Josh, Evan and I arrived back from Ireland and had a great trip. The vacation involved a bit too much driving time for my liking, but I guess that is the way to see and experience the Irish countryside.
On Thursday, we arrived in Ireland around 3:30 pm, and since I had done my homework on the Guiness Factory, I knew that we would have to go straight from the airport to the factory in order to make it in time for the last tour. So, we did just that, and wasted very little time in Dublin before enjoying our first Guiness. The beer tasted great, and the tour was pretty good too:)
The tour of the factory is self-guided and takes you through the beer making process as you walk through various exhibits scattered throughout the 7 story building. The finale of the tour is the top floor tasting room, where you get to enjoy a draft, poured the 'correct way'which for a Guiness takes just under 2 minutes per pour, while taking in the 360 degree view of Dublin. We enjoyed the views and got into a conversation with a couple from Chicago who recommended that we take the scenic drive through the Wicklow mountains on our way to Killarney, which is the town I had booked us an Inn at for the next two days. The scenic drive turned out to take us about 11.5 hours! To be fair, that horrendous amount of driving time did include putting a donut on the car after getting a flat tire (actually completely shredded tire thanks to a rogue screw) which we got before we even got out of Dublin, stopping for lunch of Irish Stew and Fish & Chips--delicious, in Waterford, the home of Waterford Crystal, and the 'learning curve' of driving w/ the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car, and the driving lane opposite what we are used to.
We arrived in Killarney, got settled into our Inn, and went out to explore the town. Killarney is a popular 'jumping off' point for the Ring of Kerry--the drive we had intended to do the following morning until our Inn keeper politely said "I don't think so" when we told her of our plan. Apparently, a big car rally was going on that weekend, and some of the roads along the Ring of Kerry were closed for races. I wasn't too disappointed, as the thought of another 110km in the car to see the scenery wasn't top of my list anyways, so we opted for the shorter scenic drive along the Dingle Peninsula. The scenery was pretty, the switchbacks were precarious, the cliffs were breathtaking, and the drive wasn't too too long. We stopped for breakfast in Dingle-- a homemade scone w/ cappuccino for me, and Josh had the full Irish breakfast, consisting of blood pudding, fried egg, sausages, bacon--the Irish type--extra fat and not crispy, and toast. We drove along the peninsula making a few stops to get out and take in the views, and were home to Killarney by mid afternoon. We took a slight detour before heading to our Inn, and stopped at the Killarney Lakes--a destination in and of itself of many travelers. The lakes are pretty, and their was a castle on the lower lake that we visited. After that short stop off, we made it back to the Inn in time for a late lunch/early dinner of more Irish Stew for me, and a Sheppard's pie type of dish for Josh. The Irish food definitely meets the 'comfort food' description..lots of hearty stews, potatoes etc.
The rest of our time in Killarney was spent walking the various streets of shops, pubs etc. We found Killarney, and all of the other towns to be very clean and quaint, with all the storefronts looking like the typical American "Irish Pub" type of architecture. On Sunday we headed back to Dublin...the express route...which only took 4 hours, as opposed to 11.5 thank God! We had opted for a hotel by the airport since we had an early morning flight, but we still ventured into Dublin that night for dinner in the Temple Bar neighborhood. Prior to heading to Temple Bar we had stopped by a pub that the hotel recommended but after witnessing a drunken fist fight outside of that pub (I guess you have to see at least one of those in Ireland)we decided it wasn't the most 'family friendly' place and went to another pub instead. We had a great meal; more fish n chips, bangers and mash, Smithwicks beers and Bailey's cheese cakes while we enjoyed the people watching scene of one of Dublin's trendiest neighborhoods. After that, back to the hotel for some sleep before our morning 4am wake up call..yikes!
Overall, our trip to Ireland was a great one. It was nice to be able to navigate with ease within an English speaking country, and although the thick Irish brogues of some of those who we encountered would trip us up for a second, the general lack of a language barrier helped make this trip that much more relaxing. We didn't spot any leprechauns, but then again, we hadn't seen any rainbows either so I guess it would have been pretty amazing to have found a wee little leprechaun without the colorful path of a rainbow leading our way:) I didn't have me my Lucky Charms either, but hey, Ireland offered me a lot of other things that I'll keep in my memory for years to come.
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