Palm Springs, California

Back in early November, I went to Palm Springs for a bachelorette party. I flew out a little early, and stayed later than everyone else so I could get some more sightseeing in done!

Thursday, November 2

  • Tahquitz Canyon
  • Village Fest

Friday, November 3

  • Joshua Tree National Park
    • Hidden Valley
    • Keys View
    • Skull Rock
    • Cholla Cactus Garden

Saturday, November 4

  • Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

Sunday, November 5

  • The Salton Sea
  • Bombay Beach
  • Salvation Mountain
  • Slab City

Monday, November 6

  • Mirage house in the desert palisades
  • Moorten Botanical Garden
  • Flew home (YES I have three out of the plane window photos. I like them all for different reasons: 1 - you can see the shadow of the plane. 2 - you can see the windmills. 3 - THE SKY.

Ireland

In late May to early June I took a trip to Ireland that was absolutely incredible! I went with my friend, Katie, and we had a blast! We trip planned for months before, but also left some wiggle room for spontaneity.

Here is an in depth list of what we did with little details/quirks of our trip mixed in!

Saturday, May 28 -

We landed in Dublin at 5:50 AM.  We made it through customs, and found our bags.  Freshened up in the bathrooms as much as we could and found our bus to take us into the city center.  We took bus number 16 onto O'Connell street.We also met this nice guy on the bus who told us where to get off and kind of gave us a small tour of the city on the walk to our hostel. His name was Wayne and he lived on one of the Aran Islands. He was very nice to help us get to our hostel.

We made it to the Abbey Court hostel and dropped our bags off for the day. The people working at the door let us go in and eat breakfast too.  It was pretty good.  Have I mentioned that the butter in Ireland is just incredible?  I had it for the first time on the plane and instantly fell in love. Whenever they put their delicious bread and butter out in front of me, I will gobble it up!

After breakfast we walked around Trinity College, which has beautiful grounds.  Because it was early in the morning on a Saturday, no one was around either!  It was perfect.  We walked by the library where the Book of Kells is held. (I think it is an ancient religious text.) When we walked by again later, there was a massive line, so we decided to skip it. We headed over to St. Stephen's Green and walked around the park.  The foliage was such a vibrant green, but I suppose that is why they call it the Emerald Isle.

We got a caffeine boost and then headed over to the National Gallery to she this DiVinci drawings exhibit. The tickets were free, and the exhibit was a little underwhelming. We walked through quickly and I bought my mom a souvenir book and we headed over to the Guinness factory. On on our way there, we walked by Dublin Castle. Though we only had a short time there, it was fun to see, and of course gorgeous.

I had heard that having a Guinness at the factory is the best Guinness you'll ever have.  I tried it, and still didn't like it.  I suppose I'll never like Guinness.  The building that the factory was in is fun.  There are many levels that each have their own things to see and learn about the beer making process.  There is a tasting room where you can learn the correct way to sip Guinness.  The best floor, in my opinion, is the room where they pour you a Guinness and then you get to drink it with a 360 degree view of Dublin, which was beautiful.  

From there, we headed over to meet one of Katie's friends named Cassie.  We had lunch in a cute little cafe.  I had a yummy quiche with veggies and a salad. Cassie is a lovely girl that Katie met while attending college.  She gave us a few tips on what to do and made tentative plans to meet later in the day after she ran some errands.

After our sweet little brunch, we went back to our hostel to check into our private apartment. It was a cute little flat with a bedroom, living room and a little cot. It could have slept at least 4 people easily.  We cleaned up since we hadn't showered after being stuck in an aluminum tube for 7 hours and tromping around Dublin for a day. That was one of the best showers I'd had..or so I thought at the time.  It just felt wonderful to be clean.  I had fallen temporarily asleep on the couch while Katie showered..big mistake.  Even though I was probably only asleep for a few minutes I immediately felt much more tired than I had before.  I had to power through. 

Before Katie and I  met Cassie at the Merchant's Arch we wandered around the Temple Bar area.  When we had had enough - since it was a Saturday night in Dublin - we decided to head over to where we were supposed to meet Cassie.  The Merchant's Arch pub has live music, some traditional and some more modern. Katie and I were on the look out for a good place to sit when I spotted the perfect set up.  A group of three people leaving a raised table where we had a perfect view of the whole place.  I swooped in and took it just in the nick of time. When Katie realized what I had done, she came over to join me and we ordered a drink and waited for Cassie. 

