Ireland

The trip that we had planned the most in advance was one to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day weekend! Being half Irish we were really excited to see the home of our ancestors. We had always known our family was from County Cork and our grandma told us more specifically that they were actually from a small town called Skibereen within Cork. We found a flight that went straight to Cork from London and the Thursday before St. Patrick's Day we were on our way to Ireland!

The way we planned our trip gave us 2 days in Cork, a 1 day bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher, and 2 days in Dublin. For our first day in Cork, we explored the city, went into a few Irish shops to get St. Patrick's Day attire, and finished the day off in a typical Irish pub with live music! Cork is a really cute city and definitely felt more quaint and country-like. Although we wanted to get to Skibereen as well, the transportation in Ireland was a little confusing and it seemed pretty complicated to get to such a small town, so we decided to use our second day in Ireland to visit the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs are definitely a must-see sight in Ireland and safe to say Ireland's #1 attraction. After talking to some of our friends that visited Ireland in the past, one of them recommended a tour company that would take you to the Cliffs and stop at other momentous places along the way. We got up early Friday morning and met the bus in the center of Cork. Our tour guide was Irish so it was great to hear stories and learn about Ireland from someone who really knew what they were talking about. Our first stop on the tour was the city of Limerick. We only stopped for a short time, but while we were there, we got to see King John's Castle which is set on the River Shannon and so scenic! 

After numerous other stops such as the Burren and Galway Bay, we made it to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs are located on the North Atlantic Ocean in County Clare. My middle name is Clare, and as I was named after this county in Ireland it was really cool to actually be in it!

Once we got a bit of information about the cliffs from our guide, we were given a few hours to walk around the area. This seemed like a lot of time at first, but once we started to climb up the trail to the farthest most cliff, we realized we had to hurry! Nevertheless, we still took a ton of pictures because we just had to capture how beautiful the scene was.

There were two trails you could go on that viewed opposite sides of the cliff, and we wanted to go on both and get each perspective. The trail we chose first was the longer one, and once we got towards the end of it we saw a rainbow over the cliffs on the opposite side! I'm pretty sure it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. The Cliffs of Moher are gorgeous enough, but with a rainbow too!? 

After staring at the scene long enough in the hopes it would stay intact in our brains, we ran down the trail to begin the walking to the top of the opposite side. The other side had a small castle on top of it and an equally amazing view. After hurriedly going through the gift shop and buying some post cards, we made it on the bus just in time to head back to Cork. 

The next day we woke up bright and early to head to the town of Blarney to see Blarney Castle and kiss the infamous Blarney Stone! I have wanted to do this as long as I can remember and finally the day came where I could cross it off of my bucket list. We took a local bus to Blarney which took about 20 minutes and once we made it to the castle, we explored the grounds which were beautiful! 

Along with Blarney Castle, there was a little stream, a pond, and gardens. There was also these wishing steps in which you make a wish while walking down the steps backwards and with your eyes closed! All of us had to do that! 

The castle itself was really cool as well, and there were little entrances that led you into these small caves all of which resulted in a dead end, but were so fun to walk through.

Finally though, the time had come to go to the Blarney Stone! We walked to the top of the castle, waited in a short line, and were finally right in front of the stone all ready to kiss it! There had to be a worker there to help us because the correct way to kiss the stone is upside down. So you have to lay on your back, tilt your head backwards and then give the stone a kiss! After it happened I was like, "Wait, did I really just do that?" I had been waiting for so long and when the time had finally come it was so surreal. Some of my friends said the stone tasted like disinfectant (which I guess is good because it previously served as the stone at the bottom of a toilet), but I didn't really notice any taste. Even though a lot of Irish people say they would never kiss the Blarney Stone because of its former use, I was more than happy to! What's past is past right? Plus, kissing the Blarney Stone is said to give you eloquence!

After our time in Blarney, we headed back to Cork for the first day of their St. Patrick's Day Festival. We thought it would be perfect to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in two very different Irish cities.

Their city center was filled with vendors serving green ice cream, cotton candy, and all types of delicious smelling food. There was even a stage set up with bands playing music. It definitely got us in the St. Patrick's Day spirit!

From Cork we took a train to Dublin. We arrived in Dublin a day before St. Patrick's Day so the city was a little crazy. We got to the train station around 10pm and had to ask the information desk how to get to our hostel. While traveling we always tried to take public transportation, since it is cheaper and gives you the opportunity to get to know the city better than just taking a cab. We ended up getting on a tram heading in the direction of our hostel which was just outside of Dublin. We didn't know how to get tickets to ride the tram so we just hopped on. The tram was really crowded and the second we got on we had no idea if we were going the right way. None of us could see the direction the tram was going, because we were squished into the middle of all the people. We decided it would be better to get off at the next stop compared to possibly go further in the wrong direction and it was a good thing that we did. Right after we got off the tram we saw a policeman checking the people in our section's tickets! We thought that perhaps we actually did make it to the right stop and tried to find the bus station that the information representative told us to take. After walking around aimlessly we decided we would just hail a cab. By the time we finally got to the hostel it was around midnight, but the hostel had a TV, full private bathroom, and four big beds. We all got into our pjs and ordered some pizza, and went to sleep in preparation for St. Patrick's Day.

When we woke up on St. Patrick's Day we were very excited! We opened the blinds to let the sun in and to our surprise there was snow everywhere! We all had our big winter coats, but we didn't really want to wear them since we had already bought all of our St. Patrick's Day clothing and didn't want to cover it up. So we tried to brave the elements as much as we could. Completely dressed in green, orange and white, we headed to our free full Irish breakfast provided for us by the hostel. We had fried eggs, beans, bacon, mushrooms, and black and white pudding. 

After our filling breakfast, we headed to the bus stop and were driven into the city center of Dublin. It was already extremely crowded along the parade route, but we found a spot where we could view the parade through a fence. The parade was filled with floats, costumes and a lot of Irish spirit! 

We then headed to a local pub where we met some people from Cork. We spent the rest of the day there singing and dancing along to our favorite Irish tunes like "Wild Rover" and "Galway Girl"!

The next day we walked around Dublin to see some more of the sites. We went to Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and finally visited Trinity College. 

We stopped in some Irish gift stores along the way too and bought anything with our surname on it as a keepsake. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to London for our final week of classes. In the end, our flight got delayed due to snow, so we were able to spend an extra 30 minutes in Ireland before we had to say goodbye. However, it isn't a goodbye forever. We hope to go back to Ireland someday to go to the exact places our ancestors lived so we can experience Ireland through their eyes.