Homeward Bound

This was the last couple pictures that I took in Dublin. Here's right outside the hostel while waiting for a cab and the front entrance to the hostel.
Good-bye Ireland!! Sitting on the plane waiting for take-off.

Here's the view outside of the hostel in Chicago, it was more like a hotel room than anything.

And as promised, a couple photos from inside Union Station in Chicago. The main waiting area of the building is absolutely gorgeous.

Cliffs of Moher

So I figured I might as well finish updating from my last day on the Shamrocker tour. On the last day we started off seeing the Cliffs of Moher. Despite the fog they were absolutely stunning, but it was really cold out there. I could barely feel my fingers to take the photos! Thankfully I had brought my mittens, they were lifesavers. We walked out to the edge of the cliffs and around a path, I took my time just taking in the view and the smell of the ocean. But as soon as I was on my way back to the bus I stopped in the gift shop and bought a fuzzy hat so my ears could warm up! On the way back to Dublin we made a stop in Galway for lunch. It's a college town (there's four there!) so it's pretty different from anywhere else I went in Ireland. In comparison, it's the Ann Arbor of Ireland. But here's a photo from the main shopping area.

I totally wish we had these here in the States. What is that you ask? That is a Dyson Blade aka an air hand dryer. You just put your hands in their flat and slowly draw them out and..WALLA! They're dry!! It's seriously amazing...seriously! Way more efficient than the sad excuses we have for hand dryers here.

After getting back from the tour, we didn't want to go our separate ways that quickly so a group of four of us got together later that night at The Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub, for a couple drinks. It dates back to 1198! Definitely has that old world feel in side, but it's kind of weird because there are four rooms that you can drink in. There's the one outside, there's one with a bar but the bar was closed, there's another with a fireplace and then there's the one with the open bar in it. Regardless of what room you sat in you had to go to the one with the open bar to get your drinks. It was weird, but really cool to know how much history that place holds. I can't even image what it must have been like when it opened. Too bad they didn't have photos back then.

I did have a bit of trouble remembering what is what over there since some things don't use the same words as we do in the States. So here's a couple of them, the word in italics is what the Irish use.

chips - french fries
crisps - chips
lift - elevator
craic - fun, a good time (not used all the time in conversation)

Dingle Peninsula

Day two of the Shamrocker Tours was spent exploring the Dingle Peninsula, there was a short stop in the town of Dingle and later we back-tracked to there again for lunch. I love how Irish architecture looks and how quaint the houses are so I couldn't resist taking this photo of the rooftops.

Below is a beehive hut which dates back to about 1400 years ago. We made a quick stop to see the beach and some of the coastline. Then we walked down to the beach and one of the guys on the tour rode "tis cool as feck!" in the sand, which was pretty sweet once we walked back to the top of the beach and could see it from above. The beach and it's surrounding area were gorgeous so that's what the photos are below.

And what trip to Ireland would be complete without seeing rouge sheep blocking the road? A little way down the road there were also a couple of cows blocking the road as well, but the sheep were definitely the highlight of the road blockage. You can see the colors on the sheep here and the picture of the sheep above, those are dyes put on them so the farmers know which sheep belongs to who just for these occasions when they get out of their pasture.

After we were done sightseeing for the day we made our way to Ennis for the night. There was a pub around the corner that usually had traditional Irish music around 9p and then a local band would come in and play after that. The majority of my tourmates were tired from the day's adventure, but didn't want to pass up the music so we went to the pub. The traditional music showed up really late so they only played two songs before the modern day band went on. Being so tired we called it a night pretty early, around midnight-1am. But here's a couple pics from the night.

Dublin to Killarney

So the first day of the Shamrocker Tour I showed up at Kinlay House on Lord Edward Street and the first person to show up was an Aussie named Ed. He'd been on the Haggis tour (one that goes to Scotland) before and loved so decided to do the 3 Day Southern Rocker. That made me a lot better because even though I read nothing but great reviews on Shamrockers, it was just solidified by hearing it out of an actual persons mouth. Our tour guide Seán arrived and gave us shirts and a book that had tips for traveling in pretty much ever European country. I will definitely be holding on to that!! And we were off.

The first stop was the Rock of Cashel, which was this castle, perched atop a hill. Way back in the day it was the seat to the Kings of Munster. The second picture is of another castle that was just behind the Rock of Cashel. From there we traveled to the Blarney Castle in the Rebel County of Cork. From the pictures I had seen of the people kissing the Blarney Stone, I really was not prepared for the castle. The castle and surrounding landscape was gorgeous beyond anything I'd ever seen. But then you get in the castle. I expected that they had built modern day stairs to get up to the top so it would be easier for visitors, but that was so NOT the case. They had the original spiral stone staircase that you had to climb. It was barely wide enough for my fat booty to fit through and they just had a thick rope to hold onto for stability. The good thing is there were different rooms along the way up that you could step into and take a break from the heart-pounding stairs. So I got to see the kitchen and the girl's rooms on the way up just long enough to get my heart settled down and start again.
Eventually I did make it all the way to the top and here are the pictures that one of my tour mates took of me as I very nervously kissed the Blarney stone. Also, the most unflattering angle to ever be photographed at!!!

After I kissed the stone I booked it back down to solid ground, the stairs were much more what I was used to and I was very glad that they weren’t like what they were going up. If they were I think I would have gone down on my butt hahaha. I hadn’t really had any Irish food since I arrived so I walked over to an Irish pub called Muskerry Arms and ordered Irish Beef Stew. OMFG that was the BEST beef stew I had in my entire life! I just wanted to keep eating it forever, but it was so filling. If you ever get to the Blarney Castle, for real stop at Muskerry Arms and have that stew!! You won’t be disappointed, well unless you’re vegetarian…The next stop was Killarney and I laid down in the hostel for a bit to take a nap before going out for the night. So around 9p I made my way to O'Connor's pub around the corner to watch Pa perform. He's a very animated story teller that recites a story about a bartender that is closing his pub for the last time and is remembering all the characters that frequented the bar, while drinking Guinness and Bushmills Whiskey. All together we counted five Guinness he drank during the show, but there were quite a few cigarrette breaks so who knows if he had any more then, but it was still hilarious.
After the pub we headed over to the Grand Hotel which is like the local club for some drinks and dancing. Seán had "warned" the bus that the guys don't dance with you, but they dance "at" you, which was the funniest thing I ever heard lol. And the guys that the local girls packed a punch so be cautious when hitting on them hahah. A lot of the bus was married or engaged so it was pretty funny. But the people in our tour stuck together and danced in a circle so there was no weirdness. I didn't drink, but I did have a red lemonade which is the equivalent to carbonated lemonade with a bit of red coloring/flavoring. I tried to find some to bring back, but I could only find it in a 2L bottle and didn't have room for it :( Maybe when I go back I'll make sure I have room and get some then. It was about 2a when we decided to head back to the hostel. Right next door was the pretty much the equivalent of Denny's so everyone wanted to stop there and get some food. So we stopped for burgers and chips and laughed at all the really drunk locals as they stumbled in. Then off to bed as we had to be on the bus at 8:30a later that morning.

Over the Rainbow

Sorry I've been MIA for a moment, the tours have me on the bus a lot and exhausted when I get back to the hostel. So here's some photos from the Northern Ireland tour...