Katie and I were enjoying the music and a few drinks combined with our lack of sleep for about 40 hours and we were feeling pretttttttty good. Cassie came and then we were all having a wonderful night.  We hopped around the Temple Bar area. After taking a photo of a horse wearing a tiny hat, we finally decided it would be a good idea to eat something.  I got cheese naan bread which ended up being something similar to an quesadilla.  I rolled it up like one and chowed down. Cassie and Katie had falafel.  Then Cassie told us how to get home and we made our way back to our apartment.  Did I mention that it doesn't get dark until about 10:30 in Ireland?  I didn't know that until I got there.  It makes going to bed at a decent time harder than I thought it would be.

 

 

Sunday, May 29 - 

We met our tour bus at the Molly Malone statue in Dublin and hopped on our Paddywagon tour up to Northern Ireland. Our stops were Belfast, the Dark Hedges, Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, Giant's Causeway, and a photo stop at Dunlace Castle.

I took a little nap on our way up to Belfast to pick up some more passengers. Then we were off to our first stop: The Dark Hedges.  This is a popular tourist destination because it is from one of the scenes from Game of Thrones. I was excited to go, but when we got there it was overrun with tourists.  And it is an actual road so cars (and eventually our tour bus) drove through it. They are gorgeous trees that line the road, but with all the people and cars around it was kind of lack luster.

Our next stop on the tour was the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge where we had one hour. The views from the walk up to the line to wait to cross the bridge were just magnificent.  We were worried about our timing for crossing the bridge due to our time limit.  We found some other girls from our tour and hopped in line with them since they were going to go across as well.  While walking across I felt like it was really bouncy even though no one was bouncing on it. I was a bit scared, but there was no way that I could have fallen.  Katie and I each had our little photo opportunities and then hopped back in line to cross back over (time restrictions because of the tour group).  Our little tour buddy friends and Katie and I decided to take turns to run up to the look out and take photos which worked out well.  I don't think the people in line behind us liked it much, but hey we weren't actually cutting or anything. It was mutually beneficial to both parties at least. 

We made it back to our bus with a few minutes to spare and realized that half our group was still on their way back from the rope bridge. We waited - which would be a common theme on the tour that day. When everyone was finally back on the bus we headed into town to get some lunch. Katie and I decided to split a meal that cost 10 pounds (since we were in Northern Ireland). We got done a little early and I ran over to get an ice cream cone from the shop across the road. We talked to our tour guide a bit. He was nice enough, but preoccupied by the dinner plans he had after the tour when we got back to Dublin.

Our bus was late leaving the little town because some of the people decided to go to a different pub to get lunch and it took longer than it should have. The bus driver wasn't happy with them. He had to reiterate how if you take more time at one place, it shaves time off other stops and makes us get back later and later to Dublin. Finally we were on our way up to Giant's Causeway. We walked down the hill to where it was. There was a pretty little bay near there where we stopped and took some photos. Then we finally made it down to where the rock started changing to the octagonal shapes.  It was so strange to see, but beautiful. Giant's Causeway was caused by volcanic activity and rapid cooling caused the hexagonal basalt columns to form about 50-60 million years ago.  Folk lore says a giant built the stairs to bring his girlfriend over from Scotland. I wish we could have spent a little more time there if not to just take it all in and not have to worry about the rest of the group and time restraints.

We had to wait quite a while for some of the people on our tour to return to the bus, and for that our bus driver was livid.  He made them stay in the bus for the next photo opportunity which ended up being Dunlace which is also known as Castle Greyjoy from Game of Thrones. I took a few photos, but our tour guide didn't really even say anything about it. In fact, I found out that it was "Dunlace Castle" from a quick Google search after the fact.

We got to stop in Belfast for about an hour for dinner.  It wasn't really long enough to explore the city but we did get to see Belfast City Hall.  Our bus parked right outside of it.  We walked around a little market that was going on until 6, but when we came back later after going to Tesco Express to buy dinner (yummy chicken, quinoa, and pepper salad) it was closed. I ate my salad on the way back to Dublin. And tried to nap a bit.  Our bus was nice because it had WiFi.  Other than that the tour was fun because we got to see some gorgeous places, but a bummer because we didn't get to learn anything about those places from our tour guide.

When we got back to Dublin we dropped off some of our stuff and freshened up at our apartment. We noticed some of our devices wouldn't charge so I found the fuse box and flipped one which worked. Then we decided to venture out for a drink.  Katie had a quota of at least one Guinness per day when we were in Ireland.  We went to a little place around the corner from us and had a quick drink. There was some live music but it wasn't that great so we decided to venture on to a different bar. We ended up on a 3 level place and of course Katie had to get another Guinness, because why not?!  The way they pour it is so interesting.  They fill it 3/4 full and then let it sit for a couple minutes before filling it entirely.  This bartender that Katie ordered from set 2 glasses of Guinness on top of each other (photo below). 

