Category: Dublin

Friday 29th –

The morning started… An hour late but still.
I felt bad cause we overslept so I was hoping
J+P hadn’t been up and ready for a while already.

Got mostly ready and then headed to J+P’s room for the hairspray and I was greeted with coffee from Josh and Pro then helped clear up the late wake up issue.
The time is one hour later in Ireland 😏
So all was as it should be.

Out for breakfast we went.
We started the day a little to early it would seem since nothing was really open.
The few things that were open seemed slightly… lacking.
( Supposedly Ireland isn’t a very good place to go for food so honestly I’m a little confused at why the four of us were excited to go there in the first place ? 😜 )

We settled on a place we seen multiple people walk into.
It had decent hot chocolates.
Scones and eggs split between Pro and I and the guys got a dish with meat and eggs. 
 
Big surprise right.
The real surprise though was the blood pudding they got with their meal, that Josh ate!

We walked some streets, checked out what stores we wanted to double back to see when they opened and found an interesting lumber yard fence with peeking holes cut into it.  
We peeked.
Josh mocked.

To castle Kilkenny! 
 
Got there and checked it out… It was castley😏  
 
Watched a briefing on it and that satisfied three of us.
One of us wanted a tour.
Guess who? 😉
Josh went to the 45 min. tour and we all left him there experiencing slight feelings of guilt.
But he assured us that he wasn’t hurt in the least that we would abandon him to shop.

Mike came with us 😜

Turns out Ireland has some beautiful dresses!
We had no occasions to shop for but if we ever do, we know we can depend on Ireland 😏👗

Some lovely coffee cups were purchased at the gift shop.
Handmade in Dingle Ireland 😏

Met back up with Josh and went to a bakery for a snack before we headed out of Kilkenny to find the Rock of Dunamase.

It was worth the hour and a half it added on to our drive back to Dublin 😊
Though I may be able to say that since I missed most of the drive because my eyelids wouldn’t open.

Anyways… Got the ruins and began exploring.  
 
Turns out the castle/ village thingy etc. had been bombed out during the war so it couldn’t be used as shelter.

It’s unfortunate but the walls left leave so much space for the imagination.

Pro and I took full use of that opportunity.
The sound of the guys walking behind us on the gravel pathway up the hillside became horse hooves returning with news and entering through the towns gate.
The small corridor was once walked by two maidens ( not unlike ourselves 😏😉 ) with silken gowns and locks of auburn.

So nice to have her here to bring to life imaginations of what could have been.

Even if we have no reeeal idea of what kind of people would have lived there or what on earth they would have worn, or done 😜   

 (My phone died so I didn’t get any amazing pictures … This is Mikes.)

Mike still hasn’t gotten totally used to my dramatic flare at times 😁
After a fair bit of exploration we walked back to the car and the thorns alongside the path were pronounced as blackberry bushes by Pro. 
I’m not sure what authority she holds on this subject really but I prefer to believe her because that would taste delicious for those who had lived there 😜  

 

We stopped in Naas to look for food before we went to the airport.
We seen a Tony Roma’s sign and in shock and delight went to look for it!
Alas… It was no longer 😒

Mike asked an older man about where would be a good place to eat and his rather grouchy response was, ” Pfff! No where! We don’t have anywhere to eat here! Nothing is good but if you’re starving there’s McDonald’s at the end of this street.”
That response was slightly disheartening…

We continued on and seen a retro looking diner called ‘Eddie Rockets’ with a fair amount school kids inside.
It looked so-so but mainly we just wanted something semi normal that wasn’t McDonald’s and that’s what there was.  

 

It was good… A little small on proportions unfortunately 🙁

Car dropped off. Airport securities went through. Turns out Dublin airport people are rather nice! And Dublin airport In general.
Found a purdy travel pillow to buy… Figured if the 12 or so post wedding flights were any inclination of the future I would find good use for the pillow eventually 😏

Pro and I wanted soup. Hearty tomato ish or beef ish soup. We had wanted something like that for a couple of days.
But finally we found it!
The desired tomato soup was enjoyed with chips while we sat on the airport floor awaiting our flight.
And trying to avoid Mikes path as he was feeling sick and looking really pale 😬

He felt better pretty quickly though and I used most of the flight to catch up on writing.

Mike was sick of driving so he gave Josh the keys to the Audi, set the navigation to take us back to the cottage and settled into the backseat to have a pre bedtime sleep.
I felt it was my responsibility to support his decision and in turn, sleep also 😜

I went to bed pretty much immediately after getting back to the cottage… I think the other three stayed up and ate a pizza.

