A Road Trip North
When childhood friend Alisa [pronounced uh-Lisa] and her friend Katie said they were coming to visit me in Ireland and were open to exploring places I hadn't been to, I was delighted! This entire island is filled with beauty and most visitors tend to journey South and West. Don't get me wrong, there is a reason certain places are most popular -- they're amazing, but there is so much more to Ireland than the Blarney Castle and Cliffs of Moher. With Dublin bookending their trip, we had four days on the road to see as much as we could: Sligo > Slieve League > Giant's Causeway > Belfast. From mountains to crazy volcanic rock formations to a once turmoiled city now painted in murals, we had a fantastic time! I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and seeing a different side to Ireland!
Day 1 - Dublin:
Alisa and Katie landed at Dublin Airport early on a Wednesday morning, took the express bus into the city, and were refreshed and ready to go by about 11:00. They had flown from Minneapolis, so it had been a long night, but they were up for the challenge of powering through and exploring all that Dublin has to offer.
Instead of taking the free walking tour of Dublin, Alisa and Katie opted for a personalized, different free walking tour guided by yours truly. :) We started the tour with crossing the River Liffey and visiting Grand Canal, which is home to a lot of business' EU headquarters, including Facebook and Google, then made our way to visit Oscar Wilde in my favorite park, Merrion Square.
It always gets a little wilde with Oscar, so we were ready for a mid-tour-pint-break after leaving Merrion Square. On the way to our next destination, Dublin's more popular city-centre park, St. Stephen's Green, there is a pub called O'Donoghue's with a fantastic beer garden perfect for sipping cider on a sunshining day. We'll have three Orchard Thieves please! [read: tree Orchard Teeves if you fancy the Dublin accent ;)] We had lots of fun catching up on all things Ireland over our pints.
After our beer garden break, we strolled through St. Stephen's Green to appreciate more of Dublin's green space. This park is always packed with people taking a break from work to eat lunch on the park benches and tourists feeding the pigeons. It's a beautiful park, especially now with all the trees and flowers in bloom.
The main entrance of St. Stephen's Green brings you right to Grafton Street, arguably Dublin's best shopping district. The streets are pure madness, but the shops and restaurants make it worth it... most of the time. We wound our way through the side streets and found a cute place called Pygmalion for lunch. 2-for-1 cocktails, nachos, and quesadillas -- yum!
By the time we were done with lunch, it was already 3:45 in the afternoon and we had two more items on our Dublin to-do-list to check off for the day: 1) the crypt at St. Michan's Church; and 2) Jameson Distillery tour. Alisa had heard about the crypt tour from a former co-worker who said it was a must-see and I had never even heard of it, so I was super down to try something new in Dublin! We thought we'd hit up the crypt and drink away the creepiness with some whiskey at Jameson afterwards. This turned out to be the right choice and convenient because they are basically right next to each other!
We made our way through Temple Bar and crossed back over the river via the Ha'Penny Bridge and over into the Smithfield neighborhood. Dating back to 1686, St. Michan's Church stands tall in the middle of all the modern office buildings. The inside of the church is rather plain and barron, but the true attraction lies underground, within the vaults of its crypt.
The crypt of St. Michan's Church is the forever-home for a select few. Most of the vaults contain coffins that have remained remarkably intact and untouched for hundreds of years. There are certain vaults that remain unlit due to the fact that the vault is still "active", meaning the descendants of that family can still be buried there. Those who are buried in these vaults are mostly of noble backgrounds since it would have been expensive and an honor to be laid to rest there.
Most notable in the crypt, however, are the mummies. The mummified skeletons have been preserved by the dry air and constant temperatures of the crypt; their bones covered in a thin layer of desiccated skin and centuries of dust. There were at least four mummies; all exposed in their wooden coffins. The oldest mummy is thought to be around 800 years old and they think he was a crusader. You used to be able to touch the 800-year-old mummy, but when one of his fingers got damaged, the hand-holding stopped. One of the other mummies had his hand cut off at some point in his life, and another mummy's fingernails and toenails were still perfectly intact. The oddest bit, in my opinion, was that the two male mummies had their feet cut off and the theory is that they were just too tall for their coffins. Too long for your coffin? Off with your feet! #crazy
Also worthy of noting in the vaults are two brothers, John and Henry Sheares, who have a tomb to themselves and lay to rest in coffins side-by-side. Inspired by the French Revolution, the Sheares brothers were key leaders in Ireland's failed attempt at independence from England in 1798. For their punishment, the Crown sentenced them to death in the nastiest way: they were partially hung, meaning they were released just before death, disemboweled whilst still alive, decapitated, and then their bodies were cut into four pieces [chunks? sections? idk it's gross]. Sooo that used to happen. Also in their vault is the death mask of a fellow republican, Wolfe Tone, who was sentenced to the same punishment, but offed himself instead while imprisoned. [see why it was a good idea to go to Jameson after the crypt?]
