The Rest of Ireland

Our last day involved A LOT of walking. I think we walked about six miles.

This actually turned out to be the norm for us...we rarely used public transportation.

We started off our day with a walk to Kilmainham Gaol, the old prison where many of the Irish rebels were imprisoned and executed. It's a little off the beaten path but we thoroughly enjoyed it.

After that, we just walked all around the city. Such a great place to begin our trip!

 

This band below (Tumbling Bones) is from Maine. We listened to them for a few minutes and Rachel went up to buy their CD. We got to talk to them for a while and they were really great. Such talented guys.

We ended our day on the steps of the chapel right inside Trinity College. It was so quiet and peaceful...a great place to sit, talk, and journal for a bit.

Ireland...you were great. I will hopefully be back. Next stop: Edinburgh!!

First Day in Dublin

The first day in Dublin is a blur. My flight landed at 6:55 am; Rachel's landed an hour later. We easily met up in the airport (which has an actual front door...so unlike Atlanta), both exhausted but excited to start traveling.

We went on a free tour of the city, led by a student from Trinity College. Honestly I don't remember much of it. But I do remember that it was pretty!

{At the end of the tour, they recommended a day trip to the cliffs. We took them up on the discount. And it was awesome. That post is coming next.}

After our tour, we checked into our hostel. At this point it was 2:30 and we were ready to go to bed. We knew we had to stay up to get used to the time change. So we forced ourselves to wait until 4:30 to eat dinner. Grandmas? Maybe. But it was the best we could do.

We went to the Old Storehouse which I highly recommend! Our waitress was so funny and so helpful. There were so many locals there and the atmosphere was awesome. The live music was so Irish and so wonderful. I had my first order ever of fish and chips. I generally don't like fish but it was so good!

After dinner, we went straight to bed. Our hostel roommates were a little confused to see us going to sleep at 7:30 but we needed the sleep! It actually worked to our advantage because the next day, we were acclimated to the time change. We didn't have jet lag again on our trip after that first day. Woohoo!