway Girl”) for a pint. We also enjoyed some dessert at Gourmet Foods Parlour before heading to bed.

Day six saw a bit of a late start but it was a wonderful day. Our first stop was Clonmacnoise. Check out the website because my pictures don’t do this justice. We all loved being able to see the different graves, ruins and a key place where Christianity came to Ireland. Plus this is right on the River Shannon. There was so much history in this one spot. There is a more recent cemetery on these grounds as well but looking at all the different cross grave markers. It was incredible to walk here. If you’re ever in Ireland, check it out.

From there, we headed to Sean’s Bar which is the oldest pub in the world. We enjoyed a pint while we were there and met some other Americans. We had fun recapping our trips together and seeing what the other has done. Near Sean’s Bar, there was another castle, Athlone Castle, which we looked through. It focused on the history of the town and what happened with the castle.This castle had a life size chess set which Jordan and Evangeline eagerly played. I believe Jordan won but I don’t fully remember. Once the chess match was done, we headed to Dublin for our last day.

On our last day, we explored Dublin. We walked through Phoenix Park. This is a massive park in the middle of Dublin. It’s similar to City Park in NYC but bigger. There are several interesting monuments that we passed as we walked around. We got coffee and tea at the coffee shop in the middle of the park before we headed to the main even of the day: the Guinness Storehouse. We all thought that we’d be there for a couple hours…. 5 hours later we were getting of it. That’s how much there is it do - from looking at past advertising, how beer is made, how to pour a Guinness and then a view at the top of Dublin. Pictured left is a little sample of Guinness we tried before we got our free pint. After we left  the storehouse, we started making our way back to our hotel. We walked through the Temple Bar district and some other districts as we made our way back to the train station to head back to our hotel.

Just like that our trip was over and we were off the airport the next morning. It was a whirlwind trip but we were able to see a lot, do a lot, eat yummy food, drink good beers and ales. Would I do it again? Yeah I would. I might not do all the things we did again but I would at least go back to Ireland.

And in case you were wondering, Evangeline slept the most of all of us… on the flights and car rides. 


*Names have been changed for privacy. Photo credits to Jordan, Evangaline and Day.

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