Last fun fact about the crypt: legend has it that Bram Stoker's character Dracula was inspired in part by his childhood fascination with the vaults, which he would spend time in during visits to his mother's grave in the church's graveyard.
The tour only costs €6 [cash only] and is super short. There are no set times or tickets to purchase in advance online. You can just show up to the church, no later than 4:30, and tours run as needed. The tour is led by the kookiest guide who puts on a show for the quick 10-15 minute tour. Quite frankly, we are unsure if he is always that eccentric or not. He is worth the €6 alone.
When we visited, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the crypt and mummies themselves, but there are pictures on TripAdvisor. If you're interested, you can click here to check them out.
After being certifiably creeped out by the crypt, we walked around the corner to find one of my favorite places in Dublin, the Jameson Distillery on Bow St. The tour is guided, interactive, and there is plenty of whiskey to be had while on the tour. It's a relatively quick tour -- 40ish minutes and costs €20 per person. The best part of Jameson is the artisan cocktails served at the bar. You can get one before your tour, take one on your tour, and have more after your tour. They have seasonal options -- I recommend any of the sours, but the hot drinks are perfect for a rainy day. There is one reason everyone leaves Jameson happy and their spirits lifted: Irish whiskey!
With a pep in our step and the sun on our backs, we set out to meet Chris for dinner at one of our favorite places to bring guests, Roberta's. On our way, we stopped to check out St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Dublin Castle. Dinner was fantastic per usual. Day 1 was a great success!
Day 2 - Sligo / Teelin:
On Thursday, we woke up, got our rental car, and set off to the Northwestern city of Sligo! Sligo is known for its literary connections as it was home to W.B. Yeats, its beaches for surfing and horseback riding, and the table-top mountain of Benbulbin.
The drive to Sligo is a little under 3 hours from Dublin and was a good breaking point for the afternoon. Since we only had the afternoon, we narrowed down our interests to horseback riding. We booked a two-hour horse riding excursion with Island View Riding Stables. They offer shorter and longer excurisons and you can even take riding lessons. The farm is super cute and filled with roosters cock-a-doodle-doodling, baby chicks, dogs galore, and bunnies.
There were about seven of us on the tour with two guides. We got matched with our horses: Alisa - Gyppy; Katie - Molly; and I got Todd. Todd with the mustache who also loved the lazy life. He liked to hang out at the back, go at his own pace, and take short cuts. Our two-hour tour was supposed to include riding along the beach and around the base of Benbulbin. However, we stuck to the beach for the duration of the two hours since only experienced riders can get to Benbulbin and back in the two-hour time frame and we were not that. We could still see Benbulbin from the ride, which was good enough for me.
The beach was breathtaking. The sand was white and pristine and the water was a sparkling blue-green. The current in the water is so crazy that no one goes to this beach to swim or surf, so there was nobody else on the beach except for us. It was pretty peaceful minus the times we trotted and all felt like we were going to fall off our horses! One of the most interesting parts of our tour was a washed up fishing boat that looked like it had been there for decades based on how beat up it was. Turned out it had just washed up a few weeks prior and came all the way from Cuba. The only reason they knew it was from Cuba is because there were Cuban wine bottles in the boat. One motor. No humans. That boat took a very wrong right turn...
Two hours was definitely long enough -- I hadn't ridden in probably over a decade and had forgotten how much effort actually goes into riding. Needless to say, we were all pretty sore afterwards! But it was totally worth it and offered incredible views of Ireland's Northwest coast. The tour we did cost us €56 per person. They only accept cash, which I don't believe was listed anywhere on their website.
Even though we didn't get to go to the base of Benbulbin, I was able to get a pretty good shot of the mountain from the farm. To many's dismay, that morning, a giant "NO" had been added to Benbulbin in regards to Ireland's upcoming referendum on the 8th Amendment. It was pretty sad to see, political views aside. Benbulbin is seen to many as sacred and has long ties to Irish folklore and literature, so to see it marked up seemed disrespectful. The "NO" was fortunately removed several days later. Here is the one shot I got of the table top.
