You might remember that way back in July I went to Ireland for twelve days with one of my best friends and sorority sisters.  Or you might not because it has been so long ago.  At any rate, I am happy to report that I have FINALLY finished editing the photos.  My personal photo projects always seem to get pushed to the back burner during the busy wedding season.  Moyer is my traveling buddy and we are dead set on having a traveling adventure every year.  So far we have taken over Italy, Spain, and now Ireland.  When the two of us get together (and its been this way ever since college), 1)it is always an adventure 2)we usually get into trouble 3)there is ALWAYS going to be a story.

During the twelve days in my home country (I say this loosely as my last name is Sullivan), we visited Dublin, Lismore, Cork, Killarney (the Irish version of Gatlinburg), Bunratty, Dolin, Inisheer Island, Dingle Peninsula, Galway, and a bunch of other small villages along the way.  This year was different in that we drove the countryside instead of taking public transportation as we normally do–can’t wait to tell you those stories!  I had a couple of goals on this trip: 1)Learn to drink Guinness correctly 2)Take a picture of sheep crossing the road 3)Take pictures of rolling green hills 4)Take a picture of old men in a pub drinking a pint of Guinness and 5)Drink a lot of Guinness because that is what one does in Ireland.  The drinking Guinness part caused us to meet many new friends as we knew we would.  By the end of our trip, we sort of thought we were pretty popular in Ireland especially in the little village of Doolin. We came back to our room from a day of touring and the bartender of the pub below our room had four messages waiting for us–people had been calling and stopping by looking for us.  We had heard great things about the Irish people and we were not disappointed.  They are truly some of the nicest people I have ever met–so welcoming and just plain nice!

As tradition goes, Moyer missed her connecting flight and arrived to Dublin a day later than me (this exact same scenario also happened in Spain).  But I certainly couldn’t waste a day so I hopped on the Open Top Bus Tour as I generally like to do in a new city.  At least this time around, everyone spoke English. When Moyer finally arrived we rented a car and began our journey east hitting every scenic route our map had to offer.  Not only did we have to learn to drive on the opposite side of the road and sit on the opposite side when driving, we somehow were supposed to be able to drive on three fee wide winding roads going 50 km/hour.  This did not work out so well for us.  About every 20 minutes, one of us would drive up on a curve, take out an entire tree, or basically hit another car.  We made it out alive with the only injuries being Moyer taking down another car’s mirror and me puncturing our tire which had to be replaced.  Luckily, hitchhiking is very common in Ireland and like I said the people are very friendly.  We were standing around for maybe 5 minutes before a man walked by and offered to drive us to the nearest service station (because like we really know how to change a tire).  Surprisingly after about 1.5 hours, we were on our way again.

We stopped in many of the small villages where there were zero tourists because that is how we like to roll when we we travel.  We enjoy spending time with the locals and hearing their stories.  In Lismore, we stumbled upon one pub where we were not quite sure if they were actually speaking English or not.  This small village was so secluded and there were so many local farmers who had grown up there for generations that they had basically developed a completely different dialect.  Yes, this was the kind of pub I had always dreamed about in Ireland–a bunch of old men in a dark wooden pub who had been there for hours with a pint of Guinness in hand. Surely this was the place I was to get my “old men in a pub drinking” photo but alas, I felt there was never a good opportunity without it being completely obvious.  Looking back, I should have just gone for it as it was my only real opportunity and that photo goal was not met.

On to Bunratty where Moyer had her “surprise” of the trip for me.  Moyer likes to do a TON of research on trip advisor and other websites before we travel.  She always finds the most random but coolest activities for us.  And once a trip, she likes to keep one of those activities a surprise for me which is always fun because I love surprises.  This trip, she signed us up for a medieval banquet in the Bunratty Castle–so fun! Moving on, we saw the Cliffs of Moher–unfortunately, it was raining and overcast that day so the photos definitely weren’t as beautiful as they could have been.  On the way down from the Cliffs, we picked up two hitchhikers who were American travelers as well.  Turns out we knew mutual people–such a small world!  We also saw the world’s longest stalactite in the Doolin Cave.

From Doolin we were going to yacht it over to Gallway with some of our new teacher friends to watch the  end of the Volvo Ocean Race but the timing didn’t quite work out plus we had that now beat up rental car that we had to worry about.  So we drove there instead.  Within 10 minutes of arriving at our hotel in Galway, Moyer had completely flooded the bathroom and I had lost a ton of Euros trying to figure out how to work the hotel’s computer.  We visited all sorts of festivals for the sailing race which was a blast.  We even bought cheese from a local market and had a picnic in a ferris wheel that overlooked the city.  How romantic? The town was so alive and there was excitement everywhere.  Gallway along with Cork might have been my favorite places in Ireland.  After Galway, we headed back to Dublin as it was just about time to fly back to the States. Our trip would not have been complete without  first visiting the Guinness Storehouse and that is exactly what we did.  Here, we both learned and crafted the perfect pint of Guinness–what an honor and accomplishment!

All in all, it was a fabulous trip and Ireland is absolutely gorgeous!  We met some amazing people, fell in love with trat music (that’s traditional Irish music for those of you not up on your Irish lingo), sang in the rain, drank more than enough Guinness to last us a lifetime, and most importantly had more craic (Irish slang for fun) than ever before.  The food much better than expected–in fact, I found it delicious! As much as I was searching for sheep crossing the road everywhere along our journey and asking every farmer I met how we could make this happen, Moyer was on a mission for the perfect Oyster.  She decided it necessary to go to five different restaurants before choosing one–later I found out it was because the first four didn’t have oysters.  Although I didn’t get a picture of old men in a pub drinking Guinness or sheep crossing the road, I suppose that gives me a reason to go back.  Alright, so were to in 2013?  I’m thinking South America, but Moyer is thinking Greece.  Suggestions?