My Irish Holiday!

This is my first post in over a week and I feel incredibly disconnected from my world at home! As I mentioned before, my good friend from home came to visit last Saturday. We spent half of the week in Dublin, two days at my home in Belcarra and this past weekend in Galway. It was certainly nice to see a familiar face. Dublin was absolutely amazing, but so very different from the rest of Ireland!  I stayed at my first big hostel, with over 220 beds. We made lots of new friends from all over the world! I’ve made it a habit to exchange email addresses or become Facebook friends with all of my new acquaintances. It’s a great way to not only keep in touch, but to network as well. Ya never know when you’ll find yourself in Southeast Asia and need a place to stay, right? =)

I’m not really into organized tours. I would much rather use public transportation to explore new places on my own. It is less practical and may make things more difficult but I think you get a much more organic experience. But considering our time was limited this past week, we decided to take a couple of day trips on tour buses. On Sunday we went to the Wicklow Mountains. This area of Ireland was the prettiest I’ve seen yet! It is also where the movie “P.S. I Love You” was filmed!

It was absolutely stunning. The scenery left me speechless. It was a rainy day on Monday so we decided to stick around Dublin. One of our new friends was playing at a pub so we met up with him there for a drink. That turned into an all-day event. We ended up meeting his friend who is music producer and also happens to be partners with a man who helped manage the Beatles! One of the amazing things about travel is you just never know who you're going to meet! Speaking of meeting people, in one of my first posts I mentioned that my goal of traveling was "not to meet handsome french guys in Paris." BUT, I didn't say anything about meeting handsome french guys in Dublin =) This is my new friend Jean, who will also be my personal tour guide when I get to Paris!

Tuesday we hopped on a bus and headed to Kilkenny, which is a small town in the center of Ireland. It was a beautiful village with a castle that we explored.

The castle was built in the 1100’s and was owned by the same Irish family until the 1960’s. I couldn't take pictures of the inside but just picture Downton Abbey! It would have been very similar, with servants and a strict class structure.

  

On Wednesday we came back to Belcarra. My friend that I met a couple of weeks ago who is cycling around Ireland made a pitstop at the McCoy household and Lorraine and Noel had a beautiful meal waiting for us when we all arrived! 

The following morning Lorraine and Noel went away for the night for their anniversary so my friend and I were alone with the kids! We had great fun =)

On Friday we headed to Galway. I’ve already spent a weekend there so I showed her some great spots. It was still amazing going back a second time.

Tombs that date back to 5000 years ago!

This week is bittersweet for me. On Thursday I will leave four amazing people that I have grown so unbelievably close to and head off for my next adventure. I am excited for the journey ahead of me but it will hard to leave. It is amazing how close you can become with others in such a short time. It will indefinitely not be the last time we see each other though =) My next post will be from London. Let the nerves and excitement set in yet again!