After an attempt to walk off the soreness a bit, we loaded back into the car and made our way along the coast to the small town of Teelin, home to Slieve League. The drive was scenic and took less than an hour and a half. Our Airbnb was a cute, little cottage, and the type of place that doesn't appear on Google Maps, so we had to follow the owner's turn-by-turn instructions to get there. With the fantastic co-piloting by Alisa and Katie, we only made a few wrong turns and got there no problem.
There are two pubs in the town of Teelin, one was under construction, and the other stopped serving food at 4:00 p.m. that Thursday, so we flexed and whipped up spaghetti and garlic bread from the market across the street from the pub and enjoyed a night-in in our quaint, little cottage. We had a big day of hiking ahead of us, so a good night's rest was needed.
Day 3 - Slieve League
It was super nice waking up Friday morning already in the place we needed to be for the day. The night before when we went to the market, we picked up bagels, yogurt, eggs, and fruit to make for breakfast, so we were able to wake up at a leisurely pace and get a good breakfast in us before heading out for our hike.
Our cottage was definitely in the country. Like no cell service kind of country, and like sheep were our closest neighbors kind of country. But what we hadn't realized was we were only 2 km from the entrance to Slieve League, so if you're looking to hike, this was the perfect location to stay. We drove up the hill and parked in the lower car park for free.
Slieve League is a mountain located on the Atlantic Ocean and its cliffs are some of Europe's highest, measuring almost 3x taller than the Cliffs of Moher. The land leading up to the path was worth exploring and filled with sheep, so we spent considerable time taking in the views.
Once you get to the main lookout, which you'll recognize by all the coach buses, there is a little food truck selling lobster rolls and hot dogs and a souvenir truck selling woolen goods. We took a little pitstop to have some snacks and then made our way to ascend the mountain.
At its highest point, Slieve League is a staggering 609 m / 1,998 feet and we made it 1,500 feet on our hike. We took our time, with plenty of breaks to catch our breath and take pictures. We even met a guy who lived in the North Loop in Minneapolis -- such a small world! We hiked a total of 4 1/2 hours and felt very accomplished for the day!
One thing to note: something I really liked better about Slieve League than the Cliffs of Moher is that I never felt like I would fall to my death with one misstep. So there's that.
After our incredible hike, we marched our way down the mountain, into our car, and straight to the pub. We made sure to get there before 4:00 p.m. in case the kitchen was closing early again, but turns out on Fridays food is served until 8:00 p.m. With some fresh food and well deserved pints in our bellies, we were feeling great. We took it easy that night relishing in our first three days and planning ahead for the days to come.
Day 4 - Derry / Giant's Causeway:
We woke up on Saturday morning, cleaned up ourselves and the cottage, and hit the road. We were on our way to Northern Ireland! Woo! We stopped at the cutest coffeeshop down the road called Ti-Linn to grab some caffeine for our next leg of the trip. If you ever make your way over to Slieve League, definitely stop at this cute shop!
The drive North out of Slieve League is something a bit out of this world. It's mountainous, rocky, farmland. The Wild Atlantic Way continues up this way, but it is very backroad country where you might have to wait for some sheep to cross the road. Every person we passed on the road waved. Alisa thought the terrain reminded her of the Golden Circle in Iceland, which I thought was pretty cool.
At the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland lies a city with a long history of troubles and an identity crisis: Derry Londonderry. Derry Londonderry? Yes. Derry Londonderry. Derry is what the Irish / Republicans / Catholics call the city and Londonderry is what the Northern Irish / Unionists / Protestants call the city. Hence, the London in Londonderry.
For those who are not familiar, there is a lot of history at this particular place of the border. I'm not going to even pretend that I understand all of the history, but I will do my best to give a brief insight to this area. The name Londonderry dates all the way back to 1613 and was named by King James I of England. Starting in the 1800s, the Protestants in the region started abbreviating the name to Derry, and even Unionists [those loyal to the Crown] were said to be fine with the abbreviation into the 1900s. So even those groups who would call it Londonderry today, had called it Derry back in the day. Even after Ireland gained its independence in 1922 and the borders needed to be redrawn, those in charge called the city Derry. This all changed with the beginning of The Troubles in the 1960s. With nationalism hitting an all-time high on both sides, the name of the city became another battle in the war. Both sides tried changing the name officially several times to no avail. Even though The Troubles were technically over in 1998, issues with the city's name still were at issue in 2007. That's when the city decided to put an end to it and include both names in its official title: Derry Londonderry.