We randomly ran into a guy from Boston (Katie lived in Boston for a summer) so they chatted a bit about East Coast things. He had just come over on a spur of the moment trip which was awesome, but he was just going to spend most of his time in Dublin.  In retrospect I feel bad for the guy. My favorite parts of the trip were outside of Dublin city and yet to come in the bloggy post. 

 

 

Monday, May 30 - 

 After getting up and ready for the day (minus a shower thanks to a blown fuse), we got on a double-decker bus that took us all the way to the airport (equipped with wifi again!). We figured out where to go to get to the rental car area and had to hop in a little transit van that took us to the Budget office. I hopped in line and Katie maneuvered all of our luggage into the building which was a feat. When all the paperwork was signed (with insurance) and I asked some dumb questions about our automatic car (is this car diesel?) we were all ready to go! I was the first one to take the wheel since the car was in my name. We packed all of our stuff in there and I got in on the wrong side of the car for an American.  It was so strange at first.  And of course the first thing I have to drive through is a roundabout. I had heard that those are extremely hard for Americans to figure out.  I had asked a co-worker from Scotland to explain roundabouts to me before I left and I didn't get it even with a diagram!  When I was pulling up to it I was so scared, but I understood how it worked, and made it through the first of many, many roundabouts on the trip. 

We were on our way to Galway and decided to take the major motor way out of town the M50. It was so strange driving on the other side of the road and side of the car at first.  But after awhile it becomes the norm and something that isn't always at the front of your mind, but it still required some (lets be honest, most) of my attention.

Our destination was Bookeen Hall in Athenry where we had booked an Air BnB in a 200 year old  restored church converted into a living space. Our host, Chris, and his two adorable dogs were so wonderful.  He was welcoming and very accommodating by letting us check in early and put our stuff in our room. We chatted with Chris for awhile, booked the next night in a hostel in Galway, and then decided to get some lunch. 

We headed over to a Tesco, and got fresh made sandwiches and sodas. From Tesco, we headed over to Ashford Castle which was beautiful.  We paid the five Euros to go around the grounds of the castle. We parked our little Nissan Micra and started walking around the grounds.  The castle was huge, and someone could only enter the castle if they were actually staying there.  Katie and I looked into staying, but it was about 500 Euros a night, and we couldn't justify it. We took in the stunning views of the lake and then walked back to our clown car. 

Our next stop was Cong Abbey, by far one of my favorite stops along the way. It was crumbling but beautiful. There was just something about this place that made me stop and think about how lucky I am, to be there in that moment with an amazing friend experiencing a new country together. We walked around and snapped some photos. Found a little fisherman's cottage on the river which some one was actually fishing on.  It was just wonderful. The little town we stopped in was adorable too.  We popped into some of the shops and Katie bought the most beautiful scarf which I'm still a little envious of.

From there we headed over to Connemarra.  Our drive was kind of nerve wracking to be honest.  Our sat nav (as they say), or GPS took us to some crazy tiny little country roads that were absolutely gorgeous, but half the time I felt like I was going to barf.  There was one point where our little car would barely fit on the road and someone was coming from the opposite direction! We stopped when we first saw that there were fences made stone which are fascinating and beautiful in my opinion.  The fences are made with obvious little holes in them (see photos below) to allow the wind to go through them, without knocking them down. How cool is that?

There was also an instance where I almost hit a sheep while driving around Connemarra. It popped its little head out from behind a boulder and it barely escaped! It freaked me out.  What if we would have hit it? Our car would have been ruined, and the poor sheep would have lost its life.  Then what? Do we some how try and find the farmer that owns the sheep? How do we call the rental company without our phones working?! Crisis averted though! Not one sheep was injured during our drive around Ireland (thank goodness!)  At one point we stopped in a beautiful little town near Leenane to see the gorgeous view of some mountains with water. The photos I took did not do it justice. We popped into some of the touristy shops and then went into the cutest pub where we found about 10 musicians playing, singing and drinking.  It was wonderful!

After we had our fill at the cute pub, we hopped back in the car and dove to Clifden where we decided to eat dinner. I was under the impression that there would be some gorgeous view over the water where we could eat. We picked a restaurant that claimed a "view" but we were disappointed.  Our dinner was good but I had expected more from the view.  We walked a little along the main street of the town which was cute, and then decided to head back to Athenry. As I said before, the sun sets so late in Ireland that it didn't seem as late as it actually was. When we got back to the church that was our home for the night, I climbed up to the tower to look at the view.  While it wasn't much it was still fun to see the view and sunset through the church window. I  showered and got ready for bed.  I tried to write in my journal, but it didn't go so well and I neglected it for the rest of our trip too! How terrible of me. I love writing in my journal in case I want to look back on it in the future to bring back details of my trip that may have slipped away over time.

