Ireland

I really don't even know where to start because the entire weekend Jeff and I spent in Ireland was perfect. It has been a dream of mine to go to Ireland, which I never thought would come true. Well it did, and Jeff couldn't have planned it any better. Simply put, it was the best trip yet. 

Early Saturday morning in late February, I was picked up and taken to Heathrow Airport. The few times I've booked a car, the drivers have been pretty quiet during the ride. I expected this ride to be the same, and, since I only got 3 hours of sleep due to excitement over this trip, I was pretty tired and planned to nap. The driver was actually very talkative and initiated our entire 45-minute conversation. His name was Leonardo, and he was from Bucharest, Romania. He had only been in London for 4 months and was already driving! I was extremely impressed. With the way the roads/traffic are here, I'd need 4 years of preparation to drive. Come to find out, London has more vehicles than his hometown, which is about 2 million! He guessed that I was American, and what a relief, because I've been pegged Canadian a few times. Nothing wrong with Canada; I'm just not Canadian. Leonardo then began to discuss the differences between what he called the "American English" and "English English." The American English were nicer than the English English, and we didn't use words that were confusing/different (so he said). Leonardo thought it weird for the English to say mate so much {his examples "Cheers, mate!" or "Have a cup of tea, mate!"}. I think my favorite part of our conversation was when he found out I was from Texas. He paused for a minute, smiled, made a finger gun, and then said, "Oh Texas! I want to shoot you!" I just started laughing. Seemed fairly accurate. The rest of our journey involved talking about home and where we came from. Romania has always been on my list of places to travel, and with what Leonardo told me, I really hope that I do get to visit someday.

Once I arrived in Dublin, Jeff (who had been there already for work) greeted me with our rental - a blue Fiat Panda. We then drove to the Guinness Storehouse in the St. James's Gate Brewery, which to my surprise, was a very interesting stop in our weekend trip. I learned that Arthur Guinness, an Irish brewer and founder of Guinness, in 1759 took a 9,000 year lease (so crazy) for the brewery located at St. James's Gate. It only functioned as brewery for 250 years and now is a large museum. In this old brewery turned museum, the world's largest pint glass is kept, which is seven stories tall. I'm not a beer fan (can't stomach the taste), but getting to see how it was made, all the different bottles that have been used and the old marketing posters was neat. With the tour also came the opportunity to not only sample but, as it was worded, "craft the perfect pint." Jeff had fun with that, while I opted out for an iced Coke with lemon (sorry Dad, no Pepsi available), which was already crafted for me. :) I did try some Guinness though since I was there, and it didn't change my mind.

Jeff and I then drove down the coast from Dublin to a town called Bray, where we stopped and had a wonderful lunch at The Coach Inn. The pub was pretty empty, as Ireland's rugby team was playing Italy that same day in Dublin. Jeff and I got to watch the start of the game while we ate. What a scary but fun sport to watch! Good food and good sport accompanied by Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop the Rain made for a great pit stop!

We continued to drive along the coast, stopping at various points to stretch our legs and take photos of the lovely views. There were so many of those lovely views, in fact, that I should have just recorded our entire trip. I couldn't stop taking photos! My favorite was visiting Wicklow Mountain's National Park in Glendalough. This park was huge - like 200 square kilometers (50,000 acres) huge. Since it wasn't crowded at all with other drivers, I gave Jeff a rest at the wheel and tried to safely drive our standard rental on the opposite side of the road in the opposite side of the car. I didn't adjust as quickly as Jeff did, but it was fun, even though it was only for a few minutes.

Saturday night we came across the most perfect B&B called the TroopersTown Wood Lodge in a little town called Laragh. We were warmly greeted by our kind Hungarian hostess, who showed us to our room (#6). While we rested for an hour, she then arranged for us dinner at the nearby Wicklow Heather Restaurant. The food and the ambiance was just as wonderful as everything else we had experienced. I had the best soup I've ever had in my life - fresh, homemade seafood chowder. It was more like the best thing I ever ate! Following that, I had hand-made spinach and ricotta tortellini, and for dessert, a blackberry and custard tart. Jeff had bruschetta, roasted chicken with tarragon sauce and tomato and basil risotto, with his dessert being a tasting tray of whiskeys from a local distiller. We came to the conclusion that even though everything we had was amazing, the seafood chowder was by far the best.

Full of wonderful food, we went back to the B&B to get some rest before the next busy day. I woke up the next morning in a pool of my own sweat, and come to find out, the heater in our room was cranked full blast. I am cold-natured, and it takes a lot for me to feel hot. For those who know Jeff, know he's the complete opposite, and that he was miserable the entire night and hardly slept. Sure, the easy solution would be to turn down the heat, but the correct knob on the radiator was well hidden, and wasn't found until an hour or so before we left the next morning. Hindsight, we realized, the night before, the hostess had told us she had turned the heater up all the way, because she wasn't sure how warm guests would like the room to be, and that we could adjust the temperature to our liking. She was very kind and thoughtful to do that. Her accent was pretty thick and we just had a hard time understanding her. Despite that, we both had enough energy for the day and headed off to eat a wonderful, complimentary full Irish breakfast with orange juice and morning tea. After breakfast, Jeff and I went back to Wicklow Mountain's National Park before driving back to Dublin. We even drove through Hollywood and got a nice picture of Yoda by the city sign.

The trip was short but oh so wonderful! I loved how all the town signs had the Gaelic name written above the English name. I loved how Jeff was cool with me listening to my Enya playlist (all 9 songs) on repeat the entire weekend. I loved how he planned this trip above and beyond what I ever expected. I love how I got to spend a weekend in Ireland with my best friend.

Thank you for reading. Sorry this post was extremely delayed. Next post will included some of my favorite photos from our Ireland trip. I think it only appropriate to end with an Irish farewell. Slàinte leat (health with you)!