The city was really cool. There is a lot of history that you can easily pick up on just walking around. We parked on the East side of the River Foyle and walked across the Peace Bridge that was constructed in 2011. The Peace Bridge was built as an effort to connect two sides of a warring city and symbolize peace and unification.
The first thing you see when you cross the river is a city square with Guildhall and ancient medieval city walls with the Tower Museum behind them. Guildhall was built in 1887 and serves as a civic space now. The afternoon we were there, there was a WWII commemoration going on in the square and inside Guildhall. We couldn't figure out exactly what specific occasion they were doing the reenactment for -- maybe Germany's surrender? Either way, there were cool artifacts to see and Guildhall was stunning.
We walked through town and found a pub with a beer garden called The Dungloe Bar to grab lunch and a pint. We sat out in the beer garden, which was perfect on a sunny day. The menu was extensive, so it's a good spot to grab food.
After lunch, we made our way back across the Peace Bridge, got back in the car, and continued our journey into Northern Ireland. Interestingly, there was no signage at all when we crossed the border into Northern Ireland. I knew there wasn't border patrol as that has been a topic of discussion with the upcoming Brexit, but I was surprised there wasn't even a sign. The biggest tell was that the speed limit signs changed from kph to mph and the road signs no longer had Gaelic on them.
Our Airbnb for this portion of the trip was located in the city of Coleraine. We had been hoping to stay on the coast either in Bushmills, Portrush, or Ballintoy, but as we found out, there was a massive motorcycle race that day, so they completely took over the area. Coleraine ended up being perfect though. Everything we wanted to do or see was 10-20 minutes away. This particular house was a Bed & Breakfast and the owner's house was a beautiful Victorian-style mansion. The house was incredible and the hosts, Raj and Jacquie, were very welcoming and gave us great tips.
After we put our bags away, we set out to see Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway, and the Carrick-a-Rede Roap Bridge.
Dunluce Castle
Dunluce Castle sits literally in the middle of cow farms right on the coast. We missed the first turn-in because we thought it was the entrance to someone's farm. It also smelled heavily of manure. Yes, you needed to know that. It stunk.
The castle is from medieval times and is now in ruins. Most castles in Ireland / Northern Ireland are in ruins because years ago the owners removed the roofs to avoid paying taxes for the structures. So like many, Dunluce is without a roof, which causes a lot of the ruin. The castle has been home to Lords and Chieftans, and recently, archeologists discovered a full ancient town surrounding the castle upon excavation of the land. Most famously today, the castle is the film location of the Game of Thrones Seat of House Greyjoy, the great castle of Pyke.
Entrance to the castle closes at 4:30 p.m. and costs under £5 to get in. We missed the cut off, but were still able to snap some photos.
Giant's Causeway
Next on our list of sites to see was Giant's Causeway. Just down the road from Dunluce Castle is the entrance into the park. This one you can't miss because there are signs everywhere. It's free to park your car and free to enter if you skip the visitor's center. [ok, I'm not quite sure if it's free to park your car, but we didn't pay and no one checked] It is a bit of a steep walk down and consequently back up, but there are shuttles during visitor hours that cost £1 each way.
Giant's Causeway is a geological rock formation that was created 60 million years ago when there were highly active volcanos in the area. The rapidly cooling lava contracting formed the famous column-like structures that make up the rocks today. The columns are mainly hexagonal, which makes them so unique compared to anything I have ever seen.
We got to Giant's Causeway as the sun was starting to lower in the sky, so it was really pretty. The waves were also crashing like crazy, so we ended up sitting out on the rocks for a while to watch them. It was really peaceful once the last shuttle bus took half the people back. We particularly enjoyed watching people get splashed by the big waves.
On our way out of Giant's Causeway, there was an old English photobooth that presented us with a fun photoshoot!
Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
Further down the road from Giant's Causeway is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. The bridge links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede. It is 20 m / 66 ft long and hangs 30 m / 98 ft above the rocks and water below. The bridge is for tourists today, but it is believed that fishermen had built bridges for hundreds of years to get to the island.