 

 

Tuesday, May 31st-

When we woke up in the morning, our host Chris had the most beautiful spread of fruits, pastries, yogurts and juices for breakfast.  It was one of the best meals of our trip because it was so beautiful, delicious and nutritious too! I had this wonderful lemon yogurt that was the creamiest smoothest yogurt I'd ever had.  Needless to say it has since ruined any yogurt I have had and will have from that day forward. I still appreciate other yogurts deliciousness though. We packed up our car after breakfast and headed into Galway to park our car, drop our bags at our hostel and catch our tour that would take us through the Burren, Innisheer, and the Cliffs of Moher.

We found our way to the bus stop where the tour bus was going to pick us up.  I needed a caffeine boost so I decided to try an espresso at the recommendation of my traveling partner, Katie.  I got one, relatively inexpensive but disgusting.  I took it like a shot because I had tried to sip it and ew.  It worked for what I needed it to though. We hopped on our tour bus after checking in and picked our seats for the day.

We headed out of Galway and through the Burren region. It is a rocky region in county Clare. It is very interesting and different than I thought it would be. I was under the impression (from pinterest)  that it was an arrangement of stones, not a region made up of rocky landscape. It was still beautiful. We made it to our destination: Doolin, where we would hop on the ferry over to Inisheer, the smallest and least touristy of the Aran Islands. Did I mention that the weather we had was just phenomenal, not only on Tuesday, but basically the whole trip? Perfect temperature, hardly any clouds in the sky, and not what I expected from Ireland.

On our ferry ride over to Inisheer, we got to see a ship wreck which apparently was the first time that cookies (biscuits) had ever been introduced to the island. We also learned about a dolphin that likes to hang out near the beach and swims with some people, and is not very friendly to others. We finally made it to the island and it was just unbelievable. There is an old castle that is crumbling, and horses and buggies to cart people around in.  The beach looked like the Mediterranean with white sands and aqua water. It was just magnificent.  Katie and I decided to take a horse and buggy around the island. We went by the old castle but didn't go in it. The island is covered in those stone walls that I described before. And there are beautiful horses kept inside some of the fences too. There is also a small lake on the island which we rode by as well. We went over to the ship wreck and explored around there for a bit. The buggy, our horse and our driver were awesome too. He gave us a little history on some of the things around the island. Katie and I were the only ones on our little buggy so it was kind of like a private tour! When our tour was over, our driver dropped us off at the only pub, and we grabbed a pint to drink by the sea. It was a wonderful way to spend our early afternoon! There was a cute puppy and another smaller shaggy dog playing in the water. I felt creepy taking photos of them, but I just love dogs so much, I couldn't help myself.

We also watched a man who swims with the dolphin. He has a fin that looks like a dolphin tale. I heard from our tour guide (for the day) that if he gets in the water, he knows the dolphin is out there and she likes to swim with him. She is an unusual dolphin because dolphins usually travel in pods and avoid human contact such as this. We saw him gearing up to get in, but we never were able to see the dolphin unfortunately.When it was time to leave the beautiful island, we hopped back on the ferry and headed back to Doolin and under the cliffs of Moher. That was incredible! I think since we went under the cliffs I could grasp how big the cliffs are! I also got my first glimpse of a puffin while we were on the boat too. When we landed in Doolin we went to a pub and had some lunch. I had a chicken sandwich with mayonnaise on it. It was very bare, but cheap and filling. We walked around the cute little town and then we were off to the final part of our tour: The Cliffs of Moher from above!

We pulled into the visitors center and were given tickets. The tour guide told us we could go one of two ways by the cliffs. One towards the tower which takes you up a little higher, for a few extra Euros, or towards the path with more of a hike but beautiful views. Katie and I took the path to the left and it wasn't disappointing. What a beautiful place! We hopped over the wall (as so many other people do/have done) and there was no barrier between us and the cliffs dropping off into the ocean. I even laid on the ground to try and get a view over the side of the cliffs.  It was magical and wonderful. We walked for a while and then we had to get back to the bus by a certain time, so we walked through the visitors center to use the restroom and get a 99 (an ice cream cone that ranges in price from .50 - 2.50) which was incredibly delicious!

When we got back in the bus we were pretty tired, and it was a long drive back to Galway. Right wen we were leaving the Cliffs, our guide told us how many people died on the Cliffs last year. It was about 200 or so. He also told us that some are from suicide, but some are accidental from people using selfie sticks and not paying attention to where they are walking. How unfortunate.

 Our tour guide was one of the best guides I have ever had. The tour company was Galway Tour Co. and we picked the Aran Islands and Cliffs of Moher Tour including the Cliffs Cruise. It would have been cool if we could have been able to spend a night on the island but we didn't know what the weather would be like, or anything like that, so we decided to take the cautious route, and just stay in Galway.  Our tour guide told us some cool places to go so we could see some traditional Irish music something that Katie and I were interested in seeing. 

