Saturday 30th March
Sam's grandparents headed out to collect the hire car this morning while Sam and I finished packing up, then we were off on our driving adventure!
We took narrow backroads and stopped when we saw a castle, a ruin, or a cute town and would detour to find it and have some fun with photography.
It was such a fun way of travelling and was great that we are all are interested in photography.
Along the way we saw a sign for Carbury, but Sam had read it as Cadbury so we detoured to see the (not so) chocolate town, and found some ruins and an old church in the distance! Some back and forth and winding along roads we found it!
From here we passed through the cute town of Edenderry and decided to have lunch here. We parked up the car but couldn't get it to lock. We all had a look and tried this and that and unlocking it and re-locking it, checking all the doors were closed properly, whether the hand break was on or not and couldn't figure it out. Then we realised, Sam's grandpa had stalled it when we stopped, and then we had hopped out as it sounded off. Turns out it wasn't off the whole time it was just stalled!
We found a really cute pub "Larkin's Bar & Lounge" which was so cozy and warm inside and the people were so friendly.
The other three all had a delish looking soup with Irish sourdough bread, and I had the most delish chicken wrap (the soup was cream based), which ended up coming with chips and a pot of tea! How cute is that! The meal was so nice, the people incredibly friendly, the place so cozy and warm, and the atmosphere jolly.
We rugged back up and kept on driving. Not far along we came across a wind farm! It looked so pretty, the little turbines in the fields.
A few cute towns later and we arrived in our destination for tonight, Athenry!
We stayed in a lovely Airbnb just across the road from some old ruins!
Athenry is a very small two street town with not much in the way of food, so we found one of the only places, a local Italian restaurant and had a delish pizza for dinner!
Sunday 31st March
We drove the short distance to Galway today! That's right I was the Galway Girl for the day! Galway is absolutely gorgeous, I love it!
We drove through the colourful town and down to the harbour where we found the house from Ed Sheeran's music video "Galway Girl", the one that he's standing out of the window at the end!
And of course I played Galway girl while we were there!
The harbour is absolutely gorgeous so we just wandered around for a while, playing with our cameras and looking at all the old boats!
It is absolutely freezing today and the wind is blowing quite strongly making it even colder so after wandering around we went in search of some lunch and to get warm!
We had to make a pit stop though at the pub that was also used in the music video! Unfortunately it wasn't open for lunch so we couldn't go inside.
What else could we have for lunch in Galway but fish and chips? Sam found a really nice looking dine-in fish and chip shop that we could eat lunch and warm up in! We all ordered cod and chips and mushy peas! Oh. My. Word. Hands down the BEST fish and chips we have all ever had. I would go back to Galway just for those fish and chips. It was divine! The fish was cooked perfectly, the chips were perfection, as were the mushy peas. The homemade tartare sauce was so tasty and fresh, and they hand malt vinegar for the chips! My mouth is watering just writing about it! It was amazing!
The whole place was really nicely designed as well, and the bathroom was so cool! The sink was a giant clam shell!
After the best fish and chips ever, we visited a beautiful old church before heading back to Athenry for the rest of the afternoon.
Sam's grandparents chilled out in the apartment for a bit while Sam and I spent the afternoon exploring the ruins around Athenry. It looks as though it used to be a fortified town as there are remains of city walls.
Monday 1st April
We left Athenry this morning and slowly made our way down the west coast to the Cliffs of Moher!
Along the way we saw some ruins in the distance so followed some small roads until we found it! Apparently they weren't as unknown as we thought they were as there was a small crowd of people just leaving, which allowed us to have Kilmacduagh Abbey ruins and fields all to ourselves!
We then hopped back on the road headed towards the Cliffs! The scenery driving through the Irish country side is so beautiful, the lush green fields with little stone walls, and sheep in the paddocks is beautiful. With the wind blowing and being bitterly cold outside it sets such an atmosphere, I really love it here in Ireland.
The Cliffs of Moher are spectacular! It is such a beautiful coastline!
The most exciting part about the cliffs though is that just off the coast is an island called Goat Island, and at this time of the year puffins are found nesting here!!! PUFFINS!!
I stood there for ages watching these funny little birds. With the naked eye you could just make out little black shapes moving about, but I used my big camera lens essentially as binoculars and could watch their antics. The pairs standing together, individuals flying off the cliffs, others returning to their partner, and others just waddling about!
They're so funny and cute! The penguins of the north!
I didn't want to leave them, but eventually it was time to go (and it was freezing and so windy!)
We had some soup and a sandwich with taters (crisps!) in the cafe for lunch and to warm up, before having one last walk around the cliffs. Ireland is so beautiful.
We hopped back on the road and took the scenic route to Cork. We stopped on the way at Limmerick, because you can't go to Ireland and not stop there! We had a little look at King John's Castle before continuing on.
We arrived at our Airbnb in the burrow! It was so quirky! It was a great place, nice and big but it was just quirky! There was so much stuff! There were two bedrooms, but so many beds and mattresses crammed in that we counted that it could sleep 13 people if you wanted to! Both bedrooms had an ensuite, and there was another bathroom as well! Sam really liked the spare bathroom.
The other thing was that there were messages about how to use appliances and phone numbers to call if there was a problem, written in sharpie all over the walls in the respective places of the appliances! The oven door was also held on with an octopus strap! It was so funny! A house full of character and very fitting for Ireland!
It has been so cold while we've been here and it had been raining on and off this afternoon so we were just chilling inside having a coffee when all of a sudden we look out and realise it isn't rain anymore, it's snow!!! It started to snow! It quickly turned to sleet, but we hadn't realised it was quite that cold!
Tuesday 2nd April
We headed into Cork city this morning and Sam and I met up with my Auntie Mai and Cousin Ann for morning tea.
It was so lovely to see them and spend some time catching up!
After a lovely morning tea together, we said goodbye and met back up with Sam's grandparents.
We had a little wander around and popped into "Dealz" Irelands version of Poundland to pick up a few snacks (mainly mini eggs!) before heading out of the city.
It was a super cold and wet day, so we drove out around cork to explore the area. We found some little country roads that took us through lush green fields with sheep, and past beautiful coastline.
We eventually found ourselves down on the coast at a really cute old town called Kinsale. We popped into a really quaint cafe for lunch to escape the cold and rain! Sam had soup and the rest of us had bacon, sausage and tomato relish sandwiches. It was really nice and relaxing sitting in the cute cafe all warm with the sound of the rain on the roof.
After lunch we walked around Kinsale, it's such a lovely little seaside town. I just find all the little towns in Ireland to be so lovely! And the people everywhere we've been, every interaction we've had, have been so incredibly kind and friendly, it feels like such a wholesome country.
It started to rain again when we were wandering around so we ducked into a shop that turned out to have beautiful looking homemade pies, relishes, cakes, and dips. So we picked up some steak pies for dinner and a chocolate cake for dessert!
We made our way back to the car trying not to be blown away or get too wet!
We then spent the next couple of hours driving around on back roads around the coast and down country lanes to other little towns and just exploring the countryside.
Later on we headed back to the house for the evening. We got the heating going, popped our pies in the oven and had dinner over an episode of Game of Thrones. The pies were delish as was the chocolate cake after!
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