A few months ago we decided that on our way home to the States, we needed to take a vacation to Ireland. It was a good decision because it broke up the ridiculously long trip back and it gave us a little break between the end of school craziness and the coming back to see everyone craziness. Here is a little snapshot of what we did this last week in beautiful Ireland.
The first few things we noticed and enjoyed when we got to Ireland was the green (we don't have much of that in Saudi) and the amazingly clean smell. Our version of clean air the last 10 months has been when you can't smell the industry nearby. For the first few days Jamie and I were in awe and constantly sniffing the air.
Our first big adventure was renting a car and successfully driving on the left side of the road. The car we got was a manual VW polo, tiny but nice. Being a manual, Jamie once again got stuck driving the entire time. I definitely owe him a bit of driving time in the States. We drove down to Enniskerry and Glendalough for the first part of the trip. Powerscourt Estate is an old house at the base of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, but what attracts people to it is the amazing gardens that surround the estate. There were roses the size of my face! We also did some hiking at the Wicklow Mountain National Park. Between the park and walking around Powerscourt, we figure that we walked about 11 miles that day. You could say we were a bit tired and sore afterwards.
The next big stop was Limerick. 3 years ago, Jamie has studied abroad at the University of Limerick, so we decided to come back and visit. It was a time of reminiscing for him as we visited the university, his favorite pub, and other places that held many memories of his time spent here.
Our last big stop was in Galway. This was one place neither of us had been to on previous visits to Ireland. We stayed in a beautiful B&B right on Galway Bay. This was our splurge lodging because it also happened to be our 2 year anniversary while we were there. We spent a day at the Aran Islands biking around and admiring the beauty. It really felt like you had stepped back in time there.
One thing that we love to do on vacation is eat. Ireland was no different. I always looked forward to our evening meals of fish and chips, beef and Guiness pie, or beef and cabbage. The food was amazing! One suggestion I would make to anyone going to Ireland would be to stay in B&Bs. They are homey plus every morning they will feed you a full traditional Irish breakfast!
On Wednesday we did make it safely back stateside. It was a very interesting flight back full of turbulence, pukers, and delays due to bad weather in Chicago. Our luggage did not make it back with us, but did show up last night. We really look forward to seeing you in the upcoming weeks. We are getting kind of busy, so if we haven't made plans to see you yet please email or facebook and we'll set something up.
Tara
Here are some pictures from our trip:
Us at Powerscourt Estate
The roses were huge!
One of the largest pet cemeteries which includes horses, cows, and lots of dogs.
Do you recognize these guys? We ran into the Wiggles taping a song for their kids
program while hiking at Glendalough. We could hear their song (and continued singing
it) for about half of our hike.
Jamie at the half-way point
View of the valley in Glendalough, isn't it gorgeous?
We did not stop here to eat
Jamie in front of his old dorm
View from our B&B in Galway
The beautiful coastline of the Aran Islands.