We checked into our hostel room (which was full of Americans by the way) and decided to head out into the streets of Galway to get a bite to eat. The city was just wonderful, especially the Latin Quarter that we were spending time in.  It was still light out even though we got back to the city about 8. There were street performers and bunting hanging from buildings across the streets. We picked a place to eat, and ordered dinner. After that we went to the traditional Irish music place and ran into two people from our tour there! They were great. One was a professor at a college but every summer they take a trip somewhere and spend a few weeks exploring the country. They were lovely people and bought us each a pint. We hung around and enjoyed the music for a while and then decided to go to a different pub.

We walked off the main road, and found a pub that was closing soon, but we had enough time to get one pint. There wasn't anywhere to sit, so we sat down with two guys who had open chairs. Have I mentioned yet that Katie is very friendly and can strike up a conversation with anyone (which I absolutely LOVE!)? They were very nice and we talked to them for quite awhile. When we were done we went back to our hostel and to our room for some much deserved sleep.

 

 

Wednesday, June 1 -

Today we woke up kind of late but early enough to get the hostel breakfast. We talked to one of our hostel roommates and he decided to come down to breakfast with us. His name is Matt and he is from New Jersey. He came to Ireland to surf for a few weeks. What a cool story! He came from the Dingle Peninsula to Galway, and had decided that he was going to go back there to get some more surfing in. The breakfast was pretty good, but I wasn't that hungry.  We finished eating and then headed back to the room to pack and get ready for our day of driving to Killarney.

We found our car in the parking garage, and repacked our stuff. First on our list of places to visit was Bunratty Castle.  It had been recommended to us by a friend because they make their own Meade on premises. We got there and it just looked like a massive tourist attraction, not to mention that it cost 20 Euros to get in.  We took a few photos and then decided to hop back in the car and look at the tourist books that Katie brought along (which proved to be worth the extra weight)!  We picked a place called Lough Gur. The book didn't say much about the place in the description, but it was intriguing enough, and on the way(ish) to Killarney so we thought, why not? We knew that the site was important to Ireland's history, but that was about all we knew.   Our first stop along the way was a beautiful old church that (again) was crumbling, covered in lichen and just stunning. It was called the First Church, and is part of Lough Gur, which we didn't realize at the time. We also came upon some very old stones that were arranged in a type of covered den called the Wedge Tomb. It was very interesting, but hard to photograph. I didn't get very many good shots of it. We finally made it over to the visitors center and realized that both of our previous stops were part of the exhibits we came to see. I also saw the cutest little baby ponies that were grazing in a meadow with their moms. I even caught a cute pony kiss!

We stopped by the lake for a little bit to take photos of the baby swans that were following their parents around and flapping their cute little fuzzy wings. Apparently I'm a sucker for baby things.  Then we hopped back in our car and found the Grange stone circle which is the largest in Ireland.  A woman who worked at the visitors center had told us about. It was so interesting to see. Again, hard to photograph, but thank goodness for Iphones with panoramas! The 150 diameter circle is made up of 113 stones.  The land around the circle is tended to by a local farmer, and there was a fenced in field that kept some friendly cows that we petted for a while.  I tried to feed one some grass, and of course it sneezed on me instead of eating the grass.  The cow that Katie fed liked the snack though and actually wanted to eat more!

We had quite a drive ahead of us so we hopped back in our car and were off to Killarney. Our hostel we had booked for the night was an old manor house.  Our sat nav took us right to it. We checked in at the desk and made our way to our room.  Katie and I had booked a private room so we wouldn't have to share, but it seemed like not many people were there.  And the people that were staying were interesting to say the least. We dropped our stuff off and walked down the hill to a restaurant called the Golden Nugget.  I decided to try something new called Vol-au-vent.  It was a pastry with chicken and pesto.  It was really tasty and I kept seeing it on menus throughout Ireland, so I'm assuming its popular there.

From there we headed back to our car at the hostel and decided to explore the city. As we were leaving the hostel to explore, we were stopped by one of the patrons we had chatted to a bit before. He explained that he and his friends were on a trip from Bristol, England and were going to do the Ring Kerry. We realized later after we met some of his friends that they were a group of mentally handicapped people on vacation with supervisors which was wonderful to see them getting out and exploring the world that lies at their feet, especially in Europe!