As was our luck for the day, we got to the bridge after visitor's hours, but we thought we would walk down to the bridge anyway and see if we could go on it. The walk down is beautiful. There are cliffs, white sand beaches, and little islands dotting the bay.
One of the coolest little bits of this place was that we learned that one of the islands is named Alisa!
When we got down to the bridge, there was a locked gate forbidding us from making our way across it, but maybe that was okay because it looked crazy!
After a fun day of exploring the unique sites of the area, we went into the town of Portrush to find some dinner and drinks. At the recommendation of our B&B hosts, we set out to find Harbour Bar. The town was crazy packed with motorcyclists, but we were able to find a table for dinner at Harbour Bar's restaurant called the Mermaid Bar. It was a funky place with beachy vibes and nautical decor. The food was good, so I'd recommend it. After dinner, we popped into Harbour Bar for a couple drinks and some live music. We met a couple of the motorcyclists and sang the night away to classic American hits.
Day 5 - Belfast:
We woke up a little late on Sunday, but our hosts had bagels and juice ready for us, which was perfect before we packed up and hit the road again. On our way out of town, we visited The Dark Hedges, a single country road lined with towering beech trees.
The Dark Hedges were used in the filming of The Game of Thrones, Season 2, Episode 1, for those interested. The road can no longer be driven on to protect the ground, but there is a free parking lot just past the road. There were quite a few visitors when we got there around 11:00 in the morning, so if you are looking for that perfect shot, I would recommend getting up extra early to get there. Regardless, it's worth it. The trees are really spectacular.
From The Dark Hedges, we had a short hour or so drive to Northern Ireland's capital city, Belfast. I was really looking forward to Belfast because of its history. It used to be a place you couldn't and shouldn't visit. A lot of terrible things went down in Belfast during The Troubles, but it is experiencing a revival well deserved.
Our first stop in Belfast was the Titanic Museum. I honestly hadn't known that the Titanic was built in Belfast until last summer. During the early 1900s, Belfast was a major player in the shipping industry. Along with the Titanic, White Star Line also had the Olympic and Britannic built as well, the Titanic being the only one to sink. Construction of the Titanic was done by Harland & Wolff in the Belfast harbour and took roughly three years to complete. One thing that we all noted from going through the museum was how they had to get the ship from the shipyard to the water. For whatever reason, the three of us had never thought about the fact that once the boat is built, it has to get to the water. So before any of the engines or interior were added, the ship was delivered to the water. That's when they began all the engineering and outfitting the boat with luxury.
The museum does a fantastic job taking you through the different stages. It started with the history at the time and how ship building was the business to be in for transportation since people wanted to get to the United States. You then learn about the construction of the ship with a whole floor dedicated to how the interior was designed and decorated. I really liked that part. The exhibit about the sinking is dramatic, but done well with audio tapes of recollections from survivors. After the sinking, there is an exhibit about the inquiries that were conducted by the British and Americans into what happened. What I found interesting about this was there was a panel of experts who investigated and interrogated to figure out if anyone screwed up. Every person, except for one, all concluded that what happened to the Titanic was a complete accident that could not have been avoided. The one who disagreed was a man who had been on expeditions to the Antarctic and he concluded that the Titanic was moving far too fast in those kind of waters. I think I agree with him!
If you find yourself in Belfast, make sure to visit the Titanic Museum. We only had an hour to get through, which wasn't enough time. You could spend a half day there. Tickets for the Titanic Experience, which is what we did, cost £18.50. The cafe inside is also a perfect place to grab a quick lunch!
For our last night on the road, we stayed at The Diamond Apartments in city centre. It is the only high-rise building in town, so you can't miss it. The view of the city was awesome, it was close to everything, and there was free parking, so it worked for us!
After dropping off our stuff, the taxi driver for our scheduled Black Taxi Tour had arrived and was ready to take us around the city to show us many of the murals painted in town and give us history into what went down in Belfast during The Troubles. Our driver, Mall [I have no idea how it's really spelled, but that's how it was pronounced], had a traditional black taxi like those in England, and we hopped in for our adventure.
Mall drove us to several different sites around Belfast; most were murals, some were memorials, and one of the stops was the actual wall that separated Belfast into a Protestant side and Catholic side akin to the Berlin Wall.
He told us the stories behind the murals, most of them depicting political scenes related to the war between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), but there was a mural standing with a free Catalonia. The city is COVERED in murals. I have never seen anything like it. And they change so frequently that you could take this tour three times during the year and see different murals. Some of the more popular ones have stayed for decades and will get repainted if need be.
