Sunday June 19, 2016 we woke up in London all ready to go forward with our trip to Ireland. We checked out of our hotel and caught the train to Gatwick Airport for our flight to Dublin. I have NEVER in my life misread my itinerary or missed a flight until NOW! The airport and my itinerary was really confusing with unclear signs and not a whole lot of help. We stood in a HUGE line for over 2 hours only to find out we are in the wrong terminal all together WTF!!! We take off running Home Alone style through the airport only to arrive at the correct place 40 minutes before take off. They won't let us do anything because you have to be there no less than an hour before take off!!! CRAP! So I had to pay to change our tickets to the next flight. I was so stressed out. So we got all that taken care of, found our correct gate, and when the time came boarded. We were off to Ireland. Upon arrival I take an ass chewing from our transportation company, end up cussing him, and hanging up...hello WELCOME TO IRELAND this is off to a great start!
We had a private car take us to our hotel to get all checked in and ready to see Dublin! It was on and off rain but we caught a taxi to the city center which was a couple miles from our hotel and our driver dropped us off at O'Neill's Pub for a late lunch, which also happened to be on my list of places to eat. The pub was packed and the food was some of the best and most authentic we had eaten on the trip so far. It was a buffet style serving line and you chose 3 foods. After our traditional Irish lunch of cabbage, chicken and bacon puff pastry casserole, and potatoes we set out into the rain to explore.
I didn't find that much to do in or directly around Dublin and with the rain we sort of saw and did what we could but overall there's not too much to the city itself. Don't get me wrong it is beautiful and a nice city to discover but not full of the sights that were abundant in London. I would have liked to wonder aimlessly a bit more to see what we could find but the rain dampened our afternoon. We did see some of the famous streets and things like Grafton Street, Trinity College and the Temple Bar area. Caleb's travel belly ache had stuck with him so he wasn't much of a partier and that's sort of what I was hoping for LOL....that he would want to party! After we saw those few things we let the rain get the best of us and decided to head back to the hotel to research what we should do with the remainder of our time in this green nation! I already knew that with the days we had remaining I definitely wanted to see more of Ireland and not stay just in Dublin.
I grabbed some maps in the hotel lobby to see what and where we could adventure to next and saw it...the perfect little road trip. I whipped out my laptop and made sure of the distance, time, and opening times and was hooked. I made my way downstairs to book our rental car for the next two days. That night was really low key we ordered room service and turned in early ready to conquer the next couple days in Ireland.
Monday June 20, we picked up our rental car at 8 am and set off on the wrong side of the road with a standard transmission off to seek out Giant's Causeway. The wrong side of the road didn't worry me and the standard transmission didn't either but when put together I was like CRAP....Caleb didn't want to drive so I was the lucky winner and it went really well. I only messed up once and was driving on the "right" side of the road until I was met by a tractor and had to swerve into my correct lane!
Note: If you don't know about the causeway or what it even is check out this post I did 7 years ago HERE! It happens to be the VERY FIRST ever post in a series I called Tuesday's Travel To Do! So neat to finally experience this.
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| got the car and excited to go |
When traveling I love seeing the land and looking at the actual country and Caleb liked this the best as well. I like seeing how it actually looks and comparing.... is it the same or different from home and just viewing different things while traveling through. We stopped at a few spots a long the way that weren't planned, when we saw a neat area or cool picture opportunity we stopped and took it.
We made it to Giant's Causeway, purchased our tickets and set out on the path to see one of Ireland's treasures! I couldn't stop taking pictures. Every corner the views got better and better!
We took the path along the ocean down and on the way back we took a different path on top that was more countryside and we got a different view.
After seeing Giant's Causeway there was another neat sight to see, the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. This bridge spans a small gorge with the ocean below. On the way we got more beautiful coastal views and the views from the bridge were one of a kind.
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| Emerald seas and emerald land so pretty and endless |
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| contemplating all the problems of the world |
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| There is always farming going on no matter the part of world you are in |
After the rope bridge we headed back to Dublin. Caleb just wasn't himself and I was starving. He opted to stay at the hotel instead of going out to eat. I walked to a nearby restaurant and ate alone and even indulged in a glass of wine.
After walking back to the hotel we just hung out. Caleb's stomach was giving him problems so it was sort of a good thing that we only had one more full day of adventure before heading back across the pond. I had the same issues when I left out for Iraq. It was my first real time away from home and home cooking and it takes time and experience for your body to adjust and get that iron lining. I lined up our driving excursion for the next day and we hit the hay.
If you are just tuning in or missed any other parts of Caleb's graduation trip you can click links below.
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