We hopped in our car and stopped at a beautiful church and snapped some photos. Then we decided to head over to Muckross abbey. This was by far one of my fondest memories.  We walked up to the abbey through a pasture with cows as the light was getting to that perfect golden hour. The abbey was again crumbling but beautiful and was kept up enough for people to go up the stairs and explore. Katie and I walked around for what seemed like ages (in a good way though) taking photos of the Abbey. As the sun was setting, and it was getting darker out, we decided to head back to town, fill up our car with petrol and head back to the hostel. While in the petrol station, I saw the saddest thing, a 99 that had fallen on the floor and was still in the perfect shape of the ice cream with the flake in it and everything. I took a photo of it of course.

We filled up and made it back to the hostel and even made it back to the hostel while it was still light out.  I showered up and got everything packed for the next day. Something that was understandable but annoying about this place was that the WiFi was out, so we were disconnected from the world for about 24 hours.

 

 

Thursday, June 2 -

We woke up early and headed downstairs after we were ready to wait for the kitchen doors to open up so we could get our yummy yogurt we bought from a store the day before. When we were able to get into the kitchen and eat our breakfast, we cleaned up our utensils that we used and then brought our bags down to the car to embark on the Ring of Kerry.

Katie and I stopped at a gas station to get some free WiFi, and a caffeine boost. The man who worked at the counter was incredibly hard to understand.  He tried to find us a guide for the Ring of Kerry, and also suggested we take our car on a ferry from Reenard Point to Knights town on Valentia Island, so that is what we did. Our ferry ride in our car cost 7 euros. It was short and sweet too! Then we drove around the island and took in the beautiful sights of which were stunning vistas with mountains and ocean, and another cemetery with a crumbling tower. We drove over a bridge to get back to the main land and then decided to stop and see the Skellig islands from afar. Booking a tour out to the most famous one - Skellig Michael - has to be done months to a year in advance. Sometimes they are cancelled due to weather as well.

Katie and I decided to take a boat ride out to the Skelligs, but we weren't able to go onto either of them. Skellig Michael is best known for being a UNESCO World Heritage sight, and for the filming of Star Wars. It is incredibly interesting to think that Monks built a monastery out on the island which is a little more than seven miles away from the mainland. These monks had to fend for themselves. I wonder if they got banished out there, or if it was a choice. A quick Wikipedia search told me that the abbey was founded between the 6th and 8th century and no more than 13 people lived on the island at one time. The dwellings were inhabited until the 12th or 13th centuries until the monks couldn't live on the island anymore due to weather.

Seeing the islands in person was incredible. The boat captain took us around Skellig Michael so we could see the sights where Star Wars filmed, and consequently destroyed some of the cliffs.  There was still some scaffolding in place when Katie and I were there. We also could see part of the monastery, but nothing like the images I had seen on the internet. It was still incredible to see in person. Then we went over to the other Skellig: Little Skellig. The name is misleading because I think the "Little Skellig" is actually bigger than Skellig Michael. The Little Skellig was covered in Gannetts which is the largest population of the large birds in all of Europe. They would fly high up into the sky over the ocean, and then dive straight down into the water presumingly to get fish to eat.

Did I mention there were PUFFINS there too?! I don't know why I like puffins so much. Maybe its because they are cute and tiny, and seem to not like me. I tried so hard to get some good photos of them, and just barely succeeded. Most of my photos are from far away, and happen to have puffin butts flying away from me. I wonder if they can sense my love for them, and that is why the flee. I've heard they are quite evasive, but if I were to go on Skellig Michael, I probably would have been able to get close to them.  Next time puffins, next time.

When we were off the boat on the mainland, we hopped in our car and kept driving over to Cork. The Ring of Kerry as a whole was underwhelming, but maybe that was just because we didn't know the right areas to stop and see things. If I ever go back, I think I will go to the Dingle Peninsula over the Ring of Kerry, or bring along a tour guide!  In Cork, we went to a mall to use the WiFi.  We had researched our trip like crazy, but couldn't ever really find somewhere in Cork that we were content staying. I looked on Air BnB and booked a last minute room in a house with a couple for about $50 - so cheap!  We popped over to the closing English Markets and there wasn't a whole lot to see. Cork seemed like it was just another European city with the same shops along their main street. To be fair, Katie and I spent only a few hours in Cork, so I definitely would be willing to give it another chance.

We headed to our Air BnB which was located in Blarney a little ways away from Cork.  We had the full address, but our sat nav wasn't helping us out much except for getting us in the general area. For some reason I decided to open my google maps app on my Iphone, and it could track my location, so that is how we found our place to stay that night. Sheer dumb luck. The Air BnB hosts, Claire and John were simply lovely! They were kind, courteous, and chatted with us for a while before they had to return to their real life happenings. Katie and I decided to pop into Blarney to grab some dinner and a few little things at the grocery store. We had had a long day, so when dinner was finished, and Katie's obligatory Guinness a day, we headed back to the house and got ready for the next day.