We saw one memorial for those who lost their lives on the Catholic side of town, and another one on the Protestant side. This war was CRAZY. Based on the stories Mall was telling us, it seemed like it was the most vicious guerilla warfare, but instead of troops fighting troops, it was your every day people. People would throw bombs into pubs and blow them up. Others would tar and feather women who smiled at the wrong guy. One woman offered tea to a group of men patrolling the streets, and as soon as she gave them the tea, she got out of there because the tea was filled with glass shards. If there was a barricade of police, the men would have the women and children go stand in front of the police and on their signal, would duck as the men opened fire on the police. People would hide bombs in cans of food or flowers to cover up what they were doing. So it became code to say "I'm taking flowers to my auntie's", which meant I'm going to blow some people up. The city burned. Entire neighborhoods were burned to the ground. The police used rubber bullets the size of a fist, which killed many people weeks and sometimes years after they had been shot due to damaged organs. You guys, these stories were insane.
Those aren't even half of the stories we were told. Our tour was supposed to be 90 minutes long, but we were so interested that Mall ended up having us on his tour for 2 1/2 hours. I asked Mall if he thinks Ireland and Northern Ireland will ever be unified and he said he hoped not for the sake of the South, meaning the Republic of Ireland. He lived through The Troubles and seemed like he played his own part in it. He said he was protective of the South and thought if there were ever efforts to unify, that the North would go right back to engaging in guerilla warfare. Interesting to say the least. This tour was so worth it and I look forward to taking it again with other visitors.
After our tour, we needed a bit of a pick-me-up from all the terrible war stories, so we walked to the Cathedral Quarter in town where there are lots of restaurants and pubs. We landed at The Cloth Ear for dinner, which had great food and live music. We were having so much fun that we carried on the night at the Peaky Blinders bar, which is outfitted just like the show. The door man was dressed just like one of the Birmingham gangsters if you're familiar with the show. The last stop for the night was at a pub called The Thirsty Goat. There was also live music and the most delicious pink gin and tonic cocktail!
Belfast was a really cool city. You can see it is still in destruction from decades of turmoil, but there is an energy to that I can't explain. It's gritty, but cool, edgy, but cultural. I highly recommend a visit and look forward to going back this summer.
Day 6 - Dublin:
On Monday morning, it was back to Dublin for us! We had had such a great time on the road exploring the Northwestern coast of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but it was time to get back to Dublin town for one last day of adventure. The drive from Belfast to Dublin airport is about an hour and a half and it was a nice drive. Like when we crossed the border before, there was no signage that we were entering the Republic of Ireland, but I noticed we were back to kph from mph and Gaelic was back on all the road signs.
On Katie's Irish bucketlist was eating fish 'n chips, so we went to Ely's in our neighborhood to do just that. There are loads of places in Dublin to get fish 'n chips and we have tried a lot of them and Ely's is right up there. After refueling, Alisa and Katie went to Trinity College to tour the campus and check out the Book of Kells and Long Hall Library. I met up with them afterwards to do a little shopping at the Avoca store off Grafton Street. I think we all know about my obsession with Avoca by this point, so I was so glad that Katie and Alisa were able to find great gifts at the shop.
We had saved touring the Guinness Storehouse for this day and walked the long way there only to find out they close up at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays. Ugh, what the heck. Luckily, Alisa and Katie were good sports, but agreed we were all deserving of a pint, so we headed to the famous Cobblestone Pub to have arguably the best pint of Guinness in town. It is a quaint little pub, with traditional Irish music, and was such a perfect way to end our day before dinner.
For dinner, I made us reservations at the only restaurant in town that offers a panoramic view of Dublin -- Sophie's. Unbeknownst to us until we arrived, it's the same owners as our other favorite restaurant, Roberta's. The views at sunset were unreal, the food was delicious, and it was such a fun night recapping all of our favorite stories from the entire trip.
All in all, our trip was a blast. I am so thankful to Alisa and Katie for wanting to do something different and explore new places with me. It was fun to experience something new with visitors. We got to see serene beaches, hiked some of the highest cliffs in Europe, climbed around 60 million year old rock formations, and explored a city that is buzzing with revival. I hope you enjoyed learning about other parts of Ireland and Northern Ireland too.
We're off to Istanbul, Turkey next!
Until next time...
Sláinte! xo,