Thursday 28th –

Ireland awaits lads and lasses! ☘ To the airport!  

 
McDonald’s chicken nuggets for breakfast and then a Starbucks for the pre flight caffeine we all required.
We found out that Josh isn’t a super relaxed flyer .. (Maybe we shouldn’t have given him caffeine) No casual conversation, wait and watch. No sitting and waiting, one must stand in line for the whole length of the boarding call 😏😉

The flight was just over an hour so not too bad at all.

Immediately after hearing the accent of the customs officers, Pro and I decided it was a blessed accent and we should mimic it and in turn.. Murder it too 😜

Discovered the first ever airport bathroom that supplies a “hygienic” hair straighter for that awful post flight hair.
Unique idea.. I feel like the advertising may have been a slight lie though 😜

Got a shuttle to the car rental place and prepared ourselves to endure driving on the opposite side of the road, from the opposite side of the car. With Josh.

( He did very well minus one slightly frightening moment of turning onto the wrong side of the road with vehicles facing us 😁 )

Off we went to find food!
For the first time we were all starving at the same time and all agreed on the first restaurant we seen.
Good group skills… But the meal was kind of blah. 

Pro and I weren’t overly disappointed because something we’ve dreamed of to a small extent was about to become reality.
The Sweet Republic of Ireland.
Where skinny goes to die and hopefully you have an extremely high tolerance for sugars.  

 
The boys were even a little repulsed.
Us girls managed 😏  

  (Sorry if this disgusts anyone 😏)
Though I don’t think it will be a dream of ours any longer either 😜

To the coast!

But not before our first side stop at our first real ruins 😀 

 
The map looked like it was a few years old after the first hour but we made it out of Dublin and to the countryside of Ireland.
Unfortunately there are super thick bushes and trees along a fair bit of the roads soo not tons gets seen but there were open bits too.

One such small open bit showed us water and beach and Josh wanted to walk in the sand.
So we all did 😊
Walked through a tight little thorn lined path and ta da! Beach.. And wind.. But more importantly beach, WITH shells!

  
The one problem with the beach is it wasn’t super wide so pro and I had to watch for waves coming in… The boys were exploring other places already.
I did impress myself thoroughly by outrunning a wave though… Hands full of shells I rapidly climbed up the sand bank with only the fear and strength of my toes to save me from the oceans grasp.
I think Pro made it too but I wasn’t really concerned about her 😜

If we go to the beach it’s everyone fending for them selves … and with good reason.
Shells are serious things.
For some more than others… take Pro and I for example.
I LOVE shells, she likes them a fair bit.
I’m like a garbage bin for shells … Anything goes because I can never find those ever so alluring “perfect” shells.
Pro though? It’s like what she throws away is a magnet for my hands and what she finds effortlessly and keeps are gloriously formed and coloured creations of the mermaids.

No matter what beach we go to 😏

We left the beach pockets a little heavier and hair a lot messier.
One thing for sure, Ireland is windy.

Onward to Kilkenny!

Made it there and the boys needed food so they again went for the first restaurant and hoped for the best.
Plus it looked like authentic Irish people liked it so why not give it a shot!
5€ fish and chips.  
 
If you can call it that.. The guys took to describing it as heavy, greasy, cardboard upon later discussions.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mike spit out and reject food before then. 😜

Hotel Kilkenny awaits.
After driving all over town trying to find, asking two different people and ending up at two totally different Kilkenny hotels.
They need to find a new naming system in that place.

Mike was slightly exhausted from the driving.
Not only did the wrong sidedness effect him but it was also raining and bad lights and little baby size roads all adding to his sleep needing state.

I guess Josh was also tired from being the map reader / front seat napper because he fell asleep as soon as they got into their room I heard😜
At 6:30 p.m.

Pro and I were hungry.
The boys weren’t.
So we headed down to the hotel restaurant.

Unfortunately.

We entered the restaurant and a wave up upper class superiority washed down upon us.
We were under dressed and unprepared.
The room menu said pizza and soup… But this did not look like a pizza and soup kind of place.
Three waiters in full tux get ups took our names and went to prepare a table.
Thankfully we were left alone momentarily so we could look at each other with fear and uncomfort in our eyes.
We quietly argued for a second about who would ask if this was the same food as the room menu had. I won so Pro bravely ventured to question the waiter looking down on us with a witheringly upper class gaze.
It took real guts to do what she did.
So glad she did it though because it was not the same menu, it was one including duck and roasts and steaks and things we couldn’t pronounce and nothing had prices and that’s never a good sign.
We left quickly and humbly never to go back there again.

We ordered two pizzas and all hung out in the hotel room, as hoteling it should be 😏