 

 

Friday, June 3 -

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast and got ready for the day. We said goodbye to Claire and John and made our way over to the Blarney Woolen Mills to finish our souvenir shopping. Katie picked up some things for her family, as did I. I also got a pretty wool blanket that is gray and white plaid. From there we hit the road and headed north toward the Wicklow Mountains. On our route we decided to stop at a place called the Rock of Cashel in Cashel. It was recommended to me by a co-worker and sounded amazing. She told me that there were kings and queens that had been buried there. Katie and I were excited to see what it was about.

We pulled up and were kind of disappointed to see to see that it was being renovated, which meant that there was scaffolding and tarps all over the place. Regardless, it was incredible. Katie and I decided to hang around for a tour from a cute little pregnant Irish lady. She told us all about the Rock of Cashel, and here are some of the things she told us. The structures date back to the 1500s. These wonderful buildings with no roofs (most roofs back then were made from thatch and that doesn't stand the test of time) are all made of stone. There is a cathedral, and a chapel with beautiful fresco paintings that date back 800 years. There is also a circular stone tower with a door that is about 5 feet off the ground. This was to keep valuable safe, and make it harder for burglars to get in. The single door 5 feet off the ground thing kind of backfired if someone set fire to the tower, the monk would get stuck in the tower and end up dying. 

Touring the grounds was wonderful. I loved having a tour guide too. Ours was so knowledgeable. There were so many Celtic crosses and carvings in the stone. The Rock of Cashel is sitting on a high point in the city, so there are beautiful views of meadows with sheep and an abbey below. We spent a few hours at the Rock of Cashel, but couldn't spend too long there, because we had to find our next Air BnB in Wicklow.

The directions from our host, Mick were kind of confusing, but we finally found our way to his house, which was beautiful.  Katie and I rented a room in their house. Mick told us his wife used to work for Sony in the public relations department, and has had dinner with the likes of Sting and The Rolling Stones.  They also have three dogs, and a few kids, most of which were old enough to be out of the house. Mick was very nice, and told us about a hike in the woods off a mountain bike trial. Katie and I relaxed a bit and sorted our stuff out then changed in to hiking clothes and started off on the hike! We stopped at the bike station to ask for a little guidance. The guy took us to the trail map which is at the trail head.

First of all, the map of the trails was complete crap. Katie and I each took photos of it on our phones, but looking back it made absolutely no sense. No wonder we ended up getting lost!  The bike guy had told us the hike should take about 30-45 minutes to get to the look out over a lake that looks like a pint of Guinness and was also the set for the show "The Vikings". We took trails and kept walking for what seemed like hours.  Oh yeah, because it actually WAS for hours!  What was supposed to be a nice little hike turned in to a two hour escapade of getting lost in the woods. We did run into some bikers on the trail, who told us to keep walking the way we were. So of course we did.  Finally we found more signs of life.  We came across some sheep farmers getting ready to shear a flock of sheep. We even got to see some little baby ones <3!  We asked for directions, and they told us to walk through their sheep field, hop a fence and continue up the road. So that is what we did.  The sheep field was massive and covered in sheep droppings. Between walking up hill basically the whole way and dodging sheep poo, I was pretty tired when we made it to the fence.  Then we literally had to climb over it! It was a pretty tall fence, so that was fun. When we were on the road, Katie flagged down a car, and asked where the scenic vista point was for the lake. They said it was about a 10 minute hike up the road. Come to find out later, that is what the Irish say when giving directions,  no matter how far away it is!  So we started tromping up the hill. We came across some guys golfing, and they gave us the same directions, though not as polite as the family in the car.

FINALLY after two hours of walking up hill, through the woods, a sheep farm and finally a road, we made it to the look out point.  It wasn't as wonderful as I'd like it to be for all the trouble it was to get there, but hey we made it. Then we found a trio of guys who were trying to decide where to camp for the night.  They were nice and invited us to their "barbecue", which turned into a huge flop. They couldn't start a fire so we decided to head into town to grab some dinner at the local pub (after dropping their meat off at our Air BnB house).  This was such a kind gesture of them to give us a ride back into town (especially since we were exhausted and pretty sure we would get lost in the woods on the way back to our Air Bnb).  We had a relatively nice dinner chatting with the geology masters students.  Then at the very end of the night, we come to find out that one of the guys, Rob, knows Katie's friend Cassie, who we had just seen in Dublin about a week ago!  Such a small world.

We went back to our Air Bnb, but we couldn't find the meat that we put in the fridge - which was very perplexing. We couldn't figure it out and didn't want to pillage through their house, so the three guys left with out their meat.  They weren't very happy because they had spent quite a bit of money on it. Katie and I went to bed, and of course we only had the worst ideas of what happened to the meat in our head.  We concluded that Mick and his wife weren't happy with us because we let they guys in their house to use the restroom, and put the meat in the fridge.

 

 

Saturday, June 4 -

Katie and I woke up in the morning, nervously got ready for the day, and went out in the back yard to see the sheep. They were so loud, and I couldn't help but giggle at the bleating noises the sheep made. They were cute. We hesitantly went out into the kitchen for breakfast. Mick and his wife came out too. We chatted a bit, and then dove into the crazy story of us getting lost in the woods. Mick then told us he had moved the meat into a different fridge, and our meat mystery was solved! Its crazy that Katie and I jumped to the worst conclusion on what ended up being just a miscommunication/confusion. Mick thought the whole thing was as hilarious as did we. I still felt bad for the boys and their wasted money on the meat. We told Mick he could keep it since we had no way of getting a hold of the guys or returning it to them.

Katie and I packed up our things and drove by the Powerscourt Estate which we had found in the guide book that Katie had. It looked busy already, and cost to get in, so we headed over to Glendalough. Glendalough is a 6th century Christian monastic site which turned into a city with multiple structures on it. On our way there, I had to turn the car around and consequently hit a rock.  If that scrape on the side bumper was the only thing that happend from driving on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, I am still proud of both of us. (And remember, no sheep was harmed while we drove around Ireland!) What a feat! Back to Glendalough: it was very interesting to see, even though it seems like everything we have seen has included some sort of crumbling structures. That is what happens when you travel to Europe, or any country that is rich in history, unlike our young country.  This one had churches, crosses, and another circular stone tower. It was great to see, and got busier as they day went on .

From Glendalough, we decided to head over to Greystones, which is a coastal town. We stopped for lunch at a place called Beach House (or something similar) and ate outside on the patio where the weather was just lovely. We took a little walk along the path that took us by the ocean which was nice. Then we hopped back in our car and made our way back into Dublin to the Trinity Hotel.  It was a bank holiday that weekend which means a 3 day weekend, which means all of the accommodation prices skyrocketed. We could only find a place in a hotel for about 250 Euros, which was fine because we split it. Upon checking in, our room got upgraded to a suite - on the top floor. It came with free chocolates and some bottled water too.  Katie and I each had our own rooms and bathrooms, which was awesome! We also noticed that our room was extremely hot, and most places in Ireland don't have air conditioning, so we just had to deal with it.

Katie and I decided to return the car to the airport, so we drove over, filled her up with petrol, and then hopped on a bus to come back to the city. P.S. - they didn't say a word about the huge scrape on the side of the bumper! Thank goodness for insurance!

From our hotel, Katie and I walked to meet her friend Cassie and her boyfriend Sam. We had dinner where Sam works which is a yoga place, but also a vegan restaurant. I had a veggie burger that was decent. We told Cassie of our Wicklow hiking story and that we met her friend Rob. She thought the coincidence was funny as well. Cassie suggested some pubs around town that would be nice for our last night in Ireland. We said our goodbyes to Cassie and Sam and headed over to Whelans - a famous Irish pub most well known for the scene in P.S I Love You. We sat down and had a pint. Then we started chatting with a couple who was there to see one of their favorite band - Ports. They convinced us to come along, and so Katie and I bought tickets to see the show!   The show was great, but I enjoyed the opener much more! She called her self For the Birds, and her songs and covers were just lovely. The couple kept us company all night and we  stayed out later than we planned.

We finally made it back to the hotel and got ready to leave for home the next day.

 

 

Sunday, June 5 -

We woke up, finished packing and organizing our things and found our way to the bus stop after checking out of our hotel room. and we were on our way to the airport, Iowa bound. We went through customs and US immigration after checking in for our flight, and the lines were pretty long, but not terribly bad. We also had built in some buffer time in case something like that happened. Then we were on our way back to Chicago in no time at all! I watched a few movies on the way back, and chatted with a nice Irish man who was in my row as well. He was very kind and begged for Katie and I to stay in Ireland so that Ireland could keep up with their beautiful weather streak. We had an eight hour lay over in Chicago, that we tried to avoid and get flight changes to no avail. Then we finally made it back to Des Moines around midnight. It was nice to be back home, but I always get vacation blues after coming home from a wonderful trip.

 

 

In summation - I feel like I have written a novel, and thank you for staying with me for this long. Ireland is beautiful. We had incredibly gorgeous weather, and Irish people are some of the nicest people I've ever met! I would highly recommend a visit to the emerald isle and also to get the heck out of Dublin. The most beautiful sights to see are out of the city. I am so incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful friend like Katie. Thanks to you for pushing us to plan and making the trip what it was! You're the best! Hope you enjoyed my ramblings. 

Until next time!

Love,

Rachel

Source: http://rachel-marek.blogspot.com